‘Girl Interrupting’: History and Art as Clairvoyance in the Fiction of Vigdís Grímsdóttir

ABSTRACT: The year 1980 marks a distinctive change and exciting renewal in the general development of post-war Icelandic fiction. An obsessive preoccupation with rural nostalgia and urban malaise gradually gives way to a decidedly anti-realist fiction which celebrates the wonders of everyday day life in the city. The term magical realism is often used in this context, and indeed, there can be little doubt that the Icelandic translation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude in 1978 constituted an important influence on writers during this period. One contemporary Icelandic author who has made striking use of magical realist strategies to dislodge the current impulses of modernity in Icelandic culture and disrupt imposed ways of perceiving reality is Vigdís Grímsdóttir. The aim of this article is to discuss the innovative ways in which Vigdís has used Icelandic story-telling and folklore traditions, preserved and passed down mostly by women, to reaffirm, from a female perspective, a localised cultural imagination within a contemporary globalised Icelandic urban context

Soldiers and Other Monsters: the Allied Occupation in Icelandic Fiction

ABSTRACT: Wars and arms long remained a foreign phenomenon in Iceland until the country was occupied by Allied forces during WWII. Although the occupation was a “friendly” one and the army brought unprecedented wealth to the country, the presence of a foreign military was objectionable and distressing to many. Literature, historiography, and scholarship on the occupation have long been obsessed with the so-called ástandskonan (woman fraternizing with soldiers), the perceived incarnation of an invaded and polluted nation. This article examines the response of Icelandic fiction writers to the occupation through the figure of the soldier instead. A focus on fictional representations of the soldier enables us to see how writers imagine the occupation and its consequences for the nation, its culture, and, not least, for an injured sense of manhood

Association of missense substitution of A49T and V89L in the SRD5A2 gene with prostate cancer in Turkish patients

Amaç: Türk hastalarda, steroid-5-alfa-redüktaz tip II; alfa polipeptit 2 3-oxo-5 alfa-steroid delta 4-dehidrogenaz alfa 2 (SRD5A2) genindeki Alanin 49 treonin (A49T) ve Valin 89 Lösin (V89L) amino asit yer değişimlerinin prostat kanseri ile ilişkisini tespit etmek.Metod: Prostat kanserli 80 hasta (ortalama(SD) yaş: 62,6 (7,8) yıl) ve 76 sağlıklı kontrol grubu olgusunda (ortalama(SD) yaş: 63,0 (8,7) yıl) SRD5A2 gen mutasyonalarından A49T ve V89L polimorfizmini eş zamanlı fluoresans PCR ve erime eğrisi analizi ile tespit ettik. Prognostik faktörler genel hasta popülasyonunda, A49T ve V89L polimorfizmleri açısından değerlendirildi.Bulgular: Hastalar ve kontrol olgularının polimorfik belirteçler için SRD5A2 genindeki A49T ve V89L polimorfizmleri de dahil allel sıklığı aynıydı. Hastaların çoğu T2b (% 51,3), N0 (% 96,3), Gleason skoru >= 6 (% 82,7) cerrahi sınırda (% 28,8) idi. Seminal vezikül invazyonu % 81,3'ünde yokken, % 36,3'ünde kapsül invazyonu vardı. 49T alleli taşıyanlarda cerrahi sınırın pozitif olabilirlik oranı (49A allelinde % 27,5, 49T allelinde %70, p = 0,038) ve Gleason skoru >= 7 (49A allelinde % 47,5, 49T allelinde % 100, p = 0,032) 49A alleli taşıyanlardan daha yüksekti. V89L polimorfizmi prognostik faktörlerle karşılaştırıldığında 89V veya 89L alleli taşıyanlar arasında fark görülmemiştir.Sonuç: Hasta ve kontrol grubunda SRD5A2 geninde polimorfik belirteçler allel sıklığı açısından anlamlı bir fark saptanmadı. T alleli sadece hasta grubunda gösterilmiştir. A49T polimorfizminde 49T alleli taşıyan hastalar yüksek tümör agresifliği ile ilişkili bulundu. 89V veya 89L alleli taşıyan hastalarda ise benzer prognostik karakteristikler kaydedildiObjective: To determine the association of missense substitution of alanine 49 threonine (A49T) and valine 89 leucine (V89L) in the steroid-5-alpha-reductase type II (SRD5A2) gene with prostate cancer in Turkish patients.Methods: Eighty patients with prostate cancer and 76 healthy control subjects were evaluated for A49T and V89L polymorphisms in the SRD5A2 gene mutations via real time fluorescence PCR and melting curve analysis.Results: Patients and controls were similar in terms of allele frequencies for polymorphic markers A49T and V89L in the SRD5A2 gene. Most patients had T2b (51.3%), N0 (96.3%) stage tumors with Gleason Score of  ≥  6 (82.7%) and surgical margin in 28.8%. While 81.3% had no seminal vesicle invasion, 36.3% had capsular invasion. Carrying the 49T allele was associated with higher likelihood of positive surgical margin status (27.5% in 49A v

Do Low Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels Affect Progression of Prediabetes to Type 2 Diabetes?

Objectives: This study aims to investigate 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) D) levels in patients with glucose and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) defined prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)

ANTIPHOSPHOLIPID ANTIBODY (aPL) PRESENCE IN COVID-19 PATIENTS

Objective: In our study, we aimed to show whether there is a relationship between antiphospholipid antibody (aPL) positivity and complications of COVID-19