Viktor Shklovsky's Ostrannenie and the 'Hermeneutics of Wonder'

In this conversation, Tom Gunning and Annie van den Oever return to Viktor Shklovsky’s notion of ostrannenie (making strange), a neologism coined in what turned out to become a modern art theory that was developed by the young Shklovsky in the midst of the great popularity of film shows in Russia in 1913. Tom Gunning is a film historian and a theorist who wrote a series of foundational texts about early cinema that helped establish the ‘hermeneutics of wonder’ as a foundational method for a cultural archaeology of media and New Film History.[For more on Gunning’s foundational work on early cinema, see ‘The Cinema of Attraction[s]: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde’, ‘An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)Credulous Spectator’, and his co-authored work with André Gaudreault, ‘Early Cinema as a Challenge to Film History’]. Annie van den Oever is a film scholar who published on defamiliarization and edited Ostrannenie (Amsterdam University Press, 2010), which features an excavation of the seminal Shklovsky text, ‘Art as Technique’, reread within the context of early cinema. Both are Shklovsky enthusiasts and for this special issue they address a series of questions concerning the formal and neoformalist methods, ostrannenie as a method in research and teaching, and ‘wonder’ as a heuristic and creative tool in research and educational practices

From long-term follow-up Recommendations for clinical practice to plain language summaries for childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer survivors

Background: Having sufficient knowledge of cancer diagnosis, treatment and late effects in survivors of childhood, adolescent, and young adult (CAYA) cancer is important for effective self-management and optimising health outcomes. Therefore, in collaboration with different stakeholders, the PanCare PLAIN Information Group converted the PanCareFollowUp Recommendations for late effects surveillance into information summaries that are Person-centred, written in Lay language, Accessible, Internationally relevant, and Navigable (PLAIN). Methods: The PanCare PLAIN Information Group, comprising 21 stakeholders from seven European countries, collaborated to provide concise information for survivors and their families. The aim was to deliver PLAIN summaries that are clear and accessible for the majority of survivors, while providing links to additional sources of information. The PLAIN summaries were drafted by the PanCare PLAIN Information Group and subjected to two internal and one external consultation round, the latter involving experts, CAYA cancer survivors and parents/caregivers. Results: In total, 45 PLAIN summaries were developed, each corresponding to one of the PanCareFollowUp Recommendations for late effects surveillance. The summaries provide information about late effects, personal health risks, important symptoms and signs, recommended surveillance strategies, possible referral and treatment options, and self-care. Conclusions: The PLAIN summaries are meant to increase knowledge in survivors and their families, while they may also inform healthcare professionals. Along with their translations, the PLAIN summaries will be made freely available on the PanCare website, with a link provided on the European Network of Youth Cancer Survivors information platform. In addition, they will become and integral part of the Survivorship Passport

Can predicting COVID-19 mortality in a European cohort using only demographic and comorbidity data surpass age-based prediction: An externally validated study.

peer reviewedOBJECTIVE: To establish whether one can build a mortality prediction model for COVID-19 patients based solely on demographics and comorbidity data that outperforms age alone. Such a model could be a precursor to implementing smart lockdowns and vaccine distribution strategies. METHODS: The training cohort comprised 2337 COVID-19 inpatients from nine hospitals in The Netherlands. The clinical outcome was death within 21 days of being discharged. The features were derived from electronic health records collected during admission. Three feature selection methods were used: LASSO, univariate using a novel metric, and pairwise (age being half of each pair). 478 patients from Belgium were used to test the model. All modeling attempts were compared against an age-only model. RESULTS: In the training cohort, the mortality group's median age was 77 years (interquartile range = 70-83), higher than the non-mortality group (median = 65, IQR = 55-75). The incidence of former/active smokers, male gender, hypertension, diabetes, dementia, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic cardiac disease, chronic neurological disease, and chronic kidney disease was higher in the mortality group. All stated differences were statistically significant after Bonferroni correction. LASSO selected eight features, novel univariate chose five, and pairwise chose none. No model was able to surpass an age-only model in the external validation set, where age had an AUC of 0.85 and a balanced accuracy of 0.77. CONCLUSION: When applied to an external validation set, we found that an age-only mortality model outperformed all modeling attempts (curated on www.covid19risk.ai) using three feature selection methods on 22 demographic and comorbid features

Value of risk scores in the decision to palliate patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm

Background: The aim of this study was to develop a 48-h mortality risk score, which included morphology data, for patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm presenting to an emergency department, and to assess its predictive accuracy and clinical effectiveness in triaging patients to immediate aneurysm repair, transfer or palliative care. Methods: Data from patients in the IMPROVE (Immediate Management of the Patient With Ruptured Aneurysm: Open Versus Endovascular Repair) randomized trial were used to develop the risk score. Variables considered included age, sex, haemodynamic markers and aortic morphology. Backwards selection was used to identify relevant predictors. Predictive performance was assessed using calibration plots and the C-statistic. Validation of the newly developed and other previously published scores was conducted in four external populations. The net benefit of treating patients based on a risk threshold compared with treating none was quantified. Results: Data from 536 patients in the IMPROVE trial were included. The final variables retained were age, sex, haemoglobin level, serum creatinine level, systolic BP, aortic neck length and angle, and acute myocardial ischaemia. The discrimination of the score for 48-h mortality in the IMPROVE data was reasonable (C-statistic 0·710, 95 per cent c.i. 0·659 to 0·760), but varied in external populations (from 0·652 to 0·761). The new score outperformed other published risk scores in some, but not all, populations. An 8 (95 per cent c.i. 5 to 11) per cent improvement in the C-statistic was estimated compared with using age alone. Conclusion: The assessed risk scores did not have sufficient accuracy to enable potentially life-saving decisions to be made regarding intervention. Focus should therefore shift to offering repair to more patients and reducing non-intervention rates, while respecting the wishes of the patient and family

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Solar-sail transfers to Earth-Moon L2-displaced vertical Lyapunov orbits

This thesis presents the design of solar-sail transfer trajectories to a constellation of two spacecraft in displaced vertical Lyapunov orbits at the L2 point of the Earth-Moon system. The constellation provides continuous coverage of the Aitken basin and the lunar South Pole. Initial guesses for the transfers are generated using reverse time propagations of the dynamics, where the control is provided by a locally optimal steering law. These initial guesses are subsequently used to initialize a 12th-order Gauss-Lobatto collocation method. The minimum altitude with respect to the Earth and the Moon are constrained, as well as the maximum rotation rate of the solar sail. Sets of feasible trajectories for both spacecraft with identical launch conditions are sought, such that the constellation can be initiated using a single Soyuz launch. Such a Soyuz launch can deliver two 1160-kg spacecraft into the found transfer trajectories. The first spacecraft subsequently requires a transfer time of 53.06 days to enter its constellation orbit, while the transfer of the second spacecraft takes 67.89 days. This research demonstrates that solar-sail transfer trajectories are a feasible option for future missions in the Earth-Moon system.Aerospace Engineerin

On the Design of Transfers to Solar-Sail Displaced Orbits in the Earth-Moon System

This paper presents the design of solar-sail transfer trajectories to solar-sail displaced libration point orbits in the Earth- Moon system. The existence of families of solar-sail displaced libration point orbits in the Earth-Moon system has recently been demonstrated. These families originate from complementing the dynamics of the classical Earth-Moon circular restricted three-body problem with a solar-sail induced acceleration. Previous work has furthermore demonstrated the applicability of these orbits for high-latitude observation of the Earth and Moon. To not only demonstrate the existence and applicability of these orbits, but also their accessibility, this paper investigates the design of solar-sail transfers from Earth-bound parking orbits to a subset of these orbits. Initial guesses for the transfers are generated using reverse time propagation of the dynamics, where the control is provided by a locally optimal steering law. These initial guesses are subsequently used to initialize a 12th-order Gauss-Lobatto collocation method to satisfy a large number of constraints: departure from specific high Earth orbits, a minimum altitude with respect to the Earth and the Moon, and a maximum rotation rate of the solar sail. As an application of the developed methodology, this paper shows results for transferring two spacecraft to a constellation of displaced vertical Lyapunov orbits at the Earth-Moon L2 point. This constellation has been shown to provide continuous coverage of the lunar Aitken Basin and the lunar South Pole while maintaining a continuous line of sight with Earth. Sets of feasible trajectories for both spacecraft with identical launch conditions are produced in order for the constellation to be initiated using a single Soyuz launch. Such a Soyuz launch can deliver two 1160-kg spacecraft into the found transfer trajectories. One of the spacecraft subsequently requires a transfer time of 53.06 days to enter its constellation orbit, while the transfer of the other spacecraft takes 67.89 days. These results prove the accessibility of solar-sail displaced libration point orbits in the Earth-Moon system, thereby reaffirming the potential of solar-sail technology to enable novel scientific missions in the Earth-Moon system.Astrodynamics & Space Mission

S-TrackS: A Secure Snapshot-Based Solution for Positioning and Timing

With the large-scale usage of satellite navigation, spoofing and jamming are considerable threats to civilian society. Recent developments, such as Galileo’s Open Service Navigation Message Authentication and GPS’s Chimera, mitigate these risks. However, they provide authentication of the navigation message or ranging code, but not a true position in the case of interference. In critical applications, a protected navigation service is desired, such as Galileo’s Public Regulated Service (PRS). PRS provides an access-controlled navigation service for authorized governmental users, with fully encrypted ranging codes and data channels, providing users with higher robustness against interference. The main challenge of implementing PRS on a large scale is the need to protect the cryptographic material that is required to access the PRS signals inside the receiver. For many applications, a stand-alone receiver solution is unnecessary. These applications could use a remote server for PRS. In this methodology, the end-user device has only a radio frequency front-end which sends short samples to a secure server. The (classified) signal processing is then carried out on this secure server, removing the need for the user device to protect cryptographic material. Besides decreasing the device’s security requirements and power consumption, it also allows to utilize the advantages of PRS in applications that would otherwise not be able to use PRS. In this approach the PRS usage authorization would only be required for the server operations, and not for the end-user devices. It furthermore allows for using additional processing power for unaided PRS acquisition in case of interference. Within the Netherlands, a remote server solution is developed by CGI: S-TrackS, making PRS accessible. In this paper, the application of PRS and architecture for various use cases is presented. It is shown that PRS usage based on a remote server is feasible and can increase the robustness for governmental applications