Borderline Situation Research Articles

Existential and Religious Concepts of Fyodor Tyutchev's Poetry as Proof of the Existence of God

The philosophical nature of Tyutchev's poetry was noted by researchers of his work during the poet's lifetime. The study of Tyutchev's work makes it possible to trace the origin of a unique direction of philosophical thought in Russian poetry of the XIX century – religious existentialism. The research carried out within the framework of this article allowed us to trace the genesis of the original direction of religious existentialism in the poetry of F. Tyutchev, who interpreted Nature in his work in philosophical categories. In his poetic works, Tyutchev does not just depict the splendor of Nature, but shows his own idea of the essence of the universe and tries to solve the riddle of human existence through the knowledge of the secrets of Nature, which is presented as proof of the existence of God. Thus, Tyutchev's poetry of Nature is regarded as existential poetry, since it gives a person an answer to the question of the meaning of his existence. In Tyutchev's poetry, the tragedy of human existence correlates with a similar theme developed in the philosophical treatises of the founder of existentialism, S. Kierkegaard, and subsequently continued in the works of the German existential philosopher K. Jaspers. Kierkegaard imagined a gloomy reality where a person is doomed to exist, plunged into the abyss of despair. At the same time, the founder of existentialism offered man a way out of tragic existence through the process of self-improvement, that is, the formation of his own personality, and striving for God. However, the process of becoming a personality is also a path to the tragedy of being, as it leads to a violation of harmony between man and Nature. It is this existential problem, which is related to the borderline situation of Jaspers, that lies in the focus of Tyutchev's attention, who described in poetic form the relationship between man and Nature and showed the only possible way out of this situation through making an existential choice in favor of accepting faith in the true God.

ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЯ ЕКЗИСТЕНЦІЙНОЇ ФІЛОСОФІЇ У ЗАРУБІЖНІЙ ЛІТЕРАТУРІ КІНЦЯ ХХ СТОЛІТТЯ (ЗА МАТЕРІАЛАМИ ТВОРІВ Р. БАХА ТА П. КОЕЛЬО)

The article deals with the issue of transformation of existential philosophical issues in foreign literature of the late 20th century, on the example of the works of R. Bach (“Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, “Illusions”) and P. Coelho (“The Alchemist”, “Veronika Decides to Die”) in particular. The specifics of the study of this problem in domestic and foreign literary criticism are analysed and the relevance and prospects of further research in this field are clarified since arising at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries existential issues continue to actively pulsate in foreign literature of the turn of 20th–21st centuries, serving as one of the unifying factors of the literature of modernism and postmodernism. Existentialists closely ask the question of how and in what sphere a person can find confidence, that is, to find his true purpose (being) and its meaning. This is the most important issue of humanity in all periods of its existence, but attention to it is increasing in transitional moments, moments of change, when the anxiety for the future, tomorrow is growing. It is in this transitional period of the turn of the twentieth and nineteenth centuries that R. Bach and P. Coelho wrote their works, intensifying this issue with them. In the works of R. Bach and P. Coelho the existential problems are pronounced, namely: the search for the truth of existence through the prism of their own existence, freedom of choice, responsibility for their choice, the existence of God, “borderline situation”, death and more. In each of them they are revealed in their own way. Both writers emphasize the importance of knowing one’s “Self”: R. Bach – through the constant pursuit of perfection, P. Coelho – through the realization of dreams, both ways, in their opinion, in fact, are “the way to yourself”. The difference between the views of both writers from the views of existentialists of the early 20th century mainly consists of a life-affirming, optimistic conception of man’s place in the world and how he perceives this world. R. Bach and P. Coelho insist that life can be what we want it to be.

The formation of a unique paradigm of religious Existentialism in the poetry of Fyodor Tyutchev

The philosophical nature of Tyutchev's poetry was noted by researchers of his work during the poet's lifetime. The study of Tyutchev's work makes it possible to trace the origin of a unique direction of philosophical thought in Russian poetry of the XIX century – religious existentialism. The research carried out within the framework of this article allowed us to trace the genesis of the original direction of religious existentialism in the poetry of F. Tyutchev, who interpreted Nature in his work in philosophical categories. In his poetic works, Tyutchev does not just depict the splendor of Nature, but shows his own idea of the essence of the universe and tries to solve the riddle of human existence through the knowledge of the secrets of Nature, which is presented as proof of the existence of God. Thus, Tyutchev's poetry of Nature is regarded as existential poetry, since it gives a person an answer to the question of the meaning of his existence. In Tyutchev's poetry, the tragedy of human existence correlates with a similar theme developed in the philosophical treatises of the founder of existentialism, S. Kierkegaard, and subsequently continued in the works of the German existential philosopher K. Jaspers. Kierkegaard imagined a gloomy reality where a person is doomed to exist, plunged into the abyss of despair. At the same time, the founder of existentialism offered man a way out of tragic existence through the process of self-improvement, that is, the formation of his own personality, and striving for God. However, the process of becoming a personality is also a path to the tragedy of being, as it leads to a violation of harmony between man and Nature. It is this existential problem, which is related to the borderline situation of Jaspers, that lies in the focus of Tyutchev's attention, who described in poetic form the relationship between man and Nature and showed the only possible way out of this situation through making an existential choice in favor of accepting faith in the true God.

Means of the comic as a way of representing ideology in I. Bahrianyi`s novel “The Garden of Gethsemane”

The article engages in an attempt to survey I. Bahrianyi`s novel “The Garden of Gethsemane” on the subject of comic elements. The novel is perceived as a realistic depiction of inhumane Soviet reality, so the question of how risorial culture is blended seamlessly with the text is relevant. The aim of the article is to find out the nature of the comic as an aesthetic category, in particular its varieties: irony, sarcasm, grotesque, and to analyze how the comic functions in the novel, what forms it takes, what functions performs. The descriptive method was used during the work. In I. Bahrianyi`s novel the most frequent manifestation of the comic is irony, which is used on different levels: in journalistic excursus, in depicting the interior, exterior, and most of all – in the dialogues between characters. Humor is also an inalienable part of prisoners’ lives. As a result of processing the material, we came to the following conclusions: the theme of I. Bahrianyi`s novel “The Garden of Gethsemane” envisages a profound pathos, but the comic elements are harmoniously woven into the fabric of the text. With the help of irony and sarcasm the author supports the anti-Soviet ideology and exposes the drawbacks of the Soviet system. The discrepancy between reality and the image, created employing irony draws attention to the issue, foregrounds it. In the dialogues between the two antagonists: the investigator and the prisoner – the irony serves as a means of characterizing the depicted world and the nature of the relationship between them, outlining the author's attitude to what is being said. Irony reduces the significance of Soviet reality as if depriving it of power because it recategorizes everything: now the absurd reality inspires not terror, but disdain. This way of reacting in a borderline situation protects the psyche of prisoners from feelings of doom and persecution. For prisoners irony and humor are one of the available ways of escapism, as well as the ability to preserve the integrity of one's self.

Григорий Александрович Печорин – лишний человек или русский экзистенциальный герой?

The article examines the type of a «superfluous person» that appeared in the Russian literature of the first half of the XIX century through the prism of existential philosophy using the example of G. A. Pechorin. The author argues that Pechorin is characterized by some classical existential concepts: alienation is considered in the light of the existential philosophy of J. P. Sartre, self-contradiction – within the category of despair of S. Kierkegaard. It is argued that Pechorin is in a borderline situation, which is presented in the theories of K. Jaspers. The author believes that a superfluous person eventually turned into an existential hero described in the Western European philosophical literature of the twentieth century, since there are rudiments of existentialism in his character, although many of them are still dormant and waiting for the influence of time to become active.

О ВОЗМОЖНОЙ МЕТАФИЗИЧЕСКОЙ СОСТАВЛЯЮЩЕЙ НЕТРАНСЦЕНДЕНТАЛЬНОГО ПОЗНАВАТЕЛЬНОГО ОПЫТА

The article substantiates the thesis about the possibility to detect a specific way of thinking associated with going beyond the basic reality not only in special forms of cognition, but also in ordinary cognitive experience. In accordance with the definition of metaphysics as the doctrine of true Being, as opposed to the illusory one, we can designate this direction of thoughts as metaphysical. A metaphysical breakthrough as a transition from one level of reality to another differs from such intellectual actions as mythologizing or creating a metaphor. From the standpoint of constructivist epistemology, we can speak of a metaphysical transition not only as a movement through the levels of reality, but also as a change in the reality. We can find a transition to another reality, in particular, in a situation of a paradigm shift in science (the scientific reality changes) and in a borderline situation when the lifeworld changes due to the global reassessment by a person of the circumstances of his/her life. Additionally, an epistemologist can describe such transition through the concepts of hermeneutical field and crystallization. According to the author, the above interpretation allows to conclude that the metaphysical transition is a necessary component of cognitive processes that, in this perspective, can be defined as transcending.

Triage of the elderly in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis as a bioethical process

Abstract The paper discusses the problem of triaging the elderly in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis by analyzing the triage process, caused by lack of resources, in Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. We apply inductive, deductive, and normative bioethical methods, comment on various recommendations for the indication of intensive care during a crisis, and discuss the utilitarianism of benefit maximization. As it follows from the evaluation of the elderly by the frailty parameter, medically inappropriate treatment, as a result of limited resources, is characterized by clinical and bioethical uncertainty. If the main bioethical objective of general bioethics for the COVID-19 pandemic is, in the case of limited resources, based on the non-utilitarian consequentialism paradigm, from the perspective of medical ethics, we face a borderline situation closely related to the topic of dying and death. Such a situation requires social, ethical, and professional reflection. An algorithm for intensive care indication in the situation of crisis and limited resources in the period of the pandemic requires a definition of criteria that identify an acceptable reason for abandoning the treatment in the context of the autonomy of the elderly and by respecting their human dignity and humanity. A global objective of general bioethics in the situation of the pandemic crisis should be based on the paradigm of social justice.

ОПЫТ ПСИХОБИОГРАФИИ ФИЛОСОФИИ ПОСЛЕВОЕННОГО ПОКОЛЕНИЯ

The Philosophical Dialogue is dedicated to the analysis of the historical development of Russian philosophy over the past half century. The authors investigated the attitude of ideas and people in the conditions of historical turning point in the late 20th and early 21st century. Philosophy in a borderline situation allows us to compare and evaluate the past and the present. On the one hand, archetypes, attitudes, moods and experiences, formed as a reception of the collective experience of the past era, have been preserved in the minds of thinkers of the post-war generation – in the consciousness, and may be in the neural networks of the brain. On the other hand, the new social reality – cognitive capitalism – radically changes the self-description of society. It is not to say that modernity satisfies people. Despite the talk about the production of cultural, social, human capital, they feel not happy, but lonely and defenseless in a rapidly changing world. Not only philosophical criticism, but also the wave of protests, which also engulfed the "welfare society", makes one wonder whether it is worth following the recipes of the modern Western economy. On the one hand, closure poses a threat to stagnation, the fate of the country of the outland outing. On the other hand, openness, and, moreover, the attempt to lead the construction of a networked society is nothing but self-sacrifice. Russia has already been the leader of the World International, aiming to defeat communism around the world. But there was another superpower that developed the potential of capitalism. Their struggle involved similarities, which consisted in the desire for technical conquest of the world. The authors attempted to reflect on the position of a country that would not give up the competition, but used new technologies to live better. To determine the criteria, it is useful to use the historical memory of the older generation to assess modernity. Conversely, get rid of repeating the mistakes of the past in designing a better future.

Synthesis, characterization and structural systematics in diorganotin complexes with O,N,O'-tris-chelating semirigid diaza-scaffolds: Mono- vs. di-nuclear compounds

A series of nine novel diorganotin(IV) complexes of O,N,O' chelating ligands were synthesized viz., [n-Bu2Sn(L2)]2·0.25 (C6H14) (1), [Me2Sn(L1)]2·(C7H8) (2), [n-Bu2Sn(L1)]2·(C7H8) (3), [Me2Sn(L3)]2·(C7H8) (4), 2 [n-Bu2Sn(L3)]2·4 (n-Bu2Sn(L3)) (5), [Ph2Sn(L3)] (6), [Ph2Sn(L1)] (7), [Ph2Sn(L4)] (8) and [Ph2Sn(L2)] (9) and structurally characterized. The ligand scaffolds differ with respect to the chemical link between the coordinating N and O atoms, which is either an alkyl or an aryl moiety. Diffraction results indicate that the smallest methyl groups favor dimerization via Sn–O–Sn bridging and six-coordination at the cation. Among these dinuclear derivatives, more asymmetric oxygen bridges and longer Sn⋯Sn separations are found for the less nucleophilic phenolate O. In contrast, the bulky phenyl substituents prevent aggregation for both classes of ligands and always lead to five-coordinated mononuclear species. The n-Bu groups are sterically more demanding than Me but flexible, resulting in an intermediate behavior. When the O,N,O' ligand with phenolate O coordinates a Sn(n-Bu)2 fragment, a borderline situation occurs and both mono- and dinuclear complexes coexist in the same crystalline solid. The overall structural variety is reflected in a range of different Addison-τ5 [Addison et al., J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans.1984, 1349-1356] descriptors for five-fold coordination. For better comparability we introduce a slightly modified geometry index τ'5, in which the basal angle α is subtended by the organic substituents, regardless of its absolute value. τ'5 represents a sensitive indicator for the coordination geometry about SnIV. Tin NMR results revealed that all compounds exist as mononuclear pentacoordinated species in solution.

Scientific evidence underlying contraindications to the ketogenic diet: An update.

SummaryFirst identified as a feasible treatment for intractable epilepsy, the ketogenic diet (KD) has recently gained popularity thanks to growing evidence on applications such as weight loss, most importantly, but also NAFLD, cancer, neurologic conditions and chronic pain. As with any treatment, whether pharmacologic or not, the KD might not be an appropriate intervention for every individual, and a number of contraindications have been proposed, now deeply rooted into clinical practice, excluding de facto many patients that could benefit from its use. However, many of these concerns were expressed due to the absence of clinical studies conducted on fragile populations, and an assessment of lately emerged evidence relative to KD safety is currently lacking and much needed. We herein provide a critical revision of the literature behind each safety alert, in order to guide through the treatment options in the case of subjects with an indication to the KD and a borderline safe situation. Based on available evidence, the possible use of this diet as a therapeutic intervention should be assessed on a patient‐to‐patient basis by adequately skilled medical doctors, keeping in mind current recommendations, but reading them through the knowledge of the current state of the art.

Онтология социальной памяти о войне и проблема экзистенциальной идентичности в воспитании молодежи в начале ХХI века

The ontology of the social memory of war needs a contemporary fundamental rethink because we have overlooked the existential and ontological problems of the USSR/RF, and it has led to an identity crisis. The 21st century is the era of the transition to the so-called ‘simulacra of wars’. Their ‘project’ is initially described without any correlation with reality, and their ‘headquarters’ use increasingly sophisticated methods of information warfare. Therefore, it is really necessary to return to the origins, to the borderline situation of war to gradually develop the existential identity in young people, who must remember and cognize the exact truth of the events of 1941–1945. This updates the existential aspects of modern social consciousness that should be comprehensively revived and fully recovered to educate the younger generation about right and adequate thinking.

The use of transitional space in psychotherapy with the existential concerns of borderline experience

Este documento describe la experiencia del estado de conciencia de transición que facilita el proceso continuo de psicoterapia dentro de los estados límites. El documento se centra en la utilización de los estados de transición de conciencia para que la experiencia existencial de una persona en situación límite se pueda transformar. Los déficits particulares de ego-yo de la situación límite se elaboran desde un punto de vista existencial de relaciones de auto-objeto. La preocupación límite es profundamente existencial y ontológica. El espacio de transición de la conciencia es la puerta de entrada a nuestra encarnación del campo del Ser, que es el campo del Ser.

Художні засоби німого кіно у психологічному екшені І. Дніпровського «Заради неї»

In the present paper a short story written by I. Dniprovsky's is analyzed. In accordance with the action canon, the main character has to find his beloved in the shortest possible time so that they could catch the train and escape from the enemy. In the twists and turns of the story the archetypal plot of lovers’ escape / rescue from the monster can be traced. It descends from folk tales and legends where a young man sacrifices himself for the sake of his beloved. By analogy with receptions in tense feature films (thrillers, horror films, catastrophes), the single-line plot «For Her sake» consists of annoyingly insidious concourse of circumstances. They create the feeling as if the whole world, even the closest people and character’s personal belongings, want to thwart his rescue. It is emphasized that, similar to the techniques in the action movies, a linear storyline in the short story consists of the treacherously irritating coincidences. However, while an action-adventure meta-genre normally has a happy ending, in the present short story the ending is more appropriate for a novella: the Bolsheviks shoot the hero as a deserter. It is established that the defining feature of the story is the lack of description of the characters’ appearances and their speech is reduced to minimum, which was a general feature of silent film scripts. A tense atmosphere of anxiety and fear is created through the acoustic and visual micro-images with the semantics of panic and horror. The gloomy urban landscapes, the hostility of the world and the sense of the fatal doom of the heroes refer to the German expressionist cinema of the early XX century. It is revealed that the story never mentions the struggle of ideologies or the enemy who seeks to seize Petro's native land. The enemy appears as an invisible and terrifying force, an element that creates chaos and makes it difficult to maintain human dignity. The key to understanding of this on border crazy motivation of the main character is the archetypal theory of C. G. Jung. In the story of I. Dniprovsky, a brave soldier (Persona Petra) in attempt to save himself together with Hanka (Anima), subconsciously seeks to save his Self-Identity. Moreover, a Wise Old Man (Hanka's father) and a Big Mother with a Child are present in the story as well. However, none of them is helpful to Petro and does not encourage the latter to make any attempts for escape. According to the artistic concept of the short story, when escaping from death, a person experiences tremendous stress, which breaks his psyche, so in a borderline situation collective experience fails, everyone tries to save himself. It is emphasized that the story's ending is unexpected: the hero finds himself in the city again, however, he is now in the status of unidentified enemy, whom he tried to escape and now he dies at the hands of the redhead leader.

Psychological Scenarios and Indicators of Non-Equilibrium State of the Person at the Borderline Situation

The paper describes the structural and procedural picture of the unity of the non-equilibrium state of the individual and a borderline situation. The subject of the study was limited to the situation of loss, for which it was necessary to identify possible scenarios and systematize psychological indicators. The study employed an integrative analysis and synthesis of theoretical and applied works in the fields of personality psychology, crisis and clinical psychology, psychotherapy, and psychological counseling. The unity of one’s state and situation appeared to provide the psychological links of the event, one’s personal predispositions, interpretations, experience, and behavior. The situation unfolds in the external and internal (mental state) reality, which do not coincide. An essential role in correlating of information about the state of the internal and the external and the emergence of a particular state belongs to the psychological boundaries of the individual. The situation of loss reflects the disintegration of one’s internal and external realities and the psychological impasse: the time-space "in between" the previous ego, the future ego and the present ego, which is partially destroyed. The uncontrolled value-semantic "hanging" correlates with the critical non-equilibrium state of a person. The content markers of their unity are confusion, ambivalence, "breakdown" of the ego boundaries, temporal effects, semantic disregulation, disintegration, alienation, and a burnout. Intolerance to ambivalence of a situation means getting into a border situation. The possibility of a constructive or destructive way out of this situation is indicated by affective expansion or semantic dysregulation and disintegration of the personality. Leaving a borderline situation behind requires a change of the state, attitudes, values, and meanings by restoring the eroded or destroyed boundaries of the ego. For this purpose, the borders and the situation connected with them must acquire the status of a problem and a "place" of opportunity in one’s mind.

Phenomenology of Religion and Sense of the Infinite

The article discusses the role of F. Schleiermacher in the design of the project of the religion phenomenology. Schleiermacher's philosophical theory is a complex fusion of Lutheran theology, modern philosophy and the movement of romanticism. His thinking reflected the borderline situation in the intellectual life of the XVIII– XIX centuries. It resultedin creation of a new image of religion, responded to the spirit of the times. Schleiermacher opposes the deistic teachings, showing that religion is an integral part of human life; it is not rooted in the rational conception of God the creator, but in the inner feeling. Even before the development of phenomenologists, he pointed out that inner feeling is at the heart of religion: by eliminating any moral and rational aspects of religion, Schleiermacher laid the foundation for the well-known numinous R. Otto equation. Schleiermacher's attitude to both the dogmatic and the ritual side of religion was extremely negative, since personal religiosity does not need an external church, in fact a person who has infinitely grasped stands outside the church rituals, because he is the legislator of his own inner religion of feeling. Schleiermacher is one of the first theorists of religious pluralism who formed the most important position of the future science of religion: the comparison of religions is possible, since the religion of feeling common for all mankind made it permissible to search for a single basis of religion and build a large system of religious phenomena united by common principles and implied or actually existing center. According to Schleiermacher, religious experience can also be described in the language of art, since religious experience and aesthetic experience are similar in their basis. Only an experience of the feeling of the infinite can give a person a taste of the religious, and this idea is likely to have the key thought of empathy to the religion phenomenology. Separately, some clauses of Schleiermacher's theory, which were not developed in the writings of religion phenomenologists, are examined in the article.

THE EXISTENCE MODUS IN THE NOVEL «CHAD» («FUMES») BY YURI KOSACH: THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND DEATH

There has been analysed the literary originality of philosophical reflection «Chad» («Fumes»). It is proved that in the context of different influences and philosophical orientations, the prose writer managed to asset his own identity. Creative and philosophical thinking of Yu. Kosach has been studied in the context of the European and national existentialism. The thesis author has interpreted the suicidal motives stated in the novel of «Chad» («Fumes») on the ground of psychoanalysis. She presents the problems and difficulties of an emigrant and gives two different existential views. There is a focus on the originality of the novel and presentation of the vital problems of the 20th century that brightly reflect the era of existential emptiness among the Ukrainian emigration. In the novel of «Chad» («Fumes»), two different existentialisms, religious and atheistic ones, come across. The collision of these views creates a dialogical concept with the essence that a person himself can take the only right decision and make his own choice. In privacy of one’s own mind, being deprived of the idea of God, the person becomes lonely. Thus, he realizes the absurdity of existence, undergoes the transcendence, and finds out the death as the only solution. The atheistic existentialism is represented by hero Sokil, who chose the suicide as a way out of the personal crisis. The religious existentialism is embodied in Apostol, who served faithfully and did not conceive the human existence without God. Keywords: existentialism, death, existence, suicide, emigration, borderline situation.

Ius Resistendi: Derechos de participación, garantismo, resistencia y represión a partir de las definiciones de Juan Larrea Holguín

Las constituciones establecen el marco de las instituciones formales e informales de la democracia. Los partidos políticos, reconocidos por la ley, que consiguen el gobierno y los que se quedan en la oposición, a través de elecciones universales y directas, con procedimientos preestablecidos para la adopción de decisiones políticas, consiguen y conservan el monopolio de la representación democrática formal. Así todo el gobierno, la justicia, la legislación y el poder proceden de las instituciones formales. Pero ¿qué sucede cuando la rebeldía, en forma de derecho de resistencia, está justificada en el marco del derecho positivo y de las mismas instituciones formales? ¿Cómo el ejercicio del derecho de resistencia se convierte en una obligación moral y cívica para resistir a misma ley injusta a través de las formas constitucionalizadas del siempre posible totalitarismo político? Este trabajo, desde un enfoque epistemológico interdisciplinario entre el derecho constitucional y la ciencia política, se plantea el derecho de resistencia como un derecho-garantía, anterior y superior al Estado constitucional, por su origen en el derecho natural, pero que se habilita en una circunstancia extrema, cuando los pilares del Estado moderno se han derrumbado y se encuentra en una situación limítrofe del derecho positivo. El trabajo tiene tres partes: la primera define el marco conceptual sobre el actual debate de la materia; la segunda parte discute sobre los elementos estructurales del poder y del derecho; y la tercera parte sobre los límites conceptuales en la tipicidad jurídica de la acción de resistencia.

Overcoming sheaths overlapping in a small diameter metallic tube with one end closed and using a high density plasma from a high power pulsed hollow cathode discharge

High voltage sheaths are formed when plasmas are produced by application of high negative voltage pulses to conductive supports or components, as in Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation (PIII) treatments of materials surfaces. For parts with concave shape, as inside metal tubes, these sheaths behave quite differently according to the tube configuration and size, as well as, PIII treatment pressure of operation and pulsing parameters. In this work, an SS304 tube of 1.1 cm internal diameter and 20 cm length was pulsed typically at -0.5 to -2.6 kV, 20 μs pulse length, 500 Hz repetition rate, nitrogen pressure of 5x10-2 mbar and with one side closed configuration. Different currents (between 10 and 30 A) were used to produce plasmas with sheaths that overlapped or not, depending on the currents used. To study these sheath behaviors, a simple plasma diagnostic technique based on a bi-dimensional mapping of the deposition of sputtered materials and by etching via the plasma on a Si wafer target surface, both coming out from the tube, was used. This mapping showed clearly the border line situation between overlapping and non-overlapping sheaths in that small tube which allowed to estimate the plasma density to be around 1011 cm-3 at such a sheath condition, as previously anticipated by Sheridan. Above that border condition, nitrogen PIII was successfully obtained in such a small tube of SS304, producing TiN and Ti2N in samples of Ti6Al4V placed inside the tube, when temperatures higher than 800°C were reached there. Below the border, no significant uptake of nitrogen was possible. Using this type of experimental set-up, it is now possible to explore different hollow cathode behaviors, efficient or high temperature (above 800°C) PIII conditions and also new utilizations of the plasma ejected from the tube.

Charting the practical dimensions of understaffing from a managerial perspective: The everyday shape of the UK's sonographer shortage.

Across the last two decades, ultrasound services in many healthcare sectors have become increasingly pressurised as a consequence of upsurging demand and difficulties in recruiting viable clinicians. Indeed by 2013, the UK government's Migration Advisory Committee had listed sonography as an official 'shortage specialty'. Comparatively little research has to date, however, explored the impacts of this situation upon the departments themselves, and the individuals working therein. The core purpose of this study is, thus, to lend qualitative depth to current understandings of the frontline situation in the UK's ultrasound units, many of which are understaffed, from the perspective of their managers. Using a thematic analysis informed by a Straussian model of Grounded Theory, N = 20 extended accounts provided by ultrasound department leads in public (n = 18) and private (n = 2) units were explored. Four global themes emerged from the analysis of which the first two (the broadly sociological matters) are described in this paper. Theme 1 addresses how a lack of staff in the broader ultrasound economy has created a troublesome migratory system in contemporary UK ultrasound. Theme 2 addresses how this economy works chiefly to the advantage of the most junior and the most senior clinicians, often leaving mid-career professionals in the borderline impossible situation of having to concurrently occupy both junior and senior roles. The findings ideally open up debate on some key practical contingencies of the UK's sonographer shortage, and reflect upon literature regarding the nuanced aspects of a shifting healthcare workplace constitution.

Experimental Simulation of Clinical Borderline Situations in Temporal Bone Specimens After Ossiculoplasty.

One reason for insufficient hearing improvement with a distinct air-bone gap after ossiculoplasty with implantation of partial or total ossicular replacement prostheses can be the dislocation or minimal shifting of the prosthesis. The aim of this study was the simulation of common clinical borderline situations with minimal shifting of the prosthesis in temporal bone specimens after ossiculoplasty. It was furthermore the goal to identify these specific situations through imaging by cone beam computed tomography (cbCT) and direct visual inspection using the operation microscope. Additionally, the functional status was evaluated using laser-Doppler vibrometry (LDV). We used a total of four temporal bone specimens for this study. A reconstruction with a partial ossicular replacement prostheses was performed in three specimens and with a total ossicular replacement prostheses in one specimen, with good initial acoustic properties. Subsequently, one specific type of prosthesis failure was simulated in each specimen, respectively, by minimally shifting, tilting, or bending the prostheses from their initial positions. These changes were introduced step-by-step until a borderline situation just short of complete acoustic decoupling was reached. Each step was examined using both LDV and cbCT and observed through the operation microscope. LDV was able to quantify the mechanic function of the ossicular chain after most of the manipulation steps by demonstrating the effect of any shifting of the prosthesis on the middle ear transfer function. However, in some situations, the middle ear transfer function was better with a visually more advanced failure of the prosthesis. In addition, cbCT showed most of the steps with excellent resolution and was able to delineate changes in soft tissue (e.g., cartilage covering). cbCT seems to be a promising imaging technique for middle ear problems. As cbCT and LDV exhibited slightly different advantages and disadvantages regarding the demonstration of borderline situations, the combination of both techniques allowed for a more precise evaluation of middle ear reconstructions. Knowledge of the specific characteristics of these methods and their possible combination might help otologists and otosurgeons to refine indications for revision surgery and improve their personal patient counseling.