Mais où est Le Journal des Neiges d'Antan?

Dr Elisabeth Bik (whom God preserve) encountered the International Society of Microbiota, one spigot of the Edeas / Takayama Congress Factory. Hilarity ensued.

But I should explain [for values of 'explain' that include 'make everything more confusing']:

Hilarity ensued independently in mid-July, when a Dr Gundry was tasked with defending the vagina-crystal yoni- empowerment stupidity-taxation product range from 'Goop', and took the opportunity to burnish his credentials by boasting of the nutriceutical meetings he attends:

I bring this up because I am writing this on a plane while returning from giving a paper to the 11th annual World Congress on Polyphenols Applications...

Not good enough for you? ... why not look at my abstract* on 78 patients with marker proven autoimmune diseases, which became negative on lectin removal and restoration of gut wall integrity with The Plant Paradox program (more on that in a minute)?

*Gundry, S.R, 2016. Curing/remission of multiple autoimmune diseases is possible by manipulation of the human gut microbiome: The effect of a lectin limited, polyphenol enriched, prebiotic/probiotic regimen in 78 patients. Journal of International Society of Microbiota 3(1).

Gundry disapproves of beans in one's diet (although the resemblance to Pythagoras ends there), and sells Lectin Shield to strengthen the intestines against their effects; also Vital Reds polyphenol concentrate. To itemise his full range of supplements and webstores would stray beyond the ambit of the Riddled Mission Statement, and more important would be boring to write; suffice to say that he could be mistaken for a hexarrhinous Rhinograde such as Eledonopsis suavis, for it must be difficult to fit a single snout into so many troughs at once.

Pythagoras [right]; not Gundry

His rhetorical question "why not look at my abstract" attracted a veritable scornucopia of derision, and a non-rhetorical answer, i.e. because the Abstract is subscriber-only.

In all fairness, it was not all his own fault. When Gundry rocked up at the 3rd ISM World Congress on Targeting Microbiota in 2015 with a similar presentation -- "Manipulating the human microbiome using polyphenol rich foods, supplements, and prebiotics, coupled with avoidance of major dietary lectins reverses endothelial dysfunction" -- the Abstract entered circulation with Open Access status, as was the custom of the day. It only became subscriber-only later on when the publisher reneged on the deal, shifting to a new website, also to a new business model of "charging readers as well as contributors". He could not have predicted such transience.

This is something of a pattern at the euphoniously-titled JISM. Back in time immemorial before last Tuesday, in the days when JISM was all open access and peer review and solicited contributions, Reiss et al. (2015) paid the APC for them to disseminate a paper that was good enough to earn the admiration of Dr Bik.

Then the publisher / scamference-organiser adopted the Disruptive Business paradigm, so "Association of Dietary Type with Fecal Microbiota" first became inaccessible except as a title, then disappeared entirely from the revised Tables of Contents when JISM was repositioned as an "archive of conference proceedings". The "permanent unique identifier" aspect of a DOI link depends on the publisher's integrity.

This all sounds familiar, Uncle Smut.

Sadly, yes... this post is largely intended as an update to an earlier loosely-structured survey of Marvin Edeas, his Takayama Publishing Group [now just Takayama], and their place in the magical-ingredient leprechaun-sperm nutriceutical industry. It would be wrong to repeat that earlier introduction to Marvin and his identical twin / alternative-universe duplicate Bejit Edeas (their careers are complementary, with Bejit focused on cosmetics-MLM instead of mockademic meetings; both, we are informed, have been nominated for a Nobel Prize, conceivably by each other). They are too good to be true: one speculates that in fact they are refugees from the fictive realm, having escaped from the script of Cronenberg's next movie.

A single IP address houses a sample of various actual and aspirational conference- and journal-related activities.

"Polyphenols-site.com'? That sounds familiar!

Yes indeed, the abode of the annual World Congress on Polyphenols Applications, receipients of Dr Gundry's latest presentation. If only he had attended the 3rd World Congress on Maillard Reaction & Glycation (glycation-site.com), he would have learned that beans are good... especially as a starch-digestion-blocking weight-reducing bean-based dietary supplement.

So going back to where we started: Dr Bik encountered the coming October 5th Congress on Targetting Microbiota, and found it OMICS-like in general demeanour. She was most struck by its sausage-fest quality.

It is all most odd, for organiser Marvin Edeas has previous associations with feminine collaborators and co-authors and domain-registration figureheads -- Céline Duval, and Céline Joubet (who may be related to Rouby Joubet, a co-author and press contact and domain holder). Also Céline Mailfert, who may be related to Anne-Sophie, a sentient e-mail address and co-author; and Céline Mercier, who signs press releases. Not to forget Yuri Hatanaka, who balances registering domains for Edeas with her career as an Anime character, nor Yuki Ikeda, Society chairwoman, nor Mizuho Nasu, pharmacist and stock-art image. None have an Interduct footprint larger than the dent of a stiletto heel, but surely Edeas could prevail on one of them to speak at the Congress.

The Great Gazoogle helpfully shares the Abstract of Edeas' planned presentation to the 5th Congress:

Our aim is to highlight the subtle relationship that exists between microbiota and mitochondria. Microbiota targets mitochondria by modulating the Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) production and the mitochondrial activity through interactions with toxins, proteins or other metabolites released by gut microbiota. [...] Firstly there will be a test to show the quality, quantity and diversity of microbiota, and secondly a preventive or therapeutic strategy will be administrated (probiotics, diet, prodrug or fecal transplantation). The era of digital medicine is here.

Evidently there has been little progress in the course of two years, as the identical Abstract appeared in Cell.Mol.Biol. (Noisy-le-Grand) in 2015*... Understandably, Dr Edeas has been too busy organising conferences to pursue actual research.

We are compelled by an obsessive search for completion to note that versions of that 2015 paper re-appeared as "Microbiota-mitochondria inter-talk: consequence for microbiota-host interaction" (Path.Dis. 2016), and as "Microbiota interact with mitochondria to regulate interaction with host cells" (JWMS, 2016). The level of textual and pictorial overlap across these papers elicited pointing and laughing.

Since then the Journal of World Mitochondria Society has shifted websites and scope, and that second paper there -- previously open-access -- has been abandoned, links leading only to the implacable dread gate-keeper of 404. If authors Chaumet and Edeas are disappoint, they have the recourse of complaining to the journal's erstwhile chief editors Chaumet and Edeas, or the Society's founder, Marvin Edeas. I have no such helpful advice for authors who paid for publication in other vehicles from the same stable, which vanished completely when Takayama Publishing [now just Takayama] decided that the non-profitability of the Associations and the associated scamferences did not warrant further outlay on website fees.


All that is missing is a Journal of Snows-of-Yesteryear Society.

As for les neiges d'antan, here they are.

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* The Cell.Mol.Biol. journal is distinguished by its zombie editorial panel of dead honorary Nobel Laureates, and its disruptively innovative paradigm of peer review, by which the responsibilities of selecting reviewers for a submission, and ensuring that it is revised to address their critiques, befalls on the author rather than the editor. It is also notable for an Avignon-Papacy-like publishing schism: the founding editor was ousted from his seat, forcing him to set up a second Cell.Mol.Biol. (with the same ISSN), under the auspices of OMICS, from which to fulminate and rain down denunciations upon the usurping Anti-Editor.