Reconstructing Gender Roles using Collective Memory (Process) through Select Indian Commercials

Collective memory as a process implies that social groups' collective memory in society, changes and develops over time. The paper adopts a phenomenological study using Yadin Dudai’s ‘collective memory as a process’, in the interest of assessing how shifting collective memory (process) of gender roles in society influences the depiction of gender roles in Indian television commercials. Further, it goes on to explain how such advertisements can also impact society's collective memory of gender roles. The study investigates the issue of whether or not there has been a shift in how gender roles are portrayed in commercials in association with the collective memory (process) of society. Studying this change in the portrayal of gender roles in television advertising does indeed have broader implications as to how society perceives gender roles, emphasizing the significance of this study. The research findings show that there has been a noticeable change in how women are portrayed in television commercials as sporting champions, motorists, successful politicians, and business personnel in relation to the changing collective memory of society. The study ultimately determines that the influence of commercials on modifying society's collective memory of gender roles and the influence of collective memory on the evolution of gender role depictions in commercials are reciprocal in nature

What do we know about dynamic glucose-enhanced (DGE) MRI and how close is it to the clinics? Horizon 2020 GLINT consortium report

Cancer is one of the most devastating diseases that the world is currently facing, accounting for 10 million deaths in 2020 (WHO). In the last two decades, advanced medical imaging has played an ever more important role in the early detection of the disease, as it increases the chances of survival and the potential for full recovery. To date, dynamic glucose-enhanced (DGE) MRI using glucose-based chemical exchange saturation transfer (glucoCEST) has demonstrated the sensitivity to detect both D-glucose and glucose analogs, such as 3-oxy-methyl-D-glucose (3OMG) uptake in tumors. As one of the recent international efforts aiming at pushing the boundaries of translation of the DGE MRI technique into clinical practice, a multidisciplinary team of eight partners came together to form the "glucoCEST Imaging of Neoplastic Tumors (GLINT)" consortium, funded by the Horizon 2020 European Commission. This paper summarizes the progress made to date both by these groups and others in increasing our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms related to this technique as well as translating it into clinical practice

Exercise therapy, cardiorespiratory fitness and their effect on brain volumes: A randomised controlled trial in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls

AbstractThe objective of this study was to examine exercise effects on global brain volume, hippocampal volume, and cortical thickness in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Irrespective of diagnosis and intervention, associations between brain changes and cardiorespiratory fitness improvement were examined. Sixty-three schizophrenia patients and fifty-five healthy controls participated in this randomised controlled trial. Global brain volumes, hippocampal volume, and cortical thickness were estimated from 3-Tesla MRI scans. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed with a cardiopulmonary ergometer test. Subjects were assigned exercise therapy or occupational therapy (patients) and exercise therapy or life-as-usual (healthy controls) for six months 2h weekly. Exercise therapy effects were analysed for subjects who were compliant at least 50% of sessions offered. Significantly smaller baseline cerebral (grey) matter, and larger third ventricle volumes, and thinner cortex in most areas of the brain were found in patients versus controls. Exercise therapy did not affect global brain and hippocampal volume or cortical thickness in patients and controls. Cardiorespiratory fitness improvement was related to increased cerebral matter volume and lateral and third ventricle volume decrease in patients and to thickening in the left hemisphere in large areas of the frontal, temporal and cingulate cortex irrespective of diagnosis. One to 2h of exercise therapy did not elicit significant brain volume changes in patients or controls. However, cardiorespiratory fitness improvement attenuated brain volume changes in schizophrenia patients and increased thickness in large areas of the left cortex in both schizophrenia patients and healthy controls