Pandemic Patterns: How Artistic Depictions of Past Epidemics Illuminate Thematic and Structural Responses to COVID-19 Today.

From the beginning of recorded history, human beings have encountered epidemics. They have also memorialized these events, which can be deeply traumatic and scarring, in visual art and literature. In this article, we look at a selection of artistic depictions of past epidemics in Western culture in light of what they can teach us about COVID-19 today. Our analysis reveals that while responses to epidemics are culturally bound to specific times and places, they also share common features. What surfaces again and again are pandemic patterns: persistent themes, such as divine revelation, "othering," freedom, and exile, girded by a four-part dramaturgical structure as originally articulated by medical historian Charles Rosenberg. We argue that our response to COVID-19 is neither uniformly progressive nor linear, but rather circular or overlapping in time and space. COVID-19 may feel new to us, but in important ways, it is quite old. It has awoken an ancient and durable human script, laid out and reenacted over thousands of years. Understanding these pandemic patterns may help clinicians and health policy makers alike better craft a response to COVID-19 today and to the future epidemics that undoubtedly will come.

Narrative Interventions in the Palliative Care Setting: A Scoping Review.

CONTEXT: This scoping review maps the existing literature on narrative interventions within a palliative care and end-of-life context. OBJECTIVES: A scoping review was performed to address the following research question: What observational or randomized controlled trials have been performed to evaluate narrative interventions in the palliative care setting? METHODS: A search across multiple electronic databases was performed. The search results were screened. Relevant articles were reviewed for the identification of common themes and challenges. RESULTS: After reviewing 495 citations from electronic searches, and 44 articles from author archives or from manual review of article reference lists, we identified 34 articles for inclusion. Narrative interventions have focused on reflection or communication, and have been studied among providers, students, patients, and caregivers. Only patient/caregiver studies used randomized controlled design. Most studies were small and at the level of evaluating feasibility. Challenges include a high degree of heterogeneity among interventions and heterogeneity among parameters for evaluating those interventions. CONCLUSION: Narrative interventions are actively being evaluated with the intention of improving communication and well-being among all parties within the palliative care and end-of-life experience. The field would benefit from selecting a subset of outcomes that are comparable across studies, and a common framework for describing narrative interventions. Scant literature exists regarding narrative interventions to assist providers in communication.

The S. pombe translation initiation factor eIF4G is Sumoylated and associates with the SUMO protease Ulp2.

SUMO is a small post-translational modifier, that is attached to lysine residues in target proteins. It acts by altering protein-protein interactions, protein localisation and protein activity. SUMO chains can also act as substrates for ubiquitination, resulting in proteasome-mediated degradation of the target protein. SUMO is removed from target proteins by one of a number of specific proteases. The processes of sumoylation and desumoylation have well documented roles in DNA metabolism and in the maintenance of chromatin structure. To further analyse the role of this modification, we have purified protein complexes containing the S. pombe SUMO protease, Ulp2. These complexes contain proteins required for ribosome biogenesis, RNA stability and protein synthesis. Here we have focussed on two translation initiation factors that we identified as co-purifying with Ulp2, eIF4G and eIF3h. We demonstrate that eIF4G, but not eIF3h, is sumoylated. This modification is increased under conditions that produce cytoplasmic stress granules. Consistent with this we observe partial co-localisation of eIF4G and SUMO in stressed cells. Using HeLa cells, we demonstrate that human eIF4GI is also sumoylated; in vitro studies indicate that human eIF4GI is modified on K1368 and K1588, that are located in the C-terminal eIF4A- and Mnk-binding sites respectively.