bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of home telemonitoring on the control of high blood pressure: a randomised control trial in the Fangzhuang Community Health Center, Beijing
Authors: Pan Fengying , Wu Hao , Liu Chaojie , Zhang Xiaolei , Peng Wei , Wei Xuejuan , Gao Wenjuan
Published: August 2018

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of home telemonitoring on the control of high blood pressure in the Fangzhuang Community Health Center in Fengtai District, Beijing. A total of 110 hypertensive patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure were equally allocated to an intervention group and a control group randomly. The participants in the intervention group received home telemonitoring for blood pressure delivered by a team comprising a GP, a hypertension specialist, a general nurse and an information manager. The participants in the control group received the usual care. The levels of systolic and diabolic blood pressure of the participants were assessed on days 0 (baseline), 30, 90 and 180. On average, the intervention group had a greater reduction in blood pressure compared with the control by 6.6–8.0mmHg in systolic blood pressure and 0–3.0mmHg in diastolic blood pressure. Similarly, higher proportions of patients with normal blood pressure were achieved in the intervention group (63.6–71.2%) compared with the control (38.5–41.8%). The reduction in systolic blood pressure for the participants in the intervention group was positively correlated with the utilisation of the app (P<0.05). Home telemonitoring is effective in the control of high blood pressure.
Convolutional neural networks automate detection for tracking of submicron-scale particles in 2D and 3D
Authors: Newby Jay M. , Schaefer Alison M. , Lee Phoebe T. , Forest M. Gregory , Lai Samuel K.
Published: August 2018

Significance

The increasing availability of powerful light microscopes capable of collecting terabytes of high-resolution 2D and 3D videos in a single day has created a great demand for automated image analysis tools. Tracking the movement of nanometer-scale particles (e.g., virus, proteins, and synthetic drug particles) is critical for understanding how pathogens breach mucosal barriers and for the design of new drug therapies. Our advancement is to use an artificial neural network that provides, first and foremost, substantially improved automation. Additionally, our method improves accuracy compared with current methods and reproducibility across users and laboratories.
Radiative heating achieves the ultimate regime of thermal convection
Authors: Lepot Simon , Aumaître Sébastien , Gallet Basile
Published: August 2018

Significance

Turbulent convection is ubiquitous in geophysical and astrophysical contexts: It drives winds in the atmosphere and currents in the ocean, it generates magnetic fields inside planets and stars, and it triggers supernova explosions inside collapsing stellar cores. In many such natural flows, convection is driven by the absorption of incoming radiation (light or neutrinos). We designed an experiment to reproduce such radiatively driven convection in the laboratory. In contrast with convection driven by heating and cooling plates, our radiative heating setup achieves the “ultimate” regime of turbulent convection, which is the one relevant to many natural flows. Such experiments can yield the constitutive laws of turbulent convection, to be implemented into geophysical and astrophysical models.
Cell cycle localization dynamics of mitochondrial DNA polymerase IC in African trypanosomes
Authors: Concepción-Acevedo Jeniffer , Miller Jonathan C. , Boucher Michael J. , Klingbeil Michele M.
Published: August 2018

Trypanosoma brucei has a unique catenated mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) network called kinetoplast DNA (kDNA). Replication of kDNA occurs once per cell cycle in near synchrony with nuclear S phase and requires the coordination of many proteins. Among these are three essential DNA polymerases (TbPOLIB, IC, and ID). Localization dynamics of these proteins with respect to kDNA replication stages and how they coordinate their functions during replication are not well understood. We previously demonstrated that TbPOLID undergoes dynamic localization changes that are coupled to kDNA replication events. Here, we report the localization of TbPOLIC, a second essential DNA polymerase, and demonstrate the accumulation of TbPOLIC foci at active kDNA replication sites (antipodal sites) during stage II of the kDNA duplication cycle. While TbPOLIC was undetectable by immunofluorescence during other cell cycle stages, steady-state protein levels measured by Western blot remained constant. TbPOLIC foci colocalized with the fraction of TbPOLID that localized to the antipodal sites. However, the partial colocalization of the two essential DNA polymerases suggests a highly dynamic environment at the antipodal sites to coordinate the trafficking of replication proteins during kDNA synthesis. These data indicate that cell cycle–dependent localization is a major regulatory mechanism for essential mtDNA polymerases during kDNA replication.
Brr6 plays a role in gene recruitment and transcriptional regulation at the nuclear envelope
Authors: Kops Anne de Bruyn , Burke Jordan E. , Guthrie Christine
Published: August 2018

Correlation between transcriptional regulation and positioning of genes at the nuclear envelope is well established in eukaryotes, but the mechanisms involved are not well understood. We show that brr6-1, a mutant of the essential yeast envelope transmembrane protein Brr6p, impairs normal positioning and expression of the PAB1 and FUR4- GAL1,10,7 loci. Similarly, expression of a dominant negative nucleoplasmic Brr6 fragment in wild-type cells reproduced many of the brr6-1 effects. Histone chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments showed decreased acetylation at the key histone H4K16 residue in the FUR4-GAL1,10,7 region in brr6-1. Importantly, blocking deacetylation significantly suppressed selected brr6-1 phenotypes. ChIPseq with FLAG-tagged Brr6 fragments showed enrichment at FUR4 and several other genes that showed striking changes in brr6-1 RNAseq data. These associations depended on a Brr6 putative zinc finger domain. Importantly, artificially tethering the GAL1 locus to the envelope suppressed the brr6-1 effects on GAL1 and FUR4 expression and increased H4K16 acetylation between GAL1 and FUR4 in the mutant. Together these results argue that Brr6 interacts with chromatin, helping to maintain normal chromatin architecture and transcriptional regulation of certain loci at the nuclear envelope.
Adaptation Studies, Translation Studies, and Interdisciplinarity. Reflections on Siblings and Family Resemblance1
Authors: Cattrysse Patrick
Published: August 2018

Definitional issues are not new in translation and adaptation studies (TS and AS, respectively), and neither is the question of whether AS and TS should be seen as one discipline studying one object of study or rather as two disciplines studying two distinct sets of phenomena. This paper argues that an interdisciplinary view on the subject may offer some analytical tools that help advance this discussion. Since the issue is in part one of definition, Section one looks into theories of definitions and discusses four types of definition that could be of use to our debate. This leads to the paradoxical conclusion that to define translations and adaptations is at once easy and difficult. Words like ‘adaptation’ or ‘translation’ are common nouns, which point to sets of entities that share nonunique features. Hence to name is to categorize. Section two probes into theories of categorization and how they could help categorize translational and adaptational phenomena. It turns out that a study of categories and categorizing must involve categorizers. Consequently, one may study science as an epistemic practice, but also as a social one. This introduces section three, which looks into the emerging discipline of interdisciplinarity studies, that is, the study of the compartmentalization (e.g., disciplinarization) of academic knowledge. The conclusion that follows suggests that perhaps, instead of trying to absorb each other, AS and TS should consider themselves rather as siblings, that is, members of a larger family called intertextuality or influence studies.
Hypertension Prevalence Jointly Influenced by Acculturation and Gender in US Immigrant Groups
Authors: Divney A A , Echeverria S E , Thorpe L E , Trinh-Shevrin C , Islam N S
Published: August 2018

BACKGROUND

Latinos and Asians in the United States are disproportionately burdened by hypertension, a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Few studies have used multicomponent measures of acculturation to compare cardiovascular risk factors across immigrant-origin groups. Additionally, little is known about how acculturation and gender shape hypertension risk among immigrants.

METHODS

We created an acculturation score composed of language use, nativity, and years in the United States and fit separate race/ethnicity log-binomial models examining associations with hypertension prevalence (≥130/80 mm Hg) among Latino (n = 4,267) and Asian (n = 2,142) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–2016 participants aged 18+. Joint effect models tested the concept of “intersectionality” between acculturation and gender.

RESULTS

Adjusting for age, gender, and socioeconomic position, Latinos and Asians with high acculturation were 25% and 27% more likely to have hypertension, respectively, compared with low acculturation groups. Latino and Asian American men with high levels of acculturation were 74–79% more likely to have hypertension compared with women with low acculturation (adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) for Latinos = 1.74, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.49–2.03; aPR for Asians = 1.79, 95% CI: 1.42–2.25). The gradient of increasing hypertension with increasing acculturation was most apparent among Latino men (adjusted risk differences (aRD) = 12.0%, P < 0.001) and Asian women (aRD = 14.0%, P = 0.003) and nonsignificant among Latino women and Asian men when comparing high vs. low acculturation categories.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results correspond with prior literature demonstrating increased morbidity among immigrants with increasing acculturation but also suggest differing patterns by race/ethnicity and gender. Future research should explore how migration processes differentially influence hypertension among men and women.
C3D: a tool to predict 3D genomic interactions between cis-regulatory elements
Authors: Mehdi Tahmid , Bailey Swneke D , Guilhamon Paul , Lupien Mathieu
Published: August 2018

Motivation

The 3D genome architecture influences the regulation of genes by facilitating chromatin interactions between distal cis-regulatory elements and gene promoters. We implement Cross Cell-type Correlation based on DNA accessibility (C3D), a customizable computational tool that predicts chromatin interactions using an unsupervised algorithm that utilizes correlations in chromatin measurements, such as DNaseI hypersensitivity signals.

Results

C3D accurately predicts 32.7%, 18.3% and 24.1% of interactions, validated by ChIA-PET assays, between promoters and distal regions that overlie DNaseI hypersensitive sites in K562, MCF-7 and GM12878 cells, respectively.

Availability and implementation

Source code is open-source and freely available on GitHub (https://github.com/LupienLabOrganization/C3D) under the GNU GPLv3 license. C3D is implemented in Bash and R; it runs on any platform with Bash (≥4.0), R (≥3.1.1) and BEDTools (≥2.19.0). It requires the following R packages: GenomicRanges, Sushi, data.table, preprocessCore and dynamicTreeCut.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
A Bayesian model for single cell transcript expression analysis on MERFISH data
Authors: Köster Johannes , Brown Myles , Liu X Shirley
Published: August 2018

Motivation

Multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in-situ hybridization (MERFISH) is a recent technology to obtain spatially resolved gene or transcript expression profiles in single cells for hundreds to thousands of genes in parallel. So far, no statistical framework to analyze MERFISH data is available.

Results

We present a Bayesian model for single cell transcript expression analysis on MERFISH data. We show that the model successfully captures uncertainty in MERFISH data and eliminates systematic biases that can occur in raw RNA molecule counts obtained with MERFISH. Our model accurately estimates transcript expression and additionally provides the full probability distribution and credible intervals for each transcript. We further show how this enables MERFISH to scale towards the whole genome while being able to control the uncertainty in obtained results.

Availability and implementation

The presented model is implemented on top of Rust-Bio (Köster, 2016) and available open-source as MERFISHtools (https://merfishtools.github.io). It can be easily installed via Bioconda (Grüning et al., 2018). The entire analysis performed in this paper is provided as a fully reproducible Snakemake (Köster and Rahmann, 2012) workflow via Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.752340).

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Batch effects correction for microbiome data with Dirichlet-multinomial regression
Authors: Dai Zhenwei , Wong Sunny H , Yu Jun , Wei Yingying
Published: August 2018

Motivation

Metagenomic sequencing techniques enable quantitative analyses of the microbiome. However, combining the microbial data from these experiments is challenging due to the variations between experiments. The existing methods for correcting batch effects do not consider the interactions between variables—microbial taxa in microbial studies—and the overdispersion of the microbiome data. Therefore, they are not applicable to microbiome data.

Results

We develop a new method, Bayesian Dirichlet-multinomial regression meta-analysis (BDMMA), to simultaneously model the batch effects and detect the microbial taxa associated with phenotypes. BDMMA automatically models the dependence among microbial taxa and is robust to the high dimensionality of the microbiome and their association sparsity. Simulation studies and real data analysis show that BDMMA can successfully adjust batch effects and substantially reduce false discoveries in microbial meta-analyses.

Availability and implementation

An R package” BDMMA” for Windows and Linux is available at https://github.com/DAIZHENWEI/BDMMA/BDMMA, and a version for MacOS is provided at https://github.com/DAIZHENWEI/BDMMA/BDMMA_MacOS.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
PairedFB: a full hierarchical Bayesian model for paired RNA-seq data with heterogeneous treatment effects
Authors: Bian Yuanyuan , He Chong , Hou Jie , Cheng Jianlin , Qiu Jing
Published: August 2018

Motivation

Several methods have been proposed for the paired RNA-seq analysis. However, many of them do not consider the heterogeneity in treatment effect among pairs that can naturally arise in real data. In addition, it has been reported in literature that the false discovery rate (FDR) control of some popular methods has been problematic. In this paper, we present a full hierarchical Bayesian model for the paired RNA-seq count data that accounts for variation of treatment effects among pairs and controls the FDR through the posterior expected FDR.

Results

Our simulation studies show that most competing methods can have highly inflated FDR for small to moderate sample sizes while PairedFB is able to control FDR close to the nominal levels. Furthermore, PairedFB has overall better performance in ranking true differentially expressed genes (DEGs) on the top than others, especially when the sample size gets bigger or when the heterogeneity level of treatment effects is high. In addition, PairedFB can be applied to identify the biologically significant DEGs with controlled FDR. The real data analysis also indicates PairedFB tends to find more biologically relevant genes even when the sample size is small. PairedFB is also shown to be robust with respect to the model misspecification in terms of its relative performance compared to others.

Availability and implementation

Software to implement this method (PairedFB) can be downloaded at: https://sites.google.com/a/udel.edu/qiujing/publication.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
QuantiNemo 2: a Swiss knife to simulate complex demographic and genetic scenarios, forward and backward in time
Authors: Neuenschwander Samuel , Michaud Frédéric , Goudet Jérôme
Published: August 2018

QuantiNemo 2 is a stochastic simulation program for quantitative population genetics. It was developed to investigate the effects of selection, mutation, recombination and drift on quantitative traits and neutral markers in structured populations connected by migration and located in heterogeneous habitats. A specific feature is that it allows to switch between an individual-based full-featured mode and a population-based faster mode. Several demographic, genetic and selective parameters can be fine-tuned in QuantiNemo 2: population, selection, trait(s) architecture, genetic map for QTL and/or markers, environment, demography and mating system are the main features.

Availability and implementation

QuantiNemo 2 is a C++ program with a source code available under the GNU General Public License version 3. Executables are provided for Windows, MacOS and Linux platforms, together with a comprehensive manual and tutorials illustrating its flexibility. The executable, manual and tutorial can be found on the website www2.unil.ch/popgen/softwares/quantinemo/, while the source code and user support are given through GitHub: github.com/jgx65/quantinemo.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Choline ameliorates cardiac hypertrophy by regulating metabolic remodelling and UPRmt through SIRT3-AMPK pathway
Authors: Xu Man , Xue Run-Qing , Lu Yi , Yong Su-Yun , Wu Qing , Cui Yan-Ling , Zuo Xiao-Ting , Yu Xiao-Jiang , Zhao Ming , Zang Wei-Jin
Published: August 2018

Aims

Cardiac hypertrophy is characterized by a shift in metabolic substrate utilization, but the molecular events underlying the metabolic remodelling remain poorly understood. We explored metabolic remodelling and mitochondrial dysfunction in cardiac hypertrophy and investigated the cardioprotective effects of choline.

Methods and results

The experiments were conducted using a model of ventricular hypertrophy by partially banding the abdominal aorta of Sprague Dawley rats. Cardiomyocyte size and cardiac fibrosis were significantly increased in hypertrophic hearts. In vitro cardiomyocyte hypertrophy was induced by exposing neonatal rat cardiomyocytes to angiotensin II (Ang II) (10−6 M, 24 h). Choline attenuated the mito-nuclear protein imbalance and activated the mitochondrial-unfolded protein response (UPRmt) in the heart, thereby preserving the ultrastructure and function of mitochondria in the context of cardiac hypertrophy. Moreover, choline inhibited myocardial metabolic dysfunction by promoting the expression of proteins involved in ketone body and fatty acid metabolism in response to pressure overload, accompanied by the activation of sirtuin 3/AMP-activated protein kinase (SIRT3-AMPK) signalling. In vitro analyses demonstrated that SIRT3 siRNA diminished choline-mediated activation of ketone body metabolism and UPRmt, as well as inhibition of hypertrophic signals. Intriguingly, serum from choline-treated abdominal aorta banding models (where β-hydroxybutyrate was increased) attenuated Ang II-induced myocyte hypertrophy, which indicates that β-hydroxybutyrate is important for the cardioprotective effects of choline.

Conclusion

Choline attenuated cardiac dysfunction by modulating the expression of proteins involved in ketone body and fatty acid metabolism, and induction of UPRmt; this was likely mediated by activation of the SIRT3-AMPK pathway. Taken together, these results identify SIRT3-AMPK as a key cardiac transcriptional regulator that helps orchestrate an adaptive metabolic response to cardiac stress. Choline treatment may represent a new therapeutic strategy for optimizing myocardial metabolism in the context of hypertrophy and heart failure.
How Protestant was the Elizabethan Regime?
Authors: Younger Neil
Published: August 2018

Recent historiography on the Elizabethan regime has argued that it was strongly dominated by convinced Protestants, most prominently Lord Burghley, the earl of Leicester and Sir Francis Walsingham. This article argues that this consensus glosses over many important political figures whose religion was much more conservative, who were often sympathetic to Catholics and in several cases were probably essentially Catholic themselves. These individuals, although prominent at the time, have been seriously neglected by historians, often because of the nature of the archival record. The article surveys the prominence of such men throughout the reign, examining their religious inclinations. It goes on to assess the extent of their influence on the politics of the period, arguing that they were capable of mounting major political initiatives, and indeed scored several important successes against more strongly Protestant policies. Likewise, it argues that very often forward Protestant policies met with failure, in which the conservatives’ influence can often be detected. Finally, it discusses some of the consequences of these findings, proposing a more complex picture of Elizabethan politics, in which religious division and indeed conflict was a significant factor, and arguing that the Elizabethan regime should therefore be seen as a much less united and univocal entity than is often assumed.
Crystalline Cohomology of Towers of Curves
Authors: Vonk Jan
Published: August 2018

We investigate the geometry of finite maps and correspondences between curves, and construct canonical trace and pullback maps between Hyodo–Kato integral structures on de Rham cohomology of curves, which are functorial for finite morphisms of the generic fibres. This leads to a crystalline version of the étale cohomology of towers of modular curves considered by Hida and Ohta, whose ordinary part satisfies $\Lambda $-adic control and Eichler–Shimura theorems.
In Silico and Experimental Evaluation of Primer Sets for Species-Level Resolution of the Vaginal Microbiota Using 16S Ribosomal RNA Gene Sequencing
Authors: Van Der Pol William J , Kumar Ranjit , Morrow Casey D , Blanchard Eugene E , Taylor Christopher M , Martin David H , Lefkowitz Elliot J , Muzny Christina A
Published: August 2018

V4 sequence reads clustered at 99% identity and assigned to operational taxonomic units using the 99% clustered, extended Greengenes database provided optimal species-level identification of vaginal bacteria. This method provided results similar to those obtained with DADA2 and/or using the SILVA database.
A framework to support risk assessment in hospitals
Authors: Kaya Gulsum Kubra , Ward James R , Clarkson P John
Published: August 2018

Quality problem or issue

A number of challenges have been identified with current risk assessment practice in hospitals, including: a lack of consultation with a sufficiently wide group of stakeholders; a lack of consistency and transparency; and insufficient risk assessment guidance. Consequently, risk assessment may not be fully effective as a means to ensure safety.

Initial assessment

We used a V system developmental model, in conjunction with mixed methods, including interviews and document analysis to identify user needs and requirements.

Choice of solution

One way to address current challenges is through providing good guidance on the fundamental aspects of risk assessment. We designed a risk assessment framework, comprising: a risk assessment model that depicts the main risk assessment steps; risk assessment explanation cards that provide prompts to help apply each step; and a risk assessment form that helps to systematize the risk assessment and document the findings.

Implementation

We conducted multiple group discussions to pilot the framework through the use of a representative scenario and used our findings for the user evaluation.

Evaluation

User evaluation was conducted with 10 participants through interviews and showed promising results.

Lessons learned

While the framework was recommended for use in practice, it was also proposed that it be adopted as a training tool. With its use in risk assessment, we anticipate that risk assessments would lead to more effective decisions being made and more appropriate actions being taken to minimize risks. Consequently, the quality and safety of care delivered could be improved.
Exonephology: transmission spectra from a 3D simulated cloudy atmosphere of HD 209458b
Authors: Lines S , Manners J , Mayne N J , Goyal J , Carter A L , Boutle I A , Lee Elspeth , Helling Ch , Drummond B , Acreman D M , Sing D K
Published: August 2018

We present high-resolution transmission spectra, calculated directly from a 3D radiative hydrodynamic simulation that includes kinetic cloud formation, for HD 209458b. We find that the high opacity of our vertically extensive cloud deck, composed of a large number density of sub-$\mu$m particles, flattens the transmission spectrum and obscures spectral features identified in the observed data. We use the pandexo simulator to explore features of our HD 209458b spectrum which may be detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope. We determine that an   8–12$\mu$m absorption feature attributed to the mixed-composition, predominantly silicate cloud particles is a viable marker for the presence of cloud. Further calculations explore, and trends are identified with, variations in cloud opacity, composition heterogeneity, and artificially scaled gravitational settling on the transmission spectrum. Principally, by varying the upper extent of our cloud decks, rainout is identified to be a key process for the dynamical atmospheres of hot Jupiters and shown to dramatically alter the resulting spectrum. Our synthetic transmission spectra, obtained from the most complete, forward atmosphere simulations to date, allow us to explore the model’s ability to conform with observations. Such comparisons can provide insight into the physical processes either missing or requiring improvement.
Long-Term Update of Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Benign Spinal Tumors
Authors: Chin Alexander L , Fujimoto Dylann , Kumar Kiran A , Tupper Laurie , Mansour Salma , Chang Steven D , Adler John R , Gibbs Iris C , Hancock Steven L , Dodd Robert , Li Gordon , Gephart Melanie Hayden , Ratliff John K , Tse Victor , Usoz Melissa , Sachdev Sean , Soltys Scott G
Published: August 2018

BACKGROUND

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for benign intracranial tumors is an established standard of care. The widespread implementation of SRS for benign spinal tumors has been limited by lack of long-term data.

OBJECTIVE

To update our institutional experience of safety and efficacy outcomes after SRS for benign spinal tumors.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective cohort study of 120 patients with 149 benign spinal tumors (39 meningiomas, 26 neurofibromas, and 84 schwannomas) treated with SRS between 1999 and 2016, with follow-up magnetic resonance imaging available for review. The primary endpoint was the cumulative incidence of local failure (LF), with death as a competing risk. Secondary endpoints included tumor shrinkage, symptom response, toxicity, and secondary malignancy.

RESULTS

Median follow-up was 49 mo (interquartile range: 25-103 mo, range: 3-216 mo), including 61 courses with >5 yr and 24 courses with >10 yr of follow-up. We observed 9 LF for a cumulative incidence of LF of 2%, 5%, and 12% at 3, 5, and 10 yr, respectively. Excluding 10 tumors that were previously irradiated or that arose within a previously irradiated field, the 3-, 5-, and 10-yr cumulative incidence rates of LF were 1%, 2%, and 8%, respectively. At last follow-up, 35% of all lesions had decreased in size. With a total of 776 patient-years of follow-up, no SRS-related secondary malignancies were observed.

CONCLUSION

Comparable to SRS for benign intracranial tumors, SRS provides longer term local control of benign spinal tumors and is a standard-of-care alternative to surgical resection.
Pregnancy-Induced Increases in the Nicotine Metabolite Ratio: Examining Changes During Antepartum and Postpartum
Authors: Arger Christopher A , Taghavi Taraneh , Heil Sarah H , Skelly Joan , Tyndale Rachel F , Higgins Stephen T
Published: August 2018

Introduction

Pregnancy-induced increases in nicotine metabolism may contribute to difficulties in quitting smoking during pregnancy. However, the time course of changes in nicotine metabolism during early and late pregnancy is unclear. This study investigated how pregnancy alters the nicotine metabolite ratio (NMR), a common biomarker of nicotine metabolism among nonpregnant smokers.

Methods

Urinary NMR (trans-3′-hydroxycotinine [3HC]/cotinine [COT]) was assessed using total (free + glucuronide) and free compounds among women (N = 47) from a randomized controlled trial for smoking cessation who self-reported smoking and provided a urine sample during early pregnancy (M ± SD = 12.5 ± 4.5 weeks’ gestation), late pregnancy (28.9 ± 2.0 weeks’ gestation), and 6 months postpartum (24.7 ± 1.2 weeks since childbirth). Urine samples were analyzed using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and NMR were calculated as Total 3HC/Free COT, Free 3HC/Free COT, and Total 3HC/Total COT.

Results

NMR was significantly higher during early and late pregnancy compared to postpartum and significantly increased from early to late pregnancy as measured by Total 3HC/Free COT (0.76, 0.89, 0.60; all p’s < .05) and Free 3HC/Free COT (0.68, 0.80, 0.51; all p’s < .05). Total 3HC/Total COT did not vary over time (p = .81).

Conclusions

Total 3HC/Free COT and Free 3HC/Free COT increased in the first trimester and continued to increase throughout pregnancy, suggesting a considerable increase in nicotine metabolism over gestation. Future analyses are needed to interpret the changes in NMR in the context of nicotine pharmacokinetics, as well as its impact on changes in smoking behavior and cessation outcomes.

Implications

We observed that the NMR was significantly higher as early as 12 weeks’ gestation and increased further as a function of gestational age. Among nonpregnant smokers, elevated NMR is associated with smoking phenotypes such as smoking more cigarettes per day and poorer response to nicotine patch; therefore, pregnancy-induced increases in the NMR may contribute to smoking during the first trimester of pregnancy and reducing or quitting smoking may become more challenging as the rate of nicotine metabolism accelerates over the course of pregnancy.
Gestational Psittacosis Resulting in Neonatal Death Identified by Next-Generation RNA Sequencing of Postmortem, Formalin-Fixed Lung Tissue
Authors: Paul Litty , Comstock Jessica , Edes Kornelia , Schlaberg Robert
Published: August 2018

Psittacosis is a rare zoonosis that can cause severe disease and adverse outcomes during pregnancy. We identified a previously elusive case of psittacosis causing premature delivery and infant death by next-generation RNA sequencing of postmortem tissues. Hypothesis-free pathogen detection in postmortem specimens can increase the yield of epidemiologic and cause-of-death studies.
Before the Bible
Authors: Newman Judith H.
Published: August 2018

This book reveals the landscape of scripture in an era prior to the crystallization of the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible, and before the canonization of the Christian Bible. Most accounts of the formation of the Hebrew Bible trace the origins of scripture through source-critical excavation of the archaeological “tell” of the Bible or the text-critical analysis of the scribal hand on manuscripts, but the discoveries in the Dead Sea Scrolls have transformed our understanding of scripture formation. The book focuses not on the putative origins and closure of the Bible but on the reasons scriptures remained open, with pluriform growth in the Hellenistic-Roman period. Drawing on new methods from cognitive neuroscience and the social sciences as well as traditional philological and literary analysis, the book argues that the key to understanding the formation of scripture is the widespread practice of individual and communal prayer in early Judaism. The figure of the teacher as a learned and pious sage capable of interpreting and embodying the tradition is central to understanding this revelatory phenomenon. The volume considers the entwinement of prayer and scriptural formation in five books reflecting the diversity of early Judaism: Ben Sira, Daniel, Jeremiah/Baruch, 2 Corinthians, and the Qumran Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns). While not a complete taxonomy of scripture formation, the book illuminates performative dynamics that have been largely ignored as well as the generative role of interpretive tradition in understanding how the Bible came to be.
Confessing in Exile
Authors: Newman Judith H.
Published: August 2018

Chapter 2 contrasts the role of the confessional prayers in Daniel 9 and Baruch 1:15–3:8 in relation to the Jeremiah tradition and textual production. Daniel receives revelatory visions in response to his prayer, but the confession plays no role in ending the exile. The narrative line of Baruch makes him the “first” to institutionalize confession as a practice, five years into the exile. The chapter argues that the ongoing practice of confession and the integration of scripturalized confessions in evolving textual traditions were decisive factors in how the text of what might be called “Jeremiah-Baruch” claimed authority for itself as scripture.
Thinking with Things
Authors: Carter Sarah Anne
Published: August 2018

This chapter examines what happened when object lessons were implemented in the United States, particularly through the development of the Oswego Normal School in New York. E. A. Sheldon developed a rigorous curriculum based on the work of M. E. M. Jones and Elizabeth Mayo that trained pupil-teachers to give object lesson. The intent was to train students how to think and observe rather than to rely on students’ rote memorization of knowledge. His work transformed Oswego into the center of object teaching in the 1860s. Critiques of the practice at Oswego as well as the details of its classroom implementations help to explain what this practice actually looked like and what it meant for the ways students and teachers understood the material world. It also considers the ways object lessons could be used for instruction in composition and historical writing as well as moral training.
The Unity of the Moral Community
Authors: Richardson Henry
Published: August 2018

This chapter addresses Thompson’s challenge as to what could unite all persons into one moral community, as described in chapter 2, on the basis of the Specificatory Theory of dyadic rights and duties defended in chapter 3. It first treats the possibility of the mutual isolation of two communities of intelligent beings. Setting out an extended example of this type shows how the Specificatory Theory allows individuals morally to knit their different social communities together from the bottom up in a socially contingent way, thus avoiding being limited by conventional provenance or foundationalist assumptions. The second branch of the argument treats the possibility of extending the moral community to include members that are not intelligent beings. It is argued that the Specificatory Theory supports an open-ended understanding of the moral community, on which such individuals can be included on the basis of revisions of the content of the community’s norms.
Philosophy, Science, and Common Sense
Authors: Kornblith Hilary
Published: August 2018

Wilfrid Sellars recognized a conflict between what he called “the scientific image” of our place in the world, and “the manifest image.” Sellars sought, somehow, to join these views together in spite of their apparent conflict. This chapter argues that we should endorse features of the manifest image only to the extent that they are part of the scientific image. It presents a case study in epistemology, showing how these issues play out in discussion of doxastic deliberation. The manifest image of such deliberation is flatly in conflict with the best current scientific theorizing about the nature of deliberative processes. The only reasonable response to such conflict, the chapter argues, is to embrace the scientific account and reject our first-personal view of deliberation as illusory. This case study is suggestive of a broader conclusion about the relationship between the scientific and the manifest image.
An Epistemological Critique of Scientism
Authors: van Woudenberg René
Published: August 2018

This chapter examines two recent views that have self-consciously been labeled by their authors as “scientism.” Alexander Rosenberg’s scientism is the view that the methods of science are the only reliable ways to secure knowledge of anything. This view faces many counterexamples, Rosenberg’s arguments in its favor are weak, and the view is self-referentially incoherent. Don Ross, James Ladyman, and David Spurrett’s scientism as propounded in Every Thing Must Go is the view that science is our only guide to the objective features of the world. It includes an institutional criterion that demarcates bona fide science from non-science, a non-positivist form of verificationism, and the notion that scientism is not a thesis but a stance. The chapter argues that this view, too, faces counterexamples. It also points to problems with the institutional demarcation criterion, the proposed verificationism, as well as the notion that scientism is a stance.
Cognitive Science and Moral Philosophy
Authors: FitzPatrick William
Published: August 2018

Can empirical work in cognitive science and moral psychology impact issues of general theoretical relevance to moral philosophy? Some think it can. They take it to underwrite debunking arguments against mainstream philosophical views. This chapter first critiques recent philosophical work by two prominent experimentalists, Joshua Greene and Shaun Nichols. The chapter argues that the cases they make for this sort of strong impact of experimental work on moral philosophy suffer from a problematic form of scientism and ultimately fail. Indeed, they fail for reasons that likely apply to other projects with similar ambitions as well. Second, the chapter clarifies the dialectical situation with respect to empirically driven attempts to debunk traditional philosophical views, which leads to a general challenge to such debunking projects going forward. It ends by suggesting a more modest and plausible role for experimental work in connection with moral philosophy that gives up the overreaching debunking ambitions.
In Defense of Openness
Authors: van der Vossen Bas , Brennan Jason
Published: August 2018

The humane and workable solution to global poverty is freedom. We can help the poor—and help ourselves at the same time—by tearing down our walls and trade barriers. Both justice and good economic sense require that we open borders, free up international trade, and respect the economic liberties of people around the world. What global justice requires is an open world. Most books on global justice see the world’s poor as little more than mouths to be fed. Their authors see justice as a zero-sum game: some must lose so that others may win. They rely on controversial moral intuitions and outdated or mistaken economic beliefs about economic growth. Van der Vossen and Brennan present global justice as a positive-sum game: the methods that can best help the world’s poor also help everyone else. Using mainstream development economics and common-sense moral intuitions, they argue that instead of treating the world’s poor as helpless victims who must be rescued by the rich, we should remove the coercive limits that keep people poor in the first place. We should offer people the freedom to work, produce, trade, and migrate, in ways that help better themselves and others who are willing to cooperate with them. In Defense of Openness offers a new approach to global justice: we don’t need to “save” the poor. The poor will save themselves, if only we would get out of their way and let them.
Positive-Sum Global Justice
Authors: van der Vossen Bas , Brennan Jason
Published: August 2018

After describing the stunning wealth that some people in our world enjoy, the chapter contrasts two ways of thinking about the sources of such wealth and poverty. While many people believe this is the result of a maldistribution of resources, the empirical truth is that wealth results from people’s productive forces being harnessed for the common good. The chapter then contrasts two different approaches to thinking about global justice, which largely line up with these two narratives about global poverty and wealth. According to the zero-sum approach, solving global poverty must, in some way, require redistributing resources from rich to poor. According to the positive-sum approach, which the authors favor, the just solution to global poverty emulates what creates wealth: enabling people around the world to become productive, contributing to both their own welfare and that of others.
Making Radio Genres
Authors: VanCour Shawn
Published: August 2018

This chapter addresses processes of genre formation, exploring the role that concepts of radiogénie played in developing new programming forms and a larger sound-mindedness in period producers and audiences. Beginning with a survey of early radio genres and debates surrounding their sonic appropriateness, the chapter then pursues a more detailed case study of the period’s dominant genre, musical variety. Responding to pressures for programming with unity and distinction while ensuring varied content with broad appeal, producers pursued three key strategies for this genre: (1) inclusion of a program host as central unifying figure, (2) interstitial continuity uniting musical selections around a common theme, and (3) the “continuity program,” with weak dramatic frame stories linking otherwise diverse musical offerings. Fulfilling larger economic imperatives without compromising aesthetic potential, this third format was championed as proof of radio’s capacity to offer unique and valued contributions to an expanding field of modern sound art.
Negotiating Mobile Control
Authors: Stephens Keri K.
Published: August 2018

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, mobile use started expanding. From Nokia phones to BlackBerrys, these business tools often were considered status symbols—so it’s natural that control issues emerged. This chapter discusses some cultural-differences data, along with the gut-wrenching decisions that Kjell, a Norwegian entrepreneur, and Matt, a Wall Street Journal executive, had to make concerning whose jobs warranted mobile devices. These managers wrestled with issues of productivity, budgeting, fairness, mooching, and status. The chapter shows what happens when there’s a “boss in your pocket,” as well as the temptation to work all weekend when “sent from my iPhone” appears at the bottom of a message at 6 p.m. on Friday evening. This chapter invites readers to consider issues of hierarchical control and what happens when some workers are accessible 24/7.
Trust, Understanding, and Mobile Control in Manual Work
Authors: Stephens Keri K.
Published: August 2018

As mobile devices became more affordable, people at all job levels started bringing their personal devices to work. All of a sudden, people saw workers whose jobs involved manual labor pull out their mobiles and tap away. There was an assumption that they were often cyberslacking—wasting work time on non-work tasks. This chapter introduces a group of janitors who were banned from using their personal devices at work. But their supervisors were stuck in an awkward place: sandwiched between needing to communicate face-to-face with their subordinates and being expected to be constantly reachable through multiple devices because that’s how their own managers communicated. The ban reinforced existing power structures; there were issues of trust, language barriers, computer literacy, and inconsistent enforcement of rules. This ban actually harmed productivity, and the findings suggest that these manual workers can use mobile devices productively: they still need access to on-the-job information.
Chronic Pain and Interpersonal Processes
Authors: Kindt Sara , Goubert Liesbet , Vansteenkiste Maarten , Vervoort Tine
Published: August 2018

This chapter argues that one particular type of a caregiver’s behavioral response to pain cannot, in and of itself, be considered adaptive or maladaptive. It contends that to understand the complexity of the interaction between caregivers and pain sufferers, a goal or need-based framework may be useful. Self-Determination theory (SDT) is presented as a heuristic framework that identifies three basic psychological needs as essential for successful adaption. Whether behavioral responses are supportive and helpful depends upon the extent to which these responses support the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness of the sufferer. Drawing on an affective-motivational account on interpersonal dynamics in the context of pain, the chapter highlights how observer attunement toward sufferers’ needs may depend upon the regulation of various goals for caregiving, including self-oriented versus other-oriented goals and associated emotions.
A Motivational Perspective on Coping with Pain
Authors: Van Damme Stefaan , Crombez Geert
Published: August 2018

Coping is one of the most commonly used concepts in the pain literature. Despite its popularity, it remains a broad and confusing concept that is often vaguely defined and poorly operationalized. This chapter presents a motivational model of coping that starts from the idea that pain’s interference with goal pursuit elicits negative affect, which in turn activates coping responses that may then proceed along 3 possible pathways: goal persistence, problem-solving, or goal adjustment. The chapter describes and illustrates these pathways and asserts that all three could be either adaptive or maladaptive, depending upon the nature of the context. It recasts several traditional concepts regarding pain coping, such as pain catastrophizing, fear-avoidance, endurance, pain-related attention, and acceptance, within this motivational perspective. It discusses the potential implications of adopting the motivational account of pain coping for clinical interventions such as exposure, attention management, and acceptance, as well as commitment therapy.
The Nature and Adaptive Implications of Pain-Affect Dynamics
Authors: Davis Mary C. , Jung Mun Chung , Kothari Dhwani , Moore Shannon , Rivers Crys , Thummala Kirti , Weyrich Giulia
Published: August 2018

Because pain is in part an affective experience, investigators over the past several decades have sought to elaborate the nature of pain-affect connections. Our evolving understanding of the intersection of pain and affect is especially relevant to intervention efforts designed to enhance the quality of life and functional health of individuals managing chronic pain. This chapter describes how pain influences arousal of the vigilance/defensive and appetitive/approach motivational systems and thus the affective health of chronic pain patients. The focus then moves to the dynamic relations between changes in pain and other stressors and changes in positive and negative affect as observed in daily life and laboratory-based experiments. A consensus emerges that sustaining positive affect during pain and stress flares may limit their detrimental effects and promote better functional health. The authors consider the implications of increased understanding of the dynamic interplay between pain and affective experience for enhancing existing interventions.