Early Era Research Articles

What Is the Influence of HIV Serostatus on HbA1c? A Prospective Analysis Using Continuous Glucose Monitoring.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is reported to be more common in people living with HIV (PLWH). Clinical guidelines recommend screening for diabetes in PLWH, but there is no agreed method due to studies reporting HbA1c is falsely low in PLWH. These studies were performed in the early HIV era when participants were taking older preparations of antiretroviral therapy that are rarely used today. We aimed to investigate whether HIV serostatus influences HbA1c. We conducted a prospective cohort study of PLWH and age- and sex-matched HIV-negative participants who were purposely recruited from clinics in Brighton, U.K. Each participant wore a Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor (CGM) for up to 10 days, had glucose measured during an oral glucose tolerance test, and fructosamine and paired HbA1c were measured. We performed regression analysis to assess the influence of HIV on HbA1c and used a separate model for CGM glucose, venous glucose, and fructosamine. In addition, we included predictor variables used in previous studies that explored HbA1c discrepancy. We recruited 60 PLWH (90% men, 50% with T2D, mean ± SD age 57 ± 10.7 years, 100% undetectable viral load) and 48 people without HIV (92% men, 30% with T2D, mean age 57.7 ± 8.9 years). We found that HIV serostatus did not have a significant influence on HbA1c within the regression models. We performed a comprehensive assessment of glycemia to assess whether HIV serostatus influences HbA1c. We did not find any strong evidence that HIV serostatus influenced HbA1c. The results of our study support incorporating HbA1c into routine clinical blood work in PLWH.

Neither nationalism nor neo-Ottomanism but the winner is neo-liberal consumerism? Arts of the past

ABSTRACT In Turkish cultural history, there is an uninterrupted continuity in the education of the Traditional Turkish Arts (TTA), with clear links to the Ottoman past and Islam. This article discusses how TTA were preserved and incorporated into the educational curriculum in the early Republican era, despite discourses that established a direct disengagement between the Republican nationalist project and the Ottoman past. Turning then to the dissemination of TTA under the AKP’s rule as a reflection of neo-Ottomanism as a multi-faceted strategy, this article reveals their overlap with neo-liberal policies that bring about their commodification.

Adaptation of Community Radio in the New Media Age

Community Radio has played an important role in shaping good local governance, village governance, supporting the people's economy, and preserving local wisdom. However, in the current era of new media, the existence of community radio is increasingly tested by various challenges. This study aims to understand how community radio managers adapt to the development of information and communication technology that continues to evolve. The research method used is descriptive with qualitative approach. Community radio is faced with the fact that information and communication technologies are constantly evolving, forming what we know as new media. In earlier eras, radio was identified with a physical device called a radio, but now radio broadcasts can be accessed via online channels or by streaming without being constrained by frequency range. These new media-based broadcasts often lack personal interaction with their listeners. Therefore, to build a more emotional connection with its audience, community radio managers and broadcasters need to adopt a more humanist approach. They seek to strengthen the bond between community radio and its listeners through more direct, responsive, and personalized interactions. Thus, they create stronger bonds and build loyalty among their listeners. This study is expected to provide a deeper insight into the adaptation strategies undertaken by community radio in the face of rapid changes in the media environment. With a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities at hand, community radio can continue to be a relevant and beneficial means for local communities.

Ultrahigh frequency primordial gravitational waves beyond the kHz: The case of cosmic strings

We investigate gravitational-wave backgrounds (GWBs) of primordial origin that would manifest only at ultrahigh frequencies, from kilohertz to 100 gigahertz, and leave no signal at LIGO, the Einstein Telescope, the Cosmic Explorer, LISA, or pulsar-timing arrays. We focus on GWBs produced by cosmic strings and make predictions for the GW spectra scanning over high-energy scale (beyond 1010 GeV) particle physics parameters. Signals from local string networks can easily be as large as the big bang nucleosynthesis/cosmic microwave background bounds, with a characteristic strain as high as 10−26 in the 10 kHz band, offering prospects to probe grand unification physics in the 1014–1017 GeV energy range. In comparison, GWB from axionic strings is suppressed (with maximal characteristic strain ∼10−31) due to the early matter era induced by the associated heavy axions. We estimate the needed reach of hypothetical futuristic GW detectors to probe such GWB and, therefore, the corresponding high-energy physics processes. Beyond the information of the symmetry-breaking scale, the high-frequency spectrum encodes the microscopic structure of the strings through the position of the UV cutoffs associated with cusps and kinks, as well as potential information about friction forces on the string. The IR slope, on the other hand, reflects the physics responsible for the decay of the string network. We discuss possible strategies for reconstructing the scalar potential, particularly the scalar self-coupling, from the measurement of the UV cutoff of the GW spectrum. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

The persistence of anti-Protestant policies from the Fascist period in post-World War II Italy: ideologies, practices and legislation

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to examine the continuities between Fascist Italy and the early republican period in terms of anti-Protestant policy. To this end, it analyses three main issues: the ideology behind Catholic anti-Protestantism and the role played by Catholic hierarchies and Holy See itself; Italian legislation and norms in religious matters, with reference to minority denominations; and the concrete attitudes of State organs at central and peripheral levels. Drawing on extensive archival documentation (from Italian, Vatican and international archives), this article shows the profound continuities, but also the differences, in anti-Protestant legislation and practice between Fascist period and the early Republican era, marked by a strong Catholic and Christian-Democrat hegemony. Thanks to this extensive documentation, this article highlights the role played by various State actors (government, central ministerial apparatuses, local administrations, judiciary) in determining the contrasting side-lining of anti-Protestant policies, which took place in the mid-fifties.

Wormhole inducing exponential expansion in R2 gravity

Wormholes are considered both from the Wheeler deWitt equation, as well as from the field equations in the Euclidean background of Robertson Walker mini-superspace in [Formula: see text] gravity. Quantum wormhole satisfies Hawking Page wormhole boundary condition in the Euclidean background of mini-superspace, however, in the Lorentzian background wave functional turns to the usual oscillatory function. The Euclidean field equations for [Formula: see text] lead to the wormhole configuration, as well as oscillating universe in Euclidean time [Formula: see text]. The oscillating universe in Euclidean time [Formula: see text] transforms to an expanding universe only for [Formula: see text] in Lorentz time [Formula: see text] under analytic continuation [Formula: see text] and asymptotically leads to an exponential solution. An Euclidean wormhole in the very early era evolves to an oscillating universe in [Formula: see text], thereafter crossing deSitter radius transition to an inflationary era is evident at later epoch only for [Formula: see text].

Bridging universities and the world: a cross-national analysis of countries’ participation in the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme, 1992–2020

ABSTRACT The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme is a global initiative for higher education institutions around the world. Participants are expected to uphold the values of UNESCO and contribute to the development of a broader society, often beyond national boundaries. Despite the lack of financial incentives, more than 1,300 higher education institutions from 142 countries have been involved since the programme launched in 1992. Drawing on theories concerning both national and global environments, I employ event count analysis to investigate what drives the successful diffusion of the programme and what factors influence countries’ differing levels of participation. The results reveal that participation density, countries’ linkages to world society, existence of the ministry of higher education, and the occurrence of relevant world conferences are positively associated with participation. Developing countries took part more actively in the earlier era during which UNESCO provided seed money to launch programmes.

Journalistic Framing of Finnish Ice Hockey Club Jokerit in the Russian-Led Kontinental Hockey League

One of the major franchises in Finland’s top division in men’s ice hockey (Liiga), Jokerit Helsinki, sold its home arena and half of its shares to Finnish-Russian oligarchs in 2013. Jokerit also switched to the Russian-led Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and competed there from 2014 to 2022. Russia’s KHL project and its expansion to the West can be viewed as a form of soft power. This study delves into the journalistic coverage of Jokerit during two specific periods: Its early days in the KHL and its later stages when exiting the league. These periods coincide with critical geopolitical events, such as Russia’s annexation of Crimea (2014), Belarusian protests (2020–2021), and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (2022). Our data consists of Jokerit-related articles in the newspaper <em>Helsingin Sanomat</em> as well as interviews of the journalists who followed the team closely. We explore the critical socio-political coverage of Jokerit in <em>Helsingin Sanomat</em> during these periods and investigate whether the sports journalists recognized the broader geopolitical context of the KHL project and, if so, how this influenced their reporting. Utilizing the framing theory, we identified five frames under which to divide the articles: (a) sports events, (b) international relations, (c) power and governance, (d) business, and (e) unity. The sports event frame predominated during the early KHL era, whereas international relations and power and governance frames only emerged later. These shifts were not initiated by sports journalists but resulted from the efforts of journalists in other fields and increased the societal scrutiny of ties to Russia.

Symbolism of Sacred Art in Water Conduits

Nepal is a country with abundance of traditional art, architecture and culture. Almost every monument comprises faith, belief, devotion and sacredness which are initiated to be expressed through symbolic representation. Historicity of water conduit of Kathmandu valley can be traced back to early Cristian Era. They were installed to fulfill basic need of water. Flowing water is compared to goddess Ganga. Thus, every water conduit is equated to goddess Ganga with depiction of a crocodile, her vehicle. Cent percent water conduits of the valley consists of sculptural art associated to Hindu or Buddhist deities and a few with architectural monuments. It also comprises sculptural art of several creatures as; serpent, fish, frog, chameleon, mongoose. These deities, monuments and creatures are found to be a symbolic expression of theme associated with religious belief and faith. In this context, finding out the theme of an art expressed in a water conduit, chief feature of sacred sculptural art of water conduits and symbolic representation of sculptural art of water conduits of Kathmandu valley have been focused as an objective of this research. This qualitative research is based upon historical fact. Thus, the facts are collected from historical monuments through survey, interview, collection of photographs and are analyzed in a descriptive way. Related literary sources have been consulted as a secondary source. From several references, it is to be considered that water conduits of the valley have been basically set up for social and religious utility with installation of several deities according to their faith. Art of each conduit as well as image portrays specific features belong to related historical age. Besides this, each sculptural art depicted on the conduit conveys symbolism of goddess Ganga and several pilgrimages composed within a precise pious abode.

“The Desire for Peace is ‘Unconstitutional’ in Bonn”: The Free German Youth and Rearmament in West Germany, 1945–1952

ABSTRACT: Best known as the state youth organization of the German Democratic Republic, the Free German Youth (FDJ) operated widely in West Germany during the early Cold War era. This article provides a brief history of the West-FDJ, as it was known, and concentrates on its prominent efforts challenging Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s rearmament policies in the early 1950s. While the decision to ban the organization in 1951 was justified by concerns about the fragility of the young democratic state, the Adenauer government’s strident response also served as a politically expedient strategy to undermine resistance to West Germany’s remilitarization.

Emotion and Gesture Recognition

Human Gestures and emotions play an important role in interpersonal relationships. The automatic recognition of emotions and gestures has been an active research topic from early eras. Emotions are reflected from facial expression, speech and gesture of the body. Hence understanding of emotion and gesture has high importance in interaction between humans(human-human) as well as between human and machine communication.In this system captured images are compared with the trained dataset available in the database and then display emotional state and gesture. For this system, fer13 (Facial Expressions Recognition 2013 dataset) and VGG16 (Visual Geometry Group) datasets are used to compare with captured images. In this system emotion and gesture recognition, both will run simultaneously. EDA(Exploratory Data Analysis) is used to analyse and validate the train data for both emotion as well as gesture dataset.

Unveiling the ventral morphology of a rare early Cambrian great appendage arthropod from the Chengjiang biota of China

BackgroundThe early Cambrian arthropod clade Megacheira, also referred to as great appendage arthropods, comprised a group of diminutive and elongated predators during the early Palaeozoic era, around 518 million years ago. In addition to those identified in the mid-Cambrian Burgess Shale biota, numerous species are documented in the renowned 518-million-year-old Chengjiang biota of South China. Notably, one species, Tanglangia longicaudata, has remained inadequately understood due to limited available material and technological constraints. In this study, we, for the first time, examined eight fossil specimens (six individuals) utilizing state-of-the-art μCT and computer-based 3D rendering techniques to unveil the hitherto hidden ventral and appendicular morphology of this species.ResultsWe have identified a set of slender endopodites gradually narrowing distally, along with a leaf-shaped exopodite adorned with fringed setae along its margins, and a small putative exite attached to the basipodite. Our techniques have further revealed the presence of four pairs of biramous appendages in the head, aligning with the recently reported six-segmented head in other early euarthropods. Additionally, we have discerned two peduncle elements for the great appendage. These findings underscore that, despite the morphological diversity observed in early euarthropods, there exists similarity in appendicular morphology across various groups. In addition, we critically examine the existing literature on this taxon, disentangling previous mislabelings, mentions, descriptions, and, most importantly, illustrations.ConclusionsThe μCT-based investigation of fossil material of Tanglangia longicaudata, a distinctive early Cambrian euarthropod from the renowned Chengjiang biota, enhances our comprehensive understanding of the evolutionary morphology of the Megacheira. Its overall morphological features, including large cup-shaped eyes, raptorial great appendages, and a remarkably elongated telson, suggest its potential ecological role as a crepuscular predator and adept swimmer in turbid waters.

Clinical outcomes of patients receiving three versus four doses of methotrexate with concomitant antithymocyte globulin in match unrelated donor allogeneic stem cell transplant: A single-center experience.

Methotrexate (MTX) doses on days +1, +3, +6, and +11 after match unrelated donor allogeneic stem cell transplant (MUD HSCT) is a common graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis regimen. However, the overlapping toxicity of MTX with conditioning chemotherapy sometimes warrants the omission of the fourth dose of MTX. Prior single-institution studies showed conflicting results comparing the outcomes of patients who received three versus four doses of MTX, but to our knowledge, the effect of concomitant antithymocyte globulin (ATG) has not been reported. Charts of patients who underwent MUD HSCT between 2009 and 2023 were reviewed. Patients received rabbit ATG (Thymoglobulin), given at 0.5mg/kg on day -3, 2mg/kg on day -2, and 2.5mg/kg on day -1. MTX is given at 15mg/m2 on day +1 and 10mg/m2 on days +3, +6, and +11. Severe mucositis was the most common indication for day +11 MTX omission (82%). We identified 292 patients (116 in 3 dose cohort and 176 in 4 dose cohort). Median follow-up was 23 months (range 1-151). Patients in the 4 doses cohort were more frequently male (68% vs. 50%, p<0.01), received a reduced intensity conditioning regimen (38.0% vs. 22%, p<0.01), were older (median 58 vs. 54 years, p=0.02), and received a transplant in the earlier era (median HSCT year 2014 vs. 2018, p<0.01). A statistically significant difference was not evidenced between the cohorts for the following outcomes: acute GVHD (aGVHD) (HR 1.1, 95% CI 0.9-1.5), chronic GVHD (cGVHD) (HR 1.3, 95% CI 0.8-1.6), relapse-free survival (RFS) (HR 1.0, 95% CI 0.6-1.5), non-relapse mortality (NRM) (HR 1.4, 95% CI 0.9-2.2), and overall survival (OS) (HR 1.2, 95% CI 0.9-1.7). Both cohorts had similar median time to neutrophil engraftment at 14 days. When ATG is incorporated, omission of day +11 MTX does not significantly impact the rate of engraftment or cumulative incidence of aGVHD, cGVHD, RFS, NRM, and OS.

Capitalist, Evolution, Financial Innovations and Financial Literacy: A Study of their Dynamics in Shaping Modern Capitalism

Finance has had its root in human history since human being started a settled civilized life. As production for trade took a shape, various means of transactions and storage of value kept on evolving. Gradually, finance took the center stage with the evolution of modern capitalism. In early stages the financial instruments remained a scattered individual means of financial practice, no central regulation existed in the early era. Hence the acquaintance with these instruments was also confined to individual users, the traders, particularly. Since economic productivity was quite low, ordinary individuals had little surplus to save, not many had much to do with financial literacy. The modern capitalism required industrial workers, surplus of agricultural products, more consumers for market, more means of production to produce trade surplus and more financial savings and instruments to channelize investments. Also the producers were required to be alienated from the product of labour so that the trade of commodities could be taken in control by the trading class. Also the means of production, which was otherwise the ownership of the households, was to be turned marketable to facilitate the transfer the ownership from ordinary owners to the trading class. The trinity of commodity production, wage labour and market system altogether had to evolve for capitalism to come into existence. Accordingly, various financial instruments took shape, the traditional ones became more formalized and many new ones were invented. The evolution of different forms of business, the 'company' form particularly, helped this process in a big way. Simultaneously, the financial anarchy put the systems in turmoil and hence regulatory bodies became a compulsion. These regulatory bodies assumed the twin role of regulation of financial markets, financial facilitation, as well as creating financial literacy among ordinary people to link their savings to the mainstream trade and commerce lines. The paper attempts to portray the evolution of modern financial system and find out how this evolution has been linked to the financial literacy of the common masses. Also the paper would throw lights on imminent market and systemic hazards caused by excess leliance on financialisation of economic system.

Хадисы и высказывания исламских деятелей в арабских надписях Ахтынского района Дагестана

Among the sources on the history of Islam in Dagestan, an important place is occupied by numerous epigraphic monuments of the region, the vast majority thereof being compiled in Arabic. During field studies of Arabic-language epigraphy in the villages of Akhtynski district of Dagestan, we identified inscriptions of various genres, whose texts included hadiths and utterances by prominent Islamic fig-ures and scholars of theology. Inscriptions consisting entirely of utterances by authoritative Muslim figures of the early era of Islam have been recorded. Such epigraphic monuments had not previously been the subject of a separate study. It has been established that the inclusion of texts of some hadiths is typical only of certain genres of epigraphy. For example, the texts of construction inscriptions re-garding the construction or repair of Islamic religious buildings, as a rule, contained the same hadith, its content being directly related to construction activities. The study demonstrated that educated people who had acquired knowledge in Islamic sciences and were familiar with authoritative collections of hadiths were among the compilers and calligraphers of inscriptions. The epigraphic materials presented are novel for the scholarly discourse.

The Phenomenon of Creative Heritage in Socio-Humanitarian Discourse

The main idea of the article is to address the phenomenon of creative heritage as an independent basic concept of modern socio-humanitarian research. Having analyzed a certain corpus of works in the field of memorial cultural practices, the authors came to the conclusion that there is no instrumental distinction of the concepts “cultural memory”, “artistic heritage”, “creative heritage” in this discursive field. The novelty of the study lies in analyzing the specificity of the concept “creative heritage”, as well as its role in contemporary socio-humanitarianism in general and art history in particular. Since the field of applied interest of the authors lies in the sphere of a specific art form — dance, practical conclusions are drawn in relation to it. It is emphasized that along with the generally accepted methods of research in a given discursive space — typological, structural, functional, biographical — the method of humanitarian blockchain and the concept of “artistic code of the epoch” proposed earlier by one of the co-authors can be used to study the creative heritage of a person (creative group) in the history of art. Emphasis is placed on the relevance of this research policy in connection with the current geopolitical agenda, the practices of “culture of cancellation” being implemented before our eyes, and, accordingly, the need to develop effective projects in the sphere of state cultural policy, forming the working contours of cultural memory and national identity. The problem of identifying, studying and preserving the creative heritage as part of the cultural heritage acquires special relevance in the realities of the modern historical stage — the “early digital era”, accompanied by the rapid development of digital technologies, including destructive ones such as deepfake. The practical potential of the development of this concept is particularly noted, which allows for the consistent preservation of traditions and innovations in artistic activities, to use both the formed array of cultural heritage of different levels and the potential of creative cultural industries.

Portal Hemodynamics in Liver Resection and Transplantation.

The hepatic blood supply and its several homeostatic and pathologic processes has always been a matter of great interest. Many views commonly held today are derived from an earlier era, but major reorientations have occurred recently in almost all aspects of knowledge of the role and regulation of hepatic blood flow. Moreover, with the advent of liver transplantation (LT), especially living donor LT (LDLT) there has been a resurgence of interest in attempting to comprehend this deceptively simple topic. It is nonetheless important to concede that even though our knowledge on the practical modulation of hepatic hemodynamics has expanded enormously, there still remain the need to explore the depths of our remaining ignorance to further improve outcomes in LDLT. This review focuses on the current view, controversies and gaps in knowledge of the hepatic vascular bed, with an emphasis on the importance of portal hemodynamics in liver disease and its impact on liver regeneration and LT.

Trends in estuarine pyrite formation point to an alternative model for Paleozoic pyrite burial

The early Paleozoic Era (∼540–420 Ma) was an interval of profound biogeochemical changes including increasing oxygen (O2) and the onset of bioturbation (sediment mixing by animals). It is hypothesized that incipient bioturbation caused a monotonic decrease in sedimentary burial of pyrite (FeS2), which would have slowed atmospheric O2 accumulation. However, pyrite accumulation can exhibit complex responses to dynamic, low-O2 environmental conditions. To assess pyrite burial in a potential modern analogue to early Paleozoic environments, we collected sediment cores from the Chesapeake Bay, an estuary with multiple gradients in sulfate concentration, hypoxia intensity, organic carbon flux and lability, and bioturbation. Results indicate that pyrite accumulation is maximized not under strong sulfate depletion in highly reducing sediments, but rather in sediments that occupy the mid-range of sulfate–chloride ratios. This probably occurs through efficient replenishment of pore water sulfate and/or through the generation of sulfur redox intermediates, which promote pyrite formation via the polysulfide reaction pathway. In light of these results and in contrast to earlier models, we hypothesize that mild early Paleozoic bioturbation temporarily increased pyrite burial efficiency by stimulating higher sulfate reduction rates and increasing sedimentary sulfide retention. Compiled sulfur and carbon data from a geochemical database indicate that median sulfur-carbon ratios of fine-grained marine siliciclastic rocks increased from the Ediacaran through the Ordovician, then decreased and became much less variable from the Silurian onward. Thus, the Cambrian and Ordovician Periods may constitute a distinct interval of the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition in which bioturbation temporarily accelerated O2 buildup. This transition probably ended in the Silurian, when pO2 rose to sufficient levels to homogenize sedimentary carbon–sulfur cycling.

Finnish reported speech and Swedish intratextual translations in 17th-century court records

Abstract This paper studies on multilingual administrative writing in Sweden during the early modern era of emerging national language ideology within the domain of court writing. The source material for this study consists of lower-court records from Finnish-speaking areas of the Swedish realm c. 1620–1700. The court system in Sweden was reformed in 1614 with the establishment of appellate courts that scrutinized the sentences passed by lower courts. Court records were written in Swedish, the official language of administrative writing of the period, but certain segments, notably represented speech, could be rendered in Finnish. This required textual mediation between the prescribed Swedish language of the court protocol, and the non-standard spoken Finnish in the courtrooms. The aim is to examine the embedding strategies, retention patterns, and textual mediation in the multilingual writing of 17th-century Finnish court scribes. The results show that Finnish is retained for especially pertinent or untranslatable witness statements. At the end of the 17th century, the use of parallel Swedish translations and clarifications to Finnish items increased. It is argued that this increase is due to the imposition of autocracy in 1680 and a concomitant push towards monolingual Swedish uniformity within the entire realm.

Simulations of gravitational heating due to early matter domination

In cosmologies with an early matter-dominated era (EMDE) prior to Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the boosted growth of small-scale matter perturbations during the EMDE leads to microhalo formation long before halos would otherwise begin to form. For a range of models, halos can even form during the EMDE itself. These halos would dissipate at the end of the EMDE, releasing their gravitationally heated dark matter and thereby imprintinga free-streaming cut-off on the matter power spectrum.We conduct the first cosmological N-body simulations of the formation and evaporation of halos during and after an EMDE.We show that in these scenarios, the free-streaming cut-off after the EMDE can be predicted accurately from the linear matter power spectrum. Although the free streaming can erase much of the EMDE-driven boost to density perturbations, we use our findings to show that the (re-)formation of halos after the EMDE nevertheless proceeds before redshift ∼ 1000. Early-forming microhalos are a key observational signature of an EMDE, and our prescription for the impact of gravitational heating will allow studies of the observational status and prospects of EMDE scenarios to cover a much wider range of parameters.