HEAD TRANSPLANTS: FROM REVERIE TO REALITY

In the past, head transplantation used to be an imagination mostly narrated in folklore. However, nowadays with the advancement in science it is possible that soon head transplant might be feasible. It promises to be a boon to individuals who suffer from a terminal disease but have a healthy brain. Fear and skepticism over surgical, ethical and psychosocial issues do exist in the community over it but recently, the first cephalosomatic anastomosisperformed in a human model confirms the possibility of such a procedure in near future. What remains unanswered though is the outcome of such a crazy procedure.

The Juxtaposition of Antithetical Forces in the Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This research paper seeks to study the juxtaposition of antithetical forces in the text The Fault in Our Stars penned down by John Green. The research centers on the characters' quest for finding an answer to the meaninglessness, attempts for filling the void, facticity, existential angst, and ultimate despair in the framework of the philosophy of 'Existentialism' posited by Jean-Paul Sartre. All the major characters in the novel are cancer patients, living a dismal and distressing life under the looming shadow of death. In an existential vein, the protagonists set out on a journey of self-exploration and choose to eke out a momentary optimism from their pessimistic situations. While battling with the terminal disease, Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters engage in an emotional liaison that becomes a redeeming force in their traumatized existence. This research will study how love becomes a life force, an antithetical force juxtaposed with death and devastation. The transience becomes an impetus of change from despair to fulfillment as the protagonists experience infinity in an ephemeral togetherness and find a meaning of life in empathy and love.

Experiences of family caregivers of patients with terminal disease and the quality of end-of-life care received: a mixed methods study

The aim of this study was to analyze the perceptions and experiences of relatives of patients dying from a terminal disease with regard to the care they received during the dying process, considering the oncological or non-oncological nature of the terminal disease, and the place where care was provided (at home, emergency department, hospital room, or palliative care unit). For this purpose, we conducted a mixed-methods observational study in which two studies were triangulated, one qualitative using semi-structured interviews (n = 30) and the other quantitative, using questionnaires (n = 129). The results showed that the perception of relatives on the quality of care was highly positive in the quantitative evaluation but more critical and negative in the qualitative interview. Experience of the support received and palliative measures was more positive for patients attended in hospital in the case of oncological patients but more positive for those attended at home in the case of non-oncological patients.

Comparison of the transmission efficiency and plague progression dynamics associated with two mechanisms by which fleas transmit Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pestis can be transmitted by fleas during the first week after an infectious blood meal, termed early-phase or mass transmission, and again after Y. pestis forms a cohesive biofilm in the flea foregut that blocks normal blood feeding. We compared the transmission efficiency and the progression of infection after transmission by Oropsylla montana fleas at both stages. Fleas were allowed to feed on mice three days after an infectious blood meal to evaluate early-phase transmission, or after they had developed complete proventricular blockage. Transmission was variable and rather inefficient by both modes, and the odds of early-phase transmission was positively associated with the number of infected fleas that fed. Disease progression in individual mice bitten by fleas infected with a bioluminescent strain of Y. pestis was tracked. An early prominent focus of infection at the intradermal flea bite site and dissemination to the draining lymph node(s) soon thereafter were common features, but unlike what has been observed in intradermal injection models, this did not invariably lead to further systemic spread and terminal disease. Several of these mice resolved the infection without progression to terminal sepsis and developed an immune response to Y. pestis, particularly those that received an intermediate number of early-phase flea bites. Furthermore, two distinct types of terminal disease were noted: the stereotypical rapid onset terminal disease within four days, or a prolonged onset preceded by an extended, fluctuating infection of the lymph nodes before eventual systemic dissemination. For both modes of transmission, bubonic plague rather than primary septicemic plague was the predominant disease outcome. The results will help to inform mathematical models of flea-borne plague dynamics used to predict the relative contribution of the two transmission modes to epizootic outbreaks that erupt periodically from the normal enzootic background state.