"Now he walks and walks, as if he didn't have a home where he could eat": food, healing, and hunger in Quechua narratives of madness

In the Quechua-speaking peasant communities of southern Peru, mental disorder is understood less as individualized pathology and more as a disturbance in family and social relationships. For many Andeans, food and feeding are ontologically fundamental to such relationships. This paper uses data from interviews and participant observation in a rural province of Cuzco to explore the significance of food and hunger in local discussions of madness. Carers’ narratives, explanatory models, and theories of healing all draw heavily from idioms of food sharing and consumption in making sense of affliction, and these concepts structure understandings of madness that differ significantly from those assumed by formal mental health services. Greater awareness of the salience of these themes could strengthen the input of psychiatric and psychological care with this population and enhance knowledge of the alternative treatments that they use. Moreover, this case provides lessons for the global mental health movement on the importance of openness to the ways in which indigenous cultures may construct health, madness, and sociality. Such local meanings should be considered by mental health workers delivering services in order to provide care that can adjust to the alternative ontologies of sufferers and carers

Design and characteristics of the prophylactic intra-operative ventricular arrhythmia ablation in high-risk LVAD candidates (PIVATAL) trial

BACKGROUND: The use of a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) in patients with advanced heart failure refractory to optimal medical management has progressed steadily over the past two decades. Data have demonstrated reduced LVAD efficacy, worse clinical outcome, and higher mortality for patients who experience significant ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VTA). We hypothesize that a novel prophylactic intra-operative VTA ablation protocol at the time of LVAD implantation may reduce the recurrent VTA and adverse events postimplant. METHODS: We designed a prospective, multicenter, open-label, randomized-controlled clinical trial enrolling 100 patients who are LVAD candidates with a history of VTA in the previous 5 years. Enrolled patients will be randomized in a 1:1 fashion to intra-operative VTA ablation (n = 50) versus conventional medical management (n = 50) with LVAD implant. Arrhythmia outcomes data will be captured by an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) to monitor VTA events, with a uniform ICD programming protocol. Patients will be followed prospectively over a mean of 18 months (with a minimum of 9 months) after LVAD implantation to evaluate recurrent VTA, adverse events, and procedural outcomes. Secondary endpoints include right heart function/hemodynamics, healthcare utilization, and quality of life. CONCLUSION: The primary aim of this first-ever randomized trial is to assess the efficacy of intra-operative ablation during LVAD surgery in reducing VTA recurrence and improving clinical outcomes for patients with a history of VTA

High-Frequency physical, biogeochemical and meteorological data of Coastal Mediterranean Thau Lagoon Observatory. SEANOE. https://doi.org/10.17882/58280

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A new method to estimate planktonic oxygen metabolism using high‐frequency sensor measurements in mesocosm experiments and considering daytime and nighttime respirations

Understanding how aquatic ecosystems respond to perturbations has emerged as a crucial way to predict the future of these ecosystems and to assess their capacity to produce oxygen and store atmospheric carbon. In this context, in situ mesocosm experiments are a useful approach for simulating disturbances and observing changes in planktonic communities over time and under controlled conditions. Within mesocosm experiments, the estimation of fundamental parameters such as gross primary production (GPP), net community production (NCP), and respiration (R) allows the evaluation of planktonic metabolic responses to a perturbation. The continuous estimation of these metabolic parameters in real time and at high frequency is made possible by employing noninvasive automated sensors in the water column. However, some uncertainties and methodological questions about the estimation of daytime respiration remain to be addressed for this method, and notably to address the fact that respiration could be significantly higher during the day than during the night. In this study, data from two in situ mesocosm experiments performed in fall and spring in a coastal Mediterranean area were used to develop a new method of estimating daytime respiration, and in turn daily GPP, R, and NCP, by considering the maximum instantaneous R, and that takes into account the variability of the coupling between day–night and dissolved oxygen cycles. This new method was compared with the Winkler incubation technique and with another existing method. Results showed that using this existing method, daytime R was significantly underestimated relative to estimates obtained with the newly proposed method

Wall Effect evaluation of small quadcopters in pressure-controlled environments

Multicopters are used for a wide range of applications that often involve approaching buildings or navigating enclosed spaces. Opposed to the freedom found in outdoor flights, indoor UAVs navigating close to surfaces must take into account the airflow variations caused by its rebound and identify them as disturbances to be compensated. A custom made quadcopter has been built for the evaluation of wall effect in climate controlled environments. Two different propeller sizes have been considered for testing.Climate variations consisting in changes of pressure, from 1000 mbar up to the equivalent pressure attained at 5000 m. A fixed 6DOF load cell has been used for the experiments, being able to log forces and moments in three orthogonal axes. The tests simulate a hovering UAV at different wall distances. The influence of the propeller size and air density on the wall effect has been also measured. Experimental data will be used for the definition of a mathematical model, in which the wall effect is considered

Water temperature drives phytoplankton blooms in coastal waters

International audiencePhytoplankton blooms are an important, widespread phenomenon in open oceans, coastal waters and freshwaters, supporting food webs and essential ecosystem services. Blooms are even more important in exploited coastal waters for maintaining high resource production. However, the environmental factors driving blooms in shallow productive coastal waters are still unclear, making it difficult to assess how environmental fluctuations influence bloom phenology and productivity. To gain insights into bloom phenology, Chl a fluores-cence and meteorological and hydrological parameters were monitored at high-frequency (15 min) and nutrient concentrations and phytoplankton abundance and diversity, were monitored weekly in a typical Mediterranean shallow coastal system (Thau Lagoon). This study was carried out from winter to late spring in two successive years with different climatic conditions: 2014/2015 was typical, but the winter of 2015/2016 was the warmest on record. Rising water temperature was the main driver of phytoplankton blooms. However, blooms were sometimes correlated with winds and sometimes correlated with salinity, suggesting nutrients were supplied by water transport via winds, saltier seawater intake, rain and water flow events. This finding indicates the joint role of these factors in determining the success of phytoplankton blooms. Furthermore, interannual variability showed that winter water temperature was higher in 2016 than in 2015, resulting in lower phytoplankton bio-mass accumulation in the following spring. Moreover, the phytoplankton abundances and diversity also changed: cyanobacteria (< 1 μm), picoeukaryotes (< 1 μm) and nanoeukar-yotes (3-6 μm) increased to the detriment of larger phytoplankton such as diatoms. Water temperature is a key factor affecting phytoplankton bloom dynamics in shallow productive coastal waters and could become crucial with future global warming by modifying bloom phenology and changing phytoplankton community structure, in turn affecting the entire food web and ecosystem services. PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone

Experimental evaluation of Wall Effect for small UAVs in Climate-Controlled Environments

Control and navigation for indoor flights of small rotor-craft are notable fields of study, yet the analysis of perturba- tions has received less attention. Indoor environments have many advantages in terms of stability of the climatic conditions but the presence of objects and delimiting surfaces such as walls, ceilings and floors can deteriorate the overall performance. Uncontrolled flows of air created around the UAV can rebound on surfaces and destabilize or even cause a collision. While ground effect is a more popular phenomenon due to its impact on helicopters, wall and ceiling effects often remain unmentioned in literature. In this paper, we focus on wall effect for small scale multi-rotors, in particular four rotor UAVs. The main concern of this study is to find a relationship between the forces and moments suffered by the vehicle and the distance to a wall. Also, an analysis based on pressure and temperature has been performed for a more insightful view on the topic. Eventually, the experimental results of this work could be a source of data for the development of a model of this effect, helping in the design of control strategies

A new transportable floating mesocosm platform with autonomous sensors for real-time data acquisition and transmission for studying the pelagic food web functioning

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