9 research outputs found

    The View from Beyond

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    Ilyās Khūrī's 1994 novel Majmaʿ al-asrār builds a fictional world around a letter "sent" by the Nasar family that has settled in Colombia in Gabriel García Márquez's Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Chronicle of a Death Foretold), to cousins who remained in Lebanon. The tale that Khūrī spins around this phantom letter refracts the émigré experience through the perspective of one who stayed, using intertextuality and metanarrative to treat issues of migration and estrangement. Within Lebanese narrative fiction, given the country's high number of émigrés and transnationals, there is a concentration of texts written by authors who have not (yet) emigrated but that portray an émigré community and/or the community left behind that lives with the absence of its émigrés. Such texts can be understood as part of a broader category termed "Migration Literature," a category defined by the themes of the texts rather than the geographic location or language of expression of the author. As Khūrī's novel plays with shifts in perspective via intertextuality and a structure that highlights metanarrativity, it provides a shift in perspective on the émigré experience. I argue that through this shift Khūrī destabilizes one of the cornerstones of traditional representations of the mahjar experience, telling the émigré story from the other side and through intertextual relationships. Through García Márquez's Crónica and Imrūʾ al-Qays' muʿallaqah, among other texts, Khūrī's novel deconstructs the concept of pure, stable origins that is central to discourses of immigrant nostalgia

    Orientalism and the Narration of Violence in the Mediterranean Atlantic

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    This essay analyzes how Gabriel García Márquez’s 1981 novella Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Chronicle of a Death Foretold), which narrates a small town honor-killing involving a Levantine Arab immigrant, resonated with the prominent Lebanese author Elias Khoury (Ilyas Khuri). Khoury’s 1994 novel Majmaʿ al-Asrar (The Collection of Secrets) is at once an homage to García Márquez’s narrative techniques and a corrective commentary on the forms of Orientalism, or discursive violence, that linger in Crónica. In Majma’ al-Asrar, Khoury, while commenting on these Orientalist tensions, also looks beyond them to use Crónica to attempt to understand violence and the narrative act in South Atlantic contexts. This textual encounter demonstrates that contact across the South Atlantic-Southern Mediterranean corridor must attend to the vestiges of imperialist and neo-colonial dynamics in order to avoid the reproduction of various forms of violence.</p

    Habitat type influences parasite load in Algerian Psammodromus lizards (Psammodromus algirus)

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    Understanding how habitat type and deterioration may affect parasitism is important to assess human-induced environmental change effects on host-parasite dynamics. In this study, we examined inter-population differences in parasites load in a Mediterranean lizard, Psammodromus algirus (Linnaeus, 1758). We analyzed prevalence and intensity of infection by blood parasites and ectoparasites in two populations separated by a 400-m elevational gradient and with different habitat types that also differed in the degree of human alteration. We also compared data obtained in the same populations after ten years lapsed to assess whether there have been temporary changes in parasites load. Results showed that prevalence and intensity of blood parasites were higher in the deteriorated lowland holm oak forest population than in the well preserved upland oak forest. In contrast, the prevalence and intensity of infection by Ixodes ticks was higher in the upland oak forest population. Individuals from the lowland population were in poorer condition. Intensities of infection by blood parasites and ectoparasites have decreased significantly from 2005-2006 to 2016 in both populations. Our results suggest that inter-population differences in parasite load may be explained by differences in habitat characteristics. This study contributes to identify which ecosystems and habitats are most sensitive to prevalence and intensity of infection by parasites.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

    A Review of Photodynamic Therapy for Neoplasms of the Head and Neck

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    Article full text The full text of this article can be found here. Provide enhanced digital features for this article If you are an author of this publication and would like to provide additional enhanced digital features for your article then please contact [email protected]. The journal offers a range of additional features designed to increase visibility and readership. All features will be thoroughly peer reviewed to ensure the content is of the highest scientific standard and all features are marked as ‘peer reviewed’ to ensure readers are aware that the content has been reviewed to the same level as the articles they are being presented alongside. Moreover, all sponsorship and disclosure information is included to provide complete transparency and adherence to good publication practices. This ensures that however the content is reached the reader has a full understanding of its origin. No fees are charged for hosting additional open access content. Other enhanced features include, but are not limited to: • Slide decks • Videos and animations • Audio abstracts • Audio slides</p

    Fine scale prediction of ecological community composition using a two-step sequential Machine Learning ensemble

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    Prediction is one of the last frontiers in ecology. Indeed, predicting fine-scale species composition in natural systems is a complex challenge as multiple abiotic and biotic processes operate simultaneously to determine local species abundances. On the one hand, species intrinsic performance and their tolerance limits to different abiotic pressures modulate species abundances. On the other hand there is growing recognition that species interactions play an equally important role in limiting or promoting such abundances within ecological communities. Here, we present a joint effort between ecologists and data scientists to use data-driven models to predict species abundances using reasonably easy to obtain data. We propose a sequential data-driven modeling approach that in a first step predicts the potential species abundances based on abiotic variables, and in a second step uses these predictions to model the realized abundances once accounting for species competition. Using a curated data set over five years we predict fine-scale species abundances in a highly diverse annual plant community. Our models show a remarkable spatial predictive accuracy using only easy-to-measure variables in the field, yet such predictive power is lost when temporal dynamics are taken into account. This result suggests that predicting future abundances requires longer time series analysis to capture enough variability. In addition, we show that these data-driven models can also suggest how to improve mechanistic models by adding missing variables that affect species performance such as particular soil conditions (e.g. carbonate availability in our case). Robust models for predicting fine-scale species composition informed by the mechanistic understanding of the underlying abiotic and biotic processes can be a pivotal tool for conservation, especially given the human-induced rapid environmental changes we are experiencing. This objective can be achieved by promoting the knowledge gained with classic modelling approaches in ecology and recently developed data-driven models. Author summary Prediction is challenging but recently developed Machine Learning techniques allow to dramatically improve prediction accuracy in several domains. However, these tools are often of little application in ecology due to the hardship of gathering information on the needed explanatory variables, which often comprise not only physical variables such as temperature or soil nutrients, but also information about the complex network of species interactions that modulate species abundances. Here we present a two-step sequential modelling framework that overcomes these constraints. We first infer potential species abundances by training models just with easily obtained abiotic variables and then use this outcome to fine-tune the prediction of the realized species abundances when taking into account the rest of the predicted species in the community. Overall, our results show a promising way forward for fine scale prediction in ecology.O.G. acknowledges support provided by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (RYC-2017-23666). O.G. and I.B. acknowledge financial support provided by the Secretaria de Estado de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion (CGL2017-92436-EXP, SIMPLEX and RTI2018-098888-A-I00, MeDiNaS). J.G. acknowledges financial support provided by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (PGC2018-093854-B-I00). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

    Sellar and perisellar meningiomas: effects on pituitary function in a Spanish cohort observational study

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    [Purpose] Studies focused on the effects of sellar and/or perisellar (S/PS) meningiomas on pituitary function are scarce. The primary objective of the present study was to determinate the effects that S/PS meningiomas and their treatments have on pituitary function. Also, we described the clinical characteristics and therapeutic outcomes of the cohort of adult Spanish patients.[Methods] A multicenter and retrospective study of patients with S/PS meningiomas attended in 20 tertiary Spanish centers.[Results] 165 patients, 123 (74.5%) females, with median age of 61.4 [51–71] years were analyzed. At presentation, 115 (69.7%) had visual disturbance, 62 (37.6%) headache, 46 (27.9%) cranial nerve palsy and 34 (26.2%) hypopituitarism. Median tumor diameter was 29.1 [22–35.5] mm and cavernous sinus infiltration was detected in 95 (59%). As initial treatment, 128 (77.6%) underwent surgery, 25 (15.2%) received radiotherapy and 12 (7.3%) were clinically and radiologically monitored. Among operated patients, gross total resection (GTR) was achieved in 44 (34.4%), whereas in 84 (65.6%) the tumor was incompletely removed. Overall median follow-up was 5.7 [2.9–9.2] years. After treatments, hypopituitarism was present in 86 (53.4%) patients at the last evaluation, and it was associated with surgery extension (subtotal or GTR) but not with tumor subtype, type of radiotherapy or radiation dose received.[Conclusions] S/PS meningiomas affect the pituitary function in 25% of the cases. However, after the implementation of treatments, hypopituitarism prevails in more than 50% of the cases. They are relatively large tumors and GTR is achieved in one third of the cases in whom hypopituitarism is more prevalent.No author has received any grant for this research.Peer reviewe
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