Early Literature Research Articles

Vitamin C deficiency can lead to pulmonary hypertension: a systematic review of case reports

BackgroundIn the early literature, unintentional vitamin C deficiency in humans was associated with heart failure. Experimental vitamin C deficiency in guinea pigs caused enlargement of the heart. The purpose of this study was to collect and analyze case reports on vitamin C and pulmonary hypertension.MethodsWe searched Pubmed and Scopus for case studies in which vitamin C deficiency was considered to be the cause of pulmonary hypertension. We selected reports in which pulmonary hypertension was diagnosed by echocardiography or catheterization, for any age, sex, or dosage of vitamin C. We extracted quantitative data for our analysis. We used the mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) as the outcome of primary interest.ResultsWe identified 32 case reports, 21 of which were published in the last 5 years. Dyspnea was reported in 69%, edema in 53% and fatigue in 28% of the patients. Vitamin C plasma levels, measured in 27 cases, were undetectable in 24 and very low in 3 cases. Diet was poor in 30 cases and 17 cases had neuropsychiatric disorders. Right ventricular enlargement was reported in 24 cases. During periods of vitamin C deficiency, the median mPAP was 48 mmHg (range 29–77 mmHg; N = 28). After the start of vitamin C administration, the median mPAP was 20 mmHg (range 12–33 mmHg; N = 18). For the latter 18 cases, mPAP was 2.4-fold (median) higher during vitamin C deficiency. Pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) during vitamin C deficiency was reported for 9 cases, ranging from 4.1 to 41 Wood units. PVR was 9-fold (median; N = 5) higher during vitamin C deficiency than during vitamin C administration. In 8 cases, there was direct evidence that the cases were pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH). Probably the majority of the remaining cases were also PAH.ConclusionsThe cases analyzed in our study indicate that pulmonary hypertension can be one explanation for the reported heart failure of scurvy patients in the early literature. It would seem sensible to measure plasma vitamin C levels of patients with PH and examine the effects of vitamin C administration.

Postoperative Bisphosphonates Use is Associated with Reduced Adverse Outcomes After Primary Total Joint Arthroplasty of Hip and Knee: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.

Bisphosphonates have been associated with a decreased risk of revision surgery after total joint arthroplasty of the hip or knee (TJA) because of their effects on decreased periprosthetic bone loss and prosthetic migration. However, the results in the early literature are inconsistent, and the influence of bisphosphonates on associated complications and subsequent TJA remains unknown. This study investigated the association between the use of bisphosphonates and the risk of adverse outcomes after primary TJA. This matched cohort study utilized the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan to identify patients who underwent primary TJA over a 15-year period (January 2000-December 2015 inclusive). Study participants were further categorized into two groups, bisphosphonate users and nonusers, using propensity score matching. The Kaplan-Meier curve analysis and adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) of revision surgery, adverse outcomes of primary surgery and subsequent TJA were calculated using Cox regression analysis. This study analyzed data from 6485 patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty (THA) and 20,920 patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The risk of revision hip and knee arthroplasty was significantly lower in the bisphosphonate users than in the nonusers (aHR, 0.54 and 0.53, respectively). Furthermore, the risk of a subsequent total joint arthroplasty, adverse events and all-cause mortality were also significantly reduced in the bisphosphonate users. This study, involving a large cohort of patients who underwent primary arthroplasties, revealed that bisphosphonate treatment may potentially reduce the risk of revision surgery and associated adverse outcomes. Furthermore, the use of bisphosphonates after TJA is also associated with a reduced need for subsequent arthroplasty.Research Registration Unique Identifying Number (UIN): ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier-NCT05623540 ( https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT05623540 ).

The patterns of the past and future agenda in international branding: a literature review

Purpose The purpose of this study is to, first, analyze the past years of research on international branding and, second, building on an early literature review, to analyze patterns in the field and suggest future research. Design/methodology/approach The analyzed papers were compiled using the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The author searched papers published between 2007 and 2023 that used terms related to international branding in their title, abstract and keywords. Findings This paper structures and identifies key institutions, papers, regions and authors in the field. It provides an overview of the past years of research in the area. The study identifies important gaps in the literature and suggests further research dealing with, for example, the B2B sector and emerging markets. Originality/value Despite the increase in international branding studies, few literature reviews have been published since 2007. This review fills this research gap. It identifies future research areas dealing with branding in the B2B sector, branding in emerging markets, branding process and implementation studies using longitudinal methods and more practical research.

Tourism destination development: the tourism area life cycle model

The tourist area life cycle has been in existence for over four decades since its publication in The Canadian Geographer and was described as ‘one of the most cited and contentious areas of tourism knowledge….(and) has gone on to become one of the best known theories of destination growth and change within the field of tourism studies’ It was noted as one ‘Of the most influential conceptual models for explaining tourist, development’. The model was developed primarily from the Product Life Cycle model used in business and management studies and modified to explain the process of development and change that took place in tourist destinations throughout the world. The model has received considerable attention over its life span, but has often been cited from second hand sources or misquoted on many occasions. Its appearance in a non-tourist journal has resulted in it often not appearing in various early literature surveys based on tourism-focused sources and for its first decade access to the original article was limited and difficult, as demonstrated by many requests to the author for copies of the article. Electronic access to journals and libraries have resolved this problem, but its considerable visibility (in excess of 56,000 reads on Research Gate) and use (close to 5000 citations) means that it has possibly entered the realm of tourism myths and become part of accepted dogma in the field of tourism development. This could present problems to those challenging the original concept and introducing alternative or contradictory ideas and propositions, and it is perhaps, appropriate to briefly review the history of the concept.

Fasting in Early Sufi Literature

Abstract This article offers an analysis of conceptions of fasting in early Islamic spirituality. By drawing on the literature of Sufism, with special attention to the writings of al-Sarrāj (d. 378/988), al-Makkī (d. 386/996), al-Kharkūshī (= Khargūshī; d. 407/1016), al-Hujwīrī (d. ca. 465/1071), al-Qushayrī (d. 465/1072) and al-Sīrjānī (d. 470/1077), it thematically outlines (1) the value placed on fasting in early tradition, (2) the dangers believed to lie in the practice, and finally, (3) the need to transcend, in the final scheme of things, any attachment one may form with it, through ‘detachment from detachment’. In the process, the article aims not only to decipher and make sense of the various aphorisms and stories that make up the early literature of taṣawwuf, but also to resolve their apparent contradictions.

불가능한 부활

This paper analyzes how Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge (1944) represents the advent of finance capitalism during the interwar years. Specifically, this paper pays attention to a series of subjectivities featuring the social milieu based on finance capital set loose over the globe. Maugham has been criticized for focusing on the characters’ externals in a conventional fashion. As a result, he has been marginalized from the academic discourse on the early twentieth-century literature dominated by modernist studies. This paper will prove that Maugham’s attention to the externals is part of his literary design for effectively representing characters who embody the uncontrolled and perpetual proliferation of finance capital without an independent and reflective consciousness. In particular, Larry, the novel’s central character, becomes disillusioned with the declining Western civilization and then travels to foreign soils in search of the opportunity to be symbolically reborn. This paper will prove that the novel eventually debunks the fetishistic nature of this imperial search and unveils it as another cultural expression of supranational finance capitalism. Ultimately, this paper aims to contribute to the reevaluation of Maugham’s literary achievement by highlighting his pioneering representation of the post-modern world.

초기불교 문헌에 나타난 자살

Suicide is a serious social problem in modern Korean society. In early Buddhism, including suicide, teachings about death are frequently offered. The agony of death is a typical existential distress, and meditation on death is an important practice. Various suicide cases appear in the scriptures and chapters of early Buddhist literature. Suicide, a type of murder, is seen as an evil act that intentionally cuts the chance of being born as a human being, and the background of suicide is the desire to die, which is the love of non-existence. Usually, humans choose to kill themselves by means of indulgence. However, saints do not commit murder intentionally, nor do they commit suicide. However, there are cases where a monk who suffers from severe illness accidentally commits suicide because he thinks that he has become Arahan, or during the selection process, he commits suicide to be born in heaven as a result of selection. The Buddha only died as Arahan when his life was cut off after committing suicide, and he did not pay for the wrongdoings of suicide. However, various examples of early Buddhist literature show that suicide is prohibited as an evil act because it is a method of murder.

영남지방 초기 국의 등장 배경과 사로국 구조

Through the long-distance trade network and ritual structures of base settlements that were intensively developed in the Yeongnam region in the 2nd century BC, the background of the establishment of the early politics and the method of solidarity were examined. Long-distance trade beyond the Yeongnam region is concentrated in the 2nd century BC, and the bases where foreign trade is active overlap with regions(mainly Daegu, Gyeongsan, and Gyeongju) found in the early days of the clustering of wooden tombs. In some regions, politics that internally united regional units appeared in order to form a socio- economic coalition suitable for logistics distribution, redistribution, cost reduction, and information solidarity amid intensively developed foreign trade in the 2nd century BC. Thus, it is inferred that the clustering of wooden tombs appeared from the time when these early politics reached villages and townships as local political bodies to maintain active foreign trade, iron production, and distribution. In this situation, by linking topographic conditions, traffic routes and literature records, and archaeological data, focusing on Saro-guk, the composition of the euprak and the structure of the country were explained. Around the middle of the 2nd century BC, it is expected that the early Saroguk was established, and it is interpreted that the 6 villages, symbolized as major towns and villages, were united through the conference. Early Saroguk is a device that binds and maintains local communities while showing various forms for each town and village, and the phenomenon of establishing altar-style stone tombs, high- altitude enclosure, standing-ritual structures, and early wooden tombs by base is similar. In addition, the title of ChaChawoong, which was mentioned in early literature records, also weighed on the ideological and religious power base. Given the ritual structure of the settlement base and the power base of the early ruler, it was difficult to sustain the national structure only by pursuing the interests of foreign trade, and it is assumed that even by transforming the traditionally important megalithic monuments and high-altitude enclosure, it led to community cohesion.

Ilaria Ramelli’s History of the ‘Apokatastasis Doctrine’: A Critical Assessment of Evidence from before Origen

Abstract In this article, the treatment of early Christian literature from before Origen in Ilaria Ramelli’s monographs The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis and (co-authored with David Konstan) Terms for Eternity is subject to critique. When Ramelli claims that the early literature shared the idea of temporary punishment after death, thus forming the ‘roots’ of the doctrine of apokatastasis, a clear distinction between early and later concepts and interpretations is missing. The argument that αἰώνιος in eschatological contexts should not mean ‘eternal’, but rather ‘in the world to come’, is untenable, inter alia because this supposed sense of αἰώνιος would duplicate the same information in the phrase ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τῷ ἐρχομένῳ ζωὴν αἰώνιον (Mark 10:30). The article also demonstrates the incorrectness of Ramelli’s arguments that the texts contain contrasting relations between the words αἰώνιος and ἀΐδιος and κόλασις and τιμωρία, respectively, with only ἀΐδιος indicating a strictly eternal future, and κόλασις a purifying temporary chastisement. These arguments contain a number of methodological errors: the meaning of words is not sought in the contexts in which they are used, and the possibility of stylistic variation is not taken into account.

Covenant and Community in Early Rabbinic Literature

AbstractThis article concerns the role of covenant in early rabbinic literature in relation to biblical and especially Second Temple-era predecessors. The first part establishes that the Qumran sectarians and earlier circles were drawn to the concept of covenant because it represented, especially through the mechanism of covenant renewal, a powerful tool for defining and supporting group identity. The second part shows that for the rabbis, the importance of covenant lay chiefly, instead, in its capacity to conceptualize the notion of Israel as a collective body defined by corporate responsibility. The third part suggests that this novel deployment of covenant arose in part to counter the individuating force of halakah as law, another innovation of the rabbis.

The Tabari’s Tafsir to Surah “Al-Fātiḥa”. Translation from Arabic and Comments. Part 4: Ayyats 6–7

This article concludes a series of publications of the commented translation into Russian of the interpretation to the Surah “al-Fatiha” (No. 1) by the founder of classical Muslim exegesis Muḥammad ibn Jarīr aṭ-Ṭabari (839–923) from the book “Jāmi‘ al-bayān fī ta’wīl al-Qur’ān” (The Comprehensive Exposition of the interpretation of the Qur’ān). This part contains sections devoted to ayats 6–7 of this surah. Based on examples of pre- and early Islamic literature grammatical questions about the case of the word ghayr and the need for the use of the particle lā in these ayats are analyzed here in detail. The Tafsir to this verses also treats the theological problems related to the nature of God’s benefactions and His wrath, continues the controversy with the Qadarites regarding determinism and free will. There are also given here traditions ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad and the “ancient fathers of the Ummah” on the interpretation of these ayats. The conclusion speaks about the inimitability of the Qur’ān on the example of the surah “al-Fatiha”.

The image of the world and man in the works of Wolfgang Borchert’s Draußen vor der Tür (1947) and Heinrich Bölls Wo warst du, Adam? (1951)

This article discusses selected aspects of the creation of the image of the world and man in selected literary works of early post-war literature on the example of the works of the most important representatives of this period – Wolfgang Borchert and Heinrich Böll. The creators of the so-called literature of ruins revealed the experience of total destruction of man as an individual deprived of individuality, emphasized the moral decline of the war and post-war world.

"Beyond ideologies" – some remarks on the existential and ecocritical tone of Alfred Andersch's autobiographical report Die Kirschen der Freiheit (1952)

The article is an attempt to look at the autobiographical text of the leading writer of early German post-war literature and one of the founders of the famous "Group of 47" Alfred Andersch entitled Die Kirschen der Freiheit (1952) from the perspective of the existential philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre and selected aspects of ecocritical thought. The article discusses in detail the existential concept of individual freedom not determined by twentieth-century totalitarian systems and emphasizes its ecocritical sense, i.e. the dimension of humanity in the bosom of nature, the potential of free will and deciding about one's own fate, as well as the role of art as a special means of expression of free man and his relationship to the world.

Early, Rapid or Global? Internationalization Speed and SME’s Performance

The article investigates the impact of three dimensions of the speed of internationalization speed – the entry timing, the initial speed and the pace of international expansion – on the performance of exporting small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). To this purpose, we adopt a mixed-method approach analysing quantitative and qualitative data on Italian-exporting SMEs. The results show that entry timing, which is not relevant per se, moderates the positive impact of the initial speed on SME’s performance. Furthermore, a higher pace of international expansion is negatively related to the performance of SMEs. Building on the early internationalization literature, the study contributes to the existing literature on performance outcomes of the speed of internationalization of SMEs. The study has managerial implications for managers and entrepreneurs who are planning to internationalize.

Jewish Mysticism as a Form of Feminism in Early 20th Century Hungarian Jewish Literature: Anna Lesznai’s Response to Otto Weininger

This article examines Anna Lesznai’s radical imagining of sex and its use for transcendental purposes that heavily rely on Jewish mystical ideas intertwined with Otto Weininger's theory of gender binarism. In her gender theory—part of feminist discourse at the turn of the twentieth century—Lesznai describes female love, using religious language and ideas from Jewish mysticism, especially those resembling Hassidic concepts, and ultimately compares sexual union to yihud- unio mystica with God. Working within the patriarchal understanding of the biological definition of gender and of the concept of "female difference," Lesznai’s feminism rooted in the belief that certain personality traits and skills are inherently gendered, but she reverses the hierarchy by placing women in the position of power, thus turning Jewish mysticism and Weininger’s gender philosophy on its head.

Vita Haroldi and Hamlet—a flight of the imagination

This discursive article was inspired by a reading of Vita Haroldi and in seeing similarities to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In the introduction, I examine the possible links between the medieval survival story Vita Haroldi and Hamlet. Part One explicates three potential approaches to a study of early modern English literature: the traitorous letter trope, the historiography of the death of medieval English kings, and the interest of leading lights in Elizabethan England in Anglo-Saxon law and the church. Part two implements these approaches in a brief reading and interpretation of Hamlet. Both the play Hamlet and the character of Prince Hamlet are situated in a transition from the medieval to the early modern; from a faith-based world to a rational one, from a focus on revenge to one on justice.

Can robotic gastric bypass be considered a valid alternative to laparoscopy? Our early experience and literature review.

Robotic bariatric surgery serves as an alternative to laparoscopy. The technology provides the surgeon with an accurate three-dimensional view, allowing complex maneuvers while maintaining full control of the operating room. We report our experience with this innovative surgery compared with laparoscopy during Roux-en-Y gastric bypass to demonstrate its safety and feasibility. The aim of this study is to evaluate potential differences between the robotic and laparoscopic techniques. Our study retrospectively identified 153 consecutive obese patients who underwent either laparoscopic or robotic gastric bypass (RGB) procedures over a 2-year period at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia. Data on demographics, operative time, conversion rate, length of hospital stay, and mortality were collected and compared between two groups of patients: 82 patients who underwent laparoscopic procedures and 71 who underwent robotic procedures. We analyzed 153 patients who underwent gastric bypass with a mean age of 42.58 years, of whom 74 were female; 71 were treated with a robotic approach and 82 with a laparoscopic approach. The mean operative time was 224.75 ± 10.4 min for RGB (including docking time) and 101.22 min for laparoscopic gastric bypass (LGB) (p < 0.05), which is statistically significant. The median length of stay was 4.1 days for the RGB group and 3.9 days for the LGB group (p = 0.89). There is only one conversion to laparoscopy in the RGB group. We observed only one case of postoperative complications, specifically one episode of endoluminal bleeding in the laparoscopic group, which was successfully managed with medical treatment. No mortality was observed in either group. The statistical analysis shows to support the robotic approach that had a lower incidence of complications but a longer operative duration. Based on our experience, the laparoscopic approach remains a technique with more haptic feedback than the robotic approach, making surgeons feel more confident.This study has been registered on ClinicalTrial.gov Protocol Registration and Results System with this ID: NCT05746936 for the Organization UFoggia (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05746936).

Filling in the gaps: early middle English, nationalist philology, and reparative codicology

ABSTRACT Ongoing interventions by antiracist scholars and activists demonstrate the lasting impact that the racist, nationalist, and colonialist foundation of the field has had on modern perceptions of the pre-Conquest English past and those who study it. This article identifies the impact of the same ideologies on the study of early Middle English literatures and its place in canonical accounts. The deployment of medieval English literatures in a teleological effort to establish histories of whiteness and legitimize white colonial superiority. However, close interrogation of the linguistic and literary developments of the period threatened the very structures they were invoked to sustain. Effectively, early Middle English was placed in a medial position that invoked its presence only to deny its importance. This article offers an alternative. Eve Sedgwick's conception of ‘reparative reading’ has resonances with both the material forms in which early Middle English is preserved, and the human experiences that underlie that preservation. Fragmentary lyrics, like the couplet from Poema Morale, provide an example. These snippets point to the presence of a widely circulating ‘cultural repository’ that could negotiate the structures of institutional (primarily Latinate) literacy and opened those frameworks to dynamic participation by a wide range of readers and users.

Tediousness in Coryats Crudities (1611): early modern travel writing, rhetoric, and notions of canonicity

ABSTRACT Despite its increasing prominence in university syllabi and anthologies, travel writing continues to be excluded from the canon of early modern literature. Its exclusion can be attributed to the view, articulated explicitly and implicitly, that its formal and stylistic conventions render it insufficiently ‘literary’. Such assessments reveal a tendency to read early modern travel accounts using aesthetic criteria that are anachronistic, disconnected from the discursive contexts in which these accounts were originally written and read. This article examines one of the genre’s most distinctive features, one which has shaped its relationship to notions of literary value and canonicity: its preoccupation with particulars, something early modern and modern readers alike characterise as ‘tedious’. Focusing on Thomas Coryate’s eponymous Coryats Crudities (1611), it situates the particularity of early modern travel writing within the reconstructed contexts of classical rhetoric, early modern poetics, and travel advice, placing special emphasis on the rhetorical quality of enargeia, or vividness. In addition to offering a fresh assessment of the Crudities and modelling a new approach to the study of travel writing more generally, the article reflects on how we can expand our sense of what early modern literature might be said to comprise.

“Exploring Social Class and Gender Roles in Jane Austen's Novels”

This paper explores the intricate interplay of social class and gender roles in the novels of Jane Austen, a seminal figure in early 19th-century literature. Through her richly developed characters and astute social critiques, Austen illuminates the constraints imposed by class stratification and gender expectations in a rapidly changing England. By examining key works such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility, the paper highlights how Austen navigates the complexities of identity, agency, and societal norms. The analysis reveals that while marriage serves as a critical means of economic security for women, it also underscores the limitations of their choices within a patriarchal framework. Ultimately, Austen’s narratives advocate for personal integrity and emotional authenticity, suggesting that character transcends social boundaries. This study not only reaffirms Austen's relevance in contemporary discussions of class and gender but also invites readers to reflect on the enduring impact of societal structures on individual lives.