Homeopathy and the science of high dilutions: when to believe the unbelievable

In 1988, a Nature Editorial titled “When to believe the unbelievable” noted that the famous high-dilution experiments of the Benveniste group had no physical basis and suggested that “prudent people should, for the time being, suspend judgment.” In point of fact, judgment was not suspended and in the ensuing weeks the authors were resoundingly condemned and ridiculed for the purported lack of replication of their findings. Twenty-four years later, the concept that a solution diluted beyond the Avogadro-Loschmidt constant may show some biological and pharmacological activity is still “unbelievable” from an ordinary common sense perspective, but things are dramatically changing. Several groups of researchers from countries all over the world have been investigating this difficult question, which has weighty implications not just for pharmacology (homeopathy) but also for biology, physics and the environmental sciences. The XXVI meeting of GIRI (International research group on ultra-low dose and high-dilution effects), scheduled to take place in Florence on 20-22 September 2012, will present a growing body of evidence in favor of the “existence” of high-dilution/dynamization effects. Continuing the excellent work of the preceding editions, the meeting features a rich and outstanding program organized into four main tracks: physico-chemical features of high dilutions; studies done in planta and in the field; clinical and veterinary evidence; and laboratory models. ... For two centuries, homeopathy and science have been regarded as two opposing and conflicting fields. Now things are changing, as scientific evidence begins to support many homeopathic tenets, and the homeopathic world increasingly stimulates science to investigate previously under-evaluated and little understood subtle phenomena. For over 26 years from the foundation, the international GIRI group has been stimulating fruitful dialogue in the interest of furthering true science—i.e., that which is free from ideological barriers and pre-judgments. Quite often, scientific “dogmas” have been disrupted by new evidence, or previously dismissed phenomena have gained importance in the light of a new conceptual framework. The unusual properties of high dilutions/dynamizations, which merit further investigation, are potentially relevant not just to homeopathic pharmaceutical science, but also to agriculture (“agrohomeopathy”), environmental sciences and, in general, to the future of mankind.

Accessible data curation and analytics for international-scale citizen science datasets

The Covid Symptom Study, a smartphone-based surveillance study on COVID-19 symptoms in the population, is an exemplar of big data citizen science. As of May 23rd, 2021, over 5 million participants have collectively logged over 360 million self-assessment reports since its introduction in March 2020. The success of the Covid Symptom Study creates significant technical challenges around effective data curation. The primary issue is scale. The size of the dataset means that it can no longer be readily processed using standard Python-based data analytics software such as Pandas on commodity hardware. Alternative technologies exist but carry a higher technical complexity and are less accessible to many researchers. We present ExeTera, a Python-based open source software package designed to provide Pandas-like data analytics on datasets that approach terabyte scales. We present its design and capabilities, and show how it is a critical component of a data curation pipeline that enables reproducible research across an international research group for the Covid Symptom Study.

Homeopathy in the treatment of COVID-19

An Extraordinary GIRI Meeting took place on the 26 and 27 of November 2020. Due to the current situation, it was held on the ZOOM platform. It regarded the clinical and basic research on COVID-19 and the coronavirus exclusively. The meeting was organized in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the International Research Group on Very Low Dosis and High Dilution Effects (GIRI) as a pre-event to the V International Homeopathy Workshop of UFRJ, planned for 2-4 December 2021. During a pandemic, when there is a general lack of workers, equipment, and medicines, any kind of treatment capable of maintaining or improving people’s health should be considered by all medical facilities. Therefore, the GIRI meeting aimed to collect, discuss, and disseminate knowledge and medical experience gathered by homeopathy researchers and doctors around the world regarding the possibility of treating COVID-19 with homeopathy. The meeting lasted two days and was visited by a large number of participants from Brazil, India, Russia, Belgium, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and England, gathering so researchers, professionals, and many students from different fields of expertise, e.g. pharmacology, medicine, biology, physics, veterinary, chemistry. In total, 11 abstracts were approved by a Scientific Committee and presented in a 30-60 min oral contribution. The meeting was interactive, offering space for questions, answers, and for many discussions concerning the potential of homeopathy in the context of COVID-19. The conference provided the possibility to better understand the different homeopathic approaches in the treatment of COVID-19, such as the use of nosodes (prepared from virus particles), that showed a promising immunomodulatory and prophylactic potential. Further, the preliminary analysis of the Clificol COVID-19 support project was presented, revealing a vast international panorama concerning the use of homeopathy in different countries. There were other contributions regarding the use of homeopathy in adults and children for the treatment of COVID-19. To disseminate even further the findings presented at the Extraordinary GIRI Meeting 2020 related to the role of homeopathy in the COVID-19 pandemic, we are launching this special issue of the International Journal of High Dilution Research (IJHDR).

REVITALIZING SAAMI THROUGH EDUCATION IN FINLAND

The article deals with the institutional aspects of how indigenous minority languages are taught in Finland, with particular attention to sustainability and revitalization issues among the Saami minority. The source material for the research project was obtained during field work organized by the International Research Group on Bilingual Education of the Faculty of Central European Studies at Constantine the Philosopher University (Nitra, Slovakia), conducted in Finland in 2019. The aim of the expedition was to study strategies for revitalizing the Saami language in Finland in the context of code switching. The authors of the article want to highlight how legal regulation can take into account educational problems that arise in different situations. In Finland, on a legislative basis, two languages (Finnish and Swedish) are taught, so all citizens, regardless of nationality, learn both of them. The law guarantees access to Saami education, i.e. it is optional for everyone. The education system offers opportunities for learning the Saami language in preschool educational institutions, in general education schools, as well as for individual groups, adult citizens. At the same time, the authors emphasize the fact that although state regulation centralizes education in the European Union, and in particular in Finland, the revitalization program of minority languages is still being successfully implemented, mostly due to the fact that program coordinators take into account the diversity and variety of cases and, as a result, adopt certain normative acts to solve different situations. Only society, political decision-makers, self-operating and self-conscious civil activity can help developing a successful national education system where bilingualism is reachable for minorities with significantly different backgrounds.

Estimation of the severeness rate, death rate, household attack rate and the total number of COVID-19 cases based on 16 115 Polish surveillance records

BackgroundEstimating the actual number of COVID-19 infections is crucial for steering through the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. It is, however, notoriously difficult, as many cases have no or only mild symptoms. Surveillance data for in-household secondary infections offers unbiased samples for COVID-19 prevalence estimation.MethodsWe analyse 16 115 Polish surveillance records to obtain key figures of the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose conservative upper and lower bound estimators for the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Further, we estimate age-dependent bounds on the severe case rate, death rate, and the in-household attack rate.ResultsBy maximum likelihood estimates, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Poland as of July 22nd, 2020, is at most around 13 times larger and at least 1.6 times larger than the recorded number. The lower bound on the severeness rate ranges between 0.2% for the 0–39 year-old to 5.7% for older than 80, while the upper bound is between 2.6% and 34.1%. The lower bound on the death rate is between 0.04% for the age group 40–59 to 1.34% for the oldest. Overall, the severeness and death rates grow exponentially with age. The in-household attack ratio is 8.18% for the youngest group and 16.88% for the oldest.ConclusionsThe proposed approach derives highly relevant figures on the COVID-19 pandemic from routine surveillance data, under assumption that household members of detected infected are tested and all severe cases are diagnosed.MOCOSThe MOCOS (MOdelling COrona Spread) international research group is an interdisciplinary scientific consortium. The following authors are MOCOS members: Barbara Adamik, Marek Bawiec, Viktor Bezborodov, Przemyslaw Biecek, Wolfgang Bock, Marcin Bodych, Jan Pablo Burgard, Tyll Krueger, Agata Migalska, Tomasz Ożański, Barbara Pabjan, Magdalena Rosińska, Piotr Sobczyk and Ewa Szczurek

The application of long frame draining of pancreatoejunoanastomosis in patient after gastropancreatoduodeonal resection

Objective. To demonstrate the possibilities of early diagnosis of pancreatoejunonastomosis failure and options for surgical treatment of patients with pancreatic fistula after gastropancreatoduodenal resection using long-term frame drainage of pancreatojejunonastomosis. Materials and methods. The results of combined treatment of a patient of the Department of General Surgery of S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy with a intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms. Pancreatoejunonastomosis failure was diagnosed based on the criteria of the International Research Group for the Study of Pancreatic Fistulas. Results of the study. Patient B., 61 years old. In January 2019, computer tomography revealed a cystic cavity in the head of the pancreas. An controlled endoscopic ultrasound sonography biopsy was performed. Morphological examination verified the signs of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm. On March 11, 2019, the patient underwent gastropancreatoduodenal resection with decompression of pancreatoejunoanastomosis using long-term frame drainage of the main pancreatic duct. On the third day of the postoperative period, x-ray contrast fistulography was used to diagnose the failure of the pancreatoejunonastomosis with the formation of a B type fistula. On the 23d day after gastropancreatoduodenal resection, puncture drainage of the non-drained acute fluid collection was performed under ultrasonographic control. On the 36th day of the postoperative period the frame and puncture drains were removed. Conclusion. The use of long-term frame drainage for decompression of the duct system with staged fistulography, early diagnosis of complications of gastropancreatoduodenal resection in the form of the formation of type B pancreatic fistula, provided the effectiveness of conservative and minimally invasive measures for the treatment of postoperative complications (8 figs, bibliography: 7 refs).

Had It Not Been for the Tower of Babel, or Why All of Russia Would Not Speak French

This review analyses The French Language in Russia: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Literary History, a book by an international research group (D. Offord, V. Rjéoutski, G. Argent). It deals with the peculiarities of French language use and attitudes towards it in the Russian Empire from Peter I to Alexander II. The book’s authors consider the history of French language teaching and determine the functions of French at court, high society, diplomacy, administration, fiction, journalism, private correspondence, diaries, and memoirs. They also examine attacks on gallomania in Russian comedies and novels between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. D. Offord, V. Rjéoutski, and G. Argent argue that Russian society, despite the widespread use of the French language, was never monolingual. They claim that the Russian language developed due to active contacts with French and other languages in the political, social, cultural, and literary spheres. Thus, francophonie became one of the crucial factors of Russia’s westernisation. Without questioning the relevance and importance of the conclusions, the reviewer points out the underestimation of historical inertia which let the French language shape the cultural image of Russian society until the Revolution of 1917.

Ten years later: changes in the meaning of work among Polish managers

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether the indices of the meaning of work (MOW) change over time. The study sample included mid-level managers, with measurements taken twice, in 2006/2007 and in 2017/2018. Design/methodology/approach This survey-based study was conducted in Poland, a country that went through significant socio-economic transformations in the past decade. The MOW instrument, developed by the MOW international research group, was used to measure absolute and relative work centrality, societal norms regarding work, valued work outcomes and the importance of various work goals. The hierarchical regression analysis method was used for hypotheses testing. Findings The study results show that there were no statistically significant changes in either absolute or relative work centrality over the studied decade. The family remained the highest-ranked value, ahead of work and leisure held the third place. The role of religion and community has remained largely unchanged, with these domains ranked significantly lower compared to work, family and leisure. An important finding was that the preference for job stability has significantly increased in the studied decade. At the same time, there was a marked growth in preference for flexible and convenient work hours. The study concludes with implications for future research and for human resource development (HRD) practice. Originality/value The study makes an important contribution to the MOW and HRD literature by demonstrating that the main indices of MOW, as measured by the MOW instrument, tend to remain unchanged despite socio-economic changes in the society.