Finite integer analysis of individual subject protocols during eyelid conditioning

Two recent debut novels, Songeziwe Mahlangu’s Penumbra (2013) and Masande Ntshanga’s The Reactive (2014), reflect the experience of impasse, stasis, and arrested development experienced by many in South Africa. This chapter uses these novels as the starting point for a discussion of writing by young black writers in general, and as representative examples of the treatment of ‘waithood’ in contemporary writing. It considers (spatial and temporal) theorisations of anxiety, discerns recursive investments in past experiences of hope (invoking Jennifer Wenzel’s work to consider the afterlives of anti-colonial prophecy), assesses the usefulness of Giorgio Agamben’s elaboration of the ancient Greek understanding of stasis as civil war, and asks how these works’ elaboration of stasis might be understood in relation to Wendy Brown’s discussion of the eclipsing of the individual subject of political rights by the neoliberal subject whose very life is framed by its potential to be understood as capital.

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Physical Activity and Redox Balance in the Elderly: Signal Transduction Mechanisms

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11052228 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 2228

Author(s):

Daniela Galli ◽

Cecilia Carubbi ◽

Elena Masselli ◽

Mauro Vaccarezza ◽

Valentina Presta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Vascular Tissue ◽

The Elderly ◽

Redox Balance ◽

Antioxidant Systems ◽

Targeted Prevention ◽

Individual Subject ◽

Aged People ◽

The Individual

Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are molecules naturally produced by cells. If their levels are too high, the cellular antioxidant machinery intervenes to bring back their quantity to physiological conditions. Since aging often induces malfunctioning in this machinery, ROS are considered an effective cause of age-associated diseases. Exercise stimulates ROS production on one side, and the antioxidant systems on the other side. The effects of exercise on oxidative stress markers have been shown in blood, vascular tissue, brain, cardiac and skeletal muscle, both in young and aged people. However, the intensity and volume of exercise and the individual subject characteristics are important to envisage future strategies to adequately personalize the balance of the oxidant/antioxidant environment. Here, we reviewed the literature that deals with the effects of physical activity on redox balance in young and aged people, with insights into the molecular mechanisms involved. Although many molecular pathways are involved, we are still far from a comprehensive view of the mechanisms that stand behind the effects of physical activity during aging. Although we believe that future precision medicine will be able to transform exercise administration from wellness to targeted prevention, as yet we admit that the topic is still in its infancy.

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On Bose-Einstein Condensation

Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society ◽

10.1017/s0305004100029091 ◽

1954 ◽

Vol 50 (1) ◽

pp. 65-76 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

P. T. Landsberg

Keyword(s):

Closed System ◽

Canonical Ensemble ◽

Energy Levels ◽

Volume Density ◽

Einstein Condensation ◽

Bose Einstein Condensation ◽

Quantum Numbers ◽

Finite Integer ◽

Bose Einstein ◽

Grand Canonical

ABSTRACTThis paper contains a proof that the description of the phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation is the same whether (1) an open system is contemplated and treated on the basis of the grand canonical ensemble, or (2) a closed system is contemplated and treated on the basis of the canonical ensemble without recourse to the method of steepest descents, or (3) a closed system is contemplated and treated on the basis of the canonical ensemble using the method of steepest descents. Contrary to what is usually believed, it is shown that the crucial factor governing the incidence of the condensation phenomenon of a system (open or closed) having an infinity of energy levels is the density of states N(E) ∝ En for high quantum numbers, a condition for condensation being n > 0. These results are obtained on the basis of the following assumptions: (i) For large volumes V (a) all energy levels behave like V−θ, and (b) there exists a finite integer M such that it is justifiable to put for the jth energy level Ej= c V−θand to use the continuous spectrum approximation, whenever j ≥ M c θ τ are positive constants, (ii) All results are evaluated in the limit in which the volume of the gas is allowed to tend to infinity, keeping the volume density of particles a finite and non-zero constant. The present paper also serves to coordinate much of previously published work, and corrects a current misconception regarding the method of steepest descents.

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Identifying neuroanatomical signatures of anorexia nervosa: a multivariate machine learning approach

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291715000768 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 45 (13) ◽

pp. 2805-2812 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

L. Lavagnino ◽

F. Amianto ◽

B. Mwangi ◽

F. D'Agata ◽

A. Spalatro ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Anorexia Nervosa ◽

Predictive Accuracy ◽

Third Ventricle ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Drive For Thinness ◽

Individual Subject ◽

Machine Learning Approach ◽

Scan Data ◽

Selection Operator

BackgroundThere are currently no neuroanatomical biomarkers of anorexia nervosa (AN) available to make clinical inferences at an individual subject level. We present results of a multivariate machine learning (ML) approach utilizing structural neuroanatomical scan data to differentiate AN patients from matched healthy controls at an individual subject level.MethodStructural neuroimaging scans were acquired from 15 female patients with AN (age = 20, s.d. = 4 years) and 15 demographically matched female controls (age = 22, s.d. = 3 years). Neuroanatomical volumes were extracted using the FreeSurfer software and input into the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) multivariate ML algorithm. LASSO was ‘trained’ to identify ‘novel’ individual subjects as either AN patients or healthy controls. Furthermore, the model estimated the probability that an individual subject belonged to the AN group based on an individual scan.ResultsThe model correctly predicted 25 out of 30 subjects, translating into 83.3% accuracy (sensitivity 86.7%, specificity 80.0%) (p < 0.001; χ2 test). Six neuroanatomical regions (cerebellum white matter, choroid plexus, putamen, accumbens, the diencephalon and the third ventricle) were found to be relevant in distinguishing individual AN patients from healthy controls. The predicted probabilities showed a linear relationship with drive for thinness clinical scores (r = 0.52, p < 0.005) and with body mass index (BMI) (r = −0.45, p = 0.01).ConclusionsThe model achieved a good predictive accuracy and drive for thinness showed a strong neuroanatomical signature. These results indicate that neuroimaging scans coupled with ML techniques have the potential to provide information at an individual subject level that might be relevant to clinical outcomes.

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