bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Forecasting cross-border power transmission capacities in Central Western Europe using artificial neural networks
Authors: Abdel-Khalek Hazem , Schäfer Mirko , Vásquez Raquel , Unnewehr Jan Frederick , Weidlich Anke
Published: September 2019

Flow-based Market Coupling (FBMC) provides welfare gains from cross-border electricity trading by efficiently providing coupling capacity between bidding zones. In the coupled markets of Central Western Europe, common regulations define the FBMC methods, but transmission system operators keep some degrees of freedom in parts of the capacity calculation. Besides, many influencing factors define the flow-based capacity domain, making it difficult to fundamentally model the capacity calculation and to derive reliable forecasts from it. In light of this challenge, the given contribution reports findings from the attempt to model the capacity domain in FBMC by applying Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). As target values, the Maximum Bilateral Exchanges (MAXBEX) have been chosen. Only publicly available data has been used as inputs to make the approach reproducible for any market participant. It is observed that the forecast derived from the ANN yields similar results to a simple carry-forward method for a one-hour forecast, whereas for a longer-term forecast, up to twelve hours ahead, the network outperforms this trivial approach. Nevertheless, the overall low accuracy of the prediction strongly suggests that a more detailed understanding of the structure and evolution of the flow-based capacity domain and its relation to the underlying market and infrastructure characteristics is needed to allow market participants to derive robust forecasts of FMBC parameters.
UTS2B Defines a Novel Enteroendocrine Cell Population and Regulates GLP-1 Secretion Through SSTR5 in Male Mice
Authors: Tang Cong , Ksiazek Iwona , Siccardi Noemie , Gapp Berangere , Weber Delphine , Wirsching Johann , Beck Valerie , Reist Matthias , Gaudet Laurent , Stuber Nathalie , Surber Sabrina Silvia , Mao Xiaohong , Nicholson Thomas B , Carbone Walter , Beibel Martin , Roma Guglielmo , Gubser Keller Caroline , Bassilana Frederic
Published: September 2019

The gut-pancreas axis plays a key role in the regulation of glucose homeostasis and may be therapeutically exploited to treat not only type 2 diabetes but also hypoglycemia and hyperinsulinemia. We identify a novel enteroendocrine cell type expressing the peptide hormone urotensin 2B (UTS2B). UTS2B inhibits glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion in mouse intestinal crypts and organoids, not by signaling through its cognate receptor UTS2R but through the activation of the somatostatin receptor (SSTR) 5. Circulating UTS2B concentrations in mice are physiologically regulated during starvation, further linking this peptide hormone to metabolism. Furthermore, administration of UTS2B to starved mice demonstrates that it is capable of regulating blood glucose and plasma concentrations of GLP-1 and insulin in vivo. Altogether, our results identify a novel cellular source of UTS2B in the gut, which acts in a paracrine manner to regulate GLP-1 secretion through SSTR5. These findings uncover a fine-tuning mechanism mediated by a ligand-receptor pair in the regulation of gut hormone secretion, which can potentially be exploited to correct metabolic unbalance caused by overactivation of the gut-pancreas axis.
Using the Rotted Names: Wallace Stevens’s Racial Ontology as Poetic Key
Authors: Mayer Mark
Published: September 2019

This essay takes up Adrienne Rich’s unexplained assertion that Wallace Stevens’s racial and racist language is a “key to the whole” of his poetry. Focusing mostly on Stevens’s 1941 diptych “The News and the Weather,” the essay begins an anthology of critical approaches to the racial Stevens, the language of which has been read as a device by which white protagonism defines itself in opposition to characteristics marked as “black,” as a “blackface” critique of white gentility, and as a melancholic attempt to locate the limits of the white imagination. Reviewing and critiquing such theses, the essay argues that Stevens’s speakers seek in blackness a figure for their own nonbeing and thus speak of blackness in language in which its own fullness of being is denied. This reading, then, interrogates how Stevens’s poetics rely not just on racial difference but on the dehumanization created by the language with which that difference is enforced.
“The Ingenious Unravelling of Evidence”: Empathy, Extinction, and Wells’s The Croquet Player
Authors: Feder Helena
Published: September 2019

While we are increasingly challenged to imagine a world without humans, we have also become increasingly attentive to the subject of empathy, in popular culture, the humanities, and the sciences. In The Time Machine (1895), and a number of essays on evolution or extinction, H. G. Wells articulated a speculative evolutionary theory, a vision of nature unencumbered by everyday anthropocentricism. His little-known 1936 novella, The Croquet Player, continues his evolutionary story of humanity by turning to the future’s entanglement with the past and culture’s entanglement with nature. Prescient, Wells’s novella speaks to the parallel phenomena entangled in the strange relation between extinction and empathy.
Nonhuman Fictional Characters and the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
Authors: James Erin
Published: September 2019

Highlighting a trend in current models of narrative empathy that suggests that readers’ ability to empathize with nonhuman characters is dependent wholly on anthropomorphization, this essay explores two narratives that feature chimp characters—Colin McAdam’s A Beautiful Truth and Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves—to consider the challenges that nonhuman characters pose to such models and the empathy-altruism hypothesis. It first considers the cognitive differences between humans and chimps to stress just how difficult it is to represent chimp cognition and emotion in narrative and the resulting challenges that this difficulty poses for models of narrative empathy. It then discusses the mechanisms by which written narratives that refuse to anthropomorphize nonhuman characters, such those by McAdam and Fowler, might inspire a real-world ethics of care among readers for nonhuman subjects. Ultimately, this essay proposes an expansion to current models of narrative empathy by which we recognize the potential of human bridge characters to foster real-world care among readers for nonhuman subjects.
Classroom Writing Assessment as an Antiracist Practice
Authors: Inoue Asao B.
Published: September 2019

Classroom writing assessment practices can interrogate white supremacy through the way readers judge student writing. Furthermore, writing assessments designed and engaged in as ecologies offer social justice projects that can explore judgment as a racialized discourse. The author demonstrates one application of an antiracist writing assessment ecology through a practice called “problem posing the nature of judgment and language” and discusses the problem posing of two ecological places in the class.
Teaching Ciarán Carson
Authors: Barrios-O’Neill Danielle
Published: September 2019

In recent decades, Belfast writer Ciarán Carson has emerged as one of the most inventive of contemporary literary voices, in part for his unique style of textualizing space. Driven in some ways by the very specific technological challenges of the conflict zone of Troubles-era Belfast, Carson’s poetry and prose are marked by what we might describe as tech paranoia—but, in a constructive poetic answer, his texts create new logics for using tech materials, machines, and high-tech spaces in ways that privilege creativity. It is no coincidence, notes literary and technology theorist Katherine Hayles, that “the condition of virtuality is most pervasive and advanced” where centers of power are most concentrated and conflicted intersections most frequently occur. Carson’s oeuvre illustrates the point, employing the technology of the printed page to simulate and process the zone of conflict in new, postdigital ways. This article poses Carson’s texts as ideal for exploring issues that connect regional identities, technology, and the arts—including highly topical issues around terrorism and nationhood—that are highly relevant for contemporary students of literature.
Identification of matrix physicochemical properties required for renal epithelial cell tubulogenesis by using synthetic hydrogels
Authors: Cruz-Acuña Ricardo , Mulero-Russe Adriana , Clark Amy Y. , Zent Roy , García Andrés J.
Published: September 2019

Synthetic hydrogels with controlled physicochemical matrix properties serve as powerful in vitro tools to dissect cell–extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions that regulate epithelial morphogenesis in 3D microenvironments. In addition, these fully defined matrices overcome the lot-to-lot variability of naturally derived materials and have provided insights into the formation of rudimentary epithelial organs. Therefore, we engineered a fully defined synthetic hydrogel with independent control over proteolytic degradation, mechanical properties, and adhesive ligand type and density to study the impact of ECM properties on epithelial tubulogenesis for inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) cells. Protease sensitivity of the synthetic material for membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MT1-MMP, also known as MMP14) was required for tubulogenesis. Additionally, a defined range of matrix elasticity and presentation of RGD adhesive peptide at a threshold level of 2 mM ligand density were required for epithelial tubulogenesis. Finally, we demonstrated that the engineered hydrogel supported organization of epithelial tubules with a lumen and secreted laminin. This synthetic hydrogel serves as a platform that supports epithelial tubular morphogenetic programs and can be tuned to identify ECM biophysical and biochemical properties required for epithelial tubulogenesis.
Reversible solidification of fission yeast cytoplasm after prolonged nutrient starvation
Authors: Heimlicher Maria B. , Bächler Mirjam , Liu Minghua , Ibeneche-Nnewihe Chieze , Florin Ernst-Ludwig , Hoenger Andreas , Brunner Damian
Published: September 2019

Cells depend on a highly ordered organisation of their content and must develop strategies to maintain the anisotropic distribution of organelles during periods of nutrient shortage. One of these strategies is to solidify the cytoplasm, which was observed in bacteria and yeast cells with acutely interrupted energy production. Here, we describe a different type of cytoplasm solidification fission yeast cells switch to, after having run out of nutrients during multiple days in culture. It provides the most profound reversible cytoplasmic solidification of yeast cells described to date. Our data exclude the previously proposed mechanisms for cytoplasm solidification in yeasts and suggest a mechanism that immobilises cellular components in a size-dependent manner. We provide experimental evidence that, in addition to time, cells use intrinsic nutrients and energy sources to reach this state. Such cytoplasmic solidification may provide a robust means to protect cellular architecture in dormant cells.
Discovery of aspirin-triggered eicosanoid-like mediators in a Drosophila metainflammation blood tumor model
Authors: Panettieri Silvio , Paddibhatla Indira , Chou Jennifer , Rajwani Roma , Moore Rebecca S. , Goncharuk Tamara , John George , Govind Shubha
Published: September 2019

Epidemiologic studies have linked the use of aspirin to a decline in chronic inflammation that underlies many human diseases, including some cancers. Aspirin reduces the levels of cyclooxygenase-mediated pro-inflammatory prostaglandins, promotes the production of pro-resolution molecules, and triggers the production of anti-inflammatory electrophilic mono-oxygenated (EFOX) lipid mediators. We investigated the effects of aspirin in fruit fly models of chronic inflammation. Ectopic Toll/NF-κB and JAK/STAT signaling in mutant D. melanogaster results in overproliferation of hematopoietic blood progenitors resulting in the formation of granuloma-like tumors. Ectopic JAK-STAT signaling also leads to metabolic inflammation. We report that aspirin-treated mutant flies experience reduction in metabolic inflammation, mitosis, ectopic immune signaling, and macrophage infiltration. Moreover, these flies synthesize 13-HODE, and aspirin triggers 13-oxoODE (13-EFOX-L2) production. Providing the precursor of 13-HODE, linoleic acid, or performing targeted knockdown of the transcription factor STAT in inflammatory blood cells, boosts 13-EFOX-L2 levels while decreasing metabolic inflammation. Thus, hematopoietic cells regulate metabolic inflammation in flies, and their effects can be reversed by pharmaceutical or dietary intervention, suggesting deep phylogenetic conservation in the ability of animals to resolve inflammation and repair tissue damage. These findings can help identify novel treatment targets in humans.
Nitrogen unavailability helps to protect spider silk from bacterial growth
Authors: Zhang Shichang , Piorkowski Dakota , Lin Wan-Rou , Lee Yi-Ru , Liao Chen-Pan , Wang Pi-Han , Tso I-Min
Published: September 2019

Spider silks are protein-based fibers that are incorporated into webs with the unique combination of high mechanical toughness and resistance to microbial degradation. While spiders are undoubtedly exposed to saprophytic microorganisms in their native habitats, such as the forest understory and bush, their silks have rarely been observed to decompose in either field or laboratory studies. We performed cross-streaking assays using silk from three spider species and four bacterial strains and found no inhibition zones, indicating the absence of antibacterial properties. We also cultured all bacteria directly upon silk in Luria-Bertani broth (full nutrients), Phosphate-buffered saline (no nutrients) and nitrogen-free glucose broth (full nutrients, no nitrogen), and found bacteria grew readily on LB broth but not in PBS or NFG buffer. Our results indicated that spider silk's resistance to bacterial degradation is likely due to bacteriostatic, rather than antibacterial, mechanisms, as nitrogen is made unavailable.
There Is No Free House: Ethnic Patronage in a Kenyan Slum
Authors: Marx Benjamin , Stoker Thomas M. , Suri Tavneet
Published: September 2019

Using unique data from one of Africa's largest informal settlements, the Kibera slum in Nairobi, we provide evidence of ethnic patronage in the determination of rental prices and investments. Slum residents pay higher rents and live in lower quality housing (measured via satellite pictures) when the landlord and the locality chief belong to the same ethnicity. Conversely, rental prices are lower, and investments higher when residents and chiefs are co-ethnics. Our identification relies on the exogenous appointment of chiefs and is supported by several tests, including a regression discontinuity design. (JEL J15, O15, O17, O18, R21, R31)
Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes
Authors: Dube Arindrajit
Published: September 2019

There is robust evidence that higher minimum wages increase family incomes at the bottom of the distribution. The long-run (3 or more years) minimum wage elasticity of the non-elderly poverty rate with respect to the minimum wage ranges between −0.220 and −0.459 across alternative specifications. The long-run minimum wage elasticities for the tenth and fifteenth unconditional quantiles of family income range between 0.152 and 0.430 depending on specification. A reduction in public assistance partly offsets these income gains, which are on average 66 percent as large when using an expanded income definition including tax credits and noncash transfers. (JEL D31, I32, I38, J31, J38)
Trade and Income—Exploiting Time Series in Geography
Authors: Feyrer James
Published: September 2019

Establishing a robust causal relationship between trade and income has been difficult. Frankel and Romer (1999) uses a geographic instrument to identify a positive effect of trade on income. Rodriguez and Rodrik (2001) shows that these results are not robust to controlling for omitted variables such as distance to the equator or institutions. This paper solves the omitted variable problem by generating a time-varying geographic instrument. Improvements in aircraft technology have caused the quantity of world trade carried by air to increase over time. Country pairs with relatively short air routes compared to sea routes benefit more from this change in technology. This heterogeneity can be used to generate a geography-based instrument for trade that varies over time. The time-series variation allows for controls for country fixed effects, eliminating the bias from time-invariant variables such as distance from the equator or historically determined institutions. Trade has a significant effect on income with an elasticity of roughly one-half. Differences in predicted trade growth can explain roughly 17 percent of the variation in cross-country income growth between 1960 and 1995. (JEL F14, F43, L93)
Peer Effects in Legislative Voting
Authors: Harmon Nikolaj , Fisman Raymond , Kamenica Emir
Published: September 2019

We exploit seating rules in the European Parliament to identify peer effects in legislative voting. Sitting adjacently leads to a 7 percent reduction in the overall likelihood that two members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the same party differ in their vote. Peer effects are markedly stronger among pairs of women, MEP pairs from the same country, and in close votes. Using variation in seating across the parliament's two venues (Brussels and Strasbourg), we show that peer effects are persistent: MEPs who have sat together in the past disagree less even when they are not seated adjacently. (JEL D72, Z13)
Selection and application of coils in temporomandibular joint MRI
Authors: Sun Qi , Dong Min-jun , Tao Xiao-feng , Jiang Meng-da , Yang Chi
Published: September 2019

Objective:

To compare and evaluate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) values between a 15-channel phased array head coil and 6-channel dS Flex M surface coil in the MRI of temporomandibular joint.

Methods:

300 patients were randomly assigned to two groups: 150 patients were examined by using a 15-channel phased array head coil and the other 150 patients were scanned by using a 6-channel dS Flex M surface coil. All of the data were set in the same 6 regions of interest including the temporal lobe, condyle neck, lateral pterygoid muscle, parotid gland, the adipose area and an area of the background noise）. SNR and CNR values were measured respectively.

Results:

The numerical variation law of SNR and CNR values measured in regionsof interest of each group was similar, although different coils were used. There were statistically significant differences of SNR values in all of the oblique sagittal (OSag) proton density-weighted imaging, the part of OSag T 2 weighted image (T 2WI) except for SNR4 and SNR5. and oblique coronal (OCor) T 2WI sequence except for SNR2. On the contrary, SNR4 and SNR5 values in the OCor T 2WI and SNR5 values in OSag T 2WI sequences by using the surface coil were higher than those by using the head coil. There were no statistically significant intergroup differences of CNR values in OSag proton density-weighted imaging sequence except CNR1 and in OSag T 2WI sequence except CNR5. But, statistically significant differences of all the values in the OCor T 2WI sequence except for CNR1 were observed.

Conclusion:

Both the phased array head coil and dS Flex M surface coil can be used for temporomandibular joint MRI.
Solitary plasmacytoma of maxillofacial bones: correlation of CT features with pathological findings
Authors: Liu Yu , Li Kaicheng
Published: September 2019

Objective:

To explore the CT features of solitary plasmacytoma (SP) of maxillofacial bones and correlation with pathological findings.

Methods and materials:

We retrospectively reviewed the clinical, CT and pathological features of SP in the maxillofacial bones. 16 patients with clinically and histologically proven SP of maxillofacial bones were involved. They were aged from 27 to 79 years old (median 55.5 years old), and included 12 males and 4 females (males vs females: 3:1). All patients performed CT examination, in whom 13 patients underwent enhanced scanning and 3 plain scanning. The CT images were assessed for lesion location, size (maximum diameter), shape (round, oval and irregular), boundary (defined and illdefined), bone changes (bone destruction, residual bone, sclerotic margin and periosteal reaction), density of soft tissue mass and enhancement manifestations, and invasion of adjacent structures.

Results:

13 patients suffered from SP in the mandible, 2 in the zygoma, and 1 in the maxilla and hard palate. The maximum diameter of lesions ranged from 2.4 to 8.2 cm (mean 3.93 ± 1.435 cm). Most lesions were founded as a solitary osteolytic lesions (15/16, 93.75%) with round or ovoid shape (13/16, 81.25%), smooth margin (16/16, 100%) and defined boundary (16/16, 100%) in bone marrow. They destroyed bone cortex (15/16, 93.75%) and had residual bone (10/16, 62.5%), without sclerosis margin (15/16, 93.75%) and periosteal reaction (14/16, 87.5%). They easily formed soft tissue masses (16/16, 100%) and invade adjacent anatomical structures (15/16, 93.75%). The density of lesions was usually uniform (12/16, 75%) with strong enhancement. There was a significant difference in CT values between plain and enhanced scanning [50.75 ± 9.140 Hounfield unit (HU) vs 101.0 ± 28.830 HU; p < 0.001), with the mean difference of CT values 50.25 HU.

Conclusions:

SP is predominant in the mandible of elderly male patients. A solitary, round or ovoid, well-defined, osteolytic, invasive mass in bone marrow, which destroys bone cortex, has residual bone, no sclerosis margin and periosteal reaction, and shows strong enhancement, is suggestive of this diagnosis.
Discovery of novel plasma biomarker ratios to discriminate traumatic brain injury
Authors: Chen Michelle , Soosaipillai Antoninus , Fraser Douglas D. , Diamandis Eleftherios P.
Published: September 2019

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability. Despite increased awareness, reliable biomarkers are urgently needed to aid in all forms of traumatic brain injury diagnosis and prognosis.

Methods: Here, we aim to assess the diagnostic utility of known and novel TBI biomarkers in a pilot patient cohort of severe TBI (sTBI) patients and healthy controls. We analyzed concentrations of S100 calcium binding protein B (S100B), neuron specific enolase (NSE), human kallikrein 6 (hK6) and prostaglandin D2 synthase (PGDS) using ELISA immunoassays.

Results: Plasma levels of hK6 and PGDS were significantly lower in sTBI compared with controls, while S100B and NSE were significantly higher. Furthermore, we show that ratios of NSE and S100B with hK6 and PGDS may be able to determine the presence of sTBI better than single markers alone.

Conclusions: The findings presented here represent a starting point for future validation, where biomarker ratios can be tested in independent TBI cohorts.
Interobserver reliability of Diméglio and Pirani score and their subcomponents in the evaluation of idiopathic clubfoot in a clinical setting: A need for improved scoring systems
Authors: Bettuzzi C. , Abati C. N. , Salvatori G. , Zanardi A. , Lampasi M.
Published: September 2019

Purpose

Diméglio (DimS) and Pirani (PirS) scores are the most commonly used scoring systems for evaluation of clubfoot, with many centres performing both. Interobserver reliability of their global score has been rated high in a few studies, but agreement of their subcomponents has been poorly investigated. The aim of the study was to assess interrater reliability of global scores and of items in a clinical setting and to analyse overlapping features of the two scores.

Methods

Fifty-six consecutive idiopathic clubfeet undergoing correction using the Ponseti method were independently evaluated at each casting session by two trained paediatric orthopaedic surgeons using both scores. Interobserver reliability of collected data was analysed; a kappa coefficient > 0.60 was considered adequate.

Results

For DimS and PirS, the Pearson correlation coefficients were 0.87 and 0.91 (p < .0001) respectively, and kappa coefficients were 0.23 and 0.31. Among subcomponents, kappa values were rated > 0.60 only for equinus and curvature of lateral border in PirS; muscular abnormality in DimS was rated 0.74 but a high prevalence index (0.94) indicated influence of scarce prevalence of this feature. All other items showed k < 0.60 and were considered to be improved. For overlapping features: posterior and medial crease showed similar agreement in the two systems, items describing equinus and midfoot adduction were much more reliable in PirS than in DimS.

Conclusions

In a clinical setting, despite a high correlation of evaluations for total scores, the interobserver agreement of DimS and PirS was not adequate and only a few items were substantially reliable. Simultaneous use of two scores seemed redundant and some overlapping features showed different reliability according to criterion or scale used. Future scoring systems should improve these limitations.

Level of Evidence

Level I – Diagnostic studies
The debate over rational decision making in evidence-based medicine: implications for evidence-informed policy
Authors: Sheldrick R. Christopher , Hyde Justeen , Leslie Laurel K. , Mackie Thomas
Published: September 2019

Many of the resources developed to promote the use of evidence in policy aspire to an ideal of rational decision making, yet their basis in the decision sciences is often unclear. Tracing the historical development of evidence-informed policy to its roots in evidence-based medicine (EBM), we distinguish between two understandings of how research evidence may be applied. Advocates for EBM all seek to use research evidence to optimise clinical care. However, some proponents argue that ‘uptake’ of research evidence should be direct and universal, for example through wide-scale implementation of ‘evidence-based practices’. In contrast, other conceptualisations of EBM are rooted in expected utility theory, which defines rational decisions as choices that are expected to result in the greatest benefit. Applying this theory to medical care, clinical decision-making models clearly demonstrate that rational decisions require not only a range of relevant evidence, but also expertise to inform judgments regarding the credibility of estimates and to assess fit-to-context, and stakeholder preferences and values to weigh trade-offs among competing outcomes. Using these models as exemplars, we argue that attempts to apply research evidence directly to practice or policy without consideration of expert judgement or preferences and values reflect fundamental misconceptions about the theory of rational decision making that can impede implementation. In turn, the decision sciences highlight the need to consider the role of expertise and judgment when interpreting research evidence, the role of preferences and values when applying it to specific decisions, and the practical limits imposed by the uncertainty inherent in each.
‘Our Journey, Our Narrative’: narratives of para(militarism) and conflict transformation in the ACT exhibition
Authors: Hinson Erin
Published: September 2019

The broad scope of contemporary research on paramilitary loyalism has yet to address the visual representations of paramilitarism within conflict transformation models. Addressing this gap, this paper explores representations of the Ulster Volunteer Force paramilitary group within the context of the exhibition produced by Action for Community Transformation (ACT). Though the organisation’s remit is to facilitate former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) combatants’ transition into normative societal roles utilising conflict transformation practices, the group also houses a socio-historical exhibition titled ‘Our Journey, Our Narrative’ at its permanent West Belfast offices. The exhibition constructs a specific version of loyalist heritage by tracing the UVF’s origin and connection to the British military, narrating a history of the conflict, and exposing visitors to ACT’s ongoing efforts at grassroots conflict transformation. This paper situates the ACT exhibition within contemporary discourses of heritage construction in post-ceasefire contexts, and contends that the exhibition provides a space of education and legitimisation for narratives around paramilitary history and methods of conflict transformation.
Introduction: Militancy and the working class: The case of Northern Ireland
Authors: Johnson Matthew
Published: September 2019

This is an introduction to Militancy and the working class: The case of Northern Ireland. I outline the substantive content of the issue, arguing that the dynamics at play render much of our established understandings contestable.
Analysing contested pasts: a reply to Erin Hinson’s ‘Our Journey, Our Narrative’: narratives of (para)militarism and conflict transformation in the ACT exhibition
Authors: Oppenheimer Rachel
Published: September 2019

This reply examines Erin Hinson’s ‘“Our Journey, Our Narrative”: Narratives of para(militarism) and conflict transformation in the ACT exhibition’. It argues that a study of heritage construction, such as Hinson’s is especially fruitful in societies like Northern Ireland where peace is a project of the recent past, because memories of conflict become the subsequent arena of struggle. Moreover, it asserts that Hinson’s work is at its strongest when she ties artefacts from the Action for Community Transformation (ACT) exhibition to a legitimising mission on the part of former loyalist paramilitaries as well as when she examines the motivations of ACT’s creators and artefact donors. In answer, this reply enunciates the strands of collective memory to which the ACT exhibition speaks. These include the official memories of scholars, the dismissive memory of non-combatants likely to view former paramilitaries as mindless thugs, and the competing memory of Irish republicans. The reply continues by bringing up questions engendered by Hinson’s research while suggesting possible ramifications of the answers to those questions. It concludes by reminding the reader of the importance of studies of this nature based on the fact that scholars have only recently begun to engage with the history of loyalism in Northern Ireland in a dispassionate way.
The political economy of Brazilian cultural policy: a case study of the Rouanet Law
Authors: Dekker Erwin , Carolina Rodrigues Ana
Published: September 2019

This article provides an analysis of the effectiveness of cultural policy in Brazil under the Rouanet Law for the period 1993–2016. We find that the law, which provides tax incentives for donations to and sponsorships of the cultural sector, has exacerbated existing socio-economic inequalities, regional inequalities and inequalities between artistic genres. The gifts have predominantly gone to already successful projects, sometimes even already profitable projects. On the flip side, the gifts have primarily come from large, mostly partially state-owned, enterprises and act as the equivalent of a tax cut for these organisations. From the evidence, it is not clear that any particular market failure is alleviated through the Rouanet Law; instead, it seems that the system of indirect support led to strong control over the cultural sector by big business in Brazil. We use these findings to criticise much of the literature on cultural policy, which tends to take Western well-developed institutions for granted. We argue that this literature is ill-suited to capture the economy of Brazil and other ‘limited-access states’ because of its implicit assumption of a pre-existing ‘open-access state’.
The politics of neoliberalisation and resistance in post-crash Northern Ireland
Authors: Byers Seán
Published: September 2019

Northern Ireland’s transition from conflict to relative peace has been accompanied by significant changes to the region’s economic base, with far-reaching consequences for working class communities and negative impacts on social and political stability. This article sets out to explain neoliberalism’s locally contingent form in the St Andrews Agreement era. Accounting for both external pressures and the political priorities of Northern Ireland’s Executive parties, it contends that the state in its integral form has not merely retreated or outsourced the peace process to the corporate sphere but has actively intervened to shape society in the interests of capital and institutionalise neoliberal thought while simultaneously acting to depoliticise key policy decisions. The article goes on to show how various forms of resistance have emerged in the face of seemingly global processes and even as society appears to have become more polarised along ethnonational lines.
A war that stopped a war? The necropolitics of (Northern) Ireland’s First World War centenary
Authors: Evershed Jonathan
Published: September 2019

The recent ‘recovery’ of First World War memory in Ireland has been much discussed and widely celebrated. What has been represented as Ireland’s centennial reacquaintance with its Great War heritage has been framed by a wider ‘Decade of Centenaries’: a policy construct through which a more reconciliatory approach to commemorating the violent events which gave birth to the two states on the island of Ireland has been promoted. The Decade has seen the ascendance of joint British–Irish First World War commemorations, and attempts have been made to use commemoration to bridge the ‘communal’ divide between unionism and nationalism. In this article, I interrogate this new commemorative dispensation and the assumptions that underwrite it. I argue that the reconciliatory reorientation of commemoration in Ireland during the Decade of Centenaries is based on an ethically contradictory and militaristic reframing of the First World War as ‘a war that stopped a war’. Eliding the ways in which the War has actually long been remembered in nationalist Ireland, this reframing is representative of and acts to reinforce the wider anti-political project in which the British and Irish states have been jointly involved since the advent of the peace process. Arguing that the (necro)politics of Ireland’s First World War centenary have represented the slaughter of Irishmen on Flanders’ fields as a symbolic sacrifice for a particular, neoliberal ‘peace’ in (Northern) Ireland, I will conclude that the limits of this project have been radically revealed by recent political events which have called its future hegemony into doubt.
The interdisciplinarity revolution
Authors: Politi Vincenzo
Published: September 2019

Contemporary interdisciplinary research is often described as bringing some important changes in the structure and aims of the scientific enterprise. Sometimes, it is even characterized as a sort of Kuhnian scientific revolution. In this paper, the analogy between interdisciplinarity and scientific revolutions will be analysed. It will be suggested that the way in which interdisciplinarity is promoted looks similar to how new paradigms were described and defended in some episodes of revolutionary scientific change. However, contrary to what happens during some scientific revolutions, the rhetoric with which interdisciplinarity is promoted does not seem to be accompanied by a strong agreement about what interdisciplinarity actually is. In the end, contemporary interdisciplinarity could be defined as being in a ‘pre-paradigmatic’ phase, with the very talk promoting interdisciplinarity being a possible obstacle to its maturity.
Scientific ignorance: Probing the limits of scientific research and knowledge production
Authors: Fernández Pinto Manuela
Published: September 2019

The aim of the paper is to clarify the concept of scientific ignorance: what is it, what are its sources, and when is it epistemically detrimental for science. I present a taxonomy of scientific ignorance, distinguishing between intrinsic and extrinsic sources. I argue that the latter can create a detrimental epistemic gap, which have significant epistemic and social consequences. I provide three examples from medical research to illustrate this point. To conclude, I claim that while some types of scientific ignorance are inevitable and even desirable, other types of scientific ignorance are epistemically and ethically flawed and should be prevented.
On Euclidean diagrams and geometrical knowledge
Authors: Dal Magro Tamires , García-Perez Manuel J.
Published: September 2019

We argue against the claim that the employment of diagrams in Euclidean geometry gives rise to gaps in the proofs. First, we argue that it is a mistake to evaluate its merits through the lenses of Hilbert’s formal reconstruction. Second, we elucidate the abilities employed in diagram-based inferences in the Elements and show that diagrams are mathematically reputable tools. Finally, we complement our analysis with a review of recent experimental results purporting to show that, not only is the Euclidean diagram-based practice strictly regimented, it is rooted in cognitive abilities that are universally shared.
Branching Pattern of the Medial Calcaneal Neurovascular Bundle in Porta Pedis of the Human Foot
Authors: Awadelseid Khalid Musa Fadlelmula
Published: September 2019

The medial calcaneal nerve (MCN) is the first branch of the posterior tibial nerve (PTN) in the porta pedis, enervates the skin of the heel and medial side of the foot. Heel pain is a common condition encountered by physicians, and this may have a significant clinical association with the MCN’s branching pattern. This study was to identify branching pattern variations in the medial calcaneal neurovascular bundle. This study was carried out using 60lower limbs of formalin-embalmed cadavers, using the tarsal tunnel dissection method for 30right and 30 left lower limbs. The medial calcaneal neurovascular bundle course was identified by exposing the PTN and its branches from the distal end of the leg toward the plantar surface beyond its bifurcation and resecting the skin and flexor retinaculum. Many MCN branching pattern variations (specifically concerning origins, numbers, and levels of branching) were observed. In the right foot a single branch was present in 21 specimens (70%), while two branches were observed in nine specimens (30%). In the left foot, a single branch was present in 22 specimens (73.3%) and two branches were present in 8 specimens (26.7%). In this study, two branches originate from lateral planter artery is the most common observation. This study concludes that a single MCN originating from the TN is the most common variant. Two medial calcaneal arteries (MCAs) originating from the LPA is also common.
Falas entrecruzadas, o viés feminista na produção midiática de Clarice Lispector
Authors: Nunes Aparecida Maria
Published: September 2019

O artigo analisa a produção acadêmica de Clarice Lispector publicada na revista A Época de 1941, bem como as narrativas que compõem a página “Entre Mulheres”, do tabloide Comício de 1952. É possível reconhecer nesses textos a preocupação da escritora com os papéis femininos e a influência de Simone de Beauvoir em seu pensamento, ao divulgar, de forma velada, trechos que traduz de Le Deuxième Sexe.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Clarice Lispector. Feminismo. A Época. Comício. Simone de Beauvoir.

 

 

ABSTRACT

The article analyzes the academic production of Clarice Lispector published in the magazine A Época of 1941, as well as the narratives that compose the page "Entre Mulheres", of the tabloid Comício of 1952. It is possible to recognize in these texts the concern of the writer with the feminine roles and the influence of Simone de Beauvoir in her thought, by disseminating, in a veiling way, excerpts that translates from Le Deuxième Sexe.

KEYWORDS: Clarice Lispector. Feminism. A Época. Comício. Simone de Beauvoir.
PARTISIPASI MASYARAKAT DALAM PEMBANGUNAN PRASARANA LINGKUNGAN PADA PROGRAM PLPBK DI KELURAHAN TAMBAKREJO, KOTA SEMARANG
Authors: Makhmudi Dyah Putri , Muktiali Mohammad
Published: September 2019

Participation is the participation of a person in a social group to take part of existing community activities, outside of their work. Community participation is needed in a development program because the success of the program is related to community participation in running the program. Tambakrejo village became one of the villages that run the PLPBK program in Semarang City because of a good achievement from BKM. The purpose of this study was to determine community participation in the development of environmental infrastructure in the PLPBK program in Tambakrejo Village. The quantitative approach was used in this study by distributing 87 questionnaires and conducting interviews, observation and document review. Forms of participation given by society such as money, goods, energy and thoughts. The level of community participation is at the level of notification, meaning that in the development of environmental infrastructure in the PLPBK program there is a provision of information to the public. The sustainability of the PLPBK program in Tambakrejo Village is closely related to the level of community participation and the role of the parties involved in implementing the PLPBK Program.
Automated design process for hybrid regression modeling with a one-class SVM
Authors: Böhland Moritz , Doneit Wolfgang , Gröll Lutz , Mikut Ralf , Reischl Markus
Published: September 2019

The accuracy of many regression models suffers from inhomogeneous data coverage. Models loose accuracy because they are unable to locally adapt the model complexity. This article develops and evaluates an automated design process for the generation of hybrid regression models from arbitrary submodels. For the first time, these submodels are weighted by a One-Class Support Vector Machine, taking local data coverage into account. Compared to reference regression models, the newly developed hybrid models achieve significant better results in nine out of ten benchmark datasets. To enable straightforward usage in data science, an implementation is integrated in the open source MATLAB toolbox SciXMiner.
Fahrstreifenerkennung mit Deep Learning für automatisierte Fahrfunktionen
Authors: Schmidt Manuel , Krüger Martin , Lienke Christian , Oeljeklaus Malte , Nattermann Till , Mohamed Manoj , Hoffmann Frank , Bertram Torsten
Published: September 2019

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die Erkennung benachbarter Fahrstreifen auf Grundlage von Kamerabildern. Hierbei wird sowohl die Anzahl befahrbarer Fahrstreifen als auch deren Verlauf innerhalb eines festgelegten Bereichs vor dem Fahrzeug bildbasiert geschätzt. Die Erkennung erfolgt durch Convolutional Neural Networks. Der Beitrag bewertet die Güte der Schätzung und Genauigkeit der Fahrstreifenerkennung. Zur Interpretation der Entscheidungen werden die durch das neuronale Netz gelernten Merkmale und Zwischenrepräsentationen visualisiert.
Fuzzy tissue detection for real-time focal control in corneal confocal microscopy
Authors: Bartschat Andreas , Allgeier Stephan , Scherr Tim , Stegmaier Johannes , Bohn Sebastian , Reichert Klaus-Martin , Kuijper Arjan , Reischl Markus , Stachs Oliver , Köhler Bernd , Mikut Ralf
Published: September 2019

Corneal confocal laser scanning microscopy is a promising method forin vivoinvestigation of cellular structures, e. g., of nerve fibers in the sub-basal nerve plexus. During recording, even slight displacements of the focal plane lead to images of adjacent tissue layers. In this work, we propose a closed-loop control of the focal plane. To detect and evaluate the visible tissues, we utilize the Bag of Visual Words approach to implement a customizable image processing pipeline for real-time applications. Furthermore, we show that the proposed model can be trained with small classification datasets and can be applied as a segmentation method. The proposed control loop, including tissue detection, is implemented in a proof-of-concept setup and shows promising results in a first evaluation with a human subject.
Fighting the curse of dimensionality with local model networks
Authors: Belz Julian
Published: September 2019

This thesis is settled in the field of data-based modeling (identification) and specifically focuses on the weakening of the effects of the curse of dimensionality with local model networks (LMNs). The methods for fighting the curse of dimensionality originate from the fields of input selection and design of experiments (DoE).
Effects of the rs2244613 polymorphism of the CES1 gene on the antiplatelet effect of the receptor P2Y12 blocker clopidogrel
Authors: Mirzaev Karin B. , Osipova Darya V. , Kitaeva Elena J. , Shprakh Vladimir V. , Abdullaev Sherzod P. , Andreev Denis A. , Mumladze Robert B. , Sychev Dmitriy A.
Published: September 2019

Background

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of the carriage of the rs2244613 polymorphism of the CES1 gene with clopidogrel resistance as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of antiplatelet therapy in the carriers of this marker who have had acute coronary syndrome (ACS). This study also analyzes the procedure of percutaneous coronary intervention and compares the rs2244613 carrier rate between patients with ACS and healthy participants.

Methods

The study involved 81 patients diagnosed with ACS and 136 conditionally healthy participants. The optical detection of platelet agglutination by VerifyNow was employed to measure residual platelet reactivity in patients with ACS. The rs2244613 polymorphism was determined using real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Results

According to the results, the AA genotype of the rs2244613 polymorphism of the CES1 gene was detected in 37 patients (45.6%), the CA genotype in 42 patients (51.8%) and the CC genotype in 2 patients (2.6%). The level of residual platelet reactivity in rs2244613 carriers was higher compared with patients who did not have this allelic variant: 183.23 PRU ± 37.24 vs. 154.3 PRU ± 60.36 (p = 0.01). The frequencies of the minor allele C were 28.4% and 28.3% in patients with ACS and healthy participants, respectively. The results of the linear statistical model PRU due to CES1 genotype were as follows: df = 1, F = 6.96, p = 0.01). The standardized beta was 0.285 (p = 0.01) and R2 was 0.081. However, we also added CYP2C19*2 and *17 into the linear regression model. The results of the model were as follows: df = 3, F = 5.1, p = 0.003) and R2 was 0.166.

Conclusions

We identified a statistically significant correlation between the carriage of the rs2244613 polymorphism of the CES1 gene and the level of residual platelet aggregation among patients with ACS and the procedure of percutaneous coronary intervention.