Oral Transmission Research Articles

Acute Chagas disease associated with ingestion of contaminated food in Brazilian western Amazon.

To describe clinical, epidemiological and management information on cases of acute Chagas disease (ACD) by oral transmission in the state of Amazonas in western Amazon. Manual and electronic medical records of patients diagnosed with ACD at the Fundação de Medicina Tropical Doutor Heitor Vieira Dourado (FMT-HVD) were included. There were 147 cases of acute CD registered from 10 outbreaks that occurred in the state of Amazonas between 2004 and 2022. The transmission pathway was through oral route, with probable contaminated palm fruit juice (açaí and/or papatuá), and involved people from the same family, friends or neighbours. Of 147 identified cases, 87 (59%) were males; cases were aged 10 months to 82 years. The most common symptom was the febrile syndrome (123/147; 91.8%); cardiac alterations were present in 33/100 (33%), (2/147; 1.4%) had severe ACD with meningoencephalitis, and 12 (8.2%) were asymptomatic. Most cases were diagnosed through thick blood smear (132/147; 89.8%), a few (14/147; 9.5%) were diagnosed by serology and (1/147; 0.7%) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and blood culture. In all these outbreaks, 74.1% of the patients were analysed by PCR, and Trypanosoma cruzi TcIV was detected in all of them. No deaths were recorded. The incidence of these foci coincided with the fruit harvest period in the state of Amazonas. The occurrence of ACD outbreaks in the Amazon affected individuals of both sexes, young adults, living in rural and peri-urban areas and related to the consumption of regional foods. Early diagnosis is an important factor in surveillance. There was a low frequency of cardiac alterations. Continuous follow-up of most patients was not carried out due to difficulty in getting to specialised centres; therefore, little is known about post-treatment.

The art of the violin in Verdiales

Verdiales is the traditional music from Málaga, Spain, which is little known even within Spain. This research places verdiales in its historical and musical context looking at: the differences between styles, rhythm and harmony, and, most importantly, the role of the violin in this music. As the main instrument in verdiales, the violin is played in a very different way than in classical music, since it is spontaneous music with a great deal of freedom for improvisation, disseminated purely by oral transmission, and with a particular technique which is suited to playing only this music. Through the deep learning of verdiales, I have looked for different resources to face my daily practice issues in order to gain more flexibility and freedom in my way of playing. After trying several exercises and approaches in different parts of my practice, I have been self- documenting and verifying the improvement and effectiveness of certain methods, taking into account different aspects such as bow hold, ornamentation, and improvisation. As a result, I came to the conclusion that in order to achieve different results, it is necessary for more exploration and extremely different methods than the ones I have been using when practicing the violin

Passing On—The Power of Oral Transmission

Abstract Living Documents is a series of looped live installations developed between 2017 and 2019 based on five artist-choreographers and how they work. The project was initiated by Dominik Grünbühel and Charlotta Ruth as an artistic response to the following research question: What is liveness and what can it be? The research was directed towards the necessity—but also difficulty—of documenting live performances. This text reflects how the method of passing on (in Swedish, tradera) through the collaborative process with choreographer Anna Öberg, whose practice is based in Swedish folk dance, has come to influence the documentary approach. By resonating how passing on in the cosmology of Folk Traditions is different to other methods of physical and oral transfer, Öberg together with Ruth develop how passing on can be valuable beyond the realm of Folk Tradition. Specifically, they unfold the ways in which this multi-sensorial transfer of material and knowledge from person to person and context to context can inspire documentary and reflexive translations between media and different aesthetic realms and thereby contribute to creative ways of sharing knowledge in the field of artistic research.

Improvement of crAssphage detection/quantification method and its extensive application for food safety.

Water-borne diseases are usually caused by the fecal-oral transmission of human fecal pathogens. Traditionally, coliforms and enterococci are widely used as indicator bacteria, but they do not allow to differentiate between human and animal fecal contamination. Owing to its presence only in the human gut environment, crAssphage has been suggested as an alternative indicator of human fecal contamination to overcome the above challenges. In this study, 139 human and 89 animal fecal samples (e.g., chicken, cow, dog, pig, pigeon, and mouse) were collected. For the rapid detection of human crAssphage in fecal samples, quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) was performed using five different oligonucleotide primer/probe combinations. These included three previously reported oligonucleotide primer/probe combinations (RQ, CPQ056, and CrAssBP) and two newly developed combinations (ORF00018-targeting CrAssPFL1 and ORF00044-targeting CrAssPFL2). The detection rate (crAssphage-positive rate) in human fecal samples were 23.0, 30.2, 28.8, 20.1, and 30.9%, respectively, suggesting CrAssPFL2 showed the highest detection rate. Furthermore, the lowest copy numbers (436.16 copy numbers) could be detected using the CrAssPFL2 combination. Interestingly, no difference in crAssphage detection rates was found between healthy people and intestinal inflammatory patients. As expected, no crAssphage was detected in any animal fecal samples, indicating its human specificity. Furthermore, qPCR analysis of sewage samples collected from five different sewage treatment plants revealed that they were all contaminated with 105.71 copy numbers/mL of crAssphage on average. The simulation test of crAssphage-contaminated food samples also confirmed that the detection limit was from 107.55 copy numbers of crAssphage in foods. Therefore, the newly developed and optimized qPCR would be useful for the sensitive detection of crAssphage while identifying the source of human fecal contamination.

Infectious SARS-CoV-2 Particles from Rectal Swab Samples from COVID-19 Patients in Brazil.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 viral excretion in rectal swab (RS), saliva, and nasopharyngeal swab (NS) samples from symptomatic patients and asymptomatic contacts. In addition, in order to evaluate the replication potential of SARS-CoV-2 in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the excretion of infectious SARS-CoV-2 from feces, we investigated the presence of subgenomic nucleoprotein gene (N) mRNA (sgN) in RS samples and cytopathic effects in Vero cell culture. A prospective cohort study was performed to collect samples from symptomatic patients and contacts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from May to October 2020. One hundred and seventy-six patients had samples collected at home visits and/or during the follow up, resulting in a total of 1633 RS, saliva, or NS samples. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 130 (73.9%) patients who had at least one sample that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The presence of replicating SARS-CoV-2 in RS samples, measured by the detection of sgN mRNA, was successfully achieved in 19.4% (6/31) of samples, whilst infectious SARS-CoV-2, measured by the generation of cytopathic effects in cell culture, was identified in only one RS sample. Although rare, our results demonstrated the replication capacity of SARS-CoV-2 in the GI tract, and infectious viruses in one RS sample. There is still a gap in the knowledge regarding SARS-CoV-2 fecal-oral transmission. Additional studies are warranted to investigate fecal or wastewater exposure as a risk factor for transmission in human populations.

Modeling the impact of xenointoxication in dogs to halt Trypanosoma cruzi transmission.

Chagas disease, a vector-borne parasitic disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, affects millions in the Americas. Dogs are important reservoirs of the parasite. Under laboratory conditions, canine treatment with the systemic insecticide fluralaner demonstrated efficacy in killing Triatoma infestans and T. brasiliensis, T. cruzi vectors, when they feed on dogs. This form of pest control is called xenointoxication. However, T. cruzi can also be transmitted orally when mammals ingest infected bugs, so there is potential for dogs to become infected upon consuming infected bugs killed by the treatment. Xenointoxication thereby has two contrasting effects on dogs: decreasing the number of insects feeding on the dogs but increasing opportunities for exposure to T. cruzi via oral transmission to dogs ingesting infected insects. Examine the potential for increased infection rates of T. cruzi in dogs following xenointoxication. We built a deterministic mathematical model, based on the Ross-MacDonald malaria model, to investigate the net effect of fluralaner treatment on the prevalence of T. cruzi infection in dogs in different epidemiologic scenarios. We drew upon published data on the change in percentage of bugs killed that fed on treated dogs over days post treatment. Parameters were adjusted to mimic three scenarios of T. cruzi transmission: high and low disease prevalence and domestic vectors, and low disease prevalence and sylvatic vectors. In regions with high endemic disease prevalence in dogs and domestic vectors, prevalence of infected dogs initially increases but subsequently declines before eventually rising back to the initial equilibrium following one fluralaner treatment. In regions of low prevalence and domestic or sylvatic vectors, however, treatment seems to be detrimental. In these regions our models suggest a potential for a rise in dog prevalence, due to oral transmission from dead infected bugs. Xenointoxication could be a beneficial and novel One Health intervention in regions with high prevalence of T. cruzi and domestic vectors. In regions with low prevalence and domestic or sylvatic vectors, there is potential harm. Field trials should be carefully designed to closely follow treated dogs and include early stopping rules if incidence among treated dogs exceeds that of controls.

La forja de una opinión pública: Leer y escribir en Buenos Aires, 1800–1810

La forja de una opinión pública: Leer y escribir en Buenos Aires, 1800–1810

Muḥammad und Cædmon und die Siebenschläferlegende. Zur Verbindung zwischen Palästina und Canterbury im 7. Jahrhundert

Abstract There are strong parallels between the popular description of Muḥammad’s first revelation in the Sīra of Ibn Isḥāq and a depiction of a seventh-century Northumbrian monk Cædmon in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum by Bede Venerabilis. There has been some debate about whether these parallels are more or less coincidental, but very good arguments for a relation between the two texts have been put forward. This article adds to this line of research by providing a concrete model of how a Middle Eastern Vorlage might have traveled to Bede Venerabilis. It is argued that the archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus (d. 690), played a key role in this transfer. His biography puts into focus the transposition of Greek-Palestinian and -Egyptian monk congregations including relics and texts to Italy and especially Rome during the seventh century. The relevance of the surviving texts from the school of Canterbury for the study of seventh-century Middle Eastern history is then further illustrated with a version of the so-called legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesos recorded in Theodore’s biblical exegesis. Theodore’s specific version of that legend overlaps significantly with the version contained in the Qurʾān in Sura 18 (al-Kahf, “The cave”). It has always been clear that Sūrat al-Kahf refers to the Christian Seven Sleepers legend. However, since all other hitherto known versions of the story differed significantly from the Qurʾān version, the connection between the versions was usually imagined within a model of “oral transmission.” The version recorded from Theodore’s seventh century teaching sessions now allow us to draw a more nuanced picture in which this specific version of the legend can be situated in seventh-century Palestine. Possibly it was linked to the veneration of Lot in that region, drawing a parallel between Lot’s wife, who had supposedly been transformed into a pillar of salt, but was apparently thought to not have died, and the unnaturally long sleep of the Seven Sleepers over centuries.

First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia

In the past, when scientists encountered and studied ‘new’ environmental phenomena, they rarely considered the existing knowledge of First Peoples (also known as Indigenous or Aboriginal people). The scientific debate over the regularly spaced bare patches (so-called fairy circles) in arid grasslands of Australian deserts is a case in point. Previous researchers used remote sensing, numerical modelling, aerial images and field observations to propose that fairy circles arise from plant self-organization. Here we present Australian Aboriginal art and narratives, and soil excavation data, that suggest these regularly spaced, bare and hard circles in grasslands are pavement nests occupied by Drepanotermes harvester termites. These circles, called linyji (Manyjilyjarra language) or mingkirri (Warlpiri language), have been used by Aboriginal people in their food economies and for other domestic and sacred purposes across generations. Knowledge of the linyji has been encoded in demonstration and oral transmission, ritual art and ceremony and other media. While the exact origins of the bare circles are unclear, being buried in deep time and Jukurrpa, termites need to be incorporated as key players in a larger system of interactions between soil, water and grass. Ecologically transformative feedbacks across millennia of land use and manipulation by Aboriginal people must be accounted for. We argue that the co-production of knowledge can both improve the care and management of those systems and support intergenerational learning within and across diverse cultures.

This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions

The playful title of this book, This is the Plate, is an allusion to the famous Brigham Young remark identifying the Salt Lake Valley as the place Latter-day Saints would end their westward migration and settle. The title provides an effective tonal introduction to the writing presented on its large, glossy pages and amongst its colorful photographs—an accessible and lively exploration of Utah foodways contributed by people who live in the state. The topics and treatments are wide-ranging, honoring the diverse peoples who have lived and grown food in this land, from camas lily cultivation techniques to the practices of Italian immigrants who so cared about their fig trees that they were willing to dig them up and overwinter them in their cellars.Three of the seventy-four chapters focus on Indigenous food habits. Danille Elisa Christensen's chapter provides a strong overview of Great Basin foodways, especially before intensive settlement by Anglo migrants. Already in the first paragraph, Christensen complicates traditional understandings of hunter-gatherers by pointing out that they did more than find and harvest food. She describes “a variety of agricultural techniques suited to the wide range of climates and soils within the present state boundaries, including irrigation, terracing, crop rotation, installment of windbreaks, and stewardship of so-called wild plants” (98). The second Indigenous foodways chapter, written by Northwestern Band of Shoshone historian Mae Timbimboo Parry before her death in 2007, details the flora and fauna hunter-gatherers traditionally consumed, including techniques for harvesting and preserving. She observes that at the time of writing, Native Americans experienced sickness from their non-Native food sources while “the clothing and tools needed for traditional harvesting, hunting, and cooking are also endangered” (107). While Christensen relies predominantly on sources such as tribal and government websites, journal articles, and reminiscences, Parry's assertions come from lived experience and information passed generationally through oral transmission according to carefully dictated standards to retain accuracy. The different approaches complement each other well.Essays that include formative food memories are particularly evocative, including one from Elizabeth Archuleta, whose chapter shows how “food keeps us connected to our roots, helps us maintain ties to one another, and, in doing so, helps nourish who we are” (184). Her description of tortillas from the grill makes it difficult to keep reading instead of running to the kitchen to follow her recipe. Additional chapters highlight several of the immigrant cuisines that enrich the table experiences of Utahns, including specific countries such as Greece and Italy or larger geographical areas, including Polynesia and Asia. Other episodes highlight homegrown traditions, such as Pie and Beer Day, a parodic celebration that provides connection for those who feel alienated by the state's official but religion-specific July 24 Pioneer Day.Allusions to Latter-day Saint foodways flow throughout the book, and some chapters study them explicitly. In “Compassionate Service Casserole,” Ronda Walker Weaver explores the connections between food and service for female church members, asserting, “It is not about the food, but about the love that delivers it” (245). Love is also a theme in Randy Williams's chapter, subtitled, “A Performance of Worldview,” which explores food storage practices and narratives. Williams discusses tales of sacrifice on behalf of food storage (including selling an engagement ring!), happy childhood memories of canning food together, and millennialist questions about how to best prepare for the needs and appetites of future neighbors. Williams conveys a multifaceted picture of this prominent practice for Latter-day Saints in the United States, a picture of self-sufficiency, sharing, and faith.Historians will be particularly interested in fascinating source materials and rich anecdotes worthy of further inquiry. Occasional small inaccuracies may disappoint them. For instance, George D. Watt invented the Deseret alphabet, not Brigham Young. This utopian effort at spelling reform was intended to help children and immigrants to more easily read and write and not, as claimed, “a coded, secret way of communicating” (36).1 Nonetheless, there are few secondary treatments of Utah foodways, and this book makes progress toward filling a large gap.Historians, journalists, and, predominantly, folklorists contributed to this volume. Some chapters have a more historic tone, with extensive and rigorous source materials, while others read more as inviting encyclopedia entries. This Is the Plate will particularly appeal to readers wanting to think about the stories and lives behind the food and drink in Utah. An engaging read, it will interest specialists and nonspecialists alike.

Music cognition: Can you carry over that tune?

Almost universally, music uses scales consisting of a small number of notes. Could this increase the fitness of melodies for oral transmission? By reproducing the process online, a new study reveals how cognition, sound and culture may interact to shape music.

Fyodor Dostoevsky vs. Nikolai Kostomarov: genesis of Smerdyakov's сharacter in The Brothers Karamazov

The author examines one of the episodes of N.I. Kostomarov's Autobiography - the circumstances of his father's murder as the main source of Smerdyakov's image in F.M. Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov and its correlation with Dostoevsky's criticism of the idea “If there is no God, then everything is allowed!”. It is proved that Dostoevsky could have learned this episode in an oral transmission either personally from Kostomarov, or through mutual acquaintances with him. The connection is traced through the common Turkic origin of the surnames Kostomarov and Karamazov. It is proved that in The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky stands against Kostomarov's opinion about the differences between the South Russian and Great Russian families, expressed in the article Two Russian Nationalities .

Shakespeare and Montaigne. Edited by Lars Engle, Patrick Gray, and William M. Hamlin

Lars Engle usefully explains (p. 38) that the sixteen chapters in this edited volume are divided into those which draw a comparison between Montaigne and Shakespeare and those which argue for an influence of the first on the second. Yet the beauty of this volume is that other understandings of its organization and purpose are also richly available. For instance, Colin Burrow’s careful preface raises an implicit question that is central to the volume’s overall concerns: is any syncrisis between the essayist and the playwright a matter of exact verbal parallels or of a conference, a conferring, a vibration through moments of empathy and silent, perhaps even accidental, affinity? Burrow’s deliberate unpicking of the notion of source as being inadequate to the task of what reading — let alone imitation — might mean in this debate is followed by N. Amos Rothschild’s contribution on the rhetoric of imitation, and then further refracted in Peter G. Platt’s ‘hovering and haunting’ (p. 242), in Richard Scholar’s delicate probing of Shakespeare’s and Montaigne’s rhetorical manner as well as matter, and in The Tempest’s ‘essay-like processes of thought’ analysed by Engle (p. 56). In a not dissimilar vein, Richard Hillman discusses the imitative generic patterns of tragedy and comedy. A second thematic strand studies how or whether Shakespeare and Montaigne can speak to our modernity: Anita Gilman Sherman interrogates selfhood, William McKenzie narcissism, and David Schalkwyk gender; in the book’s longest chapter (forty-seven pages), Patrick Gray proposes a dissenting view of liberalism. Likewise, there is a marked philosophical edge to a number of chapters — another thematic undercurrent. Maria Devlin McNair uses Bernard Williams’s notion of moral luck, Cassie M. Miura deploys Stanley Cavell, and Zorica Bečanović-Nikolić examines subjectivity through the writings of Paul Ricœur; Pyrrhonism occurs in chapters by Alison Calhoun, Richard Dillane, and William M. Hamlin, while Daniel Vitkus champions a neo-pagan reading of Antony and Cleopatra. Alongside this prismatic sense of the chapters, with each change of perspective bringing a new dimension of Shakespeare and Montaigne into view, the volume also reflexively enlarges on and assesses its own emphases through its abundant paratexts — a preface, two introductions, and two afterwords. They fulfil diverse functions. Hamlin offers a history of criticism about Shakespeare and Montaigne, whereas Engle views the pair in terms of thought-experiments. The afterwords, by contrast, tend to be contestatory. Thus, echoing Gray, George Hoffmann warns us not to take Montaigne straightforwardly as our liberal ancestor and, like Burrow, sees the self chiefly as a product of performance albeit now in a philosophical, sceptical mode. Meanwhile, Katharine Eisaman Maus points up some of the differences rather than the similarities between the playwright and the essayist. Curiously, none of the contributions considers whether oral transmission through report, news, or even word of mouth among circles of acquaintances might have played any part in Shakespeare’s encounter with the Essais. This reservation notwithstanding, the volume offers a wide-ranging yet coherent body of reflection and represents a distinguished and stimulating illustration of the key themes, ideas, and approaches in its field.

Large-scale iterated singing experiments reveal oral transmission mechanisms underlying music evolution

Speech and song have been transmitted orally for countless human generations, changing over time under the influence of biological, cognitive, and cultural pressures. Cross-cultural regularities and diversities in human song are thought to emerge from this transmission process, but testing how underlying mechanisms contribute to musical structures remains a key challenge. Here, we introduce an automatic online pipeline that streamlines large-scale cultural transmission experiments using a sophisticated and naturalistic modality: singing. We quantify the evolution of 3,424 melodies orally transmitted across 1,797 participants in the United States and India. This approach produces a high-resolution characterization of how oral transmission shapes melody, revealing the emergence of structures that are consistent with widespread musical features observed cross-culturally (small pitch sets, small pitch intervals, and arch-shaped melodic contours). We show how the emergence of these structures is constrained by individual biases in our participants-vocal constraints, working memory, and cultural exposure-which determine the size, shape, and complexity of evolving melodies. However, their ultimate effect on population-level structures depends on social dynamics taking place during cultural transmission. When participants recursively imitate their own productions (individual transmission), musical structures evolve slowly and heterogeneously, reflecting idiosyncratic musical biases. When participants instead imitate others' productions (social transmission), melodies rapidly shift toward homogeneous structures, reflecting shared structural biases that may underpin cross-cultural variation. These results provide the first quantitative characterization of the rich collection of biases that oral transmission imposes on music evolution, giving us a new understanding of how human song structures emerge via cultural transmission.

Murine colon organoids as a novel model to study Trypanosoma cruzi infection and interactions with the intestinal epithelium.

Chagas disease (CD) is a life-threatening illness caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). With around seven million people infected worldwide and over 50,000 deaths per year, CD is a major public health issue in Latin America. The main route of transmission to humans is through a triatomine bug (vector-borne), but congenital and oral transmission have also been reported. The acute phase of CD presents mild symptoms but may develop into a long-lasting chronic illness, characterized by severely impaired cardiac, digestive, and neurological functions. The intestinal tissue appears to have a key role during oral transmission and chronic infection of CD. In this immune-privileged reservoir, dormant/quiescent parasites have been suggested to contribute to disease persistence, infection relapse, and treatment failure. However, the interaction between the intestinal epithelium and T. cruzi has not been examined in depth, in part, due to the lack of in vitro models that approximate to the biological and structural complexity of this tissue. Therefore, to understand the role played by the intestinal tissue during transmission and chronic infection, physiological models resembling the organ complexity are needed. Here we addressed this issue by establishing and characterizing adult stem cell-derived colonoid infection models that are clinically relevant for CD. 3D and 2D systems of murine intestinal organoids infected with T. cruzi Dm28c (a highly virulent strain associated with oral outbreaks) were analyzed at different time points by confocal microscopy. T. cruzi was able to invade and replicate in intestinal epithelial primary cells grown as intact organoids (3D) and monolayers (2D). The permissiveness to pathogen infection differed markedly between organoids and cell lines (primate and intestinal human cell lines). So far, this represents the first evidence of the potential that these cellular systems offer for the study of host-pathogen interactions and the discovery of effective anti-chagasic drugs.

Parabiblical tradition in mediaeval Armenia and its social location(s)

The aim of this paper is to commence seeking an answer to the following question: What function did the developed parabiblical (pseudepigraphical) literature play in medieval Armenian culture? The question is approached by the examination of markers in the texts that might show the use to which they were put and reveal the contexts in which the various types of literature were composed, or preserved, or developed. The issues of folk tales and oral transmission are raised. The use of iconographic sources and their relationship to literary documents, oral or written, are investigated.

BIS-guided sedation prevents the cough reaction of patients under general anaesthesia caused by extubation: a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundThe multiple modes of SARS-CoV-2 transmission including airborne, droplet, contact and faecal–oral transmissions that cause coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) contribute to a public threat to the lives of people worldwide. Heavy aerosol production by coughing and the big peak expiratory flow in patients with respiratory infections (especially SARS-CoV-2) during recovery from general anaesthesia are the highest risk factors for infection in healthcare workers. To perform sedation before extubation significantly reduced the incidence of coughing during recovery from general anaesthesia. However, there are few studies on endotracheal tube removal under BIS-guided sedation in postanaesthesia care unit (PACU). We speculated that the BIS-guided sedation with dexmedetomidine and propofol would better prevent coughing caused by tracheal extubation and reducing peak expiratory flow.MethodsPatients with general anaesthesia were randomly assigned to Group S (dexmedetomidine was infused in the operating room for 30 min, and the bispectral index (BIS) value was maintained 60–70 by infusion propofol at 0.5~1.5 μg/ml in the PACU until the endotracheal tubes were pulled out) and Group C (no dexmedetomidine and propofol treatment, replaced with the saline treatment). The incidence of coughing, agitation and active extubation, endotracheal tube tolerance and the peak expiratory flow at spontaneous breathing and at extubation were assessed.ResultsA total of 101 patients were randomly assigned to Group S (51 cases) and Group C (50 cases). The incidence of coughing, agitation and active extubation was significantly lower (1(51), 0(51) and 0(51), respectively) in Group S than (11(50), 8(50) and 5(50), respectively) in Group C (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01, respectively); the scores of cough were significantly reduced (1(1, 1)) in Group S than (1(1, 2)) in Group C (p < 0.01); and the endotracheal tube tolerance was significantly improved (0(0, 1)) in Group S than (1(1, 3)) in Group C (p < 0.001). The peak expiratory flow at spontaneous breathing and at extubation was significantly reduced (5(5, 7) and 6.5(6, 8), respectively) in Group S than (8(5, 10) and 21(9, 32)) in Group C (p < 0.001).ConclusionsBIS-guided sedation with dexmedetomidine and propofol significantly prevented coughing and reduced peak expiratory flow during recovery from general anaesthesia, which may play an important role in preventing medical staff from contracting COVID-19.Trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR2200058429 (registration date: 09-04-2022) “retrospectively registered”.

À voix haute : combiner les représentations rhétorique et médicale de la voix à la Renaissance

A la Renaissance, la transmission orale des textes ne se justifie pas seulement par une tradition qui persisterait parallèlement à l’essor de l’imprimerie : elle trouve un point d’appui dans la redécouverte des traités de médecine des Anciens s’intéressant à la lecture à voix haute. Capable de mieux faire circuler ou libérer les humeurs, la vocifération ou la lecture à voix haute font partie des programmes thérapeutiques à l’œuvre dans l’Antiquité. Rabelais, médecin lui-même, traducteur en latin et éditeur d’Hippocrate et de Galien, n’ignorait sans doute pas ce lien fait jadis entre voix et santé, comme le mode de vie de Gargantua semble le montrer : l’humaniste combine dans ses récits une représentation de la voix empruntée à la rhétorique de l’actio, une représentation anatomique du trajet de la voix dans l’oreille, et une vision thérapeutique des exercices vocaux. Ces différentes représentations concourent toutes à l’épanouissement humaniste du géant. Clément Marot va encore plus loin en donnant un écho de ces traités médicaux dans le « Chant royal de la conception Nostre Dame », renouvelant par là-même l’image du « Verbe » divin et celle de la Vierge Marie.

Genetic Characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi I Populations from an Oral Chagas Disease Outbreak in Venezuela: Natural Resistance to Nitroheterocyclic Drugs.

The oral transmission of Chagas disease (oCD) in Venezuela announced its appearance in 2007. Different from other populations affected by oCD and despite close supervision during treatment with nitroheterocyclic drugs, the result was treatment failure. We studied genetic features of natural bloodstream parasite populations and populations after treatment of nine patients of this outbreak. In total, we studied six hemoculture isolates, eight Pre-Tx blood samples, and 17 samples collected at two or three Post-Tx time-points between 2007 and 2015. Parasitic loads were determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and discrete typing units (DTU), minicircle signatures, and Tcntr-1 gene sequences were searched from blood samples and hemocultures. Half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were measured from the hemocultures. All patients were infected by TcI. Significant decrease in parasitic loads was observed between Pre-Tx and Post-Tx samples, suggesting the evolution from acute to chronic phase of Chagas disease. 60% of intra-DTU-I variability was observed between Pre-Tx and Post-Tx minicircle signatures in the general population, and 43 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected in a total of 12 Tcntr-1 gene sequences, indicative of a polyclonal source of infection. SNPs in three post-Tx samples produced stop codons giving rise to putative truncated proteins or displaced open reading frames, which would render resistance genes. IC50 values varied from 5.301 ± 1.973 to 104.731 ± 4.556 μM, demonstrating a wide range of susceptibility. The poor drug response in the Pre-Tx parasite populations may be associated with the presence of naturally resistant parasite clones. Therefore, any information that can be obtained on drug susceptibility from in vitro assays, in vivo assays, or molecular characterization of natural populations of Trypanosoma cruzi becomes essential when therapeutic guidelines are designed in a given geographical area.

Грамматика и ритуалистика в индийской теоретической культуре и западный идеал «чистой теории»: межкультурный подход

The article reveals the intercultural significance of the impact of the Paninean grammar of Sanskrit (ca. IV century B.C.) on the formation of Western linguis­tics – the general theory of language, comparative historical linguistics, other comparative disciplines, as well as generative grammar, structuralism and for­malism. We are dealing here with a specific contribution of Indian theoretical knowledge to a number of important areas of Western science and philosophy. In ancient India itself, the genesis of grammatical and linguistic discourse was closely connected with the Brahmanical theory of Vedic sacrifice, which had the character of ritual- and sound-centrism. Ritual was regarded as a model of activity and behavior under the condition of an unstable confrontation between the forces of chaos and order. Sound-centrism constituted a priority of the oral transmission of knowledge in ancient India. The author associates ritual- and sound-centric doctrines with the conceptual expression of the dy­namic nature of reality by means of the “perfect language” – Sanskrit. The fact that in ancient India the grammar was a part of the “software” for ritualistic dis­cursive practices introduces some new perspectives within the study of the gene­sis of theoretical knowledge. In contrast to the hypothesis of “pure theory” sug­gested in Ancient Greece and acknowledged as a trigger for the development of philosophy and science in the West, an opportunity opens up to study the gen­esis of theoretical culture within the framework of justifying religious praxis (F. Staal’s hypothesis). This may actualize the reflection of “Indo-European lan­guage family relations” between Western civilization and Indian culture and en­rich their self-understanding by the introduction of an intercultural perspective.