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Light Trap for Bruce Nauman: The holographic image and expanded 3D imaging
No full textOver the last two decades media scholars have identified a shift in our understanding of the nature of seeing and images that has been aligned with the development of the operational image. Thomas Elsaesser has exposed the significance of expanded 3D technologies in the transformation of images from representations to be looked at to prompts for action. However, the status of the holographic image in this genealogy has yet to be fully explored. This article investigates the holographic image by focussing on the optical holograms made by artist Bruce Nauman in 1968-69. It offers original visual analyses of Nauman’s holograms and archival research into their reception, linking its findings to theories of expanded 3D imaging developed through Elsaesser, Crary and de Bruyn. This approach advances our understanding of the significance of intangible three-dimensional imaging in the conceptualization of images as agents of remote action. The article suggests that the holographic image is aligned with the operational image via its displacement of the body from the apparatus of the image. It also maintains that the holographic image solicited a conceptualization of images as spatial territories beyond the pictorial frame in which bodies might be situated. Nauman’s holograms expose how the holographic imaginary anticipated certain aspects of the operational image.</p
Understanding cardiac arrest dispatch of physician-paramedic critical care prehospital teams: a survey-based evaluation
No full textBackground: Appropriate dispatch of critical care teams to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has been identified as a research priority emergency care in the UK. The study aimed to understand the criteria informing the decision to dispatch a critical care physician-paramedic prehospital team to OHCA in one UK region.Methods: An invitation to participate in an anonymised online survey was sent by email to clinicians and non-clinicians working on the critical care (physician-paramedic) dispatch desk for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust between June and July 2023. Demographic data relating to the experience of the dispatchers were collected alongside evaluating the effect of 15 predetermined criteria on OHCA dispatch (based on a pilot survey) on their decision to dispatch a physician-paramedic team. Responses to closed-end questions were calculated as percentages. A compulsory free text question on dispatching the physician-paramedic team was included. Free text data were interpreted by one author and the interpretation reviewed by all authors.Results: 20 respondents (19 critical care paramedics and one non-clinical dispatcher) participated, yielding a 79% response rate for clinical and 17% for non-clinical dispatchers. ‘Witnessed cardiac arrest’ and return of spontaneous circulation achieved on scene were criteria used by 100% of respondents in informing dispatch of a physician-paramedic team to OHCA. 10 of the 15 preidentified criteria were considered important in their decision-making by at least 75% of respondents. ‘Age’ was considered as more than just a number, instead incorporating both the nuances of a paediatric cardiac arrest and the importance of physiological reserve and frailty.Conclusion: The only 100% agreement in dispatch criteria was ‘witnessed arrest’. Otherwise, variation existed and additional information, like identification of frailty, was gathered to support nuanced decision-making. Wider research across the UK would help identify factors and commonalities in OHCA physician-paramedic dispatch to target improved survival rates.</p
‘It Gives Me Safety to Be Here’: Patients' Perspectives About Safety on Psychiatric Wards
No full textProviding safe care within psychiatric wards is essential to promote the well‐being and recovery of patients on the wards. This can however be complicated because patients' behaviours can present risks to themselves and others. Understanding what patients think about safety on psychiatric wards holds crucial insight about addressing and managing safety issues on the wards. The aim of this study is to understand safety on psychiatric wards from the perspective of the patients. The study is a systematic review that follows PRISMA guidance and registered with PROSPERO. A comprehensive search of five electronic databases was completed. Searches were limited to peer‐reviewed academic journal articles published in English language from 2014 which examine safety on psychiatric settings from the patients' perspective. An initial result of 28 567 studies was filtered to six studies that met all the eligibility criteria. Quality assessment was completed using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme whereas data synthesis was conducted using thematic analysis. Four major themes that describe safety on psychiatric wards emerged: perception of safety; prevalence of lack of safety: perpetuating lack of safety; and promoting safety. Safety on psychiatric wards is like two sides of a coin: what promotes safety can also perpetuate lack of safety. The place (hospital), people (staff) and practice can both promote safety and perpetuate lack of safety. Finding and maintaining the right balance is crucial for achieving safety on psychiatric wards. These findings have implications for the effective management of safety issues on psychiatric wards.</p
Pain burden and sleep quality in community-dwelling adults aged ≥50 years in Ghana: potential psychosomatic mechanisms
No full textObjectives: Pain has been related to adverse health outcomes in old age. However, evidence from low-income countries is limited, and the potential mediators are poorly understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the association between pain burden (PB) and sleep problems (SP) among older adults in Ghana and explore potential psychosomatic mediators.Method: We analyzed data from the Aging, Health, and Health-seeking Behavior study administered to 1201 adults aged ≥50 years. PB was assessed using the pain subscale of the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36. SP was assessed using nighttime/daytime SP in the last 30 days. Multivariable OLS and mediation models evaluated the hypotheses.Results: Mean (SD) age was 66.14 (11.85) years, and 63.3% were women. After full adjustment, PB (versus no PB) was positively associated with SP in the overall sample (b = 0.227, 95% CI = 0.124 − 0.331) and women (b = 0.363, 95% CI = 0.233 − 0.492) but not in men. Moreover, the association was pronounced in the ≥65 year group (b = 0.317) than in the 50-64 year group (b = 0.216). Self-rated health (54.4%), immobility (23.4%), physical activity (12.2%), restlessness (12.1%), depression (6.4%), anxiety (6.3%), and social isolation (7.2%) mediated the PB-SP association.Conclusion: PB was positively associated with SP among older adults in Ghana. Bio-psychosomatic factors were identified as potential mediators in this association. Addressing these factors may improve sleep health in older adults with pain.</p
Worse for Women, Bad for All: A 62-Nation Study Confirms and Extends Ambivalent Sexism Principles to Reveal Greater Social Dysfunction in Sexist Nations
No full textWe retested core ambivalent sexism theory tenets and explored novel correlations with national outcomes in 62 nations. Replicating Glick et al., cross-national analyses supported (a) hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS) as cross-culturally recognizable, complementary ideologies associated with gender inequality; (b) women appearing to be influenced by, but also resisting men’s HS and embracing BS to counter men’s HS (outscoring men in some highly sexist nations). Novel cross-national comparisons showed (a) men’s HS and both genders’ BS correlated with fewer women in paid work, whereas only BS correlated with domestic labor inequity, (b) both HS and BS correlated with accepting intimate partner violence toward women. Finally, HS and BS correlated with generally dysfunctional national outcomes: antidemocratic tendencies, less productivity, more collective violence, and lower healthy lifespan for both genders. Results reinforce that BS harms women and suggest men also have a stake in reducing sexist ideologies.</p
Development of a phenotypic screening assay to measure activation of cancer-associated fibroblasts
No full textBackground: In cancer metastasis, tumor cells condition distant tissues to create a supportive environment, or metastatic niche, by driving the activation of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). These CAFs remodel the extracellular matrix, creating a microenvironment that supports tumor growth and compromises immune cell function, enabling cancer cells to evade immune detection. Consequently, targeting the activation of CAFs has been proposed as a therapeutic strategy to hinder metastatic spread. Our objective was to develop the first in vitro phenotypic screening assay capable of assessing this activation process.Methods: Human primary lung fibroblasts were co-cultured with highly invasive breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) to identify changes in the expression of selected genes using RT-qPCR. An In-Cell ELISA (ICE)-based assay using human lung fibroblasts, MDA-MB-231 cells and human monocytes (THP-1 cells) was developed to measure the activation of CAFs. Another ELISA assay was used to measure released osteopontin.Results: When lung fibroblast were co-cultured with MDA-MB-231 cells, among the 10 selected genes, the genes for osteopontin (SPP1), insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF1), periostin (POSTN) and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA, ACTA2) elicited the greatest fold change (55-, 37-, 8- and 5-fold respectively). Since osteopontin, IGF-1 and periostin are secreted proteins and α-SMA is an intracellular cytoskeleton protein, α-SMA was chosen to be the readout biomarker for the ICE assay. When fibroblasts were co-cultured with MDA-MB-231 cells and monocytes in the 96 well ICE assay, α-SMA expression was increased 2.3-fold yielding a robust Z′ of 0.56. A secondary, low throughput assay was developed by measuring the release of osteopontin which showed a 6-fold increase when fibroblasts were co-cultured with MDA-MB-231 cells and monocytes.Discussion: This phenotypic assay is the first to measure the activation of CAFs in a 96-well format, making it suitable for medium-to high-throughput screening of potential therapeutic compounds. By focusing on observable cellular phenotypic changes rather than targeting specific molecular pathways, this assay allows for a broader and unbiased identification of compounds capable of modulating CAF activation.</p
Does Fintech lead to enhanced environmental sustainability? The mediating role of green innovation in China and India
No full textFintech and green innovations are increasingly recognized as potential solutions for enhanced environmental sustainability. In this paper, we investigate the impact of Fintech on environmental sustainability through the lens of green innovation in manufacturing. Using questionnaire data from 477 manufacturing firms in China and India between February and June 2024, the study employs Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling to analyze the dynamic relationships. We find that both Fintech and green innovation significantly contribute to improving the environmental sustainability of manufacturing firms. Results further show that Fintech positively supports manufacturing firms' green innovation developments. Moreover, green innovations partially mediate Fintech's effect on environmental sustainability. Our results also highlight regional differences: the impact of Fintech and green innovation on environmental sustainability is stronger in China than in India. Additionally, Fintech's role in supporting green innovations is more pronounced in Chinese firms than in India. The paper highlights the importance of investments in Fintech and green innovation by manufacturing firms, particularly in emerging markets, to address environmental issues for sustainability.</p
Necrophilia a case report from Mozambique
No full textNecrophilia is a paraphilia in which the primary source of pleasure comes from having sex with, or sexually abusing the dead. The etiology is unknown and includes multiple social, environmental and contextual factors. Its prevalence is probably underestimated, and, especially in low-income settings, the reporting is limited. We report on a 17-year-old female cadaver characterized by generalized coldness, fixed lividity in the posterior plane, cadaveric relaxation phase, presence of a green abdominal stain in the right iliac fossa and chromatic phase of putrefaction; exhumed and sexually violated after burial. We also provide a review of the existing literature.</p
How people with vision impairment use their gaze to hit a ball
No full textPurposeUnderstanding the impact of vision impairment on dynamic tasks requiring visual processing is crucial for developing effective adaptive strategies that support individuals with vision impairment in optimizing their performance in natural tasks. This study aimed to establish the gaze patterns used by individuals with vision impairment when hitting a moving target.MethodsNineteen tennis players with vision impairment were recruited and their eye and head movements were tracked while they returned tennis serves.ResultsParticipants used a variety of different strategies to track the ball visually, dictated largely by the nature of their impairment rather than its severity. Cluster analysis showed distinct strategies based on the type of vision impairment: those with peripheral vision loss foveated the ball closely and avoided predictive eye movements; those with poor oculomotor control initially tracked the ball but lagged as it approached; and those with central vision loss used a variety of strategies that did not align with the use of a single preferred retinal locus: some tracked the ball using a single preferred location in their peripheral vision, some switched the area of retina used to track the ball, and another did not move their gaze at all.ConclusionsTennis players with vision impairment adopt a variety of impairment-specific adaptations to their gaze-tracking strategies, enabling them to successfully hit an approaching tennis ball despite severe vision impairments.Translational relevanceThis study provides insight into the impairment-specific gaze strategies that well-adapted individuals with vision impairment adopt when hitting a moving target.</p
Exploring visual short‐term memory binding tests as early markers of cognitive decline: A comparative study between healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment
No full textBackground: Elderly people, especially those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), are at heightened risk of developing dementia. In this study, we examined how well healthy young, normally aging and MCI participants performed in visual short‐term memory (VSTM) binding, a cognitive process in which an item’s different visual properties (e.g., form, location, colour) are combined and stored momentarily in our mind before being forgotten. Earlier work has identified VSTM binding as a potential cognitive skill that may be disproportionately affected in those with MCI/dementia, meaning that it may serve as an early behavioral marker.MethodThree groups of participants were recruited: 34 healthy young adults (mean age 25±3 years), 52 normally aging older adults (mean age 71±6.4 years) and 16 older adults with MCI (mean age 74±6years). All participants completed computer‐based VSTM tasks requiring the binding of object‐location, object name‐location, colour‐location, and colour word–location for two or four sequentially presented stimuli (presentation duration <1 sec). Participants also completed standard cognitive tests (Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Trail Making Test, National Adult Reading Test and CANTAB Paired Associates Learning). We compared the performance of healthy young and normally aging older groups to examine the effect of aging; normally aging older and MCI groups were compared to examine the effect of MCI.ResultThe performance of the normally aging older group was significantly lower than that of the healthy young group for memory tasks requiring object‐location (p = .003) and colour‐location (p = .014) binding. The performance of the MCI group was significantly lower than that of the normally aging older group for object name‐location (p = .014), colour‐location (p = .036) and colour word‐location (p<.001) VSTM tasks. VSTM binding performance correlated well with standard cognitive tests (ps ≤ .05).ConclusionThe performance of the young healthy group exceeded that of both older groups. Not surprisingly the MCI group performed least well, particularly in tasks assessing object name‐location, colour‐location and colour word‐location binding. The disproportionate deterioration of these abilities implies that they may serve as early markers of the cognitive decline associated with MCI/dementia, and may form the basis of straightforward cognitive tests that may complement standard cognitive tests.</p
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