At the beginning of the 20th century, iodine deficiency was prevalent and goitre was a frequent indication for thyroid surgery. At that time, the hospital in Riehen (Switzerland) was an established centre for thyroid surgery. This study investigates the specific complications associated with thyroid surgery over time. An analysis of thyroidectomy data from two retrospective cohorts of the Riehen hospital was performed for two decades: 1930-1939 (shortly after the start of salt iodination in Switzerland) and 1970-1979 (salt iodination well established). Demographics, clinical and surgical characteristics, and postoperative complications were compared. The primary endpoint included the rate of mortality, Chvostek tetany and recurrent laryngeal nerve injuries. We also compared last-century data with modern-era data consisting of Swiss diagnosis-related group (DRG) data on thyroidectomies for the years 2011-2015 and EUROCRINE registry data for the year 2024 (including data of endocrine surgical interventions from the five largest Swiss surgical centres). Among 3280 thyroidectomies analysed (1826 for 1930-1939 and 1454 for 1970-1979), the 1930s cohort was younger (mean age: 37.3 years, standard deviation (SD): 11.1 years vs 49.9 years, SD: 13.2 years; p <0.01) and more predominantly female (85.5% vs 83.1%; p <0.01). Compared to the 1930s, in the 1970s the weight of the resected thyroid gland had decreased (mean thyroid weight: 141.2 g, SD: 99.9 g vs 107 g, SD: 89.3 g; p <0.01) and there were lower rates of recurrent laryngeal nerve injuries (16% vs 4.2%; p <0.01) and Chvostek tetanies (6.1% vs 1%; p = 0.01). Modern-era data indicate a lower thyroidectomy mortality rate than in the 1970s. The reduction in complications following thyroidectomy over time seems to be multifactorial. While iodine supplementation and a decrease in goitre size played a role in the Riehen cohorts, advancements in surgical skills and perioperative management may also have contributed to the even more favourable outcomes in the modern era.
In 1929, Robert Hutchins became the president of the University of Chicago and one of his first reforms was to build the Committee on Child Development (CCD). The CCD came into existence when the nationwide Child Development Movement started waning. Hutchins and his old associates in the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial were interested in Child Development as a form of interdisciplinary social science, and their ideas greatly shaped the initial design of the Committee. Without wholehearted support from the department chairs, however, the CCD was eventually established as a compromise between the departments and the president. Into the late 1930s, the appointments made by the new divisional dean, Robert Redfield, opened new channels for cross-departmental collaboration. Under the chairmanship of Ralph Tyler, the Committee's name was changed to Human Development (CHD) in 1940. Meanwhile, community studies became the central focus of the Committee, which reflected the societal concerns of restoring social order while war and social dissolution were impinging upon the country. This paper analyzes two modes of interdisciplinarity emerging in two distinct stages of the development of the Committee, which were contingent upon the changing university structure, the shifting interests of the foundations, and the visions of different generations of scholars.
暂无摘要（点击查看详情）
Long-term ecological monitoring inevitably requires a 'passing of the quadrat' from one investigator to another. Here we present the challenge and opportunity of inferring biodiversity change over time and across investigators using a rocky intertidal case study. An intertidal transect was established and first surveyed in 1931-1933, then resurveyed in detail in 1993. After 1993, the transect was surveyed 16 more times, with surveys nested within four distinct investigator eras. We addressed two goals with our dataset. First, we used a causal framework to detect temporal change in biodiversity (species richness, Hill-Shannon and Hill-Simpson diversity, and species evenness) and then attribute biodiversity change to seawater temperature. Second, we tested the hypothesis that population change in abundance was associated with the geographic range of species. Over thirty years (1993-2023), species richness showed no linear trend but was associated with investigator era; we hypothesize that sampling effort contributed to this effect. In contrast, we observed weak linear declines in the diversity of common taxa (Hill-Shannon), dominant taxa (Hill-Simpson), and evenness over the recent thirty years, but no evidence of investigator effects. We estimated a weak negative effect of maximum sea surface temperature on Hill-Shannon diversity (-0.25 common taxa °C-1). Relative to the historical baseline in the 1930s, there was no evidence for change in richness but strong evidence for change in diversity metrics. On average, Hill-Shannon diversity declined by 41-61%, Hill-Simpson diversity declined by 32-56%, and species evenness declined by 41-68% since the 1930s. Declines in diversity were associated with several taxonomic and functional changes in species composition. On average, species with a southern geographic range increased in abundance more than coastwide species, reinforcing previous work on the historical transect that demonstrated a fingerprint of seawater warming. Taken together, this case study emphasizes the value of marine stations in providing a venue for sustained periodic ecological monitoring at small spatial scales, long duration, and fine taxonomic resolution.
Metals and metalloids are among the pollutants of greatest concern worldwide due to their damage to human and environmental health. Organisms such as birds are exposed to these contaminants. Mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and arsenic (As) concentrations were analyzed in feather samples (n = 241) of five species of birds from southern Mexico (1937-2006) from scientific collections. Feathers concentrations showed relatively high concentrations of As > Hg > Pb, exceeding toxicity thresholds in birds. Carnivore species had the highest concentrations of As (x̄ 44.42 ± 6.34 SE μg/g), while the concentrations of insectivore and omnivorous species ranged from 5.71 ± 0.66 μg/g to 9.24 ± 1.03 μg/g. Temporal trends for metals and As showed the highest concentrations in the 1930s and 1960s. Mercury and As showed a significant annual increase in the 1930s and 2006. An increase in Pb concentrations was observed before 1937 and a decrease after 1979 until 2006. Some temporary trends in metals and As were similar to local and global emissions caused by forest fires, mining activities, fertilizers in agricultural practices, and the termination of the use of Pb as a petrol additive. Knowledge about metals and As was generated at sites that are currently protected natural areas and cultural historical areas. Anthropogenic activities prior to their declaration of protection and transboundary pollution may be potential sources of contaminants at these sites. The first baseline of the spatio-temporal trend in toxic element concentrations was established in five species for future research.
This text examines Josué de Castro's Geografia humana: estudo da paisagem cultural do mundo, based on the theory of Pierre Bourdieu. We investigate Castro's professional and academic activity during the 1930s, focusing on his educational strategies, international connections, and the text's editing process. Castro's work is shown to be unique for its critique of race and climate as determinants for human geography and its sensitivity to popular culture. Our analysis highlights the text's contribution to geography, with the development and questioning of concepts like race, acclimatization and acculturation, in dialog with anthropology. We also note ideas that appear later in Castro's book Geografia da fome. Analisa-se Geografia humana: estudo da paisagem cultural do mundo, livro didático de Josué de Castro, a partir da teoria de Pierre Bourdieu. Busca-se elucidar a atuação profissional e acadêmica do intelectual brasileiro durante a década de 1930, explorando as estratégias didáticas, os interlocutores internacionais e o processo de editoração do livro. Demonstra-se que o manual de Castro é uma obra original por problematizar raça e clima como fatores explicativos da geografia humana e por ser sensível à cultura popular. Ressalta-se sua erudição no campo da geografia com a mobilização de conceitos que são elaborados e problematizados, como raça, aclimatação e aculturação em diálogo com a antropologia. A análise indica ideias que serão desenvolvidas em sua obra Geografia da fome.
This article examines Redcliffe N. Salaman's (1874-1955) efforts to establish a national system for producing virus-free seed potatoes in 1930s Britain. It explores how scientific authority was mobilized to reshape agricultural practices and assert regulatory control over seed production. Although Salaman's proposals were never fully realized, they laid the groundwork for enduring strategies to improve potato crop health by protecting seed from infectious agents and their insect vectors. Salaman's work drew on both traditional horticultural knowledge and emerging microbiological techniques, spanning field and laboratory settings. He exemplifies how diverse modes of science making shaped a period of increasing professionalization and institutionalization in the biological sciences. By tracing interactions between scientists and other actors - including growers, seedsmen and government officials - the article shows how plant virus control was gradually redefined from a craft-based practice to a scientific domain. This article contributes to the early history of virology from an agricultural perspective, as well as to broader historiographical debates on the role of science in agriculture, the professionalization of expertise and the construction of regulatory authority in twentieth-century Britain.
2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP) is a potent mitochondrial uncoupler briefly marketed in the 1930s as a weight-reducing agent before being banned by the FDA after reports of severe toxicity. Since the early 2000s, DNP has reemerged as an illicit "fat-burner", causing characteristic metabolic disturbances with a high risk of fatal outcome. We describe two Swedish cases of DNP poisoning: one fatal after suicidal ingestion and one non-fatal after use for weight reduction. Clinical data, mitochondrial respirometry, and analysis of gas exchange and ventilatory dynamics were used to characterize the metabolic disturbances under intensive care. The fatal case progressed within hours to respiratory acidosis, hyperthermia, severe hyperkalemia, and peri-mortem rigidity consistent with catastrophic ATP depletion. The non-fatal case showed similar but reversible toxicity, with sustained yet manageable hypermetabolism lasting more than a week. Serial platelet respirometry demonstrated a marked initial increase in uncoupled respiration, followed by a progressive decline with a functional half-life of 4.9 days. Together, these cases suggest a self-amplifying feedback loop central to DNP toxicity, in which excessive CO₂ production from mitochondrial uncoupling causes local acidosis that enhances mitochondrial DNP uptake. Glucose supplementation and hyperkalemia management are essential supportive measures, whereas active cooling and high minute ventilation may blunt this self-reinforcing metabolic acceleration. Severe poisoning may result in a state of "runaway uncoupling," a term we propose for the catastrophic progression to death observed in numerous DNP poisonings. This feedback loop illustrates the unpredictable toxicokinetics of DNP and reinforces the FDA's early conclusion: DNP is "unfit for human consumption".
This paper reconstructs a forgotten episode in the early history of quantum logic by examining the work of Polish philosopher Zygmunt Zawirski. In the early 1930s, Zawirski developed an original system of many-valued logic explicitly designed to interpret quantum mechanics. Anticipating later views by Reichenbach and Putnam, Zawirski argued that the indeterminacy and probabilistic structure of quantum theory required a departure from classical two-valued logic. Drawing on Łukasiewicz's many-valued logic and Post's formal constructions, he built a system of truth-functional operators capable of representing probabilistic conjunction and disjunction. This article offers a technical and conceptual reconstruction of Zawirski's logic, based on his 1934 monograph and recent interpretations by Garbacz. While the system's practical limitations have been noted, its philosophical ambition and originality remain significant. Zawirski's logic not only constitutes the first formal system of quantum logic but also anticipates contemporary debates on the empirical foundations of logic and the relation between logic and probability. By recovering his overlooked contribution, this paper broadens our understanding of early responses to quantum theory and highlights the role of Polish logicians in shaping 20th-century philosophy of science.
The paper presents and transcribes excerpts from an interview with Maria José von Paumgartten Deane in 1989 on her personal and professional trajectory, as part of Casa de Oswaldo Cruz's "Projeto Memória de Manguinhos." The interviewee shares her experience in the field of science from the 1930s onward within a predominantly masculine context, as well as strategies for female affirmation, and also describes her experiences working with Evandro Chagas, scientific travels and lifelong partnership with Leônidas de Mello Deane. O texto apresenta e transcreve parte de uma entrevista com Maria José von Paumgartten Deane sobre sua trajetória pessoal e profissional, realizada em 1989, como parte do “Projeto Memória de Manguinhos”, da Casa de Oswaldo Cruz. A depoente relata sua experiência na área científica a partir dos anos 1930, em um contexto predominantemente masculino, e as estratégias de afirmação feminina, narrando ainda as vivências de trabalho com Evandro Chagas, viagens científicas e a parceria de vida com Leônidas de Mello Deane.
The life of Alexis Carrel, recipient of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, is closely linked to Lourdes and the religious tensions that marked twentieth-century France. In 1902, he traveled to Lourdes. Upon his return, his account of the cure of Marie Bailly-a twenty-three-year-old woman suffering from peritonitis according to several physicians-caused a scandal in French academic circles. His Chief of Surgery subsequently dismissed him. In 1904, he went into exile in Canada, then the United States, where he established connections with Charles Claude Guthrie, Hervey Cushing and Simon Flexner, who welcomed him to the Rockefeller Institute. Over the years, Carrel lost all contact with Marie Bailly. Decades later, in the 1930s and again in the 1960s, attempts to reopen her medical records met with limited success. Was it a case of tubercular peritonitis or pseudoperitonitis? A misinterpretation-or an exceptional recovery? This article reexamines the case of Marie Bailly based on unpublished documents from the Sanctuary of Lourdes Archives, including Carrel's original notes.
The inter-war period was a time of mobilisation against syphilis in France and its colonial empire. The spread of the disease was perceived as a threat to the economic development of its colonies, particularly because of the labour shortages it might cause. In 1916, a new player appeared on the scene of the French efforts to control the disease: the Institut Prophylactique, founded by Arthur Vernes. Its project was nothing less than to eradicate the disease, and its activities in the colonies expanded significantly during the 1920s and 1930s. However, the Institut Prophylactique has been largely forgotten in the history of medicine. Although the project was a failure, this article shows that it played an important role in controlling syphilis, both in France and in its colonies. This historical study thus emphasises the importance of considering alternative and failed projects as part of the complex picture of health history.
By the 1930s, the once flourishing salmon fishing industry on the Rhine River ended. Concerns about decimating salmon stocks since 1850 had led to regulation efforts by riparian states, based on the assumption that overfishing was the chief culprit. While governments advocated the latest salmon science from Britain, the new industrial-scale salmon fisheries around Rotterdam challenged such policies. Their intervention halted the Dutch parliament's attempt at an international salmon treaty in 1870 and with it regulatory protection for the fish. Salmon fishers supported a techno-solutionist workaround. By the late nineteenth century, neither regulation nor restocking were working. Yet economic gain served to distract fishermen from the ecological state of the river. Reconstructing competing scientific and technological visions, this article reveals how the modernization of the Rhine as a transport artery and industrial waterway erased an ecological system once central to European food and culture.
Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a Gammacoronavirus with strict host tropism, infects chickens and avian-derived primary cells but not mammalian cells. The classical Beaudette strain, isolated in the 1930s, is a well-established IBV strain capable of replicating in Vero cells. Although sporadic reports have described similar adaptation in other strains, the molecular mechanisms underlying IBV cell tropism remain unclear. Here, a prevalent IBV strain was passaged in embryonated eggs and primary host cells to generate quasispecies diversity, followed by an alternating host-nonhost passage strategy that enabled efficient replication in BHK-21 cells within ten passages. Reverse genetics identified mutations in nsp4 (T53I), the E protein (E10G), and the S2 subunit as key contributors to mammalian cell tropism expansion. Notably, some of these mutations were detectable prior to BHK-21 passaging, suggesting that pre-existing variants laid the foundation for subsequent adaptation. Furthermore, introducing this minimal mutation set into the GI-1 H120 virus backbone similarly enabled efficient replication in BHK-21 cells, yielding titers of 105.4 TCID50/ml. In vivo, the nsp4-E-S2 mutant exhibited a 40% reduction in mortality compared with the wild type, and RNA sequencing revealed attenuated inflammatory responses. Collectively, our findings indicate that mammalian cell tropism expansion in IBV is associated with the stepwise selection of pre-existing variants, resulting in coordinated mutations in the S protein and other structural and non-structural proteins that reduced pathogenicity while maintaining protective efficacy, highlighting BHK-21 cells as a promising platform for next-generation vaccine development.
This article explores possible connections between health crises, economic policy choices, and the rise of populist movements, drawing on evidence from the interwar period. It considers how differing policy responses to the Great Depression may have been associated with contrasting trajectories in both public health and political developments. In Germany, the adoption of austerity measures in the early 1930s appears to have coincided with worsening economic conditions, declining health indicators, and growing electoral support for far-right movements. By contrast, expansionary initiatives introduced under the New Deal in the U.S. were likely accompanied by strengthened social protections, improvements in health outcomes, and what some observers have interpreted as a mitigation of pressures toward political radicalisation. Taken together, these historical experiences offer insights into contemporary developments, where perceived inadequacies in responding to intertwined health and economic crises could potentially contribute to eroding institutional trust and increasing receptiveness to populist narratives.
These data consist of newly OCRed and annotated narratives, both autobiographical texts written by, and interviews with, formerly enslaved persons of African descent in the United States of America and the Caribbean, including extensive time-related and geographical metadata. The texts authored by these individuals span from the years 1795 to approximately 1900, while the interviews were conducted in the 1930s. The former are written in standardised English from that time, whereas the latter often are written down in mediated, vernacular form, causing issues in lemmatisation and part-of-speech tagging. The aim is to create openly accessible corpora that can be utilised for the purpose of researching how these formerly enslaved persons described their own lives.
Testosterone, discovered during the endocrine gold rush of the 1930s, was the first hormone chemically synthesized for replacement therapy. In both men and women, testosterone functions directly through the androgen receptor (AR) and indirectly as a prohormone, converted by aromatase into 17β-oestradiol (oestradiol), which activates the oestrogen receptors ERα and ERβ. Testosterone is also metabolized to dihydrotestosterone-a potent, non-aromatizable AR agonist-through steroid 5α-reductases. Testosterone and its metabolites signal through AR- and ER-mediated genomic and rapid non-genomic actions. Long recognized for its role as a sex hormone, mounting evidence underscores the importance of testosterone in the regulation of systemic metabolism in both male and female organisms. Here, we highlight key milestones in the history of testosterone's discovery and therapeutic applications. Additionally, we synthesize the current understanding of testosterone as a key messenger promoting metabolic homeostasis in preclinical models and humans.
Tracing the history of Japan's electrification prior to the 1930s reveals how energy infrastructure expanded under the logic of fossil capitalism. Under market logic, privately owned utilities converted abundant coal and hydropower resources into electrical energy and sold it as a commodity. The rapid expansion of these utilities and accompanying fierce competition gave rise to novel financial instruments. The Japanese state supported fossil capitalism: centrally, it adopted a noninterventionist stance on price regulation, yet it implemented policies that leveraged market mechanisms to promote electrification. At the local level, public ownership and regulatory oversight remained weak. With the Japanese case, this article underscores the heterogeneity of electrification processes in Asia and demonstrates how Japan's early electrification linked fossil fuels, finance, and technological modernity.
As a weight-loss drug, 2,4-dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP) was discovered and popularized in the 1930s. Owing to multiple adverse effects, including death, its use as a prescription drug was banned in 1938. However, toxicity cases have risen over the past two decades as 2,4-DNP is easily obtained illegally online. In a fatal case at our hospital involving rapid, unexplained deterioration, 2,4-DNP was identified through a full toxicological analysis of blood and urine. An LC-MS/MS method for detecting and quantifying 2,4-DNP in plasma and urine was developed and validated according to European Medicines Agency (EMA) criteria. It also allowed quantification of its main metabolites 2-amino-4-nitrophenol (2A-4NP) and 4-amino-2-nitrophenol (4A-2NP) in urine. In plasma, 2A-4NP was only semi-quantifiable; 4A-2NP was undetected, likely due to matrix effects reducing sensitivity. Results obtained with and without enzymatic hydrolysis showed that 2,4-DNP-glucuronide and 2A-4NP plus its glucuronide are the primary metabolites, whereas 4A-2NP and its glucuronide are less prominent. No sulfate conjugates were detected. This study is the first to compare sample preparation with and without enzymatic hydrolysis, offering new insights into 2,4-DNP metabolism and the relative importance of its major metabolites and their glucuronides.
Historical redlining, a 1930s residential segregation policy, has been associated with contemporary breast cancer survival, but the role of contemporary neighborhood socioeconomic condition is unclear. We investigated mediating and modifying effects of neighborhood socioeconomic condition. This New York State Cancer Registry-based cohort included 60 773 invasive breast cancer cases. Cases were assigned a historical redlining grade (A-D) through linkage to residential census tract at diagnosis. We used labor class index of concentration at the extremes to proxy neighborhood socioeconomic condition. Four-way decomposition evaluated mediation and modification of neighborhood socioeconomic condition on redlining and breast cancer survival. The total effect risk ratio (RR) on 5-year mortality from D-grade vs A-grade = 1.20 (95% CI, 1.09-1.31), which decomposed to a controlled direct effect excess relative risk (ERR) = 0.10 (95% CI, -0.01 to 0.21) and a pure indirect effect ERR = 0.09 (95% CI, 0.05-0.13); significant interaction was not detected. Results were consistent among hormone receptor+, local-stage, and regional-stage tumors, but not hormone receptor- or distant-stage tumors. Decomposition differs by race/ethnicity. Contemporary neighborhood socioeconomic condition mediates approximately half the association between historical redlining and all-cause breast cancer survival, while the other half is attributed to historical redlining. Interventions addressing neighborhood socioeconomic condition may attenuate redlining-based breast cancer survival disparities.