The dread of living without anticipation: a case of melancholia

It seems that time functions essentially different in melancholia as compared to classical neuroses. We might even say the experience of time dissapears for the melancholicus. No future is anticipated, no past determines the actually lived distress, despair and guilt. This paper illustrates by means of a case study of a melancholic woman how anticipation is necessary for the subject to be able to live. Without desire for things to come, without a past that is experienced as something that anticipated the subject as it is now, there seems to be no more than an eternal now that stupifies the subject and blurs the distinction between death and living. The absence of the structuring function of time results in the experience of utter loneliness and anxiety and consequently also shows the dramatic impact of an absence of anticipation

The impostor anticipates the truth of the other

In this paper, we will elaborate on an article by H�l�ne Deutsch on the psychology of the impostor. The impostor is a specific type of liar who imposes on others dishonest stories about his identity. From a psychoanalytic point of view, identity is by definition fraudulent as there is no real Self. But the impostor duplicates this fraud by presenting dishonest stories about personal attainments, position, or worldly possessions. Referring to Freud?s text on ?Two lies told by children,? we will demonstrate that in the neurotic subject (a) the motive for lying is love, and (b) the purpose of lying is to deny symbolic castration in order to preserve an imaginary ideal. The impostor takes this one step further: here the motive is not love but admiration, and the purpose is not denial but disavowal of the symbolic castration. Finally, we will discuss the ambivalent relation of the public towards the impostor that seems all too willing to be deceived. In that sense, the lies of the impostor anticipate the Other?s truth about castration

Evaluation of a compact multi-contrast and multi-resolution X-ray phase contrast edge illumination system for small animal imaging

PURPOSE: In this work the performance of a compact multi-resolution and multi-contrast X-ray phase system based on edge illumination is investigated. It has been designed for small animal imaging and with a limited footprint for ease of deployment in laboratories. METHODS: The presented edge illumination system is based on a compact microfocus tungsten X-ray source combined with a at panel detector. The source has a maximum output of 10 W when the minimum spot size of about 15 µm is used. The system has an overall length of 70 cm. A new double sample mask design, obtained by arranging both skipped and non-skipped configurations on the same structure, provides dual resolution capability. To test the system, we carried out CT scans of a plastic phantom with different source settings using both single-image and multi-image acquisition schemes at different spatial resolutions. In addition, CT scans of an ex-vivo mouse specimen were acquired at the best identified working conditions to demonstrate the application of the presented system to small animal imaging. RESULTS: We found this system delivers good image quality, allowing for an efficient material separation and improving detail visibility in small animals thanks to the higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of phase contrast with respect to conventional attenuation contrast. The system offers high versatility in terms of spatial resolution thanks to the double sample mask design integrated into a single scanner. The availability of both multi and single image acquisition schemes coupled with their dedicated retrieval algorithms, allows different working modes which can be selected based on user preference. Multi-image acquisition provides quantitative separation of the real and imaginary part of the refractive index, however it requires a long scanning time. On the other hand, the single image approach delivers the best material separation and image quality at all the investigated source settings with a shorter scanning time but at the cost of quantitativeness. Finally, we also observed that the single image approach combined with a high-power X-ray source may result in a fast acquisition protocol compatible with in-vivo imaging

A Preliminary Investigation into the Use of Edge Illumination X-ray Phase Contrast Micro-CT for Preclinical Imaging

Purpose: To enable a preliminary assessment of the suitability of edge illumination (EI) x-ray phase contrast (XPC) micro x-ray computed tomography (micro-CT) to preclinical imaging. Specifically, to understand how different acquisition schemes and their combination with dedicated data processing affect contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and spatial resolution, while providing control over scan time and radiation dose delivery. Procedures: Deceased mice (n = 3) were scanned with an EI XPC micro-CT setup operated under different settings, leading to scan times between 18 h and 13 min. For the shortest scan, the entrance dose was measured with a calibrated PTW 23344 ion chamber. Different data processing methods were applied, retrieving either separate attenuation and phase images, or hybrid (combined attenuation and phase) images. A quantitative comparison was performed based on CNR and spatial resolution measurements for a soft tissue interface. Results: All phase-based images have led to a higher CNR for the considered soft tissue interface than the attenuation image, independent of scan time. The best relative CNR (a sixfold increase) was observed in one of the hybrid images. Spatial resolution was found to be connected to scan time, with a resolution of approximately 20 μm and 60 μm achieved for the longest and shortest scans, respectively. An entrance dose of approximately 300 mGy was estimated for the scan performed within 13 min. Conclusions: Despite their preliminary nature, our results suggest that EI XPC bears potential for enhancing the utility of preclinical micro-CT, and, pending further research and development, could ultimately become a valuable technique in this field

A confirmatory factor analysis of the Observer Alexithymia Scale in treatment seeking alcohol-dependent patients

Confirmatory factor analyses evaluated the factorial validity of the Observer Alexithymia Scale (OAS) in an alcohol-dependent sample. Observation was conducted by clinical psychologists. All models examined were rejected, given their poor fit. Given the psychometric limitations of the OAS shown in this study, the OAS may not be the most appropriate measure to use early in treatment among alcohol-dependent individuals

A confirmatory factor analysis of the Observer Alexithymia Scale in treatment seeking alcohol-dependent patients

Confirmatory factor analyses evaluated the factorial validity of the Observer Alexithymia Scale (OAS) in an alcohol-dependent sample. Observation was conducted by clinical psychologists. All models examined were rejected, given their poor fit. Given the psychometric limitations of the OAS shown in this study, the OAS may not be the most appropriate measure to use early in treatment among alcohol-dependent individuals

Advances in prevention and therapy of neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea : a systematical review with emphasis on colostrum management and fluid therapy

Neonatal calf diarrhoea remains the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in preweaned dairy calves worldwide. This complex disease can be triggered by both infectious and non-infectious causes. The four most important enteropathogens leading to neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea are Escherichia coli, rota-and coronavirus, and Cryptosporidium parvum. Besides treating diarrhoeic neonatal dairy calves, the veterinarian is the most obvious person to advise the dairy farmer on prevention and treatment of this disease. This review deals with prevention and treatment of neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea focusing on the importance of a good colostrum management and a correct fluid therapy

Programmable antivirals targeting critical conserved viral RNA secondary structures from influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2

Influenza A virus’s (IAV’s) frequent genetic changes challenge vaccine strategies and engender resistance to current drugs. We sought to identify conserved and essential RNA secondary structures within IAV’s genome that are predicted to have greater constraints on mutation in response to therapeutic targeting. We identified and genetically validated an RNA structure (packaging stem–loop 2 (PSL2)) that mediates in vitro packaging and in vivo disease and is conserved across all known IAV isolates. A PSL2-targeting locked nucleic acid (LNA), administered 3 d after, or 14 d before, a lethal IAV inoculum provided 100% survival in mice, led to the development of strong immunity to rechallenge with a tenfold lethal inoculum, evaded attempts to select for resistance and retained full potency against neuraminidase inhibitor-resistant virus. Use of an analogous approach to target SARS-CoV-2, prophylactic administration of LNAs specific for highly conserved RNA structures in the viral genome, protected hamsters from efficient transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 USA_WA1/2020 variant. These findings highlight the potential applicability of this approach to any virus of interest via a process we term ‘programmable antivirals’, with implications for antiviral prophylaxis and post-exposure therapy

Unlocking the potential of publicly available microarray data using inSilicoDb and inSilicoMerging R/Bioconductor packages

BACKGROUND: With an abundant amount of microarray gene expression data sets available through public repositories, new possibilities lie in combining multiple existing data sets. In this new context, analysis itself is no longer the problem, but retrieving and consistently integrating all this data before delivering it to the wide variety of existing analysis tools becomes the new bottleneck. RESULTS: We present the newly released inSilicoMerging R/Bioconductor package which, together with the earlier released inSilicoDb R/Bioconductor package, allows consistent retrieval, integration and analysis of publicly available microarray gene expression data sets. Inside the inSilicoMerging package a set of five visual and six quantitative validation measures are available as well. CONCLUSIONS: By providing (i) access to uniformly curated and preprocessed data, (ii) a collection of techniques to remove the batch effects between data sets from different sources, and (iii) several validation tools enabling the inspection of the integration process, these packages enable researchers to fully explore the potential of combining gene expression data for downstream analysis. The power of using both packages is demonstrated by programmatically retrieving and integrating gene expression studies from the InSilico DB repository [https://insilicodb.org/app/]