Random Pandemic Perambulations: A Brief History of Literary Walks in the Age of Corona

This article focuses on the concept of randomness as the absence of goal-oriented movement in literary walks. The literature of walking displays the happenstance of adventure as one of the great antidotes to our inane, highly technologized, digitalized twenty-first-century lifestyle. In the end, however, such randomness may reveal itself as not so random after all, as the purpose of the journey, its inherent telos, discloses itself while travelling or in hindsight. This article provides brief glimpses into the history of literary walks to examine this tension between apparent randomness and the non-random. By drawing on a range of cultural theories and theorizations of travel and especially of walking, I look at literary foot travel in the nineteenth century, the Romantics and American Transcendentalists, some great adventure hikes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and the urban and rural flâneur. In doing so the article does not lose sight of the question of how we can instrumentalize the literature of walking for life during the current pandemic.

A Review on the Qualitative Behavior of Solutions in Some Chemotaxis–Haptotaxis Models of Cancer Invasion

Chemotaxis is an oriented movement of cells and organisms in response to chemical signals, and plays an important role in the life of many cells and microorganisms, such as the transport of embryonic cells to developing tissues and immune cells to infection sites. Since the pioneering works of Keller and Segel, there has been a great deal of literature on the qualitative analysis of chemotaxis systems. As an important extension of the Keller–Segel system, a variety of chemotaxis–haptotaxis models have been proposed in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the invasion–metastasis cascade. From a mathematical point of view, the rigorous analysis thereof is a nontrivial issue due to the fact that partial differential equations (PDEs) for the quantities on the macroscale are strongly coupled with ordinary differential equations (ODEs) modeling the subcellular events. It is the goal of this paper to describe recent results of some chemotaxis–haptotaxis models, inter alia macro cancer invasion models proposed by Chaplain et al., and multiscale cancer invasion models by Stinner et al., and also to introduce some open problems.

“In the tube” following sternotomy: A quasi-experimental study

Background: Traditionally, physical movement has been limited for cardiac surgery patients, up to 12-weeks post-operatively. Patients are asked to use “standard sternal precautions,” restricting their arm movement, and thereby limiting stress on the healing sternum. Aim: To compare return to function, pain/discomfort, wound healing, use of pain medication and antibiotics, and post-operative length of hospital stay in cardiac surgery patients having median sternotomy who used standard sternal precautions or Keep Your Move in the Tube movement protocols post-operatively. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used (100 standard sternal precautions and 100 Keep Your Move in the Tube patients). Patients were followed in person or by telephone over a period of 12-weeks postoperatively. Outcomes were measured at day 7, as well as weeks 4, 8, and 12 weeks. Results: The majority of participants (77% in each group) were male and had coronary artery bypass graft surgery (66% standard sternal precautions and 72% Keep Your Move in the Tube). Univariate analysis revealed the standard sternal precautions group had lesser ability to return to functional activities than the Keep Your Move in the Tube group ( p<0.0001) over time. This difference was minimized however, by week 12. Multivariate analysis revealed that increasing age, body mass index, and female sex were associated with greater functional impairment over time, but no difference between standard sternal precautions and Keep Your Move in the Tube groups. Conclusions: Keep Your Move in the Tube, a novel patient-oriented movement protocol, has potential for cardiac surgery patients to be more confident and comfortable in their recovery.

Between frustration and education: Transitioning students’ stress and coping through the lens of semiotic cultural psychology

This article proposes an alternative conceptualization of the processes with which new university students try to overcome the challenges and potential stresses experienced in their movement into the university context. Instead of viewing coping efforts as solely directed towards avoiding stress and enhancing well-being, efforts of overcoming difficulties and stress are to be seen in relation to students’ goal-oriented movement towards becoming students at a particular institution and in a particular field of study. By drawing on the concepts of (hyper)generalized affective semiotic fields, and equifinality and bifurcation points, it is suggested that the process of making sense of a difficult situation is related to the dynamics between well-defined short-term goals and ill-defined long-term goals. In this conceptualization, students not only cope with a specific problem in the here-and-now but make sense of the problem while negotiating their unique trajectory towards more distanced imagined educational outcomes.

Encoding and control of airflow orientation by a set of Drosophila fan-shaped body neurons

How brain circuits convert sensory signals into goal-oriented movement is a central question in neuroscience. In insects, a region known as the Central Complex (CX) is believed to support navigation, but how its compartments process diverse sensory cues to guide navigation is not fully clear. To address this question, we recorded from genetically-identified CX cell types in Drosophila and presented directional visual, olfactory, and airflow cues known to elicit orienting behavior. We found that a group of columnar neurons targeting the ventral fan-shaped body (ventral P-FNs) are robustly tuned for airflow direction. Unlike compass neurons (E-PGs), ventral P-FNs do not generate a “map” of airflow direction; rather they are tuned to two directions – approximately 45° to the right or left of the midline – depending on the hemisphere of the cell body. Ventral P-FNs with both direction preferences innervate each CX column, potentially forming a basis for constructing representations of airflow in various directions. We explored two possible sources for ventral P-FN airflow tuning, and found that they mostly likely inherit these responses via a pathway from the lateral accessory lobe (LAL) to the noduli (NO). Silencing ventral P-FNs prevented flies from adopting stable orientations relative to airflow in closed-loop flight. Specifically, silenced flies selected improper corrective turns following changes in airflow direction, but not after airflow pauses, suggesting a specific deficit in sensory-motor action selection. Our results identify a group of central complex neurons that robustly encode airflow direction and are required for proper orientation to this stimulus.

Territorial connectivity of Russian Federation: from statement of complex tasks to complex scientific and engineering projects formation

Complex scientific and engineering projects and full innovation cycle programs, ruled to be selected and formed by science and technology priorities’ councils, are to become key tools for Strategy in scientific and technological development implementation. In this paper, we present an approach to such programs and projects, developed by the “Territorial connectivity” S&T priority council, formation. We give the “territorial connectivity” term, separate it by categories and subcategories, characterized by specific social, economic, and administrative-and-managerial problems. We propose the set of steps, that is a goal-oriented movement from determination of main program implementation directions to specification of essential complex social and economic objectives within each direction, and then discuss the development of stated problems-solving research plans, scientific and engineering projects, and national policy action frameworks. We use a stage-gate approach in program formation, which allows us to make necessary corrections at every stage of its implementation, as well as organize efficient communication with potential customers and participants.