Agreement and Precision Analyses of Various Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate Formulae in Cancer Patients

The accuracy of the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in cancer patients is very important for dose adjustments of anti-malignancy drugs to reduce toxicities and enhance therapeutic outcomes. Therefore, the performance of eGFR equations, including their bias, precision, and accuracy, was explored in patients with varying stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) who needed anti-cancer drugs. The reference glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was assessed by the 99mTc-diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid (99mTc-DTPA) plasma clearance method in 320 patients and compared with the GFRs estimated by i) the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation, ii) the unadjusted for body surface area (BSA) CKD-EPI equation, iii) the re-expressed Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) study equation with the Thai racial factor, iv) the Thai eGFR equation, developed in CKD patients, v) the 2012 CKD-EPI creatinine-cystatin C, vi) the Cockcroft-Gault formula, and vii) the Janowitz and Williams equations for cancer patients. The mean reference GFR was 60.5 ± 33.4 mL/min/1.73 m2. The bias (mean error) values for the estimated GFR from the CKD-EPI equation, BSA-unadjusted CKD-EPI equation, re-expressed MDRD study equation with the Thai racial factor, and Thai eGFR, 2012 CKD-EPI creatinine-cystatin-C, Cockcroft-Gault, and Janowitz and Williams equations were −2.68, 1.06, −7.70, −8.73, 13.37, 1.43, and 2.03 mL/min, respectively, the precision (standard deviation of bias) values were 6.89, 6.07, 14.02, 11.54, 20.85, 10.58, and 8.74 mL/min, respectively, and the accuracy (root-mean square error) values were 7.38, 6.15, 15.97, 14.16, 24.74, 10.66, and 8.96 mL/min, respectively. In conclusion, the estimated GFR from the BSA-unadjusted CKD-EPI equation demonstrated the least bias along with the highest precision and accuracy. Further studies on the outcomes of anti-cancer drug dose adjustments using this equation versus the current standard equation will be valuable.

ANTY-COLONIAL DISCOURCE OF UKRAINIAN THINKERS OF THE LATE 19th AND THE FIRST THIRD OF 20th CENTURY

The problems of colonialism and post-colonialism are very important for the modern world. Postcolonial studios are one of the key components of intellectual discourse. However, most of them have a serious flaw, namely the reduction of the topic to the collapse of colonial expansion and colonial exploitation to racial and geographical factors. These studios are about as colonizers view Europeans, and as oppressed peoples of the colonies view residents of other parts of the world. These researchers also do not pay attention to the fact that the Russian Empire had a colony at one time, not in America or Africa, but most of its colonies were in Asia. In addition, the Russian Empire had colonies in Europe: Finland, part of Poland, most of Ukraine, and so on. In turn, the German empire held in colonial condition the part of Poland that belonged to it. In Europe, therewere other colonies of other states. Therefore, at the end of the 19th and in the first third of the 20th century, the concept of "colony of the European type" appeared in socio-political thought. Ukrainian thinkers of this age (namely, Julian Bachinsky, Ivan Franko, Lesja Ukrainka Sergey Mazlakh and Vasyl Shahray, Mikhaylo Volobuev and others) by using certain methodologies investigated various aspects of the existence of such colonies, primarily of the case of Ukraine. Bachinsky puts the focus on purely economic factors that determine the colonial status of Ukraine, Franco – on national-political, Lesja Ukrainka – on existential, Mazlakh and Shahray – emphasized the aggregate of national, political and economic. At the same time, none of them took as the basis of the ethnolinguistic factor, like some Ukrainian researchers of colonialism do now. The article focuses on the ideas of Mikhaylo Volobuyev, which combine economic, political, socio-cultural and existential factors. Volobuyev, in addition, thoroughly criticized the substantial limitations of the racial-geographical approach to the problem of colonialism. Many of his ideas are relevant to modern challenges, others need rethinking in the context of the mutual struggle between different projects of globalization. Thus, in Ukraine at the end of the 19th century and in the first third of the 20th century there was a powerful intellectual direction of anti-colonial socio-political thought that did not reduce the problem of colonialism either to the racial factor, or to the geographical, or to the ethno-linguistic one. The author believes that such an integrated, multi-factor approach to the problems of colonialism and vision of overcoming the colonial heritage is the most urgent one. Therefore, it is expedient and necessary to appeal to the heritage of Ukrainian thinkers who turned to anti-colonial discourse.

HOW CAPITALISM AND RACISM CONTINUE TO SHAPE THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF SOUTH AFRICA

This work provides a critical analysis of the dialectical and organic relationship between the benefits and misfortunes of capitalism and racism as an integral socio-economic part of the South African history since the inception of capitalism and racism in the country in the 15th century. This task is executed by highlighting the importance of the dialectical and organic relationship between race and class. It maintains that the primacy of class over race in terms of importance has existed since the inception of capitalism and racism. The theoretical and practical recognition of the primacy of class over race in terms of importance in the South African political economy is of strategic importance in the struggle for structural socio-economic change and transformation in the country. This struggle constitutes the efforts to solve the structural problem of the benefits of capitalism and racism enjoyed by the decisive minority of its population and their misfortunes confronted or encountered by the decisive majority in the past and present tenses of its history. It maintains that to best and effectively serve the needs and demands of the struggle for structural social change and transformation, whose aim is to end the benefits and misfortunes of capitalism and racism, it is of strategic and tactical importance to dialectically and organically weave the relationship between race and class without departing from the importance of the racial factor in the South African political economy.

John Stuart Mill on Race

The article examines J. S. Mill's views on the significance of the racial factor in the formation of what he called ‘national character’. Mill's views are placed in the context of his time and are assessed in the light of the theories concerning these issues that were predominant in the nineteenth century. It is shown that Mill – although he did indulge himself in the discourse based on race, geography or climate to a minor extent – made strenuous efforts to discredit the deterministic implications of racial theories and to promote the idea that human effort and education could alter beyond recognition what were supposed to be the racially inherited characteristics of various human groups. Finally, Mill's attitude towards race is used as a case-study through which a contribution can be made to broader debates on how to categorize him.