Unexpected Challenge Research Articles

On Understanding State Sovereignty in the Conditions of Membership in the European Union – a Few Reflections Against the Background of Current Determinants and the Relationship Between the Court of Justice of the European Union and National Courts

The corona virus pandemic poses an unexpected challenge to the European Union and its Member States. It is part of the public debate on the direction of the Union’s institutional development – the Union may both strengthen cooperation and may begin to dominate centrifugal tendencies. Both the Community assistance program and the position on the “communitarisation” of planned debts will be of particular importance. On May 5, 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany issued a judgement, the essence of which is to question the binding force of the judgment of the EU CJEU in Germany. We have dealt with similar decisions in the case of the Spanish Supreme Court. The German ruling in particular will be of particular importance as regards the relationship between EU law and the constitutional law of the member states. In the article, the author discusses the most important rulings of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal to date and the resulting conclusions, including the obligation to provide a pro-EU interpretation of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The subject of the considerations was also the traditional understanding of state sovereignty and the need to verify it nowadays, which in fact has been taking place since the middle of the 20th century. The development of the EU will be the most important factor in its modern understanding. The author emphasized the key importance of two factors: the need to strictly adhere to the principle of subsidiarity in order to limit the EU’s regulatory tendencies and – on the other hand – the requirement to take the EU order (acquis communaitaire) into account in the interpretation and application of national law, including the Constitution itself.

Synthesis of Recommendations From 25 Countries and 31 Oncology Societies: How to Navigate Through Covid-19 Labyrinth.

IntroductionPandemic COVID-19 is an unexpected challenge for the oncological community, indicating potential detrimental effects on cancer patients. Our aim was to summarize the converging key points providing a general guidance in order to support decision making, pertaining to the oncologic care in the middle of a global outbreak.MethodsWe did an international online search in twenty five countries that have managed a surge in cancer patient numbers. We collected the recommendations from thirty one medical oncology societies.ResultsBy synthesizing guidelines for a) oncology service delivery adjustments, b) general and specific treatment adaptations, and c) discrepancies from guidelines comparison, we present a clinical synopsis with the forty more crucial statements. A Covid-19 risk stratification base was also created in order to obtain a quick, objective patient assessment and a risk-benefit evaluation on a case-by-case basis.ConclusionsIn an attempt to face these complex needs and due to limited understanding of COVID-19, a variability of recommendations based on general epidemiological and infectious disease principles rather than definite cancer-related evidence has evolved. Additionally, the absence of an effective treatment or vaccine requires the development of cancer management guidance, capitalizing on comprehensive COVID-19 oncology experience globally.

EAES Recommendations for Recovery Plan in Minimally Invasive Surgery Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

BackgroundCOVID-19 pandemic presented an unexpected challenge for the surgical community in general and Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) specialists in particular. This document aims to summarize recent evidence and experts’ opinion and formulate recommendations to guide the surgical community on how to best organize the recovery plan for surgical activity across different sub-specialities after the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsRecommendations were developed through a Delphi process for establishment of expert consensus. Domain topics were formulated and subsequently subdivided into questions pertinent to different surgical specialities following the COVID-19 crisis. Sixty-five experts from 24 countries, representing the entire EAES board, were invited. Fifty clinicians and six engineers accepted the invitation and drafted statements based on specific key questions. Anonymous voting on the statements was performed until consensus was achieved, defined by at least 70% agreement.ResultsA total of 92 consensus statements were formulated with regard to safe resumption of surgery across eight domains, addressing general surgery, upper GI, lower GI, bariatrics, endocrine, HPB, abdominal wall and technology/research. The statements addressed elective and emergency services across all subspecialties with specific attention to the role of MIS during the recovery plan. Eighty-four of the statements were approved during the first round of Delphi voting (91.3%) and another 8 during the following round after substantial modification, resulting in a 100% consensus.ConclusionThe recommendations formulated by the EAES board establish a framework for resumption of surgery following COVID-19 pandemic with particular focus on the role of MIS across surgical specialities. The statements have the potential for wide application in the clinical setting, education activities and research work across different healthcare systems.

Views of the Highway: Infrastructure Reality, Perceptions, and Politics

Transportation infrastructure such as highways and bridges requires upgrades and maintenance. In many U.S. regions, these requirements have surpassed current funding, so new solutions are needed. One obvious though imperfect source is gasoline taxes, but raising these is politically risky, regardless of need. To illuminate this conflict, we analyze data from four random-sample telephone surveys (2016–2018, n = 2,035) that asked residents in the U.S. state of New Hampshire about their perceptions of highway and bridge conditions, and support for gas tax increases. About one third of the respondents counterfactually reported that highway and bridge conditions had improved compared with 10 or 20 years ago. At the county level, subjective perceptions correlate well with actual pavement and bridge conditions. Majorities of respondents also said they would support tax increases of 5 of 10 cents, although support falls off at higher amounts. Support for a tax increase varies not only with the proposed amount, but also with individual characteristics—especially political identity. In a structural equation model, infrastructure perceptions serve as an intervening variable between ideology and tax support: if infrastructure is falsely seen as improving, that supports an ideologically favored rejection of taxes. Partisan differences in perceptions of physical conditions, noted previously in other domains such as climate change, pose an unexpected challenge in building public support for transportation infrastructure.

Letter: The Resiliency of the Neurosurgeon in the Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic Storm: The Italian Experience From the Frontline.

To the Editor: “The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man… It is more powerful than external circumstances.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca The coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) pandemic represents the largest and fastest moving threat to the world's healthcare systems in decades. Since the first observed case in China in December 2019, COVID-19 has affected more than 1 million subjects of all ages with at least 65 000 deaths worldwide to date.1,2 Neurosurgeons worldwide have been forced to cancel all elective surgeries and reorganize their routine activities to support the infectious and pulmonary disease specialists in order to contain the contagion and to surge health system treatment capacity.3,4 Given the acceleration of the contagion grown from COVID-19 and the need for intensive care unit beds, the Lombardy Regional Health System on March 8, 2020 with Decree XI/2906 rearranged its regional neurosurgical network by creating 4 neurosurgical hub hospitals for time-dependent cases. Hubs may deal with neuro-oncological and emergent cases in a COVID-19-free environment, whereas Spoke hospitals are supposed to manage patients with COVID-19, limiting their surgical activity to urgent self-presented cases or as backup when the Hub needs to free up resources. The Spoke hospitals have thus rapidly become full-fledged COVID-19 centers. The rapid recruitment in COVID-19 wards has required an outstanding and swift change of mindset. For instance, in many COVID-19 medical centers, including ours, intensivists had to organize in a very short time brief practical courses on the management of COVID-19 patients aimed to general and specialist surgeons. This has set the scene for the creation of hybrid close-knit teams composed of internists and surgeons capable of supporting the intensive care units in the management of the less severe COVID-19 patients. During the most critical phase of the epidemic, we have witnessed something unique: internists along with surgeons, and chiefs along with residents, have been doing together ward rounds and night shifts in COVID-19 units for weeks, supporting to their maximum capacity the Italian health system during its worst crisis after the Second World War. Working in a COVID-19 hospital also means higher risk of contagion. Notably, among infected people in Italy more than 10 000 are health workers and their number is stably increasing, which is also due to the scarcity of efficacious protective measures available at the beginning of the epidemic. At the moment, the death toll paid by the medical community in Italy is one of the highest worldwide, with 101 physicians who died as a consequence of their assistance to COVID-19 patients.5,6 Though the neurosurgeon may be used to this biological risk mainly because of its ordinary emergency surgical activity, her or his families are not. Then a great spirit of sacrifice is required, with fellow neurosurgeons who have decided to separate temporarily from their family to first protect their elderly parents and newborns. Another important and unexpected challenge is represented by the progressive regional shutdown of all outpatient visit activity in COVID-19 hospitals since the beginning of March 2020.7,8 Once the epidemic is over, in our opinion, it will be mandatory for the medical community to reflect on how to implement in an ordinary medical routine all the potential technological instruments, such as telehealth services, capable of moving close patients to physician. The last challenge for a neurosurgeon working in a COVID-19 hospital is represented by the future. This unexpected fight will surely leave its marks on the battlefield of the Italian health system. One potential scenario is that Spoke COVID-19 hospitals will maintain their role for the years to come, since the recent literature on the argument suggests that the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is expected to endure with other awaited epidemic viral foci in the upcoming months.9 For all these reasons, once more, neurosurgeons all over the world need to rely on one of the qualities they know better: resiliency, the ability to bounce back to the original form after the conclusion of the adversity. Neurosurgical societies and policy health makers may give in this sense a fundamental contribution by helping neurosurgeons who are employed in COVID-19 hospitals to resume their routine surgical activity as soon as possible once the epidemic will be over. Disclosures The authors have no personal, financial, or institutional interest in any of the drugs, materials, or devices described in this article.

The Course of Mild and Moderate COVID-19 Infections-The Unexpected Long-Lasting Challenge.

BackgroundThe course of disease in mild and moderate COVID-19 has many implications for mobile patients, such as the risk of spread of the infection, precautions taken, and investigations targeted at preventing transmission.MethodsThree hundred thirty-one adults were hospitalized from January 21 to February 22, 2020, and classified as severe (10%) or critical (4.8%) cases; 1.5% died. Two hundred eighty-two (85.2%) mild or moderate cases were admitted to regular wards. Epidemiological, demographic, clinical, chest computed tomography (CT) scan, laboratory, treatment, and outcome data from patient records were analyzed retrospectively.ResultsPatients were symptomatic for 9.82±5.75 (1–37) days. Pulmonary involvement was demonstrated on a chest CT scan in 97.9% of cases. It took 16.81±8.54 (3–49) days from the appearance of the first symptom until 274 patients tested virus-negative in naso- and oropharyngeal (NP) swabs, blood, urine, and stool, and 234 (83%) patients were asymptomatic for 9.09±7.82 (1–44) days. Subsequently, 131 patients were discharged. One hundred sixty-nine remained in the hospital; these patients tested virus-free and were clinically asymptomatic because of widespread persisting or increasing pulmonary infiltrates. Hospitalization took 16.24±7.57 (2–47) days; the time interval from the first symptom to discharge was 21.37±7.85 (3–52) days.ConclusionsWith an asymptomatic phase, disease courses are unexpectedly long until the stage of virus negativity. NP swabs are not reliable in the later stages of COVID-19. Pneumonia outlasts virus-positive tests if sputum is not acquired. Imminent pulmonary fibrosis in high-risk groups demands follow-up examinations. Investigation of promising antiviral agents should heed the specific needs of mild and moderate COVID-19 patients.

Symbolic right-sizing and Balkan nationalisms: the Macedonia name dispute and the Prespa Agreement

ABSTRACT This article examines identity politics on the Macedonian name dispute and draws parallels with identity conflicts in other divided societies to examine how peacemakers and hardliners contest the prospect of negotiated peace settlements. The first part of the article examines competing narratives of the dispute and how the unexpected challenge of ‘symbolic right-sizing’ of national identity on both parts following the dissolution of Yugoslavia provoked major public and political outrage. It compares Greek and North Macedonian understandings of national boundaries, unity and ethnic group entitlement over symbols of national unity and past glory. The second part investigates conflict resolution and the two UN mediated agreements on the Macedonian name dispute: the Interim Agreement negotiated by Richard Holbrook and Matthew Nimitz in September 1995; and the comprehensive Prespa Agreement mediated by the latter in June 2018 concluded in early 2019. In the final part of the article, the wider significance of the case for the region, symbolic ‘right-sizing’, and theories of identity framing and conflict resolution are discussed.

Liberals and the Ukrainian Question in Imperial Russia, 1905–1917

In the spring of 1917, the Provisional Government headed by the liberals faced an unexpected challenge from Kiev, where local liberals supported the idea of an autonomous Ukraine within Russia. While the St Petersburg liberals did not dismiss the idea of Ukrainian autonomy entirely, they viewed this position as premature. Using internal Kadet party documents, this article argues that the central committee and Kiev party members interpreted nationalism in Russia’s political transformation differently. The Kiev liberals considered Ukrainian nationalism a tool for the liberal transformation of the region; in contrast, the liberals in the centre envisioned the liberalization of Russia as a juridical and universal process from above, separate from nationality questions.

The Mass Media Freedom in a State of Emergency: Infodemic vs. COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Information, as well as freedom of expression and freedom of the media are essential for democratic society and fundamental characteristic of modern states. The year 2020 will be remembered as a year of pandemic caused from Covid-19 (coronavirus) and a year of response to unexpected challenge that the spread of the virus caused. In the times of pandemic and any type of crisis, the media always plays a key role in informing the public all over the Globe. This paper aims to make theoretical descriptive research and analysis of the influence of coronavirus on news consumption, the role of media in communication and presentation of important developments during pandemic. The authors present an overview of the media system and the latest developments in the EU in preventing fake news related to the pandemic. We conclude that media plays key role in informing the citizens during pandemic and therefore they have increased responsibility in providing reliable information. At the same time, since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the media have been challenged with parallel outbreaks of disinformation and misinformation about the virus, ranging from fake coronavirus cures, false claims and harmful health advice to wild conspiracy theories. Disinformation can in turn speed up the spread of disease, hinder effective public health responses, as well as create confusion, fear and distrust. We highlight the fundamental function of creating awareness regarding the topic based on facts, and the need of media for preventing panic and fostering people's understanding by ‘checking the source and information twice’.

COVID-19: Recommendations for Optimum Patient Management and Surgeons’ Safety

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV- 2), has evolved rapidly as a global pandemic stretching the healthcare systems worldwide to their limits. This pandemic has resulted in significant changes to surgical practice across the world. Surgeons need to react immediately to this unexpected clinical challenge in a customized and dynamic approach to the selection, screening, planning, and conduct of surgery for their patients. This current literature will review various international society guidelines to provide a set of recommendations to safely accommodate the exponentially rising cases of SARSCoV- 2 infected patients without compromising the care of emergency surgery and oncological patients or jeopardizing the well-being of hospital staff. The recommendations include guidance for selection and screening of patients during different phases of COVID-19 spread throughout the country. Personal protective equipment requirements for safety measures are also reviewed for each phase as minimum requirements. We also provide recommendations on the patient prioritization for surgery, selection of surgical techniques to reduce transmission and exposure risk, operating room set up and conduct of general surgery. During the COVID-19 pandemic, every surgical unit needs to follow clear guidelines to ensure both patient and staff safety. These current guidelines may assist to provide guidance to units in developing their own protocols.
 J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2020; 38(0): 116-121

New Medicines for Serious Diseases: The Case of the FDA’s Breakthrough Designation

In the late 2000s, early-stage clinical trials for personalized drugs unveiled large beneficial treatment effects. These findings created an unexpected regulatory challenge: by removing genuine clinical uncertainty on the best treatment alternative, they made randomized controlled Phase 3 trials ethically contestable. This paper studies how the program enacted in response to this challenge — the FDA's Breakthrough Therapy designation---has shaped pharmaceutical R&D. Our results suggest that the program's 2012 creation ignited a large amount of new drug R&D targeting serious and life-threatening conditions. According to the program's history, these impacts may not have been fully premeditated. Measured by medium-term anticipated drug approvals, these indirect program impacts could be as large direct ones.

Aspekte des Russland-Ukraine-KonfliktsUrsachen – Auswirkungen – Überwindung

The author places the Corona Pandemic in a geopolitical context and sees it as "an unexpected challenge for the international community as a community of peace and law". The article pursues a post-crisis scenario and develops political and legal options for easing the Ukrainian conflict. In the author's view, the aim is to "finally begin to expand the 'Common European House' that has been planned for three decades".

Abstract 4507: Study of CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) genetic aberrations and dysregulation in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC)

Abstract CCCTC-binding Factor (CTCF) is a DNA-binding protein that acts as a global genome organizer in higher eukaryotes. CTCF folds the genome into spatial domains that is crucial for regulation of genes, including oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Recently, Bornstein et al. has reported that CTCF truncating mutations are associated with progression of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC), suggesting a potential role of CTCF and its aberrations in HNSCC progression. Survival analysis of the US-HNSCC The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Provisional cohort (N=502) revealed that CTCF mutations are associated with poor overall survival (P = 0.0206, Median survival of15 months vs 56.9 months) and disease-free survival (DFS; P = 0.0078, median DFS of 12.975 months vs 71.22 months). Furthermore, CTCF truncating mutations are associated with poor overall survival (P = 0.0153, Median survival of 14.98 months vs 56.9 months) and disease-free survival (DFS; P = 0.0010, median DFS of 8.97 months vs 71.22 months). Intriguingly, RNA-seq analysis of 43 pairs of normal-tumor tissues from the TCGA reveal a tumor-specific upregulation of CTCF mRNA (P < 0.0001). Subsequent Western blot analyses demonstrated at least 2.5-fold and 1.2-fold CTCF protein upregulation in HNSCC patient primary cultures and HNSCC cancer cell lines relative to normal head and neck squamous cell and normal immortalized head and neck squamous cell line respectively. Based on these preliminary genomic findings, we hypothesized that CTCF upregulation may have pro-tumorigenic effects in HNSCC. Therefore, cancer cell proliferation was monitored following exogenous overexpression by retroviral introduction of the human CTCF gene or specific knockdown (by shRNA) of CTCF in HNSCC cell lines. We found that exogenous overexpression of CTCF promoted HNSCC cell proliferation by about 40% (N=6). However, with multiple trials, specific knockdown of CTCF only resulted in about 10% growth inhibition of HNSCC cells (N=6) with minimal apparent knockdown of CTCF protein. This unexpected challenge of CTCF protein knockdown could likely be due to potentially long CTCF protein half-life in HNSCC. In fact, we found that CTCF protein is highly stable in HNSCC cell line and HNSCC normal immortalized cell line, with protein level reduction by only 20 to 40% after two to three days of cycloheximide inhibition. Our results demonstrated a growth-promoting role of CTCF in HNSCC, and this CTCF protein appears to be highly stable with overexpression in HNSCC, potentially serving as a stable push for tumorigenesis. Citation Format: Sze Man Chan, Hoi-Lam Ngan, Yuchen Liu, Wenying Piao, Chin Wang Lau, Jason Ying Kuen Chan, Yu Xiong Su, Vivian Wai Yan Lui. Study of CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) genetic aberrations and dysregulation in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4507.

Biosimilars for inflammatory bowel disease: how can healthcare professionals help address patients’ concerns?

ABSTRACTIntroduction: The patent expiration of some biologics used in chronic conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has led to the development of biosimilar monoclonal antibodies. The tailored regulatory approval route for biosimilar development ensures that approved biosimilars show similarity to their originators in terms of efficacy and safety, and avoids unnecessary repetition of clinical trials carried out with the originator product. However, some patients may still have concerns about using biosimilars and it is the responsibility of healthcare professionals (HCPs) to alleviate these concerns.Areas covered: This review highlights clinical and real-world evidence supporting efficacy and safety of biosimilars in patients with IBD. Moreover, based on international surveys, potential patient concerns are highlighted, along with possible actions HCPs can take to address these concerns.Expert commentary: The rising use of biosimilars in IBD is expected to have a positive impact on the availability of biologics and healthcare costs. Several biosimilars have been approved for use and more are likely to come to the market in the future; however, transitioning patients to biosimilars could pose an unexpected challenge without the help and support of HCPs.

Gold(i) sulfide: unusual bonding and an unexpected computational challenge in a simple solid.

We report the experimental high-pressure crystal structure and equation of state of gold(i) sulfide (Au2S) determined using diamond-anvil cell synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Our data shows that Au2S has a simple cubic structure with six atoms in the unit cell (four Au in linear, and two S in tetrahedral, coordination), no internal degrees of freedom, and relatively low bulk modulus. Despite its structural simplicity, Au2S displays very unusual chemical bonding. The very similar and relatively high electronegativities of Au and S rule out any significant metallic or ionic character. Using a simple valence bond (Lewis) model, we argue that the Au2S crystal possesses two different types of covalent bonds: dative and shared. These bonds are distributed in such a way that each Au atom engages in one bond of each kind. The multiple arrangements in space of dative and shared bonds are degenerate, and the multiplicity of configurations imparts the system with multireference character, which is highly unusual for an extended solid. The other striking feature of this system is that common computational (DFT) methods fail quite spectacularly to describe it, with 20% and 400% errors in the equilibrium volume and bulk modulus, respectively. We explain this by the poor treatment of static correlation in common density-functional approximations. The fact that the solid is structurally very simple, yet presents unique chemical bonding and is unmodelable using current DFT methods, makes it an interesting case study and a computational challenge.

Addressing Participant Validity in a Small Internet Health Survey (The Restore Study): Protocol and Recommendations for Survey Response Validation.

BackgroundWhile deduplication and cross-validation protocols have been recommended for large Web-based studies, protocols for survey response validation of smaller studies have not been published.ObjectiveThis paper reports the challenges of survey validation inherent in a small Web-based health survey research.MethodsThe subject population was North American, gay and bisexual, prostate cancer survivors, who represent an under-researched, hidden, difficult-to-recruit, minority-within-a-minority population. In 2015-2016, advertising on a large Web-based cancer survivor support network, using email and social media, yielded 478 completed surveys.ResultsOur manual deduplication and cross-validation protocol identified 289 survey submissions (289/478, 60.4%) as likely spam, most stemming from advertising on social media. The basic components of this deduplication and validation protocol are detailed. An unexpected challenge encountered was invalid survey responses evolving across the study period. This necessitated the static detection protocol be augmented with a dynamic one.ConclusionsFive recommendations for validation of Web-based samples, especially with smaller difficult-to-recruit populations, are detailed.

Teaching and Learning in a Storytelling Culture

ABSTRACTIn the classroom, the ability to tell the right story at the right time is an essential pedagogical skill. Storytelling speaks to what makes us human: a search for meaning. In diverse instructional settings, non-stories provide information while resonant narratives teach, inspire, and motivate students by engaging them emotionally and intellectually. Inspirational stories in educational environments provide a compelling challenge, narrate the struggle to overcome that unexpected challenge, and deliver an eye-opening resolution that calls listeners to action. Because our lives and our cultures are composed of a series of overlapping stories, a single story is almost never the definitive story of another individual or culture essentially due to its incompleteness.

Chemiluminescent Biosensors for Detection of Second Messenger Cyclic di-GMP.

Bacteria colonize highly diverse and complex environments, from gastrointestinal tracts to soil and plant surfaces. This colonization process is controlled in part by the intracellular signal cyclic di-GMP, which regulates bacterial motility and biofilm formation. To interrogate cyclic di-GMP signaling networks, a variety of fluorescent biosensors for live cell imaging of cyclic di-GMP have been developed. However, the need for external illumination precludes the use of these tools for imaging bacteria in their natural environments, including in deep tissues of whole organisms and in samples that are highly autofluorescent or photosensitive. The need for genetic encoding also complicates the analysis of clinical isolates and environmental samples. Toward expanding the study of bacterial signaling to these systems, we have developed the first chemiluminescent biosensors for cyclic di-GMP. The biosensor design combines the complementation of split luciferase (CSL) and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) approaches. Furthermore, we developed a lysate-based assay for biosensor activity that enabled reliable high-throughput screening of a phylogenetic library of 92 biosensor variants. The screen identified biosensors with very large signal changes (∼40- and 90-fold) as well as biosensors with high affinities for cyclic di-GMP ( KD < 50 nM). These chemiluminescent biosensors then were applied to measure cyclic di-GMP levels in E. coli. The cellular experiments revealed an unexpected challenge for chemiluminescent imaging in Gram negative bacteria but showed promising application in lysates. Taken together, this work establishes the first chemiluminescent biosensors for studying cyclic di-GMP signaling and provides a foundation for using these biosensors in more complex systems.

Confusing Binaries: The Role of Stellar Binaries in Biasing Disk Properties in the Galactic Center

Abstract The population of young stars near the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the Galactic Center (GC) has presented an unexpected challenge to theories of star formation. Kinematic measurements of these stars have revealed a stellar disk structure (with an apparent 20% disk membership) that has provided important clues regarding the origin of these mysterious young stars. However, many of the apparent disk properties are difficult to explain, including the low disk membership fraction and the high eccentricities given the youth of this population. Thus far, all efforts to derive the properties of this disk have made the simplifying assumption that stars at the GC are single stars. Nevertheless, stellar binaries are prevalent in our Galaxy, and recent investigations suggested that they may also be abundant in the Galactic Center. Here, we show that binaries in the disk can largely alter the apparent orbital properties of the disk. The motion of binary members around each other adds a velocity component, which can be comparable to the magnitude of the velocity around the SMBH in the GC. Thus, neglecting the contribution of binaries can significantly vary the inferred stars’ orbital properties. While the disk orientation is unaffected, the apparent disk’s 2D width will be increased to about 11.°2, similar to the observed width. For a population of stars orbiting the SMBH with zero eccentricity, unaccounted for binaries will create a wide apparent eccentricity distribution with an average of 0.23. This is consistent with the observed average eccentricity of the stars’ in the disk. We suggest that this high eccentricity value, which poses a theoretical challenge, may be an artifact of binary stars. Finally, our results suggest that the actual disk membership might be significantly higher than the one inferred by observations that ignore the contribution of binaries, alleviating another theoretical challenge.

He Who Inherits, Interprets: 14 Theses

He Who Inherits, Interprets:14 Theses Gerhard Richter (bio) [End Page 474] I He who inherits, interprets. One can even go one step further and aver: The inheritor stands before an enigma that, like an especially difficult and refractory text, resists the endowment of meaning. He who inherits in the emphatic sense, that is, he who is able to open up to the moment of a radical inheriting, will not be able to cease to interpret, and every true interpretation, for its part, is inseparable from the concept and experience of inheriting—an interpretive questioning of the perpetually shifting meanings of what is handed down. [End Page 475] II That which is to be inherited issues the demand for a never-ending hermeneutic engagement with it—its sense, its meaning, and, not least of all, its idiosyncratic patterns of interpretation, its each-time-unique theory of reading. If inheritance is not viewed as a presuppositionless appropriation—as the taking-possession of a content that already has been seen through and understood, merely awaiting its transfer into the sphere of what already exists, and has been thought through, in what is one's own—then the uncanny, even ghostly trace that is inscribed in it may emerge in its full distinctness. [End Page 476] III An intellectual inheritance is not to be equated with a kind of conservative tending of tradition, whereby this or that imagined community passes on its cultural capital with the aim of founding or preserving an identity whose meaning remains stable and unaffected by the act of transmission. [End Page 477] IV By the same token, an intellectual inheritance is not to be reduced to the idea that what is at stake is merely a kind of intellectual counterpart to the phenomenon of handing down material assets, that is, an inheritance that also reproduces a certain form of political economy. Instead, genuine inheriting always also grasps the tradition that it receives as an irreducible question mark, an unexpected challenge, and an enigmatic provocation. [End Page 478] V In keeping with the enigmatic character of an inheritance, the act of inheriting always also takes place under the sign of leave-taking, loss, change, and often the mourning that results from it. As the legacy of someone who is deceased, a transmission by someone who already has taken leave and now, after his departure or death, participates, through his estate as if with a ghostly hand—possibly by means of a testamentary last will—in guiding the destinies of those who are left behind, the inheritance that remains to be thought tacitly provokes an intensification of that which may have appeared to the heir, already during the time when the testator was still alive and in spite of any possible intimacy with the absent one, as something rather enigmatic, irresolvable, and inexplicable. [End Page 479] VI The heir receives the remains that constitute an inheritance like a language that, despite being endowed, as it were, with its own structure and grammar, nevertheless must be acquired laboriously. Actual inheriting takes place in language and is transmitted as language. That which there is to be inherited is always the other language and the language of the other, a language that does not cease to be different by virtue of learning it or endeavoring to learn it. [End Page 480] VII That which comes to pass as an inheritance reveals itself to the heir neither exclusively nor indisputably in the form of a welcomed enrichment or wished-for gift that is placed at the heir's disposal in a free and sovereign manner. After all, every inheritance encompasses not only a responsibility vis-à-vis the testamentary wishes of the bequeather but also comprises a concept of orphaning, even when the circumstances of a specific act of inheritance do not revolve around one's own family, one's own parents, grandparents, or particular relatives. The history of the German word "Erbe" (heir, inheritance) itself points to this connection; no inheritance without leave-taking, mourning, and an actual or figurative orphaning. [End Page 481] VIII An inheritance is always also to be thought as the orphaned labor of an unexpected haunting, as a funeral...