Physiological Self Research Articles

In Between the Psychological and Physiological Self - The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on the Neuro-Socio-Ecological and Inflammatory Mind-Body-Brain System.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on individuals' sense of self perturbating the sense of connectedness with the others, touching upon deep existential fears and deep intersubjective and cultural layers, emphasizing the importance of a neuro-socio-ecological alignment for the sense of security of psychological self. We can still observe after years how social distancing measures, quarantines, and lockdowns have disrupted social connections and routines, leading to feelings of isolation, anxiety and depressive symptomatology. Furthermore, from a physiological perspective, some people continue to experience health problems long after having COVID-19, and these ongoing health problems are sometimes called post-COVID-19 syndrome or post-COVID conditions (PASC). In this complex scenario, through the operationalization of the sense of self and its psychological and physiological baseline, our aim is to try to shed some new light on elements of resilience vs. vulnerability. Here we intend the self and its baseline as the crossroads between psychology and physiology and we show how COVID-19 pandemic, especially in post-COVID-19 syndrome (PACS), left traces in the mind-body-brain system at a neuro-socio-ecological and inflammatory level.

Marital Realism: Beauty and Pettiness inMiddlemarch

Marital Realism: Beauty and Pettiness in<i>Middlemarch</i>

Balance Between Rapid Delayed Rectifier K+ Current and Late Na+ Current on Ventricular Repolarization: An Effective Antiarrhythmic Target?

Rapid delayed rectifier K+ current (IKr) and late Na+ current (INaL) significantly shape the cardiac action potential (AP). Changes in their magnitudes can cause either long or short QT syndromes associated with malignant ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Physiological self AP-clamp was used to measure INaL and IKr during the AP in rabbit and porcine ventricular cardiomyocytes to test our hypothesis that the balance between IKr and INaL affects repolarization stability in health and disease conditions. We found comparable amount of net charge carried by IKr and INaL during the physiological AP, suggesting that outward K+ current via IKr and inward Na+ current via INaL are in balance during physiological repolarization. Remarkably, IKr and INaL integrals in each control myocyte were highly correlated in both healthy rabbit and pig myocytes, despite high overall cell-to-cell variability. This close correlation was lost in heart failure myocytes from both species. Pretreatment with E-4031 to block IKr (mimicking long QT syndrome 2) or with sea anemone toxin II to impair Na+ channel inactivation (mimicking long QT syndrome 3) prolonged AP duration (APD); however, using GS-967 to inhibit INaL sufficiently restored APD to control in both cases. Importantly, INaL inhibition significantly reduced the beat-to-beat and short-term variabilities of APD. Moreover, INaL inhibition also restored APD and repolarization stability in heart failure. Conversely, pretreatment with GS-967 shortened APD (mimicking short QT syndrome), and E-4031 reverted APD shortening. Furthermore, the amplitude of AP alternans occurring at high pacing frequency was decreased by INaL inhibition, increased by IKr inhibition, and restored by combined INaL and IKr inhibitions. Our data demonstrate that IKr and INaL are counterbalancing currents during the physiological ventricular AP and their integrals covary in individual myocytes. Targeting these ionic currents to normalize their balance may have significant therapeutic potential in heart diseases with repolarization abnormalities. Visual Overview: A visual overview is available for this article.

'Il aurait peut-être préféré avoir une autre fille': Paternal Mourning in the Work of Annie Ernaux

Annie Ernaux discovered, at the age of ten, that her sister, Ginette Marie Thérèse Duchesne, had died of diphtheria in 1938, two years prior to Ernaux's birth. Ernaux relates the circumstances of her sister's death and parents' grief in Une femme and in several subsequent texts, culminating in L'Autre fille, a letter addressed to her deceased sister. In the latter text, Ernaux poignantly describes her parents' grief and this article examines Ernaux's perception of her father's mourning processes as depicted across a range of texts. The analysis of Ernaux's writing is informed by Freudian concepts of mourning and grief. According to Freudian theory, when one enters the melancholic stage of grieving, the lost loved one causes a diminishment of the ego. Ginette's death was clearly a profound loss for her father. Ernaux's mother, Blanche, recalls Alphonse Duchesne's reaction: 'mon mari était fou quand il t'a trouvée morte en rentrant de son travail.' (L'Autre fille, p. 16). It is significant, therefore, to note that Alphonse Duchesne, as described by Ernaux, particularly in La Place and La Honte, displays many of the behavioural elements which Freud considered melancholic including a decrease in self-regard – as can be seen through many examples in Ernaux's corpus of her father's abasement, humiliation and emasculation. Our reading of Ernaux's texts will be enhanced by Cathy Caruth's conception of trauma as 'the story of a wound that cries out'. By combining both of these approaches – the melancholia of grief and the trauma of loss – this article engages in a close reading of paternal experience of the death of a child, as related by Ernaux, with a focus on how this impacts on both the physiological and physical self.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Provider Knowledge Discourse on Holistic Health

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) promises a wide array of therapies employed increasingly by consumers for disease prevention and health promotion. Despite this increasing use, however, CAM and biomedical paradigms are often not combined effectively in the US. The lack of coordination negatively impacts several aspects of patient care including CAM and biomedical provider-patient relationships and the practice of integrative medicine. The goal of this study is to understand how CAM providers position their knowledge and practice of holistic health within the healthcare landscape in the US. In-depth interviews with CAM providers (N=17) sampled from practices in the mid-Atlantic region of the US were analyzed for provider descriptions of holistic health. Discourse analysis of CAM provider interviews identifies the three themes employed by CAM providers to describe holistic health as comprising the: (a) epistemologies of legitimization and identity, (b) epistemologies of sense and intuition, and (c) epistemologies of environment and community. The three epistemologies define holistic health by organizing diverse knowledge foundations through reconciling and integrating differences, including diverse modes of evidence such as non-empirical forms of whole body experiences, and privileging the relational praxis through integrating the individual’s biological and sociocultural environment. The epistemologies illuminate how CAM knowledge and practice is positioned as alternative within the sociocultural context of the participants and reflect CAM providers’ challenges in carving out a distinct knowledge space reflecting their professional identity. CAM providers’ discourse encompasses the ontological and experiential-relational praxis to foreground health as a mutually constitutive, ongoing process of granting legitimacy to diverse sense-making ontologies of medicine within a continuum of provider-patient meaning-making. Theoretically, CAM knowledge of holistic health integrates the experiential praxis of the patient’s spiritual and physiological self and the relational praxis of the patient’s biological-sociocultural-epigenetic relationships in the conceptualization and delivery of health outcomes. The study findings recommend including CAM knowledge discourses to inform the epistemological foundations of basic medicine. Pragmatically, the study recommends support for efforts to include credentialing of CAM practitioner teaching within allopathic healthcare institutions, faculty development within existing allopathic health professional schools, and incorporation of CAM content in allopathic medical education and practice.

Macroscopic Characteristics of and Criteria for Biological Fixation of Bone Fracture in Chinese Mongolian Osteopathy

(Self) external fixation using small splints in Chinese Mongolian osteopathy originated from life and practice. Basing itself upon vital natural idea ‘correspondenci of nature and human’(including the ‘unity of mind and body’) integrating limbs and body, consciousness and body, human and nature, it integrates external fixation using small splints with psychological and physiological self fixation, and realizes geometrical, mechanical, kinematical, functional and psychological dynamic fixation of the ends of bone fracture. The fixation is natural, closed and open, by oneself, uncovered biological macroscopic fixing model, so this implicates developing direction and the model of future of modern fracture fixation.

Feed thickener for infants up to six months of age with gastro-oesophageal reflux.

Gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) is common in infants, and feed thickeners are often used to manage it in infants as they are simple to use and perceived to be harmless. However, conflicting evidence exists to support the use of feed thickeners. To evaluate the use of feed thickeners in infants up to six months of age with GOR in terms of reduction in a) signs and symptoms of GOR, b) reflux episodes on pH probe monitoring or intraluminal impedance or a combination of both, or c) histological evidence of oesophagitis. We used the standard search strategy of the Cochrane Neonatal Review Group to search the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL 2016, Issue 2), MEDLINE via PubMed (1966 to 22 November 2016), Embase (1980 to 22 November 2016), and CINAHL (1982 to 22 November 2016). We also searched clinical trials databases, conference proceedings, and the reference lists of retrieved articles for randomised controlled trials. We included randomised controlled trials if they examined the effects of feed thickeners as compared to unthickened feeds (no treatment or placebo) in treating GOR in term infants up to six months of age or six months of corrected gestational age for those born preterm. Two review authors independently identified eligible studies from the literature search. Two review authors independently performed data extraction and quality assessments of the eligible studies. Differences in opinion were resolved by discussion with a third review author, and consensus was reached among all three review authors. We used the GRADE approach to assess the quality of the evidence. Eight trials recruiting a total of 637 infants met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review. The infants included in the review were mainly formula-fed term infants. The trials were of variable methodological quality. Formula-fed term infants with GOR on feed thickeners had nearly two fewer episodes of regurgitation per day (mean difference -1.97 episodes per day, 95% confidence interval (CI) -2.32 to -1.61; 6 studies, 442 infants, moderate-certainty evidence) and were 2.5 times more likely to be asymptomatic from regurgitation at the end of the intervention period (risk ratio 2.50, 95% CI 1.38 to 4.51; number needed to treat for an additional beneficial outcome 5, 95% CI 4 to 13; 2 studies, 186 infants, low-certainty evidence) when compared to infants with GOR on unthickened feeds. No studies reported failure to thrive as an outcome. We found low-certainty evidence based on 2 studies recruiting 116 infants that use of feed thickeners improved the oesophageal pH probe parameters of reflux index (i.e. percentage of time pH < 4), number of reflux episodes lasting longer than 5 minutes, and duration of longest reflux episode. No major side effects were reported with the use of feed thickeners. Information was insufficient to conclude which type of feed thickener is superior. Gastro-oesophageal reflux is a physiological self resolving phenomenon in infants that does not necessarily require any treatment. However, we found moderate-certainty evidence that feed thickeners should be considered if regurgitation symptoms persist in term bottle-fed infants. The reduction of two episodes of regurgitation per day is likely to be of clinical significance to caregivers. Due to the limited information available, we were unable to assess the use of feed thickeners in infants who are breastfeeding or preterm nor could we conclude which type of feed thickener is superior.

Review: Dawn Nafus (ed.), Quantified: Biosensing Technologies in Everyday Life

We have, in the 21st century, moved into a new series of fascinations with biosensing, where our autonomic systems or an autonomic ‘self’, largely out of bounds for our own knowledge and understanding before now, are available. ‘Autonomic’ refers to the nervous system of a physiological self, but the extent of our autonomic selves would not otherwise be knowable or known but through sensory tracking devices now available to us. Biosensing, biohacking, biometrics and biopower are all part of a contemporary movement of intimate and intensified measure and are terms that Dawn Nafus's collection Quantified: Biosensing Technologies in Everyday Life deals with. The book discusses questions of measurement and tracking with the use of sensory technology and methods. This review considers where this collection sits in the literature and theoretical debates.

Dilemmas and Delusions Bernard Shaw and Health

Beguiling a Victorian public obsessed with the pursuit of fitness, the International Health Exhibition opened in South Kensington in May 1884. Its expressed intent, to educate the public on a broad range of wellness topics, was greatly overshadowed by its dazzling display of proprietary medical commodities, salutary appliances, and faddish cures. While there were legitimate exhibits that dealt sincerely with issues of sanitation, hygiene, food, drink, and even child care, the event illuminated the extent to which personal and systemic therapeutic remedy and indeed health itself had become a lucrative industry. Less than three weeks before he joined the Fabian Society, the fledgling novelist Bernard Shaw visited one of the exhibition’s prominent attractions, Francis Galton’s Anthropometric Laboratory, to be quantified and measured. Chart 3655, created on 16 August 1884, contains the following collected data:

Macroscopic Characteristics of and Criteria for Biological Fixation of Bone Fracture in Chinese Mongolian Osteopathy

(Self)external fixation using small splints in Chinese Mongolian osteopathy originated from life and practice. Basing itself upon vital natural idea ‘correspondenci of nature and human’(including the ‘unity of mind and body’) integrating limbs and body, consciousness and body, human and nature, it integrates external fixation using small splints with psychological and physiological self fixation, and realizes geometrical, mechanical, kinematical, functional and psychological dynamic fixation of the ends of bone fracture. The fixation is natural, closed and open, by oneself, uncovered biological macroscopic fixing model, so this implicates developing direction and the model of future of modern fracture fixation.

Study on the influencing factors of professional self-concept of nurses from general hospital

Objective To search for and confirm the influencing factors of professional self-concept of nurses from general hospital.Methods 240 nurses'professional self-concept from a general hospital was investigatted using the self-evaluation questionnaire.Results Nurses'moral ethics held the biggest ratio in the professional self-concept,otherwise the physiological self had the minimum ratio.There were statistical differences in terms of physiological self(24.66±4.51),moral ethics (54.38±3.99),psyehological self (42.55±5.30).professional attitude (42.69±6.66) and the total score (271.25±20.68) among the nurses of differem departments (P<0.05).There was significant difference in the term of physiological self among the nurses of different matrimony (t=2.158,P<0.05),different working periods (F=3.685,P<0.05) and differem professional titles (F=4.577,P<0.05).Conclusions The different department is the major factor of innuencing the professional self-concept, secondly the marriage and working periods.The educational background do not influence the self-concept.To improve the working environment,produce a reasonable nursing staff, and carry on a valid family psychological intervention will be the measures of raising the nurses' professional self-concept. Key words: Nurse; Professional self-concept

Pollen deposition rates and the functioning of distyly in the perennial Pulmonaria officinalis (Boraginaceae)

Distyly typically involves reciprocal polymorphism in stamen and style lengths and a set of associated polymorphisms of pollen and stigma characters. This flower polymorphism has been regarded as a strategy to reduce the likelihood of self- and intramorph pollination and to promote legitimate intermorph pollination. Although most distylous plants are characterized by a physiological self- and intramorph-incompatibility system, previous work on Pulmonaria affinis and other distylous Boraginaceae species have shown that self-incompatibility was not strict. In this study, we examined pollen deposition rates and the functioning of the distylous breeding system in Pulmonaria officinalis. Flowers exhibited reciprocal herkogamy and several other ancillary features of heterostyly. Controlled pollinations clearly showed weak self-incompatibility, with the LS-morph showing higher rates of seed set following self-, intramorph- and intermorph-pollinations than the SS-individuals. On the other hand, SS-pollen showed higher germination rates and pollen tube growth than that of LS-pollen. Under natural conditions, both the proficiency of legitimate pollen transfer and the proportion of deposited pollen were asymmetrical. Although SS-pollen grains showed a higher proficiency for legitimate transfer than that of LS-pollen on a per pollen basis, the ratio of legitimate to illegitimate deposited pollen on stigmas of SS-flowers markedly exceeded that of LS-flowers. The latter was explained by the higher pollen production rates of LS-individuals compared to SS-individuals. High levels of illegitimate pollen deposition on LS-stigmas, on the other hand, were attributed to the limited proboscis length of the principal pollinators and the occurrence of floral hairs at the corolla entrance of LS-flowers. This study thus indicates asymmetrical pollen transport patterns and morph-specific differences in the strength of the incompatibility system; two aspects that may affect female reproductive success and morph ratio variation under pollen limited conditions.

Role of CD1d-restricted NKT cells in microbial immunity.

The discovery that T cells recognize lipid and glycolipid molecules presented by CD1 proteins has greatly expanded the number of potential microbial antigens targeted by the immune system following infection. The ability of CD1d-restricted NKT cells to activate innate and adaptive immune responses has led to the idea that these cells can modulate immunity to infectious agents. In addition, CD1d-restricted NKT cells may directly contribute to host resistance as they express a variety of effector molecules that could mediate an antimicrobial effect. Although much has been learned about CD1d-restricted NKT cells through the use of the synthetic antigen α-galactosylceramide (αGalCer), the field has been hampered by the paucity of information about the physiological self and microbial lipid antigens that can be presented by CD1d. Here we review the literature stating that CD1d-restricted NKT cells contribute to host defense against microbial pathogens.

In the Normal Repertoire of CD4+ T Cells, a Single Class II MHC/Peptide Complex Positively Selects TCRs with Various Antigen Specificities

In the thymus, immature T cells are positively and negatively selected by multiple interactions between their Ag receptors (TCRs) and self MHC/peptide complexes expressed on thymic stromal cells. Here we show that in the milieu of negative selection on physiological self class II MHC/peptide complexes (Abwt), a single class II/peptide complex AbEp52-68 positively selects a number of TCRs with various Ag specificities. This TCR repertoire is semidiverse and not biased toward Ep-like Ags. Our finding implies that the degeneracy of positive selection for peptide ligands exceeds peptide-specific negative selection and is essential to increase the efficiency and diversity of the repertoire so that T cells with the same Ag specificity can be selected by different self MHC/ peptide complexes.

Autoimmune ovarian disease: mechanism of disease induction and prevention

Investigation of the versatile models for autoimmunity of the ovary and other selected organs has contributed to our understanding of the following aspects of autoimmunity: the mechanism of T cell molecular mimicry; T→B epitope spreading, as a basis for autoantibody diversification, and as a link between organ-specific and systemic autoimmunity; the localization of genetic loci potentially influencing multiple autoimmune diseases; and the elucidation of regulatory T cells as a component of physiological self tolerance.

Tristyly, self-compatibility and floral variation in Decodon verticillatus (Lythraceae)

Abstract Heterostyly typically involves reciprocal polymorphism in stamen and style lengths, physiological self- and intramorph-incompatibility, and a set of associated polymorphisms of pollen and stigma characters. This study examined floral morphology and compatibility relationships in the monotypic, herbaceous perennial Decodon verticillatus (Lythraceae). There have been conflicting reports on the occurrence of tristyly in the species, probably because of frequent loss of style morphs from populations in parts of the species' range. Floral morphology was examined using material collected from natural populations throughout the range. Detailed floral measurements revealed discrete trimorphism in style length and anther positioning in three populations. Data from two dimorphic populations showed similar patterns of floral polymorphism, except that both were missing the mid-styled morph. In one dimorphic population, there was evidence for modification in the length of mid-level stamens. Measurements in three populations indicated pronounced floral variability, including high frequencies of modified phenotypes with reduced stigma anther separation. Pollen size was only weakly differentiated among anther levels, and there were no differences in pollen production among anther levels or morphs. In contrast, stigma size and papilla length showed a strong negative correlation with style length; a pattern opposite to most heterostylous species. Experimental crosses performed under glasshouse conditions on plants from two populations showed a high degree of both self- and intramorph-compatibility. A comparative analysis of floral morphology showed that D. verticillatus is not unusual in terms of the precision and reciprocity of organ positioning compared with 13 other tristylous species.

Tristyly, self-compatibility and floral variation in Decodon verticillatus (Lythraceae)

Heterostyly typically involves reciprocal polymorphism in stamen and style lengths, physiological self- and intramorph-incompatibility, and a set of associated polymorphisms of pollen and stigma characters. This study examined floral morphology and compatibility relationships in the monotypic, herbaceous perennial Decodon verticillatus (Lythraceae). There have been conflicting reports on the occurrence of tristyly in the species, probably because of frequent loss of style morphs from populations in parts of the species' range. Floral morphology was examined using material collected from natural populations throughout the range. Detailed floral measurements revealed discrete trimorphism in style length and anther positioning in three populations. Data from two dimorphic populations showed similar patterns of floral polymorphism, except that both were missing the mid-styled morph. In one dimorphic population, there was evidence for modification in the length of mid-level stamens. Measurements in three populations indicated pronounced floral variability, including high frequencies of modified phenotypes with reduced stigma anther separation. Pollen size was only weakly differentiated among anther levels, and there were no differences in pollen production among anther levels or morphs. In contrast, stigma size and papilla length showed a strong negative correlation with style length; a pattern opposite to most heterostylous species. Experimental crosses performed under glasshouse conditions on plants from two populations showed a high degree of both self- and intramorph-compatibility. A comparative analysis of floral morphology showed that D. verticillatus is not unusual in terms of the precision and reciprocity of organ positioning compared with 13 other tristylous species.

Hand-Tripped Flowers Promote Seed Production in Arachis lignosa, a Wild Peanut1

Abstract In trials conducted in the greenhouse, growth chamber, and outdoors, no pegs or pods were produced when A. lignosa (Chod. et Hassl.) Krap. et Greg. nom. nud. plants were allowed to pollinate naturally. However, hand tripping flowers, especially in the greenhouse, resulted in significant increases in pod production. The results suggest that the high degree of reproductive sterility usually noted for A. lignosa in culture is due to pollination failure rather than to physiological self incompatibility. The somewhat truncated shape of the stigma and its elevated position relative to the anthers probably restricts natural self-pollination without the aid of pollinating vectors such as bees.

Resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis induced by neonatal tolerization to myelin basic protein: clonal elimination vs. regulation of autoaggressive lymphocytes

The target autoantigen of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), myelin basic protein (MBP), appears late in ontogeny. In the rat MBP is expressed first on days 2-3 post partum, at a development stage, when self tolerance to most other autoantigens has already developed. To shed light on the cellular mechanisms that lead to immunological self tolerance to MBP, we treated neonatal rats with high doses of MBP before ontogenetic appearance of this autoantigen. We found that high doses are required to confer MBP-specific tolerance lasting until the adult life. Neonatally tolerized, adult rats are completely resistant to induction of EAE by injection of MBP in complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). Upon MBP CFA challenge, these animals develop a limited humoral response to MBP, but are completely unreactive to MBP on the T cell level. The function of antigen-presenting cells is unchanged by neonatal tolerization, and there is no evidence for the induction of suppressive mechanisms. Transfers of large numbers of tolerized lymphocytes to normal hosts fails to interfere with EAE inducibility. Moreover, neonatally tolerized lymphocytes do not reduce MBP reactivity of primed lymph node cells or T line cells in vitro. Finally, neonatally tolerized rats are susceptible to EAE transferred by activated primed lymphocytes or by in vitro-activated MBP-specific T line cells. The apparent deletion of MBP-specific T lymphocytes in neonatally tolerized rats is in striking contrast to the physiological self tolerance to MBP, which is characterized by the presence of MBP-specific clones in the normal immune repertoire.

Auto-immune therapy against human allergic disease: A physiological self defence factor

Guinea-pigs sensitised to ovalbumen excrete the antigen in their urine in a therapeutic concentration which prevents anaphylactic death after injection of a challenge dose of the ovalbumen. Sublingual administration of the correct dose of urine from allergic patients also provides therapeutic control of their allergic symptoms. The effective dose is determined by bio-assay. The Neutralisation dose is recognised by disappearance of buccal sensation to the urine. Readministration of salivary, nasal, and sweat secretions from allergic patients onto the conjunctiva also controls allergic symptoms. These procedures provide effective physiological self-defence therapies against allergic challenge in humans.