Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Le feu follet »

In a recent monograph, Todd Shepard has implored us to examine the ways in ‘which the Algerian War modified the form and the content of debates surrounding contemporary sexuality in France’, from the nationalist revolution spearheaded by the FLN in Algeria, to the sexual paradigm shift of May ’68 (2017: 21). An important injunction, undoubtedly. But also an injunction that, as I will show, could also be inverted to examine how, in the world of cinema, the radicalization of identity politics catalysed by decolonization found itself similarly distorted by a tendency among male directors to imagine the war through the lens of their own androcentric preoccupations, fantasies and anxieties: anxieties that, in the case of Jacques Rivette’s Paris nous appartient (1961), Louis Malle’s Le Feu Follet (1963), and Jacques Dupont’s Les Distractions (1960), ricochet erratically between masochistic and misogynistic tales of impotence and carnal retribution; anxieties that subtly twist the dynamics of the decolonial debate into strange shapes, places and meanings.

Le multiculturel n’est peut-être qu’un feu follet courant sur une transformation de base : l’urbanisation généralisée et la généralisation des cultures urbaines. Retardée en France, l’urbanisation ne s’accomplit que dans les trois dernières décennies. C’est donc pour la première fois que les générations jeunes sont, dans leur masse, socialisées et acculturées par la ville. Pour les jeunes issus de l’immigration, la ville est en outre le lieu de francisation, et c’est donc en ville que se produit une surexcitation des conflits dits ethniques, suivant la ligne de partage entre les nationaux français, les nationaux européens auxquels l’on reconnaît l’équivalence nationale et les immigrés. L’immigré est celui qui n’est pas français d’origine. Cette discrimination lui dénie et une nationalité propre et la pleine citoyenneté française, pour l’ethniciser comme musulman, noir, asiatique, etc. La différence dite d’origine et de culture masque la différenciation raciale qui sépare l’Europe du Tiers Monde. Sous couvert multiculturel, la culture des jeunes répercute les cultures urbaines; celles-ci sont le signe d’un cosmopolitisme nouveau; elles révèlent qu’opère en profondeur un procès de transnationalisation qui met en cause la centralité nationale et dissocie la citoyenneté de la nationalité.

Folpet and a combination with folpet, benomyl, citral, sodium propionate, and sorbic acid were fed or exposed to honey bee, Apis mellifera L., field colonies to: 1) determine their long-term toxic effects on the bees; and 2) to determine if chalkbrood (CB) disease, Ascosphaera apis (Maassen ex Claussen) Olive et Spiltor, is inhibited or controlled by the compounds. When folpet was fed to honey bee colonies in sucrose syrup, the group fed the highest rate (1000 ppm) never differed significantly (P > 0.05) from the control colonies. There was an equal number of adult bees, an equal amount of sealed brood, and mortality was identical. Analysis indicated significantly (P < 0.05) fewer CB mummies in treatment groups fed 10 or 1000 ppm folpet, but this apparent benefit may have been due to seasonal changes of reduced CB infection that occur in late summer. Folpet or a combination of folpet, benomyl, citral, sodium propionate, and sorbic acid (1000 ppm each, total 5000 ppm) incorporated into lipid/sucrose extender patties produced no significant (P > 0.05) effect of any kind on colonies to which they were applied, including CB infection. However, when the combination of five fungicides (5000 ppm) was impregnated into beeswax foundation and exposed to honey bee colonies, only a small amount of comb was drawn on the test foundation, indicating a repellent effect. Otherwise, the test foundation had no significant (P > 0.05) effect on the honey bees or the CB infection.

We assessed folate nutritional status from birth to 12 months in fifty-one infants who were fed human milk (HM;n20), casein-based formula (CBF;n12) or soya-based formula (SBF;n19). Folate contents in ninety-five HM samples obtained from twenty mothers for the first 6-month period and twelve CBF and nineteen SBF samples were measured by bioassay after trienzyme extraction. Folate intake was estimated by weighing infants before and after feeding in the HM group and by collecting formula intake records in the formula-fed groups. After solid foods were introduced, all foods consumed were included to estimate folate intake. Serum folate and total homocysteine (tHcy) concentrations were determined at 5 and 12 months of age, and infant growth was monitored for the first 12 months. Mean HM folate contents ranged from 201 to 365 nmol/l with an overall mean of 291 nmol/l, and the contents peaked at 2 months postpartum. HM folate contents were higher than those reported in North America. Folate contents in CBF and SBF were markedly higher than those in HM and those claimed on the product labels. The overall folate intakes in formula-fed infants were significantly higher than those in HM-fed infants, and this was associated with significantly higher folate and lower tHcy in formula-fed infants than HM-fed infants at 5 months. At 12 months, serum folate was significantly higher in the SBF group than the other groups, whereas serum tHcy and overall growth were similar among all groups.

Abstract Maternal folic acid supplementation during pregnancy is associated with improved cognitive performances in offspring. However, the effect of supplementation on offspring’s neurogenesis and synaptogenesis is unknown, and whether supplementation should be continued throughout pregnancy is controversial. In present study, 3 groups of female rats were fed a folate-normal diet, folate-deficient diet, or folate-supplemented diet from 1 week before mating until the end of pregnancy. A fourth group fed folate-normal diet from 1 week before mating until mating, then fed folate-supplemented diet for 10 consecutive days, then fed folate-normal diet until the end of pregnancy. Offspring were sacrificed on postnatal day 0 for measurement of neurogenesis and synaptogenesis by immunofluorescence and western blot. Additionally neural stem cells (NSCs) were cultured from offspring’s hippocampus for immunocytochemical measurement of their rates of proliferation and neuronal differentiation. The results demonstrated that maternal folic acid supplementation stimulated hippocampal neurogenesis by increasing proliferation and neuronal differentiation of NSCs, and also enhanced synaptogenesis in cerebral cortex of neonatal offspring. Hippocampal neurogenesis was stimulated more when supplementation was continued throughout pregnancy instead of being limited to the periconceptional period. In conclusion, maternal folic acid supplementation, especially if continued throughout pregnancy, improves neurogenesis and synaptogenesis in neonatal offspring.

Glycine N-methyltransferase (GNMT) is inhibited by 5-methyltetrahydrofolate polyglutamate in vitro. It is believed to play a regulatory role in the synthesis de novo of methyl groups. We have used the amino-acid-defined diet of Walzem and Clifford [(1988) J. Nutr. 118, 1089-1096] to determine whether folate deficiency in vivo would affect GNMT activity, as predicted by the studies in vitro. Weanling male rats were fed on the folate-deficient diet or a folate-supplemented diet pair-fed to the deficient group. A third group was fed on the folate-supplemented diet ad libitum. Development of folate deficiency rapidly resulted in decreased levels of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and elevation of S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH). The ratios of SAM to SAH were 1.8, 2.7 and 1.5 in the deficient group for weeks 2, 3 and 4 of the experiment, and the values were 9.7, 7.1 and 8.9 for the pair-fed control group and 10.3, 8.8 and 8.0 for the control group ad libitum fed. The activity of GNMT was significantly higher in the deficient group than in either of the two control groups at each time period. This was not due to increased amounts of GNMT protein, but reflected an increase in specific enzyme activity. Levels of folate in both the cytosol and mitochondria were severely lowered after only 2 weeks on the diet. The distribution of folate coenzymes was also affected by the deficiency, which resulted in a marked increase in the percentage of tetrahydrofolate polyglutamates in both cytosol and mitochondria and a very large decrease in cytosolic 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. The increased GNMT activity is therefore consistent with decreased folate levels and decreased inhibition of enzyme activity.

Abstract An in vitro model of folate-deficient erythropoiesis has been developed using proerythroblasts isolated from the spleens of Friend virus-infected mice fed an amino acid-based, folate-free diet. Control proerythroblasts were obtained from Friend virus-infected mice fed the same diet plus 2 mg folic acid/kg diet. Our previous studies showed that, after 20 to 32 hours of culture in folate-deficient medium with 4 U/mL of erythropoietin, the folate-deficient proerythroblasts underwent apoptosis, whereas control erythroblasts survived and differentiated into reticulocytes over a period of 48 hours. The addition of folic acid or thymidine to the folate-deficient medium prevented the apoptosis of the folate-deficient erythroblasts, thereby implicating decreased thymidylate synthesis as the main cause of apoptosis in the folate-deficient erythroblasts. In the study reported here, we examined intracellular folate levels, uracil misincorporation into DNA, p53 and p21 proteins, and reticulocyte formation in erythroblasts cultured in folate-deficient or control medium. In all experiments, the folate-deficient erythroblasts cultured in folate-deficient medium gave results that varied significantly from folate-deficient erythroblasts cultured in control medium or control erythroblasts cultured in either folate-deficient or control media. Folate-deficient erythroblasts cultured in folate-deficient medium had marked decreases in all coenzyme forms of folate that persisted throughout culture, increased uracil misincorporation into DNA, persistent accumulations of p53 and p21, and decreased reticulocyte production but increased size of individual reticulocytes. A model of folate-deficient erythropoiesis based on apoptosis of late stage erythroblasts is presented. This model provides explanations for the clinical findings in megaloblastic anemia.

La récurrence de la figure du fou errant dans le roman d’Afrique noire suscite bien des questionnements sur les raisons de sa mise en oeuvre dans l’époque tumultueuse des prétendues indépendances. Cette étude couvre un laps de temps allant des années 1950 à la première décennie du nouveau siècle ; et elle inclut les textes narratifs francophones et anglophones en vue de fournir une vue d’ensemble permettant de retracer l’évolution de la représentation du fou d’un point de vue diachronique. L’étude typologique de fous errants précède une analyse du discours dans le texte littéraire focalisée sur trois niveaux : le plan de l’énonciation,celui des techniques romanesques et le plan du langage de l’imaginaire. Il en résulte un dynamisme évoquant l’emprise du fou sur les trois instances du discours, d’où l’hypothèse du fou comme étant une figure de médiation dans les différents domaines de la société : médiateur spirituel et religieux ; interlocuteur intermédiaire avec l’autorité institutionnelle ; et enfin dispositif médian en littérature, aussi bien dans la pratique scripturale que dans l’institution littéraire. Le caractère marginal du fou dans la société et l’élan réformateur qu’il assume à l’époque contemporaine, font de lui un outil cognitif capable de créer un nouveau code littéraire et d’articuler le discours africain en quête d’autonomie. Les mêmes caractéristiques marquent en outre le statut des oeuvres africaines et du romancier dans la situation actuelle
The recurrence of wandering madmen and fools in the black African novel raises many questions about the reasons behind its implementation during the so-called independences. This study covers a time span ranging from the 1950s to the first decade of 2000. It includes Francophone and Anglophone fiction in order to gain an overview that allows one to observe an evolution in the representation of the fool with a diachronic perspective. The typological study of wandering fools precedes the discourse analysis in the literary texts, focusing on three levels: speech, narrative procedures and imagery. It fallows that the fool’s dynamism recalls his impact on the three modes of discourse. This leads to a hypothesis that he is a figure of mediation in many areas of society, being a spiritual and religious mediator, an intermediary to institutions of authority,and even an intermediary in literature, both in writing and in the literary institution. The social marginalization of the fool and the reformist zeal he takes in contemporary times, make him an instrument of knowledge that can create a new literary code and articulate the African discourse in its quest for autonomy. Moreover, these features mark the social status both of African works and of the novelist in the literary scene
La ricorrenza della figura del folle in cammino nel romanzo dell’Africa nera suscita numerosi interrogativi sulle ragioni della sua messa in opera nell’epoca turbolenta delle cosiddette indipendenze. Lo studio abbraccia un arco temporale che va dagli anni ’50 al primo decennio del 2000 e comprende la narrativa francofona ed anglofona al fine di ricostruire una panoramica che permetta di tracciare l’evoluzione della rappresentazione del folle sul piano della diacronia. A uno studio tipologico di folli erranti segue l’analisi del discorso nel testo letterario che si focalizza su tre piani: quello dell’enunciazione, quello dei procedimenti narrativi e quello del linguaggio dell’immaginario. Ne risulta un dinamismo che evoca il dominio del folle sulle tre istanze del discorso, da cui l'ipotesi del folle come una figura di mediazione nei diversi ambiti della società : mediatore spirituale e religioso ; interlocutore intermediario con l’autorità istituzionale ; infine strumento mediano in letteratura, tanto nella pratica della scrittura quanto nell’istituzione letteraria. Ilcarattere marginale del folle nella società e lo slancio riformista che egli assume nella contemporaneità, fanno di lui uno strumento conoscitivo in grado di creare un nuovo codice letterario e di articolare il discorso africano in cerca di autonomia. Le stesse caratteristiche segnano lo statuto delle opere africane e del romanziere nello scenario attuale

A comercialização de produtos florestais não madeireiros (PFNMs) popularizou-se como atividade promotora do desenvolvimento socioeconômico de comunidades florestais com baixo impacto ambiental. Há evidências, contudo, de que a exploração possa produzir efeitos ecológicos e socioeconômicos negativos, sugerindo que é necessário monitorar tais iniciativas. A comercialização frequentemente ocorre em áreas remotas e em contextos de pobreza, como é o caso de muitas daquelas da Amazônia brasileira. Desta forma, é necessário que o monitoramento restrinja-se a avaliar os efeitos evidenciados como mais comuns em estudos anteriores. Este estudo revisa e sintetiza as evidências científicas dos efeitos da exploração de PFNMs sobre parâmetros ecológicos e socioeconômicos e, a partir daí, indica aqueles mais relevantes ao monitoramento. O estudo também levanta até que ponto o monitoramento é implementado no contexto da Amazônia brasileira e avalia quais os parâmetros importantes e viáveis de monitoramento neste caso específico. Para isso, foram realizadas revisões sistemáticas da literatura e a consulta a profissionais da área através do método Delphi. Os resultados indicam que efeitos ecológicos negativos são frequentes, principalmente quando se coletam folhas ou cascas. Alterações em órgãos ou processos fisiológicos e a taxa de sobrevivência dos espécimes explorados são parâmetros que devem ser monitorados, em particular quando se coletam frutos e partes vegetativas. Para todos os tipos de PFNMs, o tamanho e a estrutura populacional são parâmetros prioritários ao monitoramento. A riqueza de espécies da comunidade explorada merece atenção, principalmente quando se coletam frutos. Para os aspectos socioeconômicos, efeitos positivos foram mais frequentes que negativos. A contribuição da renda monetária obtida com o comércio na renda total, a regularidade de ingresso desta renda e o papel dos PFNMs como recursos de salvaguarda são parâmetros do capital financeiro prioritários ao monitoramento. Para o capital social, o empoderamento feminino, a coesão de grupo e o acesso aos benefícios gerados pela comercialização devem ser monitorados. Na Amazônia brasileira são poucas as iniciativas de implementação do monitoramento da comercialização de PFNMs. Embora este seja considerado importante, existem dificuldades que derivam principalmente da falta de apoio institucional, políticas de incentivo e de recursos financeiros. Os profissionais participantes do Delphi consideram que os parâmetros ecológicos mais importantes a monitorar neste contexto são o tamanho e a estrutura populacional do recurso explorado, o aumento da taxa de mortalidade, a quantidade total de recurso extraída e a técnica de coleta utilizada. Para os parâmetros econômicos, aspectos do mercado, como o preço pago ao coletor, a demanda e a qualidade do produto, bem como a renda monetária obtida pelos indivíduos são os parâmetros considerados mais importantes. Por fim, para os aspectos sociais, os efeitos na cultura, na qualidade de vida e na organização interna da comunidade foram priorizados. Os profissionais indicam que é viável estabelecer o monitoramento dos parâmetros levantados.
Amazon, non-timber forest products, ecological effects, socioeconomic effects, monitoring.

碩士
逢甲大學
資訊電機工程碩士在職專班
99
The design of a compact coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed monopole antenna partially surrounded and coupled by a folded ground strip is presented in this Thesis. By properly tuning the gap between the monopole antenna and the ground strip, it is able to operate in the 5 GHz band for wireless application. Furthermore, in this Thesis, in order to satisfy the current trend of downsizing the mobile communication electronics products, in contrast to other similar structured antenna design, the proposed antenna possessed compact size characteristics, demonstrating a small size dimension of 17.68 mm × 11.2 mm. To allow the proposed antenna to achieve low manufacturing cost so as to conform to the industrial requirement, the substrate of the proposed antenna is a low cost FR4 with thickness 0.8 mm. From both the experimental results, a resonant mode excited at around 5.5 GHz is observed with 10-dB bandwidth measured from 4.88 to 6.3 GHz. By comparing both the simulated and measured results, good agreement between the two results are presented.

碩士
國立中山大學
高階經營碩士班
95
This research is based on native companies and underwriters’ perspectives to discuss the advantages and decision making process of listing a company’s stocks in Taiwan capital market or in oversea markets. It further analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of Taiwan and Hong Kong capital markets in legal and trading aspects, when also taking the costs into consideration. By analyzing the advantages/disadvantages of each capital market and the encourage policies of both governments, it illustrates the factors that influence a company to choose a favorable market in order to maximize its value. This research compares the following issues： A. The IPO regulations of Taiwan and Hong Kong capital markets B. The scales of Taiwan and Hong Kong capital markets C. The costs for IPO in Taiwan and Hong Kong capital markets By referring related articles, it induces the following results： A. Common benefits from IPO：More convenient channels for fund raise, increasing international reputation, enhancing internal control system and management, brain gain, more Merger & Acquisition opportunities, and providing shareholders flexible financial planning. B. Planning IPO in local or foreign markets, a company’s consideration would be different. The differentiation is mainly from： 1. different goals and strategies 2. different costs and benefits 3. different requirements and qualification for going public. C. The reasons for low management fee are： 1. Since underwriters mainly focus on capital gain, not management fee, there is not enough motivation for them to adjust the rate of management fee. 2. numerous underwriters result fierce price competition 3. management fee is related to industry/economy growth and recession 4. Investors might doubt whether the probability of their participating in security allocations is not equal to others. Last, this research provides the conclusion and recommendations. Via comparing these two capital markets, we look for the best solution to change the inferior position of Taiwan capital market and underwriters, and at least provide useful information for our government authorities, underwriters, and companies who are interested in going public in Hong Kong.

Several microwave devices and antennas that are based on negative-refractive-index transmission-line (NRI-TL) metamaterials are presented in this thesis, which exhibit superior performance features compared to their conventional counterparts. These are a Wilkinson balun, a 1:4 series power divider, a four-element printed dipole array, a leaky-wave antenna, and an electrically small folded-monopole antenna. The Wilkinson balun employs +90° and −90° NRI-TL metamaterial lines at the output branches of a Wilkinson divider, to achieve a six-fold increase in the measured differential output phase bandwidth compared to that of an analogous balun employing transmission lines, while occupying only 55% of the area. The 1:4 series power divider comprises four non-radiating 0° NRI-TL metamaterial lines, each with a compact length of λ0/8, to provide equal power split to all four output ports. Compared to a conventional series power divider employing one-wavelength long transmission lines, the metamaterial divider provides a 154% increase in the measured through-power bandwidth, while occupying only 54% of the area. The metamaterial series power dividing concept is also applied to a four-element fully-printed dipole array that is designed to radiate at broadside, in order to demonstrate that the array exhibits reduced beam squinting characteristics. It is shown that the metamaterial-fed array has a measured scan-angle bandwidth that is 173% greater than an array that is fed using a conventional low-pass loaded line. The reduced-beam squinting property that NRI-TL metamaterial lines offer is subsequently exploited to create a leaky-wave antenna that radiates a near-fixed beam in the forward +45° direction, with an average measured beam squint of only 0.031°/MHz. This is achieved by operating the antenna in the upper right-handed band where the phase and group velocities are the closest to the speed of light. Finally, an electrically small antenna comprising four 0° NRI-TL metamaterial unit cells is presented which supports a predominantly even-mode current, thus enabling it to be modeled as a multi-arm folded monopole. This significantly increases its radiation resistance, which allows it to be matched to 50 Ω, while maintaining a high measured efficiency of 70%.

La tesi si propone di individuare e di definire una sorta di (sotto)genere letterario fin qui mai trattato, quello del romanzo-testamento. Con questa definizione mi riferisco a tutte le opere scritte all’interno della “dimensione della morte”, ovvero la fase della vita in cui il pensiero della morte diviene dominante. Questo accade solitamente per tre possibili motivi: per l’età avanzata, per una grave malattia o per una precisa volontà suicida; a queste tre motivazioni corrispondono altrettanti capitoli, ognuno dei quali approfondisce quattro diversi testi (romanzi, racconti o fumetti che siano). La situazione nelle quali gli autori realizzano le rispettive opere è estremamente differente: chi affronta la morte in tarda età può permettersi di scrivere con una certa serenità, nella consapevolezza di avere completato naturalmente il proprio percorso; chi muore anzitempo, per malattia, rimpiange gli anni che non potrà vivere e realizza opere animate da una notevole tensione narrativa; chi sceglie di darsi volontariamente la morte si rivolge al mondo con atteggiamento di sfida, per quanto il suo sguardo si dimostri freddo e distaccato. Segue quindi un’appendice nella quale si analizzano altri tre romanzi: originariamente contenuti nei tre capitoli iniziali, essi sono stati successivamente stralciati in quanto sfuggivano a una precisa categorizzazione e male si amalgamavano agli altri; peraltro, tali romanzi erano troppo pertinenti per ignorarli, per cui sono stati trattati in un’apposita sezione. Capitolo 1. Il vecchio scrittore e la morte. I romanzi analizzati sono Deux anglaises et le continent (Henri-Pierre Roché, 1956), Mercy of a Rude Stream (Henry Roth, 1994-1998), The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (Charles Bukowski, 1998) e Ravelstein (Saul Bellow, 2000). Quattro opere realizzate da autori piuttosto avanti con l’età (si va dai 72 anni di Bukowski agli 89 di Roth) che si rivelano interamente o parzialmente autobiografiche: Roché rivive una fase della propria giovinezza, romanzandola; Roth ripercorre i tredici anni vissuti ad Harlem tra il 1914 e il 1927 dedicandovi ben quattro volumi (per un totale di circa 1500 pagine); Bukowski tiene un vero e proprio diario in cui racconta le proprie esperienze quotidiane; Bellow narra la propria amicizia con Abe Ravelstein, intellettuale ebreo morto qualche anno prima. L’unico dei quattro a usare il proprio vero nome è Bukowski; gli altri tre ricorrono ad altrettanti alter-ego che peraltro nascondono poco o nulla della reale identità dei personaggi. Capitolo 2. Lo scrittore e la malattia. Il capitolo si apre con l’analisi degli ultimi romanzi di Leonardo Sciascia, Il cavaliere e la morte (1988) e Una storia semplice (1989). Si prosegue con il testo più breve esaminato nella presente ricerca: “Nel frattempo”, racconto a fumetti di sei pagine realizzato da Magnus (nome d’arte di Roberto Raviola) nel 1996; si termina quindi con Le soleil des mourants, scritto da Jean-Claude Izzo nel 1999. Si tratta di opere realizzate nell’imminenza della morte (Una storia semplice, “Nel frattempo”) o comunque nella piena consapevolezza che la vita sta per giungere al termine (Il cavaliere e la morte, Le soleil des mourants). Nonostante ognuno dei quattro scritti contenga elementi autobiografici, nessuno di essi è puramente autobiografico: Sciascia scrive due polizieschi, Magnus una commedia, Izzo un dramma on the road. I quattro protagonisti sono accomnati da un fatto: tutti loro si confrontano con la malattia, reale (Il cavaliere e la morte, Le soleil des mourants) o metaforica (Una storia semplice, “Nel frattempo”) che sia. L’unico a uscire vincitore da questo confronto è il personaggio di Magnus; gli altri risultano tutti sconfitti, seppure in misura diversa (la sconfitta è totale per Izzo e lo Sciascia del Cavaliere e la morte, mentre è solo parziale in Una storia semplice). Capitolo 3. Lo scrittore e il suicidio. I testi analizzati nel terzo capitolo sono Le feu follet (Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, 1931), Dissipatio H.G. (Guido Morselli, 1973), “Good Old Neon” (David Foster Wallace, 2004) e Suicide (Édouard Levé, 2008). Realizzate da autori poi suicidatisi, queste quattro opere narrano le storie di altrettanti suicidi: tre sono biografie che ricostruiscono l’esistenza di persone realmente vissute (Feu follet racconta, romanzandola, la fine di Jacques Rigaut; “Good Old Neon” e Suicide si ispirano alla scomparsa di due conoscenti dei rispettivi autori), mentre la quarta (Dissipatio H.G.) è una vicenda di pura invenzione. Nonostante la presenza dei suddetti rimandi biografici, i quattro protagonisti sono caratterizzati in modo tale da divenire dei parziali alter-ego degli scrittori: la fedeltà biografica non è mai una priorità. Due di queste opere (Feu follet e Suicide) hanno uno sfondo estremamente realistico, mentre le altre due (Dissipatio H.G. e “Good Old Neon”) si svolgono in suggestivi scenari fantastico/fantascientifici, come a suggerire la volontà di abbandonare questo mondo che contraddistingue gli autori. Appendice. (In)consapevolezza di morire. I romanzi qui raccolti sono tre: Palomar (Italo Calvino, 1983), Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeo (Andrea Pazienza, 1987) e Camere separate (Pier Vittorio Tondelli, 1989). L’ultimo è stato scritto da un autore che sapeva di essere affetto da AIDS e che, pertanto, era consapevole che non sarebbe sopravvissuto molto (per quanto la natura della malattia lo autorizzasse a sperare che la fine fosse ancora lontana); gli altri due sono invece opera di scrittori che erano in buone condizioni di salute e non sospettavano che di lì a poco sarebbero morti; eppure, al termine dei rispettivi romanzi, essi uccidono i propri protagonisti (entrambi alter-ego). Il capitolo si occupa appunto di individuare la connessione, evidente o sotterranea che sia, tra il destino del personaggio e quello del suo autore. La condizione nella quale si giunge al termine della vita influenza inevitabilmente l’approccio alla scrittura. La relativa serenità che contraddistingue chi si avvia a morire in tarda età fa sì che il vecchio scrittore si dedichi principalmente a una narrativa apertamente autobiografica che ricorda il passato, in modo che egli lo possa rivivere ancora una volta prima di andarsene. Chi muore anzitempo e incolpevole, a causa di una malattia, guarda con rimpianto agli anni futuri che non avrà la possibilità di vivere: scrivere in questo stato d’animo conduce alla realizzazione di opere con una componente didattica, che mirano a trasmettere un messaggio universale. Il desiderio di raggiungere un ampio numero di lettori fa sì che l’autore ricorra alla narrativa di genere; alla base di tale atteggiamento c’è la volontà di esercitare una forma di controllo su un futuro a cui non si potrà assistere in prima persona. Lo scrittore suicida, infine, realizza con il proprio ultimo romanzo una lunga lettera d’addio: egli dimostra la propria volontà di evadere dal mondo dando vita a elaborati scenari di fantasia oppure descrivendo una realtà all’interno della quale si trova spaesato, fuori posto. In un caso come nell’altro, egli vuole fuggire da questo mondo per andare alla scoperta dell’altro. A prescindere dal tipo di morte che li attende, gli scrittori che hanno raggiunto l’ultima fase della propria vita non usano metafore o giri di parole: nelle proprie opere, essi presentano direttamente la propria situazione. Pertanto, i protagonisti dei loro romanzi-testamento sono anziani che riflettono sulla loro prossima morte, oppure persone mortalmente malate, oppure giovani uomini dalle chiare tendenza suicide: in poche parole, personaggi che sono alter-ego totali o parziali dei rispettivi creatori.
The aim of this doctoral thesis is to identify and to define a new and previously unseen literary sub-genre: the “testamentary novel”. By saying so, I embrace all the works of literature that have been written by an author who is living within the “dimension of death”, that is to say the stage of life in which the idea of death has become overwhelming. This may happen because of three main reasons: old age, severe illness or suicidal tendencies. Three different situations that originate three different kinds of narratives: a man who faces death in his old age writes relatively peacefully, knowing that he has naturally come to the end of his life; a man who dies prematurely, by illness, regrets all the future years that he won’t be able to live and writes works of literature that vibrate with narrative tension; a man who voluntarily gives an end to his own life addresses the whole world as if to defy it, and yet writes in a cold and detached style. After these three chapters there is an appendix in which I analyze three other novels: they were initially meant for the already existing chapters, but then I realized that they didn’t belong there, being quite eccentric and avoiding every clear classification, so I left them out. However, they were too pertinent to be totally ignored, so I put them in this separate section (that so became a sort of fourth chapter). Chapter 1. The old writer and death. In this first chapter I analyze the following novels: Deux anglaises et le continent (Henri-Pierre Roché, 1956), Mercy of a Rude Stream (Henry Roth, 1994-1998), The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (Charles Bukowski, 1998) and Ravelstein (Saul Bellow, 2000). Written by aged authors (spanning the age range 72 to 89, Bukowski being the “youngest” and Roth the oldest), these four narratives are either entirely or partially autobiographical: Roché tells a story about his long gone youth; Roth retraces (in a four-volumes and 1500 pages novel) the thirteen years he lived in Harlem as a kid, between 1914 and 1927; Bukowski keeps an actual diary in which he writes about his daily life; Bellow gives an accout of his friendship with the recently deceased Abe Ravelstein. The only writer who uses his real name in the narrative is Bukowski, whereas the other ones adopt three well recognizable alter-egos. Chapter 2. The writer and the illness. The second chapter begins with the last two novels written by Leonardo Sciascia, Il cavaliere e la morte (1988) and Una storia semplice (1989). These novels are followed by the shortest story analyzed in this thesis: “Nel frattempo”, a six-pages graphic novel that Magnus (Roberto Raviola’s nom de plume) wrote and drew in 1996; the second chapter is completed by Le soleil des mourants, a novel by Jean-Claude Izzo (1999). These narratives have been written by authors who were severely ill and were fully aware that they would die shortly. Each one of the four stories is partly autobiographical, but no one of them is completely autobiographical: Sciascia writes two detective novels, Magnus writes a sort of dark comedy and Izzo writes an extremely dramatic story which resembles a classic tragedy. The four protagonists have one thing in common: they all face illness, sometimes actual (Il cavaliere e la morte, Le soleil des mourants) and sometimes metaphorical (Una storia semplice, “Nel frattempo”). The only one of them who clearly wins this peculiar battle is Magnus’ character; the other ones all suffer a defeat (a total defeat in Le soleil des mourants and Il cavaliere e la morte, a partial defeat in Una storia semplice). Capitolo 3. The writer and suicide. The four works of literature analyzed in the third chapter are the following ones: Le feu follet (Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, 1931), Dissipatio H.G. (Guido Morselli, 1973), “Good Old Neon” (David Foster Wallace, 2004) and Suicide (Édouard Levé, 2008). Written by authors who have actually committed suicide, these narratives tell the stories of four suicidal men: three of them are biographical accounts (Feu follet tells about Jacques Rigaut’s suicide, while “Good Old Neon” and Suicide are inspired by the suicides committed some years before by two acquaintances of the authors), the fourth one is entirely fictional. However, these biographical accounts are deliberately inaccurate, so the characters portrayed by the writers become eventually their partial alter-egos. Two of the four narratives take place in a completely realistic setting; on the other hand, the background of the other two is imaginary and fantastic, as if to suggest the authors’ desire to leave the world he’s still living in. Appendix. (Un)aware to die. In this appendix, which is a sort of fourth chapter, three novels are analyzed: Palomar (Italo Calvino, 1983), Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeo (Andrea Pazienza, 1987) and Camere separate (Pier Vittorio Tondelli, 1989). The third one has been written by a man who was suffering from AIDS and was therefore aware that he wouldn’t survive much longer (even if he couldn’t foresee the specific moment of his future demise, of course); on the contrary, the two other novels have been written by two healthy men who couldn’t imagine that they would die a few months after having completed their works; nevertheless, at the end of their narratives they both kill their main character (who is clearly their alter-ego). There is indeed a connection between the death of the character and the death of the author, and this appendix aims to identify it. After having analyzed these fifteen narratives I realized that different kinds of death originate different kinds of writing. The man who dies in the relative peacefulness of his old age is naturally encouraged to write about his past life, so he can relive it one last time. When a man dies prematurely, because of an incurable disease, he regrets all the future years that he won’t be able to live: he writes a somehow educational work of literature, a novel containing a universal message that aims to teach something to the ones who will survive him; in order to reach the maximum amount of readers, he makes use of an “easy” genre, such as comedy or detective novel. He does so because he wants to use his narrative in order to exert a sort of influence over the future (even if, or just because, he knows that he won’t be there in person). The suicidal man writes his final novel as if it were a long suicide letter: he shows off his strong desire to leave this life by making up imaginary worlds or else describing a reality that doesn’t fit him, a world in which he just can’t find his proper place. Apart from the kind of death that awaits them, the writers who have reached the final stage of their life don’t use metaphors or circumlocution: in their novels, they plainly present their own situation. So, the main characters of their testamentary works of literature are old men who muse about dying, or persons severely ill, or young men with suicidal tendencies: in short, these characters are total or partial alter-egos who have the specific duty of standing in for their creators.

ZusammenfassungIn diesem Kapitel soll das Phänomen der Anwendung von FeM bei Menschen mit Demenz in professionellen Sorgebeziehungen abgebildet werden. Dabei bedarf es zunächst einer terminologischen Einordnung und Reflexion des Gegenstandes (Abschn. 2.1), die zudem Klarheit darüber schafft, welche Handlungen konkret gemeint sind, wenn in dieser Arbeit die Rede von FeM ist. Mit der Art und Weise, wie FeM als spezielle Form von Gewalt Anwendung finden, befasst sich der darauffolgende Abschnitt (Abschn. 2.2). Sodann wird auf die verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen von FeM eingegangen (Abschn. 2.3), um in einem weiteren Schritt die empirischen Daten zur Prävalenz von FeM abzubilden. Dabei erfolgt dies aufgrund der Sachlage getrennt nach mechanischen Formen von FeM (Abschn. 2.4) und pharmakologischen Interventionen, mit denen eine Ruhigstellung der Betroffenen einhergehen kann (Abschn. 2.5). Mit den rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen (Abschn. 2.6) sollen ausgewählte verfassungs-, zivil- und strafrechtliche Aspekte der Thematik skizziert werden, um aufzuzeigen, in welchem juristischen Rahmen sich Einschränkungen in die Fortbewegungsfreiheit in Deutschland wesentlich ereignen. Dabei wird bereits die besondere Relevanz verschiedener Begründungsansätze für die Anwendung von FeM bei Menschen mit Demenz anklingen, welchen der darauffolgende Abschnitt (Abschn. 2.7) gewidmet ist. Solche Begründungen sind jedoch, wie sich zeigen wird, auch stets von verschiedenen tieferliegenden Einflussfaktoren geprägt (Abschn. 2.8). Nach der Darstellung derselben erfolgt sodann eine kritische Analyse der möglichen Folgen von FeM (Abschn. 2.9). Das Kapitel 2 schließen eine Übersicht über verschiedene Interventionen zur Vermeidung von FeM (Abschn. 2.10) sowie ein Zwischenfazit (Abschn. 2.11) ab.

AbstractThis chapter provides an overview of the effectiveness of programs and interventions that aim to strengthen the sense of coherence (SOC) throughout the life span. The authors report on more than 40 studies investigating the effectiveness of interventions to strengthen the SOC. They structure and summarize findings for young people, employed and unemployed adults, health professionals, people with disabilities, people with psychosomatic and mental health problems, people with physical problems, hospital patients, and older people. Even though most studies are limited to short-term pre-test and post-test study designs, a few studies have investigated the effects of intervention for longer follow-up periods of up to several months and even more than one year.

AbstractOver the last few decades, Europe has seen a rise in applications for “native trait” patents on conventionally bred plants. Based on expert interviews, participant observation, patent statistics and document analysis, this chapter discusses what constitutes the (potential) value of these patents for various stakeholders. Native trait patents are a legacy of biotech plant patents from the 1980s and 1990s but follow different material, legal and economic logics. Unlike GMO patents, it would be wrong to view them as tools with which to extract surplus value from farmers. Neither, however, are they simply a means to capture investment from stock markets. There is no single business model that could explain the rush of companies to apply for patents in conventional plant breeding; therefore, patents must be understood as complex value objects that fulfil different functions for different actors and that often defy their original purpose of stimulating and protecting innovation.

This paper is part of series on self-contained papers in which a large part, if not the full extent, of the asymptotic limit theory of summands of independent random variables is exposed. Each paper of the series may be taken as review exposition but specially as a complete exposition expect a few exterior resources. For graduate students and for researchers (beginners or advanced), any paper of the series should be considered as a basis for constructing new results. The contents are taken from advanced books but the organization and the proofs use more recent tools, are given in more details and do not systematically follow previous one. Sometimes, theorems are completed and innovated

Oxon Run Parkway (OXRN) is a 51-hectare (126-acre) natural area within Washington, D.C. administered by the National Park Service under National Capital Parks East (NACE). The original plan called for a road, slated to follow Oxon Run stream, but this never came to fruition; despite this, the moniker stuck. The majority of the original Oxon Run Parkway is managed by the District of Columbia. The section of Oxon Run Parkway under NPS jurisdiction contains wetlands and forests, as well as the only McAteean magnolia bogs still remaining in the District. The lower Cretaceous Potomac Group, known as one of the few dinosaur-bearing rock units on the east coast of North America, crops out within Oxon Run. One of the most prevalent fossil-bearing resources are the siderite, or “bog iron” sandstone slabs that sometimes preserve the footprints or trackways of various vertebrates, including dinosaurs. Such trackways have been reported from Potomac Group outcrops throughout the Atlantic Coastal Plain of Maryland and Virginia. In 2019, National Capital Parks-East took possession of such a track, referred to a dinosaur, collected by paleontologist Dr. Peter Kranz. This report was compiled after a paleontological survey of Oxon Run Parkway and is intended as a supplement to the National Capital Parks East Paleontological Resource Inventory (Nelson et al. 2019). This report contains information on the history of Oxon Run Parkway and its geology, as well as discussion of the fossil track.

Limited information exists about enrollment in Part D prescription coverage by Medicare beneficiaries with cancer. Part D coverage may increase access to medicines. This study evaluated patterns of Part D uptake and costs and assessed the effects of coverage on hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) use among people with colorectal cancer (CRC). We analyzed Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)–Medicare linked data on fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries with at least 36 months of follow-up who were diagnosed with CRC at any point from January 2007 through December 2010, and a matched cohort of beneficiaries without cancer. Dual (Medicare/Medicaid) enrollees were excluded because they are automatically enrolled in Part D. Among beneficiaries with CRC (n=12,774), 39 percent had complete Part D coverage, defined as coverage in the diagnosis year and 2 subsequent years; the rate was 38 percent in the matched comparison cohort (P=.119). Among those with complete Part D coverage, there was no significant difference in annual prescription drug costs between people with CRC ($3,157, 95% confidence interval [CI]: $3,098–$3,216) and without ($3,113, 95% CI: $3,054–$3,172). Among people with CRC, odds of ED use ranged from unchanged to marginally higher for those with no or partial Part D coverage, (adjusted odds ratio: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.00–1.18), compared with those with complete Part D coverage. Lack of continuous Part D coverage was associated with more ED use among Medicare FFS beneficiaries with CRC in 2007–2013. Among people with Part D coverage, prescription drug costs varied little between those with CRC and matched beneficiaries without cancer.

This rapid review focusses on whether there is international evidence on the role of non-partisan elections as a form of decentralised local government that improves performance of local government. The review provides examples of this from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. There are two reported examples in Sub-Saharan Africa of non-partisan elections that delink candidates from political parties during election campaigns. The use of non-partisan elections to improve performance and democratic accountability at the level of government is not common, for example, in southern Africa all local elections at the sub-national sphere follow the partisan model. Whilst there were no examples found where countries shifted from partisan to non-partisan elections at the local government level, the literature notes that decentralisation policies have the effect of democratising and transferring power and therefore few central governments implement it fully. In Africa decentralisation is favoured because it is often used as a cover for central control. Many post-colonial leaders in Africa continue to favour centralised government under the guise of decentralisation. These preferences emanated from their experiences under colonisation where power was maintained by colonial administrations through institutions such as traditional leadership. A review of the literature on non-partisan elections at the local government level came across three examples where this occurred. These countries were: Ghana, Uganda and Bangladesh. Although South Africa holds partisan elections at the sub-national sphere, the election of ward committee members and ward councillors, is on a non-partisan basis and therefore, the ward committee system in South Africa is included as an example of a non-partisan election process in the review.

Beneficial use of reclaimed wastewater (RW) and biosolids (BS) in soils is accompanied by large input of sewage-originated P. Prolonged application may result in P accumulation up to levelsBeneficial use of reclaimed wastewater (RW) and biosolids (BS) in soils is accompanied by large input of sewage-originated P. Prolonged application may result in P accumulation up to levels that impair plant nutrition, increase P loss, and promote eutrophication in downstream waters. This study aims to shed light on the RW- and BS-P forms in soils and to follow the processes that determine P reactivity, solubility, availability, and loss in RW and BS treated soils. The Technion group used sequential P extraction combined with measuring stable oxygen isotopic composition in phosphate (δ18OP) and with 31P-NMR studies to probe P speciation and transformations in soils irrigated with RW or fresh water (FW). The application of the δ18OP method to probe inorganic P (Pi) speciation and transformations in soils was developed through collaboration between the Technion and the UCSC groups. The method was used to trace Pi in water-, NaHCO3-, NaOH-, and HCl- P fractions in a calcareous clay soil (Acre, Israel) irrigated with RW or FW. The δ18OP signature changes during a month of incubation indicated biogeochemical processes. The water soluble Pi (WSPi) was affected by enzymatic activity yielding isotopic equilibrium with the water molecules in the soil solution. Further it interacted rapidly with the NaHCO3-Pi. The more stable Pi pools also exhibited isotopic alterations in the first two weeks after P application, likely related to microbial activity. Isotopic depletion which could result from organic P (PO) mineralization was followed by enrichment which may result from biologic discrimination in the uptake. Similar transformations were observed in both soils although transformations related to biological activity were more pronounced in the soil treated with RW. Specific P compounds were identified by the Technion group, using solution-state 31P-NMR in wastewater and in soil P extracts from Acre soils irrigated by RW and FW. Few identified PO compounds (e.g., D-glucose-6-phosphate) indicated coupled transformations of P and C in the wastewater. The RW soil retained higher P content, mainly in the labile fractions, but lower labile PO, than the FW soil; this and the fact that P species in the various soil extracts of the RW soil appear independent of P species in the RW are attributed to enhanced biological activity and P recycling in the RW soil. Consistent with that, both soils retained very similar P species in the soil pools. The HUJ group tested P stabilization to maximize the environmental safe application rates and the agronomic beneficial use of BS. Sequential P extraction indicated that the most reactive BS-P forms: WSP, membrane-P, and NaHCO3-P, were effectively stabilized by ferrous sulfate (FeSul), calcium oxide (CaO), or aluminum sulfate (alum). After applying the stabilized BS, or fresh BS (FBS), FBS compost (BSC), or P fertilizer (KH2PO4) to an alluvial soil, P availability was probed during 100 days of incubation. A plant-based bioassay indicated that P availability followed the order KH2PO4 >> alum-BS > BSC ≥ FBS > CaO-BS >> FeSul-BS. The WSPi concentration in soil increased following FBS or BSC application, and P mineralization further increased it during incubation. In contrast, the chemically stabilized BS reduced WSPi concentrations relative to the untreated soil. It was concluded that the chemically stabilized BS effectively controlled WSPi in the soil while still supplying P to support plant growth. Using the sequential extraction procedure the persistence of P availability in BS treated soils was shown to be of a long-term nature. 15 years after the last BS application to MN soils that were annually amended for 20 years by heavy rates of BS, about 25% of the added BS-P was found in the labile fractions. The UMN group further probed soil-P speciation in these soils by bulk and micro X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES). This newly developed method was shown to be a powerful tool for P speciation in soils. In a control soil (no BS added), 54% of the total P was PO and it was mostly identified as phytic acid; 15% was identified as brushite and 26% as strengite. A corn crop BS amended soil included mostly P-Fe-peat complex, variscite and Al-P-peat complex but no Ca-P while in a BS-grass soil octacalcium phosphate was identified and o-phosphorylethanolamine or phytic acid was shown to dominate the PO fraction that impair plant nutrition, increase P loss, and promote eutrophication in downstream waters. This study aims to shed light on the RW- and BS-P forms in soils and to follow the processes that determine P reactivity, solubility, availability, and loss in RW and BS treated soils. The Technion group used sequential P extraction combined with measuring stable oxygen isotopic composition in phosphate (δ18OP) and with 31P-NMR studies to probe P speciation and transformations in soils irrigated with RW or fresh water (FW). The application of the δ18OP method to probe inorganic P (Pi) speciation and transformations in soils was developed through collaboration between the Technion and the UCSC groups. The method was used to trace Pi in water-, NaHCO3-, NaOH-, and HCl- P fractions in a calcareous clay soil (Acre, Israel) irrigated with RW or FW. The δ18OP signature changes during a month of incubation indicated biogeochemical processes. The water soluble Pi (WSPi) was affected by enzymatic activity yielding isotopic equilibrium with the water molecules in the soil solution. Further it interacted rapidly with the NaHCO3-Pi. The more stable Pi pools also exhibited isotopic alterations in the first two weeks after P application, likely related to microbial activity. Isotopic depletion which could result from organic P (PO) mineralization was followed by enrichment which may result from biologic discrimination in the uptake. Similar transformations were observed in both soils although transformations related to biological activity were more pronounced in the soil treated with RW. Specific P compounds were identified by the Technion group, using solution-state 31P-NMR in wastewater and in soil P extracts from Acre soils irrigated by RW and FW. Few identified PO compounds (e.g., D-glucose-6-phosphate) indicated coupled transformations of P and C in the wastewater. The RW soil retained higher P content, mainly in the labile fractions, but lower labile PO, than the FW soil; this and the fact that P species in the various soil extracts of the RW soil appear independent of P species in the RW are attributed to enhanced biological activity and P recycling in the RW soil. Consistent with that, both soils retained very similar P species in the soil pools. The HUJ group tested P stabilization to maximize the environmental safe application rates and the agronomic beneficial use of BS. Sequential P extraction indicated that the most reactive BS-P forms: WSP, membrane-P, and NaHCO3-P, were effectively stabilized by ferrous sulfate (FeSul), calcium oxide (CaO), or aluminum sulfate (alum). After applying the stabilized BS, or fresh BS (FBS), FBS compost (BSC), or P fertilizer (KH2PO4) to an alluvial soil, P availability was probed during 100 days of incubation. A plant-based bioassay indicated that P availability followed the order KH2PO4 >> alum-BS > BSC ≥ FBS > CaO-BS >> FeSul-BS. The WSPi concentration in soil increased following FBS or BSC application, and P mineralization further increased it during incubation. In contrast, the chemically stabilized BS reduced WSPi concentrations relative to the untreated soil. It was concluded that the chemically stabilized BS effectively controlled WSPi in the soil while still supplying P to support plant growth. Using the sequential extraction procedure the persistence of P availability in BS treated soils was shown to be of a long-term nature. 15 years after the last BS application to MN soils that were annually amended for 20 years by heavy rates of BS, about 25% of the added BS-P was found in the labile fractions. The UMN group further probed soil-P speciation in these soils by bulk and micro X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES). This newly developed method was shown to be a powerful tool for P speciation in soils. In a control soil (no BS added), 54% of the total P was PO and it was mostly identified as phytic acid; 15% was identified as brushite and 26% as strengite. A corn crop BS amended soil included mostly P-Fe-peat complex, variscite and Al-P-peat complex but no Ca-P while in a BS-grass soil octacalcium phosphate was identified and o-phosphorylethanolamine or phytic acid was shown to dominate the PO fraction.

As a student undertaking a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC)1 based in a GP practice in a rural community in the North of Scotland, I have been lucky to be given responsibility and my own clinic lists. Every day I conduct consultations that change my practice: the challenge of clinically applying the theory I have studied, controlling a consultation and efficiently exploring a patient's problems, empathising with and empowering them to play a part in their own care2 – and most difficult I feel – dealing with the vast amount of uncertainty that medicine, and particularly primary care, presents to both clinician and patient. I initially consulted with a lady in her 60s who attended with her husband, complaining of severe lower back pain who was very difficult to assess due to her pain level. Her husband was understandably concerned about the degree of pain she was in. After assessment and discussion with one of the GPs, we agreed some pain relief and a physio assessment in the next few days would be a practical plan. The patient had one red flag, some leg weakness and numbness, which was her ‘normal’ on account of her multiple sclerosis. At the physio assessment a few days later, the physio felt things were worse and some urgent bloods were ordered, unfortunately finding raised cancer and inflammatory markers. A CT scan of the lung found widespread cancer, a later CT of the head after some developing some acute confusion found brain metastases, and a week and a half after presenting to me, the patient sadly died in hospital. While that was all impactful enough on me, it was the follow-up appointment with the husband who attended on the last triage slot of the evening two weeks later that I found completely altered my understanding of grief and the mourning of a loved one. The husband had asked to speak to a Andrew MacFarlane Year 3 ScotGEM Medical Student 2 doctor just to talk about what had happened to his wife. The GP decided that it would be better if he came into the practice - strictly he probably should have been consulted with over the phone due to coronavirus restrictions - but he was asked what he would prefer and he opted to come in. I sat in on the consultation, I had been helping with any examinations the triage doctor needed and I recognised that this was the husband of the lady I had seen a few weeks earlier. He came in and sat down, head lowered, hands fiddling with the zip on his jacket, trying to find what to say. The GP sat, turned so that they were opposite each other with no desk between them - I was seated off to the side, an onlooker, but acknowledged by the patient with a kind nod when he entered the room. The GP asked gently, “How are you doing?” and roughly 30 seconds passed (a long time in a conversation) before the patient spoke. “I just really miss her…” he whispered with great effort, “I don’t understand how this all happened.” Over the next 45 minutes, he spoke about his wife, how much pain she had been in, the rapid deterioration he witnessed, the cancer being found, and cruelly how she had passed away after he had gone home to get some rest after being by her bedside all day in the hospital. He talked about how they had met, how much he missed her, how empty the house felt without her, and asking himself and us how he was meant to move forward with his life. He had a lot of questions for us, and for himself. Had we missed anything – had he missed anything? The GP really just listened for almost the whole consultation, speaking to him gently, reassuring him that this wasn’t his or anyone’s fault. She stated that this was an awful time for him and that what he was feeling was entirely normal and something we will all universally go through. She emphasised that while it wasn’t helpful at the moment, that things would get better over time.3 He was really glad I was there – having shared a consultation with his wife and I – he thanked me emphatically even though I felt like I hadn’t really helped at all. After some tears, frequent moments of silence and a lot of questions, he left having gotten a lot off his chest. “You just have to listen to people, be there for them as they go through things, and answer their questions as best you can” urged my GP as we discussed the case when the patient left. Almost all family caregivers contact their GP with regards to grief and this consultation really made me realise how important an aspect of my practice it will be in the future.4 It has also made me reflect on the emphasis on undergraduate teaching around ‘breaking bad news’ to patients, but nothing taught about when patients are in the process of grieving further down the line.5 The skill Andrew MacFarlane Year 3 ScotGEM Medical Student 3 required to manage a grieving patient is not one limited to general practice. Patients may grieve the loss of function from acute trauma through to chronic illness in all specialties of medicine - in addition to ‘traditional’ grief from loss of family or friends.6 There wasn’t anything ‘medical’ in the consultation, but I came away from it with a real sense of purpose as to why this career is such a privilege. We look after patients so they can spend as much quality time as they are given with their loved ones, and their loved ones are the ones we care for after they are gone. We as doctors are the constant, and we have to meet patients with compassion at their most difficult times – because it is as much a part of the job as the knowledge and the science – and it is the part of us that patients will remember long after they leave our clinic room. Word Count: 993 words References 1. ScotGEM MBChB - Subjects - University of St Andrews [Internet]. [cited 2021 Mar 27]. Available from: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/subjects/medicine/scotgem-mbchb/ 2. Shared decision making in realistic medicine: what works - gov.scot [Internet]. [cited 2021 Mar 27]. Available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/works-support-promote-shared-decisionmaking-synthesis-recent-evidence/pages/1/ 3. Ghesquiere AR, Patel SR, Kaplan DB, Bruce ML. Primary care providers’ bereavement care practices: Recommendations for research directions. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2014 Dec;29(12):1221–9. 4. Nielsen MK, Christensen K, Neergaard MA, Bidstrup PE, Guldin M-B. Grief symptoms and primary care use: a prospective study of family caregivers. BJGP Open [Internet]. 2020 Aug 1 [cited 2021 Mar 27];4(3). Available from: https://bjgpopen.org/content/4/3/bjgpopen20X101063 5. O’Connor M, Breen LJ. General Practitioners’ experiences of bereavement care and their educational support needs: a qualitative study. BMC Medical Education. 2014 Mar 27;14(1):59. 6. Sikstrom L, Saikaly R, Ferguson G, Mosher PJ, Bonato S, Soklaridis S. Being there: A scoping review of grief support training in medical education. PLOS ONE. 2019 Nov 27;14(11):e0224325.

Background Australia is a multi-cultural society with increasing rates of people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. On average, CALD groups have higher rates of tobacco use, lower participation in cancer screening programs, and poorer health outcomes than the general Australian population. Lower cancer screening and smoking cessation rates are due to differing cultural norms, health-related attitudes, and beliefs, and language barriers. Interventions can help address these potential barriers and increase tobacco cessation and cancer screening rates among CALD groups. Cancer Council NSW (CCNSW) aims to reduce the impact of cancer and improve cancer outcomes for priority populations including CALD communities. In line with this objective, CCNSW commissioned this rapid review of interventions implemented in Australia and comparable countries. Review questions This review aimed to address the following specific questions: Question 1 (Q1): What smoking cessation interventions have been proven effective in reducing or preventing smoking among culturally and linguistically diverse communities? Question 2 (Q2): What screening interventions have proven effective in increasing participation in population cancer screening programs among culturally and linguistically diverse populations? This review focused on Chinese-, Vietnamese- and Arabic-speaking people as they are the largest CALD groups in Australia and have high rates of tobacco use and poor screening adherence in NSW. Summary of methods An extensive search of peer-reviewed and grey literature published between January 2013-March 2022 identified 19 eligible studies for inclusion in the Q1 review and 49 studies for the Q2 review. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Levels of Evidence and Joanna Briggs Institute’s (JBI) Critical Appraisal Tools were used to assess the robustness and quality of the included studies, respectively. Key findings Findings are reported by components of an intervention overall and for each CALD group. By understanding the effectiveness of individual components, results will demonstrate key building blocks of an effective intervention. Question 1: What smoking cessation interventions have been proven effective in reducing or preventing smoking among culturally and linguistically diverse communities? Thirteen of the 19 studies were Level IV (L4) evidence, four were Level III (L3), one was Level II (L2), none were L1 (highest level of evidence) and one study’s evidence level was unable to be determined. The quality of included studies varied. Fifteen tobacco cessation intervention components were included, with most interventions involving at least three components (range 2-6). Written information (14 studies), and education sessions (10 studies) were the most common components included in an intervention. Eight of the 15 intervention components explored had promising evidence for use with Chinese-speaking participants (written information, education sessions, visual information, counselling, involving a family member or friend, nicotine replacement therapy, branded merchandise, and mobile messaging). Another two components (media campaign and telephone follow-up) had evidence aggregated across CALD groups (i.e., results for Chinese-speaking participants were combined with other CALD group(s)). No intervention component was deemed of sufficient evidence for use with Vietnamese-speaking participants and four intervention components had aggregated evidence (written information, education sessions, counselling, nicotine replacement therapy). Counselling was the only intervention component to have promising evidence for use with Arabic-speaking participants and one had mixed evidence (written information). Question 2: What screening interventions have proven effective in increasing participation in population cancer screening programs among culturally and linguistically diverse populations? Two of the 49 studies were Level I (L1) evidence, 13 L2, seven L3, 25 L4 and two studies’ level of evidence was unable to be determined. Eighteen intervention components were assessed with most interventions involving 3-4 components (range 1-6). Education sessions (32 studies), written information (23 studies) and patient navigation (10 studies) were the most common components. Seven of the 18 cancer screening intervention components had promising evidence to support their use with Vietnamese-speaking participants (education sessions, written information, patient navigation, visual information, peer/community health worker, counselling, and peer experience). The component, opportunity to be screened (e.g. mailed or handed a bowel screening test), had aggregated evidence regarding its use with Vietnamese-speaking participants. Seven intervention components (education session, written information, visual information, peer/community health worker, opportunity to be screened, counselling, and branded merchandise) also had promising evidence to support their use with Chinese-speaking participants whilst two components had mixed (patient navigation) or aggregated (media campaign) evidence. One intervention component for use with Arabic-speaking participants had promising evidence to support its use (opportunity to be screened) and eight intervention components had mixed or aggregated support (education sessions, written information, patient navigation, visual information, peer/community health worker, peer experience, media campaign, and anatomical models). Gaps in the evidence There were four noteworthy gaps in the evidence: 1. No systematic review was captured for Q1, and only two studies were randomised controlled trials. Much of the evidence is therefore based on lower level study designs, with risk of bias. 2. Many studies provided inadequate detail regarding their intervention design which impacts both the quality appraisal and how mixed finding results can be interpreted. 3. Several intervention components were found to have supportive evidence available only at the aggregate level. Further research is warranted to determine the interventions effectiveness with the individual CALD participant group only. 4. The evidence regarding the effectiveness of certain intervention components were either unknown (no studies) or insufficient (only one study) across CALD groups. This was the predominately the case for Arabic-speaking participants for both Q1 and Q2, and for Vietnamese-speaking participants for Q1. Further research is therefore warranted. Applicability Most of the intervention components included in this review are applicable for use in the Australian context, and NSW specifically. However, intervention components assessed as having insufficient, mixed, or no evidence require further research. Cancer screening and tobacco cessation interventions targeting Chinese-speaking participants were more common and therefore showed more evidence of effectiveness for the intervention components explored. There was support for cancer screening intervention components targeting Vietnamese-speaking participants but not for tobacco cessation interventions. There were few interventions implemented for Arabic-speaking participants that addressed tobacco cessation and screening adherence. Much of the evidence for Vietnamese and Arabic-speaking participants was further limited by studies co-recruiting multiple CALD groups and reporting aggregate results. Conclusion There is sound evidence for use of a range of intervention components to address tobacco cessation and cancer screening adherence among Chinese-speaking populations, and cancer screening adherence among Vietnamese-speaking populations. Evidence is lacking regarding the effectiveness of tobacco cessation interventions with Vietnamese- and Arabic-speaking participants, and cancer screening interventions for Arabic-speaking participants. More research is required to determine whether components considered effective for use in one CALD group are applicable to other CALD populations.

This study aims to investigate the effects of various parameters including the height of the profiling region, spacing of profiling ribs, length of the panel, thickness and modulus of the foam core, and thickness of the profiled face sheet, on the local buckling capacity of profiled metal faced insulating sandwich panels. A simplified finite element (FE) modeling approach that models the profiled face sheet as a folded plate structure resting on elastic foundation is adopted. This modeling approach was validated through comparison with tests results and 3D FE modeling of the entire sandwich structure in a previous study conducted by the authors. The two-parameter elastic foundation properties are determined using a modified nonlinear Vlasov foundation model. The results show that all the above-mentioned parameters play important roles in controlling the buckling capacity of the panel. However, the slenderness ratio of the panel is the most dominant parameter among all. Understanding the influence of each of the aforementioned parameters aids in the design process of such panels and provides insight into their local buckling response.

Over the past few years, well-established family planning (FP) organizations in developing countries, such as INPPARES, the IPPF affiliate in Peru, have strived to implement the Cairo Agenda. In the process of including reproductive health (RH) in FP care, they have dedicated human resources and infrastructure to provide RH services seldom offered in the past. The problem these organizations now face is to increase use of the newly available RH care. Currently, clients seeking FP services may leave clinics unaware of the other RH care provided. At a time when international donors are phasing out financial assistance, the partially idle infrastructure that these NGOs maintain is a drain of their scant resources. To increase demand for such services, INPPARES developed an interactive pamphlet that asked questions about a client’s health and informed them about the various services at its Patres clinic in Lima, Peru. Results of the post-test-only experiment conducted to evaluate the impact of the folder on client behavior are summarized in this report.

Increasing attention has been paid to quality of care (QOC) in family planning (FP) during the last few years, and there have been several initiatives to strengthen QOC in FP in the developing world. This paper reviews the quality of the FP program in India’s public and private sectors, and examines six elements: choice of methods, information given to clients, technical competence, interpersonal relations, continuity of care and follow-up, and appropriate constellation of services. Overall, the paper finds that not much attention has been paid to QOC and hence the level is quite low. Evidence and observations indicate that QOC may be slightly better in the nongovernmental sector. In many areas adequate information is not available to assess QOC, especially in the private sector. Overall, substantial efforts are needed to improve QOC in FP in India. The paper discusses why QOC is poor and offers suggestions for improving each dimension. As the Government of India is actively considering revising its FP program strategy and adopting a reproductive health approach, it may be an opportune time to improve QOC in the family welfare program.