Lipid peroxidation functional state changes in patients with obstructive jaundice depending on the level of bilirubin in the blood

Obstructive jaundice (OJ) is the most common syndrome among diseases of the hepatopancreatoduodenal region and is found in 12-45% of cases. OJ may be benign and malignant etiology. Despite the evidence of the participation of bilirubin in reducing the bactericidal properties of neutrophils, there are no data currently on changes in the functioning of the antioxidant defense system depending on the level of bilirubin in the blood of patients with OJ of various origins. Research in this direction reveals the possibility for the development of pathogenetic recommendations for influencing these links of the pathogenesis of the disease. The study included men with OJ of non-malignant (OJNMG) (n = 47; mean age - 52.02 ± 5.18 years) and OJ of malignant genesis (OJMG) (I-II stages of the malignant process) (n = 45; mean age - 53.02 ± 4.8 years), divided into three subgroups, depending on the level of bilirubin in the blood. The indicators of practically healthy men as a control (n = 50, average age - 48.7 ± 3.9 years) were used. Spectrophotometric and statistical research methods were used. A statistically significant decrease of superoxide dismutase, glutathione-S-transferase, glutathione-peroxidase, ceruloplasmin, an increase in the values of diene conjugates, malondialdehyde in the group of patients with OJNMG relative to the control was revealed, regardless of the level of bilirubin in the blood. The presence of malignant genesis of the disease with more intense changes in the studied parameters relative to control is accompanied. Comparison of indicators between groups of patients with OJ of different genesis showed a decrease in the values of glutathione-S-transferase and an increase in the level of diene conjugates in patients with OJMG and the level of bilirubin less than 60 μmol / L, as well as an increase in the content of diene conjugates in patients with OJNMG and a level of bilirubin 60- 200 μmol / L in comparison with the corresponding groups of patients with OJNMG. Thus, both in the groups with OJNMG and in the groups with OJMG, there is a significant decrease in the activity of the main antioxidant enzymes and an increase in lipid peroxidation products, regardless of the level of bilirubin in the blood. The presence of malignant genesis is characterized by more intense differences. The revealed changes can serve as additional criteria for optimizing the diagnosis and treatment of this cohort of patients.

Impact of PSD2 on The Payment Services Market – General Objectives and Evidence from Polish and UK Legal Systems

Payment Service Directive 2 came into force on 13th January 2018. It has replaced the prior directive and introduces new tools allowing to provide more advanced payment services. New legislation aims to increase competition and allow new entrants into the market. The thesis leads through the different aspects of the Directive, emphasizing an influence the legislation has on the companies providing modern solutions in the payment services market. The legal changes are analysed and assessed following the differences resulting from Payment Service Directive 2. For better understanding the impact of Directive, recent technological accomplishments are briefly described and explained. The overall results of the analysis are concluded on the basis of British and Polish payment services markets. The outcome reveals a contrast between these two countries in a number of new payment services providers as well as they origins. Research shows that the Polish payment services market is less accessible for non-bank financial companies.

The Technological Condition of Human Evolution: Lithic Studies as Basic Science

The recent elaboration and rapid expansion of aDNA, paleoproteomics, and related fields have propelled a profound “biomolecular turn” in archaeology and fundamentally changed the topology of archaeological knowledge production. Such a transformation of the archaeological research landscape is not without consequence for long-standing research practices in the field, such as lithic analysis. This special issue derives from the session Old Stones, New Eyes? organized by the authors at the UISPP World Congress in Paris in 2018, which aimed to explore the future of lithic studies. An underlying theme of our session was the felt need to respond to the increasing marginalization of lithic research in terms of its capacity to (1) contribute to the grand narratives of early human evolution and (2) better articulate the role and significance of lithic studies in interdisciplinary human origins research. In this editorial, we briefly outline some of the questions and challenges raised by the biomolecular turn and advocate for a more self-conscious and reflexive stance among lithic experts. We argue that lithic studies fulfill all necessary requirements to act as a basic science for human origins research and that its role and status depends less on technological advances, such as, e.g., improved computing facilities, novel analytical software, or automated shape capture technologies, than on continuous work on the conceptual and methodological foundations of inquiry. We finally draw attention to the unique capability of lithic studies to shed light on the human technological condition and illustrate this potential by introducing and briefly discussing the papers included in this issue.

Life’s Origins and the Search for Life on Rocky Exoplanets

The study of the origin(s) of life on Earth and the search for life on other planets are closely linked. Prebiotic chemical scenarios can help priori-tize target planets for the search for life (as we know it) and can provide informative prior probabilities to help us assess the likelihood that particular spectroscopic features are evidence of life. The prerequisites for origins scenarios themselves predict characteristic spectral signatures. The interplay between origins research and the search for extraterrestrial life starts with laboratory work to guide exploration within our own Solar System, which will then inform future exoplanet observations and laboratory research. Exoplanet research will, in turn, provide statistical context to conclusions about the nature and origins of life.

Early-Life Programming and Reprogramming of Adult Kidney Disease and Hypertension: The Interplay between Maternal Nutrition and Oxidative Stress

Kidney disease and hypertension both have attained the status of a global pandemic. Altered renal programming resulting in kidney disease and hypertension can begin in utero. Maternal suboptimal nutrition and oxidative stress have important implications in renal programming, while specific antioxidant nutrient supplementations may serve as reprogramming strategies to prevent kidney disease and hypertension of developmental origins. This review aims to summarize current knowledge on the interplay of maternal nutrition and oxidative stress in response to early-life insults and its impact on developmental programming of kidney disease and hypertension, covering two aspects. Firstly, we present the evidence from animal models supporting the implication of oxidative stress on adult kidney disease and hypertension programmed by suboptimal maternal nutrition. In the second part, we document data on specific antioxidant nutrients as reprogramming strategies to protect adult offspring against kidney disease and hypertension from developmental origins. Research into the prevention of kidney disease and hypertension that begin early in life will have profound implications for future health.

Impacts of the 1918 flu on survivors’ nutritional status: a double quasi-natural experiment

ABSTRACTA unique set of events that took place in Puerto Rico during 1918-1919 generated conditions of a “double “quasi-natural experiment. We exploit these conditions to empirically identify effects of exposure to the 1918 flu pandemic, those of the devastation left by an earthquake-tsunami that struck the island in 1918, and those associated with the joint occurrence of these events. We use geographic variation to identify the effects of the quake and timing of birth variation to identify those of the flu. In addition, we use markers of nutritional status gathered in a nationally representative sample of individuals aged 75 and older in 2002. This unique data set enables to make two distinct contributions. First, unlike most fetal-origins research that singles out early nutritional status as a determinant of adult health, we test the hypothesis that the 1918 flu had deleterious effects on the nutritional status on adult survivors who at the time of the flu were in utero or infants. Second, and unlike most research on the effects of the flu, we focus on markers of nutritional status set when the adult survivors were children or adolescents. We find that estimates of effects of the pandemic are sizeable primarily among females and among those who, in addition to the flu, were exposed to the earthquake-tsunami. We argue that these findings constitute empirical evidence supporting the conjecture that effects of the 1918 flu alone and the combined effects of the flu and the earthquake are associated not just with damage experienced during the fetal period but also postnatally.

Upholding "good science" in human origins research: A response to Chan et al (2019)

The recent publication by Chan et al (2019) entitled “Human origins in a southern African palaeo-wetland and first migrations” fails to meet scientific standards for publication in two ways. First, it neglects its scientific duty to discuss the entire body of scientific evidence around human origins, which leads to unsupportable claims. Second, it reinforces racialized power dynamics within the science of human origins. We argue that the authors would have benefitted from a more diverse team that included social scientists and humanists, and that the editorial process failed to uphold thorough and morally responsible science.