Absinthism: a fictitious 19th century syndrome with present impact

Absinthe, a bitter spirit containing wormwood (Artemisia absinthium L.), was banned at the beginning of the 20th century as consequence of its supposed unique adverse effects. After nearly century-long prohibition, absinthe has seen a resurgence after recent de-restriction in many European countries. This review provides information on the history of absinthe and one of its constituent, thujone. Medical and toxicological aspects experienced and discovered before the prohibition of absinthe are discussed in detail, along with their impact on the current situation. The only consistent conclusion that can be drawn from those 19th century studies about absinthism is that wormwood oil but not absinthe is a potent agent to cause seizures. Neither can it be concluded that the beverage itself was epileptogenic nor that the so-called absinthism can exactly be distinguished as a distinct syndrome from chronic alcoholism. The theory of a previous gross overestimation of the thujone content of absinthe may have been verified by a number of independent studies. Based on the current available evidence, thujone concentrations of both pre-ban and modern absinthes may not have been able to cause detrimental health effects other than those encountered in common alcoholism. Today, a questionable tendency of absinthe manufacturers can be ascertained that use the ancient theories of absinthism as a targeted marketing strategy to bring absinthe into the spheres of a legal drug-of-abuse. Misleading advertisements of aphrodisiac or psychotropic effects of absinthe try to re-establish absinthe's former reputation. In distinction from commercially manufactured absinthes with limited thujone content, a health risk to consumers is the uncontrolled trade of potentially unsafe herbal products such as absinthe essences that are readily available over the internet

A local discontinuous Galerkin approximation for systems with pp-structure

Diening L, Kröner D, Růžička M, Toulopoulos I. A local discontinuous Galerkin approximation for systems with $p$-structure. IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis. 2014;34(4):1447-1488

Genotype alone does not predict the clinical course of SFTPC deficiency in paediatric patients

Patients with interstitial lung disease due to surfactant protein C (SFTPC) mutations are rare and not well characterised. We report on all subjects collected over a 15-year period in the kids-lung register with interstitial lung disease and a proven SFTPC mutation. We analysed clinical courses, interventions and outcomes, as well as histopathological and radiological interrelations. 17 patients (seven male) were followed over a median of 3 years (range 0.3-19). All patients were heterozygous carriers of autosomal dominant SFTPC mutations. Three mutations (p.L101P, p.E191 K and p.E191*) have not been described before in the context of surfactant protein C deficiency. Patients with alterations in the BRICHOS domain of the protein (amino acids 94-197) presented earlier. At follow-up, one patient was healthy (2 years), six patients were "sick-better" (2.8 years, range 0.8-19), seven patients were "sick-same" (6.5 years, 1.3-15.8) and three patients were "sick-worse" (0.3 years, 0.3-16.9). Radiological findings changed from ground-glass to increasing signs of fibrosis and cyst formation with increasing age. Empiric treatments had variable effects, also in patients with the same genotype. Prospective studies with randomised interventions are urgently needed and can best be performed in the framework of international registers.status: publishe

Quantifying geometrically necessary dislocations in quartz using HR-EBSD: Application to chessboard subgrain boundaries

This study presents the first use of high-angular resolution electron backscatter diffraction (HR-EBSD) to quantitatively characterise geometrically necessary dislocations in quartz subgrain structures. HR-EBSD exploits cross-correlation of diffraction patterns to measure intragranular misorientations with precision on the order of 0.01° with well-constrained misorientation axes. We investigate the dislocation structures of chessboard subgrains in quartz within samples from the Greater Himalayan Sequence, Nepal. Our results demonstrate that chessboard subgrains are formed primarily from two sets of subgrain boundaries. One set consists primarily of {m}[c] edge dislocations, the other consists primarily of dislocations with Burgers vectors. Apparent densities of geometrically necessary dislocations vary from > 10^13 m−2 within some subgrain boundaries to < 10^12 m−2 within subgrain interiors. The results suggest that at pressures above approximately 10 kbar, chessboard subgrains may form within the α-quartz stability field. Most importantly, this study demonstrates the potential of HR-EBSD as an improved method for analysis of intragranular microstructures in quartz that are used as indicators of deformation conditions.D. Wallis and L.N. Hansen acknowledge support from the Natural Environment Research Council Grant NE/M000966/1. A.J. Parsons acknowledges support from the Natural Environment Research Council (training grant NE/J50001X/1)