bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Spaces
Authors: Rickles Dean
Published: February 2016

The concept of space has many distinct uses in science. Not only does it denote the three-dimensional physical space we walk through (and our mental representations thereof), but also abstract spaces of various kinds and higher dimensionality. Spaces provide a means of systematically and exhaustively representing possible distinct states of physical or abstract systems, allowing one to chart the motions, relationships, and other qualities that they might undergo, enter into, or possess. Such spaces can encode the possibilities of physical systems relative to laws of nature allowing us both to probe modal aspects of the world and to discover symmetries and redundancies in a theory (identifying “intrinsic structure”). This chapter reviews these various elements, giving many examples from distinct fields and attempts to draw some broad lessons on the significance of this more general concept of space.
Anticipating the Future of Research on Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders
Authors: Sher Kenneth J. , Vergés Alvaro
Published: February 2016

An increasing understanding of the etiology, course, prevention, and treatment of substance use disorders and their related harms continues apace, aided by multidisciplinary research efforts and new discoveries and technologies in a range of allied scientific disciplines. In this concluding chapter of The Oxford Handbook of Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders, the authors highlight a range of opportunities and challenges facing those interested in gaining a basic understanding of the nature of these phenomena and the novel approaches emerging to assess, prevent, and treat these conditions with the goal of reducing the enormous burden these problems place on individuals, families, communities, and our global society as a whole.
The Biological Standard of Living in Europe from the Late Iron Age to the Little Ice Age
Authors: Koepke Nikola
Published: February 2016

This chapter documents human development in the very long run on the basis of anthropometric indicators used as a proxy measure of the biological standard of living. The author explores the trend in height of European populations, controlling for aspects of natural, economic, and social change. Findings include that there was a small increase in overall mean height in Europe from the 8th century BCE to the 18th century CE (c. 0.5 cm per millennium on average for the total dataset), with regional and temporal variations, including particular low points during Roman ascendancy (1st century BCE in Mediterranean Europe, 8 cm below the predicted mean) and the Little Ice Age (17th century CE in North-Eastern Europe, 7 cm below the predicted mean). Significant explanatory variables for these trends are the availability of dairy products, the share of the population living in urban areas, and the impact of the Roman Empire.
The Impact of Socioeconomic Inequality on Children’s Health and Well-Being
Authors: Cabieses Baltica , Pickett Kate E. , Wilkinson Richard G.
Published: February 2016

Child well-being is important for lifelong health and well-being. Although there is evidence linking social determinants of health (eg, relative poverty and income inequality) to child well-being, social and public health policy tends to focus on interventions to mitigate their effects, rather than remove the root causes. Children born into socioeconomically disadvantaged families suffer worse child well-being and its lifelong implications, in all societies, worldwide. However, some societies are able to mitigate these inequalities and create better average child well-being and smaller gaps between rich and poor children. This success has less to do with specific welfare policies or targeted interventions for poor children than to a societal commitment to greater equality.
Textual Entailment
Authors: Padó Sebastian , Dagan Ido
Published: February 2016

Textual entailment is a binary relation between two natural-language texts (called ‘text’ and ‘hypothesis’), where readers of the ‘text’ would agree the ‘hypothesis’ is most likely true (Peter is snoring → A man sleeps). Its recognition requires an account of linguistic variability ( an event may be realized in different ways, e.g. Peter buys the car ↔ The car is purchased by Peter) and of relationships between events (e.g. Peter buys the car → Peter owns the car). Unlike logics-based inference, textual entailment also covers cases of probable but still defeasible entailment (A hurricane hit Peter’s town → Peter’s town was damaged). Since human common-sense reasoning often involves such defeasible inferences, textual entailment is of considerable interest for real-world language processing tasks, as a generic, application-independent framework for semantic inference. This chapter discusses the history of textual entailment, approaches to recognizing it, and its integration in various NLP tasks.
Introduction
Authors: John Juliet
Published: February 2016

This Introduction explores the vexed term ‘Victorian literary culture’ by revisiting the origins of today’s disciplinary map in the Victorian period. It explains current uneasiness with the idea of ‘the literary’ by retracing its associations with the humanist writings of Arnold and Leavis and the subsequent reaction against humanism which propelled cultural studies, critical theory, and contemporary interdisciplinarity. It argues for the reintegration and re-evaluation of the ideas of ‘the literary’ and ‘literary culture’ into prevailing interdisciplinary practice and defences of the arts and humanities. This should not signal a return to a naïve humanism, apoliticism, or ahistoricism but can emerge from the ‘hermeneutics of integrity’ that John sees as prevalent in today’s Victorian studies. As literary culture has provided Victorian studies with much of its base as well as its baggage, it is important to allow the prodigal idea of the literary to rebalance our academic and public conversations.
Alternative Semantics
Authors: Rooth Mats
Published: February 2016

This chapter presents the semantics and pragmatics of prosodic focus in alternative semantics. Half a dozen examples are given of empirical phenomena that are to be covered by the theory. Then a syntax marking the locus, scope, and antecedent for focus is introduced. The syntax is interpreted semantically and pragmatically by a presupposition involving alternatives. The alternative sets that are used in the definition are computed compositionally using a recursive definition. Alternatives are also employed in the semantics of questions, and this ties in with the phenomenon of question-answer congruence, where the position of focus in an answer matches questioned positions in the question. A different semantic interpretation for focus is entailment semantics, which uses a generalized entailment condition in place of a condition involving alternatives. The semantic and pragmatic interpretation for contrastive topic uses an additional layer of alternatives. Independent of focus, alternatives are deployed in the semantics of disjunction and of negative polarity items.
The Youth Choir
Authors: Hill Joy
Published: February 2016

Youth choirs provide a unique opportunity for young people to develop as musicians. Inorder to highlight perspectives regarding possible elements that are significant increating excellent youth choirs, the author, a choral conductor, teacher, and researcher,undertook a study involving interviews with singing teachers, composers and choralconductors who work in the specialised field of youth choirs. She sought to explore theirthinking and ideas relating to youth choirs, to the repertoire that they perform, and to theways that the voices are conducted. Interviewees chosen for the study came from the UK,Estonia, Sweden, Australia, Switzerland, South Africa, the USA, Israel, and Latvia, andthe choirs referred to tend to be formed of selected singers who are mostly fromspecialised musical backgrounds.
The Effects of Gender on the Motivation and Benefits Associated with Community Singing in the UK
Authors: Parkinson Diana
Published: February 2016

Community singing has become one of the most common forms of active musical participation in Western societies. However, studies carried out across Canada, the USA, Germany and the UK have shown the mean percentage of male participation to be just 35 percent. A recent study sought to examine the ways in which amateur singers perceive the motivations and benefits associated with community singing and how these are affected by gender. It highlighted the development of musical skills, personal development, and socialization as the main factors in the motivation of singers. However, it also found that female singers are particularly motivated to sing as a way of responding to personal challenges. Similarly, while singers of both genders identified benefit to emotional and physical well-being, social connectedness, and aesthetic benefits, female singers were more likely to identify benefits associated with increased confidence, improved mood and emotional resilience.
Dietary Transition in Late Holocene Eastern North America
Authors: Larsen Clark Spencer
Published: February 2016

This chapter presents an overview of the record of reconstructing and interpreting diet from the study of craniofacial morphology and teeth, especially as the orofacial record pertains to masticatory function, nutritional quality, and health. This record is an essential element of the study of diet as it is represented in the archaeological past. Analysis of the orofacial skeleton from eastern North America reveals temporal trends relating to or arising from the introduction and intensification of farming based on plant cultigens, especially maize. These trends are characterized as including (1) reduction of facial robusticity and occlusal surface wear; (2) increase in growth disruption owing to poor-quality nutrition; and (3) increased prevalence of dental caries and related pathology caused by focus on plant carbohydrates.
Intensification, Diet, and Group Boundaries among Later Stone Age Coastal Hunter-gatherers along the Western and Southern Coasts of South Africa
Authors: Sealy Judith
Published: February 2016

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of bone collagen from a large sample of Holocene human skeletons from South Africa show regional and chronological variations in diet, especially in the importance of marine foods. Isotopic variability suggests that hunter-gatherers were more territorial than previously recognized, at least between 4000 and 2000 radiocarbon years ago. There is also evidence for population growth; some sites preserve very large volumes of archaeological deposit and dietary breadth increased—a pattern of ‘intensification’ that occurred elsewhere in the world. Here, it raises questions of similarity (e.g. in artefact types) and difference (e.g. in settlement pattern) between archaeological hunter-gatherers and anthropologically documented southern African foragers. Variation in the quantities of grave goods is intriguing, but there is insufficient evidence to detect patterning beyond broad geographical trends. This work contributes to our understanding of coastal hunter-gatherers, who are poorly documented in most parts of the world.
Diversification and Cultural Construction of a Crop
Authors: Fuller Dorian Q. , Castillo Cristina
Published: February 2016

Rice (Oryza) is one of the world’s most important and productive staple foods, with highly diverse uses and varieties. We use archaeobotany, culture, history, and ethnobotany to trace the history of the development of sticky (or glutinous) forms. True sticky rice is the result of a genetic mutation that causes a loss of amylose starch but higher amylopectin content. These mutations are unknown in wild populations but have become important amongst cultivars in East and Southeast Asia (unlike other regions). In the same region, other cereals have also evolved parallel mutations that confer stickiness when cooked. This points to a strong role for cultural history and food preparation traditions in the genetic selection and breeding of Asian cereal varieties. The importance of sticky rice in ritual foods and alcoholic beverages in East and Southeast Asia also suggests the entanglement of crop varieties and culturally inherited food traditions and ritual symbolism.
The Shīʿī Reception of Muʿtazilism (II)
Authors: Ansari Hassan , Schmidtke Sabine
Published: February 2016

This chapter examines the Twelver Shīʿites’ reception of Muʿtazilism. It begins with a historical background on the rational theology of the Twelver Shīʿites between the mid third/ninth and seventh/thirteenth century, along withmutakallimūn’s engagement in defence of Shīʿī doctrines against non-Shīʿī opponents and the teachings of the Imams. It then discusses Twelver Shīʿism increased turn towards Muʿtazilism during the so-called ‘Minor Occultation’ and its consequences both for themutakallimūnamong the Imamis and the traditionists. It also considers the impact of Bahshamite Muʿtazilism on the Imami traditionists during the ‘Major Occultation’, as well as the Imamimutakallimūn’s growing reservation against the controversial doctrines of the Bahshamiyya, coupled with a slow—real or imagined—‘return’ towards the early doctrines of the Imams. The chapter concludes with a look at Imami theologians who were active in Khurasan (Nishapur and Bayhaq) and in Rayy during the Saljuq period.
Changing Materialities
Authors: Gardner Andrew
Published: February 2016

The material signature of the Roman period in Britain is undeniably distinctive, marked as it is not only by a whole series of changes and additions to the formal repertoire of artefacts but also by a great proliferation of the sheer numbers of things. The traditional explanation for the changing contours of materiality in Roman Britain has been the over-simplistic narrative of ‘Romanization’. While it is certainly the case that there is a connection between Roman imperialism and material change, this traditional picture cannot be sustained in the face of new understandings of the material patterning in Roman Britain, and of the ways in which people interact with material culture in more general terms. In this chapter, I will review this recent empirical and theoretical work to demonstrate how this is gradually giving us a fuller picture of the complicated and messy reality of life in the Roman empire.
Christianity in Roman Britain
Authors: Petts David
Published: February 2016

Although there is limited evidence for pre-Constantinian Christianity in Roman Britain, it is clear that in the fourth century ad the early church became increasingly widespread, partly owing to the influence of the Roman state. The archaeological evidence for this includes personal items bearing potential Christian imagery, possible liturgical fonts or basins, church structures and putative Christian burial traditions. The wider relationship between Christianity and contemporary pagan religious traditions are explored, and this chapter reviews this surviving material evidence and draws out evidence for regional variation in the adoption of Christianity. More generally, some of the wider practical and methodological issues involved in understanding the archaeology of Roman Christianity in Britain are examined, considering how easy it is to unproblematically identify evidence for Christian practice within late Roman Britain.
Prescription Drug Abuse in Adolescence
Authors: Arria Amelia , Bugbee Brittany A.
Published: February 2016

Nonmedical use of prescription drugs can pose a variety of serious public health threats. Rapid increases in the use of prescription drugs were observed at the turn of the 21st century and prompted new research and several actions by communities and policymakers. Adolescents and young adults are at heightened risk for this type of substance use. The evidence suggests that nonmedical use of prescription drugs overlaps significantly with alcohol and other drug problems, and it might be a sign of more severe involvement with illicit substance use. This chapter describes the epidemiology, availability and sources, motives, risk factors, and consequences of nonmedical prescription drug use among adolescents and young adults. Special topics include nonmedical use of prescription stimulants and academic performance, associations with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and mental health, and diversion behavior. Future directions for research and strategies for demand and supply reduction are described.
Sleep Impairment
Authors: Cohen-Zion Mirav , Svirsky Natali
Published: February 2016

Sleep is a vital physiological state, and it is essential for optimal daytime function. Sleep patterns undergo tremendous quantitative and structural changes throughout the maturational process from infancy to late adolescence. These universal alterations in sleep and sleep patterns reflect the essential need for optimal sleep during normal healthy development. Unfortunately, sleep loss has become omnipresent in modern adult culture and has also become a widespread phenomenon among children, particularly with respect to adolescents. Specifically, sleep loss in adolescence is a function of multiple normative endogenous changes often amplified by exogenous influences. Substance abuse has also achieved epidemic proportions among today’s adolescents, with well-documented negative functional outcomes. This chapter summarizes objective and subjective studies examining the bidirectional links between alcohol and substance use and inadequate sleep and/or sleep patterns in adolescents.
Temperament and Personality
Authors: Gartstein Maria A. , Putnam Samuel P. , Aron Elaine N. , Rothbart Mary K.
Published: February 2016

This chapter provides an overview of theory and research addressing temperament and personality, particularly as these are relevant to clinical applications. Our review begins with a brief history of influential frameworks and foundational constructs, including aspects they share in common and others engendering disagreement. Measurement approaches, development of temperament/personality, the biological underpinnings, and studies addressing cross-cultural and gender differences, are also noted in this review. The chapter concludes with problems in adaptation associated with temperament, focusing on ameliorating those difficulties through clinical applications of temperament and personality constructs with children and adults. Importantly, a developmental, empirically focused perspective informed this chapter, and as a result, this work includes references to developmental periods from early childhood to adulthood, emphasizing approaches that have received empirical support.
European Criminal Records and Ex-Offender Employment
Authors: Jacobs James B. , Larrauri Elena
Published: February 2016

This article examines European policies regarding criminal record–based employment discrimination, with particular emphasis on Spain. It first provides an overview of the definition of “criminal record” before discussing the confidentiality of information regarding criminal conviction. It then considers employment discrimination in Europe based on criminal record, including private employer discrimination in Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands. It also highlights how the European Union’s data protection laws reinforce the confidentiality of criminal record information as well as the sex offense exception. Finally, it analyzes the influence of the European Union, Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights on ex-offenders’ employment opportunities.
Living Individuals
Authors: Palmer Clare
Published: February 2016

This chapter outlines key ideas associated with ethical biocentrism. It distinguishes between forms of ethical biocentrism in terms of whether they adopt an egalitarian or inegalitarian approach to value; whether they are value monistic or pluralistic; and whether they adopt virtue, consequentialist, or deontological approaches to ethical theory. Drawing in particular on the work of Robin Attfield and Paul Taylor, the chapter then explores how different forms of ethical biocentrism interpret and respond to anthropogenic climate change. Biocentric ethicists have moved beyond many people’s intuitive sense that “life matters” to construct complex, diverse ethical systems that focus on the value of living individuals. These ethical systems must develop still further to respond coherently to growing human environmental impacts.
Consequentialism in Environmental Ethics
Authors: Hiller Avram
Published: February 2016

This chapter summarizes consequentialist theory in its application to environmental ethics. It discusses several types of consequentialist theories, including classical utilitarianism, biocentric consequentialism, and ecocentric (or holistic) consequentialism. It contrasts consequentialist environmental ethics with deontological, virtue theoretic, and pragmatist alternatives, and it offers some reasons for favoring a consequentialist environmental ethic while discussing challenges that consequentialist theories must meet in order to properly account for environmental issues. Although there are significant challenges for the development of consequentialist environmental ethics, it is in many respects a new field of inquiry, and there is hope that with further development it can be fleshed out more completely.
Sustainability as the Multigenerational Public Interest
Authors: Norton Bryan G.
Published: February 2016

The concept of sustainability has become an important—and contested—term in politics prior to its being given a clear, academic meaning, resulting in disciplinary turf wars over defining the term. The conflict, with mainly economists on one side and ecologists and philosophers on the other, has centered on the difference between “strong” and “weak” sustainability. Weak sustainability requires only the protection of wealth across generations, while strong sustainability requires also the protection of ecophysical features of the environment. It is shown that weak sustainability, and solutions meant to achieve it, when applied to the parable of the tragedy of the commons, cannot protect resources whether owned or held in common. A communitarian approach, joined with an idea of communities as multigenerational entities and a commitment to a deliberative process seeking sustainability, can track a path toward strong sustainability.
Citizenship and (Un)Sustainability
Authors: Barry John
Published: February 2016

This chapter explores some of the connections (causal and other) between the decline in active citizenship, the displacement of citizenship by consumer identities and interests, and the shift to a transactional mode of democratic politics and how and in what ways these are connected with “actually existing unsustainability.” It proposes an account of “green republican citizenship” as an appropriate theory and practice of establishing a link between the practices of democracy and the processes of democratization in the transition from unsustainability. The chapter begins from the (not uncontroversial) position that debt-based consumer capitalism (and especially its more recent neoliberal incarnation) is incompatible with a version of democratic politics and associated norms and practices of green citizenship required for a transition from unsustainable development. It outlines an explicitly “green republican” conception of citizenship as an appropriate way to integrate democratic citizenship and creation of a more sustainable political and socio-ecological order.
Population and Environment
Authors: Cripps Elizabeth
Published: February 2016

Human population growth, along with technological development and levels of consumption, is a key driver of our devastating impact on the environment. This must be acknowledged as a matter of urgency. Otherwise, we risk bequeathing future generations a tragic choice between introducing explicitly impermissible coercive population policies, becoming incapable of securing even basic human rights, and worsening climate change and other environmental damage. However, this chapter warns against approaching questions of population from too narrow an environmental ethics viewpoint. If this debate is conducted in isolation from considerations of global justice, there is a real danger of advocating policies that are plausible on the surface but impermissible when assessed in terms of their implicit impact on individual human lives.
The Ethics of Ecosystem Management
Authors: Hourdequin Marion
Published: February 2016

Ecosystem management is an integrative, systems-based approach developed in response to the inadequacy of land management strategies centered on single species or resources such as timber. Contemporary ecosystem management acknowledges the dynamism of natural systems, need for ongoing adaptive learning, and importance of citizen engagement, especially in managing public lands. However, ecosystem management faces both conceptual and ethical challenges. Core concepts—such as ecosystem, stability, health, and resilience—remain difficult to define and operationalize. In addition, rapid directional changes in ecological systems have destabilized the use of historical baselines for management. One response to this challenge is to seek new moorings in an “ecosystem services” approach, focused on the role of ecological systems in supporting human interests and needs. Although ecosystem management began as a way to broaden beyond a focus on maximizing yields of particular resources, ecosystem services approaches may—ironically—reintroduce reductionistic tendencies that thwart this original goal.
Yuasa Yasuo’s Philosophy of Self-Cultivation
Authors: Nagatomo Shigenori
Published: February 2016

This chapter articulates Yuasa’s thought on how human beings can transform the everyday standpoint of existence into an extraordinary standpoint by engaging in the practice of self-cultivation or a move from disjunctive dualism to correlative dualism. To explain this, he devises his own body scheme in terms of four information circuits: (1) the external-sensory-motor circuit, (2) the circuit of coenesthesis comprised of kinesthesis and somesthesis, (3) the emotion-instinct circuit, and (4) the circuit of the unconscious quasi-body. In explaining the transformative process of deepening awareness, which one gains by moving from the first circuit to the fourth circuit, Yuasa also provides a methodological reflection on how the philosophy of self-cultivation deems that practice is more important than theory. By making the perspectival shift to the extraordinary standpoint, he concludes that human beings are “beings-in-nature” in contrast to the Western philosophical perspective of “beings-outside-of-nature.”
Personality and Depression
Authors: Fournier Jay C. , Tang Tony Z.
Published: February 2016

The relationship between personality and mood has been recognized for centuries. This chapter describes two personality traits from the Five-Factor Model of personality, Neuroticism and Extraversion, and discusses the associations between these traits and the onset, maintenance, and treatment of major depressive disorder. The six most commonly described models of the relationship between personality and depression are described, and the consequences of each of the models for the assessment and treatment of depression are discussed. Evidence for shared genetic and neurobiological substrates is reviewed. Finally, this chapter details areas in which future research is needed, not only to examine the relationship between personality and depression further, but also to maximize the efficacy of preventive and therapeutic interventions.
Interpersonal Perspectives on Depression
Authors: Whisman Mark A.
Published: February 2016

Humans have an intrinsic need to form and maintain interpersonal relationships. Therefore, difficulties and problems in interpersonal functioning are likely to influence and be influenced by mental health outcomes such as depression. In this chapter, key theories and empirical findings regarding interpersonal perspectives on depression are reviewed. Specifically, the review focuses on problematic interpersonal characteristics and processes (i.e., excessive reassurance seeking and rejection, circumplex models of problematic interpersonal behaviors, interpersonal stress and stress generation, anxious and avoidant attachment, social skills deficits) and poor quality interpersonal relationships (i.e., marriage and intimate relationships, family relationships) that are associated with the onset, severity, and course of depression. Implications of these interpersonal perspectives for the treatment of depression are also reviewed, and suggestions for future research are advanced.
The Evolution of Depressive Phenotypes
Authors: Andrews Paul W. , Durisko Zachary
Published: February 2016

Depression is a heterogeneous collection of phenotypes sharing partially overlapping genes, neurobiology, and symptoms. This chapter applies an evolutionary perspective to the distinct etiologies and functions of three reliably identified depressive phenotypes: sickness behavior, starvation depression, and melancholia (i.e., depression with melancholic features). Infection and food shortage are evolutionarily ancient problems, and so sickness behavior and starvation depression probably evolved first. Melancholia probably evolved more recently and shows signs of an evolutionary design for a cognitive function. More specifically, evidence suggests that melancholia is an adaptation for promoting analytical reasoning, and probably evolved as an adaptive response to complex problems involving resource management or conflicts with close social partners. These depressive phenotypes, although distinct, are functionally similar, which explains the overlapping genetics, neurobiology, and symptomatology. In all three, depressive symptoms help the body coordinate the reallocation of limited energy resources in response to persistent threats.
The Ethics of Medically Assisted Nutrition and Hydration at the End of Life
Authors: Sulmasy Daniel
Published: February 2016

This chapter examines the ethics of medically supplying nutrition and hydration to dying patients. It first considers the available treatment modalities for patients who are unable to eat or drink, including nasogastric tube feeding, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube feeding, surgical gastrostomy or jejunostomy tube feeding, proctoclysis, intravenous hydration and nutrition, total or partial parenteral nutrition, and hypodermoclysis. Before discussing the ethics of their use in palliative medicine, the medical aspects of these techniques as well as their risks and benefits are outlined. The author then proposes a classification of four critical decisional junctures along the trajectory of disease progression and highlights a number of disabling, chronic, progressive, and eventually fatal diagnoses with differing trajectories toward death. Finally, it looks at a number of ethical controversies surrounding medically assisted nutrition and hydration, including the issue of religion and the moral and psychological aspects of stopping and starting nutritional therapy.
The Discursive Context of Reproductive Ethics
Authors: Rasmussen Amy Cabrera
Published: February 2016

Examining how issues are framed in policy discourse illuminates the structure of ethical arguments and the social and political context within which these arguments are made. In the United States, reproductive discourse and policymaking display four contours. First, deemed a legitimate topic for government intervention, reproduction policy has most often been gendered and group-specific. Second, the issue category into which reproduction is placed is a critical factor in policy intervention: Is reproduction a matter of health, gender equality, or religious liberty? Third, in reproductive policymaking, abortion has taken on the role of master subissue, shaping approaches to reproductive issues and in some cases standing in for the larger range of reproductive matters. Finally, lack of understanding of the medical and technological factors related to reproduction among policymakers and the public makes policymaking difficult and augments abortion’s discursive power.
Late-in-Life Motherhood
Authors: Goold Imogen
Published: February 2016

Many women postpone childbearing until later in life and face infertility as a result. Social attitudes are often critical of whether these women should receive assisted reproductive technologies. These attitudes include blame for choosing to “have it all” with a career and a family, ridicule of older women becoming mothers, and views about the inappropriate use of health resources in support of supposed lifestyle choices. Ethically speaking, however, there is little support for restricting such infertility treatment or for funding it for younger women while withholding it from others. Neither choice nor natural aging can be defended as a ground on which to distinguish between older and younger women with respect to the receipt of care.
Opting for Twins in In Vitro Fertilization
Authors: Steinbock Bonnie
Published: February 2016

Multiple births are an unfortunate consequence of assisted reproductive technology, causing risks to both fetuses and pregnant women. The central ethical issue raised by multiple pregnancy is the conflict between the fertility patient’s desire to get pregnant and the increased risks to offspring. Although extreme cases in which many embryos are transferred to the woman’s uterus are very rare—and represent negligence—twin pregnancies are still common. Many women undergoing fertility treatment reportedly express a preference for twin pregnancies to reduce the costs and risks of the procedure while increasing their opportunities for having more than one child. However, risks to the offspring are significant and underappreciated, including prematurity, low birth weight, cerebral palsy, and learning disabilities. Even though many multiple pregnancies result in good outcomes, the ethical question is whether the risks are justifiable in order to improve the chances of pregnancy when transfer of a singleton embryo is an available alternative.
Revised calibration for near- and mid-infrared images from ∼4000 pointed observations with AKARI/IRC
Authors: Egusa Fumi , Usui Fumihiko , Murata Kazumi , Yamashita Takuji , Yamamura Issei , Onaka Takashi
Published: February 2016

The Japanese infrared astronomical satellite AKARI performed ∼4000 pointed observations for 16 months until the end of August 2007, when the telescope and instruments were cooled by liquid helium. Observation targets include solar system objects, Galactic objects, local galaxies, and galaxies at cosmological distances. We describe recent updates on calibration processes of near- and mid-infrared images taken by the Infrared Camera (IRC), which has nine photometric filters covering 2–27 μm continuously. Using the latest data reduction toolkit, we created calibrated and stacked images from each pointed observation. About 90% of the stacked images have a position accuracy better than 1${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$5. Uncertainties in aperture photometry estimated from a typical standard sky deviation of stacked images are a factor of ∼2–4 smaller than those of AllWISE at similar wavelengths. The processed images, together with documents such as process logs, as well as the latest toolkit are available online.
A dose–response study of separate and combined effects of the serotonin agonist 8-OH-DPAT and the dopamine agonist quinpirole on locomotor sensitization, cross-sensitization, and conditioned activity
Authors: Johnson Eric F. , Szechtman Henry
Published: February 2016

Chronic treatment with the dopamine D2/D3 agonist, quinpirole, or the serotonin 1A agonist, 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)-tetralin (8-OH-DPAT), induces behavioral sensitization. It is not known whether both drugs produce sensitization through a shared mechanism. Here, we examine whether quinpirole and 8-OH-DPAT show cross-sensitization and impact sensitization, as would be expected from shared mechanisms. Male rats (N=208) were assigned randomly to 16 groups formed by crossing four doses of quinpirole (0, 0.03125, 0.0625, or 0.125 mg/kg) with four doses of 8-OH-DPAT (0, 0.03125, 0.625, or 0.125 mg/kg). After a course of 10 drug treatments administered twice per week in locomotor activity chambers, all groups were challenged on separate tests with quinpirole (0.1 mg/kg), 8-OH-DPAT (0.1 mg/kg), or saline, and locomotor activity was evaluated. Challenge tests with quinpirole and 8-OHDPAT showed no cross-sensitization between the drugs. Chronic quinpirole (0.125 mg/kg) administration induced a sensitized quinpirole response that was attenuated dose-dependently by chronic 8-OH-DPAT cotreatment. Cotreatment with quinpirole (0.0625 mg/kg) and 8-OH-DPAT (all doses) induced quinpirole sensitization. Chronic 8-OH-DPAT (0.125 mg/kg) induced a sensitized 8-OHDPAT response that was prevented by chronic cotreatment with the lowest but not the highest dose of quinpirole. Cotreatment with 8-OHDPAT (0.0625) and quinpirole (0.125 mg/kg) induced sensitization to 8-OH-DPAT. The saline challenge test showed elevated locomotor activity in chronic quinpirole (0.125 mg/kg) and 8-OHDPAT (0.0625, 0.125 mg/kg) alone groups, and in seven of nine cotreated groups. The absence of cross-sensitization suggests separate mechanisms of sensitization to quinpirole and 8-OH-DPAT. Cotreatment effects suggest that induction of sensitization can be modulated by serotonin 1A and D2/D3 activity.
Phytochemical Screening, Antidepressant and Analgesic Effects of Aqueous Extract of Anethum graveolens L. From Southeast of Morocco
Authors: El Mansouri Latifa , Bousta Dalila , El Youbi-El Hamsas Amal , Boukhira Smahane , Akdime Hassane
Published: February 2016

This study aims to investigate the antidepressant and analgesic properties of the aqueous extract of Anethum graveolens L. from South of Morocco (Rissani-Errachidia region). Extract of plant is obtained by aqueous decoction and administered to Wistar rats orally. The extract has a significant antidepressant and analgesic effects compared with the drug references (sertraline and tramadol) without any adverse effects. The dose of 250 mg/kg, body weight shows the best antidepressant and analgesic effects than 1 g/kg, body weight. Phytochemical study of the aqueous extract of the plant has to show its highlight in polyphenols, flavonoids, and tannins.
A Topical Medication of All-Trans Retinoic Acid Reduces Sebum Excretion Rate in Patients With Forehead Acne
Authors: Pan Jing , Wang Qian , Tu Ping
Published: February 2016

Acne is a disease of the hair follicles of the face, chest, and back that affects almost all teenagers during puberty. This study is conducted to investigate if all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) could reduce sebum excretion rate (SER) in acne patients by influencing content of skin-surface lipid production. Thirty-nine patients with forehead acne were topically treated with cream base (vehicle) and 0.025% ATRA cream once a night for 7 days. Separation and identification of sebum production collected from the skin on the acne were performed using thin-layer chromatography. SER was calculated according to the total amount of individual sebum productions that were quantified by using Alphaimager IS-2200 imaging analysis. Our data showed that the value of SER on the acne-affected skin was significantly decreased in the ATRA-treated patients as compared with ones treated with vehicle (P < 0.01). Treatment with ATRA resulted in inducing significant decreases in the contents of wax esters (WE), triglycerides and fatty acids, and free fatty acids (FFA) productions (all P < 0.01). In further analysis, the changes in the data before and after treatments with vehicle and ATRA were compared with significant differences exhibited in the values of SER, WE, and FFA (all P < 0.05). This study indicates that the topical application of ATRA in treatment of acne patients induces decrease in SER by inhibiting the excretion of WE and FFA productions.
Supports and Barriers to Successful Progression in a DNP Program
Authors: Hlabse Mara Lea , Dowling Donna A. , Lindell Deborah , Underwood Patricia , Barsman Sarah Gutin
Published: February 2016

This study examined the supports, barriers, and strategies to successful progression in a DNP program using a nationwide online survey of DNP students and graduates. Subjects (n = 172) had a mean age of 46.2 years; 83% worked full time. Major barriers were competing demands of work, family, and school. Perseverance was a key element in overcoming barriers; most students reported being overwhelmed, and 37% considered quitting. Mechanisms for programs to consider in addressing this stress are discussed.
Primary and Metastatic Cutaneous Melanomas Express ALK Through Alternative Transcriptional Initiation
Authors: Busam Klaus J. , Vilain Ricardo E. , Lum Trina , Busam Jonathan A. , Hollmann Travis J. , Saw Robyn P.M. , Coit Daniel C. , Scolyer Richard A. , Wiesner Thomas
Published: February 2016

A number of common driver mutations have been identified in melanoma, but other genetic or epigenetic aberrations are also likely to play a role in the pathogenesis of melanoma and present potential therapeutic targets. Translocations of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), for example, have been reported in spitzoid melanocytic neoplasms leading to kinase-fusion proteins that result in immunohistochemically detectable ALK expression. In this study, we sought to determine whether ALK was also expressed in nonspitzoid primary and metastatic cutaneous melanomas. ALK immunohistochemistry was performed on 603 melanomas (303 primary and 300 metastatic tumors) from 600 patients. ALK immunohistochemistry expression was identified in 7 primary and 9 metastatic tumors. In 5 of 7 primary tumors and in 6 of 9 metastatic lesions, the majority of tumor cells were immunoreactive for ALK. In the other 2 primary and 3 metastatic lesions, positive staining was identified in less than half of the tumor cells. ALK positivity was found in the presence or absence of BRAF or NRAS mutations. In contrast to prior observations with ALK-positive Spitz tumors, none of the ALK-positive melanomas harbored a translocation. Instead, the ALK-positive melanomas predominantly expressed the recently described ALK isoform, ALK

ATI
, which lacks the extracellular and transmembrane domains of wild-type ALK, consists primarily of the intracellular tyrosine kinase domain, and originates from an alternative transcriptional initiation site within the ALK gene. The findings are clinically relevant as patients with metastatic melanoma who have ALK expression may potentially benefit from treatment with ALK kinase inhibitors.
The Great Pretender: Pediatric Wandering Spleen
Authors: Radillo Lucia , Taddio Andrea , Ghirardo Sergio , Bramuzzo Matteo , Pederiva Federica , Maschio Massimo , Barbi Egidio
Published: February 2016

Wandering spleen is a rare condition, typically not only due to embryological defects of the splenic ligaments, but also secondary to trauma and splenomegaly. The most common presentation is acute abdomen with a mobile abdominal mass or recurrent abdominal pain. However, the spleen may be temporary in its normal position, and patients could be asymptomatic. A familiarity, if present, strengthens the diagnostic suspect.

Abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography are the examination of choice, and the management is surgical.
Torticollis as the Presenting Sign of Cervical Spondylodiscitis
Authors: Pizzol Antonio , Bramuzzo Matteo , Pillon Roberto , Taddio Andrea , Barbi Egidio
Published: February 2016

Acquired torticollis is a common clinical finding in children evaluated in the pediatric emergency department. It may be the presentation symptom of different illnesses, such as trauma, muscle contraction, infections, or malignancies, and an accurate differential diagnosis is required to correctly identify the cause and choose the right treatment. Spondylodiscitis is a low-grade bacterial infection that involves intervertebral disks and the adjacent vertebral bodies. Spondylodiscitis of the cervical spine is unusual and may be a rare cause of torticollis. We report the case of a 4-year-old male patient admitted to the emergency department for a 5-day history of painful torticollis. Blood tests showed an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The radiograph of the cervical spine showed a thin fifth cervical soma. The magnetic resonance imaging of cervical spine showed the alteration of cervical vertebral bodies and intervertebral disks, suggesting the diagnosis of cervical spondylodiscitis. The patient recovered after endovenous antibiotic treatment. We suggest that cervical spondylodiscitis should be suspected and investigated by means of an magnetic resonance imaging in every case of unexplained torticollis with persisting symptoms.
Time to Bone Healing After Intraosseous Placement in Children is Ill Defined
Authors: Ginsberg-Peltz Julien
Published: February 2016

Time to bone healing after intraosseous (IO) insertion in children has not been clearly established. This report documents the case of a 23-month-old male infant with previous IO placement of the tibia, presenting 3 weeks later to our emergency department with radiographic evidence of previous IO insertion. This report reviews relevant literature on complications of IO insertion, contraindications to IO insertion, and evidentiary support for such recommendations. Time to bone healing after IO insertion and recommendations regarding time to safe cannulation of previously cannulated areas are based on animal models. This case demonstrates 1 instance in which radiographic evidence of bone healing at 3 weeks after IO insertion is not complete, in contradiction to previously reported data. Although the clinical significance of this finding is unknown, further work is needed to define safe timing for IO reinsertion in children.
Critical Situations in Daily Life as Experienced by Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Authors: Pihl Lesnovska Katarina , Hollman Frisman Gunilla , Hjortswang Henrik , Börjeson Sussanne
Published: February 2016

Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), are chronic and have a fluctuating clinical course that impacts daily life. Daily life with a chronic disease involves thinking and worrying about the limitations that chronic disease causes. Knowledge about how patients who suffer from IBD manage critical incidents in daily life is lacking. The aim of the study was to describe how patients living with IBD experience critical incidents in daily life in relation to their disease and symptoms. Thirty adult patients were interviewed focusing on critical incidents in daily life. Data were analyzed using the critical incident technique. The study comprised 224 critical incidents and was grouped into 21 subcategories and 5 categories: losing bowel control, having a body that smells, being unable to meet own and others' expectations, not being believed or seen, and experiencing frustration due to side effects and ineffective treatment. These categories formed one main area describing the overall result “The bowels rule life.” The uncertain nature of IBD created critical incidents in which the bowel ruled life, causing patients to avoid social interaction. It also placed considerable demands on the family and sometimes had a negative effect on the afflicted person's career.
Estimating cell cycle model parameters using systems identification
Authors: Juarez Rosales Edwin Francisco , Ghaffarizadeh Ahmadreza , Friedman Samuel H , Jonckheere Edmond , Macklin Paul
Published: February 2016

A current challenge in data-driven mathematical modeling of cancer is identifying biologically-relevant parameters of mathematical models from sparse and often noisy experimental data of mixed types. We describe a cell cycle model and outline how to use the Optimization Toolbox in Matlab to estimate its timescale parameters, given flow cytometry and cell viability (synthetic) data, and illustrate the technique with simulated data. This technique can be similarly applied to a variety of cell cycle models, particularly as more laboratories begin to use high-content, quantitative cell screening and imaging platforms. An advanced version of this work (CellPD: cell line phenotype digitizer) will be released as open source in early 2016 at MultiCellDS.org.