Exploring Possible Mechanisms of Hormesis and Homeopathy in the Light of Nanopharmacology and Ultra-High Dilutions

Serially diluted succussed solutions of a suitable drug/toxic substance can exhibit physicochemical and biological properties even far beyond Avogadro’s limit defying conventional wisdom. They can show hormesis, and homeopathy uses them as medicines. Many studies confirm that they can have an impact on gene expression different than controls. Water in the exclusion zone phase can have memory but for a short period. However, the nanoparticle as the physical substrate can hold information. Nanoparticle and exclusion zone duo as nanoparticle-exclusion zone shell can provide a prolonged memory. The Nanoparticle-Exclusion Zone Shell Model may be an important step toward explaining the nature and bioactivity of serially diluted succussed solutions used as homeopathic medicines. This model may also provide insight into the workings of hormesis. Hormesis is the primary phenomenon through which homeopathic phenomenon may have evolved exhibiting the principle of similars. Hahnemann exploited it to establish homeopathy. The nanoparticle-exclusion zone shells present in the remedy, selected on the principle of similars, can be patient-specific nanoparticles in a symptom syndrome-specific manner. They can carry the drug-specific information for safer clinical applications in an amplified form for high yielding. It suggests homeopathy is a type of nanopharmacology.

Author Reply: Aligning Social Relations With Faces, Words, and Emotions

How do facial movements and verbal statements relate to emotional processes? A familiar answer is that the primary phenomenon is an internally located emotion that may then get expressed on the face and represented in words. In this view, emotion’s social functions and effects are indirect consequences of prior intrapsychic states or events. By contrast, my target article argued that facial and verbal activity are constituents rather than consequences of the dynamic production of fundamentally relational emotions. This article clarifies this alternative position and evaluates potential counterarguments.

Vascular underpinning of COVID-19

COVID-19 management guidelines have largely attributed critically ill patients who develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, to a systemic overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cardiovascular dysfunction may also represent a primary phenomenon, with increasing data suggesting that severe COVID-19 reflects a confluence of vascular dysfunction, thrombosis and dysregulated inflammation. Here, we first consolidate the information on localized microvascular inflammation and disordered cytokine release, triggering vessel permeability and prothrombotic conditions that play a central role in perpetuating the pathogenic COVID-19 cascade. Secondly, we seek to clarify the gateways which SARS-CoV-2, the causative COVID-19 virus, uses to enter host vascular cells. Post-mortem examinations of patients' tissues have confirmed direct viral endothelial infection within several organs. While there have been advances in single-cell RNA sequencing, endothelial cells across various vascular beds express low or undetectable levels of those touted SARS-CoV-2 entry factors. Emerging studies postulate alternative pathways and the apicobasal distribution of host cell surface factors could influence endothelial SARS-CoV-2 entry and replication. Finally, we provide experimental considerations such as endothelial polarity, cellular heterogeneity in organoids and shear stress dynamics in designing cellular models to facilitate research on viral-induced endothelial dysfunctions. Understanding the vascular underpinning of COVID-19 pathogenesis is crucial to managing outcomes and mortality.

The Tragi-Comic Lives of Theory: Values of a Simmelian Existence

The philosopher and sociologist Georg Simmel made repeated efforts throughout his career to address the crisis of modern culture by drawing on a wide repertoire of scholarly discourses and imaginative fictions. An overlooked and unique feature of his early works include humorous vignettes and free-verse poems in pseudonymous pieces published in the avant-garde journal Jugend. In later writings, he advances his own life-philosophy through an idiosyncratic use of Goethe’s scientific, autobiographical, and literary works in an attempt to articulate what is distinctive about the modern worldview. Focussing on these lesser-known writings reveals the tragi-comic character of his approach to modern individuality in a variety of cultural spheres, and in the life of theory itself. Like Simmel’s vitalist quest for the archetype or “primary phenomenon (Urphänomen) […] of the idea of Goethe” and in his formulation of “the values of Goethean Life”, this essay offers a kind of theorizing about the “spiritual meaning (geistige Sinn) of Simmelian existence” in its many forms of expression. Although Simmel’s ideas may seem antiquated to us now, recovering what might be called his ‘theory-fictions’ is essential if the humanities and social sciences are to address the most pressing problems we face in the 21st century.

Diagnóstico del mecanismo de desgaste aplicado en pares tribológicos mediante ferrografía. // Diagnostic of wear mechanism on tribology pairs using ferrographyc analisys.

El análisis ferrográfico de partículas metálicas producto del desgaste, representa una valiosa herramienta para diagnosticar el mecanismo de desgaste en pares tribológicos sujetos a movimiento relativo en un medio lubricado. La morfología de las partículas de desgaste, su forma y tamaño permiten mediante este método determinar el principal fenómeno que causa el desgaste en las superficies friccionantes. Esta técnica ha sido aplicada en los motores de los generadores de la empresa Sociedad Minera Liga de Oro en calidad de herramienta auxiliar de mantenimiento, divisando partículas de desgaste abrasivo, óxidos negros y silicatos. ABSTRACTThe ferrographic analysis of metal particles from wastage represents a valuable tool for diagnosing the wear mechanism in tribology pairs subject to relative movement in a lubricated environment. The morphology of the wear particles, their shape and size allow to determine the primary phenomenon causing wear on friction surfaces. This technique has been applied to engines generators at the Golden League Mining Society as an auxiliary maintenance tool, spotting particles of abrasive wear, black oxides and silicates.

Investigation of Salivary Cortisol Response to Awakening in Underweight and Weight-Restored Patients with Anorexia Nervosa

IntroductionAnorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by dysregulated eating that leads to chronic malnutrition, which may be responsible for several physical complications, including endocrine alterations, such as hyperactivity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.ObjectivesSeveral studies have shown a dysregulation of the cortisol awakening response (CAR) in symptomatic AN patients. However, it has not been established if the deranged CAR of underweight AN patients is a primary phenomenon or an alteration secondary to malnutrition.AimsThe aim of this study was to explore the salivary CAR in both underweight and weight-restored patients with AN.MethodsWe recruited 59 women: 18 undernourished AN patients, 15 weight-restored AN women and 26 normal-weight healthy controls. Saliva samples were collected in the morning, immediately after awakening and after 15, 30 and 60 minutes, in order to measure saliva levels of cortisol. Participants filled in the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI) to test their anxiety levels in the morning of the test.ResultsCompared to healthy controls, underweight AN patients showed an enhanced CAR whereas the weight recovered patients had a normal CAR. These results were not correlated with levels of anxiety.ConclusionsFor the first time, our results demonstrate that the deranged CAR found in acute AN patients is not present in weight-restored ones, suggesting that altered activity of the HPA axis of symptomatic AN patients is a state-dependent phenomenon.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Adorno’s grey, Taussig’s blue: Colour, organization and critical affect

In this article, we seek to open up the study of affect and organization to colour. Often simply taken for granted in organizational life and usually neglected in organizational thought, colour is an affective force by default. Deploying and interweaving the languages of affect theory, critical theory and organization studies, we discuss colour as a primary phenomenon for the study of ‘critical affect’. We then trace colour’s affect in conditioning the unfolding of organization in two particular ‘colour/spaces’ – Adorno’s grey and Taussig’s blue of our title – and discuss both its ambiguity and critical potential. Finally, we ponder what colour might do to the style of an organizational scholarship attuned to affect, where sentences blur with things and forces more than they seek to represent them.

Study of the International News Coverage in National and Regional English

Revolution in the information and technology is the primary phenomenon behind the globalization which has resulted in the interdependence of the nations. The creation of various international groupings such as UN, ASEAN, BRICS, G8, G20 etc. is also the result of the technological convergence. In such a scenario, the issues which affect one country are the issues which impact the world as a whole too. The countries connected by international are now having the sense of belongingness towards each other. Terrorism isone such issue on which every country of the world has a say at this moment. The united effort by major powers todefeat terrorism at a front and the response of terrorists on such efforts is being reported in all newspapers. The incidents of terrorism at any place and its reporting innews dailies play an important part in determining the perspective of the masses on such issues. Further, news framing results in the different types of news frames in coverage of same issues. Through this study, the researcher has made an effort to study the detailed coverage of the ‘Paris Attacks’ of 13/11 in regional as well as national English dailies of Jalandhar (Punjab).