Senso-Immunologic Prospects for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Treatment

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain syndrome that occurs in tissue injuries as the result of surgery, trauma, or ischemia. The clinical features of this severely painful condition include redness and swelling of the affected skin. Intriguingly, it was recently suggested that transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) is involved in chronic post-ischemia pain, a CRPS model. TRPA1 is a non-selective cation channel expressed in calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-positive primary nociceptors that becomes highly activated in ischemic conditions, leading to the generation of pain. In this review, we summarize the history of TRPA1 and its involvement in pain sensation, inflammation, and CRPS. Furthermore, bone atrophy is also thought to be a characteristic clinical sign of CRPS. The altered bone microstructure of CRPS patients is thought to be caused by aggravated bone resorption via enhanced osteoclast differentiation and activation. Although TRPA1 could be a target for pain treatment in CRPS patients, we also discuss the paradoxical situation in this review. Nociceptor activation decreases the risk of bone destruction via CGRP secretion from free nerve endings. Thus, TRPA1 inhibition could cause severe bone atrophy. However, the suitable therapeutic strategy is controversial because the pathologic mechanisms of bone atrophy in CRPS are unclear. Therefore, we propose focusing on the remission of abnormal bone turnover observed in CRPS using a recently developed concept: senso-immunology.

The Paradoxical Relationship Between Health Promotion and the Social Media Industry

Mounting evidence suggests that problematic adolescent social media use is associated with poor mental health. To respond to increased adolescent mental health concerns, health promoters increasingly rely on social media initiatives to promote their resources, programs, and services. This creates a paradoxical situation where social-media-linked adverse mental health outcomes are addressed using the same tools and platforms that can contribute to the development of such issues. It also highlights several areas of needed critical assessment in health promotion usage of social media platform features and products, such as addictive platform design, targeted marketing tools, data collection practices, impacts on underserved groups, and conflicts of interest. To advance subsequent action on these tensions, we offer three recommendations for health promoters that build upon existing scholarship and initiatives, including adapting ethical guidelines for health promoters using social media, adopting conflicts of interest policies, and promoting interdisciplinary scholarship.

New Perspectives in the Pathophysiology and Treatment of Pain in Patients with Dry Eye Disease

Ocular discomfort and eye pain are frequently reported by patients with dry eye disease (DED), and their management remains a real therapeutic challenge for the Ophthalmologist. In DED patients, injury at the level of each structure of the ocular surface can determine variable symptoms, ranging from mild ocular discomfort up to an intolerable pain evoked by innocuous stimuli. In refractory cases, the persistence of this harmful signal is able to evoke a mechanism of maladaptive plasticity of the nervous system that leads to increased pain responsiveness. Peripheral and, subsequently, central sensitization cause nociceptor hyperexcitability and persistent pain perception that can culminate in the paradoxical situation of perceiving eye pain even in the absence of ocular surface abnormalities. Effective therapeutic strategies of these cases are challenging, and new options are desirable. Recently, a theoretical novel therapeutic approach concerns enkephalins thanks to the evidence that eye pain sensations are modulated by endogenous opioid peptides (enkephalins, endorphins and dynorphins). In this regard, new topical agents open up a new theoretical scenario in the treatment of ocular discomfort and eye pain in the setting of DED, such as, for example, a multimolecular complex based on proteins and glycosaminoglycans also containing opiorphin that may assist the physiological pain-relieving mechanism of the eye.

A plea for teaching writing as an integrative process meant to serve a functional purpose

In the Romanian context, writing is in a paradoxical situation: it is claimed to be important though it is one of the skills that is little invested in and moreover it undergoes strong opposition from the parents who would opt for digitalization as a preventive opportunity for their children in the future. Mistreated by both school and society, writing is given meagre chances of proving its determining role in the intellectual formation of the young generation. In this line of thought this paper aims at mapping writing as a school-taught skill by first outlining the Romanian approach to school writing (as product or process) and secondly by carrying out an analysis of the writing tasks regularly assigned, with a view to emphasizing their ups and downs and to suggesting changes that might improve not only the perception on writing in the Romanian curriculum, but also the quality of the educational output. In order to obtain a good representation of how writing is viewed by the Romanian educational system, it is deemed as appropriate to analyse the school curriculum issued and approved by the Ministry of National Education and to evaluate the implementation of the official guidelines into school textbooks. The justification for the interest of the authors in writing is related to the high rates of functional illiteracy, to the preponderant evaluation type of the pupils (a written one) and to the largely acknowledged inability of pupils to successfully manage their written tasks.

To understanding the effects of conditioning thinking: about new book of Terrence Webster-Doyle

Review of the book Mind Games: towards understanding the nature of prejudice and conflict, or how to learn to live in peace by Terrence Webster-Doyle. Mind Games: To understand the roots of prejudice and how to learn live peacefully: a scientific and educational publication. T. Webster-Doyle. Samara Cultural Society Artifact-Cultural Diversity. Samara: Samara Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences; 2020. 55 p. Reviewer considers that T. Webster-Doyles book is a brilliant example of how conflicts can be resolved most effectively without theorized distraction. T. Webster-Doyles book is small in volume, but very significant in content. The author offers a real program for taming the conflicts and violence that fill the entire human history. Until now, there is a clear lack of research on the universal determinants of the emergence and dynamics of conflict. A paradoxical situation arises when methods of conflict resolution are studied and modified, despite the fact that its initial determinants are not accurately determined. The models of taming conflicts that are being replicated in the social sciences almost do not solve the very problem of overcoming violence in society. Note that T. Webster-Doyle defines her book as the most significant work of her life. The author proposes an original approach to the determination of the conflict and defines the ways of its resolution in direct relationship with the understanding of its determinants. Also, the advantage of the book is a good literary presentation of the material. T. Webster-Doyle views conflict as a phenomenon created by the human mind, which at the same time, in a paradox, is trying to solve a problem which it itself creates. This work is devoted to the study of the determinants of conflict, which are considered comprehensively in the relationship of biological and social determinants: as generated by genetically programmed brain programs and at the same time as a function of peoples perception of the world around them and each other. The author notes that the universal basis of biological programming is the general motivation the desire to survive. Consequently, this work presents a program for resolving the conflict based on a comprehensive consideration of the conflict as a sociobiological phenomenon, which is based on the conditioned thinking of a person (primordial biological protection of his brain). The advantage of the book is its versatility. The author does not just consider the problem of the conflict, its components, the parties to the conflict, conflict genes, the incident, etc. He is looking for an approach that allows you to take a fresh look at this problem and find ways to prevent and destroy the conflict.

The Perpetuation of Site-Specific Installation Artworks in Museums

Site-specific installations are created for a specific location and are usually intended as temporary artworks. The Perpetuation of Site-Specific Installation Artworks in Museums. Staging Contemporary Art shows that these artworks consist of more than a singular manifestation and that their lifespan is often extended. This book provides an in-depth account of the paradoxical situation when site-specific installations are being preserved and put on display in a museum context. Tatja Scholte offers a conceptual framework for scholars and professionals in order to better understand the transformative nature of site-specific installation art and to support decision-making in museums as to conserving and presenting these artworks over time. The case studies provide insight into the diversity of artistic production over the last forty years. They explore how site-specific installations gain new meanings and forms in a museum context, and, vice versa, how these artworks become agents for change of professional routines and museum strategies.

Public Lives, Private Water: Female Ready-Made Garment Factory Workers in Peri-Urban Bangladesh

In Dhaka city and its fringe peri-urban sprawls water for domestic use is an increasingly contested commodity. The location of our research, Gazipur district, bordering the growing city of Dhaka, is the heartland of Bangladesh’s Ready Made Garments (RMG) industry, which has spread unplanned in former wetlands and agrarian belts. However, unlike Dhaka, the almost fully industrialized peri-urban areas bordering the city, like many other such areas globally, function in an institutional vacuum. There are no formal institutional arrangements for water supply or sanitation. In the absence of regulations for mining groundwater for industrial use and weakly enforced norms for effluent discharge, the expansion of the RMG industry and other industries has had a disproportionate environmental impact. In this complex and challenging context, we apply a political economy lens to draw attention to the paradoxical situation of the increasingly “public” lives of poor Bangladeshi women working in large numbers in the RMG industry in situations of increasingly “private” and appropriated water sources in this institutionally liminal peri-urban space. Our findings show that poorly paid work for women in Bangladesh’s RMG industry does not translate to women’s empowerment because, among others, a persisting masculinity and the lack of reliable, appropriate and affordable WASH services make women’s domestic water work responsibilities obligatory and onerous.

An Explanation for the Adiponectin Paradox

The adipokine adiponectin improves insulin sensitivity. Functional signal transduction of adiponectin requires at least one of the receptors AdipoR1 or AdipoR2, but additionally the glycosyl phosphatidylinositol-anchored molecule, T-cadherin. Overnutrition causes a reduction in adiponectin synthesis and an increase in the circulating levels of the enzyme glycosyl phosphatidylinositol-phospholipase D (GPI-PLD). GPI-PLD promotes the hydrolysis of T-cadherin. The functional consequence of T-cadherin hydrolysis is a reduction in adiponectin sequestration by responsive tissues, an augmentation of adiponectin levels in circulation and a (further) reduction in signal transduction. This process creates the paradoxical situation that adiponectin levels are augmented, whereas the adiponectin signal transduction and insulin sensitivity remain strongly impaired. Although both hypoadiponectinemia and hyperadiponectinemia reflect a situation of insulin resistance, the treatments are likely to be different.

Information overload in business organizations and entrepreneurship: An analytical review of the literature

In this paper I analytically review the literature on the information overload problem, with special reference to the business organizations and entrepreneurship and the study mainly reveals that the problem of the information overload has been existed for many years, whereas in current years the problem has become more clearly recognized and experienced. A concern stressed in the literature is the paradoxical situation that most probably there is an abundance of information available and it is often difficult to obtain useful, and relevant information when it may be needed. Both perceptions and the actual effects of information overload have exacerbated by rapid advances made in the information and communication technology, whereas it is not clear cut as to whether Internet has worsened/improved the situation. Some solutions have put forward to reduce the information overload are a reduction in duplication of the information found in professional literature; the adoption of the personal information management strategies, along with the integration of software solutions such as push technology and intelligent agents; and the provision of value-added information. Main emphasis is placed on the technology as a tool and not driver, while increased in information literacy may provide key to reducing the information overload in organisations.

The ECB's neglected secondary mandate: An inter-institutional solution

The ECB’s secondary mandate requires it to the support broader economic policies by and in the EU. Until recently absent from the ECB strategy, the secondary mandate features prominently in the ECB’s 2021 review of its monetary policy strategy. This report asks: How should the ECB interpret the many objectives that the secondary mandate mentions? And how should it act on them? A more prominent role for its secondary mandate fits well with the new, more political role of the ECB, but it should not act on the secondary mandate alone. Why is that? The requirements that the legal text imposes on the ECB are paradoxical and difficult to reconcile. We explain the paradox in terms of three features. Firstly, the secondary mandate is binding on the ECB so that it must support the EU’s economic policies where this is possible without prejudice to price stability. However and secondly, the secondary mandate is also highly indeterminate because there are many relevant secondary objectives and ways to support them. Acting on the secondary mandate requires prioritising objectives and designing new instruments. Yet, thirdly, the ECB lacks the competence to develop its own policies to pursue the secondary objectives. For the ECB to simply choose its own secondary objectives and act on them raises severe legal and democratic objections. To resolve this paradoxical situation, we propose that the specification of the secondary objectives should take place via high-level coordination with the political institutions of the EU. Unlike direct instructions which are illegal under EU law, coordination would be compatible with central bank independence and strengthen the ECB’s ability to pursue price stability. We propose three main avenues to give shape to such interinstitutional coordination.