Book review: sing the rage: listening to anger after mass violence by Sonali Chakravarti

What is the relationship between anger and justice, especially when so much of our moral education has taught us to value the impartial spectator, the cold distance of reason? In Sing the Rage, Sonali Chakravarti argues that public emotional displays such as those in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which from 1996 to 1998 saw individuals taking the stand to speak about the atrocities of apartheid, are of immense value and vital to the success of transitional justice and future political possibilities. This is a thought-provoking read which will interest readers in politics, history and IR, writes David Singeisen

Book review: conscientious objectors in Israel: citizenship, sacrifice, trials of fealty by Erica Weiss

Based on long-term fieldwork, Erica Weiss‘ ethnography chronicles the personal experiences of two generations of Jewish conscientious objectors as they grapple with the pressure of justifying their actions to the Israeli state and society-often suffering severe social and legal consequences, including imprisonment. David Singeisen finds that this book effectively adds to the growing corpus of literature questioning liberalism’s credos, and invites the non-anthropological reader to consider fresh questions

An estimation of the consequences of reinforcing the 2016 and 2019 ESC/EAS guidelines on current lipid-lowering treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes in tertiary care - a SwissDiab study.

BACKGROUND In 2019, the ESC/EAS updated the 2016 guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemias recommending more stringent LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) targets in diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). Based on a real-world patient population, this study aimed to determine the feasibility and cost of attaining guideline-recommended LDL-C targets, and assess cardiovascular benefit. METHODS The Swiss Diabetes Registry is a multicentre longitudinal observational study of outpatients in tertiary diabetes care. Patients with DM2 and a visit 01.01.2018-31.08.2019 that failed the 2016 LDL-C target were identified. The theoretical intensification of current lipid-lowering medication needed to reach the 2016 and 2019 LDL-C target was determined and the cost thereof extrapolated. The expected number of MACE prevented by treatment intensification was estimated. RESULTS 294 patients (74.8%) failed the 2016 LDL-C target. The percentage of patients that theoretically achieved the 2016 and 2019 target with the indicated treatment modifications were: high-intensity statin, 21.4% and 13.3%; ezetimibe, 46.6% and 27.9%; PCSK9 inhibitor (PCSK9i), 30.6% and 53.7%; ezetimibe and PCSK9i, 1.0% and 3.1%, whereas one (0.3%) and five patients (1.7%) failed to reach target, respectively. Achieving the 2016 versus 2019 target would reduce the estimated 4-year MACE from 24.9 to 18.6 versus 17.4 events, at an additional annual cost of medication of 2,140 CHF versus 3,681 CHF per patient, respectively. CONCLUSIONS For 68% of the patients, intensifying statin treatment and/or adding ezetimibe would be sufficient to reach the 2016 target, whereas 57% would require cost-intensive PCSK9i therapy to reach the 2019 target, with limited additional medium-term cardiovascular benefit

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 4: a new member of the MEN family.

OBJECTIVE Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 4 (MEN4) is caused by a CDKN1B germline mutation first described in 2006. Its estimated prevalence is less than 1/million. The aim of this study was to define the disease characteristics. METHODS Systematic review according to the PRISMA 2020 criteria. MEDLINE® and Web of ScienceTM search from January 2006 to August 2022. RESULTS Forty-eight symptomatic patients fulfilled the pre-defined eligibility criteria. Twenty-eight different CDKN1B variants, mostly missense (21/48, 44%) and frameshift mutations (17/48, 35%), were reported. The majority of patients were women (36/48, 75%). Men became symptomatic at a median age of 32.5 years (range 10-68, mean 33.7 ± 23), whereas the same event was recorded for women at a median age of 49.5 years (range 5-76, mean 44.8 ± 19.9) (p = 0.25). The most frequently affected endocrine organ was the parathyroid gland (36/48, 75%; uniglandular disease 31/36, 86%), followed by the pituitary gland (21/48, 44%; hormone-secreting 16/21, 76%), the endocrine pancreas (7/48, 15%) and the thyroid gland (4/48, 8%). Tumours of the adrenal glands and thymus were found in three and two patients, respectively. The presenting first endocrine pathology concerned the parathyroid (27/48, 56%) and the pituitary gland (11/48, 23%). There were one (27/48, 56%), two (13/48, 27%), three (3/48, 6%), or four (5/48, 10%) syn- or metachronously affected endocrine organs in a single patient, respectively. CONCLUSION MEN4 is an extremely rare disease, which most frequently affects women around 50 years of age. Primary hyperparathyroidism as a uniglandular disease is the leading pathology

Earthquake contributions to coastal cliff retreat

Modeling suggests that steep coastal regions will experience increasingly rapid erosion related to climate-change-induced sea level rise. Earthquakes can also cause intense episodes of coastal cliff retreat, but coseismic failures are rarely captured in the historical record used to calibrate most cliff retreat forecast models. Here, we disaggregate cliff-top retreat related to strong ground motion and non-seismic sources, providing a unique window into earthquake contributions to multidecadal coastal cliff retreat. Widespread landsliding and up to ca. 19 m of coastal cliff-top retreat occurred in the area of Conway Flat during the 2016 Kaikōura (New Zealand) earthquake despite relatively low (ca. 0.2 g) peak ground accelerations. While coastal cliff-top retreat has been spatially and temporally variable over the historical record, aerial imagery suggests that large earthquake-induced landslide-triggering events disproportionately contribute to an average 0.25 m yr−1 retreat at Conway Flat. The 2016 Kaikōura earthquake represents ca. 24 % of the total cliff-top retreat over 72 years and ca. 39 % of cliff-top retreat over 56 years. Additionally, we infer that significant retreat between 1950 and 1966 is the result of local seismicity. Together these two events account for ca. 57 % of cliff-top retreat over 72 years. Earthquake-related debris piles at the base of the cliffs have been rapidly eroded since the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake (more than 25 % loss of debris volume in 5 years), and there will likely be little evidence of the earthquake within the next decade. In regions with similar lithologic and coastal conditions, evidence of past widespread single-event cliff-top retreat may be limited or non-existent. The results demonstrate that cliff-top retreat projections using historical records may significantly underestimate true retreat rates in seismically active regions.</p

Circadian rhythm of cardiac troponin I and its clinical impact on the diagnostic accuracy for acute myocardial infarction

High-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) blood concentrations were shown to exhibit a diurnal rhythm, characterized by gradually decreasing concentrations throughout daytime, rising concentrations during nighttime and peak concentrations in the morning. We aimed to investigate whether this also applies to (h)s-cTnI assays and whether it would affect diagnostic accuracy for acute myocardial infarction (AMI).; Blood concentrations of cTnI were measured at presentation and after 1 h using four different cTnI assays: three commonly used sensitive (s-cTnI Architect, Ultra and Accu) and one experimental high-sensitivity assay (hs-cTnI Accu) in a prospective multicenter diagnostic study of patients presenting to the emergency department with suspected AMI. These concentrations and their diagnostic accuracy for AMI (quantified by the area under the curve (AUC)) were compared between morning (11 p.m. to 2 p.m.) and evening (2 p.m. to 11 p.m.) presenters.; Among 2601 patients, AMI was the final diagnosis in 17.6% of patients. Concentrations of (h)s-cTnI as measured using all four assays were comparable in patients presenting in the morning versus patients presenting in the evening. Diagnostic accuracy for AMI of all four (h)s-cTnI assays were high and comparable between patients presenting in the morning versus presenting in the evening (AUC at presentation: 0.90 vs 0.93 for s-cTnI Architect; 0.91 vs 0.94 for s-cTnI Ultra; 0.89 vs 0.94 for s-cTnI Accu; 0.91 vs 0.94 for hs-cTnI Accu).; Cardiac TnI does not seem to express a diurnal rhythm. Diagnostic accuracy for AMI is very high and does not differ with time of presentation.; NCT00470587, http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00470587

Landslides Triggered by the MW 7.8 14 November 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake, New Zealand

The MW 7.8 14 November 2016 Kaikoura earthquake generated more than 10000 landslides over a total area of about 10000 km2, with the majority concentrated in a smaller area of about 3600 km2. The largest landslide triggered by the earthquake had an approximate volume of 20 (±2) M m3, with a runout distance of about 2.7 km, forming a dam on the Hapuku River. In this paper, we present version 1.0 of the landslide inventory we have created for this event. We use the inventory presented in this paper to identify and discuss some of the controls on the spatial distribution of landslides triggered by the Kaikoura earthquake. Our main findings are (1) the number of medium to large landslides (source area ≥10000 m2) triggered by the Kaikoura earthquake is smaller than for similar sized landslides triggered by similar magnitude earthquakes in New Zealand; (2) seven of the largest eight landslides (from 5 to 20 x 106 m3) occurred on faults that ruptured to the surface during the earthquake; (3) the average landslide density within 200 m of a mapped surface fault rupture is three times that at a distance of 2500 m or more from a mapped surface fault rupture ; (4) the “distance to fault” predictor variable, when used as a proxy for ground-motion intensity, and when combined with slope angle, geology and elevation variables, has more power in predicting landslide probability than the modelled peak ground acceleration or peak ground velocity; and (5) for the same slope angles, the coastal slopes have landslide point densities that are an order of magnitude greater than those in similar materials on the inland slopes, but their source areas are significantly smaller

Liberals and armaments 1900 -1918

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