Verse diversification: Frequencies and variations of verse types in Vana kannel and Kalevipoeg

The present study concentrates on specific linguistic aspects in traditional Estonian poetic texts. Focusing on the verse structure of the traditional folk song of Vana kannel and the individually edited and authored epic poem Kalevipoeg, different aspects of the length of verse lines, of the words included in these verses, and of the relation between verse and word length shall be analyzed, aiming to study verse variability in detail. Given there are specific rules of verse and word length organization, as well as of regular relations between them, sequences of words with different length, resulting in different verse types, are focused. Theoretical and empirical evidence is provided that, in addition to existing regularities, verse variability, too, follows specific rules which can be modelled in terms of a diversificational process

Semiotic and Semantic Aspects of the Proverb (Republished)

With the untimely death of the great paremiologist Peter Grzybek (1957-2019), the international community of proverb scholars has lost one of its most remarkable members (see Wolfgang Eismann’s obituary and Wolfgang Mieder’s list of his publications in the 2020 volume of Proverbium). While Peter Grzybek’s seminal article on “Semiotic and Semantic Aspects of the Proverb” appeared five years ago in Hrisztalina Hrisztova-Gotthardt and Melita Aleksa Varga (eds.), Introduction to Paremiology. A Comprehensive Guide to Proverb Studies (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015), pp. 68-111 that is readily and without cost available online, it was decided to republish this significant theoretical survey in Proverbium as a lasting recognition of Peter Grzybek as a world-class scholar and special friend. (W.M.

Mosaic or Jigsaw? Publishing an Article From Estonia in the “West”, 30 Years Ago, When Circumstances Were Quite Different!From Today

The communication from April until November 1984 be-tween Arvo Krikmann from Estonia and myself (at that time living in Germany) is from a time, when there was no electronic communication, neither written (be that by email or sms), nor spoken (via mobiles, skype, or similar media). It was a time, when “ordinary” letters or telegrams were written, and when “ordinary” telephones were used for spoken communication – provided there were open lines and connections, which was the case only to a very limited degree when communicating with members of the former Soviet Union. Despite such restrictions, particularly concerning communication across political boundaries, and despite analogical options and desires to control communication in our days, one advantage of the “old” communication media is that they are likely to be saved for a longer time than our modern ones, and that they thus can serve as documents not only of personal or inter-personal relations, but also of a specific period, both in political and academic respects

Mosaic or Jigsaw? Publishing an Article From Estonia in the “West”, 30 Years Ago, When Circumstances Were Quite Different!From Today

The communication from April until November 1984 be-tween Arvo Krikmann from Estonia and myself (at that time living in Germany) is from a time, when there was no electronic communication, neither written (be that by email or sms), nor spoken (via mobiles, skype, or similar media). It was a time, when “ordinary” letters or telegrams were written, and when “ordinary” telephones were used for spoken communication – provided there were open lines and connections, which was the case only to a very limited degree when communicating with members of the former Soviet Union. Despite such restrictions, particularly concerning communication across political boundaries, and despite analogical options and desires to control communication in our days, one advantage of the “old” communication media is that they are likely to be saved for a longer time than our modern ones, and that they thus can serve as documents not only of personal or inter-personal relations, but also of a specific period, both in political and academic respects

Anmerkungen zu Obsoletheit und Bekanntheit traditioneller krostischer Sprichwörter II: Die "Hrvatske narodne poslovice" von Juraj Vicko Skarpa (1909)

The present article represents the results of an empirical investigation of familiarity with traditional Croatian proverbs. The study is based on the assumption that neither linguistic nor psycholinguistic studies will arrive at representative results unless the very material basis, which serves for any subsequent study, is empirically provided. Therefore the focus of research is shifted from questions such as how particular supralexical items are linguistically constructed, or how they are mentally stored or processed, to the primary question of which items are available (i. e., generally known). All 15,027 proverbs from V. J. Skarpa\u27s "Hrvatske narodne poslovice" (1909) were distributed among eleven native speakers from various Croatian regions. As a result, less than one percent of the presented material was familiar to all subjects, and more than 75% of the material was classified as "unknown" by more than half of the subjects. Therefore, it seems necessary to draw the conclusion that most of the material from Skarpa\u27s collection must be regarded as obsolete from a contemporary perspective. The results of the present study clearly demonstrate the need for a corpus of contemporarily familiar Croatian proverbs

Earlier Physical Therapy Input is Associated with a Reduced Length of Hospital Stay and Reduced Care Needs on Discharge in Frail Older Inpatients: An Observational Study

$\textbf{Background and Purpose}$: Pressures on hospital bed occupancy in the English National Health Service (NHS) have focused attention on enhanced service delivery models and methods by which physical therapists might contribute to effective cost savings, while retaining a patient-centered approach. Earlier access to physical therapy may lead to better outcomes in frail older inpatients, but this has not been well studied in acute NHS hospitals. Our aim was to retrospectively study the associations between early physical therapy input and length of hospital stay (LOS), functional outcomes and care needs on discharge. $\textbf{Methods}$: This was a retrospective observational study in a large tertiary university NHS hospital in the United Kingdom. We analyzed all admission episodes of people admitted to the Department of Medicine for the Elderly wards over 3 months in 2016. Patients were categorized into 2 groups: those examined by a physical therapist within 24 hours of admission and those examined after 24 hours of admission. The outcome variables were: LOS (days), functional measures on discharge (Elderly Mobility Scale and walking speed over 6 meters), and the requirement of formal care on discharge. Characterization variables on admission were: age, gender, existence of a formal care package, pre-admission abode, the Clinical Frailty Scale, Charlson Comorbidity Index, the Emergency Department Modified Early Warning Score, C-reactive protein level on admission, and the 4-item version of the Abbreviated Mental Test. The association between the delay to physical therapy input and LOS before discharge home was evaluated using a Cox proportional hazards regression model. $\textbf{Results and Discussion}$: There were 1022 hospital episodes over the study period. We excluded 19 who were discharged without being examined by a physical therapist. Of the remaining 1003, 584 (58.2%) were examined within 24 hours of admission (early assessment), and 419 (41.8%) after 24 hours of admission (late assessment). The median (interquartile range: IQR) LOS of the early assessment group was 6.7 (3.1–13.7) versus 10.0 (4.2-20.1) days in the late assessment group, P < 0.001. The early assessment group was less likely to require formal care on discharge: n=110 (20.3%) versus n=105 (27.0%), P = 0.016. No other statistically significant differences were seen between the 2 groups. In the unadjusted Cox proportional hazards model, the hazard ratio for early assessment compared to late assessment was 1.29 (95% confidence interval: 1.12-1.48, P < 0.001). Early assessment was associated with a 29% higher probability of discharge to usual residence within the first 21 days after admission, compared to late assessment. Adjustment for possible confounding variables increased the hazard ratio: 1.34 (1.16 – 1.55) P < 0.001. $\textbf{Conclusions}$: Early physical therapy input was associated with a shorter LOS and lower odds of needing care on discharge. This may be due to the beneficial effect of early physical therapy in preventing hospital-related deconditioning in frail older adults. However, causality cannot be inferred and further research is needed to investigate causal mechanisms

Fatty acid desaturase 2 determines the lipidomic landscape and steroidogenic function of the adrenal gland

Corticosteroids regulate vital processes, including stress responses, systemic metabolism, and blood pressure. Here, we show that corticosteroid synthesis is related to the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content of mitochondrial phospholipids in adrenocortical cells. Inhibition of the rate-limiting enzyme of PUFA synthesis, fatty acid desaturase 2 (FADS2), leads to perturbations in the mitochondrial lipidome and diminishes steroidogenesis. Consistently, the adrenocortical mitochondria of Fads2$^{-/-}$ mice fed a diet with low PUFA concentration are structurally impaired and corticoid levels are decreased. On the contrary, FADS2 expression is elevated in the adrenal cortex of obese mice, and plasma corticosterone is increased, which can be counteracted by dietary supplementation with the FADS2 inhibitor SC-26192 or icosapent ethyl, an eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl ester. In humans, FADS2 expression is elevated in aldosterone-producing adenomas compared to non-active adenomas or nontumorous adrenocortical tissue and correlates with expression of steroidogenic genes. Our data demonstrate that FADS2-mediated PUFA synthesis determines adrenocortical steroidogenesis in health and disease

Serologic Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 Infection among Wild Rodents, Europe

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Modulation of Myelopoiesis Progenitors Is an Integral Component of Trained Immunity

Trained innate immunity fosters a sustained favorable response of myeloid cells to a secondary challenge, despite their short lifespan in circulation. We thus hypothesized that trained immunity acts via modulation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). Administration of β-glucan (prototypical trained-immunity-inducing agonist) to mice induced expansion of progenitors of the myeloid lineage, which was associated with elevated signaling by innate immune mediators, such as IL-1β and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and with adaptations in glucose metabolism and cholesterol biosynthesis. The trained-immunity-related increase in myelopoiesis resulted in a beneficial response to secondary LPS challenge and protection from chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression in mice. Therefore, modulation of myeloid progenitors in the bone marrow is an integral component of trained immunity, which to date, was considered to involve functional changes of mature myeloid cells in the periphery

Doing business in Libya: assessing the nature and effectiveness of international marketing programs in an evolving economy

The aim of this paper is to investigate, in one emerging Arab economy (Libya), the strategic and tactical choices of MNE (multinational enterprise) domestic appliance brands and, also, the attitudes of local consumers towards those choices. Various choice characteristics are investigated - including marketing mix standardization/adaptation - and, also, country-of-origin brand (COB). To establish extant organizational choices, local representatives of four established brands were interviewed and survey responses from 609 consumer were analyzed. No statistically discernible relationship between standardization/adaptation choices and consumer attitude towards marketing programs was found, but the study identified one especially successful brand that appeared to owe its achievements to an especially holistic approach to marketing that demonstrated 'fit' with the market concerned. Coincidentally, findings also address the conventional country-of-origin wisdom, and this is investigated/speculated upon accordingly. This is one of few marketing studies concerning Libya, and it adds to the limited literature on an increasingly relevant region