bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“May I Never Be a Man”
Authors: Edelstein Sari
Published: December 2018

The first chapter reads Herman Melville’s semi-autobiographical novel Redburn: His First Voyage (1849) as an anti-coming-of-age novel that exposes maturity as profoundly ideological, tied to capitalist and nationalist agendas. Published during a moment in which calls proliferated for individual Americans and the nation at large to grow up, Redburn rejects the trajectory toward adult masculinity defined exhaustively in this moment as the basis of American development. The chapter positions Melville’s work amidst the cultural preoccupation with linear life-course trajectories, represented in popular broadsides and lithographs enshrining the stages of life. Melville’s career, which took a well-known plunge after Moby-Dick, might be recast as a refusal to embrace the terms by which market society defined adulthood and success.
Peculiar Forms of Aging in the Literature of US Slavery
Authors: Edelstein Sari
Published: December 2018

The second chapter examines slavery’s distorting effects on age. It reveals how racism and slavery operate through age, buttressing a system that distributed maturity, and humanity, according to an invented logic that age discourse helped to naturalize. The chapter explores the vexed status of age under slavery Frederick Douglass’s My Bondage and my Freedom (1855) and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) as well as Federal Writers’ Project interviews with former slaves who seem to defy the boundaries of human longevity. These narratives acknowledge not merely the corruption of childhood but the exclusion from adulthood as among the most troubling aspects of slavery. Ultimately, they lament slavery’s use of age as a metric of economic value and a tool for dehumanization, and their narratives stage willful refusals to accommodate this logic.
Beyond Mastery
Authors: Edelstein Sari
Published: December 2018

The final chapter turns to Henry James, often hailed as the “Master” and the only mature American novelist, and yet, James’s fiction actually unsettles the notion of adulthood, complicating rather than consolidating this category. In What Maisie Knew (1897), James exposes the various inflections that compromise the autonomy of the adult subject, suggesting that age alone does not produce independence, rationality, or maturity. Indeed, the notion of adulthood as an epoch of independence and self-determination may be a fiction not unlike that of childhood innocence. His work highlights how adulthood derives much of its cultural authority through an enduring association with independence, particularly financial independence, and suggests that interdependence and caregiving may entail forms of maturity that are not rewarded, sanctioned, or made legible in a culture that confuses coming-of-age with class assent and individualism.
Germanicus as Religious Interpreter
Authors: Shannon-Henderson Kelly E.
Published: December 2018

This chapter focuses on Tacitus’ presentation of Germanicus, Tiberius’ rival. While Germanicus has often been associated with traditionalism and the past, this analysis shows that in the area of religion he is just as much of a threat to Roman cultic memory as Tiberius. When Germanicus engages with emperor cult or uses religious rhetoric in his speeches, he does so mainly to improve his image. In his campaigns in Germany he runs afoul of Tiberius when he attempts to bury the dead from Varus’ legions and opens himself up for accusations of religious pollution. On his journey east toward Egypt, he ignores several ominous occurrences that presage his death; and in his final moments his use of the rhetoric of fate and fortuna shows a poor conception of his own place in the cosmos. If Tiberian Rome is in a crisis of religious memory, Germanicus is not the solution.
Preaching and the School
Authors: Cook James Daniel
Published: December 2018

Traditionally, the sermon has been discussed by historians and classicists in terms of rhetorical genre, placing it within the context of classical rhetoric. Chapter 3 argues, however, that preaching is better understood not as public speaking per se, but as teaching or lecturing, a form of speaking which is less tied to set rhetorical genres. This approach, which sees sermons as fundamentally a scholastic activity, builds on the work of Frances Young and David Rylaarsdam, who have demonstrated the links between classical pedagogy and early Christian theology and exegesis. When Chrysostom’s preaching is viewed through the lens of classical pedagogy, his stridently critical language becomes no longer understood as the consequence of his frustration with a slovenly congregation, but rather as a typical characteristic of any teacher in late antiquity.
Preaching and the Cure of Souls
Authors: Cook James Daniel
Published: December 2018

Teachers, particularly philosophers, saw the purpose of their teaching to be the therapy of the soul. Similar medical language can also be found in much Christian literature throughout antiquity, and Chrysostom is no exception. It permeates both his preaching and his discussion of preaching in his treatise On the Priesthood, and will thus prove to be important for assessing how he perceives and articulates his objectives as preacher. Despite it being a commonly used metaphor in his preaching, Chrysostom’s use of medical language has only very recently begun to receive attention, particularly in recent articles by Wendy Mayer, who has depicted Chrysostom as a ‘medico-philosophical psychic therapist’, and compares his ministry to the therapy of the soul exercised by many of the Hellenistic philosophers. Chapter 4 will largely support her arguments through a closer analysis of his preaching (her own research focusing more on a selection of his treatises).
Prophetic Preaching
Authors: Cook James Daniel
Published: December 2018

Despite the evident parallels to other (non-Christian) philosophers of antiquity discussed previously, Chapter 5 explores the impact of the scriptural and Christian tradition on Chrysostom’s therapy of the soul. Although his language of medicine and the nature of his therapy can find parallels in medical and philosophical writings, his understanding of the goal of the therapy and what underlay the sickness was fundamentally different: it was not happiness that he wanted his congregations to acquire, but eternal salvation. He wanted to lead his congregations not to a state of happiness and peace of mind, but rather to a condition of fear and trembling at their sin before a holy God.
The Congregation
Authors: Cook James Daniel
Published: December 2018

Chapter 7 turns finally to the implications of the previous chapters’ findings. Focusing on the issues of the social composition of the congregation and their level of commitment to (Chrysostom’s) Christianity, it is argued that sermon-texts are in their nature resistant to being used as sources for this kind of social history. Following Derek Krueger’s study of Byzantine liturgy, it is argued that sermons instead present how Chrysostom viewed his congregation, and how he wanted them to view themselves. How he addressed his congregation cannot be separated from his scripturally informed ecclesiology: for Chrysostom, his congregation are an instantiation of the Universal Church, the exalted body of Christ called to live a penitential life. His sermons can ultimately tell us only about his own construction of his congregation, though it is one which would in turn have gone some way to shaping the congregation’s own self-conception.
Social Protection among Small Groups in European Transnational Social Spaces
Authors: Faist Thomas
Published: December 2018

Social protection in small groups such as families and kinship and friendship circles is based on reciprocity and sometimes solidarity. This chapter adopts a close examination of social protection in three transnational social spaces, namely Turkey–Germany, Poland–Germany, and Kazakhstan–Germany. It looks at how migrants organize their social protection, taking into account the manifold state regulations, supranational frameworks, and civil society organizations, as well as the migrants themselves and their significant others spread across various state borders. It accounts for migrants’ social protection in small groups, influenced by a variety of heterogeneities which intersect with transnationality, that is, the extent to which actors entertain ties across borders. Special consideration is given to the finding that migrants engage in comparative social positioning in between countries of origin and destination.
Externalization in Cross-Border Migration
Authors: Faist Thomas
Published: December 2018

To understand the politics of inequalities around migration necessitates an analysis of the transnational architecture of migration control. The main idea is that the transnationalized social question finds its mirror image in immigration and emigration contexts. While it is the welfare state that promises protection from unfettered global economic competition in the immigration states, development in emigration countries is typically thought to lead to increased participation in the global economy. On the part of immigration countries, migration control assumes a high priority, characterized by externalization through remote control and securitization in areas of origin and transit. On the side of emigration countries, the migration–development nexus takes centre stage—with the developmental (national) state in the global South often working as a functional equivalent to the national welfare state in the global North. The agenda is set by the immigration side by linking migration control in exchange for development cooperation.
Pornography
Authors: Altman Andrew
Published: December 2018

This chapter provides an empirical analysis of the pornography industry. Facts concerning its growth and evolution are explained. The current financial status pornography industry is shown and compared with other mega-industries. The claim that it sexualizes inequality is explained and demonstrated through documenting the content of the materials sold and used, as reported by the industry itself. Further, the empirical evidence of the harms of pornography is provided and examined. Production harms and consumptions harms are distinguished and evidence of each is given. Criticisms of the empirical evidence are explained and rebutted. Finally, it is argued that the ordinances provide new and different legal grounds to address the harms of pornography.
Sources of Biblical Exegesis
Authors: Neele Adriaan C.
Published: December 2018

Edwards biblical exegesis is informed by early modern biblical interpreters of Scripture. This chapter will explore, first, the place of Poole’s Synopsis in the history of biblical exegesis, as well as Edwards’s use of this synoptic Bible commentary in a New England context. Secondly, the nature of Poole’s work, providing various exegetical options, demands that one ask three questions related to Edwards’s use of the Synopsis: First, does Edwards follow specific exegetical interpretations offered by Poole? Second, what is the underlying source of those interpretations as one attempts to discern exegetical trajectories and choices? Thirdly, does an exegetical choice from Poole in one writing contribute interpretatively to other parts of his writings such as his sermon corpus, treatises, and notebooks, including the notebook on Hebrew Idioms?
Measuring Utility
Authors: Moscati Ivan
Published: December 2018

The book reconstructs the history of utility measurement in economics, from the marginal revolution of the 1870s to the beginning of behavioral economics in the mid-1980s. Part I covers 1870–1910 and discusses the issue of utility measurement in the theories of Jevons, Menger, Walras, and other early utility theorists. Part II deals with the emergence of the notions of ordinal and cardinal utility during 1900–1945 and discusses two early attempts to give an empirical content to the notion of utility. Part III focuses on the 1945–1955 debate on utility measurement originated by von Neumann and Morgenstern’s expected utility theory (EUT). Part IV reconstructs the experimental attempts to measure the utility of money between 1950 and 1985 within the framework provided by EUT. The book does four main things. First, it reconstructs in detail economists’ ideas and discussions about utility measurement from 1870 to 1985 and their attempts to measure utility empirically. Second, it brings into focus the interplay among the evolution of utility analysis, economists’ ideas about utility measurement, and their conception of what measurement in general means. Third, it explores the hitherto underresearched relationships among the history of utility measurement in economics, the history of the measurement of sensations in psychology, and the history of measurement theory in general. Finally, it discusses some methodological problems related to utility measurement, such as the epistemological status of the utility concept and its measures. The book closes with a brief overview of post-1985 research trends in utility measurement.
Going Empirical
Authors: Moscati Ivan
Published: December 2018

Chapter 7 discusses two early attempts to measure utility empirically. In 1926, Norwegian Ragnar Frisch applied an econometric approach to measure the marginal utility of money. Following a suggestion from economist Henry Schultz, in 1930, American psychologist Louis Leon Thurstone conducted a laboratory experiment to elicit the indifference curves of an individual. Notably, both Frisch and Thurstone intended measurement in the unit-based sense. Most commentators of the 1930s and early 1940s judged the assumptions underlying both Frisch’s and Thurstone’s utility measurements highly problematic and therefore remained skeptical about the significance of their respective measurements. Moreover, after the mid-1930s and the completion of the ordinal revolution, most utility theorists lost interest in measuring utility in a more than ordinal sense. Among the most vocal critics of Thurstone’s experiment were W. Allen Wallis and Milton Friedman, then two young economists and statisticians who had studied at the University of Chicago.
Epilogue
Authors: Moscati Ivan
Published: December 2018

The epilogue reviews the key passages in the history of economists’ ideas, discussions, and research on the measurability of utility between 1870 and 1985 and points to three main research programs related to utility measurement in the post-1985 period. Researchers in the first program, such as Peter Wakker and Mohammed Abdellaoui, aim at measuring utility experimentally on the basis of some nonexpected utility model, such as the rank-dependent utility model. A second research trend, championed by Daniel Kahneman, has been concerned with the measurement of utility-related concepts, such as “experienced utility,” “remembered utility,” or “happiness.” Finally, neuroeconomists such as Paul Glimcher have interpreted the measurement of the activity of a specific population of neurons in the human brain as the measurement of utility. The epilogue briefly discusses the similarities and differences between these three post-1985 research programs concerning utility measurement but leaves to future work a detailed analysis.
The Fact/Value Spectre
Authors: McMillan John
Published: December 2018

The fact/value distinction has cast a shadow over bioethics and if taken in a naïve sense it has damaging implications for method in bioethics. Some still believe that all values are on a par epistemically and that leads to absurdity when we consider the status of some scientific values. It can be taken to imply positivism, meaning that unless ethics is conducted empirically it will be meaningless or subjective. It can also be taken to imply that all values are on an equal footing and I will show how that cannot be true and leads to an impoverished conception of what it is to do ethics well.
Tax Policy and Fair Inequality
Authors: Cappelen Alexander W. , Tungodden Bertil
Published: December 2018

Chapter 6 discusses the implications of a liberal egalitarian approach to tax policy and argues that such an approach avoids two fundamental challenges faced by the standard welfarist approach: the “exploitation of the hard-working” and the “exploitation of the talented.” It is also argued that the liberal egalitarian approach is able to capture the distinction between fair and unfair inequalities in a way that the welfarist approach fails to do. A major challenge for the liberal egalitarian approach to tax policy, however, is that it requires information that typically is unavailable to tax authorities in order to be implemented. The chapter concludes that this approach can still be used in the evaluation of tax policies.
The Politics of Land Value Taxation
Authors: McLean Iain
Published: December 2018

This chapter aims to show that land value tax has both theoretical and practical merit. The author traces the classical normative arguments for land tax in Adam Smith, Tom Paine, David Ricardo, Henry George, and Lloyd George, and the current academic literature, and then shows how some of difficulties of inheritance (estate) tax can be resolved by a land tax. It would also improve on the UK’s current ragbag of property taxes. In the final sections, issues of practicability, and of winners and losers, are addressed. The examples almost all come from the United Kingdom, but the arguments are intended to be general.
Comparative Human Rights Law
Authors: Fredman Sandra
Published: December 2018

Courts in different jurisdictions face similar human rights questions. Does the death penalty breach human rights? Does freedom of speech include racist speech? Is there a right to health? This book uses the prism of comparative law to examine the fascinating ways in which these difficult questions are decided. On the one hand, the shared language of human rights suggests that there should be similar solutions to comparable problems. On the other hand, there are important differences. Constitutional texts are worded differently; courts have differing relationships with the legislature; and there are divergences in socio-economic development, politics, and history. Nevertheless, there is a growing transnational conversation between courts, with cases in one jurisdiction being cited in others. Part I (Chapters 1–5) outlines the cross-cutting themes which shape the ways judges respond to challenging human rights issues. Chapters 1–5 examine when it is legitimate to refer to foreign materials; how universality and cultural relativity are balanced in human rights law; the appropriate role of courts in adjudicating human rights in a democracy; and the principles judges use to interpret human rights texts. The book is unusual in transcending the distinction between socio-economic rights and civil and political rights. Part II (Chapters 6–12) applies these cross-cutting themes to comparing human rights law in five jurisdictions. These chapters focus on seven particularly challenging issues: the death penalty, abortion, housing, health, speech, education, and religion, with the aim of inspiring further comparative examination of other pressing human rights issues. It is primarily court-centred, but also examines courts’ drawbacks.
Interpreting Human Rights Law
Authors: Fredman Sandra
Published: December 2018

On the face of it, judges are tasked with applying the law, not making it. Yet human rights are framed in general terms, requiring judges to draw on external values to interpret. Some regard judicial interpretation as gaining legitimacy only when true to the original intention of the drafters; or the text’s natural meaning. Others regard the human rights instruments as necessarily responsive to changing times. This is the ‘living tree’ or purposive approach. This chapter explores different approaches to interpretation of human rights in a comparative context. Section II examines judges’ own values. Section III discusses originalism or the intention of the drafters; section IV considers the natural meaning of the text; while section V examines the ‘living tree’ or purposive approach. Section VI explores the notion of transformative constitutionalism. The final part draws on the ‘bounded deliberative democracy’ developed in earlier chapters to point to the way forward.
The Right to Housing
Authors: Fredman Sandra
Published: December 2018

Housing is frequently regarded as a matter for the political sphere, rather than a fundamental human right. At most, housing is seen as a socio-economic right, progressively realizable subject to available resources. By contrast, protection against State intrusion into home, family, or private life is widely accepted as a core human right. Section II contrasts jurisdictions which derive the right to housing from the right to life or the right to respect for home and family life, with jurisdictions with an express constitutional right to housing. Section III examines how the right to a home has been balanced against rights of property owners. This section considers both procedural protections, such as the right to be heard, and substantive protections such as provision of alternative housing. Section IV assesses how courts have approached the substance of the right, and the challenge of defining ‘adequate’ housing. This entails an examination of how courts deal with polycentric issues. Section V considers housing as an equality right.
Freedom of Speech
Authors: Fredman Sandra
Published: December 2018

This chapter assesses the theories justifying freedom of speech (Section II). Section III considers how free speech is protected by human rights instruments. The absence of an express limitation clause in the US First Amendment contrasts with other jurisdictions, which permit justifiable limitations. Sections IV–VII consider how courts have dealt with the most burning issues confronted in all of these jurisdictions: whether freedom of speech protects subversive speech, pornography, and hate speech. Where the limits of liberal tolerance lie remains a challenge for courts. While the harm principle provides a starting point, much depends on how speech is seen to cause harm. Section VIII asks whether the right-bearer includes not just the speaker, but also the recipient of speech and assesses the role of freedom of information. The chapter concludes that freedom of speech should go further than curbing State power to censor speech, creating conditions of genuine equality.
Worlds Lost and Founded
Authors: Valdez Moses Michael
Published: December 2018

This chapter considers V. S. Naipaul as a belated modernist who exhibits what Harold Bloom terms an acute anxiety of influence. Naipaul denies any debt to Anglophone modernism and is widely considered a Dickensian realist. Focusing on The Enigma of Arrival (1987) and A Way in the World (1994), the chapter examines Naipaul’s postcolonial redeployment of Conrad’s delayed decoding, Joyce and Woolf’s hypersubjectivized first-person narration, Kafka’s expressionistic and de Chirico’s surrealistic antirealism, and Proust’s manipulation of narrative chronology. Naipaul’s lack of interest in modernism is a feint, a mark of his sense of belatedness in relation to modern European culture and of an artistic ressentiment both crippling and empowering. The chapter contends that Naipaul’s sly use of modernism embraces inauthenticity as the basis for redefining modernity itself. Naipaul casts himself as the New World subject: a modern, self-made individual constantly reinventing himself and his world with only the found artifacts of an “alien” cultural legacy at his disposal.
Modernism and Māoritanga
Authors: Steer Philip
Published: December 2018

In its reading of the bone people, this chapter reexamines Keri Hulme’s controversial borrowings from literary modernism in light of her claims to represent a postcolonial identity derived from Māori cultural traditions. The chapter distinguishes between a “modernist critical realism” deriving from Ernest Hemingway and Sherwood Anderson and a more formally experimental modernism employing myth, fantasy, intertextual borrowings, and Joycean wordplay. This second strain of modernism has raised doubts about the “authenticity” of Hulme’s representation of a New Zealand reborn out of Māori culture. The chapter argues that it was never Hulme’s aim to portray or preserve a pure and “authentic” Māori culture. Hulme’s narrative instead models an understanding of indigeneity as capable of incorporating modernist aesthetics within it. Hulme thus reconfigures “postcolonial hybridity” in the service of a bicultural vision of New Zealand that embraces settler culture within a distinctively Māori framework.
Persistent Misallocation and the Returns to Education in Mexico
Authors: Levy Santiago , López-Calva Luis F
Published: December 2018

Over the last two decades, Mexico has experienced macroeconomic stability, an open trade regime, and substantial progress in education. Yet average workers’ earnings have stagnated, and earnings of those with higher schooling have fallen, compressing the earnings distribution and lowering the returns to education. This paper argues that distortions that misallocate resources toward less-productive firms explain these phenomena, because these firms are less intensive in well-educated workers compared with more-productive ones. It shows that while the relative supply of workers with more years of schooling has increased, misallocation of resources toward less-productive firms has persisted. These two trends have generated a widening mismatch between the supply of, and the demand for, educated workers. The paper breaks down worker earnings into observable and unobservable firm and individual worker characteristics, and computes a counterfactual earnings distribution in the absence of misallocation. The main finding is that in the absence of misallocation average earnings would be higher, and that earnings differentials across schooling levels would widen, raising the returns to education. A no-misallocation path is constructed for the wage premium. Depending on parameter values, this path is found to be rising or constant, in contrast to the observed downward path. The paper concludes arguing that the persistence of misallocation impedes Mexico from taking full advantage of its investments in the education of its workforce.
BDSF Is the Predominant In-Planta Quorum-Sensing Signal Used During Xanthomonas campestris Infection and Pathogenesis in Chinese Cabbage
Authors: Diab Abdelgader Abdeen , Cao Xue-Qiang , Chen Hui , Song Kai , Zhou Lian , Chen Bo , He Ya-Wen
Published: December 2018

Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris uses the diffusible signal factor (DSF) family of quorum-sensing (QS) signals to coordinate virulence and adaptation. DSF family signals have been well-characterized using laboratory-based cell cultures. The in-planta QS signal used during X. campestris pv. campestris infection remains unclear. To achieve this goal, we first mimic in-planta X. campestris pv. campestris growth conditions by supplementing the previously developed XYS medium with cabbage hydrolysate and found that the dominant signal produced in these conditions was BDSF. Secondly, by using XYS medium supplemented with diverse plant-derived compounds, we examined the effects of diverse plant-derived compounds on the biosynthesis of DSF family signals. Several compounds were found to promote biosynthesis of BDSF. Finally, using an X. campestris pv. campestris ΔrpfB–Chinese cabbage infection model and an ultra-performance liquid chromatographic-time of flight-mass spectrometry–based assay, BDSF was found to comprise >70% of the DSF family signals present in infected cabbage tissue. BDSF at a concentration of 2.0 μM induced both protease activity and engXCA expression. This is the first report to directly show that BDSF is the predominant in-planta QS signal used during X. campestris pv. campestris infection. It provides a better understanding of the molecular interactions between X. campestris pv. campestris and its cruciferous hosts and also provides the logical target for designing strategies to counteract BDSF signaling and, thus, infection. Further studies are needed to get an exact idea about the DSF production dynamics of the wild-type strain inside the plant.
Draft Genome Resources of Two Strains of Xylella fastidiosa XYL1732/17 and XYL2055/17 Isolated from Mallorca Vineyards
Authors: Gomila Margarita , Moralejo Eduardo , Busquets Antonio , Segui Guillem , Olmo Diego , Nieto Alicia , Juan Andreu , Lalucat Jorge
Published: December 2018

Xylella fastidiosa is a plant-pathogenic bacterium that causes serious diseases in many crops of economic importance and is a quarantine organism in the European Union. This study reports a de novo-assembled draft genome sequence of the first isolates causing Pierce’s disease in Europe: X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa strains XYL1732/17 and XYL2055/17. Both strains were isolated from grapevines (Vitis vinifera) showing Pierce’s disease symptoms at two different locations in Mallorca, Spain. The XYL1732/17 genome is 2,444,109 bp long, with a G+C content of 51.5%; it contains 2,359 open reading frames and 48 tRNA genes. The XYL2055/17 genome is 2,456,780 bp long, with a G+C content of 51.5%; it contains 2,384 open reading frames and 48 tRNA genes.
OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY IN PATIENTS WITH RETINITIS PIGMENTOSA
Authors: Alnawaiseh Maged , Schubert Friederike , Heiduschka Peter , Eter Nicole
Published: December 2018

Purpose:

To evaluate the correlation between the flow density measured by optical coherence tomography angiography and functional parameters in patients with retinitis pigmentosa.

Methods:

Twenty eyes of 20 patients with retinitis pigmentosa and 21 eyes of 21 healthy subjects were prospectively included in this study. Optical coherence tomography angiography was performed using RTVue XR Avanti with AngioVue (Optovue Inc). The macula was imaged with a 6 × 6-mm2 scan, whereas for the optic nerve head a 4.5 × 4.5-mm2 scan was taken. Visual acuity, visual field parameters (mean deviation and visual field index), full-field electroretinography, and multifocal electroretinography were tested for correlation with flow density data.

Results:

The flow density (whole en face) in the superficial/deep retinal OCT angiograms and in the optical coherence tomography angiography of the optic nerve head was significantly lower in the retinitis pigmentosa group when compared with the control group (P < 0.001). The flow density in the superficial retinal OCT angiogram (fovea) correlated significantly with the visual acuity (rSpearman = −0.77, P < 0.001) and the visual field parameters (visual field index: rSpearman = 0.56, P = 0.01; mean deviation: rSpearman = 0.54, P = 0.01).

Conclusion:

Patients with retinitis pigmentosa show a decreased macular and optic nerve head perfusion compared with healthy subjects. The flow density measured using optical coherence tomography angiography correlated with subjective and objective functional parameters.
Synovial chondromatosis of the hip joint in childhood
Authors: Wen Jie , Liu Hong , Xiao Sheng , Li Xin , Fang Ke , Tang Zhongwen , Cao Shu , Li Fanling , Cai Guangqing , Hu Chen
Published: December 2018

Rationale:

Pain in the hip joint is a common symptom in children. The common diseases leading to pain in the hip joint in children include transient synovitis of the hip, septic arthritis of the hip, and Legg–Calve–Perthes disease.

Patient concerns:

A 7-year-old boy was admitted due to pain in the right hip joint and limping for more than 1 month.

Diagnosis:

Synovial chondromatosis.

Interventions:

The patient underwent a hip open surgery, all the loose bodies in articular capsule were removed.

Outcomes:

At the 6-month follow-up, pain and limping disappeared, and the range of activity of the hip joint was restored to a normal level.

Conclusions:

Synovial chondromatosis is an uncommon disease which can cause pain of hip joint in children.

Lessons:

When the pediatric orthopedic surgeon treats the children suffered with hip pain the surgeon should be aware of this rare disease.
Clinical application of susceptibility-weighted imaging in the evaluation of leptomeningeal collateralization
Authors: Yang Lijuan , Luo Song
Published: December 2018

The feasibility of using susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) in a clinical setting was assessed for quantifying leptomeningeal collateralization.

Eighteen patients with stroke and acute infarction underwent diffusion-weighted imaging, SWI, perfusion-weighted imaging, and magnetic resonance angiography within 3 days after symptom onset. Lesions were evaluated by the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT score (ASPECTS), based on mean transit time, SWI, and cerebral blood volume (CBV).

For evaluating ischemic penumbra and leptomeningeal collateralization, the SWI-ASPECTS significantly correlated, respectively, with mean transit time and CBV-ASPECTS (Spearman test, r = 0.793 and 0.682; P < .001, both).

The SWI may be useful to quantify leptomeningeal collateralization in patients with acute cerebral infarction.
Red man syndrome following the use of vancomycin-loaded bone cement in the primary total knee replacement
Authors: Chen Chu-Ting , Ng Khai-Jing , Lin Yu , Kao Ming-Chang
Published: December 2018

Rationale:

Red man syndrome (RMS) is the most common allergic reaction to vancomycin. It generally occurs during rapid infusion of vancomycin; only few cases have been reported as results of local vancomycin administration. We hereby report a rare case where RMS developed after insertion of vancomycin-loaded bone cement in a primary total knee replacement (TKR).

Patient concerns:

A 74-year-old woman was admitted for a left TKR due to severe osteoarthritis. Erythematous changes over face, trunk, and extremities developed after the use of vancomycin-loaded bone cement.

Diagnoses:

According to the clinical manifestations, the patient was diagnosed with vancomycin-induced RMS.

Interventions:

She was treated with fluid challenge and intravenous ephedrine, followed by intravenous diphenhydramine and hydrocortisone.

Outcomes:

The patient's symptoms and signs relieved within 1 h after treatment.

Lessons:

Vancomycin-induced RMS may occur after the routine use of vancomycin-loaded bone cement in the primary TKR replacement.
The genetic association between osteoprotegerin (OPG) gene polymorphisms and bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women
Authors: Peng Yuqin , Sheng Xiaowen , Xue Feng , Qian Yufeng
Published: December 2018

Background:

Osteoporosis is a common skeletal disorder in eldest people, especially in postmenopausal women. The osteoprotegerin (OPG) gene has been reported to be associated with the BMD and pathogenesis of osteoporosis. However, the results were inconsistent and inconclusive in previous studies.

Methods:

A meta-analysis was performed to investigate the effect of four common OPG gene polymorphisms (A163G, G1181C, T245G, and T950C) on BMD in postmenopausal women.

Results:

A total of 23 eligible studies with 12,973 postmenopausal women were enrolled in present study. Individuals who with AA genotype of A163G were found to have slightly higher femoral hip (P = .03, SMD = 0.49, [95% CI] = [0.06, 0.91]) and total hip BMD (P = .002, SMD = −0.25, [95% CI] = [−0.42, −0.09]) than those with AG genotype. Subjects with GG genotype of G1181C was found to have lower BMD than those with CC or GC genotypes in lumbar spine (GG vs GC: P = .0002, SMD = −0.85, [95% CI] = [−1.29, −0.41]; GG vs CC: P = .02, SMD = −0.21, [−0.39, −0.03]) and total hip BMD (GG vs GC: P = .002, SMD = −0.25, [95% CI] = [−0.42, −0.09]; GG vs CC: P = .01, SMD = −0.15, [95% CI] = [−0.26, −0.03]). In addition, the subjects with GC genotype of G1181C was detected to have lower BMD than those with CC genotype in lumbar spine BMD (P < .05). Furthermore, individuals with TT genotype of T950C were shown to have significant lower lumbar spine BMD compared with those with genotype CC in Caucasian (P < .05). The lumbar spine BMD was lower for subjects with TC genotype of T950C than those with CC genotype in both Caucasian and Asian populations (P < .05). In contrast to A163G, G1181C, and T950G, no association was detected between T245G polymorphism and BMD (P > .05).

Conclusion:

The present meta-analysis demonstrated the OPG A163G, G1181C, and T950G, but not T245G, might influence the BMD in postmenopausal women.
Progression of immunoglobulin G4-related disease to systematic lupus erythematosus after gastric cancer surgery
Authors: Arai Haruna , Hayashi Hiroki , Ogata Soshiro , Uto Kenichi , Saegusa Jun , Takahashi Kazuo , Koide Shigehisa , Inaguma Daijyo , Hasegawa Midori , Yuzawa Yukio
Published: December 2018

Rationale:

Immunoglobulin G4 related disease (IgG4-RD) rarely coexists with other autoimmune diseases, though we had a patient whose primary clinical problem was shifted from IgG4-RD to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) after gastrectomy. The present paper aimed to report pathological findings and clinical course of the patient.

Patient concerns:

The patient was a male aged 74 years old with gastric cancer characterized by the following symptoms: Raynaud phenomenon, polyarthralgia, and swollen parotid glands on both sides. Before gastrectomy, laboratory examination results showed renal dysfunction, hypocomplementemia, antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) positivity, and elevated serum IgG and IgG4 levels.

Diagnosis:

Based on postoperative renal biopsy showing severe plasma cell infiltration with tubulointerstitial fibrosclerosis, the patient was diagnosed with IgG4-RD. Despite significant improvement in renal function and reduction in parotid gland swelling during the postoperative follow-up period, after 7 months of the gastrectomy, anti-DNA antibody levels were increased and serositis was detected, which indicated the onset of SLE. IgG4-type ANA were also detected in the sera of the patient.

Interventions:

Treatment by oral prednisolone at 30 mg/day was initiated.

Outcomes:

Pericardial fluid, pleural effusions, and thickening of the gallbladder wall improved after 3 months of treatment according to computed tomography.

Lessons:

This study presented a rare case of comorbidity, wherein the patient's primary problem progressed from IgG4-type ANA-positive IgG4-RD to SLE after excision of gastric cancer.
Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha expression correlates with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in women with breast cancer
Authors: Nie Caiyun , Lv Huifang , Bie Liangyu , Hou Honglin , Chen Xiaobing
Published: December 2018

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1a) has been shown to contribute to resistance to chemotherapy in breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether HIF-1a is predictive for pathological response and the prognostic value of HIF-1a in local advanced breast undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Two hundred twenty patients with none-metastatic locally advanced invasive breast cancer (stages II–III) that subsequently received neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included in an observational study to assess the HIF-1a protein expression by immunohistochemistry. Associations between HIF-1a expression and pathological complete response (pCR) were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis. Independent prognostic factors for RFS were identified by multivariate Cox's proportional hazard analysis. A P value < .05 was considered to be statistically significant.

The median age was 46 years, Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2-positive, and triple-negative accounted for 3.6%, 57.7%, 7.0% and 16.0%, respectively. A total of 41 patients (18.6%) achieved a pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the present study. HIF-1α negative patients had a significantly higher pCR rate than HIF-1α positive patients (P = .027). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that HIF-1α negative expression is an independent favorable predictor of pCR. Multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that the HIF-1a expression before NCT showed an independent prognostic value for RFS (HR = 4.168, 95% CI: 1.012–17.170, P = .048).

HIF-1a expression correlates with pCR in breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Absent expression of HIF-1a was associated with a better pathological response and could indicate a favorable prognosis in non-pCR breast cancer patients.
Therapeutic efficacy and safety of Shexiang Baoxin Pill combined with trimetazidine in elderly patients with heart failure secondary to ischaemic cardiomyopathy
Authors: Wen Jianxia , Ma Xiao , Zhang Lu , Lu Xiaohua , Yang Yuxue , Wang Jian , Zhao Yanling
Published: December 2018

Background:

Shexiang Baoxin Pill (SBP) is one of the most commonly used traditional Chinese patent medicines for cardiovascular diseases. This systematic review was designed to provide rigorous therapeutic efficacy and safety evidence on the use of SBP combined with trimetazidine in elderly patients with heart failure (HF) secondary to ischaemic cardiomyopathy (ICM).

Methods:

Relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the clinical efficacy of SBP combined with trimetazidine in treating ICM-associated HF were widely searched in electronic databases, including PubMed, Cochrane library, EMBASE, CBM, CNKI, VMIS, and Wanfang up to January 1, 2018. The methodological quality of each trial was assessed according to the Cochrane Reviewers’ Handbook 5.0. Meta-analysis was performed by using Review Manager 5.3.

Results:

Eighteen RCTs (N = 1532) that met the criteria were included in the review for the assessment of methodological quality. Meta-analysis showed that, when compared with conventional therapy, SBP combined with trimetazidine significantly improved the clinical efficacy and indices of cardiac function (including increasing left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] and 6-minute walk distance [6-MWD], decreasing left ventricular end-diastolic diameter [LVEDD] and left ventricular end-systolic diameter [LVESD]) without serious adverse reactions.

Conclusion:

This work provides evidence of the benefit of SBP combined with trimetazidine for the treatment of HF secondary to ICM. More high quality and well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm these findings.
Effective treatment of advanced alveolar soft part sarcoma with sunitinib
Authors: Ye Chenyang , Wang Ji , Li Wenshan , Yuan Mingjing , Chai Ying
Published: December 2018

Rationale:

Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) is a very rare soft tissue sarcoma. ASPS often occurs in deep soft tissues of the lower extremities, and develops into metastatic diseases. Chemotherapy is considered to be ineffective in patients with ASPS, which constitutes a very important clinical challenge. The strategy for ASPS treatment still requires clarification in order to improve survival outcome. Patients concerns: A 19-year-old female patient presented with a 5-year history of painless lump in the left knee and 4-day cough. Her previous medical history was unremarkable. Menstruation and family history were also normal in this patient, whose physical examination and laboratory test results showed no abnormalities.

Diagnosis:

ASPS was confirmed by clinical manifestations, radiological data and pathological diagnosis of the biopsy of left knee.

Interventions and outcomes:

This patient received circulating tumor DNA detection and only a mutation of the SMARCA4 gene was detected. The patient received sunitinib treatment (37.5 mg once daily) for 15 months and showed partial regression of lung metastatic lesions and stabilization of brain metastases. She achieved 15 months of progression free survival.

Conclusions:

Sunitinib is effective for the treatment of advanced ASPS with lung and brain metastases. The current patient had long-term progression free survival under sunitinib administration.
Effectiveness and safety of warm needle acupuncture on insomnia
Authors: Chen Baishu , Zhang GangYu , Liu Cuiling , Chen QianYing , Zhang MingJia , Li JianHao , Zhou Peng , Fu Wei , Zhu Meiling
Published: December 2018

Background:

Warm needle acupuncture (WNA) combines acupuncture and moxibustion, which is an integral part of the acupuncture therapy. Insomnia is a common sleep disorder, which affects sub-healthy people and patients with chronic disease. The clinical practice indicates that WNA has a therapeutic effect on insomnia. Here we will provide a protocol to explore the effectiveness and safety of WNA for insomnia.

Methods:

We will search the randomized controlled trails (RCT) literatures of WNA for insomnia in 9 electronic databases, including 5 English databases [PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Cochrane Library), and WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (TCTRP)] and 4 Chinese databases [Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese VIP Information, Wanfang Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM)]. Sleep quality value of the patient will be considered as the primary outcome and the secondary outcome will include biochemical, indicators total scores on the insomnia severity index, quality of life, adverse events caused by WNA, and changes of symptom in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The selection of the studies will be performed by EndnoteX7 software. All analyses will be conducted by using RevMan software V5.3.

Result:

This study will provide a rational synthesis of current evidences for warm needle acupuncture on insomnia.

Conclusion:

The conclusion of this study will provide evidence to judge the effectiveness and safety of WNA on insomnia.

Registration:

PROS-PERO CRD42018112645
Efficacy of erbium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet for achieving pre-emptive dental laser analgesia in children
Authors: Veneva Elitsa , Raycheva Ralitsa , Belcheva Ani
Published: December 2018

Introduction:

A current non-pharmacological mean for attaining painless conservative treatment is presented by laser analgesia (LA), considered as bio-photomodulation of pulp reactivity aiming reduction of nociceptive impulse formation. Currently no consensus is reached regarding a detailed protocol with laser parameter settings for pre-emptive LA. The purpose of this study is determining the efficacy of erbium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Er:YAG) laser in achieving pulpal analgesia and quantifying duration and extent of any effects assessed.

Methods and analysis:

The proposed study is a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized split-mouth clinical trial with 2-way repeated measures design. Eligible patients of age 10 to 12 years undergo 2 single-visit treatments, receiving LA or placebo analgesia (PA) prior to caries ablation, randomized via computer-generated, permuted-block sequence. Primary outcome measure is pain felt during treatment, reported by patient on visual-analogue scale. Secondary outcomes: changes in pulpal sensibility to electrical and cold-stimuli; patient experience during LA/PA; pain-related behavior according to Faces, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolabilty (FLACC) scale; heart-rate dynamics. Data will be analyzed with intention-to-treat concept by Student t test for paired samples, P < .05. Pre-test on 20 subjects resulted in n = 41 patients needing to be recruited.

Ethics and dissemination:

This study protocol has been approved by the Committee for Scientific Research Ethics, Medical University - Plovdiv, Bulgaria (Reference number P-8604, Protocol of approval N:6/23.11.2017) and registered on a publically accessible database. This research received institutional funding from the Medical University – Plovdiv, Bulgaria under project SPD-03/2017. Findings will be reported in scientific publications and at research conferences, and in project summary papers for participants.

Trial registration:

ClinicalTrials.gov (Registration number: NCT03412721).