Corinne in the North. Madame de Staël’s Infuence on Sophie von Knorring and August Strindberg

Since its publication in 1807 Mme de Staël’s novel Corinne, ou l’Italie has become a fundamental reference point for many women writers, who have found in it a prototypical representation of the confict between genius and current defnitions of femininity. Translated into Swedish in 1808-09, Co-rinne inspired writers such as Fredrika Bremer and Sophie von Knorring. The latter ofered, in her 1836 novel Kvinnorna, a rewriting of de Staël’s novel, using it to refect on a woman’s place in a patriarchal society and on the relationship between art and femininity. Later on, when the Woman Question became a widely debated topic, echoes of Corinne can be found even in one of the stories that August Strindberg collected in Giftas II, this time deployed in a misogynist key. Studying the way in which the myth of Corinne is rewritten in diferent social and literary contexts provides an in-teresting key to analysing the ideological positions involved in the Woman Question and to discussing gender bias in aesthetic matters

Read Operators and their Expressiveness in Process Algebras

We study two different ways to enhance PAFAS, a process algebra for modelling asynchronous timed concurrent systems, with non-blocking reading actions. We first add reading in the form of a read-action prefix operator. This operator is very flexible, but its somewhat complex semantics requires two types of transition relations. We also present a read-set prefix operator with a simpler semantics, but with syntactic restrictions. We discuss the expressiveness of read prefixes; in particular, we compare them to read-arcs in Petri nets and justify the simple semantics of the second variant by showing that its processes can be translated into processes of the first with timed-bisimilar behaviour. It is still an open problem whether the first algebra is more expressive than the second; we give a number of laws that are interesting in their own right, and can help to find a backward translation.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS 2011, arXiv:1108.407

Riparazione percutanea della valvola mitrale con Mitraclip nei pazienti con scompenso cardiaco avanzato e insufficienza mitralica funzionale: impatto clinico ed effetti sul rimodellamento cardiaco e sul profilo neurormonale.

The role of percutaneous mitral valve repair (PMVR) in patients with advanced heart failure (HF) and functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) is unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the effects (PMVR) therapy on clinical outcomes , left ventricular (LV) remodeling and neurohormonal changes in inoperable critical patients with chronically symptomatic FMR despite optical medical /electrical therapy and severe LV dysfunction. We analyzed the clinical and echocardiographic data of twenty-five consecutive patients with FMR grade ≥3+ and severe HF symptoms despite optimal medical therapy and resynchronization therapy underwent PMVR with the MitraClip system (Abbott, Abbott Park, IL, USA). All patients had been judged inoperable because of severe LV dysfunction and/or comorbidities. Clinical evaluation, echocardiography and pro-BNP measurement were performed at baseline and at 6-month follow-up. Mean age was 64±14 years, logistic EuroSCORE=29±19%. In three patients (12%) PMVR had been performed as a bridge to heart transplant, 10 (40%) were dependent from iv diuretics, and 6 (24%) needed iv inotropes. LV ejection fraction (EF) was 31±7%, LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) 201±53 ml. No serious periprocedural complication occurred; 19 patients (76%) were discharged with MR ≤2+. At 6-month, 1 patient died (4%), 77% had MR≤2+ and 68% were in New York Heart Association class ≤ II. Median pro-BNP decreased from 4395 pg/mL at baseline to 2594 pg/mL (p=0.003). There were no significant changes in LVEDV (195±53 ml vs. 193±58, respectively, p=0.90), LV end-systolic volume (ESV) (134±49 ml vs. 134±51, p=0.54) and LVEF (32±7% vs. 32±7%, p=0.35). The number of hospitalizations for HF in comparison with the 6 months before PMVR were reduced from 1.05±1.10 to 0.3±0.7 (p=0.0009). We concluded that in extreme risk advanced HF patients with FMR, PMVR was associated with improved symptoms, reduced re-hospitalization and decreased pro-BNP level at 6 months, despite the lack of LV reverse remodeling

An examination of self-compassion among Canadian youth with and without a caregiving role

Self-compassion occurs when people apply the same compassion towards themselves as they would towards others (Neff, 2003a, 2003b). Self-compassion has been shown to relate to positive mental health outcomes, such as reduced depression and lower anxiety (Neff 2003a), as well as increased happiness and optimism (Neff et al., 2007), but has yet to be studied with young carers (YCs), who provide significant care and compassion to family members due to various circumstances (e.g., illness, disability, substance use, language barriers, and age-related needs; Bleakney, 2014; Charles, 2011; Charles et al., 2009), leaving limited time for other activities, friends, or self-care (Sexton, 2017; Stamatopoulos, 2018; Szafran et al., 2016). This dissertation examined 1. Self-compassion in youth ages 12-18 years, by exploring its potential correlates; 2. Self-compassion in the context of caregiving for others via focus groups with 33 YCs; and 3. Self-compassion and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) among YCs (n = 55) in comparison to non-caregiving youth (n = 107). Study 1 found that while sex and age did not relate to self-compassion, positive affect, life satisfaction, honesty and humility, and agreeableness were positively related to self-compassion, and negative affect and emotionality were negatively associated with it. Study 2 revealed that caregiving for others may have reduced YCs’ time for self-compassion, thereby possibly showing lower self-compassion. Finally, Study 3 found that YCs and non-YCs showed similar levels of self-compassion and SWB, which suggested that even though caregiving responsibilities may come in a way of self-compassion, it did not do so significantly. YCs’ SWB was also not any lower than their non-caregiving peers, which could be indicative of some hidden protective mechanism at play, such as resiliency. Implications for interventions and program modifications were discussed

The effect of stress on bone mineral density in college aged females

The relationship between psychological variables and bone mineral density (BMD) has been increasingly studied in the past few years, with research suggesting that decreased mood may play a role in decreased BMD. The purpose of this study was to determine if stress in college aged females on the James Madison University campus was related to decreased BMD. This study included 46 females between the ages of 18-24, who were currently enrolled in the Fall of 2015. All participants completed a medical questionnaire, 24-hour dietary recall, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS). Participants’ BMD in the femoral neck and lumbar spine were measured using Dual X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA). Descriptives, bivariate correlations, and partial correlations were used for statistical analysis. There were no significant results between stress, as measured by the PSS and DASS, and low BMD in either the hip or spine. Significance was found between the number of days of cardiovascular activity performed each week and femur T and BMD scores (p=0.036, 0.027). A trend was seen between days of cardiovascular activity and femur Z score (p=0.0051). While no significant findings supported a relationship between stress and BMD, more research is required to examine further a possible association

The Gene Ontology in 2010: extensions and refinements

The Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium (http://www.geneontology.org) (GOC) continues to develop, maintain and use a set of structured, controlled vocabularies for the annotation of genes, gene products and sequences. The GO ontologies are expanding both in content and in structure. Several new relationship types have been introduced and used, along with existing relationships, to create links between and within the GO domains. These improve the representation of biology, facilitate querying, and allow GO developers to systematically check for and correct inconsistencies within the GO. Gene product annotation using GO continues to increase both in the number of total annotations and in species coverage. GO tools, such as OBO-Edit, an ontology-editing tool, and AmiGO, the GOC ontology browser, have seen major improvements in functionality, speed and ease of use

Probiotics as an adjunct treatment to standard therapy in ulcerative colitis

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of probiotics in addition to traditional therapy for patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) using a systematic review. Methods: PubMed and Cochrane Library databases were queried to evaluate patient clinical trials within the past five years using the search terms probiotics and ulcerative colitis. Results: Three trials met inclusion criteria. Two of three studies found no significant improvement in their primary endpoint with probiotics. Yoshimatsu, et al. found that after one year 56.6% of the placebo group remained in remission, whereas 69.5% of the probiotic group remained in remission (p\u3e0.05).9 Tursi, et al. found no significant difference (p= 0.069) in UC remission after 8 weeks of using probiotics.10 Palumbo, et al. did find a significant difference (p \u3c0.05) in the UC disease activity index (UCDAI), stool frequency, intestinal mucosa, and rectal bleeding after two years of using a probiotic blend.11 Conclusion: This systematic review did not show strong evidence in support of probiotic supplementation in UC patients. However, due to trial design and limited number of patients, a potential benefit to probiotics may exist. While it appears that probiotics do not pose any additional risk to individuals with UC, until large randomized trials are performed, we cannot recommend or discourage the use of probiotics