Search

This article explores the concept of recovery and the role of vulnerability in suffering. It examines our overall discomfort with vulnerability in the context of narratives of violence, disorder, and the everyday. This discomfort is explored through a voyage of three narrative types: testimony, chaos, and restitution narratives (Frank, 1995). The article offers that while loss and narrative despair are the characteristic response of vulnerability storytelling does not always, contrary to dominant perspectives in narrative therapy and practice, result in narrative repair. Narrative despair--the pain, mourning, grief, and loss involved in telling stories--is central to a recovery of vulnerability [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aromatic γ-diketone 1,2-diacetylbenzene (1,2-DAB), the putative active metabolite of the organic solvent 1,2-diethylbenzene, forms blue-colored polymeric protein adducts and induces the formation of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-like giant, intraspinal neurofilamentous axonal swellings in Sprague Dawley rats. The pathogenetic mechanism of this neuropathy has yet to be understood. We assessed whether these pathological changes are also seen in the C57BL/6 mouse, the animal of choice for toxicogenomic studies. Mice were treated intraperitoneally with 30, 35, 50, or 70 mg/kg 1,2-DAB or its inactive isomer 1,3-DAB per day (or on alternate days) for up to 43 days. Animals treated with 30 or 35 mg/kg per day 1,2-DAB, but not with 1,3-DAB, developed muscle spasms and progressive weakness, most prominently in hind limbs. Light microscopy revealed swollen axons in spinal anterior horns and proximal ventral roots, and to a lesser extent in dorsal root ganglia of 1,2-DAB-treated animals. Ultrastructural examination of swollen axons revealed clumps of maloriented 10-nm neurofilaments. Sciatic nerves showed clustering of axonal microtubules and other organelles. These findings are qualitatively comparable to those reported in rats treated with 1,2-DAB and represent a suitable phenotype with which to explore molecular mechanisms of proximal, giant neurofilamentous axonopathy using proteomic and genomic technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades advance care planning ( ACP) has become the subject of debate, research and legislation in many countries. Encouraging people to express their preference for treatment in advance, ideally in written form, seems a natural way to identify what someone might have wanted when they can no longer participate in decision-making. The notion of ACP as an unequivocal good permeates much of the research and policy work in this area. For example, ACP is now actively encouraged in Australian federal and state government policies and the Victorian Government has recently published a practical ACP strategy for Victorian health services (2014-2018). However, advance care plan is ethically complex and the introduction of the Victorian health services strategy provides an opportunity to reflect on this complexity, particularly on the benefits and risks of ACP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let (M , g) be a complete non-compact Riemannian manifold together with a function e h , which weights the Hausdorff measures associated to the Riemannian metric. In this work we assume lower or upper radial bounds on some weighted or unweighted curvatures of M to deduce comparisons for the weighted isoperimetric quotient and the weighted capacity of metric balls in M centered at a point o ∈ M. As a consequence, we obtain parabolicity and hyperbolicity criteria for weighted manifolds generalizing previous ones. A basic tool in our study is the analysis of the weighted Laplacian of the distance function from o. The technique extends to non-compact submanifolds properly immersed in M under certain control on their weighted mean curvature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let P be a submanifold properly immersed in a rotationally symmetric manifold having a pole and endowed with a weight e h. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, by assuming certain control on the h -mean curvature of P , we establish comparisons for the h -capacity of extrinsic balls in P , from which we deduce criteria ensuring the h -parabolicity or h -hyperbolicity of P. Second, we employ functions with geometric meaning to describe submanifolds of bounded h -mean curvature which are confined into some regions of the ambient manifold. As a consequence, we derive half-space and Bernstein-type theorems generalizing previous ones. Our results apply for some relevant h -minimal submanifolds appearing in the singularity theory of the mean curvature flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1990 and 2018, 14 cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) were diagnosed in residents of, and in visitors with second homes to, a mountainous hamlet in the French Alps. Systematic investigation revealed a socio-professional network that connected ALS cases. Genetic risk factors for ALS were excluded. Several known environmental factors were scrutinized and eliminated, notably lead and other chemical contaminants in soil, water or home-grown vegetation used for food, radon and electromagnetic fields. Some lifestyle-related behavioral risk factors were identified: Prior to clinical onset of motor neuron disease, some patients had a high degree of athleticism and smoked tobacco. Recent investigations on site, based on a new hypothesis, showed that all patients had ingested wild mushrooms, notably poisonous False Morels. Half of the ALS cohort reported acute illness following Gyromitra gigas mushroom consumption. This finding supports the hypothesis that genotoxins of fungal origin may induce motor neuron degeneration. • A socio-professional network of 14 ALS cases identified in a small French Alp hamlet. • No genetic risk factors for ALS cases; many tobacco smokers and much athleticism • Air, water, soil, radon and emf analysis revealed no known risk factors for ALS. • Food use of False Morel mushrooms (Gyromitra gigas) in ALS cases but not controls • ALS linked to fungal hydrazinic toxins with acute toxicity and long-term DNA lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]