Mycobacterium chelonae Infection Identified by Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing as the Probable Cause of Acute Contained Rupture of a Biological Composite Graft—A Case Report

We present the case of a 72-year-old female patient with acute contained rupture of a biological composite graft, 21 months after replacement of the aortic valve and the ascending aorta due to an aortic dissection. Auramine-rhodamine staining of intraoperative biopsies showed acid-fast bacilli, but classical culture and molecular methods failed to identify any organism. Metagenomic analysis indicated infection with Mycobacterium chelonae, which was confirmed by target-specific qPCR. The complexity of the sample required a customized bioinformatics pipeline, including cleaning steps to remove sequences of human, bovine ad pig origin. Our study underlines the importance of multiple testing to increase the likelihood of pathogen identification in highly complex samples.

Fixed nature and dynamic processes in Hahnemann's thought

Background and Aims. At least since classical Greek philosophy two opposite vews are facing, the one of Heraclitus, affirming that all things are in a continuous flux, and the other of Parmenides, the assertor of changelessness. The aim of present contribution is to consider if and how the tension between such views continues to permeate several features of the culture, including the thought of S. Hahnemann. Methods. This will be achieved through the examination of some cases in the natural sciences and human sciences, including Hahnemann’s writings. Few examples are presented here. The living being can be viewed as a thing genetically determined, or as an open and dynamic complex of processes interacting mutually and with the environment at metabolic and informational levels. The central nervous system is seen to underlie both automatic, and creative behaviours. A species is considered a pure ideal type, or a historically varying population of similar individuals. The basic traits of human behaviour are attributed to an unchanging nature (better, a nature undergoing slow Darwinian changes), or to a culture evolving in a rapid Lamarckian way. Within an integrated view of the person one may consider both the four fixed human constitutions (see H. Bernard; M. Martiny; N. Pende; A. Negro), and their four changing constitutional stages (see H. Bernard). Classical culture highlights the paramount importance of universal principles, while postmodern culture highlights proteanism, liquid state, patchwork. In particular, we may encounter such two views in the thought of Hahnemann on diseases. They are found in his writings respectively on the chronic diseaes, and on the so-called non-miasmatic diseases. About chronic diseases, he wrote that they are primitive, deeply-rooted, underlying external symptoms, old, universal, always recurring, internal, and do not desappear even when external symptoms of acute diseases desappeared, while the whole symptoms of them must be extensivery taken into account. About non-miasmatic diseases, he wrote that the complex of symptoms of a single case, which is always different for each individual case, cannot be foreseen, nor schematized, nor taken as a model, nor treated by an a priori chosen remedy or with a priori rules different from the strict application of the so-called law of similars, experimentally established. Conclusions. We may conclude that Hahnemann’s integrated consideration of diseases takes into account both the fixed characteristics of the chronic ones and the dynamic processes of the acute ones, so that the two above views appear to be not opposed, but perfectly integrated.

Niewygodne dziedzictwo?

Uncomfortable Heritage? The Meaning of Pagan Antiquity in the Space of Christian Rome The decline of paganism in Late Antiquity contributed to the transformation of culture of the roman society. With the victory of Christianity, which became firstly a dominant and later the only accepted religion, the objects of the classical culture became a problematic heritage. The aim of the paper is to present the Christians’ shifting attitude towards the material remains of the pagan culture and the way in which they influenced and shaped the identity of the Christian community. These processes are analyzed on the example of Rome in the period from the 4th to the 6th century. Special attention is paid to the area of the Roman Forum, which was characterized by exceptional accumulation and density of the monuments which constituted the pagan heritage. Since it was the central and representative space, the symbolical character of the forum was very important for the leaders of the local community and its transformations reflect very well the changing attitude of the Christians towards the pagan heritage.

Education oriented principles and fundamentals

The book “Education oriented principles and fundamentals 1 ST Edition, edited and published by South Florida Publishing, gathers five chapters that approach themes of relevance in the context of education and are available in Spanish. In the first chapter, a research is presented, whose objective is to provide the basis for a pro-student persistence model in higher education applicable in unfavorable socio-academic contexts. The second chapter presents a teaching model that is presented to design teaching as a basis for the use of cognitive strategies, and it is also necessary to establish different strategies to be able to pedagogically evaluate the performance of the student. The third chapter presents a search for a model for the assessment of competencies in basic education through a case study at the Los Pinos de Algeciras school. We are in the middle of the infant school. The fourth chapter, the importance of creating and dynamizing the narrative is supported by the promotion of emerging reading behaviors in day care centers. It is also intended to contribute to the reflection on the role of the educator / mediator in promoting an educational project that facilitates intervention in day care centers. The emerging literacy level. And finally, or the fifth chapter, as a novel educational experience, the application of the Flipped Classroom Model to the teaching of classical culture was drawn, highlighting the importance of the elaboration of interesting and motivating multimedia didactic materials for the students, supported by the use of the new technologies, to improve teaching practice by organizing work in the classroom in an active and participatory way. Thus, we thank all authors for their commitment and dedication to their work and we hope to be able to contribute to the scientific community, in the dissemination of knowledge and in the advancement of science.

The Investigation of Mycotoxins and Enterobacteriaceae of Cereal-Based Baby Foods Marketed in Turkey

In this study, a total of 85 cereal-based baby foods with or without milk (four different brands; A, B, C, and D) collected from Ankara local markets, Turkey were analyzed for mycotoxins, total aerobic mesophilic bacteria (TAMB), and Enterobacteriaceae contamination. Baby foods were analyzed for 12 toxicological important mycotoxins such as aflatoxin B1, B2, G1, and G2; fumonisin B1 and B2; ochratoxin A; sterigmatocystin (STE); deoxynivalenol (DON); zearalenone (ZON); and T-2 toxin and HT-2 toxin by LC-MS/MS multi-mycotoxin method. In addition to these mycotoxins, the presence of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) was investigated in baby foods containing milk. The classical culture method was used for microbiological analysis. Consequently, at least one mycotoxin was detected in 69.41% of the total samples. The most frequently detected mycotoxins were STE (34.12%) and HT-2 (34.12%). However, AFM1 was not detected in any of the baby foods containing milk. Also, TAMB and Enterobacteriaceae were isolated from 30.59% and 10.59% of samples, respectively. As a result, it was determined that the mycotoxin levels in the analyzed samples were in accordance with the mycotoxin levels specified in the Turkish Food Codex.

The Slow Fall of Babel

This is the story of the transformation of the ways in which the increasingly Christianized elites of the late antique Mediterranean experienced and conceptualized linguistic differences. The metaphor of Babel stands for the magnificent edifice of classical culture that was about to reach the sky, but remained self-sufficient and self-contained in its virtual monolingualism – the paradigm within which even Latin was occasionally considered just a dialect of Greek. The gradual erosion of this vision is the slow fall of Babel that took place in the hearts and minds of a good number of early Christian writers and intellectuals who represented various languages and literary traditions. This step-by-step process included the discovery and internalization of the existence of multiple other languages in the world, as well as subsequent attempts to incorporate their speakers meaningfully into the holistic and distinctly Christian picture of the universe.

The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in the Victorian Period

Allusions to ancient Greece and Rome are pervasive in Victorian culture, in literary texts and material artifacts, on the popular stage, and in political discourse. Authors such as Matthew Arnold, Thackeray, Tennyson, Clough, Pater, Wilde, and Swinburne studied Latin and Greek for years at school or university and exploited their classical learning for creative purposes. The sheer familiarity of classical culture, based on years of studying Homer and Virgil at school, made it possible for intellectuals to draw parallels between contemporary political reforms and the democratic context of Greek tragedy, or to insist, like Arnold, that Periclean Athens should be a model for 19th-century Britain. At a time when the predominance of Latin and Greek in formal education was beginning to be questioned, there was increasing demand for translations and adaptations of classical literature, history, and myth, so that a wider readership could share in the richness of the classical inheritance. Outsiders were particularly eager to learn Greek or read Greek texts in translation, and authors such as Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and George Eliot achieved a remarkable degree of proficiency with little assistance. Greek epic and tragedy were appropriated by the authors of dramatic monologues, novels, and theatrical burlesques to engage with contemporary concerns about marriage and divorce, the role of women, and the apparent impossibility of heroism in the modern world. Toward the end of the period, classical literature was increasingly scrutinized from new perspectives: approaches based on anthropology, archaeology, and sociology presented familiar texts in new ways and opened up possibilities for redefining aspects of gender and sexuality in the contemporary world.

‘Mechanism of a kind yet unattempted’

Prometheus Unbound is amongst Shelley’s greatest achievements, and is widely read and admired. However, it offers challenges to interpretation of an unusual kind. The characters and action of the drama are intrinsically difficult to understand, given their quasi-mythic and transhistorical nature. But most challenging is the combination in the plotting in the drama of inexplicit scientific concepts and phenomena, with elements from classical culture, including prophecy and its mechanisms. The difficulty of grasping ideas which are very obscure but nevertheless brilliantly realized, and crucial to understanding of the action (particularly in Act II), is demonstrated through detailed reading of key passages. The growing realization by Asia and Panthea of their revolutionary destiny is dramatized using contemporary understanding of chemical gases and their beneficial and harmful effects.