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"Mortality Fiction."
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The measure : a novel
When every person, all over the globe, receives a small wooden box bearing the same inscription and a single piece of string inside, the world is thrown into a collective frenzy, in this novel told through multiple perspectives that introduces an unforgettable cast of characters.
Book
Of ashes and dust
\"He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. -- Job 30:19 (NKJV) Jim Robbins is a dead man, and he knows it. He's fought Yankee and Pawnee, fought for the love of two very different women, fought for his very survival. Now, as the scenes of his life flash before him, his greatest struggle is about to begin. Wounded in a railroad explosion, Jim reviews those moments that shaped him. From the inequities of the Antebellum South, to the horrors of the American Civil War, to the juggernaut of westward expansion, he played his part in the events that forged a nation -- and not always for the better. In his debut novel, Marc Graham explores what it is that defines a life. Is there meaning and purpose, or is it all just a series of accidents? Is a man simply the victim of circumstance, or maker of his own destiny? Perhaps most important, do his choices and actions survive him, or is his life but a stirring of ashes and dust?\" -- Provided by publisher.
Book
Imagining technologies for disability futures
[...]the potential of future technologies in this area are found equally in engineering and product development laboratories or in care settings pioneering the use of assistive robotics, for example. The Perinatal Life Support project, coordinated by the Eindhoven University of Technology, is developing a perinatal life support system with the aim of potentially providing premature infants with a supply of oxygen and nutrients through the umbilical cord and an artificial placenta. [...]research aims to address premature infant death or the neurological or developmental complications that can be an outcome of extreme prematurity. In her view, “science fiction is the dress rehearsal for social change”.
Journal Article
You like it darker : stories
\"You like it darker? Fine, so do I,\" writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life--both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel \"the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,\" and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again. \"Two Talented Bastids\" explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In \"Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream,\" a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny's most catastrophically. In \"Rattlesnakes,\" a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance--with major strings attached. In \"The Dreamers,\" a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. \"The Answer Man\" asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful. King's ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.
Book
The Mask of Unequal Health and Excess Death: A Reality
In Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 gothic tale, \"The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy,\" a nobleman and his wealthy friends attempt to escape a horrific plague by hiding out in a castle-like abbey dancing the night away, until death in the form of a masked figure systematically stalks them all down. Officials used this report over and over again in the current pandemic to make the argument for all the school and commerce closings that led toward \"flattening the curve\" of rising infections.2 In the same year as the historical analysis appeared, a different report by bioethicists established a set of social justice principles that argued for identifying so-called disadvantaged groups who would be more harmed by a pandemic, engaging them in planning, and identifying their special needs.3 The Trump administration barely took the lessons from the historical analysis and certainly ignored the concern with social justice. Most of us in public health knew systemic racism and health disparities would make differential illness and death rates happen.
Journal Article
Effect of a doctor working during the festive period on population health: natural experiment using 60 years of Doctor Who episodes (the TARDIS study)
AbstractObjectiveTo examine the effect of a (fictional) doctor working during the festive period on population health.DesignNatural experiment.SettingEngland, Wales, and the UK.Main outcome measuresAge standardised annual mortality rates in England, Wales, and the UK from 1963, when the BBC first broadcast Doctor Who, a fictional programme with a character called the Doctor who fights villains and intervenes to save others while travelling through space and time. Mortality rates were modelled in a time series analysis accounting for non-linear trends over time, and associations were estimated in relation to a new Doctor Who episode broadcast during the previous festive period, 24 December to 1 January. An interrupted time series analysis modelled the shift in mortality rates from 2005, when festive episodes of Doctor Who could be classed as a yearly Christmas intervention.Results31 festive periods from 1963 have featured a new Doctor Who episode, including 14 broadcast on Christmas Day. In time series analyses, an association was found between broadcasts during the festive period and subsequent lower annual mortality rates. In particular, episodes shown on Christmas Day were associated with 0.60 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (95% confidence interval 0.21 to 0.99; P=0.003) in England and Wales and 0.40 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (0.08 to 0.73; P=0.02) in the UK. The interrupted time series analysis showed a strong shift (reduction) in mortality rates from 2005 onwards in association with the Doctor Who Christmas intervention, with a mean 0.73 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (0.21 to 1.26; P=0.01) in England and Wales and a mean 0.62 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (0.16 to 1.09; P=0.01) in the UK.ConclusionsA new Doctor Who episode shown every festive period, especially on Christmas Day, was associated with reduced mortality rates in England, Wales, and the UK, suggesting that a doctor working over the festive period could lower mortality rates. This finding reinforces why healthcare provision should not be taken for granted and may prompt the BBC and Disney+ to televise new episodes of Doctor Who every festive period, ideally on Christmas Day.
Journal Article
The burden of disease due to COVID-19 in Sweden: a disability-adjusted life years (DALY) study
Background
Many countries have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including Sweden, which has been in the spotlight regarding its policies and their impact on mortality and morbidity. Therefore, it is of high interest to measure the disease burden of COVID-19 in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). DALYs have two main components: the years of life lost through premature death (YLL) and the number of years lived with disability (YLD). This study aims to measure DALYs due to COVID-19 in Sweden.
Methods
This study used data from the nationwide multi-register observational study SCIFI-PEARL (Swedish COVID-19 Investigation for Future Insights - a Population Epidemiology Approach using Register Linkage) covering the entire Swedish population. The methodology used in the modelling and calculation of DALYs was based on the Global Burden of Disease guidelines, using Sweden-specific life tables for estimated life expectancies.
Results
In Sweden, 152877 DALYs were lost to COVID-19 between March 2020 and October 2021, corresponding to 1447/ 100 000, 99,3% of which was attributed to YLL. DALYs loss occurred mainly among elderly groups with 66,78 % of DALYs being attributed to individuals above 70 years old. 57,6% of the lost DALYs occurred among men that lost more DALYs compared to females in all age groups.
Conclusions
Similar to other countries, the burden of COVID-19 in Sweden is concentrated mainly among the elderly, which contributed to the highest DALY loss due to mortality. Yet, DALY loss remains lower for COVID-19 compared to other major non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms. The contribution of YLD was minimal. However, YLD due to post-Covid is not well understood and long-term disability is likely still underestimated.
Key messages
• The burden of COVID-19 was mainly due to premature mortality in the older age groups.
• More research is needed especially on post-COVID disability to derive better estimates of YLD.
Journal Article
La igualdad en Hobbes y su doble carácter: fácticamente fundamentada, relativamente ficcional
Este artículo desarrolla una discusión entre dos interpretaciones del postulado de la igualdad natural en Hobbes: la posición clásica, según la cual la igualdad se basa en un enunciado fáctico, a saber, la igual capacidad de destrucción violenta recíproca entre los seres humanos, y la posición normativo-ficcionalista, la cual indica que la igualdad natural no apunta a una descripción fáctica de cómo son los hombres, sino que se trata de un supuesto ficticio que debemos asumir si queremos sobrevivir y vivir en paz. Argumentaré a favor de la posición clásica evaluando algunas de las objeciones que se hacen contra ella desde la orilla normativo-ficcionalista, pero defenderé también la idea de que hay que hacer ciertas concesiones a esta última interpretación.
Journal Article
Tracing Death as a Political Instrument: A Study of Osama Alomar's Selected Collections of Flash Fiction
This research article analyzes two collections of flash fiction including Fullblood Arabian (2014) and The Teeth of the Comb and Other Stories (2017) written by Osama Alomar, a Syrian refugee author. Guided by the theoretical framework of necropolitics as proposed by Achille Mbembe, this article investigates the constant presence of death and its multifaceted role in the wake of the Syrian civil war as portrayed in Alomar’s selected collections of flash fiction. The article attempts to study how death becomes an instrument in the civil war, widely used, manipulated, and exploited by various actors during the conflict-ridden period, each employing it differently. Although the selected collections of flash fiction demonstrate that death takes on many forms and performs multiple functions in the backdrop of the Syrian civil war, this research article narrows its scope to the analysis of how death is used as a political pawn and a political statement. At the outset of this research, it is postulated that the ruling Syrian regime transforms death and its fear into an instrument to intimidate and subdue Syrian civilian characters, thereby downplaying death as merely a political pawn. On the contrary, death also emerges as a political statement of the Syrian civilian characters as they begin to embrace death as a form of political activism to bring about social and political change in Syria. Invoking Catherine Belsey’s textual analysis method, some flash fiction stories from the selected collections are analyzed to study how the ruling Syrian regime and civilian characters reconfigure death in the wake of the Syrian civil war.
Journal Article