The Xenology of the Powder Keg of Europe: the Reflection of the Peculiarities of Own — Alien Dichotomy in the Balkan Model of the World in the Xenopejorative Vocabulary of the Languages of the Balkan Sprachbund — Articulation of Issue

The article discusses the reflection of the features of the own — alien dichotomy in the Balkan model of the world in the xenologic pejorative vocabulary of the Balkan sprachbund languages: Albanian, Aromanian, Bulgarian, Modern Greek, Macedonian, Romanian and Serbo-Croatian. The author gives a brief review of the historical, cultural and geopolitical specifics of the Balkan-Carpathian region, which influenced the local peoples’ ideas about strangers; some traditional mythological beliefs of the Balkanians related to the conceptual field of otherness are also presented. Based on the analysis of the internal history of the word, an attempt is made to define the main models for constructing derogatory names for strangers in order to compare the data for various Balkan languages and, to the extent possible, build an integral image of the concept of alien in the Balkan conceptual worldview. According to the results of the study, the xenopejorative vocabulary of languages of the Balkan sprachbund shows significant similarities both in terms of form and content. Pejoratives with undifferentiated evaluativity absolutely predominate, which could account for the richness of the Balkan derivational morphology and a large number of lexical borrowings in each of the languages; pejoratives with an indication of appearance, features of language and peculiarities of behavior are also widely represented, however, the first are referentially limited, while the second and the third are universal, from which it is concluded that the prototypical Balkan alien is someone who speaks differently and behaves differently. At the same time, the most common target for pejorative vocabulary in the Balkan languages among all strangers is Roma people, which is bound both to a number of stereotyped ideas about the physical and behavioral distinctive features of this ethnic group, and to the historical isolation caused by the nomadic way of life and the closedness of the Roma community from outsiders

Hic Sunt Dracones: Foreign Space in the English and Russian Worldview as Reflected by the Pejorative Toponymy of the English and Russian Languages

The article examines the perception of the foreign space in the English and Russian native speakers’ worldviews based on the pejorative names of foreign countries and cities. Englishlanguage and Russian-language Internet sites were used as the source of data for the research, since this environment is especially favorable for the existence and collection of language material of this kind due to the online disinhibition effect. Based on the analysis of the inner form of the word and the stadial model of the Us—Them dichotomy with a gradual transition from the biological to the cultural, proposed by V. G. Lysenko, an attempt is made to derive the main patterns of making derogatory toponyms, and then to compare the characteristics that foreign lands receive within the English and Russian xenophobic discourse, and, as far as possible, to build a holistic image of the concept of foreign space in the English and Russian collective worldview. As a result of the study, a large number of negatively marked toponyms were found in the English and Russian languages. They show clearly similar features both in the formal peculiarities of word formation and in semantics, however, some specificities are also found, which makes it possible to deduce similarities and differences in the English and Russian perception of the concept of foreign space. In general, a significant similarity between English and Russian pejorative names of places is revealed: in both worldviews, different topoi appear as an ugly, unpleasant place inhabited by people (and sometimes not quite people) demonstrating weird, abnormal eating habits and perverted sexual preferences, where the space itself is distorted and defective

Control of bulk superconductivity via surface-bound electric fields in ion-gated niobium nitride thin films

Ionic gating is a very popular tool to investigate and control the electric transport and electronic ground state in a wide variety of different materials. This is due to its capability to induce large modulations of the surface charge density by means of the electric-double-layer field-effect transistor (EDL-FET) architecture, often reaching values comparable to those occurring in metallic systems. Despite finding large success in tuning the phase diagram of low-carrier density systems, including cuprates and iron-based superconductors, its applicability to conventional metallic superconductors has received significantly less attention. In my talk, I will present the work which has been carried out in my research group over several years to investigate how ionic gating can tune the properties of metallic superconductor, using niobium nitride (NbN) as an emblematic case. By fabricating EDL-FETs on NbN thin films with thickness ranging between 10 and 40 nm, we observed that small positive and negative shifts in the critical temperature Tc could be induced by changing the gate-voltage polarity, and that the magnitude of these shifts increased upon decreasing the film thickness. These findings indicated that, despite the gate-induced electric field being confined in a thin layer at the surface by electrostatic screening, the perturbation to the superconducting state extends in a region much larger than a single unit cell. Indeed, the dependence of Tc on the gate voltage and thickness could be reconciled with the Eliashberg theory of superconductivity only if this thin surface layer is coupled to the underlying, unperturbed bulk via proximity effect. We also determined that the thickness of this surface layer (i.e. the screening length of the electric field) strongly increases for large gate electric fields, reaching values of the order of 3 nm at the highest doping. Ab-initio DFT calculations reproduced these results and linked this anomalous increase of the screening length to a distortion of the pristine charge density in the material upon the application of sufficiently large electric fields. This proximity-effect-induced transformation of the quasi-2D perturbation to the electron density into a 3D bulk modification of the superconducting properties seems to be a general behavior in gated superconductors that could hinder the possibility to obtain large Tc shifts in films thicker than the screening length. Consequently, we are currently focusing on exploring the tunability of ultrathin (< 5nm-thick) NbN films in order to maximize the gate-induced Tc shift, where we developed a novel technique of self-encapsulation in ultrathin niobium oxide to ensure the full reversibility of the gate modulation in these extremely sensitive devices

Ultra-rare RTEL1 gene variants associate with acute severity of COVID-19 and evolution to pulmonary fibrosis as a specific long COVID disorder

Background: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus that caused an ongoing pandemic of a pathology termed Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19). Several studies reported that both COVID-19 and RTEL1 variants are associated with shorter telomere length, but a direct association between the two is not generally acknowledged. Here we demonstrate that up to 8.6% of severe COVID-19 patients bear RTEL1 ultra-rare variants, and show how this subgroup can be recognized. Methods: A cohort of 2246 SARS-CoV-2-positive subjects, collected within the GEN-COVID Multicenter study, was used in this work. Whole exome sequencing analysis was performed using the NovaSeq6000 System, and machine learning methods were used for candidate gene selection of severity. A nested study, comparing severely affected patients bearing or not variants in the selected gene, was used for the characterisation of specific clinical features connected to variants in both acute and post-acute phases. Results: Our GEN-COVID cohort revealed a total of 151 patients carrying at least one RTEL1 ultra-rare variant, which was selected as a specific acute severity feature. From a clinical point of view, these patients showed higher liver function indices, as well as increased CRP and inflammatory markers, such as IL-6. Moreover, compared to control subjects, they present autoimmune disorders more frequently. Finally, their decreased diffusion lung capacity for carbon monoxide after six months of COVID-19 suggests that RTEL1 variants can contribute to the development of SARS-CoV-2-elicited lung fibrosis. Conclusion: RTEL1 ultra-rare variants can be considered as a predictive marker of COVID-19 severity, as well as a marker of pathological evolution in pulmonary fibrosis in the post-COVID phase. This notion can be used for a rapid screening in hospitalized infected people, for vaccine prioritization, and appropriate follow-up assessment for subjects at risk. Trial Registration NCT04549831 (www.clinicaltrial.org

An explainable model of host genetic interactions linked to COVID-19 severity

We employed a multifaceted computational strategy to identify the genetic factors contributing to increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection from a Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) dataset of a cohort of 2000 Italian patients. We coupled a stratified k-fold screening, to rank variants more associated with severity, with the training of multiple supervised classifiers, to predict severity based on screened features. Feature importance analysis from tree-based models allowed us to identify 16 variants with the highest support which, together with age and gender covariates, were found to be most predictive of COVID-19 severity. When tested on a follow-up cohort, our ensemble of models predicted severity with high accuracy (ACC = 81.88%; AUCROC = 96%; MCC = 61.55%). Our model recapitulated a vast literature of emerging molecular mechanisms and genetic factors linked to COVID-19 response and extends previous landmark Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). It revealed a network of interplaying genetic signatures converging on established immune system and inflammatory processes linked to viral infection response. It also identified additional processes cross-talking with immune pathways, such as GPCR signaling, which might offer additional opportunities for therapeutic intervention and patient stratification. Publicly available PheWAS datasets revealed that several variants were significantly associated with phenotypic traits such as “Respiratory or thoracic disease”, supporting their link with COVID-19 severity outcome

The polymorphism L412F in TLR3 inhibits autophagy and is a marker of severe COVID-19 in males

The polymorphism L412F in TLR3 has been associated with several infectious diseases. However, the mechanism underlying this association is still unexplored. Here, we show that the L412F polymorphism in TLR3 is a marker of severity in COVID-19. This association increases in the sub-cohort of males. Impaired macroautophagy/autophagy and reduced TNF/TNFα production was demonstrated in HEK293 cells transfected with TLR3L412F-encoding plasmid and stimulated with specific agonist poly(I:C). A statistically significant reduced survival at 28 days was shown in L412F COVID-19 patients treated with the autophagy-inhibitor hydroxychloroquine (p = 0.038). An increased frequency of autoimmune disorders such as co-morbidity was found in L412F COVID-19 males with specific class II HLA haplotypes prone to autoantigen presentation. Our analyses indicate that L412F polymorphism makes males at risk of severe COVID-19 and provides a rationale for reinterpreting clinical trials considering autophagy pathways. Abbreviations: AP: autophagosome; AUC: area under the curve; BafA1: bafilomycin A1; COVID-19: coronavirus disease-2019; HCQ: hydroxychloroquine; RAP: rapamycin; ROC: receiver operating characteristic; SARS-CoV-2: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; TLR: toll like receptor; TNF/TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor

Testing of the Katrix rotary lobe expander for distributed concentrating solar combined heat and power systems

In this article, we present performance results and analysis of a novel rotary lobe expander device. This is part of a larger research effort into the analysis and design of a small-scale solar system that would compete with available distributed technologies for heat and electricity generation. To choose an appropriate working fluid and components for a distributed concentrating solar combined heat and power (DCS-CHP) system, we compared many different working fluids, collectors, and expander choices. Of the expanders analyzed, including piston expanders, radial inflow turbines, Tesla turbines, screw expanders, and scroll expanders, the rotary lobe expander shows the greatest promise in small-scale power applications due to its high efficiency in expanding fluids over large pressure ratios and its low cost to manufacture. This article focuses on testing of a prototype small-scale expander that was chosen because, to date, no suitable commercial product of less than 10 kW has been found for this application. Initial testing was completed with air to get results that should be indicative of future testing with steam. The test system consists of a compressed air expander (a prototype designed by Katrix, Inc. of Australia) connected to an induction motor driven by a variable frequency drive (VFD) that enables expander testing at varying shaft speeds. Results of the expander testing are reported isentropic efficiencies of 22–25%, thermomechanical efficiencies of 80–95%, and pressure ratios of 6–11 at the tested speeds. Despite mixed results from this particular expander, future refinements could lead to a new class of expanders with low cost and high performance for use in solar combined heat and power and waste-heat recovery