Translation as Decolonization: Nyerere, the Bible and Shakespeare

As the first president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere has enormously influenced the politics, economy, and culture of the country. Beside his well-known identity as a politician and poet, he was also an important literary translator. The subject of this study is Nyerere’s Swahili Bible and Shakespearean Translations. This study offers critical reflections on what translation does through an examination of Nyerere’s Bible, comparatively with missionary translations, and Shakespeare, comparatively with Chinese translations, within the context of the most recent theory and praxis of prismatic translation. The central argument is that translation is decolonization as well as modernization. The main body of this study consists of five chapters. Chapter Two provides the contexts of this study, including a brief history of Swahili and Chinese translations from the middle nineteenth to middle twentieth centuries and a review of the previous studies on Nyerere’s Swahili translations of the Bible and Shakespeare. Chapter Three compares Nyerere’s Bible translation with those of the missionaries and argues that Nyerere’s translation was a practice of decolonization: it aimed at disempowering the colonial legacy in Swahili language and literature. By introducing the traditional poetic form into his translation of the Bible, Nyerere created a literary synthesis which combines the Biblical content and Swahili literary form, extended the boundary of traditional literature, and challenged the norms of colonial translations. Chapter Four brings the Chinese translation of The Merchant of Venice into the discussion of Nyerere. Both Chinese and Swahili translations emerged during a vernacular movement in both countries, in which the old literary forms were challenged, and vernacular literature was promoted and experimented. This chapter looks at the dynamic interactions of Nyerere and his Chinese counterpart Zhu’s literary translations with Swahili and Chinese literary traditions respectively and shows how the former participated in the decolonization as well as modernization of the latter. Chapter Five compares the adaptations and reception of Julius Caesar in the Swahili and Chinese translations by Nyerere, the Swahili critics and their Chinese counterparts, and sees Nyerere’s translation as an imagining of a new state. Chapter Six compares the adaptations and reception of The Merchant of Venice by Nyerere, the Swahili Critics and their Chinese counterparts, and explores Nyerere’s translation as an imagining of a new society. A comparative analysis of missionary and Nyerere’s translations of the Bible, and Chinese and Swahili translations of Shakespeare shows the uniqueness of Nyerere’s Swahili translations in that they create a new literary tradition, imagine a new state, and ii look forward to a new society. The comparison also reveals that literary translations from English, considered a colonial language in both Chinese and Swahili contexts during the period covered by the study (the first half of the twentieth century), shared a common decolonial impulse. This study concludes that post-colonial translation studies, in addition to examining literary translation as a form of European domination and distortion of the colonies, would benefit from seeing translation as the site and means of decolonization as well as modernization in the colonies

Use of surface modified porous membranes for fluid distillation

In some embodiments, the present disclosure pertains to systems and methods for distilling a fluid by exposing the fluid to a porous membrane that includes a surface capable of generating heat. In some embodiments, the heat generated at the surface propagates the distilling of the fluid by converting the fluid to a vapor that flows through the porous membrane and condenses to a distillate. In some embodiments, the surface capable of generating heat is associated with a photo-thermal composition that generates the heat at the surface by converting light energy from a light source to thermal energy. In some embodiments, the photo-thermal composition includes, without limitation, noble metals, semiconducting materials, dielectric materials, carbon-based materials, composite materials, nanocomposite materials, nanoparticles, hydrophilic materials, polymers, fibers, meshes, fiber meshes, hydrogels, hydrogel meshes, nanomaterials, and combinations thereof. Further embodiments pertain to methods of making the porous membranes of the present disclosure

Biomarker study of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis in patients with acute ischemic stroke

ObjectiveAcute ischemic stroke (AIS) is characterized by high rates of morbidity, disability, mortality, and recurrence, often leaving patients with varying degrees of sequelae. Symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (sICAS) is a significant contributor to AIS pathogenesis and recurrence. The formation and progression of sICAS are influenced by pathways such as lipid metabolism and inflammatory response. Given its high risk of clinical recurrence, timely assessment of intracranial vascular stenosis in AIS is crucial for diagnosing sICAS, treating stroke, and preventing stroke recurrence.MethodsFourteen AIS patients were divided into stenosis and control groups based on the presence or absence of intracranial vessel stenosis. Initially, 4D Label-free proteome quantification technology was employed for mass spectrometry analysis to identify differential proteins between the groups. Subsequently, functional enrichment analysis, including GO classification, KEGG pathway, and Domain, revealed trends related to differential proteins. The STRING (v.11.5) protein interaction network database was used to identify differential protein interactions and target proteins. Finally, parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) validated the selected target proteins.ResultsMass spectrometry identified 1,096 proteins, with 991 being quantitatively comparable. Using a p-value <0.05 and differential expression change thresholds of >1.3 for significant up-regulation and < 1/1.3 for significant down-regulation, 46 differential proteins were identified: 24 significantly up-regulated and 22 significantly down-regulated. PRM experiments validated five proteins related to lipid metabolism and inflammatory response: namely alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M), lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP), cathepsin G (CTSG), cystatin (CST)3, and fatty acid-binding protein (FABP)1.ConclusionThe detection of changes in these five proteins in AIS patients can aid in the diagnosis of sICAS, inform stroke treatment, and assist in preventing stroke recurrence. Moreover, it can contribute to the development of drugs for preventing AIS recurrence by integrating traditional Chinese and Western medicine

Improved strategy for post-traumatic hydrocephalus following decompressive craniectomy: Experience of a single center

BackgroundPatients with head trauma may develop hydrocephalus after decompressive craniectomy. Many studies have referred one-stage cranioplasty (CP) and ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) was applied to treat cranial defect with post-traumatic hydrocephalus (PTH), but the safety and efficiency of the procedure remain controversial.MethodsThis is a retrospective cohort study including 70 patients of PTH following decompressive craniectomy who underwent simultaneous (50) and separated (20) procedures of cranioplasty and VPS from March 2014 to March 2021 at the authors’ institution with at least 30 days of follow-up. Patient characteristics, clinical findings, and complications were collected and analyzed.ResultsFifty patients with PTH underwent improved simultaneous procedures and 20 patients underwent staged surgeries. Among the cases, the overall complication rate was 22.86%. Complications suffered by patients who underwent one-stage procedure of CP and VPS did not differ significantly, compared with patients in the group of staged procedures (22% vs. 25%, p = 0.763). The significant difference was not observed in the two groups, regarding the complications of subdural/epidural fluid collection (4%/6% vs. 0/2%, p = 1.000/1.000), epidural hemorrhage (6% vs. 4%, p = 0.942), dysfunction of shunting system (0 vs. 2%, p = 0.286), postoperative seizure (8% vs. 4%, p = 1.000), and reoperation case (0 vs. 2%, p = 0.286). No case of subdural hemorrhage, incision/intracranial/abdominal infection, shunting system dysfunction, or reoperation was observed in the group of simultaneous procedure. Complications including subdural/epidural fluid collection, subdural hemorrhage, and incision/intracranial infection were not shown in the case series of the staged procedure group.ConclusionThe improved simultaneous procedure of cranioplasty and VPS is effective and safe to treat cranial defect and post-traumatic hydrocephalus with low risk of complications

New insight into the causal relationship between Graves’ disease liability and drug eruption: a Mendelian randomization study

BackgroundGraves’ disease (GD) and drug eruption are closely associated and frequently observed in the clinical setting. However, it remains unclear whether a causal relationship exists between these two conditions. The aim of the study is to investigate whether GD is causal to drug eruptions using two-sample Mendelian randomization.MethodsWe launched a two-sample MR to investigate whether GD is causal to drug eruption using Genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data from Biobank Japan and FinnGen. Genetic variants were used as instrumental variables to avoid confounding bias. Statistical methods including inverse variance weighted (IVW), weighted median, MR-Egger, and MR-PRESSO were conducted to identify the robustness of the causal effect.ResultsGenetically predicted GD may increase the risk of drug eruption by 30.3% (OR=1.303, 95% CI 1.119-1.516, p<0.001) in the Asian population. In European populations, GD may increase the generalized drug eruption by 15.9% (OR=1.159, 95%CI 0.982-1.367, p=0.080).ConclusionsWe found GD is potentially causal to drug eruption. This finding expanded the view of the frequently observed co-existence of GD and adverse drug reactions involving the skin. The mechanism remains for further investigation

Anti-cancer natural products isolated from chinese medicinal herbs

In recent years, a number of natural products isolated from Chinese herbs have been found to inhibit proliferation, induce apoptosis, suppress angiogenesis, retard metastasis and enhance chemotherapy, exhibiting anti-cancer potential both in vitro and in vivo. This article summarizes recent advances in in vitro and in vivo research on the anti-cancer effects and related mechanisms of some promising natural products. These natural products are also reviewed for their therapeutic potentials, including flavonoids (gambogic acid, curcumin, wogonin and silibinin), alkaloids (berberine), terpenes (artemisinin, β-elemene, oridonin, triptolide, and ursolic acid), quinones (shikonin and emodin) and saponins (ginsenoside Rg3), which are isolated from Chinese medicinal herbs. In particular, the discovery of the new use of artemisinin derivatives as excellent anti-cancer drugs is also reviewed