bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How Many Moods Are There in Polish? The Case of the Polish Subjunctive
Authors: Kaleta Agnieszka
Published: October 2021

The present paper is concerned with the Polish construction introduced with the subordinating complementizer żeby. The construction is interesting for its mood properties, which have been subject of a long-standing debate in Polish linguistics. The paper explores the semantic range of the construction and illuminates its mood properties. More specifically, it argues that żeby clauses represent a subjunctive mood and as such should be distinguished from indicative and conditional constructions. This distinction is described in terms of Langacker’s model of control and Givón’s theory of semantic binding. It is argued that the żeby construction constitutes an intermediate category between indicative mood, which grants the speaker a high degree of control over a proposition described in the complement clause, on the one hand, and conditional mood, which situates a proposition outside the conceptualizer’s dominion of control, on the other. The paper also highlights the iconic and metonymic motivation behind the distribution of żeby clauses in present-day Polish.
The Adoption of Japanese Imagery in Catalan Art Nouveau Stained Glass
Authors: Gil Farré Núria
Published: October 2021

In the late nineteenth century, Catalonia witnessed an exponential increase in the use of and predilection for the designs and aesthetic characteristics of Japanese art in the design of stained glass. At the time, oriental forms were received with enthusiasm, which resulted in the development of production of artistic stained glass, inspired by these new models.

This article focuses on the different ways in which Japanese-based designs made their way from Japan to the stained glass workshops of Catalonia, where they were transformed into spectacular pieces, some of which are still preserved today. In addition, the article examines how stained glass makers assimilated the aesthetics and compositional concepts of Japanese art and made them their own, adapting them to their needs while creating innovative stained glass that helped them to, paradoxically, converge with the medieval stained glass on which they were based.
Marie Nordlinger and the Bings
Authors: Weisberg Gabriel
Published: October 2021

The essay traces the role of Marie Nordlinger (1876-1961) against her ties with Siegfried Bing, Marcel Bing, Marcel Proust and Charles Lang Freer. Nordlinger first worked in the ateliers of art nouveau later becoming a confidante of the Bings who helped sell Japanese prints in the United States especially to Charles Lang Freer when she visited the country.
Penal Slavery in Early Modern Scandinavia
Authors: Heinsen Johan
Published: October 2021

In Scandinavia, a penal institution known as “slavery” existed from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Penal slaves laboured in the creation and maintenance of military infrastructure. They were chained and often stigmatized, sometimes by branding. Their punishment was likened and, on a few occasions, linked to Atlantic slavery. Still, in reality, it was a wholly distinct form of enslavement that produced different experiences of coercion than those of the Atlantic. Such forms of penal slavery sit uneasily in historiographies of punishment but also offers a challenge for the dominant models of global labour history and its attempts to create comparative frameworks for coerced labour. This article argues for the need for contextual approaches to what such coercion meant to both coercers and coerced. Therefore, it offers an analysis of the meaning of early modern penal slavery based on an exceptional set of sources from 1723. In these sources, the status of the punished was negotiated and practiced by guards and slaves themselves. Court appearances by slaves were usually brief—typically revolving around escapes as authorities attempted to identify security breaches. The documents explored in this article are different: They present multiple voices speaking at length, negotiating their very status as voices. From that negotiation and its failures emerge a set of practiced meanings of penal “slavery” in eighteenth-century Copenhagen tied to competing yet intertwined notions of dishonour.
Maritime Claims and Underwater Archaeology: When History Meets Politics
Authors: Aznar Mariano J.
Published: October 2021

Among other circumstances relevant to maritime delimitations, some States have recently used the protection of underwater cultural heritage (UCH) as grounds for advancing jurisdictional or sovereignty claims over different maritime areas. After identifying the contours of current international law governing that heritage, this book critically addresses: first, the generally limited use of archaeological heritage in territorial claims; second, the broad acceptance by States of ‘archaeological maritime zones’ that overlap with declared contiguous zones; and, third, the (mis)use of UCH and underwater archaeology in three still disputed maritime claims, namely, Canada’s claim in Arctic waters, China’s in the South China Sea, and Russia’s in Crimea and its surrounding waters. Legal and ethical issues related to underwater archaeology are also discussed.
Deportation of “Undesirable” Chinese in the Philippines, 1837–1882
Authors: Galang Jely Agamao
Published: October 2021

Between 1837 and 1882, the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines deported “undesirable” Chinese—vagrants, drunkards, unemployed, idlers, pickpockets, undocumented, and the “suspicious”—to various parts of the archipelago. Deportation, in this context, refers to the transportation or banishment of individuals deemed “dangerous” by the state to different far-flung areas of the islands or outside the colony but still within the Spanish empire. Deportation primarily served as a form of punishment and a means to rehabilitate and improve the wayward lives of “criminals.” This paper examines the deportation of “undesirable” Chinese in the nineteenth-century Philippines. Using underutilized primary materials from various archives in Manila and Madrid, it interrogates the actors, institutions and processes involved in banishing such individuals. It argues that while deportation served its punitive and reformative functions, Spanish authorities also used it to advance their colonial project in the islands. Chinese deportees formed part of the labor supply the state used to populate the colony’s frontier areas and strengthen its control over its newly-acquired territories.
Precarious Work and Insecure Lives. De Facto Informalization in Cambodia’s Garment Factories
Authors: Salmivaara Anna
Published: October 2021

To increase understanding about the weak implementation of labour rights in global value chains, this paper examines processes of in-fact informalization that in Cambodia’s garment industry exclude workers from legal protection in a hidden yet effective manner. Informalization in contemporary global capitalism is often examined as driven by capital. This article broadens the analysis to how states and workers contribute to top-down and bottom-up processes of in-fact informalization, and emphasizes the role of workers’ collective organization. In Cambodia, subcontracting and temporary contracts prevent workers from collectively claiming their legal entitlements. In-fact informalization is promoted by the government as a strategy of indirect rule aimed at ensuring political power, and strengthened by the workers’ gendered needs and strategies of intergenerational wellbeing. Together, informal work and insecure lives discourage unionization, which further increases top-down and bottom-up informalization.
The Intersectionality of Informal Employment: Insights from Street Vending and Domestic Work in Tanzania
Authors: Steiler Ilona
Published: October 2021

Informal employment is commonly defined by being insufficiently covered by legal and regulatory frameworks, either in text or in practice. In this paper, I explore the intricate ways in which workers are excluded from these frameworks. Making a theoretical as well as empirical contribution, I suggest examining informal employment through the prism of intersectionality. This approach builds on an understanding of the informal economy as a continuum of labour relations, as interconnected with the formal economy and as socially constructed. Based on ethnographic research in the sectors of street trade and domestic work in Tanzania, I illustrate how intersections of ethnicity/race, gender, age and marital status as well as education and skill level interrelate with labour regulation along historical trajectories, workers’ visibility and class relations in the two sectors. Recognizing these dynamics and the intersectional composition of informal employment offers a better understanding to address decent work deficits.
Trading Time: Retail working time and precarious labour in South Africa, 1960s–1980s
Authors: Kenny Bridget
Published: October 2021

This is a historical piece that traces debates and struggles over store trading times (which determined working time) from the 1960s to the 1980s in Johannesburg, South Africa, to explore the connection of working time debates to the precarianisation of retail labour in South Africa over the ensuing decades. Debates about trading time and working time, and how unions engaged therein, were fundamentally linked with changes to the labour market of service workers over this period. This paper explores how the emergence of precarious labour in sectors like retail can be explained as conjunctural moments written from the global South. This research is based on extensive archival research which links regulatory changes, union politics, national debate and labour market changes to how shift systems in retailing changed between the 1960s and the 1980s.
On the Question of Methodology in Labour History
Authors: Sinha Abhinav
Published: October 2021

The present paper deals with some basic questions of methodology in labour history. It deals with three main questions: the question of class and social identities in labour history; the question of the category of ‘labouring poor’ vis-à-vis the category of working class; and finally, the question of the place of state in treating the relation between labour and capital. On the first question, it argues that social identities become sites of social oppression in the moment of class. On the second question, it argues that while the category of ‘labouring poor’ has descriptive power, it lacks analytical rigour and can make sense only in conjunction with the category of working class. Finally, it contends that labour history must understand the relative autonomy of the state while dealing with the question of relation between labour and capital and yet it must not take the question of tripartite arrangement between labour, capital and state too literally or formally, as state does serve the long-term collective class interests of capital. The essay also refutes the valorization of the so-called ‘everyday forms of resistance’ over the importance of the collective class resistance of the working class.
Raging for Liberative Reconciliation
Authors: Samuel Joshua
Published: October 2021

While anger is generally viewed as problematic, for oppressed communities like Dalits and African Americans, it plays a key role in asserting their agency and dignity. While these two communities with many similarities and interactions have challenged oppressive structures in multiple ways, anger, arising, not from hatred (as it has often been misunderstood and misrepresented), but from discomfort and dissatisfaction about their condition, has been an important means of fighting against systems that render them vulnerable and expendable. Keeping this in mind, this essay seeks to identify prophetic anger in Dalit and Black theologies and argue that rage is essential to work towards liberative and emancipatory reconciliation rooted in self-love.
Social Justice Through Fiction: Intersectionality of Religion, Caste, and Gender in Mohammed Hanif’s Our Lady of Alice Bhatti
Authors: Dasgupta Freya
Published: October 2021

This article explores the plight of Pakistan’s Christian minorities as depicted by author and journalist Mohammed Hanif in his novel Our Lady of Alice Bhatti. Literature has the ability to inspire immense empathy for the other by lending voice to the forgotten and marginalized, which is the first step to any dialogue for social justice. Examining the so-called fictional depictions against scholarship on the subject, the article studies the complex intersectionality of religion, caste, class, and gender that manifests in the mistreatment of Christian minorities. Through the framework of fiction, it brings to light the lived experience of Pakistani Christians, and in the process, demonstrates the evocative power of literature towards understanding those who find their human dignity threatened by power and privilege.
Aftermath Friendship: an Indonesian Feminist Theological Perspective on Trauma and Interreligious Peace
Authors: Lakawa Septemmy E.
Published: October 2021

This article offers an Indonesian Christian feminist theological voice on religion’s contribution to peace as a risky interreligious practice of friendship following religious violence—thus, an aftermath friendship. I argue that aftermath friendship is a relevant feminist theological metaphor for the capacity and the role of women in negotiating difference and practicing healing from within the wounded interreligious relationship caused by religious violence. It is a practice of simultaneously building and recovering interreligious friendships that have been ruptured, for example, by the trauma of a religiously related attack on a church building. This article brings into dialogue women’s aftermath narratives that are embedded in the ruptured interreligious landscape, the biblical concept of friendship, and feminist trauma theology to unveil the polyphonic features of interreligious peace, friendship, and healing.
Earthing Theology
Authors: May John D’Arcy
Published: October 2021

The encounter of Aboriginal Australians with European settlers led to appalling injustices, in which Christian churches were in part complicit. At the root of these injustices was the failure to comprehend the Aborigines’ relationship to the land. In their mythic vision, known as The Dreaming, land is suffused with religious meaning and therefore sacred. It took two hundred years for this to be acknowledged in British-Australian law (Mabo judgement, 1992). This abrogated the doctrine of terra nullius (the land belongs to no-one) and recognized native title to land, based on continuous occupation and ritual use. But land disputes continue, and at a deeper level, there is little appreciation of the Indigenous spirituality of the land and the significance it could have for reconciliation with First Nations and the ecological crisis. Aboriginal theologies can help Christians to appreciate the riches of this spirituality and work towards justice.
Beyond “Populism”: The Psychodynamics of Antipolitical Popular Movements
Authors: McAfee Noëlle
Published: October 2021

I argue here that the term “populism” captures too much, including movements that are enthralled by a fantasied ideal as well as genuine movements for plural and popular sovereignty. The term is too often used to deride all popular movements, but this is to the detriment of genuinely political and democratic movements for democratic sovereignty. I distinguish popular movements that are genuinely political and generative from those that are regressive and anti-political. The latter, I argue using psychoanalytic theory, are melancholically clinging to a lost Thing, while democratic popular movements are open to creating new societies. To explore these differences I draw on Lacan and Klein whose theories point to the need for creatively working to create new collective identities rather than melancholically clinging to old ones.
Cosmopolitanism, Sociability and Assemblages of Symbolic Resources among Youths Attracted by Islam
Authors: Mossière Géraldine
Published: October 2021

On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork carried out among youths living in Montreal (Canada) who are interested in Islam and adopt some elements of a Muslim lifestyle, I show how affinities with Islam arise from sociability practices with friends of Muslim background and relate to the cultural diversification of secular societies. By combining network analysis with narrative analysis, I examine how youths interpret and make sense of these interactions and propose a critical view of their cosmopolitan discourses. While the latter is grounded in a universalist rhetoric, I argue it also unfolds within the intimacy of sociability experiences and shared emotions. Youth’s cosmopolitanism draws on cultural repertoires that stem from public education programs and local strategies to promote peaceable cohabitation in secular contexts. Consequently, youth competencies for cosmopolitanism lead to ongoing conversations that make differences and divergences within sociability spaces new sites to negotiate intercultural encounters in highly diversified localities.
More “Europe” in Municipal Policy Structures? Anchoring European Youth Policy at the Municipal Level in Germany
Authors: Hofmann-van de Poll Frederike , Pelzer Marit
Published: October 2021

Against the background of the implementation of the EU Youth Strategy (2010–2018) in Germany, the article explores the question of how European youth policy can be anchored at the municipal level. The article discusses (1) federal and regional efforts to incorporate the municipal level in implementing European youth policy, (2) arising challenges and (3) the significance of European policy for national, regional and municipal youth policy. Results suggest that although the involved actors stipulate the importance of municipal level involvement in designing the implementation of the EU Youth Strategy in Germany, the Strategy is actually implemented as a top-down strategy in which the municipal level receives impulses from other levels, rather than being incorporated in policy development. The article concludes that, in order to successfully strengthening European impulses in sub-national youth welfare discourses, mutual understanding and dialogue between levels is just as necessary as a content-related rather than process-related discussion.
Social and Local Inequalities in Leisure. Adolescents’ Experiences in Their Living Space
Authors: Danic Isabelle , Fontar Barbara , Grimault-Leprince Agnès
Published: October 2021

This article analyses how the political-institutional, spatial, social and symbolic dimensions of their living space influence teenagers’ leisure experiences, both separately and in conjunction with one another. We look in particular at how leisure policies for youth in France, as implemented by urban and rural municipalities, influence adolescents’ experience by defining opportunities, and how territorial inequalities combine with social inequalities. In this perspective, the article reports the results of research based on quantitative and qualitative surveys on leisure activities of teenagers living in diverse geographical and political territories, differentiated in terms of their leisure offer and its geographical accessibility. It appears that territorial inequalities in leisure and transport can be accentuated or compensated for by socio-familial resources and the representations that adolescents and their parents have of their living space.
Translating and Reading The Second Sex in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s
Authors: Pichová Dagmar
Published: October 2021

The Czech translation of selected parts of The Second Sex was published in 1966. The Slovak translation, published in 1967, was nearly the complete text. Attitudes toward Beauvoir’s feminism can be observed in two Czech academic journals (Sociologický časopis [Czech sociological review] and Filosofický časopis [Philosophical review]) and in a debate in Literární noviny (Literary review). The author focuses on the context of both translations and describes the reactions to the Czech translation both in the academy and by the general public.
A Systemic Functional Perspective on the Controversy surrounding the Two English Translations of Simone de Beauvoir’s Iconic Sentence in Le Deuxième Sexe
Authors: Caffarel-Cayron Alice
Published: October 2021

This article presents a systemic functional perspective for understanding the social and philosophical meanings conveyed by Beauvoir’s iconic sentence “on ne naît pas femme: on le devient,” with a view to addressing the controversy surrounding its English translations and complementing current philosophical debates. It analyzes Beauvoir’s linguistic resources in the sentence in question and describes how its meanings are symbolically articulated through her lexicogrammatical selections. This analysis serves as a point of departure for discussing the 1953 and 2009 translators’ choices.
The Document on Rain (Yushu 雨書): Weather and Prognostication in Early China
Authors: Robinson Rebecca
Published: October 2021

The Document on Rain (Yushu 雨書) is a short manuscript that forms part of the Beijing University collection of Han slips. This text, divided into two sections, has thus far garnered little scholarly attention. However, it presents to us an unusual example of a daybook (rishu 日書)-type manuscript, one which is primarily concerned with the weather. The Document on Rain, while sharing many characteristics of excavated daybooks, is unusual in its treatment of humans. Rather than providing advice on whether or not one should undertake activity on a certain day or engaging in the discourse about whether or not humans can manipulate the weather, the Document on Rain represents an understanding of the weather as a phenomenon that cannot be manipulated by humans, but one which can, perhaps, be understood. The Document on Rain integrates practices of prognostication based on calendrical and sexagenary cycles with theories about rain and its relationship to the symbolic characteristics of the twenty-eight lodges (ershiba xiu 二十八宿). This article analyses some of the predictive methods in the text and situates it within a longer tradition of meteoromantic practices.
Russian Diplomatic Espionage in Italy
Authors: Milo Caterina
Published: October 2021

After uncovering Russian espionage activities on Italian territory, Italy expelled two Russian diplomats allegedly involved in such activities. The Italian decision, as well as the Russian response, offer a classic example of States’ reaction to acts of non-violent espionage. This comment offers a legal assessment of the events that unfolded in March 2021 and takes into account the implications, in matters concerning espionage, of declarations of persona non grata, diplomatic immunity and, generally, customary international law.
Borrowing to Survive: Investigating the Functioning of the Court of Justice of the EU through Comparative Law
Authors: Scarcello Orlando
Published: October 2021

Leonardo Pierdominici’s ‘The Mimetic Evolution of the Court of Justice of the EU. A Comparative Law Perspective’ is discussed here. I start considering the methodological tenets of the book, which investigates how the Court of Justice borrowed institutional settings from other jurisdictions and bent them to its needs throughout its history. The five substantive chapters of the book are then considered. Each chapter shows the impact of comparative law on one aspect of the functioning of the Court: the available actions, the appointment of judges, the transparency of decisions, the docket control mechanism, and the style of judgments. I end the review by suggesting a few missing topics that the book may have investigated.
A self-adaptive deployment model of UAV cluster for emergency communication network
Authors: Fang Ying , Cheng Bin , Kang KunPeng , Tan Hai
Published: October 2021

Equipped with micro wireless sensor nodes, a unmanned aerial vehicle) cluster can form an emergency communication network, which can have several applications such as environmental monitoring, disaster relief, military operations and so on. However, situations where there is excessive aggregation and small amount of dispersion of the unmanned aerial vehicle cluster may occur when the network is formed. To mitigate these, a solution based on a 3D virtual force driven by self-adaptive deployment (named as 3DVFSD) is proposed. As a result, the three virtual forces of central gravity, uniform force, and boundary constraint force are combined to act on each node of the communication network. By coordinating the distance between the nodes, especially the threshold of the distance between the boundary node and the boundary, the centralized nodes can be relatively dispersed. Meanwhile, the nodes can be prevented from being too scattered by constraining the distance from the boundary node to the end. The simulation results show that the 3DVFSD algorithm is superior to the traditional virtual force-driven deployment strategy in terms of convergence speed, coverage, and uniformity.
The social life of mangroves: Neoliberal development and mangrove conservation in the changing landscape of Kutch
Authors: Srivastava Shilpi , Mehta Lyla
Published: October 2021

This article explores the convergence of neoliberal development and mangrove conservation in marginal environments, which are becoming the new resource frontiers. We focus on Kutch, a border district in western India and highlight how the contested trajectories of accelerated and aggressive industrialisation and its convergence with state and corporate-led conservation programmes are shaping the social life of mangroves on the Kutchi coast. We focus on the discourses, practices and politics of value-making and un-making that constitute the multiple modalities of repair as mangroves are depleted and securitised simultaneously. Although these trends are augmenting capitalist accumulation on the coast, they are also giving rise to new kinds of alliances that seek to challenge the logic and practice of repair by highlighting the synergistic relationship of coastal communities with their mangrove habitats.
Mendelian randomization to evaluate the effect of plasma vitamin C levels on the risk of Alzheimer’s disease
Authors: Liu Haijie , Zhang Yan , Hu Yang , Zhang Haihua , Wang Tao , Han Zhifa , Gao Shan , Wang Longcai , Liu Guiyou
Published: October 2021

Objective

Until now, observational studies have explored the impact of vitamin C intake on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk, however, reported ambiguous findings. To develop effective therapies or prevention, the causal link between vitamin C levels and AD should be established.

Methods

Here, we selected 11 plasma vitamin C genetic variants from a large-scale plasma vitamin C GWAS dataset (N = 52,018) as the potential instrumental variables. We extracted their corresponding summary statistics from large-scale IGAP clinically diagnosed AD GWAS dataset (N = 63,926) and UK Biobank AD proxy phenotype GWAS dataset (N = 314,278), as well as two UK Biobank subgroups including the maternal AD group (27,696 cases of maternal AD and 260,980 controls) and paternal AD group (14,338 cases of paternal AD and 245,941 controls). We then performed a Mendelian randomization (MR) study to evaluate the causal association between plasma vitamin C levels and the risk of AD and AD proxy phenotype. Meanwhile, we further verified these findings using a large-scale cognitive performance GWAS dataset (N = 257,841).

Results

In IGAP, we found no significant causal association between plasma vitamin C levels and the risk of AD. In UK Biobank, we found that per 1 SD increase in plasma vitamin C levels (about 20.2 μmol/l) was significantly associated with the reduced risk of AD proxy phenotype (OR = 0.93, 95% CI 0.88–0.98, P = 7.00E−03). A subgroup MR analysis in UK Biobank indicated that per 1 SD increase in plasma vitamin C levels could significantly reduce the risk of AD proxy phenotype in the maternal AD group (OR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.84–0.94, P = 7.29E−05), but not in the paternal AD group (OR = 1.02, 95% CI 0.92–1.12, P = 7.59E−01). The leave-one-out permutation further showed that the SLC23A1 rs33972313 variant largely changed the precision of the overall MR estimates in all these four GWAS datasets. Meanwhile, we did not observe any significant causal effect of plasma vitamin C levels on the cognitive performance.

Conclusion

We demonstrated that there may be no causal association between plasma vitamin C levels and the risk of AD in people of European descent. The insistent findings in clinically diagnosed AD and AD proxy phenotype may be caused by the phenotypic heterogeneity.
Combined inoculation with dark septate endophytes and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: synergistic or competitive growth effects on maize?
Authors: Xie Linlin , Bi Yinli , Ma Shaopeng , Shang Jianxuan , Hu Qincheng , Christie Peter
Published: October 2021

Background

Effects on maize were assessed of dual inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and dark septate endophytes (DSE) isolated from other plant species.

Methods

Suspensions of DSE isolated from Stipa krylovii were prepared at different densities (2, 4, and 8 × 105 CFU mL− 1) and inoculated separately (AMF or DSE) or together (AMF + DSE), to explore their effects on maize growth.

Results

Inoculation with AMF or medium and high densities of DSE and combined inoculation (AMF + DSE) increased plant above-ground growth and altered root morphology. Differences in plant growth were attributable to differences in DSE density, with negative DSE inoculation responsiveness at low density. AMF promoted plant above-ground growth more than DSE and the high density of DSE promoted root development more than AMF. Combined inoculation might lead to synergistic growth effects on maize at low density of DSE and competitive effects at medium and high DSE densities.

Conclusions

AMF and DSE co-colonized maize roots and they had positive effects on the host plants depending on DSE density. These findings indicate the optimum maize growth-promoting combination of AMF and DSE density and provide a foundation for further exploration of potentially synergistic mechanisms between AMF and DSE in physiological and ecological effects on host plants.
Cohort study on the prognosis of acute cerebral infarction in different circulatory systems at 1-year follow-up
Authors: Chen Li-Li , Wang Wen-Ting , Zhang Sai , Liu Hui-Miao , Yuan Xiao-Yang , Yang Xu , Gu Ping
Published: October 2021

Background

To evaluate the prognosis of acute cerebral infarction at 1-year follow-up in different circulation infarctions.

Methods

Clinical data of 858 consecutive patients with acute cerebral infarction were collected. Of the 858 cases, 21 (2.45%) were lost to follow-up and 837 completed follow-up and thus were enrolled in this study. At 1-year follow-up, death or moderate-to-severe dysfunction (modified Rankin Scale (mRS) ≥ 3 points) was regarded as the poor prognostic endpoint. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic stepwise regression analysis were performed to assess the prognosis. The prediction probability of indicators was obtained for the multivariate model, and the receiver operating characteristic curve was delineated to calculate the area under the curve (AUC) to predict the fitness of the model.

Results

The older the age, the greater the probability of a poor prognosis. Patients with previous diabetes and cerebral infarction had a poor prognosis. The higher the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale and mRS scores and the lower the Barthel index at admission, the worse the prognosis of the patients. The longer the hospital stay, the worse the prognosis of the patients. The prognosis of different circulation infarctions was different. The AUC of the multivariate model was AUC = 0.893, and the 95% confidence interval was 0.870–0.913, indicating a good fit. The prognosis of anterior circulation infarction (ACI) was worse than that of posterior circulation infarction (PCI) (P < 0.05). The prognosis of patients with ACI and PCI was not significantly different from that of patients with ACI or PCI alone (P > 0.05).

Conclusions

Diabetes, the Barthel index at admission and previous cerebral infarction are poor prognostic factors of acute cerebral infarction. The prognosis of ACI is worse than that of PCI. Different factors affect the prognosis of different circulatory system infarctions.
Laboratory diagnosis and management of COVID-19 cases: creating a safe testing environment
Authors: Lekan-Agunbiade Titilayo Tosin , Agunbiade Olalekan Isaiah
Published: October 2021

Background

COVID-19 disease has had a profound impact worldwide since it was discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Laboratory testing is crucial to prompt identification of positive cases, initiation of treatment and management strategies. However, medical scientists are vulnerable to infection due to the risk of exposure in the laboratory and the community. This study sought to determine the awareness of laboratory safety measures, assess the personal efforts of medical scientists in creating a safe laboratory environment for testing and examine the laboratory safety enabling factors.

Methods

The data used for the study were generated among medical scientists in Nigeria through an internet-broadcasted questionnaire and were analyzed using IBM SPSSStatistics (version 25).

Results

The majority of the respondents had a high awareness of laboratory safety measures (60.3%) and demonstrated good personal efforts in creating a safe laboratory testing environment (63%). The level of awareness of laboratory safety measures was significantly associated with respondents’ level of education (χ2 = 6.143; p = 0.046) and influences respondents’ efforts in creating a safe laboratory testing environment (p = 0.007). However, just a few respondents could convincingly attest to the availability of adequate and appropriate PPE with proper utilization training (45.1%), adequate rest and other welfare packages (45.8%) as well as access to appropriate Biological Safety Cabinets (BSCs) and other essential equipment in their laboratories (48.8%). Furthermore, a significant association existed between the availability of laboratory safety enabling factors and respondents’ efforts in creating a safe environment for testing with the p-value ranging between < 0.0001 and 0.003.

Conclusion

This study revealed that despite the high awareness of safety measures and good personal efforts of the study participants in creating a safe laboratory-testing environment, there was poor availability of safety facilities, equipment, support and welfare packages required to enhance their safety. It is, therefore, crucial to provide necessary laboratory biosafety equipment and PPE in order not to compromise medical scientists’ safety as they perform their duties in COVID-19 pandemic response.
Cost-effectiveness analysis of first-line treatment with crizotinib in ROS1-rearranged advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Canada
Authors: Beca Jaclyn M. , Walsh Shaun , Raza Kaiwan , Hubay Stacey , Robinson Andrew , Mow Elena , Keech James , Chan Kelvin K. W.
Published: October 2021

Introduction

While no direct comparative data exist for crizotinib in ROS1+ non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), studies have suggested clinical benefit with this targeted agent. The objective of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of crizotinib compared to standard platinum-doublet chemotherapy for first-line treatment of ROS1+ advanced NSCLC.

Methods

A Markov model was developed with a 10-year time horizon from the perspective of the Canadian publicly-funded health care system. Health states included progression-free survival (PFS), up to two further lines of therapy post-progression, palliation and death. Given a lack of comparative data and small study samples, crizotinib or chemotherapy studies with advanced ROS1+ NSCLC patients were identified and time-to-event data from digitized Kaplan-Meier curves were collected to pool PFS data. Costs of drugs, treatment administration, monitoring, adverse events and palliative care were included in 2018 Canadian dollars, with 1.5% discounting. An incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was estimated probabilistically using 5000 simulations.

Results

In the base-case probabilistic analysis, crizotinib produced additional 0.885 life-years and 0.772 quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) at an incremental cost of $238,077, producing an ICER of $273,286/QALY gained. No simulations were found to be cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay threshold of $100,000/QALY gained. A scenario analysis assuming efficacy equivalent to the ALK+ NSCLC population showed a slightly more favorable cost-effectiveness profile for crizotinib.

Conclusions

Available data appear to support superior activity of crizotinib compared to chemotherapy in ROS1+ advanced NSCLC. At the list price, crizotinib was not cost-effective at commonly accepted willingness-to-pay thresholds across a wide range of sensitivity analyses.
Prediction of pathological response following neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer: the PRE-PREVENCYS trial
Authors: Hinsenveld F. J. , Noordman B. J. , Boormans J. L. , Voortman J. , van Leenders G. J. L. H. , van der Pas S. L. , van Beek S. C. , Oprea-Lager D. E. , Vis A. N.
Published: October 2021

Background

The recommended treatment for patients with non-metastatic muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and radical cystectomy (RC). Following NAC, 20–40% of patients experience a complete pathological response (pCR) in the RC specimen and these patients have excellent long-term overall survival. Subject to debate is, however, whether patients with a pCR to NAC benefit from RC, which is a major surgical procedure with substantial morbidity, and if these patients might be candidates for close surveillance instead. However, currently it is not possible to accurately identify patients with a pCR to NAC in whom RC might be withheld. The objective of this study is to assess whether pathological response in the RC specimen after NAC can be predicted based on clinical, radiological, and histological variables and on a wide set of molecular biomarkers assessed in tissue, blood and urine.

Methods

This is a multicentre, prospective cohort study, including patients with cT2a-T4a N0-N1 M0 urothelial cell MIBC who are scheduled to undergo cisplatin-based NAC followed by RC. Prior to start of therapy, a 2-Deoxy-2-[18F] fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is performed. Response to NAC is evaluated by CT-scan. Blood and urine, including cytology, are prospectively collected for biomarker analyses before and after NAC. Immediately before RC, participants undergo cystoscopy with bimanual examination and a re-staging transurethral resection (TUR) of all visible cancerous lesions or with biopsies from scar tissue. Subsequently, RC is performed in all patients. Tissue from the diagnostic TUR, the re-staging TUR, and the RC specimen is examined for the presence of urothelial cancer carcinoma and DNA and RNA is isolated for molecular analysis. The primary endpoint is the pathological stage (ypTN) in the RC and ePLND specimen and its association with clinical response.

Discussion

If the PRE-PREVENCYS trial shows that the absence of residual disease after NAC in patients with MIBC is accurately predicted, a randomized controlled trial is scheduled comparing the overall survival of NAC plus RC versus NAC followed by close surveillance for patients with a clinically complete response (PREVENCYS trial).

Trial registration

Netherlands Trial Register: NL8678; Registered 20 May 2020 https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/8678
Anemia among children living with HIV/AIDS on HAART in Mekelle Hospital, Tigray regional state of northern ethiopia – a cross-sectional study
Authors: Tesfay Feven , Gebregerges Abrha , Gebrehiwot Haftay , Hailekiros Haftu , Girmay Letegebriel , Bekuretsion Hadush , Gebrezigher Gebrekidan , Gebremariam Gebreslassie , Teklehaimanot Gebreyohannes
Published: October 2021

Background

Anemia is a common complication of HIV/AIDS in children. There is lack of evidence on anemia prevalence among children living with HIV/AIDS on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in Tigray regional state, which the current study aimed to generate.

Methods

An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 241 children living with HIV/AIDS on HAART attending the antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinic of Mekelle hospital from November 2018-January 2019. Socio-demographic data were collected using a structured pretested questionnaire. Participants’ hemoglobin level was utilized to determine the prevalence of anemia. WHO cut-off values for Hgb were used to categorise the severity of anemia. Microscopic examination was performed for morphological classification of anemia.

Results

Among the participants, 7 % (n = 16) were anemic in this study. Of these, 56 %, 19 %, and 25 % had mild, moderate, and severe anemia, respectively. Morphologically, normocytic-normochromic anemia was found the most common type of anemia in this study.

Conclusions

The prevalence of anemia among participants was low in this study. However, a considerable proportion of participants had severe anemia, requiring regular monitoring of anemia status in these patients for better clinical outcomes and quality of life improvements.
A study on how using an interactive multimedia e-book improves teachers’ ability to teach evidence-based medicine depending on their seniority
Authors: Liao Yu-Hsuan , Tang Kuo-Shu , Chen Chih-Jen , Huang Ying-Hsien , Tiao Mao-Meng
Published: October 2021

Background

Teaching evidence-based medicine (EBM) is not an easy task. The role of the electronic book (e-book) is a useful supplement to traditional methods for improving skills. Our aim is to use an interactive e-book or PowerPoint to evaluate instructors’ teaching effects on EBM.

Methods

Our study group was introduced to learning EBM using an interactive e-book available on the Internet, while the control group used a PowerPoint presentation. We adopted the Modified Fresno test to assess EBM skills both before and after their learning. EBM teaching sessions via e-book or PowerPoint were 20–30 min long, followed by students’ feedback. We adopted Student’s t-test to compare teachers’ evaluation of their EBM skills prior to the class and the students’ assessment of the teachers’ instruction. We also adopted repeated measures ANCOVA to compare teachers’ evaluation of their EBM skills using the Fresno test both before and after the class.

Results

We observed no difference regarding EBM skills between the two groups prior to their experimental learning, which was assessed by the Modified Fresno test. After learning, physicians in the study group ranked higher in choosing a case to explain which kind of research design was used for the study type of the question and explaining their choice (P = 0.024) as assessed by the post-test to pre-test Fresno test. Teaching effect was better in the e-book group than in the control group for the items, “I am satisfied with this lesson,” “The teaching was of high quality,” “This was a good teaching method,” and “It aroused my interest in EBM.” However, no differences were observed between the two groups in physicians who had more than 10 years’ experience.

Conclusions

The use of interactive e-books in clinical teaching can enhance a teacher’s EBM skills, though not in more senior physicians. This may suggest that teaching methodology and activities differ for teachers’ varying years of experience.
Developing a reliable and valid competency model for assistant dentists in China
Authors: Hong Xiaomei , Li Yueping , Chen Zhong , Lai Yingzhen , Dai Qinyue , Liang Hao
Published: October 2021

Background

The shortage of dentists is one of the various medical-resource problems found around the world. More and more countries are improving the provision of oral services by training dental therapists and hygienists. In China, they are called assistant dentists, and they supplement dental services, but thus far, no research has been conducted on the competence of this group.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to establish a competency model for Chinese assistant dentists. This model can provide a more scientific basis for the education, training, and evaluation of these professionals, as well as provide a reference for the capacity of dental therapists in various countries.

Methods

We established a system of competency characteristics using theoretical analysis and focus group discussions, after which we established an initial competency model by consulting a Delphi panel of 29 experts. Finally, we collected data from 1389 assistant dentists from 14 provinces in China, and the reliability and validity of the model were confirmed by factor analysis of this data.

Results

After three rounds of Delphi panels, the competency model came to include seven ability levels and 50 indicators. In exploratory-factor analysis, three indicators were eliminated, and the questionnaire could explain 68.41 % of total variance. In confirmatory-factor analysis, the established model and data fit well (goodness-of-fit index [GFI] = 0.914, root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.047). The results showed that the entire model has good reliability and validity.

Conclusions

Our competency model for dental assistants in China includes seven elements. This is consistent with the current health situation in China, and it has distinct Chinese characteristics. Some of our findings, like those reported in other countries with dental therapists, offer ideas for other developing countries.
Experiences of patients with cancer at health care facilities in Japan: results from a nationwide survey
Authors: Watanabe Tomone , Ichinose Yuichi , Matsuki Mei , Wakita Takafumi , Toida Tsutomu , Masuda Masato , Higashi Takahiro
Published: October 2021

Background

To elucidate the experience of patients with cancer from diagnosis to early survivorship in Japan using a nationwide questionnaire survey, and to inform the current progress of the cancer control programs.

Methods

The survey was sent to a representative sample of adult patients with cancer identified from the national database of hospital-based cancer registries. The patients’ responses were compared across three groups: patients with rare cancers, patients aged < 40 years, and patients with non-rare cancers aged ≥40 years.

Results

Of 20,488 patients invited to participate in the survey, 8935 (43.6%) responded. Respondents reported an average score of 7.9 out of 10 on global ratings of care. Patients with rare cancers experienced a longer time to diagnosis but the shortest time from diagnosis to first treatment (p < 0.05). Patients aged < 40 years rated worse for the majority of the survey items, especially on items that related to communication with medical staff and items referring to early survivorship.

Conclusion

The care experienced by patients with cancer in Japan varies on the basis of age group and cancer type. Efforts should be directed to ensuring prompt access to diagnostic facilities for patients with rare cancers and providing sufficient support to younger patients.