Mise en scène du handicap mental et représentations sociales dans le théâtre allemand contemporain

This article bases its analysis on the shows Mental Institution (2005) from Thikwa Theatre, Endgame from RambaZamba Theatre and The 120 Days of Sodom (2017) from the International Institute for Political Murder. It fits in the search field of the « new disability studies » that analyse a society considered as corrective and normative by studying opposites such as « normal / abnormal » or « abled / disabled ». Which role do performing arts play in the evolution of these social constructs and their medicalization? How do these plays deconstruct oppressive and discriminating mechanisms and can they help bring a collective change of our social behaviors?

THE EFFECT OF CYTOSTATIC DRUGS ON THROMBOCYTOPOIESIS IN RATS WITH WALKER-256 CARCINOMA

Among malignant neoplasms of women, breast cancer (BC) takes the leading place and is the cause of high mortality and complications. Side effects in the form of anemia, thrombocytopenia, bleeding, etc. often develop during cytostatic therapy, which is the main method of treatment and prevention of further development of the oncological process. In this regard, the problem of reducing side metabolic disorders remains relevant and creates a search field for the use of drugs aimed at stabilizing functions, both at the cellular and organ levels. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of cytostatic drugs on thrombocytopoiesis in rats with WALKER-256 carcinoma. The study included 60 rats, which, depending on the type of treatment, were divided into 5 groups. A week after the start of chemotherapy, the greatest increase in the number of platelets was in the presence of liposomal ethylmethylhydroxypyridine succinate. We recorded that the myeloprotective effect was 1/3 better in liposomal ethylmethylhydroxypyridine succinate compared to its non-liposomal form. Therefore, individuals those receiving cytostatic drugs in the treatment of breast cancer need protection from myelopoiesis. In the studies carried out by us, it was shown that oxidative stress occurred in animals against the background of treatment with cytostatics. It was its rapid development that caused damage to the platelet cell membranes. In this regard, we have proposed a drug with a pronounced antioxidant efficacy. The introduction of an antioxidant into the generally accepted standard treatment of a tumor process has made it possible to experimentally select methods for delivering the drug to the targets of damage using liposomal forms. The study obtained data proving the effectiveness of the use of liposomal ethylmethylhydroxypyridine succinate (50 mg / kg), in contrast to its free form, which prevents the development of thrombocytopenia induced by the administration of cytostatic drugs to rats with Walker-256 carcinoma.

Fast Hand Movements Unveil Multifractal Roots of Adaptation in the Visuomotor Cognitive System

Beyond apparent simplicity, visuomotor dexterity actually requires the coordination of multiple interactions across a complex system that links the brain, the body and the environment. Recent research suggests that a better understanding of how perceptive, cognitive and motor activities cohere to form executive control could be gained from multifractal formalisms applied to movement behavior. Rather than a central executive “talking” to encapsuled components, the multifractal intuition suggests that eye-hand coordination arises from multiplicative cascade dynamics across temporal scales of activity within the whole system, which is reflected in movement time series. Here we examined hand movements of sport students performing a visuomotor task in virtual reality (VR). The task involved hitting spatially arranged targets that lit up on a virtual board under critical time pressure. Three conditions were compared where the visual search field changed: whole board (Standard), half-board lower view field (LVF) and upper view field (UVF). Densely sampled (90 Hz) time series of hand motions captured by VR controllers were analyzed by a focus-based multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Multiplicative rather than additive interactions across temporal scales were evidenced by testing comparatively phase-randomized surrogates of experimental series, which confirmed nonlinear processes. As main results, it was demonstrated that: (i) the degree of multifractality in hand motion behavior was minimal in LVF, a familiar visual search field where subjects correlatively reached their best visuomotor response times (RTs); (ii) multifractality increased in the less familiar UVF, but interestingly only for the non-dominant hand; and (iii) multifractality increased further in Standard, for both hands indifferently; in Standard, the maximal expansion of the visual search field imposed the highest demand as evidenced by the worst visuomotor RTs. Our observations advocate for visuomotor dexterity best described by multiplicative cascades dynamics and a system-wide distributed control rather than a central executive. More importantly, multifractal metrics obtained from hand movements behavior, beyond the confines of the brain, offer a window on the fine organization of control architecture, with high sensitivity to hand-related control behavior under specific constraints. Appealing applications may be found in movement learning/rehabilitation, e.g., in hemineglect people, stroke patients, maturing children or athletes.

Search-in-forest optimizer: A bio-inspired meta-heuristic algorithm for global optimization problems

The present research proposes a new particle swarm optimization-based metaheuristic algorithm entitled “search in forest (SIF) optimizer” to solve the global optimization problems. The algorithm is designed based on the organized behavior of search teams looking for missing persons in a forest. According to SIF optimizer, a number of teams each including several experts in the search field spread out across the forest and gradually move in the same direction by finding clues from the target until they find the missing person. This search structure was designed in a mathematical structure in the form of intra-group search operators and transferring the expert member to the top team. In addition, the efficiency of the algorithm was assessed by comparing the results to the standard representations and a problem with the genetic, grey wolf, salp swarm, and ant lion optimizers. According to the results, the proposed algorithm was efficient for solving many numerical representations, compared to the other algorithms.

Competitive-Blockchain-Based Parking System with Fairness Constraints

Parking slot detection is one of the most popular applications of Vehicular ad Hoc Network re-search field. Proposing smart algorithms for fast parking is crucial not only to facilitate drivers, but also to reduce traffic congestion, pollution, and vehicle energy consumption. Typically, an urban area has several competitive car parks and, in order to make the parking process automatic, a mechanism to ensure a fair competition among them is needed. Among all the methods able to guarantee transparency and equity in a system, blockchain is a robust technology. It has been success- fully applied in many different research fields, from financial to health. In this work, we provide an automaticparking system in which vehicles are allocated among several competitive parking areas (called competitors), through a blockchain-based approach, by applying a consensus mechanism to manage the system modifications. To this aim, two classes of fairness constraints are defined, according to which any new operation on the parking consortium must be approved by the members. Such an approach brings benefits for different reasons, starting from traffic condition improvement, up to driver stress and pollution decrease.

Association and prevalence of venous thromboembolism in cancer patients with COVID-19: A single healthcare system experience.

2627 Background: There are increasing reports of thromboembolic complications in patients with COVID-19 infection. According to a meta-analysis of 28,173 patients, the prevalence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in hospitalized COVID-19 patients ranges from 7.9% to 22.7% based on the severity of COVID-19. Cancer and anti-cancer therapies are known risk factors for thrombosis. Another study based on registry data reported the overall prevalence of VTE in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with cancer to be 14.5%. Our study aimed to assess the prevalence of VTE in cancer patients diagnosed with COVID-19 as well as the association between VTE and cancer in the setting of COVID-19 infection in a large predominantly urban healthcare system. Methods: We utilized a cohort data query tool in the electronic medical record at University Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana to identify patients >17 years of age with a hospital or clinic visit in the LCMC Health system between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 which were considered the base population for the study. Cancer patients were identified via the cancer registry tool. Patients with COVID-19 were identified using the abnormal COVID-19 PCR test result search field. An encounter diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE) was used to identify patients with VTE. Odds ratios, p-values, and corresponding confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using 2x2 contingency tables. Results: In our database, we identified 3,807 patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 and 9,560 with a cancer diagnosis. 158,812 patients had neither COVID-19 nor cancer. There were statistically significant greater odds of developing VTE in all subgroups compared: COVID-19 alone vs neither (OR 2.43), cancer alone vs neither (OR 3.8), and COVID-19 and cancer vs neither (OR 10.65). Conclusions: COVID-19 and cancer are both risk factors for VTE. Based on our study, appears that cancer has the greater effect on VTE compared with COVID-19 infection. Also, there is possibly a synergistic effect between COVID-19 and cancer, which further increases the likelihood of VTE. This study is a preliminary analysis. Further investigation is warranted in the form of either variable adjusted analysis of the same data, individual chart review, or a prospective study.[Table: see text]

Technological prospection of anti-inflammatory vanilic acid activity, with emphasis on its semisynthetic derivative Isopropyl Vanilate

Inflammation is the body's response to harmful stimuli such as infections, trauma, or injury. The inflammatory cascade can lead to the development of numerous diseases, and the current drug-therapeutic intervention consists of the use of corticosteroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. However, the use of these is associated with several serious side effects, so it is necessary to search for new alternatives that can minimize this effect. In this prospecting, the objective was to conduct a study on biological activities already described for vanillic acid, with special emphasis on its semi-synthetic derivative of isopropyl vanylate as an anti-inflammatory agent. For this, information was obtained on patent documents based on the INPI, USPTO and EPO databases, using the keywords: vanillic acid, anti-inflammatory agents, isopropyl vanylate, always used in the search field related to the summary of works. As results obtained in the present technological prospection study, it was found that in the international patent databases the documents related to the theme were very scarce and some had a higher number of patents, on vanillic acid, few refer to its anti- inflammatory, and no documents were found on the use of isopropyl vanillate as an anti-inflammatory agent, reinforcing the innovative character of research involving its use in this technology.

Priming Effect of Colour on Aiding the Attentional Reorientation in Sequential Presentations of Temporal Data Visualization: Evidence From Eye-Tracking

In the present study, we focus on the priming effect of colour on mitigating the attentional reorientation cost, which is led by re-constructing the frame of reference for attention shift and visual search in sequential presentations of temporal data visualization. The study involves two experiments using complementary recordings of behavioural performance and eye-tracking events. Two aspects of colour primes are highlighted: the prime validity and the colour perceptual accessibility. A task paradigm integrating the feature search and keeping-track task was adopted in our experiments. In Experiment 1 (with a group of 16 participants), we confirmed the colour priming effect by comparing the priming condition to the neutral baseline. Furthermore, global colours that are with high perceptual accessibility generated more evident priming effects than local colours. However, more interferences in misguiding the attention to task-irrelevant regions were found when the global primes were invalid. In Experiment 2 (with another group of 15 participants), we verify the finding in Experiment 1 that global colours produced more pronounced priming effects in alleviating the attentional reorientation cost by comparing two groups of real-world visualizations with either global or local colours as the prime. Large saccades were initiated much earlier, and the search efficiency got improved when provided with global colours. We conjecture that the facilitatory effect from global colours may stem from its benefit on the pre-attentive processing of the search field. The research findings provide evidence for utilizing colours as the primes in mitigating the attentional reorientation cost and accelerating visual search in sequential presentations.

Recommender Systems in Digital Libraries Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Searching for contents in present digital libraries is still very primitive; most websites provide a search field where users can enter information such as book title, author name, or terms they expect to be found in the book. Some platforms provide advanced search options, which allow the users to narrow the search results by specific parameters such as year, author name, publisher, and similar. Currently, when users find a book which might be of interest to them, this search process ends; only a full-text search or references at the end of the book may provide some additional pointers. In this chapter, the author is going to give an example of how a user could permanently get recommendations for additional contents even while reading the article, using present machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques.