Current epidemiological knowledge about the role of flavonoids in prostate carcinogenesis

Numerous experimental studies have demonstrated anticancer action of polyphenolic plant metabolites. However, data about associations between dietary intake of plant-derived flavonoids and prostate cancer risk are still sparse and inconsistent. This minireview compiles the epidemiological findings published to date on the role of flavonoids in prostate tumorigenesis, discusses the reasons of inconsistencies and elicits the promising results for chemoprevention of this malignancy. Long-term consumption of high doses of soy isoflavones can be the reason of markedly lower clinically detectable prostate cancer incidence among Asian men compared to their counterparts in the Western world. The ability to metabolize daidzein to equol, the most biologically active isoflavone, by the certain intestinal bacteria also seems to contribute to this important health benefit. The increasing incidence rate of prostate cancer related to adoption of westernized lifestyle and dietary habits makes the issue of chemoprevention ever more important and directs the eyes to specific food components in the Eastern diet. If further large-scale epidemiological studies will confirm the protective effects of isoflavones against prostate cancer, this could provide an important way for prostate cancer prevention, as diet is a potentially modifiable factor in our behavioral pattern

Women’s Daily Life in the Occupation: Sexual Violence in Documents and Soviet Propaganda

The article was submitted on 24.05.2023.Проблема сексуального насилия на оккупированных советских территориях в период Великой Отечественной войны – малоизученная и табуированная в российском публичном пространстве тема. Ее рассматривают с точки зрения либо коллаборационизма, либо гендерной дискриминации и сексуального насилия. При этом до конца дифференцировать эти черты женской повседневности в условиях войны на уничтожение крайне непросто. На основе документов Чрезвычайной государственной комиссии по установлению и расследованию злодеяний немецко-фашистских захватчиков, партизанских донесений и других архивных источников, а также статей из периодической печати военного периода в работе сопоставляется описание сексуального насилия с практиками женской повседневности в оккупации. В пропаганде воюющих стран активно использовался образ поруганного женского тела для разжигания ненависти к врагу, что включало в себя изнасилования и принудительную проституцию. Сопоставление образов пропаганды и конкретных фактов свидетельствует об определенном расхождении между образами и практиками женской повседневности. Если изнасилования представлены в официальных текстах достаточно точно, то проблема проституции в меньшей степени отражала действительность: некоторые женщины вынужденно использовали свои возможности как ресурс выживания, получая за это ряд материальных преимуществ. Население же трактовало легальную проституцию как предательство. Хотя в период войны и в Германии, и в СССР вышли отдельные указы, в которых насилие являлось преступлением, на советских открытых судебных процессах и в Нюрнбергском трибунале женщины не были официально признаны жертвами и не получили компенсации. При переходе к мирной жизни проблема сексуального насилия утратила свои прагматичные функции для пропаганды и оказалась исключенной из коллективной памяти. Тем не менее, всплеск насилия над женщинами в период Второй мировой войны подтолкнул к принятию в 1949 г. Женевской конвенции о защите жертв войны, ратифицированной Советским Союзом в 1954 г.The problem of sexual violence in the occupied Soviet territories during the Great Patriotic War is an under-researched and taboo subject in the Russian public sphere. It is viewed either from the perspective of collaboration in prostitution and cohabitation, or from the perspective of gender discrimination and sexual violence. At the same time, it is extremely difficult to differentiate these features of women’s everyday life under the conditions of the “war of annihilation”. Based on the documents of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Investigation of the Atrocities of the German Fascist Invaders, partisan reports, and other documents, as well as articles from the wartime periodical press, the author compares images of sexual violence with the practices of women’s everyday life under occupation. In the propaganda of the warring countries, the image of the abused female body was actively used to incite hatred of the enemy. Rape and the forcing of women under occupation to work in brothels were presented in this light. A comparison of propaganda images and specific facts of violence presented in official and ego-documents shows the existence of discrepancies between images and practices. While rape was fairly accurately portrayed in official texts, the problem of prostitution was less accurately reflected in reality. Individual women used their bodies as a means of survival and received various material benefits in return. The population did not perceive legal prostitution in the categories of propaganda and interpreted it as a betrayal. Although some decrees were passed during the war in both Germany and the USSR that treated violence against women as a crime, women were not recognised as victims in the Soviet public trials or at the Nuremberg Tribunal and did not receive compensation. During the transition to peace, the problem of sexual violence lost its pragmatic propaganda function and was excluded from the collective memory. Nevertheless, the increase in violence against women during the Second World War led to the adoption of the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Victims of War in 1949, which was ratified by the Soviet Union in 1954

On stability of the three-dimensional fixed point in a model with three coupling constants from the ϵ\epsilon expansion: Three-loop results

The structure of the renormalization-group flows in a model with three quartic coupling constants is studied within the $\epsilon$-expansion method up to three-loop order. Twofold degeneracy of the eigenvalue exponents for the three-dimensionally stable fixed point is observed and the possibility for powers in $\sqrt{\epsilon}$ to appear in the series is investigated. Reliability and effectiveness of the $\epsilon$-expansion method for the given model is discussed.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, no figures. To be published in Phys. Rev. B, V.57 (1998

Driven diffusive system with non-local perturbations

We investigate the impact of non-local perturbations on driven diffusive systems. Two different problems are considered here. In one case, we introduce a non-local particle conservation along the direction of the drive and in another case, we incorporate a long-range temporal correlation in the noise present in the equation of motion. The effect of these perturbations on the anisotropy exponent or on the scaling of the two-point correlation function is studied using renormalization group analysis.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Correlations in Ising chains with non-integrable interactions

Two-spin correlations generated by interactions which decay with distance r as r^{-1-sigma} with -1 <sigma <0 are calculated for periodic Ising chains of length L. Mean-field theory indicates that the correlations, C(r,L), diminish in the thermodynamic limit L -> \infty, but they contain a singular structure for r/L -> 0 which can be observed by introducing magnified correlations, LC(r,L)-\sum_r C(r,L). The magnified correlations are shown to have a scaling form F(r/L) and the singular structure of F(x) for x->0 is found to be the same at all temperatures including the critical point. These conclusions are supported by the results of Monte Carlo simulations for systems with sigma =-0.50 and -0.25 both at the critical temperature T=Tc and at T=2Tc.Comment: 13 pages, latex, 5 eps figures in a separate uuencoded file, to appear in Phys.Rev.

On critical behavior of phase transitions in certain antiferromagnets with complicated ordering

Within the four-loop \ve expansion, we study the critical behavior of certain antiferromagnets with complicated ordering. We show that an anisotropic stable fixed point governs the phase transitions with new critical exponents. This is supported by the estimate of critical dimensionality $N_c^C=1.445(20)$ obtained from six loops via the exact relation $N_c^C={1/2} N_c^R$ established for the real and complex hypercubic models.Comment: Published versio

Flow Equations for U_k and Z_k

By considering the gradient expansion for the wilsonian effective action S_k of a single component scalar field theory truncated to the first two terms, the potential U_k and the kinetic term Z_k, I show that the recent claim that different expansion of the fluctuation determinant give rise to different renormalization group equations for Z_k is incorrect. The correct procedure to derive this equation is presented and the set of coupled differential equations for U_k and Z_k is definitely established.Comment: 5 page

Critical behavior of three-dimensional magnets with complicated ordering from three-loop renormalization-group expansions

The critical behavior of a model describing phase transitions in 3D antiferromagnets with 2N-component real order parameters is studied within the renormalization-group (RG) approach. The RG functions are calculated in the three-loop order and resummed by the generalized Pade-Borel procedure preserving the specific symmetry properties of the model. An anisotropic stable fixed point is found to exist in the RG flow diagram for N > 1 and lies near the Bose fixed point; corresponding critical exponents are close to those of the XY model. The accuracy of the results obtained is discussed and estimated.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, revised version published in Phys. Rev.

Propagation of a hole on a Neel background

We analyze the motion of a single hole on a N\'eel background, neglecting spin fluctuations. Brinkman and Rice studied this problem on a cubic lattice, introducing the retraceable-path approximation for the hole Green's function, exact in a one-dimensional lattice. Metzner et al. showed that the approximationalso becomes exact in the infinite-dimensional limit. We introduce a new approach to this problem by resumming the Nagaoka expansion of the propagator in terms of non-retraceable skeleton-paths dressed by retraceable-path insertions. This resummation opens the way to an almost quantitative solution of the problemin all dimensions and, in particular sheds new light on the question of the position of the band-edges. We studied the motion of the hole on a double chain and a square lattice, for which deviations from the retraceable-path approximation are expected to be most pronounced. The density of states is mostly adequately accounted for by the retra\-ce\-able-path approximation. Our band-edge determination points towards an absence of band tails extending to the Nagaoka energy in the spectrums of the double chain and the square lattice. We also evaluated the spectral density and the self-energy, exhibiting k-dependence due to finite dimensionality. We find good agreement with recent numerical results obtained by Sorella et al. with the Lanczos spectra decoding method. The method we employ enables us to identify the hole paths which are responsible for the various features present in the density of states and the spectral density.Comment: 26 pages,Revte