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[Rezension zu:] ʿAmr Munīr: Miṣr fī al-āsāṭīr al-ʿarabiiyah, Cairo: al-Majlis al-Aʿlā li-l-Thaqāfah, 2016, 475 pages. ISBN: 9789779209380 (2019)

Ahmed Mohamed M. Abdelkawy Sheir

Munīr is an Egyptian historian and specialist in the history of Medieval Egypt. His primary research area is the folklore and cultural heritage of Egypt in the Middle Ages and early modern era. ...

A hypothesis of sudden body fluid vaporization in the 79 AD victims of Vesuvius (2018)

Pierpaolo Petrone Piero Pucci Alessandro Vergara Angela Amoresano Leila Birolo Francesca Pane Francesco Sirano Massimo Niola Claudio Buccelli Vincenzo Graziano

In AD 79 the town of Herculaneum was suddenly hit and overwhelmed by volcanic ash-avalanches that killed all its remaining residents, as also occurred in Pompeii and other settlements as far as 20 kilometers from Vesuvius. New investigations on the victims' skeletons unearthed from the ash deposit filling 12 waterfront chambers have now revealed widespread preservation of atypical red and black mineral residues encrusting the bones, which also impregnate the ash filling the intracranial cavity and the ash-bed encasing the skeletons. Here we show the unique detection of large amounts of iron and iron oxides from such residues, as revealed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and Raman microspectroscopy, thought to be the final products of heme iron upon thermal decomposition. The extraordinarily rare preservation of significant putative evidence of hemoprotein thermal degradation from the eruption victims strongly suggests the rapid vaporization of body fluids and soft tissues of people at death due to exposure to extreme heat.

Autoantibodies in autoimmune liver disease—clinical and diagnostic relevance (2018)

Marcial Sebode Christina Weiler-Normann Timur Liwinski Christoph Schramm

Testing for liver-related autoantibodies should be included in the workup of patients with hepatitis or cholestasis of unknown origin. Although most of these autoantibodies are not disease specific, their determination is a prerequisite to diagnose autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), and they are components of the diagnostic scoring system in these diseases. In primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), on the other hand, autoantibodies are frequently present but play a minor role in establishing the diagnosis. In PSC, however, data on antibodies suggest a link between disease pathogenesis and the intestinal microbiota. This review will focus on practical aspects of antibody testing in the three major autoimmune liver diseases AIH, PBC, and PSC.

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis : a case report and review of diagnosis and treatment (2018)

Yi Liu Zhibin Guo Chenlong Zhao Xin Li Hongyu Liu Jun Chen

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare disease that generally affects young women and involves the abnormal proliferation of smooth muscle-like cells (LAM cells) in the lungs (pulmonary LAM) and extrapulmonary sites (extrapulmonary LAM). This disease is rare in males. It is hard to distinguish between lung cancer and pulmonary LAM, especially during early stages. Herein, we present a case of a 66-year-old man with a small nodule in the right upper lobe that was first diagnosed as a lung malignancy using a chest CT scan. After a wedge dissection, a pathologist performed a histologic and immunohistochemical examination, and a diagnosis of pulmonary LAM was made. We further performed a 518-gene panel analysis using next-generation sequencing, and only three genes, BARD1, BLM, and BRCA2, were found to have mutations. We also provide a summary of the diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Demographic, socio-economic and architectural structure of Tibnīn in the age of the crusades (2015)

Ahmed Mohamed M. Abdelkawy Sheir

Tibnīn was an important small Crusader fief and a fortified castle. It was vital for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, because it included fertile agricultural lands, was a tax collection centre, and because it controlled the Damascus-to-Tyre commercial route. Additionally, its castle played defensive and offensive role in the north of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and upper Galilee, and its rulers of Tibnīn played a major role in forming the history of the Latin East. When the Crusaders invaded the Levant at the end of the eleventh century, it was given rise to new demographic, cultural, socio-economic, and architectural features. The present Paper aims at removing some of the mystery concerning the fief of Tibnīn and its castle in the Latin East. This paper thus is a study of the demographic structure of Tibnīn and discusses the socio-economic role of Tibnīn in the Latin east. Moreover, the role of Tibnīn in influencing the relations between Muslims and the Crusaders in the Levant and the architecture of the castle of Tibnīn and its importance in the age of the Crusade will be examined.

Broken time, continued evolution : anachronies in contemporary films (2017)

Maria Kanatova Alexandra Milyakina Tatyana Pilipovec Artjom Shelya Oleg Sobchuk Peeter Tinits

In 1983, Brian Henderson published an article that examined various types of narrative structure in film, including flashbacks and flashforwards. After analyzing a whole spectrum of techniques capable of effecting a transition between past and present – blurs, fades, dissolves, and so on – he concluded: "Our discussions indicate that cinema has not (yet) developed the complexity of tense structures found in literary works". His "yet" (in parentheses) was an instance of laudable caution, as very soon – in some ten–fifteen years – the situation would change drastically, and temporal twists would become a trademark of a new genre that has not (yet) acquired a standardized name: "modular narratives", "puzzle films", and "complex films" are among the labels used.

Activin A increases phagocytosis of Escherichia coli K1 by primary murine microglial cells activated by toll-like receptor agonists (2018)

Catharina Diesselberg Sandra Ribes Jana Seele Annika Kaufmann Sandra Redlich Stephanie Bunkowski Uwe-Karsten Hanisch Uwe Michel Roland Nau Sandra Schütze

Background: Bacterial meningitis is associated with high mortality and long-term neurological sequelae. Increasing the phagocytic activity of microglia could improve the resistance of the CNS against infections. We studied the influence of activin A, a member of the TGF-β family with known immunoregulatory and neuroprotective effects, on the functions of microglial cells in vitro. Methods: Primary murine microglial cells were treated with activin A (0.13 ng/ml–13 μg/ml) alone or in combination with agonists of TLR2, 4, and 9. Phagocytosis of Escherichia coli K1 as well as release of TNF-α, IL-6, CXCL1, and NO was assessed. Results: Activin A dose-dependently enhanced the phagocytosis of Escherichia coli K1 by microglial cells activated by agonists of TLR2, 4, and 9 without further increasing NO and proinflammatory cytokine release. Cell viability of microglial cells was not affected by activin A. Conclusions: Priming of microglial cells with activin A could increase the elimination of bacteria in bacterial CNS infections. This preventive strategy could improve the resistance of the brain to infections, particularly in elderly and immunocompromised patients.

Health status in patients with COPD treated with roflumilast: two large noninterventional real-life studies: DINO and DACOTA (2018)

Peter Kardos Ingo Mokros Rüdiger Sauer Claus F. Vogelmeier

Purpose: DINO and DACOTA were prospective, noninterventional studies assessing the health status and quality of life of patients with COPD newly treated with roflumilast 500 µg once-daily add-on therapy. Patients and methods: Patients were evaluated over 6 months. Clinical COPD questionnaire (CCQ) and COPD assessment test (CAT) scores were recorded at baseline and after 3 and 6 months. In DACOTA, post-bronchodilator FEV1 was recorded at each time point. Results: Of 5,462 and 3,645 patients recruited into DINO and DACOTA, respectively, 3,274 patients in DINO and 916 patients in DACOTA completed the 6-month visit. Almost all patients had severe or very severe airway obstruction; mean baseline CCQ total score was 3.9 in DINO and 3.7 in DACOTA. Overall, 33.8% of patients in DACOTA and 30.6% in DINO discontinued treatment prematurely. Significant and clinically relevant improvements in CCQ total scores were observed in both studies (mean change from baseline of 1.36 in DINO and 0.91 in DACOTA at Month 6 [all P<0.001]). Changes in CAT total score from baseline to Month 6 indicated that the average clinical impact of COPD was reduced from a severe (score: 21–30) to a moderate (score: 11–20) impairment. In DACOTA, mean change in post-bronchodilator FEV1 was 202 mL (P<0.001). Diarrhea, nausea, and weight decrease were the most frequently reported adverse drug reactions. Conclusion: In real-life clinical practice, roflumilast treatment as an add-on therapy is associated with clinically relevant improvements in health status and quality of life.

Expression of surfactant protein B is dependent on cell density in H441 lung epithelial cells (2017)

Markus Fehrholz Silvia Seidenspinner Steffen Kunzmann

Background: Expression of surfactant protein (SP)-B, which assures the structural stability of the pulmonary surfactant film, is influenced by various stimuli, including glucocorticoids; however, the role that cell-cell contact plays in SP-B transcription remains unknown. The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of cell-cell contact on SP-B mRNA and mature SP-B expression in the lung epithelial cell line H441. Methods: Different quantities of H441 cells per growth area were either left untreated or incubated with dexamethasone. The expression of SP-B, SP-B transcription factors, and tight junction proteins were determined by qPCR and immunoblotting. The influence of cell density on SP-B mRNA stability was investigated using the transcription inhibitor actinomycin D. Results: SP-B mRNA and mature SP-B expression levels were significantly elevated in untreated and dexamethasone-treated H441 cells with increasing cell density. High cell density as a sole stimulus was found to barely have an impact on SP-B transcription factor and tight junction mRNA levels, while its stimulatory ability on SP-B mRNA expression could be mimicked using SP-B-negative cells. SP-B mRNA stability was significantly increased in high-density cells, but not by dexamethasone alone. Conclusion: SP-B expression in H441 cells is dependent on cell-cell contact, which increases mRNA stability and thereby potentiates the glucocorticoid-mediated induction of transcription. Loss of cell integrity might contribute to reduced SP-B secretion in damaged lung cells via downregulation of SP-B transcription. Cell density-mediated effects should thus receive greater attention in future cell culture-based research.

Neural responses to heartbeats in the default network encode the self in spontaneous thoughts (2016)

Mariana Babo-Rebelo Craig G. Richter Catherine Tallon-Baudry

The default network (DN) has been consistently associated with self-related cognition, but alsoto bodily state monitoring and autonomic regulation. We hypothesized that these two seemingly disparate functional roles of the DN are functionally coupled, in line with theories proposing that selfhood is grounded in the neural monitoring of internal organs, such as the heart. We measured with magnetoencephalograhy neural responses evoked by heartbeats while human participants freely mind-wandered. When interrupted by a visual stimulus at random intervals, participants scored the self-relatedness of the interrupted thought. They evaluated their involvement as the firstperson perspective subject or agent inthethought (“I”), and on another scaleto what degreethey werethinking aboutthemselves (“Me”). During the interrupted thought, neural responses to heartbeats in two regions of the DN, the ventral precuneus and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, covaried, respectively, with the “I” and the “Me” dimensions of the self, even at the single-trial level. No covariation between self-relatedness and peripheral autonomic measures (heart rate, heart rate variability, pupil diameter, electrodermal activity, respiration rate, and phase) or alpha power was observed. Our results reveal a direct link between selfhood and neural responses to heartbeats in the DN and thus directly support theories grounding selfhood in the neural monitoring of visceral inputs. More generally, the tight functional coupling between self-related processing and cardiac monitoring observed here implies that, even in the absence of measured changes in peripheral bodily measures, physiological and cognitive functions have to be considered jointly in the DN.

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