bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Chad: Armed Presidents and Politics
Authors: Hansen Ketil
Published: October 2020

Politics in Chad was militarized at the time of colonial conquest and has remained so ever since. Except for the French-supported candidacy of François Tombalbaye for the presidency in 1960, all other presidents of Chad have been connected to a coup d’état. All presidents in independent Chad have relied heavily on armed support, creating ample armies, feared presidential guards, and terrifying secret services. Proxy wars, political mistrust, economic opportunity-seeking, and strategic ever-changing armed alliances characterize Chadian politics. Flexibility and fluidity have embodied the heart of armed resistance in Chad since the establishment of the first important politico-military rebel movement Frolinat in 1966. In fact, for rebels and powerholders alike, the state is at its best when it is most fragile (in a Western sense). With fragility comes blurriness and flexibility and thus predation opportunities.

During the Cold War, most of the various armed fractions were supported militarily and economically by either the United States and France or Libyan Colonel Gaddafi and the regime in Khartoum. During Habré’s regime (1982–1990), the Cold War heated Chad. Fearing to lose Chad to the communists or “crazy” Colonel Gaddafi, the United States and France supported a brutal and ruthless Chadian president who ruled with terror and force.

The current president, Déby, gained power in the wake of the Cold War and has managed to keep it ever since by cleverly changing his rhetoric from a hope for democracy to a fear of war, both internally and internationally. After starting to export oil in 2003, Chad has used petrodollars to upgrade its armed forces, both in numbers and in materiel. Since about 2010, Chad has been a prime EU- and US-financed antiterrorism force in the Sahel. With its courageous troops, especially the former Presidential Guard, transformed in 2005 to Direction Générale de Service de Sécurité des Institutions de l’État (DGSSIE) and from 2014 led by Mahamat Déby, son of President Déby, Chad’s army has gained international fame. The Chadian army has benefited largely from the tactical training and military equipment provided by the United States and France in the name of antiterrorism. Thus, by the end of the 2010s, Chad had one of the best-equipped and trained armies in Africa.
Jordan: The Military and Politics in the Hashemite Kingdom
Authors: Ryan Curtis R.
Published: October 2020

The Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), unlike their counterparts in many other parts of the Middle East, have never taken power in a coup. The military has no direct role in governance, but its shadow looms large in Jordanian politics, especially as the kingdom has been challenged by regional wars, internal conflicts, and (after 2010) by the domestic and regional effects of the Arab Spring (Arab uprisings). The only time Jordan came close to a military coup was in 1957, in an era marked by heightened pan-Arab nationalism and politicization of armed forces across the Arab world. But that coup was foiled almost as soon as it began, leaving the armed forces thereafter to cast themselves as the protectors not only of the country but also of the Hashemite monarchy. Jordan’s armed forces fought in multiple wars with Israel, including in 1948 and 1967, with a more limited role in the 1973 Arab–Israeli war. The military was also involved intensely in internal conflict, especially in 1970–1971, when King Hussein’s armed forces clashed with the guerilla forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Although they never overthrew the state nor established a military government in Jordan, the Jordanian Armed Forces nonetheless played a large role in Jordanian politics, society, and even in the economy. The military was also part of a broader array of security institutions, including the intelligence services, the police, and the gendarmerie. An aid-dependent country with limited resources, Jordan faced countless fiscal crises over the years, but its military and security budgets continued to grow. Hashemite kings have tended to dote on the armed forces, ensuring large budgets and the latest in arms and equipment. Even the regime’s attempt to cultivate a strong Jordanian national identity was deeply rooted in the images of the military, the monarchy itself, and the other key security institutions. But while the military’s influence loomed large in public life, it did not necessarily reflect a broad range of Jordanian society, being drawn heavily from Jordan’s tribal, rural, and East Jordanian communities, rather than from more urban, largely Palestinian-Jordanian communities. But in the era of the Arab uprisings across the Middle East (especially after 2010), military veterans—especially those with tribal and East Jordanian roots—played ever more vocal roles in Jordanian politics, remaining loyal to the monarchy, but also feeling empowered to lecture the monarchy about perceived flaws in social and economic policies. The personnel in Jordan’s military and security institutions, in short, were drawn from the same tribes, regions, and communities that were most fervently challenging the regime and its policies in the Arab Spring era, changing the nature of Jordanian politics itself.
Lexicographic Decision Rule
Authors: Şimşek Özgür
Published: October 2020

The lexicographic decision rule is one of the simplest methods of choosing among decision alternatives. It is based on a simple priority ranking of the attributes available. According to the lexicographic decision rule, a decision alternative is better than another alternative if and only if it is better than the other alternative in the most important attribute on which the two alternatives differ. In other words, the lexicographic decision rule does not allow trade-offs among the various attributes. For example, if quality is considered to be more important than cost, no difference in price can compensate for a difference in quality: The lexicographic decision rule chooses the item with the best quality regardless of the cost.

Over the years, the lexicographic decision rule has been compared to various statistical learning methods, including multiple linear regression, support vector machines, decision trees, and random forests. The results show that the lexicographic decision rule can sometimes compete remarkably well with more complex statistical methods and even outperform them, despite its naively simple structure. These results have stimulated a rich scientific literature on why, and under what conditions, lexicographic decision rules yield accurate decisions. Due to the simplicity of its decision process, its fast execution time, and the robustness of its performance in various decision environments, the lexicographic decision rule is considered to be a plausible model of human decision making. In particular, the lexicographic decision rule is put forward as a model of how the human mind implements bounded rationality to make accurate decisions when information is scarce, time is short, and computational capacity is limited.
Frameworks of Critical Race Theory
Authors: Ross Lee E.
Published: October 2020

Critical race theory (CRT) concerns the study and transformation of relationships among race, (ethnicity), racism, and power. For many scholars, CRT is a theoretical and interpretative lens that analyzes the appearance of race and racism within institutions and across literature, film, art, and other forms of social media. Unlike traditional civil rights approaches that embraced incrementalism and systematic progress, CRT questioned the very foundations of the legal order. Since the 1980s, various disciplines have relied on this theory—most notably the fields of education, history, legal studies, feminist studies, political science, psychology, sociology, and criminal justice—to address the dynamics and challenges of racism in American society. While earlier narratives may have exclusively characterized the plight of African Americans against institutional power structures, later research has advocated the importance of understanding and highlighting the narratives of all people of color. Moreover, the theoretical lenses of CRT have broadened its spectrum to include frameworks that capture the struggles and experiences of Latinx, Asian, and Native Americans as well. Taken collectively, these can be regarded as critical race studies. Each framework relies heavily on certain principles of CRT, exposing the easily obscured and often racialized power structures of American society. Included among these principles (and related tenets) is white supremacy, white privilege, interest convergence, legal indeterminacy, intersectionality, and storytelling, among others. An examination of each framework reveals its remarkable potential to inform and facilitate an understanding of racialized practices within and across American power structures and institutions, including education, employment, the legal system, housing, and health care.
Trends and Typologies of Cosmopolitanism in Education
Authors: Spector Hannah
Published: October 2020

Cosmopolitanism in education has been articulated in many ways, potentially making understanding what cosmopolitanism can do or has already done for education confounding. At the same time, seeking to define cosmopolitanism in education runs the risk of pigeonholing an eclectic mix of schiolarship related to the subject. In philosophical and curricular conceptions, cosmopolitanism in education is presented in terms of legacies, trends, and typologies. Typologies include (a) projects and practices, (b) personhood, and (c) phenomena. Projects and practices have tended to explore how human rights and global justice ought to be or have been addressed educationally. At the same time, as a project, cosmopolitanism in education is also argued to be a form of social engineering that is meant to turn unreasonable, “savage” students into reasonable world citizens. Cosmopolitanism in education is also expressed as particular human lives whose individual sense of worldliness and care for the world becomes a curriculum for cosmopolitanism. Conversely, cosmopolitans are critiqued in the abstract as rootless people who care little for the temporary topos they occupy as long as the topos gives them what they need. While still emerging as a trend in education, cosmopolitan phenomena have manifested in the world as boundary-defying, manufactured global risks that threaten a non-excludable plurality of lives. These risks cannot be escaped regardless of identity or affiliation(s). Together, these trends and typologies provide a platform to understand a constellation of cosmopolitanisms in education.
Trans Gender/Queer Youth
Authors: Johnson Alandis A.
Published: October 2020

Trans and gender/queer youth pose some interesting scenarios for education in both secondary and postsecondary realms. Increasing identifications outside of binaries among students, faculty, and staff members who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming, or nonbinary have pushed schools to alter the way these individuals are recognized within these systems. These changes involve deconstructing binaries and the related exclusionary processes and policies. Transgender and gender-expansive youth are challenging the ways in which gender is built into schools, highlighting underlying binaries and structural oppression in all levels of education. Key issues and debates regarding transgender inclusion in educational spheres, such as Title IX, visibility, and knowledge of transgender issues, routes to inclusion, and the fallacy of “best practice.” Generational and cultural differences related to gender recognition and identification will continue to shape educational environments and beyond for years to come.
Rural Education in China
Authors: Du Liang , Li Huimeng , Wang Weijian
Published: October 2020

Rural education has received considerable attention from researchers and policy makers in their attempts to understand the deep-rooted rural/urban dichotomy in China. Most debates surround how to improve the “quality” of rural education and to “rebalance” the level of educational development between rural and urban regions. For this purpose raising the “quality” of teachers across rural schools is highlighted as the key element in many policies and studies, and the focus has shifted from addressing a teacher shortage to the recruitment and retention of quality teachers, especially in those remote regions. Issues in China’s rural education are not only reflections of rural–urban differences but also reproduce these social differentiations. Those who pay the price of the entrenched rural/urban dichotomy in China are the increasing number of “left-behind” children in the rural villages as well as the “floating” students in the urban schools whose numbers have also increased in the past decades. Most members of both groups tend to undergo a social reproduction process in the school systems and eventually become workers in the manufacturing and service industries in urban centers.

Meanwhile, rural education in China is also abundant in culturally meaningful processes. While many scholars and policy makers view the rural school as a critical site for passing on the cultural inheritance of “rural China,” rural students themselves nevertheless creatively make meaning of their daily experiences and produce rich cultural forms. Some of them develop certain forms of “counterschool” culture as they experience educational failure, while others take up cultural traits valued by their rural families and turn them into a form of cultural capital, which consequently plays a pivotal role in the educational and social mobility of rural students.
Landscapes of Teacher Education in South African History
Authors: Chisholm Linda
Published: October 2020

The landscape of history of education has become transformed by approaches that up-end traditional assumptions of the vertical unidirectionality of power, policy, and discourse. These have been displaced by notions of relational comparison and crisscrossing entanglements that draw on Lefebvrian ideas of space and time. These ideas help to provide a sense of how the landscape of education can be understood as both a material and symbolic space, as apprehended, perceived, and lived space, in which social relations are constituted and constitutive of everyday realities. The history of South African education, and specifically its teacher education colleges, exemplifies how landscape can be defined and understood as such spaces. Its history can first be apprehended through different conceptual and historiographical approaches, taken over time, for understanding it. Second, the emergence of specific types of institutions, within colonial political, economic, and social frameworks that defined their physical location and unequal structure in terms of racially segregated and often gender-differentiated spaces, assists in an understanding of these as colonial remnants. The historical landscape of education remains as restructured and reconfigured spaces, in which institutions live on as much in social relations as in memory and in actual, but highly altered physical conditions. As lived spaces, third, historical landscapes of education also embodied learning spatial imaginaries, deeply ambivalent memories of formal and hidden curricula, of formative and shaping years, and as such become landscapes of memory and identity.
Reinforcing Administrator Cultural Consciousness During the Social Media Revolution
Authors: Hughes Thomas R. , Ononuju Ijeoma , Okoli Grace
Published: October 2020

Schools have traditionally been viewed as socializing institutions, and expectations encountered across the educational profession have typically brought administrators to the forefront of the most complex cultural issues experienced across the nation. While growing social instability abounds and fuels an expansion of targets for widespread intolerance, it is increasingly evident in 2020 that the footings upon which racial tolerance was seemingly being built were likely never as solid as was once thought throughout the United States. Contemporary school leaders are expected to face increasingly complex challenges every day. These demands draw them further into a conflict-ridden reality where they are called upon to broaden their cultural awareness and increase their direct connection to the communities they serve. In light of these developments and especially factoring in the escalating intrusions from social media, it is clear that practices once employed to introduce and instill racial understanding within school administrator candidates are in need of updating. If these efforts are going to be successful in effectively supporting equitable leadership in our schools, this updating needs to be geared toward reinforcing and even expanding insights and abilities well beyond the traditional introductory considerations that have been advanced by training models to this point.
The Congo Wars
Authors: Reyntjens Filip
Published: October 2020

The successive Congo wars (1996–1997; 1998–2003) involved many countries of the region and myriad governmental armies and nonstate armed groups. They were, to a large extent, a spillover from the 1990–1994 Rwandan civil war and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. 1.5 million people who fled the country in the wake of the Rwanda Patriotic Front’s military victory settled in Zaire just across the border, and refugee-warriors among them threatened the new regime in place in Kigali. Uganda, Burundi, and Angola were also attacked by insurgent groups operating, at least in part, from Zaire. This led to a regional alliance in support of a Zairean rebel movement that toppled the Mobutu regime in May 1997. The problems at the origin of the first war were not settled with the installation of Laurent Kabila as the new president of what became the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda, followed by Uganda, launched a new war in August 1998, but this was not a remake of the first. As all actors reasoned in terms of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” alliances shifted dramatically and erstwhile friends became enemies. Hostility between Rwanda and Uganda persists up to today. This led to a military stalemate and eventually to a fragile peace deal in 2003. However, the main factors behind the wars have not disappeared, namely the weakness of the Congolese state and the territorial extension of neighboring countries’ civil wars and insurgencies. Eastern DRC remains unstable and widespread violence continuous to claim many civilian lives.
Applying Anthropological Insight in an Aging World
Authors: Briller Sherylyn , Carrillo Erika
Published: October 2020

Aging is a biological and sociocultural experience that occurs globally. Although aging is universal, ideas about aging and the life course vary widely and influence how aging and quality of life are perceived. Aging occurs both individually and collectively. Individuals have their own life stories and experiences shaped by cultural values, norms, and life course expectations. Anthropology’s attention to both scientific and humanistic ways of exploring what it means to be human is well suited to investigating how people live and age over time and in various locations. Like other anthropological subjects, one can explore aging in terms of human evolution as well as biological and cultural variation in aging experiences. Combining these topics to take a holistic perspective forms the subfield of the anthropology of aging. Given the breadth and scope of the anthropology of aging’s subject matter and global population aging, it is easy to see why this subfield is so fascinating to explore and work in as a career field. Numerous prior reviews cover the subfield’s origins and development and are highlighted. Homage is paid to the subfield’s history, and how to apply what has been learned to understanding a rapidly aging and socially changing world is discussed. As many have indicated, significant challenges and opportunities lie ahead.
Consumer Credit and Debt
Authors: Saiag Hadrien
Published: October 2020

The global crisis that erupted in 2007–2008 clearly exposed that debt with financial institutions has become a key element of household social reproduction in most parts of the world. One way to analyze how this situation impacts on people’s lives is to investigate the very nature of debt (its “essence”), which is often conceived as intrinsically violent. However, most anthropologists consider how people manage their debt and take a situated approach to debt in context. Their focus on people’s financial practices takes a broad view of consumer credit as any number of monetary debts that households incur to make ends meet. Their examination of how debt is managed within the household points up that consumer credit is often used to sustain meaningful social relations, although this can trigger a debt spiral. This spotlight on how people’s financial practices relate to broader historical and social contexts shows that the rise of consumer credit is instrumental in reshaping class, racial, and gender relations in their material and moral dimensions, and that people can be found to resist debt in many ways. Although these trends in the anthropological literature make for a rich understanding of debt relations, much could still be done to understand why people in most settings complain about their debts, but do not openly rebel against them.
Genetics and Domestic Fauna in Southern Africa
Authors: Horsburgh K. Ann
Published: October 2020

Genetic analyses of southern African livestock have been limited and primarily focused on agricultural production rather than the reconstruction of prehistory. Attempts to sequence DNA preserved in archaeological remains of domestic stock have been hampered by the discovery of high error rates in the morphological identification of fauna. As such, much DNA sequencing effort that was directed at sequencing southern Africa’s domestic livestock has been expended sequencing wild forms. The few genetic data that are available from both modern and archaeological domestic stock show relatively low genetic diversity in maternally inherited mitochondrial lineages in both sheep and cattle. Analyses of modern stock show, in contrast, that the bi-parentally inherited nuclear genome is relatively diverse. This pattern is perhaps indicative of historic cross-breeding with stock introduced from outside Africa. Critically important to moving forward in our understanding of the prehistory of domesticates in southern Africa is attention to the high error rates in faunal analyses that have been documented both genetically and through ZooMS.
The United States and World War II in Europe
Authors: Waddell Steve R.
Published: October 2020

With the outbreak of war in Europe, a growing fear of and ultimately a concerted effort to defeat Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany defined American involvement. Competing Allied national and strategic interests resulted in serious debates, but the common desire to defeat the enemy proved stronger than any disagreements. President Franklin Roosevelt, understanding the isolationist sentiments of the American public and the dangers of Nazism and Imperial Japan perhaps better than most, carefully led the nation through the difficult period of 1939–1941, overseeing a gradual increase in American military preparedness and support for those standing up to Nazi Germany, as the German military forces achieved victory after victory.

Following American entry into the war, strategic discussions in 1942–1943 often involved ambitious American military plans countered by British voices of moderation. The forces and supplies available made a direct invasion of northern France unfeasible. The American desire to launch an immediate invasion across the English Channel gave way to the Allied invasion of North Africa and subsequent assault on Sicily and the Italian peninsula. The Tehran Conference in November 1943 marked a transition, as the buildup of American forces in Europe and the overwhelming contribution of war materials enabled the United States to determine American-British strategy from late 1943 to the end of the war. The final year and a half of the war in Europe saw a major shift in strategic leadership, as the United States along with the Soviet Union assumed greater control over the final steps toward victory over Nazi Germany.

By the end of World War II (May 1945 in Europe and September 1945 in Asia), the United States had not only assumed the leadership of the Western Allies, it had achieved superpower status with the greatest air force and navy in the world. It was also the sole possessor of the atomic bomb. Even with the tensions with the Soviet Union and beginnings of a Cold War, most Americans felt the United States was the leader as the world entered the post-war era.
Labor Day and the American Working Class
Authors: Haverty-Stacke Donna T.
Published: October 2020

The first Labor Day parade was held on September 5, 1882, in New York City. It, and the annual holiday demonstrations that followed in that decade and the next, resulted from the growth of the modern organized labor movement that took place in the context of the second industrial revolution. These first Labor Day celebrations also became part of the then ongoing ideological and tactical divisions within that movement. By the early 1900s, workers’ desire to enjoy the fruits of their labor by participating in popular leisure pursuits came to characterize the day. But union leaders, who considered such leisure pursuits a distraction from displays of union solidarity, continued to encourage the organization of parades. With the protections afforded to organized labor by the New Deal, and with the gains made during and after World War II (particularly among unionized white, male, industrial laborers), Labor Day parades declined further after 1945 as workers enjoyed access to mass cultural pursuits, increasingly in suburban settings. This decline was indicative of a broader loss of union movement culture that had served to build solidarity within unions, display working-class militancy to employers, and communicate the legitimacy of organized labor to the American public. From time to time since the late 1970s unions have attempted to reclaim the power of Labor Day to make concerted demands through their display of workers’ united power; but, for most Americans the holiday has become part of a three-day weekend devoted to shopping or leisure that marks the end of the summer season.
Indigenous Policy and Politics in Twentieth-Century Brazil
Authors: Garfield Seth W.
Published: October 2020

Over the course of the 20th century, Brazil’s Indigenous population underwent dramatic change. Frontier expansion, agricultural modernization, and natural resource extraction led to the invasion of Indigenous lands and interethnic conflict. Indigenous peoples that had once secured refuge through territorial dominion were besieged by settlers and epidemic disease. Communities with longer histories of integration confronted expulsion, social marginalization, and bigotry. Dominant ideologies tended to dichotomize Indigenous peoples as cultural isolates or degenerates.

The Brazilian state played a key role in the social transformation of the countryside through the expansion of transportation infrastructure, the subsidization of large-scale agriculture, and the promotion of mineral extraction and hydroelectric power. Upholding developmentalism as an economic and geopolitical imperative, the Brazilian state sought to mediate ensuing social conflicts. The Indigenous Affairs bureau aspired to conciliate interethnic tension through adoption of a protectionist policy and “tutelage” of Native peoples, yet full-fledged Indigenous acculturation, deemed indispensable for nation-building and market integration, remained the endgame.

Confronting the onslaught on their lifeways, Indigenous peoples mobilized in defense of their communities. With the support of domestic and foreign allies, Native peoples in Brazil made significant advances in demographic recovery, political organization, and legal recognition of their lands and cultures. Nevertheless, the Indigenous populations of Brazil continue to struggle against land invasion and poverty, violence, social prejudice, and challenges to their constitutional rights. The history of Indigenous policy and politics in 20th-century Brazil reflects not only a minority population’s fight for cultural survival and social inclusion but a battle over the soul of a nation.
Justice and Society in Colonial Brazil during the 17th and 18th Centuries
Authors: Mello Isabele de Matos Pereira de
Published: October 2020

In early modern societies, the duty of enforcing justice was one of the principal tasks of the monarch. Judicial power could be exercised both directly by the monarch—the supreme magistrate—or by those he delegated it to—judges or his courts. In the vast territory of Portuguese America, different institutions were created to ensure access to justice, to help govern the people, to assist in long-distance administration, and to maintain control over the crown’s dominions. Ouvidorias-gerais, judges, and courts were established with their own institutional officials, intermixing lower- and higher-level jurisdictions and exercising justice over distinct territorial spaces. To understand the functioning of judicial institutions in colonial society, it is important to analyze the universe of magistrates, their careers, judicial practices, and complex relations in the social environment. Magistrates, as an important professional group recruited by the Portuguese monarchy, had multiple overseas possibilities. They could serve at the same time as representatives of royal power and allies of local groups. These men faced a colonial reality that allowed them a wide sphere of action, the exercise of a differentiated authority, and a privileged position as intermediaries between local elites and the king. Even though all magistrates were subject to the same rules of selection, recruitment, appointment, and promotion, the exercise of justice in the slaveholding society of Portuguese America demanded a great capacity for adaptation and negotiation, for the application of law in the mosaic of local judicial situations. Magistrates circulated in different spaces, creating and working in different judicial institutions in the difficult balance between theory and practice, between written law and customary law.
Women at the Forefront of Civil Society Advocacy in Disaster Risk Reduction Governance
Authors: Delica-Willison Zenaida , Sevilla-Alvarez Adelina
Published: October 2020

Women as leaders, innovators, and trailblazers in promoting agendas to uplift society is an accepted fact. Worldwide, many have gained recognition and respect for their work in their spheres of advocacy. Nobel Prize–awardees Mother Teresa for charity and Malala Yousafzai for a child’s right to education are but two of the more universally recognizable exemplars of women who have reshaped worldwide advocacy for social upliftment.

Away from the global limelight, countless other women, individually and as representatives of different sectors, have been steadily reshaping the political, social, economic, and development environments without much fanfare over the last several decades. Many civil society organizations in different parts of the world became avenues for women when advocating various issues, for example, promoting policy development and reforms, rights claiming, defending democratic spaces, affirming economic welfare and well-being in numerous sectors, and upholding gender equality and inclusion. Women are truly at the forefront of civil society advocacies, including disaster risk reduction.

In the world of disaster risk reduction and development, women have become vanguards in promoting good disaster risk reduction governance. The role of women in advocating the mitigation or even elimination of disaster risks, as individuals or members and leaders of civil society organizations, must be viewed in the context of women who continue to balance home life and community work as challenges to be overcome Since the turn of the 21st century (and before), they speak with greater authority on disaster risk reduction, environmental governance, or sustainable development in the larger public sphere, which serves as a testament to their hard-won victory in making the world sit up and listen to those whose voices are least heard.
A Civics Primer for American History
Authors: Ortiz Paul
Published: October 2020

This AHR Roundtable features four short essays on Jill Lepore’s widely read synthesis of American history, These Truths: A History of the United States (2018). Lepore’s framework insists that the “self-evident” truths of the nation’s founding were anything but. The driving force of her narrative is the struggle of those excluded from this magic circle—really, the majority of the country’s population—to extend those truths beyond their narrow core of elite white men. The four reviewers—Ned Blackhawk, Matt Garcia, Mary Beth Norton, and Paul Ortiz—appreciate the “shared sense of national destiny” that clearly informs Lepore book. At the same time, they chide her for what they regard as significant omissions. These critical essays invite further consideration of how best to write a fully inclusive (and therefore dramatically reconfigured) national narrative
Myeloperoxidase Expression in B-Lymphoblastic Leukemia by Immunohistochemistry as a Diagnostic Confounder
Authors: Du Jing , Moklebust Amanda , Cherian Sindhu , Edlefsen Kerstin , Fromm Jonathan R , Li K David , Thomason Ron , Soma Lorinda
Published: October 2020

Background

B-lymphoblastic leukemia (BLL) is a B lineage neoplasm that expresses typical immature B cell markers, but may also express myeloid-associated antigens. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is a heme-containing peroxidase, which has been used as the single most specific myeloid marker when assigning lineage to acute leukemia. MPO positivity by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in BLL has been historically described in a subset of patients; however, further detailed comparison of IHC to flow cytometry and IHC methodology is described herein.

Design

The University of Washington pathology database was searched for new or relapsed adult BLL from 2011–2019. Cases with blasts >30% of marrow cellularity by morphology were selected. MPO IHC was performed using the Dako, polyclonal antibody (rabbit) on a Ventana instrument with streptavidin-biotin (SB) detection method. MPO IHC SB positive cases were also stained using the same antibody and platform, but a different detection method, multimer-optiview (MO). MPO IHC was called positive when >10% of neoplastic blasts showed expression. MPO positive blast percentage, staining intensity and pattern were assessed. Intensity: 0=negative, 1=mild, 2=moderate, 3=bright/same level as myeloids. Cytoplasmic pattern: homogenous or granular. Concurrent flow cytometry results and cytogenetic and/or molecular studies were reviewed.

Results

35 cases were identified. Positive MPO IHC expression was present in 7/35 cases by SB method, with the percentage of MPO positive blasts ranging from 20–90% (majority >70%), all ranged from 1 - 2+ intensity and most (5/7) were homogenous pattern. 4/5 MPO SB positive cases were negative by MO detection method. MPO evaluation by flow cytometry was negative in 3 of 3 cases and myeloid associated antigens were negative or low on a subset. 2/8 BLL, BCR-ABL1 cases were MPO IHC positive by SB.

Conclusion

MPO staining by IHC in BLL is present in 17% of cases, often present in the majority of blasts, and positive using the SB detection system. This aberrant staining can be negated in most cases with the MO detection system. MPO expression by flow cytometry in MPO IHC SB positive cases were negative (3/3) and were low to absent for other myeloid antigens. We agree with prior studies that MPO IHC using the SB method can be a confounder for lineage assignment in acute leukemia.
High-Volume Platelet Distribution: Who Makes the Clinical Decision?
Authors: Addams Joel , Stephens Laura
Published: October 2020

Anecdotally, many clinicians expect blood components to arrive in standard volumes. Blood components do not come in uniform sizes, however, and institutional experience has revealed platelet units to vary considerably in volume. Since many clinicians are not the ones examining blood products and their volumes prior to transfusion, there is a potential to transfuse a high-volume unit inadvertently to a patient at risk of transfusion-associated fluid overload (TACO), a leading cause of transfusion-related fatalities. The intent of this study was to examine the allocation practices of high-volume platelet units at an academic medical center.

Over a six-month period, blood bank technical staff prospectively logged the allocation of high-volume apheresis platelet units with volumes greater than or equal to 400 mL. The staff member who issued the product logged the reason(s), if any, why he or she selected the unit for a particular patient when more than one ABO type-specific product was available. No patient identifiers or data were logged or analyzed in this study.

Eighty-seven high-volume platelet units were recorded during the study period. The volumes ranged from 395 to 872 mL, with an average and standard deviation of 571 mL and 92 mL, respectively. Blood bank staff listed the following reasons for their allocation of high-volume platelet unit as follows: the product expiration date in 23 cases (26%), patient age in 13 cases (15%), patient sex in 12 cases (14%), and intraoperative use in 10 cases (11%).

This study enumerated the variability in platelet unit volume, with some units containing likely double or triple the volume of the ordering clinicians expectations. Blood bank technologists made clinical decisions in the allocation of high-volume units in three-quarters of the documented cases. This underscores a need to provide clearly-defined guidelines for allocating such units, as well as a mechanism for clinicians to request lower-volume units, particularly for patients at risk of TACO.
Anti-Tumor TCF1+ CD8 T Cells are Functionally Diverse and Evolve During Tumorigenesis and Progression
Authors: Schenkel Jason , Herbst Rebecca , Canner David , Li Amy , Hillman Michelle , Smith Olivia , Rozenblatt-Rosen Orit , Regev Aviv , Jacks Tyler
Published: October 2020

CD8+ T cells drive protective responses against infection and cancer. In the context of chronic antigen stimulation, CD8+ T cells become progressively dysfunctional, losing the ability to proliferate, secrete cytokines, and kill target cells. While dysfunctional CD8 T cells have been characterized in infection, studies examining longitudinal responses in tumors have been limited. Here, in an autochthonous model of lung adenocarcinoma using high dimensional flow cytometry and single cell RNA sequencing, we demonstrate that tumor specific CD8 T cell heterogeneity is dynamic, revealing multiple dysfunctional-like CD8 T cell populations. Among these states, we identify TCF-1+ CD8 T cells, a population previously associated with superior functionality. Temporal analysis revealed heterogeneity within the TCF-1+ CD8+ T cell compartment - SlamF6+ CD8 T cells were predominant in early stage disease, while SlamF6- CD8 T cells appeared later and were the majority during progression. Functionally, the SlamF6+ population was proliferative and expressed more inhibitory receptors than SlamF6- cells. However, SlamF6+ CD8 T cells gradually lost the ability to divide and secrete cytokines over the course of tumorigenesis, demonstrating that they become dysfunctional over time. Collectively, our results provide new insights into longitudinal response of TCF-1+ T cells over the course of tumorigenesis and have therapeutic implications for modulating the anti-tumor T cell response.
Serum Folate of Less than 7.0 ng/mL is a Marker of Malnutrition
Authors: Mattox Samantha , Kozman Diana , Singh Gurmukh
Published: October 2020

Folate is an essential nutrient that humans are unable to synthesize. We investigated clinical/laboratory factors associated with folate deficiency in tertiary care patients. We reviewed medical records of 1019 patients with serum folate <7.0 ng/mL, 301 patients with serum folate of 15 ng/mL, and 300 patients with serum folate >23 ng/mL. Serum prealbumin levels were subnormal in 54.8% of patients with serum folate <7.0 ng/mL. Vitamin B12, hemoglobin, and serum albumin levels were significantly lower in the <7.0 ng/mL folate group. In 62.4% of patients with serum folate <7.0 ng/mL, one or more markers of malnutrition were present. The low-folate group had a significantly higher prevalence of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, sepsis, and abnormal serum creatinine level. There were no significant differences in the two groups regarding the prevalence of diabetes; behavioral/neurological disorders, including drug and alcohol abuse; bariatric surgery; or a diagnosis of malnutrition. The average body mass index (BMI) for the <7.0 ng/mL and 15 ng/mL folate groups was significantly different (28.89 and 28.31, respectively), although the difference does not appear to be clinically meaningful. The prevalence of folate deficiency depends on what is considered a normal serum folate level. Approximately 10% of tertiary care patients have levels <7.0 ng/mL and exhibit other markers of malnutrition. It is recommended that patients with GI disorders, chronic kidney disease, and sepsis be routinely tested for serum folate levels, before administration of vitamin supplements. Patients with serum folate levels <7.0 ng/mL should be evaluated for malnutrition, despite BMI >25. Folate supplementation should be administered only after excluding coexisting vitamin B12 deficiency.
Assessment of Factor V Activity in Apheresis Platelet Units: Implications for Management of FV Deficiency
Authors: Gupta Gaurav , Hendrickson Jeanne , Bahel Parveen , Siddon Alexa , Rinder Henry , Tormey Christopher
Published: October 2020

Introduction

Factor V (FV) deficiency is a rare but significant disorder associated with potentially life-threatening bleeding. Management may involve plasma infusion to increase FV activity. Although the majority (~80%) of FV is present in the plasma, approximately 20% is stored in platelet (PLT) alpha granules. As such, allogeneic PLT infusion is another strategy that has been proposed in the literature to raise FV levels. Although the rationale for this approach is understandable, these recommendations are based largely on anecdotal reports. Since FV is the most labile coagulation factor from an in vitro standpoint and given that allogeneic PLTs are stored at room temperature for 5–7 days after collection, we hypothesized that there would be low FV activity in PLT units and tested our hypothesis by assessing FV levels across PLT products.

Material and Methods

PLTs were aliquoted from apheresis units only, including those with PLT additive solution (PAS) and from non-PAS units (N=26) on post-collection days 3–6. Supernatant was prepared from PLTS by centrifugation (5000 rpm X 5 min) and was stored at -80oC until analyzed. PLT lysate (PL) was prepared by freezing (-80oC) then thawing (370 C) followed by centrifugation (10,000 rpm X 10 min). FV activity was tested in the PLT unit supernatant and lysate using a clinical-grade assay based on prothrombin time correction of FV deficient plasma and expressed as percent activity; reference range for normal plasma FV levels at our facility is 50–150% activity. Statistical analysis was performed using student t test. The data were expressed as mean ± SD (P-value <0.05 considered significant).

Results

FV activity was markedly low in PAS PLT units, in both supernatant (3.70% ± 1.02%) as well as PL (3.26% ± 1.02%); N=16. FV activity in non-PAS PLT units (N= 10) was also somewhat low relative to reference range plasma levels in both supernatant (44.55% ± 6.46%) and PL (39.67% ± 6.33%); however, it was significantly higher (P < .001) when compared to PAS PLT units. FV activity from aliquots extracted from the same PAS PLT units and examined serially over storage time (N=3) showed FV levels on day 3 of storage (supernatant 5.03% ± 1.41%; PL: 3.89% ± 1.03%) to be not significantly different than levels measured on day 5 of storage (supernatant: 3.10% ± 0.57%; PL: 2.61% ± 0.41%; P=0.4).

Conclusion

FV is substantially depleted across PLT components, with particularly low levels observed in PAS PLTs. Given comparable supernatant and PL FV levels, there appears to be little FV reserve available in PLT lysate. Based on these data, plasma should be considered a first-line therapy for most non-complex FV deficiency-associated bleeds. If PLTs are considered for additional use, then non-PAS PLT units should be preferentially employed.
Del20q and Gain/Loss of Sex Chromosomes in Patients with Plasma Cell Neoplasm
Authors: Lee Benjamin , Li Shiyong
Published: October 2020

Aim

Plasma cell neoplasm (PCN) is a clonal proliferation of plasma cells involving bone marrow and extramedullary anatomic sites. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence and clinical significance of del20q and gain/loss of sex chromosomes in patients with PCN.

Materials and Methods

Routine karyotype analysis was performed on bone marrow aspirate specimens from patient with plasma cell neoplasm in the cytogenetics laboratory using the G-banding technology. Results from January 1, 2012 to June 21, 2019 were retrieved for analysis.

Results

Among the 8,665 karyotype results, 1,116 were abnormal and 593 demonstrated del20q and/or gain/loss of sex chromosomes. 33% (113/347) have bone marrow PCN when del20q and gain/loss of sex chromosomes occur in isolation, while 94% (256/250) have bone marrow PCN when 1 or more other autosomal abnormalities are also present. In those with isolated del20q or gain/loss of sex chromosomes, the frequency of bone marrow PCN ranges from 29–50%. Del20 occurs 1–6 years after therapy and in some patients is transient. Gain/loss of sex chromosome is generally present during the follow-up period.

Conclusion

Del20q and gain/loss of sex chromosomes do not appear to correlate with bone marrow PCN. Isolated Del20q likely represents transient treatment-related abnormality, while isolated gain/loss of sex chromosomes is probably age-related.