bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Barriers to Medicaid Participation among Florida Dentists
Authors: Logan Henrietta L. , Catalanotto Frank , Guo Yi , Marks John , Dharamsi Shafik
Published: February 2015

Background . Finding dentists who treat Medicaid-enrolled children is a struggle for many parents. The purpose of this study was to identify non-reimbursement factors that influence the decision by dentists about whether or not to participate in the Medicaid program in Florida. Methods . Data from a mailed survey was analyzed using a logistic regression model to test the association of Medicaid participation with the Perceived Barriers and Social Responsibility variables. Results . General and pediatric dentists (n=882) who identified themselves as either Medicaid (14%) or Non-Medicaid (86%) participants responded. Five items emerged as significant predictors of Medicaid participation, with a final concordance index of 0.905. Two previously unreported barriers to participation in Medicaid emerged: 1) dentists’ perception of social stigma from other dentists for participating in Medicaid, and 2) the lack of specialists to whom Medicaid patients can be referred. Conclusions . This study provides new information about non-reimbursement barriers to Medicaid participation.
Practice and Protest: Black Physicians and the Evolution of Race-Conscious Professionalism
Authors: Powers Brian W. , Oriol Nancy E. , Jain Sachin H.
Published: February 2015

Throughout history, Black physicians have been bound by a dual obligation: to pursue excellence and success in their profession, and to leverage their professional stature to improve the condition of their communities. This paradigm of race-conscious professionalism has affected greatly the experience of Black physicians, and shaped their formulation of professional identity. This paper explores the relationship between professional life and racial activism in the Black physician community from the pre-Civil War era until the present. The nature of this negotiation has shifted according to the professional and social dynamics of the era. Before the Civil War, Black physician-activists were forced to relinquish their professional duties in order to engage in activism. In later years, activism emerged as a valuable endeavor in the Black medical community, which offered greater opportunities for activism within the profession. The implications of these findings for contemporary physicians are discussed.
Attitudes and Perceptions about Hypertension among Churchgoing Blacks
Authors: Campbell Kendall M. , Rodríguez José E. , Nowakowski Alexandra C. H. , Gotrace Paulin
Published: February 2015

Purpose .This study evaluates beliefs churchgoing Blacks hold about causes of hypertension and impact on adherence to non-pharmacologic treatment. Methods . We created a 17-question survey about participants’ family history, medication use, behavioral modification, causes of hypertension, intake of fruit and vegetables, salt intake and physical activity. Data came from three predominantly Black churches in Florida. We conducted statistical analyses using Microsoft Excel 2010 and Stata Version 12. Results . Over 67% responded that physical activity was effective in lowering blood pressure, while greater than 53% responded that a diet high in fruits and vegetables was effective in lowering blood pressure. Over 78% responded that a low-salt diet is effective in lowering blood pressure. Respondents also felt that exercise (71%) and low-salt diet (72%) were as effective as medications in lowering blood pressure. Conclusions . Our sample believes non-pharmacological treatments are effective in lowering blood pressure, regardless of perceived cause.
Religiosity, Spirituality, and HIV Risk Behaviors among African American Women from Four Rural Counties in the Southeastern U.S.
Authors: Ludema Christina , Doherty Irene A. , White Becky L. , Simpson Cathy A. , Villar-Loubet Olga , McLellan-Lemal Eleanor , O’Daniels Christine M. , Adimora Adaora A.
Published: February 2015

In a cross-sectional survey of 1,013 African American women from rural Alabama and North Carolina, we examined the relationship of (1) organizational religiosity (i.e., religious service attendance), (2) non-organizational religiosity (e.g., reading religious materials), and (3) spirituality with these outcomes: women’s reports of their sexual behaviors and perceptions of their partners’ risk characteristics. Women with high non-organizational religiosity, compared with low, had fewer sex partners in the past 12 months (adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR): 0.58, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.42, 0.80) and were less likely to have concurrent partnerships (aPR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.73). Similar results were observed for spirituality, and protective but weaker associations were observed for organizational religiosity. Weak associations were observed between organizational religiosity, non-organizational religiosity, and spirituality with partners’ risk characteristics. Further exploration of how religiosity and spirituality are associated with protective sexual behaviors is needed to promote safe sex for African American women.
Food Insecurity, Food Assistance and Health Status in the U.S. Community Health Center Population
Authors: Alvarez Carmen , Lantz Paula , Sharac Jessica , Shin Peter
Published: February 2015

Objectives . This study explored the relationship between food insecurity, food assistance, and self-reported health status among community health center (CHC) clients. Methods . Using data from the 2009 Community Health Center Patient Survey ( n = 4,562), representing Federally Qualified Health Center clients, we conducted logistic regression analyses to identify the association between food insecurity and fair/poor health status, controlling for food assistance and sociodemographic factors. Results . Approximately 1/3 of the sample (31.9%) reported fair/poor health status, 10.9% reported food insecurity, and 52.6% reported public food assistance. Multivariate analyses revealed that, among women, those with food insecurity had significantly higher odds of reporting fair/poor health status (AOR = 2.14, 95% CI 1.20–3.82). Conclusions . Expansion of financial access to health care via the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act coupled with recent funding cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program means that CHCs play an increasingly important role in addressing food insecurity.
Factors Associated with Overall Survival Prostate Cancer in Florida: A Multilevel Analysis
Authors: Xiao Hong , Tan Fei , Adunlin Georges , Ali Askal Ayalew , Goovaerts Pierre , Gwede Clement K. , Huang Youjie
Published: February 2015

Objective . To investigate individual and contextual factors contributing to overall prostate cancer (PCa) survival in Florida. Methods . A random sample of 6,457 PCa cases diagnosed between 10/1/2001 and 12/31/2007 was extracted from Florida Cancer Data System. Comorbidity was computed following Elixhauser Index. Survival probability curve was generated using Kaplan-Meier method. The Wei, Lin, and Weissfel model was used for the multivariate analysis. Results . Older age at diagnosis was associated with shorter time to death. Current smokers had a higher hazard rate than non-current smokers. Higher hazard of overall mortality was associated with being diagnosed with advanced stage compared with localized stage and having poorly-differentiated tumor compared with well-moderately differentiated tumor. No definitive treatment, radiation alone, and hormone alone were significantly associated with elevated hazard rate compared with surgery. Fifteen comorbidities were significantly associated with shorter time-to-death. Conclusions . Effective control of comorbidity in PCa patients should help improve life expectancy and lead to prolonged survival.
The Strategic Impact of a Post Baccalaureate Pre-medicine Intervention Program on Medical School Academic Performance
Authors: Epps Anna Cherrie
Published: February 2015

The purpose of this longitudinal (11-year) study of the academic impact on post-baccalaureate graduates’ performance profiles from years 2001–2011 is to determine whether or not post-baccalaureate program reinforcement, enrichment, and intervention efforts strategically affected the students’ academic performance profile while matriculating at Meharry Medical College–School of Medicine. A second purpose of this study is to provide some predictive information to help identify ‘at risk’ students to ensure that proactive intervention efforts are provided early in their pursuit of a health professions career, thus avoiding the pitfall of unpreparedness and the lack of counseling.
Prescription Practices involving Opioid Analgesics among Americans with Medicaid, 2010
Authors: Mack Karin A. , Zhang Kun , Paulozzi Leonard , Jones Christopher
Published: February 2015

Recent state-based studies have shown an increased risk of opioid overdose death in Medicaid populations. To explore one side of risk, this study examines indicators of potential opioid inappropriate use or prescribing among Medicaid enrollees. We examined claims from enrollees aged 18–64 years in the 2010 Truven Health MarketScan® Multi-State Medicaid database, which consisted of weighted and nationally representative data from 12 states. Pharmaceutical claims were used to identify enrollees (n=359,368) with opioid prescriptions. Indicators of potential inappropriate use or prescribing included overlapping opioid prescriptions, overlapping opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions, long acting/extended release opioids for acute pain, and high daily doses. In 2010, Medicaid enrollees with opioid prescriptions obtained an average 6.3 opioid prescriptions, and 40% had at least one indicator of potential inappropriate use or prescribing. These indicators have been linked to opioid-related adverse health outcomes, and methods exist to detect and deter inappropriate use and prescribing of opioids.
Characteristics of Traumatic Brain Injuries Sustained Among Veterans Seeking Homeless Services
Authors: Barnes Sean M. , Russell Leah M. , Hostetter Trisha A. , Forster Jeri E. , Devore Maria D. , Brenner Lisa A.
Published: February 2015

This hypothesis-generating research describes the characteristics of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) sustained among 229 Veterans seeking homeless services. Nearly all participants (83%) had sustained at least one TBI prior to their first episode of homelessness. Among participants with a TBI, assaults, transportation-related accidents, and falls were the most common causes of these injuries. Thirty percent of individuals sustained injuries with severity levels that would be expected to be associated with ongoing TBI-related deficits. Forty-three percent of the Veterans sustained at least one brain injury following their first episode of homelessness. Median lifetime number of TBIs was three. The severity of TBIs was similar among Veterans who sustained injuries before or after their first incident of homelessness. Findings suggest that future research should directly examine the potential bi-directional relationship between TBI and homelessness, as well as the impact of TBI-related deficits on Veterans’ ability to benefit from homeless services and/or maintain stable housing.
Building Surgical Capacity in Developing Countries: Lessons from Haiti and Honduras
Authors: Hottinger Daniel G. , Patel Bhavesh M. , Frechette Richard L. , Walent Wynn , Augustin Marc E. , Daly Peter J.
Published: February 2015

The unmet burden of surgical disease in developing countries is large and growing. We successfully initiated two surgical field hospitals in austere environments. Similar problems were encountered in the areas of facility development, operations, and social considerations. A literature review was performed to contextualize our experience and compare it with that of others.
Treatment Disparities among African American Men with Depression: Implications for Clinical Practice
Authors: Hankerson Sidney H. , Suite Derek , Bailey Rahn K.
Published: February 2015

A decade has passed since the National Institute of Mental Health initiated its landmark Real Men Real Depression public education campaign. Despite increased awareness, depressed African American men continue to underutilize mental health treatment and have the highest all-cause mortality rates of any racial/ethnic group in the United States. We review a complex array of socio-cultural factors, including racism and discrimination, cultural mistrust, misdiagnosis and clinician bias, and informal support networks that contribute to treatment disparities. We identify clinical and community entry points to engage African American men. We provide specific recommendations for frontline mental health workers to increase depression treatment utilization for African American men. Providers who present treatment options within a frame of holistic health promotion may enhance treatment adherence. We encourage the use of multidisciplinary, community-based participatory research approaches to test our hypotheses and engage African American men in clinical research.
Knowledge and Attitudes towards Eye Diseases in a Rural South-eastern Nigerian Population
Authors: Onwubiko SN , Eze BI , Udeh NN , Okoloagu NN , Chuka-Okosa CM
Published: February 2015

Background . Knowledge and attitudes concerning eye disorders are important socio-demographic parameters critical for eye care uptake and outcomes, especially in underserved populations. Objectives . To assess knowledge and attitudes concerning common eye disorders in a rural south-eastern Nigerian population. Methods . The study was a population-based survey of knowledge and attitudes concerning common eye diseases conducted in Abagana community in September 2011. Results . The participants comprised 263 males and 238 females. Their profile of good knowledge was eye infections: 38.9%; refractive error: 28.9%; cataracts: 18.0%; diabetic retinopathy: 8.0%; glaucoma: 5.8%; and overall good knowledge: 4.0%. Prevention and treatment of eye disorders were rated as first priorities over other major disabilities by 91.4% participants. Older age and formal education were the significant predictors of good knowledge. Conclusion . In Abagana, there is poor overall and disorder-specific knowledge of eye disorders. Socio-demographic factors are important determinants of knowledge. Community-based preventive eye health education is underscored.
Changes in Smoking-Related Symptoms during Enforced Abstinence of Incarceration
Authors: Clarke Jennifer G. , Martin Stephen A. , Martin Rosemarie A. , Stein L. A. R. , van den Berg Jacob J. , Parker Donna R. , McGovern Arthur R. , Roberts Mary B. , Bock Beth C.
Published: February 2015

Background . Tobacco use among prisoners is much higher than among the general population. Little is known about changes in smoking-related symptoms during periods of incarceration. The objective of this study is to evaluate changes in smoking-related symptoms during incarceration. Methods . We recruited 262 inmates from a tobacco-free prison. At baseline, participants were asked about smoking-related symptoms prior to incarceration and then asked about recent symptoms. Results . All symptom scores on the American Thoracic Society Questionnaire (ATSQ) improved during incarceration. Higher ATSQ scores were associated with asthma, depressive symptoms, stress, higher addiction and more pack years of smoking. Greater improvement in symptoms was not associated with smoking status after release. Conclusion . Forced tobacco abstinence leads to significant improvements in smoking-related symptoms. However, improvements in symptoms are not associated with smoking behavior changes. Addressing changes in symptoms during incarceration will require further evaluation in smoking cessation interventions for incarcerated populations.
Health Disparity Intervention through Minority Collegiate Service Learning
Authors: Parks Mitchell H. , McClellan Linda H. , McGee M. Lisa
Published: February 2015

In Tennessee, African Americans suffer significantly from infant morbidity, sexually transmitted diseases, and deaths from vascular disease and cancer. The Meharry Medical College Wellness Project addresses these health disparities with a service learning curriculum focused on community-based research. Trained minority undergraduates have conducted 355 Institutional Review Board-approved community intervention projects statewide.
Addressing the Access Problem for Patients with Serious Mental Illness who Require Tertiary Medical Care
Authors: Hensel Jennifer M. , Flint Alastair J.
Published: February 2015

There is evidence to suggest that people with serious mental illness (SMI) have lower access to tertiary care than patients without SMI, particularly when care is complex. Barriers are present at the level of the individual, providers, and the health care system. High levels of co-morbidity and the associated health care costs, along with a growing focus on facilitating equal access to quality care for all, urges health care systems to address existing gaps. Some interventions have been successful at improving access to primary care for patients with SMI, but relatively little research has focused on access to complex interventions. This paper summarizes the scope of the problem regarding access to complex tertiary medical care among people with SMI. Barriers are discussed and potential solutions are proposed. Policies and programs must be developed, implemented, and evaluated to determine cost-effectiveness and impact on outcomes.
A Developing Framework for the Development, Implementation and Maintenance of HIV Interventions in the African American Church
Authors: Stewart Jennifer M.
Published: February 2015

The African American church has promoted the health of African Americans through supporting interventions that target a wide variety of diseases, and it is a crucial community partner in the development of HIV prevention interventions. Although research has described the development of church-based HIV interventions, there is a significant lack of frameworks and approaches available to guide the implementation and maintenance of HIV interventions within church-based settings. A developing framework of a comprehensive church-based intervention, derived from an ethnographic study about the development, implementation, and maintenance of an HIV/AIDS Ministry within an African American church is presented. This approach can provide guidance to support the development, implementation, and maintenance of HIV interventions in faith settings.
Community-based Participatory Research Examining the Health Care Needs of African Americans who are Homeless with Mental Illness
Authors: Corrigan Patrick , Pickett Susan , Kraus Dana , Burks Raymond , Schmidt Anne
Published: February 2015

African Americans with mental illness who are homeless experience significant health risks and illnesses leading to high mortality and morbidity rates. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) team conducted a qualitative study to begin to describe these problems. Results from focus groups and key informant interviews of 42 individuals yielded 98 themes which were sorted into three categories: problems, solutions, and peer navigators. Results included a review of the problems and solutions which the community or people might adopt. An additional goal was to understand and develop impact of peer navigators for addressing health problems in this group. Results yielded a list of values in hiring peer navigators as well as skills and resources they might need to successfully do their job. Findings from the study are currently being used by the CBPR team to develop a peer navigator program for this community.
Adapting Chronic Disease Care for the Underserved: Innovations in the Safety-Net
Authors: Perez Bianca , Schrag Janelle
Published: February 2015

Safety-net hospitals are resource-constrained and serve complex patients yet are innovators in chronic disease care. Their strategies include personalized care, multidisciplinary teams, and information systems yielding real-time data. Safety-net providers are prime examples from which the health care community can learn to improve the delivery of chronic disease care.
Remaking the American Health Care System: A Positive Reflection on the Affordable Care Act with emphasis on Mental Health Care
Authors: Ogundipe Babatunde , Alam Farzana , Gazula Lalitha , Olagbemiro Yetunde , Osiezagha Kenneth , Bailey Rahn K. , Richie William D.
Published: February 2015

Health care reform under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, ACA) of 2010 may be the most significant health care-related legislation enacted since the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid several decades ago. Over two years ago the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This legislation has emerged as a significant and ambitious undertaking for all levels of the U.S. government. With the need to accommodate the estimated 30 million people projected over time to become newly insured it is increasingly important to understand the necessity of reform, how the legislation has been interpreted and implemented to fit the goals of the federal, state, and local governments, and what the potential benefits and consequences of changing the system are, in particular, as it relates to mental health care.
Deliberation: Obtaining Informed Input from a Diverse Public
Authors: Wang Grace , Gold Marthe , Siegel Joanna , Sofaer Shoshanna , Yang Manshu , Mallery Coretta , Carman Kristin L.
Published: February 2015

Objectives . Health care decision makers require public input to incorporate diverse values into programs and policies. Deliberation, one method for obtaining input, seeks to apply inclusive principles wherein diverse groups provide perspectives to inform decisions. We evaluate whether participants of different racial, ethnic, and educational backgrounds show differences in the effect of deliberation and the value placed on deliberation participation. Methods . We surveyed 907 participants before and after deliberation. Regression models examined associations between demographics and change in knowledge and attitudes, and perceived impact. Results . Changes in knowledge about using medical evidence in decision-making were not associated with race, ethnicity, or education. Changes in attitudes were not associated with these characteristics with one exception. African American, Hispanic, and participants with lower educational attainment reported more perceived impact. Conclusion . Similar results across demographic groups suggest deliberation’s promise for obtaining input from a diverse public to inform health programs and policies.
Development and Preliminary Testing of the Health in Community Survey
Authors: Iezzoni Lisa I. , Barreto Esteban A. , Wint Amy J. , Hong Clemens S. K. , Donelan Karen
Published: February 2015

Objectives . Develop and pilot test the Health in Community Survey (HCS), to collect patients’ perceptions of care integration between traditional care providers and community-based services that address social determinants of health. Research design . Interviews of working-age, English-or Spanish-speaking patients with multiple chronic conditions to identify survey domains; cognitive interviews and pilot test of HCS Version 1. Results . Preliminary interview subjects identified diverse care concerns. From these findings, we designed six HCS domains. Cognitive interviews identified problems relating to patients’ perceptions about limited function and disability. Nearly one-third of pilot test subjects reported they did not definitely have enough resources for food, transportation, doctor and hospital bills, and medications; 41.6% said their clinicians only sometimes or never knew about their resource problems. Conclusions . Although it requires further validation, the HCS offers insights into patients’ perceptions of care integration between traditional health care providers and services addressing social determinants of health.
A Patient Advocacy Program Established through an Interprofessional Student-Run Free Clinic
Authors: Schwartz Elliot S. , Baugh Jillian J. , Honsky Jesse , Luebbers Ellen
Published: February 2015

This report describes a student-run free clinic model that exposes medical, nursing, and social work students to interprofessional care of the underserved early in their training. As a result of a new partnership with social work students, a patient advocacy program was established, which helped patients apply for an expanded Medicaid program.
The Microbiome: A Contributor to Health and Disease
Authors: Walker Bailus , Kassim Kunle , Stokes Lynette Denise
Published: February 2015

As the 21st century unfolds there is substantial evidence that biological research is experiencing extraordinary scientific and technological advances. Prominent among these advances are the completion of the Human Genome Project, which laid the foundation for the second advance, the Human Microbiome Project. Emerging from these advances are two overarching conclusions: a) genomics is no longer the sole domain of the geneticist, and b) we each are hosts to trillions of microorganisms. Genomics and other technologies have enhanced efforts to characterize the structure, composition, and functions of the microbiome. This characterization has fueled progress in understanding the role of the microbiome in health and disease. In this review, we highlight developments that have helped illuminate the microbiome-health connection. This information can improve an understanding of connections and relationships among multiple factors (or determinants) of health.
Racial Differences in Iron Measures and Outcomes Observed during an Iron Reduction Trial in Peripheral Arterial Disease
Authors: Zacharski Leo R , Shamayeva Galina , Chow Bruce K , DePalma Ralph G
Published: February 2015

Elevated body iron (ferritin) levels may contribute to adverse health outcomes. Racial differences in iron measures and clinical outcomes were observed during an iron reduction trial in peripheral arterial disease. At entry, Black compared with White participants had higher ferritin and lower red cell measures, as well as differing ferritin and percent transferrin saturation (%TS) responses, and HDL/LDL ratios associated with statin use. Lower hematocrit levels during follow-up resulted in fewer phlebotomies, less iron unloading (ferritin reduction, p=.035) and 32% less iron removed in Black compared with White participants randomized to iron reduction. Improved primary (all-cause mortality) and secondary (death plus non-fatal myocardial infarction and stroke) outcomes among White participants correlated with lower ferritin levels (p=.005 and p=.053, respectively) and higher %TS levels (p<.001 and p=.001 respectively), associations not observed in Black participants. Variant iron homeostasis contributory to racial health disparities warrants personalized intervention strategies and race-specific clinical trial design.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Authors: Larson John Lauritz
Published: February 2015

It was the publication in 1776 of Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations that marked the beginning of the ideological revolution explored in this article. Political economy had been much debated in the previous hundred years, but Smith’s formulation set the terms of discussion and over the next fifty years displaced a centuries-old rhetoric of economic values that had celebrated moderation, restraint, stewardship, and charity over greed, lust, and self-interest. During the American revolutionary era, when restless colonial elites began crafting explanations for their independence project, the publication of Smith’s treatise on political economy put into play a new framework for considering the wealth of nations. This new framework resonated as a scientific discourse alongside the equally important new “science of politics” made famous by the revolutionary Whigs. It resonated as well with the new sciences of nature that lately had been exposing immutable “laws” by which human beings now explained their physical world. In each realm—economy, politics, and the natural world—scientific reasoning promised to disable the tyranny of ancient prerogatives, superstitions, illegitimate customs, and fantastical explanations. These new scientific perspectives sometimes intersected directly and sometimes influenced each other only by induction.
The View from Piqua Agency: The War of 1812, the White River Delawares, and the Origins of Indian Removal
Authors: Tiro Karim M.
Published: February 2015

This essay explores the War of 1812 and its aftermath from the vantage point of Piqua, Ohio. Piqua was the seat of a U.S. Indian agency. During the war, it was the site of negotiations between the U.S. and a variety of Indian groups, as well as a refugee center for pro-American Delawares. Despite Delaware support for the U.S. during the war, their relations with local settlers was poor. The agent at Piqua facilitated the 1818 Treaty of St. Mary’s, which was only the second federal treaty removing Indians west of the Mississippi, and the first in the North.
A Crisis of Legitimacy: Defining the Boundaries of Kinship in the Low Country during the Early Republic
Authors: Wolkoff Adam
Published: February 2015

From the northern middle-class household to the southern slave market, historians of the antebellum United States have broken through the ideological walls dividing the public and private spheres, revealing the inseparability of home and market. Less attention has been paid to the ways that elite Southern men espoused the values of paternalism and domesticity while defying them in practice through their creation and maintenance of interracial households. This article analyzes the culture of inheritance within the Simons family of Charleston, South Carolina, during the early republican period. These five Ashkenazic Jewish brothers moved from England to the Low Country in the years surrounding the American Revolution and became wealthy merchants, land speculators, and slave owners. Like the planters they emulated, they had sexual liaisons with enslaved and free women of color and kept close ties with their mixed-race children. Through the power of testamentary freedom, the Simons men openly recorded their own definition of legitimacy and expected the state to support their wishes. Their choices triggered three court battles through which African American women, slaveholding siblings, cousins, and illegitimate children battled for their share of the fortune, using ideas about dependency, racial identity, and religious affiliation to shape their appeals to the community and the courts. These cases tested the limits of property rights as a marker of kinship, legitimacy, and freedom.
Of Salt Mountains, Prairie Dogs, and Horned Frogs: The Louisiana Purchase and the Evolution of Federalist Satire 1803–1812
Authors: Dzurec David
Published: February 2015

In November 1803, President Thomas Jefferson presented to the United States Congress a report on the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. The report offered a wide-ranging description of the territory, including geographic boundaries, accounts of the various inhabitants, and the natural resources contained within the region. For Jefferson and his supporters the news of the salt mountain and the other natural wonders contained within the Louisiana Territory provided cause for celebration. For some members of the Federalist opposition, however, these natural wonders offered grist for the political mill. While this back and forth is colorful, historians often treat it as little more than an interesting aside in studies of the Federalist response to the Louisiana Purchase, focusing instead on larger issues of constitutional authority, the extension of slavery, and even northern secession. Yet to relegate these “curiosities” to a secondary role misses an important moment in the development of American politics. More than simply serving as entertaining political banter, the Federalist critique of the Louisiana Purchase became an essential piece of minority party’s on-going satire of the Jefferson administration. These efforts became a form of shorthand that made up a key part of a moderate Federalist identity as they sought to navigate a shifting political landscape in earliest decades of the 19th century.
Paul and the Invention of the Gentiles
Authors: Rosen-Zvi Ishay , Ophir Adi
Published: February 2015

This paper studies the birth of the concept of the gentile (goy). We begin by presenting an outline of a genealogy of “goy,” as a word and a concept, from the Bible to rabbinic literature, and then focus on one chapter in this genealogy: the meaning and use of ethnê in Paul's epistles. We claim that Paul takes a crucial part in the emergence of the goy in its new, non-ethnic, privatized and generalized sense. In contrast to the scholarly consensus, according to which Paul's simply borrows his binary distinction between Jews and ethnê from an established Jewish tradition, we show that no such tradition existed, and that Paul in fact plays a key role in forming this new meaning of ethnê /goyim and in consolidating the binary division between the Jews and their others. The paper reconstructs the discursive conditions and form of reasoning underlying Paul's novel rendering of ethnê as generalized-individualized others. This calls for a thorough revision of the recent surge of interest in the teaching of Paul by historians, political-theologians and philosophers who all presuppose the Jew-Gentile division as a given.
Between Intellect and Intoxication: An Exploration of Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi’s Commentary to the Book of Jonah
Authors: Dascalu Raphael
Published: February 2015

Tanhum b. Joseph Ha-Yerushalmi (d.1291) has drawn growing scholarly interest over the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. He has been rediscovered as a linguist, philologist, and exegete of the highest order. Not only does his considerable oeuvre provide us with a window into the intellectual life of its author, but it sheds light on a chapter of Jewish history which has only in recent years received the scholarly attention that it deserves: Egypt and the Levant in the post-Maimonidean period. To date, studies have overwhelmingly focused on Tanhum’s exoteric philological-linguistic (peshat) exegesis. While this represents the bulk of his interpretive output, it is only one of his modes of exegesis. In his commentaries to Jonah and Canticles, Tanhum presents extensive allegorical interpretations, in addition to his usual analysis of the literal sense of the text. This affords him the opportunity to explore themes of psychological, cosmological, and soteriological (salvational) significance. The present article revisits Tanhum’s commentary to Jonah, exploring central elements of his hermeneutics, his philosophical worldview, and his use of mystical terminology. Our commentator emerges as a fundamentally Peripatetic philosopher, and a Maimonidean exegete with regard to scriptural allegory; but also as an individual who was deeply conversant with Sufi discourse, and quite possibly a mystical practitioner. Tanhum’s commentary to Jonah allows us to encounter its author as a linguist and an allegorist, a philosopher and a mystic, and provides a window into the intellectual world of thirteenth century Egyptian and Levantine Jewry.
Regional Boundaries and Medieval Halakhah: Rabbinic Responsa from Catalonia to Southern France in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
Authors: Roth Pinchas
Published: February 2015

The medieval Jewish communities of Catalonia and Southern France lived in geographic proximity to each other. They were also quite similar culturally, and maintained ties with each other for centuries. However, the opinions of some historians notwithstanding, the two communities were not identical to each other and they perceived themselves as distinct entities. This article makes this point by focusing on the Halakhic responsa sent from Catalonia to Southern France in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Most Catalonian rabbinic authorities who fielded questions from Southern France were approached because the communities in Provence and Languedoc needed an outside authority to resolve an issue on which their local authorities were divided. Rabbi Shlomo ben Abraham ibn Adret (Rashba) stands out in this regard, because he received almost 100 questions from Southern France. Several of Rashba’s responsa to that region betray what are probably misunderstandings stemming from Adret’s distance from Southern France and its political realities. These misunderstandings underscore the real and conceptual distance that lay between Barcelona and Southern France. They also emphasize the personal prestige that Rashba enjoyed in Southern France, to the extent that his questioners were willing to run the risk that his answer would not be entirely applicable to their situation. This prestige did not carry over to Adret’s successors in Barcelona, and the Provençal communities reverted to their earlier policy of sending questions to Catalonia only when they could be resolved locally.
Two Historiographies: Israeli Historiography and the Mass Jewish Migration to the United States, 1881–1914
Authors: Alroey Gur
Published: February 2015

The mass Jewish migration from Eastern Europe (1881–1914) was one of the seminal events in the life of the Jewish people in modern times. During this period, more than 2.5 million Jews migrated to countries across the sea. Two Jewish centers emerged as a result of the mass emigration from Eastern Europe: the State of Israel and North America. Despite the similar reasons for the development of the Jewish collectives in the United States and Israel, two completely different historiographies have emerged over the years. This article investigates how the Zionist narrative, which saw Jewish immigration to Palestine from 1881–1914 as an exceptional case in the history of Jewish migration, was constructed. try and understand the attitude of Zionist historiography towards the first aliyot to Palestine and why it ignored the large Jewish migration from Eastern Europe to the United States.
A Haredi Attack on Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik: A Battle over the Brisker Legacy from 1984
Authors: Dunner Pini , Myers David N.
Published: February 2015

The Soloveitchik family is one of the most distinguished rabbinic families in modern Jewish history. Despite the fact that the Soloveitchik family includes diverse varieties of Orthodoxy among its members, tensions between the different branches rarely surface publicly. However, in 1984, on the occasion of a publication in honor of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik's 80th birthday, this unwritten rule was broken. Unnamed followers of the hard-line Brisk faction in Jerusalem, founded by R. Yitzhak Zev (Velvel) Soloveitchik, fiercely denounced Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, and his supporters, in a venomous broadside that briefly circulated in Israel and then disappeared from sight. It is being published here for the first time, bringing to the light of day sharp divergences in perspective among Orthodox Jews of the same family.
Administration and Curricula of the Introductory Graduate Music Research Course
Authors: Sauceda Jonathan
Published: February 2015

The introductory research course is an integral part of many graduate music programs, yet there have been few studies that discuss its curricula across institutions. A questionnaire was sent to instructors of the course to identify shared pedagogical approaches among North American schools of music. The survey was divided into sections that prompted respondents to identify issues discussed in the course, including the types and titles of resources, research methodologies, and library use topics. With a response rate of over 40 percent, the survey also contains valuable data concerning the professional identifications of instructors, assignments used for grading, common textbooks, perception of the course’s efficacy, and more. Shared features of the course included the importance of electronic resources; the minimal use of Internet-mediated instruction formats; a strong preference for English-language materials; and a focus on resources such as databases, style guides, collected works, monuments of music, and thematic catalogs over and above others such as repertoire guides, discographies, directories, and iconographies.
Ricordi’s Solo Vocal Music, 1808–1857
Authors: Ward Jennifer A.
Published: February 2015

This study examines fifty-four scores from the collection of Ricordi materials held at the Northwestern University Music Library in Evanston, Illinois (US-Eu). The scores are music for solo voice and accompanying instrument printed in oblong quarto format, and were issued between 1808 and 1857. Most of the pieces are opera arrangements, but some of the earliest Ricordi scores in this study are original pieces or small collections of pieces for voice and a keyboard instrument or guitar. This study covers the career of the firm’s founder, Giovanni Ricordi, who died in 1853, as well as the trajectory of the firm through the publication of a major catalog in 1857. After some remarks about Ricordi’s business practices as evidenced in the material at hand, I take a close look at the scores to comment on the firm’s use of paper (including a study of the watermarks), its application of engraving and lithography, and the design of the scores. At the end of the discussion, a detailed checklist of the scores under consideration is presented. Using a chronological limit and a focus on vocal music, Ricordi’s printing techniques can be examined in detail, and light can be shed on the music available to the growing market of amateur singers and pianists at the time.
Interior Portraits in The Magic Mountain and Brain Imaging
Authors: Gilead Amihud
Published: February 2015

Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain conveys some insights into the distinction between images and reality. Like a prisoner in the Platonic cave, Hans Castorp is enslaved to images. His fascination for the X-ray images of the “interior portrait,” especially of Clawdia Chauchat, may anticipate the current illusion that brain imaging may allow access to the minds of other persons, may draw their mental portraits. In Mann’s novel, Director Behrens, the ardent materialist, anticipates such an illusion. It is only the “license of fiction,” however, that allows the narrator of this novel access to the minds of some of the characters.
Hegel’s Poetics of History: Tragic Repetition and Comic Recollection
Authors: Earle Bo
Published: February 2015

For Hegel, modern selfhood is an implicitly poetic, normative capacity for actions that could not be empirically explained. Thus it eludes the “clarification” offered by classical tragedy, but modernity’s apparent loss of tragedy conceals the dialectical refinement of tragic into comic form that most defines modern selfhood. If Aristotle contrasted poetry and history, Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Spirit derives a modern, comic ethical poetics from the form of historical contingency itself. Focusing on Hegel’s reading of Antigone , I solicit Gillian Rose and Dieter Henrich to defend this account against tragic assessments of modern selfhood by J. M. Bernstein, Patricia Jagentowicz Mills, and Judith Butler.
Ascending from the Ashes: Images of Plato in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
Authors: Filler James
Published: February 2015

The pleasure of burning books consumed Montag, consumed him until the day the books burned back, their possibilities enflaming his curiosity to the point of existential immolation. Yet from these ashes, he rises. Fahrenheit 451 is a novel of ascent, an ascent to freedom that can be found only in knowledge. Superficially, the relationship between freedom and knowledge seems antagonistic; however, examining Bradbury’s novel in Plato’s light—particularly focusing on the images of the Cave and Line—can provide piercing insights into the inherent harmony uniting knowledge and freedom, rendering this antagonism illusory.
Plato’s Apology of Socrates : A Metaphilosophical Text
Authors: Sellars John
Published: February 2015

Plato’s Apology is not merely an account of Socrates’s trial, it is also a work of metaphilosophy, presenting Socrates’s understanding of the nature and function of philosophy. This is a vital part of the text’s apologetic task, for it is only with reference to Socrates’s understanding of what philosophy is that we can understand, and so justify, his seemingly antisocial behavior. Plato presents to us Socrates’s metaphilosophy in two ways: via what Socrates says and what he does. This twofold method of presentation is appropriate, if not essential, given the conception of philosophy that Socrates is presented as holding.
Prisoners of Plot in José Saramago’s The Cave
Authors: Giannopoulou Zina
Published: February 2015

What do god, a novelist, craftsmen, and capitalist monopolies have in common? José Saramago’s The Cave engages with this question in a way that recalls Plato’s Republic and its notion of mimesis: the mortal agents imitate divinity by wielding absolute power over products—a novel, ceramic dolls, a commercial-cum-residential center—that imprison their denizens in illusory worlds. The Cave contains a cave and various cave-like constructions that compound the prevailing sense of control and entrapment. Freedom from The Cave and its coercive power requires finishing and exiting the novel.
Dogs and Birds in Plato
Authors: McCracken Janet
Published: February 2015

Arguing for censorship of the poets in the Republic , Socrates draws most of his examples from Homer. These examples often depict soldiers facing death on the battlefield. Homer, in turn, often represents a soldier’s death with the image of dogs and birds scavenging upon his body. Homer’s representations of death, then, often include dogs or birds, and these images are found in the near background of Plato’s Republic . How does Plato himself use these animal images? I discuss Plato’s depictions of dogs and birds, and characterize his general notion of their function in moral education and mental functioning.
Looking into the Heart of Light: Considering the Poetic Event in the Work of T. S. Eliot and Martin Heidegger
Authors: Griffiths Dominic
Published: February 2015

No one is quite sure what happened to T. S. Eliot in that rose garden. What we do know is that it formed the basis for Four Quartets , arguably the greatest English poem written in the twentieth century. Luckily it turns out that Martin Heidegger, when not pondering the meaning of being, spent a great deal of time thinking and writing about the kind of event that Eliot experienced. This essay explores how Heidegger developed the concept of Ereignis (“event”) which, in the context of Eliot’s poetry, helps us understand an encounter with the “heart of light” a little better.
Losing the Monstrous and the Multiform: The Lessons of Myth in Plato’s Phaedrus
Authors: Lorkovic Edvard
Published: February 2015

At Phaedrus 229c, Socrates uncharacteristically defends myth, claiming not only to believe in myth but to be out of place in Athens because of this belief. In particular, he rejects attempts to explain myths that reduce them to natural phenomena. But in what sense can Socrates, the great critic of mythic poetry, believe in myth? For Socrates, myth is true, and thus believable, even when it is not correct; myths provide the terms by which humans can understand their experiences and their souls. Thus, to naturalize myths is to analyze away morally and philosophically valuable concepts.
Truth and Value in Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier
Authors: Hershfield Jeffrey
Published: February 2015

Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier offers an imaginative and philosophically intriguing twist on the familiar trope of the irreconcilable tension between a man’s love for a woman and his duties to his wife and family. In West’s hands this theme becomes a mere framing device for a deeper conflict, one in which the need for happiness is set against the prerogatives of truth, the whim of fantasy against the realm of public facts. In this paper I discuss these themes in the light of recent philosophical discussions of the nature and value of truth.