Early Literature Research Articles

Macroeconomic Currency Crisis Early Warning Indicators in Emerging Countries

This study investigates the relationships between exchange rate and the main macroeconomic variables as GDP, inflation and unemployment on one hand and the ability of these variables in alerting about coming exchange rate crisis in emerging countries. The three variables have significant coefficients with exchange rate in line with literature signs except unemployment rate. The study uses signal approach, dealing specifically with the main macroeconomic variables, selected by system GMM method in emerging markets. The study develops macroeconomic pressure indices from these selected macroeconomic variables using the market pressure index methodology from Early Warning System literature. Based on the macroeconomic variables, a combined macroeconomic pressure index has been built. The results of the non-parametric early warning system indicate that the individual macroeconomic pressure indexes created are good warning tools of a currency crisis. The macroeconomic pressure indexes are better early warning indicators than market pressure index built from international reserves, in emerging countries for four quarters warning period window. Production pressure index appears more accurate followed by inflation but unemployment pressure index is the most sensitive. However, the number of effective indicators and the accuracy of the indexes are not the same for all the countries, changing from a country to another.

Los cimientos misivos de la “Epístola a Boscán”: Un espacio comunicativo de la utilidad, familiaridad y presencia hablada

Abstract This article explores Garcilaso de la Vega’s “Epístola a Boscán” in connection to a broad conception of the letter during Spanish early modern literature. By analyzing this poem in consonance with letter-writing manuals, letter-collections, and its critical reception during the period, one can draw the conclusion that these types of poems follow similar patterns and tendencies.

Archaeology and ecology of acavus snails in Sri Lanka’s semi-arid to intermediate zones: uncovering holocene microclimatic changes

This study presents a discovery of Acavus haemastoma, wet-humid favouring arboreal land snails from Semi-Arid coastal lagoon habitat during the late Holocene period in Southern Sri Lanka, occurring around the mid-4th millennium BP. These findings challenge established notions regarding palaeoecological conditions within the Semi-Arid and Transitional Zones (SATZ), prompting a re-evaluation of prevailing archaeological assumptions. We propose that the presence of Acavus sp. in the SATZ is primarily attributed to their natural behaviours rather than anthropogenic influences. In conjunction with an examination of early archaeological literature, we explore the implications of humid phases within the SATZ, aligning these phases with Acavus snails’ distribution patterns and climatic fluctuations and proposing the value of land snails in Sri Lanka as a potential proxy for small scale micro-climatic conditions.

Genome-wide DNA methylation and transcriptomic analysis of liver tissues subjected to early ischemia/reperfusion injury upon human liver transplantation

Introduction and ObjectivesEpigenetic changes represent a mechanism connecting external stresses with long-term modifications of gene expression programs. In solid organ transplantation, ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) appears to induce epigenomic changes in the graft, although the currently available data are extremely limited. The present study aimed to characterize variations in DNA methylation and their effects on the transcriptome in liver transplantation from brain-dead donors. Patients and Methods12 liver grafts were evaluated through serial biopsies at different timings in the procurement-transplantation process: T0 (warm procurement, in donor), T1 (bench surgery), and T2 (after reperfusion, in recipient). DNA methylation (DNAm) and transcriptome profiles of biopsies were analyzed using microarrays and RNAseq. ResultsSignificant variations in DNAm were identified, particularly between T2 and T0. Functional enrichment of the best 1000 ranked differentially methylated promoters demonstrated that 387 hypermethylated and 613 hypomethylated promoters were involved in spliceosomal assembly and response to biotic stimuli, and inflammatory immune responses, respectively. At the transcriptome level, T2 vs. T0 showed an upregulation of 337 and downregulation of 61 genes, collectively involved in TNF-α, NFKB, and interleukin signaling. Cell enrichment analysis individuates macrophages, monocytes, and neutrophils as the most significant tissue-cell type in the response. ConclusionsIn the process of liver graft procurement-transplantation, IRI induces significant epigenetic changes that primarily act on the signaling pathways of inflammatory responses dependent on TNF-α, NFKB, and interleukins. Our DNAm datasets are the early IRI methylome literature and will serve as a launch point for studying the impact of epigenetic modification in IRI.

An early case of successful peripheral nerve repair in 1880: Francis L. Parker, MD.

The modern technique of epineural suture repair, along with a detailed reporting of functional restoration, came from Carl Hueter in 1873. While there is extensive information on peripheral nerve surgery throughout recorded history leading up to the 1800s, little early American scientific literature is available. While Schwann, Nissl, and Waller were publishing their work on nerve anatomy and physiology, Francis LeJau Parker was born. The South Carolina native would go on to describe one of the first American cases of peripheral nerve repair with the restoration of function. Francis Parker was born in 1836 in Abbeville, South Carolina. He gained local notoriety as one of the first American surgeons to suture a severed nerve, resulting in restored function. The case dates back to 1880, when a patient presented to his clinic with severing of the posterior interosseous nerve. The details of this case come from the archives of the South Carolina Medical Association. The authors reviewed these records in detail and provide a case description of nerve repair not previously reported in the modern literature. The history, neurological examination, and details of the case provide insight into the adroit surgical skills of Dr. Parker.

An Imaginary Byzantium in Early Islam: Byzantium as Viewed through the Sīra Literature

This article examines the emergence of new representations of Byzantium in early Arabic literature, with a focus on the Sīra, the biography of the Prophet Muḥammad. This historical investigation leads to a dual conclusions that the Arab perception of Byzantium not only forged an “imaginary Byzantium” but also marked the emergence of Arab self-consciousness. This process significantly influenced the Arab historical and cultural narratives, framing them within the context of the Arabic identity that emerged in late antiquity. Nevertheless, this relationship between the early Islamic community and Byzantium does little to confirm accurate knowledge about Byzantium, rendering the emerging representations as not truly reflective of “reality”, but rather presenting us with an “imaginary Byzantium”. This applies whether related to events in the 1st/7th century or the transition from oral to written texts during the 2nd/8th and 3rd/9th centuries. Furthermore, these representations reveal more about the creators of this imaginary than the other itself, shedding light on the motives of early Muslim writers who used the Sīra as a vehicle for these imaginaries. Ultimately, the article identifies, through the textual analysis and historical contextualization of Sīra, two narrative layers therein that are related to the imaginary Byzantium. The first layer reflected a pervasive fear of Byzantium, while the second layer represented an attitude of challenge and rivalry.

Using full-text content to characterize and identify best seller books: A study of early 20th-century literature.

Artistic pieces can be studied from several perspectives, one example being their reception among readers over time. In the present work, we approach this interesting topic from the standpoint of literary works, particularly assessing the task of predicting whether a book will become a best seller. Unlike previous approaches, we focused on the full content of books and considered visualization and classification tasks. We employed visualization for the preliminary exploration of the data structure and properties, involving SemAxis and linear discriminant analyses. To obtain quantitative and more objective results, we employed various classifiers. Such approaches were used along with a dataset containing (i) books published from 1895 to 1923 and consecrated as best sellers by the Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lists and (ii) literary works published in the same period but not being mentioned in that list. Our comparison of methods revealed that the best-achieved result-combining a bag-of-words representation with a logistic regression classifier-led to an average accuracy of 0.75 both for the leave-one-out and 10-fold cross-validations. Such an outcome enhances the difficulty in predicting the success of books with high accuracy, even using the full content of the texts. Nevertheless, our findings provide insights into the factors leading to the relative success of a literary work.

Эволюция образа предпринимателя в автобиографическом романе Дж. Белфорта «Волк с Уолл-стрит»

The aim of the study is to identify the specific features of the American entrepreneur’s image in J. Belfort’s novel “The Wolf of Wall Street” and their significant differences from the characteristic features of this image in the works of American literature of an earlier period. The paper examines the literary image of an entrepreneur created by J. Belfort based on an autobiographical narrative using his personal experience in stock market activities. The study investigates the change in the value paradigm in the personality and character of the entrepreneur in comparison with the main characteristics of this image created in the works of W. Bradford and B. Franklin. The scientific novelty of the study lies in discovering radical changes in the image of the 21st-century American entrepreneur in comparison with the ideal that was formed in American culture in the 17th and 18th centuries. As a result of the study, it was found that the image of an entrepreneur in J. Belfort’s novel has undergone significant changes compared to the works of early American literature. There is a significant contradiction between the moral and value attitudes created in the works of W. Bradford and B. Franklin and the modern image of the American entrepreneur depicted in the novel under consideration.

Some Early Studies of Isotropic Turbulence: A Review

A re-examination of some early classic turbulence literature, mainly of isotropic turbulence, is given in this selective review. Some early studies, including original concepts and points, are reviewed or highlighted. Two earliest studies and six major original concepts are found: (i) Lord Kelvin’s pioneering elementary studies of homogeneous, isotropic turbulence; (ii) Kelvin’s early introduction of Fourier Principles into turbulence studies; (iii) the Kelvin elementary concept of the direct energy cascade; (iv) the Kelvin early concept of the symmetry of turbulence; (v) the Taylor concept of the coefficient of eddy viscosity; (vi) the Taylor concept of the ‘age’ of the eddy; (vii) the Taylor–Fage–Townend concept of small eddies or microturbulence or small scale turbulence; and (viii) the Obukhov concept of a function of the inner Reynolds number (i.e., Re dependent coefficient) in both the balance equation and the energy distribution equation (the two-thirds law). Both Kelvin and Taylor should be regarded as the co-founders of the statistical theory of homogeneous, isotropic turbulence. The notion, ‘the Maxwell–Reynolds decomposition of turbulent flow velocity’, should be used. The Kolmogorov–Obukhov scaling laws are reviewed in detail. Heisenberg’s inverse seventh power spectrum is briefly reviewed. The implications or significances of these early studies, original concepts and points are briefly discussed, with special reference to their possible links with modern approaches and theories.

Creating the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’: early socialist literature on the Paris Commune in Britain and the United States

ABSTRACT School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Faculty of Arts, Australia This article analyses the role of early radical and socialist texts in forming the understanding of the Paris Commune in Britain and the United States. The Commune, while a French event, came to be associated with socialists, radicals, and as a symbol of internationalism. Marx’s The Civil War in France established the interpretation of the Commune that would see it become a radical shibboleth. This article analyses articles by Edward Beesly, Lissagaray’s History of the Commune of 1871, E.B Bax’s Short History of the Commune, and Lenin’s State and Revolution to trace the influences of Marx’s interpretation. This analysis includes examination of the radical publishers in both Britain and the United States to explore how these texts were edited and changed, and how they were circulated to reach the intended working-class audience. The article’s core questions are where did this interpretation come from, how was it constructed, and how did it come to dominate the interpretation of the Commune. This is significant due to the Commune’s pre-eminence within socialist history and how it became an example of the ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ for many future revolutionaries.

Revisiting the Crucifixion of Jesus within Islam

This article demonstrates that Muslim teachings on the historical crucifixion event of Jesus are by no means monolithic. While the Qur’ān’s reference to the crucifixion has typically been interpreted as fostering explicit rejection of the belief that Christ was crucified, its meaning on this issue constitutes neither denial nor affirmation of its historicity. Over time, discussion of the crucifixion within the Islamic tradition was formed to accommodate a rejection that obscured the neutrality of the original Qur’ānic position. One school of Islamic thought which affirmed the historicity of the crucifixion on a Qur’ānic basis is the tradition of Shi’a Isma’ili Islam. This article focuses on the conceptualisation of the crucifixion within Isma’ilism and its connection with Sunnism. From the Isma’ili perspective, the Qur’ān does not deny the crucifixion of Jesus; rather, it only denies that the People of the Book crucified him, in apparent response to their boasting. The ambiguity of Surah 4:157 remains a vigorous debate among classical and later Muslim scholars with references to the crucifixion as preserved in early and medieval literature furnishing distinctively divergent accounts of its unfolding. Even classical scholars such as al-Ghazali were persuaded by the views about the crucifixion expressed by leading Isma’ili thinkers such as Abu Ḥatim al-Razi (d. 934 CE) and Naṣir Khusraw (d. 1078 CE). Ultimately, the objective of this article is twofold: to demonstrate that the Qur’ān offers a neutral account of the crucifixion and to examine Shi’ite exegetical analysis on the crucifixion event in contrast to mainstream Islam.

Gods and people in literature and philosophy. God by the picture of human or human by the picture of god? Homeric vision of reality versus Heraclitus’ vision of reality

The article deals with the theological issues of Homer and Heraclitus. The analysis of the works of Homer and the philosophical thought of Heraclitus serves to compare and contrast them extracting significant differences regarding the image of god and man. The author develops both literary and philosophical understanding of gods. She compares the man-god relationship in early Greek literature and philosophy. There is an interesting intrinsic tension in the literary tropes that can only be understood if the religious function of this literature is taken into account. The author tries to describe the vision of the world and the place of human beings in it in both sources: literature and philosophy. In philosophical writings, there can be seen a movement in the vision of the world structure: the gods become more inaccessible to humans, but humans gain the opportunity to become godlier if they follow a proper set of thoughts and actions proposed by philosophy. Religious poets were speaking of the past when the gods were approachable to people. Their fantasies were often mixed with old beliefs so that the divine-human world has as much wonder and eccentricity as dread. Philosophy conquers not only minds but also hearts, to convey them towards the ideal, bearing in mind the unattainable model of a virtuous man. While religion describes gods similar to humans, philosophy forges a new god-resemblant human figure.

Was Robert Gibrat right? A test based on the graphical model methodology

AbstractUsing both regression analysis and an unsupervised graphical model approach (never applied before to this issue), we confirm the rejection of Gibrat’s Law (stating that a firm’s growth is independent of that firm’s initial size) when our firm-level data are considered over the entire investigated period, while the opposite is true when we allow for market selection; indeed, the growth behavior of the surviving most efficient firms is in line with Gibrat’s Law. This evidence reconciles early and current literature and may have interesting implications in terms of both theoretical research and policy suggestions regarding subsidies to small firms, which do not necessarily grow faster than their larger counterparts.

Land, Town, Temple: the Aesthetics of the “Lyrical Preludes” in Tamil Talapurāṇams

Abstract Talapurāṇam is one of the most prolific genres of early modern Tamil literature. Unlike its Sanskrit counterpart (sthala\kṣetra-māhātmya) the works of this genre are composed in the form and style of high poetry. One distinctive feature of the genre is the inclusion of descriptive chapters that focus on the land and town eulogized in the texts. These chapters, which I term “lyrical preludes,” were never formalized by traditional poeticians. In this article, I present a preliminary analysis of Tamil talapurāṇams’ lyrical preludes: their sources of inspiration, structural patterns, recurrent themes, and aesthetic principles.

Schizophrenia and Polycythemia Vera: A Case Report

IntroductionSchizophrenia is a severe mental disorder marked by abnormal interpretations of reality, often resulting in hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking that significantly impairs daily functioning and can be disabling. Lifelong treatment is necessary, and early intervention can help manage symptoms and improve long-term outcomes.Polycythemia Vera (PV) is a chronic myeloproliferative neoplasm causing an excess of red blood cells in the peripheral blood (polyglobulia). While the disease typically presents with symptoms, it can also be asymptomatic and discovered incidentally during routine laboratory tests, leading to a diagnosis of polycythemia when no secondary cause is apparent.While early 20th-century literature linked PV to intense neurological and psychiatric symptoms, contemporary studies rarely make such references.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to explore, through a clinical case of a patient undergoing treatment for treatment-resistant schizophrenia with clozapine, and concurrently diagnosed with Polycythemia Vera, the potential causes of this condition. We seek to discern whether it represents mere comorbidities or if Polycythemia Vera is an adverse effect of antipsychotic treatment, particularly with clozapine.MethodsA 41-year-old patient, with a history of cranial trauma at the age of 5 and 19 years of treatment for schizophrenia, also has a tobacco use disorder. While hospitalized for the management of symptomatic reactivation of schizophrenia, despite being on clozapine, the patient underwent various therapeutic combinations with no observed clinical improvement. A few months later, follow-up blood tests indicated an elevation in all blood cell lines.An internal medicine consultation was sought, resulting in the diagnosis of Polycythemia Vera.ResultsThe evaluations conducted led us to the conclusion that there are two distinct nosological entities, with the treatment of the psychiatric condition revealing true polycythemia. Even after reducing the doses of clozapine and changing the atypical antipsychotic, all subsequent evaluations showed no effectiveness in managing the psychiatric disorder or improvement in the hematological condition.ConclusionsIn summary, schizophrenia is a severe and lifelong mental disorder requiring early intervention for symptom management. Polycythemia Vera (PV), a myeloproliferative disorder, typically presents with symptoms but can also be asymptomatic.While early literature linked PV to intense neurological and psychiatric symptoms, contemporary studies seldom reference such associations. The coexistence of schizophrenia and PV in a patient underscores the need for comprehensive and interdisciplinary care to address the complex interplay between mental and physical health. Further research is needed to deepen our understanding of concurrent psychiatric and hematological conditions.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Legal Analysis of Health Professional Ethics in Improving Health Services in the Perspective of Islamic Law

Health is a human right and one of the elements of welfare that must be realized in accordance with the ideals of the nation as stated in Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. Regarding the matters already listed in the 1945 Constitution, health workers in serving the community, are also bound by ethics and health law. In carrying out health services, health workers must comply with professional ethics (professional code of ethics) and also comply with the law, the rules set out in the law. Ethics in medical action in Islamic literature is known as adab. Adab in hadith and early post-Islamic literature means proper speech, good ethics, and correct procedures. Islamic law has laid down rules that concern health services and care, including the health of society and the state at large and has contributed greatly to the modern medical science that is developing today. With this research, the researcher conducts research activities objectively on the reality of the subject under study, in the sense that reality is seen from the angle of those being studied. This qualitative research is more concerned with the accuracy and adequacy of the data.

Boundaries and Disgust in The Duchess of Malfi

Abstract Developing recent research on emotion in early modern literature, this essay argues that disgust is the primary emotional mode of Webster’s classic tragedy The Duchess of Malfi. According to modern affective science, disgust is the emotion designed to protect the physical body from material contaminants and protect the social body from symbolic contaminants; as such, it is intimately concerned with the preservation of boundaries. I argue that Malfi stages the thematic collapse of key existential boundaries of the human experiences—boundaries of social class, boundaries of kinship, boundaries between species, and boundaries between life and death—and the result is a compensatory atmosphere of disgust that pervades the play.

Sonic Journeys on the Open Sea: Testing the Faithful in Old English and Anglo-Latin Literature

Abstract This article examines a distinct literary environment in Anglo-Latin and Old English literature: the open sea. It argues that such an environment was formed primarily through sound, where the geophonic actions of water and wind were used to create a literary motif, a location both to test those seeking God and to showcase their faithfulness. Those tested include the pilgrim on their journey, often to Rome, and the saint, often in ascetic seclusion. In Anglo-Latin, the geophony of the open sea was sometimes rendered with the adjective undisonus (‘wave-sounding’), a rare word used consistently in two ways: first, to function as an impediment to the person on their journey; second, to form a miniature open sea to serve as an hagiographical desert. In Old English, the literary motif of the sonic open sea occurs in the poem Andreas, which uses active verbs such as hlynnan (‘to make a loud noise, sound, [or] resound’) to render the acoustic assaults of the sea at storm. Andrew, depicted as a miles Christi, remains faithful, and the open sea calms and silences, in declaration of his victory. By comparing texts in both the Anglo-Latin and Old English traditions, this article highlights in new ways the important role of sound, particularly geophonic productions, in early medieval English literature.

Bioethics-CSR Divide

Bioethics-CSR Divide

An Evaluation of Type 1 Interferon Related Genes in Male and Female-Matched, SARS-CoV-2 Infected Individuals Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

SARS-CoV-2 infection has claimed just over 1.1 million lives in the US since 2020. Globally, the SARS-CoV-2 respiratory infection spread to 771 million people and caused mortality in 6.9 million individuals to date. Much of the early literature showed that SARS-CoV-2 immunity was defective in the early stages of the pandemic, leading to heightened and, sometimes, chronic inflammatory responses in the lungs. This lung-associated 'cytokine storm' or 'cytokine release syndrome' led to the need for oxygen supplementation, respiratory distress syndrome, and mechanical ventilation in a relatively high number of people. In this study, we evaluated circulating PBMC from non-hospitalized, male and female, COVID-19+ individuals over the course of infection, from the day of diagnosis (day 0) to one-week post diagnosis (day 7), and finally 4 weeks after diagnosis (day 28). In our early studies, we included hospitalized and critically care patient PBMC; however, most of these individuals were lymphopenic, which limited our assessments of their immune integrity. We chose a panel of 30 interferon-stimulated genes (ISG) to evaluate by PCR and completed flow analysis for immune populations present in those PBMC. Lastly, we assessed immune activation by stimulating PBMC with common TLR ligands. We identified changes in innate cells, primarily the innate lymphoid cells (ILC, NK cells) and adaptive immune cells (CD4+ and CD8+ T cells) over this time course of infection. We found that the TLR-7 agonist, Resiquimod, and the TLR-4 ligand, LPS, induced significantly better IFNα and IFNγ responses in the later phase (day 28) of SARS-CoV-2 infection in those non-hospitalized COVID-19+ individuals as compared to early infection (day 0 and day 7). We concluded that TLR-7 and TLR-4 agonists may be effective adjuvants in COVID-19 vaccines for mounting immunity that is long-lasting against SARS-CoV-2 infection.