bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Polypropylene, syndiotactic
Authors: Myers Charles L , Dimeska Anita
Published: November 2023

Major Applications Films and packaging, medical applications, adhesive applications, and as a resin modifier in blends. Metallocene syndiotactic polypropylene grades are now commercially available. Properties of Special Interest Transparency, flexibility, toughness, heat seal temperature, radiation stability, broad melt processing range, high melt strength, and low level of extractables.(1−5)
Polyquinoline
Authors: Kulkarni Amit S , Rane Shrish , Beaucage Gregory
Published: November 2023

Major Applications Polyquinoline can be processed into films and fibers and can be spin-coated as an ideal choice for high-performance films, electronic coatings, as a matrix for high-performance composites, and as an interlayer dielectric substrate in multi-chip modules. Properties of Special Interest The structure of polyquinolines can be altered from semi-rigid to a rigid-rod conformation during synthesis. Although largely an amorphous polymer, some substituted rigid rod members exhibit crystallinity in low amounts.
Poly(silphenylene-siloxanes)
Authors: Dvornic Petar R , Owen Michael J
Published: November 2023

Major Applications Precursors for elastomers having increased thermal and thermo-oxidative stability while retaining low glass transition temperatures (that is gaskets sealants, O-rings). Established method of increasing chain stiffness of polysiloxanes. Gas semi-permeable membranes with increased separation ability at retained high permeability (relative to polysiloxanes). Have been used as laminate impregnating resins in electrical insulation applications where heat resistance is required and as stationary phases for high temperature gas chromatography to improve separation and reduce peak tailing and column bleed.
Polystyrene
Authors: Pu Zhengcai
Published: November 2023

Major Applications One of the most widely used plastics, having applications in industries of packaging, appliances, construction, automobiles, electronics, furniture, toys, house wares, and luggage (1–3). Properties of Special Interest Crystal clear thermoplastic, hard, rigid, free of odor and taste, ease of heat fabrication, thermal stability, low specific gravity, excellent thermal and electrical properties for insulating purpose, and low cost (4–6).
Poly(styrene-b-isoprene-b-styrene) (unsaturated and hydrogenated)
Authors: Weaver Juan T , Shankar Ravi , Spontak Richard J
Published: November 2023

Major Applications Used frequently in synthetic elastomers, pressure sensitive adhesives, and membranes; blended frequently with homopolymers such as polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) to impart elastomeric properties.
Polythiophene
Authors: Kulkarni Amit S , Rane Shrish , Beaucage Gregory
Published: November 2023

Major Applications Polythiophenes and substituted polythiophenes are utilized in a variety of applications where their conducting properties pose an advantage. They are currently used as anti-static coatings and as films. Research is being done to explore their use in electrochromic and electroluminescent devices. They have also shown promise as materials for biosensors and storage batteries. They are used in making Schottky barrier diodes and field effect transistors.
Poly(trimethylene terephthalate)
Authors: Zhang Xiujuan , Lin Gui
Published: November 2023

Major Applications PTT is expected to find industrial applications where PET and PBT are currently dominated such as in the electrical, electronics, automotive, furniture industry. It also has an important application in the textile industry and has been a promising engineering thermoplastic, which that can be spun into both fibers and yarns and has extensive applications in carpeting, textiles and apparel, engineering thermoplastics, nonwovens, films and mono-filament.(1) Properties of Special Interest PTT contains the property highlights of both PET and PBT. It has the physical properties of PET including strength, stiffness, toughness, and heat resistance, along with the good processing properties of PBT, such as low melt and mold temperatures and rapid crystallization, and good injection molding properties. Resilience, elastic recovery, superior dyeing ability.
Polyurea
Authors: Ramanathan L S , Sivaram S , Mishra Munmaya K
Published: November 2023

Major Applications The most important practical applications of polyurea elastomers are in the production of automobile parts. High-modulus RIM (reaction-injection molded) and RRIM (reinforced reaction-injection molded) polyureas are suitable for producing high-impact external body panels. It is also useful in the forming microporous films for artificial leather. Ultrathin membranes of polyurea are used in water desalination by reverse osmosis. Polyureas are effective in making lubricant greases, medical equipment and artificial organs. Polyurea is also applied as a wall material for encapsulating drugs, pesticides, catalysts, and other products. Properties of Special Interest Polyurea fibres have high melting points, low specific gravity, excellent dyeability, and good acid and alkaline resistance. Polyurea coatings have lower solvent and better water resistance compared to polyurethanes. They have good blood compatibility.
Polyurethane
Authors: Ramanathan L S , Sivaram S , Mishra Munmaya K
Published: November 2023

Major Applications Polyurethane flexible foams find applications in protective packaging, gaskets, textile laminates, protective cushioning in automobiles, and two component injection-grouting resins. Rigid polyurethane foams are used as thermal insulating materials in refrigerators, freezers, and water heaters. It is also used as a roof proofing material. Properties of Special Interest Excellent dampening property, good mechanical and physical properties even at low temperatures, high combustion resistance, and low thermal conductivity.
Polyurethane Elastomers
Authors: Ramanathan L S , Sivaram S , Mishra Munmaya K
Published: November 2023

Major Applications Polyurethane elastomers find applications in adhesives, laminates for textiles, covering of conveyor and drive belts, welded bodies, roof underlay sheeting, magnetic tape coatings, water line tubing, and ski boot manufacture. Elastomeric RIM polyurethanes are useful in making automotive parts such as bumpers and fascia. Reinforced RIM polyurethane has been used for car windows door panels and wind shields. Foamed elastomeric polyurethanes are also used in making automotive parts such as arm rests, steering wheels, and rear deck air domes. Properties of Special Interest Excellent toughness and wear resistance with a broad temperature range for use. Polyurethane has good blood and tissue compatibility.
Poly(vinylidene chloride)
Authors: Andrady Anthony L , Kloczkowski Andrzej , Sen Taner Z , Ahunbay M Göktuğ
Published: November 2023

Major Applications Homopolymer and copolymers usually with vinyl chloride (VC), or methyl acrylate (MA) used in solvent-based or latex barrier coatings on cellophane, paperboard, plastic film, and rigid food containers. Films of copolymer used as household cling wrap. Also used with other polymers in multilayer barrier films or containers mostly in packaging applications. Also used in fibers and adhesives.
Poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone)
Authors: Ko John H
Published: November 2023

Major Application Additives (clarifying agent, stabilizing agent, viscosity modifier), adhesives, agriculture products, coatings (paints and surface coatings, inks, paper printing); personal care products (detergent, shampoos, toothpastes, hair spraying agent, dye); medical devices (contact lenses, lubricious coating, biocompatibility coating, complex, blood plasma expander); pharmaceuticals (control release as a binder in many pharmaceutical tablets, stabilizer for polymerization, thickener), Active Ingredients and Advanced Intermediates. The main products are caffeine, povidone iodine; ink-jet papers and transparencies, inks for inkjet printers, photography.
Sulfo-ethylene-propylene-diene Monomer Ionomers
Authors: Longworth Ruskin
Published: November 2023

Major Applications Thermoplastics as an engineering plastic, usually reinforced with glass fiber, and used for automobile parts, electrical and electronic parts. SPS neat resin film is available for sheet and tape. Properties of Special Interest Crystalline engineering plastics starting from a commodity monomeric material of styrene. Quite different properties compared to conventional amorphous polystyrene. High melting point (463 K) and good solvent resistance. Excellent electrical properties with low dielectric loss. High heat deflection temperature, low water absorption and hydrolytic resistance. Excellent dimensional precision during injection molding because of equal density of amorphous and crystalline parts.
Reality, What Matters, And The Matrix
Authors: Vasiliou Iakovos
Published: November 2023

The Matrix is, at its core, a film with a moral plot. Like the heroes, the viewers are in on a secret: the “reality” that forms the lives of millions of human beings is not real. The world that seems real to most people is in fact a computer-generated simulation, but almost no one knows it. In reality, human beings are floating in liquid in machine pods, with tubes connected to them in a grotesque post-apocalyptic world where the sun is blotted out. To the average person, of course, it seems to be the ordinary world of 1999.
Neo’s Freedom ... Whoa!
Authors: McKenna Michael
Published: November 2023

The Matrix provides a fine resource for illustrating philosophical ideas. Many films have themes that one can philosophize about, or that serve as useful illustrations of philosophical ideas, such as the wonderful Sophie’s Choice or Sheltering Sky. But The Matrix offers more than this. It belongs in a special class of films, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Crimes and Misdemeanors, A Clockwork Orange, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and The Truman Show. All of these films are intentionally philosophical. Each shows how richly philosophical themes can be developed through cinema. Perhaps the best of these films is The Matrix.
Wake Up! Worlds Of Illusion In Gnosticism, Buddhism, And The Matrix Project
Authors: Wagner Rachel , Flannery-Dailey Frances
Published: November 2023

In the first film of The Matrix series, a black-clad computer hacker known as Neo falls asleep in front of his computer. A mysterious message appears on the screen: “Wake up, Neo” (Matrix). This succinct phrase encapsulates the plot of the film and its sequels, as Neo struggles with the problem of being imprisoned in a “material” world that is actually a computer simulation program created in the distant future by artificial intelligence (AI) as a means of enslaving humanity by perpetuating ignorance in the form of an illusory perception called “the Matrix.” The films in the Matrix trilogy, as well as the accompanying Animatrix shorts and Enter the Matrix game, craft their ultimate view of reality in part by alluding to numerous religious traditions. Two specific religious traditions on which the films draw heavily are Gnostic Christianity and Buddhism.
Beginnings
Authors: Crow Bill
Published: November 2023

Employment for jazz musicians developed wherever there was a demand for festive music. In the early 1900s the black and creole neighborhoods in New Orleans were especially fertile places since music was an important part of community activity there. Sidney Bechet contradicts the myth of Storyville as the cradle of jazz. People have got an idea that the music started in whorehouses. Well, there was a district there, you know, and the houses in it, they’d all have someone playing a guitar or a mandolin, or a piano someone singing, maybe; but they didn’t have orchestras, and the musicianers never played regular there. The musicianers would go to those houses just whenever they didn’t have a regular engagement, when there was no party or picnic or ball to play at. But in those days there was always some party going, some fish fry, and there was always some picnic around the lakes.
Managers, Agents, and Bosses
Authors: Crow Bill
Published: November 2023

The business people of the music world are necessary to jazz musicians who want to make a living. Unless a musician is good at marketing his own skills, he needs the assistance of bandleaders, agents, managers, promoters, publicists, club owners, and record producers. He may not deal with them all directly, but they all affect his life and his music. He tries to find those who value his work and want to see him prosper. Some bands managed themselves on the commonwealth system. When money came in, expenses were taken off the top and the remainder was divided evenly into as many shares as there were musicians. There were many commonwealth bands in the Midwest. Buster Smith played with one in Kansas City, the Blue Devils: A commonwealth band was what the trouble was. That’s where I found out that anything commonwealth could never amount to nothing. The thing is, there’s thirteen of us, whenever we wanted to do something, accept a job, we have to sit down and have a discussion, and we’d always have voting on it and seven would vote for it and six would vote against it. Or vice versa. It looked like everywhere we’d get a chance to get a good job somewhere, that seven would vote against; they’d want a little more money.
The Well-dressed Jazz Musician
Authors: Crow Bill
Published: November 2023

Most early jazzmen were very conscious of the way they dressed. Sharp clothes represented maturity and success. A good portion of a jazzman’s income might go into improving his wardrobe. Some musicians dressed so distinctively that they influenced men’s fashions. Jelly Roll Morton, a flashy dresser whose teeth were encrusted with diamonds during his peak earning years, often boasted of his extensive wardrobe. He would tell other musicians scornfully, “I’ve got more suits than you got handkerchiefs!” Morton told Alan Lomax about the sartorial styles prevalent in early New Orleans among the “tough babies” he associated with: They frequented the corners at Jackson and Locust and nobody fooled with them. They all strived to have at least one Sunday suit, because, without that Sunday suit, you didn’t have anything. It wasn’t the kind of Sunday suit you’d wear today. You was considered way out of line if your coat and pants matched. Many a time they would kid me, “Boy, you must be from the country. Here you got trousers on the same as your suit.”
Bix Beiderbecke
Authors: Crow Bill
Published: November 2023

Bix Beiderbecke played the cornet with a lovely vibrant sound. Eddie Condon described it as “like a girl saying yes.” Bix taught himself the instrument by playing along with records, and he developed an original conception of tone and phrasing at a time when nearly every other jazz musician was under the spell of Louis Armstrong. Bix lived in Chicago while Armstrong was playing there, heard Louis and loved his playing, but he went his own way and took a number of young admirers along with him. Max Kaminsky was one of the younger generation of brass players who fell in love with Bix’s music. He tells of the passion that possessed him: A few months after I first heard Bix play, I was working down at the Cape for the summer, and one Sunday night on the train going back to the Cape, I met Howie Freeman, a drummer from Boston, who immediately showed me a brand new recording he had just bought of Bix’s “Singing the Blues” and “Clarinet Marmalade.”
Joe Venuti
Authors: Crow Bill
Published: November 2023

Aside from being one of the best jazz violinists to ever pass our way, Joe Venuti was the jazz world’s most famous prankster. His fondness for jokes and his habit of acting on impulse made him a legendary figure. Joe became the talk of 52nd Street for the way he dealt with an annoying drunk who was bending his ear at the bar of the Onyx Club. While standing there feigning interest in the conversation, Joe urinated on the drunk’s leg. Joe preferred more elaborate jokes. On Paul Whiteman’s band a fellow musician like to take a hot bath after the job every night. Joe filled the unsuspecting victim’s hotel room bathtub with hot water and a case of Jell-O powder. The gelatin set quite satisfactorily, and everyone had a good laugh.
Tommy Dorsey
Authors: Crow Bill
Published: November 2023

Tommy Dorsey was a tough man to work for, but his high musical standards and good salaries always attracted excellent musicians and arrangers. Dorsey had a formidable temper and a ready pair of fists. He frequently fought with his brother Jimmy, especially when they were coleaders of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. When Tommy broke up the partnership and set out on his own, part of his drive to succeed reportedly came from his desire to have a better band than Jimmy’s. Tommy’s primary concern was musicianship. Once, when he needed a trumpet player, he asked his band for suggestions. A musician said, “How about so-and-so? He’s a nice guy.” “Nice guys are a dime a dozen!” snapped Tommy. “Get me a prick that can play!” When Tommy found a musician he wanted, money was secondary. Willie Smith was leading Jimmy Lunceford’s saxophone section, and Dorsey decided to woo him onto his band. He drove out to the Larchmont, New York, casino that Lunceford had built and gave Smith a lift back to New York City after the job. When they stopped at Smith’s address, Dorsey pulled out a checkbook and signed his name to a check.
Clinical skills
Authors: Magaziner Jeffrey L
Published: November 2023

The way to learn physical signs is at the bedside, with guidance from an experienced colleague. This chapter is not intended as a substitute for this process: It is simply an aid. We ask questions to get information to help with differential diagnosis. But we also ask questions to find out about the inner life and past exploits of our patients so that we can respect them as individuals and understand them as a whole. The patient is likely to notice and reciprocate this respect, and this reciprocation is the foundation of most of our therapeutic endeavors. The message is not that special people should get special services: Rather that it is easy to like, and hence promote the interests of, patients with whom you can identify. The challenge is to identify with as broad a range of humanity as possible, without getting exhausted by this task.
Cardiovascular medicine
Authors: Russell Stuart
Published: November 2023

Ischemic heart disease (IHD), even though | in incidence, is still the most common cause of death worldwide. Encouraging cardiovascular health is not only about preventing IHD. The activities that are associated with improving cardiovascular health have many beneficial side effects as well. Exercise will improve cardiovascular health (BP|, HDL) but can also pre- vent osteoporosis and improve glucose tolerance. People who improve and maintain their fitness live longer: Age-adjusted mortality from all causes is reduced by >40%. Avoiding obesity helps too, but there is no evidence that losing weight will lengthen life. However, the risk of diabetes will diminish if weight loss can be achieved.
Maintaining Quality in Research and Reporting
Authors: Heller Jack J , O’Connor Edward J P
Published: November 2023

In order to evaluate competence in research, the evaluator must first have a clear conception of what constitutes research as opposed to other scholarly activities. There are many scholarly pursuits that may in a broad sense fall under the category “research.” The word research (from the French rechercher, which means to travel through or survey) implies a going back to search for something. With respect to research in music education, however, that concept is too broad. We are concerned primarily with the systematic search for solutions to problems based on empirical observation. This is not meant to disparage scholarly endeavors that fall outside our more restricted definition. Of course, research searches for something. But that something should be very specific and it should be stated at the outset of any research report. The researcher must have a very clear idea of what the question is that will be investigated. The techniques and methodology used to search for an answer to a question should be appropriate to the question posed. Good research is that which provides as unbiased an answer as possible to a question supported by empirical evidence. “Empirical” here is meant to be viewed as “observations.”
Transforming Research in Music Education History
Authors: Cox Gordon
Published: November 2023

The question “What is history?” is the subject of fierce debate: History is a science that discovers; it is an art that creates; historical narratives are constructions governed by the same rules and constraints as literature; “history with purpose” can realize some grand metaphysical theme; history has ended. Historians today are being forced to rethink, in the light of postmodernist criticism, the categories and assumptions that have underpinned their work (see Evans, 1997; Munslow, 2000). Research in music education history cannot remain immune from this debate (see McCarthy, 2003). Indeed, I base this chapter on the premise that music education history is, like the history of education, “a contested and changing terrain” (Aldrich, 2000, p. 63). The challenge of facing up to contest and change was acknowledged by Heller and Wilson (1992) in their chapter in the first Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning. They called for “new interpretations of old subjects” (p. 102). More specifically, they detailed the following research needs: revision of existing studies, application of new techniques, and cooperation with fields outside music education. Heller and Wilson’s suggestions comprise the kernel of this chapter. However, while they focused on the detail of researching music education history in the American context, I shall present a critical review of historical accounts with a general emphasis on Anglo-American literature, but including an international dimension.
Surgical Perspective
Authors: Cohen M Michael
Published: November 2023

Operative correction of the facial skeleton can be divided into two technical subspecial fields: maxillofacial surgery and craniofacial surgery. The arbitrary division is an imaginary line at the level of the cranial base. Although the distinction between the two is useful, some procedures involve both areas simultaneously. The field of maxillofacial surgery developed before craniofacial surgery. The history of surgery involving the facial skeleton is complex and has been particularly well discussed by Wolfe (112).
The Language of Pain and Addiction
Authors: Savage Seddon R
Published: November 2023

Language is a prism through which we understand—and communicate our understanding of—the world. Although it is currently common to depreciate the power of words by labeling thoughtful word selection as political correctness, the resonance of words in shaping perceptions at both cognitive and affective levels is clear. Care in the use of language is particularly important in communication related to issues about which there is pervasive misunderstanding, significant controversy, and in which rapid change is occurring. Understanding in such contexts is best served by language that is unambiguous, accurate, and free of emotional resonance or stigma.
Opioids for Chronic Pain: Historical Notes
Authors: Portenoy Russell K
Published: November 2023

The opioids comprise a very diverse set of compounds that share interaction with an array of opioid receptors throughout the body (Hammer, 1993; Stein, 1998). Endogenous opioids influence numerous physiological domains, including modulation of noxious input (antinociception), mood, immunity, motor control, and other processes. Exogenous opioids, which include alkaloids derived from the poppy and both semisynthetic and synthetic substances, produce similarly varied effects, among the most important of which is the potential to relieve pain. It is axiomatic among experts in pain management that there is no group of drugs that, overall, offer a broader and more effective means to reduce severe pain. Indeed, if not for the potential to cause serious adverse events, it is very likely that opioids would be first-line treatment for virtually all patients with moderate or greater pain.
Pain Managementand the Medical Profession What Is Our Responsibility?
Authors: Payne Richard
Published: November 2023

The quotations above, from the moral philosopher Kant and the New and Old Testaments of the Bible, speak to our obligations to be caring individuals to our neighbors and fellow citizens. I argue that our secular and religious traditions also must influence our behaviors and responsibilities as health-care professionals, and seem particularly relevant to understanding our obligations to relieve pain and suffering. The question posed in the book of Luke (New Testament Bible), ‘‘Who is my neighbor?,’’ is a prelude to the parable of the Good Samaritan. This chapter deals with the professional and ethical responsibilities of physicians in the contemporary society, and pleads for reclaiming an ethic of ‘‘Good Samaritanism’’ in 21st-century medicine.
Reward and Addiction
Authors: E. Best Susan , Adinoff Bryon
Published: November 2023

Opiates have been used for the relief of pain and suffering for thousands of years. For almost as long, it has been known that the therapeutic use of opiates for analgesia is complicated by their abuse liability. The writings of the Homer and Virgil indicate that they knew of both the beneficial and addicting properties of opium (Booth, 1996). In the 18th and 19th centuries, addiction to mor-phine-containing tincture, laudanum, was common (Ballantyne and Mao, 2003). Over the past 10 to 15 years, a gradual increase in the prescription of opiate analgesics has occurred in response to a heightened awareness of the importance of treating pain. Unfortunately, this has been paralleled by a rise in the numbers of individuals addicted to opiate analgesics. Neuroscience seeks to develop synthetic opiates with excellent analgesic qualities but a minimal risk of addiction. Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the rewarding and addicting properties of opiates may further this research.
The Regulation of Cellular Mechanisms in Antinociception and Dependency
Authors: Talbot Jeffery N , Traynor John R
Published: November 2023

Opioid drugs such as morphine and its derivatives are essential clinical tools for the treatment of pain yet are often accompanied by undesirable effects greatly limiting their use in pain management. In addition, the euphoric and dependent properties of these compounds have resulted in widespread abuse of illicit and prescription opioid drugs. More effective treatments for addiction as well as improved therapy for pain depend on increased understanding of the mechanisms regulating opioid signaling. Several important proteins have recently been characterized that regulate opioid signaling in vitro and in vivo, including regulators of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins and arrestins. Together with other interacting/scaffolding proteins, this group of regulatory factors presents new and potentially powerful targets for manipulating specific opioid effects.
Physical Medicine Approaches to Assessing and Treating Pain
Authors: Stanos Steven , Rader Lynn R
Published: November 2023

A physical medicine and rehabilitation or ‘‘physiatric’’ approach to acute and chronic pain syndromes includes a wide scope of clinical focus. Acute pain syndromes may be easily managed by a focused, directed pharmacologic and active physical therapy approach based on a biomedical model of injury.
Buprenorphine in Pain and Addiction
Authors: Heit Howard A , Gourlay Douglas L
Published: November 2023

The goal of this chapter is to provide health-care professionals with information regarding the appropriate therapeutic uses of buprenorphine in the context of pain and addiction medicine. Like methadone, buprenorphine can be used both for opioid agonist therapy (OAT) for the disease of opioid addiction as well as the treatment of anticipated or unanticipated acute pain and chronic pain.
Pain and Chemical Dependency in the Emergency Department
Authors: Todd Knox H
Published: November 2023

Pain is the single most common reason patients seek care in the emergency department (Cordell et al., 2002). Given the prevalence of pain as a presenting complaint, one might expect emergency physicians to assign its treatment a high priority; however, pain is often seemingly invisible to the emergency physician. Multiple research studies have documented that the undertreatment of pain, or oligoanalgesia, is a frequent occurrence (Rupp & Delaney, 2004). Pain that is not acknowledged and managed appropriately causes dissatisfaction with medical care, hostility toward the physician, unscheduled returns to the emergency department, delayed return to full function, and potentially, an increased risk of litigation. Failure to recognize and treat pain may result in anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, increased oxygen demands with the potential for end-organ ischemia, and decreased movement with an increased risk of venous thrombosis.
The Palliative Care Patient
Authors: Nabati Lida , Abrahm Janet
Published: November 2023

Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement in the 1960s, coined the term ‘‘total pain,’’ which embodied the notion that pain, endured by those facing a life-limiting illness, was multifaceted and could include psychological, physical, spiritual, and social elements (Saunders, 1981). From this concept, a new subspecialty, palliative medicine, emerged. In 2007, the American Board of Medical Specialties is expected to recognize palliative medicine as a medical subspecialty.
Opioids and the Treatment of Chronic Pain
Authors: Brookoff Daniel S , Squire Pamela , Brookoff Daniel
Published: November 2023

I need my Percocets doc, that’s the only medication that works for me. And it has to be brand-name. I’ve been given the generics before and they really don’t seem to work .. . and, anyway, they tear up my stomach. And it has to be now because I ran out last Tuesday and I plan to be leaving town soon ...
Screening for the Risk of Substance Abuse in Pain Management
Authors: Webster Lynn R
Published: November 2023

Opioids are a safe, effective treatment for many chronic pain conditions. However, a certain segment of the pain population will end up abusing opioids in defiance of medical direction. Whether due to addiction, uncontrolled pain, a comorbid psychiatric condition, or some other cause, opioid misuse poses a threat to the intended benefits of pain relief and improved function. Although misuse of medication is, unfortunately, a common clinical occurrence, it is manageable in most cases. The vital first step is the appropriate assessment of the patient prior to the start of opioid therapy. By gaining insight into the patient’s individual risk for abuse, the clinician is able to set and maintain the corresponding level of monitoring, thus optimizing chances for a good clinical outcome.
Prebiotic Chemistry on the Primitive Earth
Authors: Miller Stanley L , Cleaves H James
Published: November 2023

The origin of life remains one of the humankind’s last great unanswered questions, as well as one of the most experimentally challenging research areas. It also raises fundamental cultural issues that fuel at times divisive debate. Modern scientific thinking on the topic traces its history across millennia of controversy, although current models are perhaps no older than 150 years. Much has been written regarding pre-nineteenth-century thought regarding the origin of life. Early views were wide-ranging and often surprisingly prescient; however, since this chapter deals primarily with modern thinking and experimentation regarding the synthesis of organic compounds on the primitive Earth, the interested reader is referred to several excellent resources [1–3].
Prebiotic Evolution and the Origin of Life: Is a System-Level Understanding Feasible?
Authors: Lazcano Antonio
Published: November 2023

Systems biology attempts to explain the structure and operation of complex biological processes beyond the mere description of their individual components and their interplay. This rapidly evolving field, which endeavors to overcome the limitations inherent in the reductionist approaches found in many areas of biological research, involves multidisciplinary programs that attempt to develop predictive computer models of mathematically based descriptions of biological network components and their integrated interactions at a higher level [1]. Although still in its infancy, a systems biology approach based on the combined efforts of computational science with other developing areas such as genomics, proteomics, and other fields may provide important insights into the inner workings and robustness of biological systems, including cell signaling and regulatory networks, with foreseeable practical applications [2].
Noncoding RNA and RNA Regulatory Networks in the Systems Biology of Animals
Authors: Mattick John S
Published: November 2023

DNA is best regarded as biological software. It encodes the analog components of cells (proteins, RNAs, and their derived products) as well as the regulatory architecture that controls their division and assembly into multicellular organisms. The human genome contains about 3 billion base pairs of a quaternary code [1,2] that programs the growth and development of a complex organism of around 1014 cells, with a wide variety of bones, muscles, and specialized organs, such as the brain, lung, liver, and kidneys, all with very specific anatomical features and often asymmetric shapes. These structures are not just field approximations, but reflect in their detail the particular genomic program and its polymorphic idiosyncrasies that we inherit from our parents and their ancestors, as evidenced by the individual contours of our faces and bodies. The cellular ontogeny of the nematode wormC. elegans is precise and largely invariant [3], and it is likely that the same generally holds for all animals, with the possible exception of the clonal expansion of some cell types under different physiological or immunological conditions. Controlling the growth patterns, positional identity, organization, and differentiation of cells in the assembly of a complex organism is the major challenge of genomic programming.
Path to the Podium
Authors: Wittry Diane
Published: November 2023

As I said before, there is no “one path” to success as a conductor. Each person somehow finds their own way to achieve their goals. I spoke with leading Amer-ican conductors and discovered a variety of successes and frustrations that they experienced on their way to their current positions. Here are examples of their career paths and their words of advice.
The Law of Peoples, Social Cooperation, Human Rights, and Distributive Justice
Authors: Freeman Samuel
Published: November 2023

I. Introduction

My aim in this essay is to discuss, and defend against some frequent objections, John Rawls’s rejection of a global principle of distributive justice. As is well known, Rawls’s A Theory of Justice argues for a principle of distributive justice, the difference principle, that is to be applied within different societies but not among them.1 According to A Theory of Justice, each society has the duty to set up its economic and legal institutions in such a way that they make the least advantaged among its own members better off than the least advantaged would be if that society were structured according to any other distribution principle. But each society does not have a duty to structure its system so as to maximize the position of the least advantaged in the world at large. Though it is a universal principle that is to apply severally, or within every society, the difference principle is not global in reach, applying jointly to all societies simultaneously. To critics of many political persuasions, this seems a peculiar position. Why should principles of justice be domestically rather than globally applied?

Rawls’s position in A Theory of Justice becomes even more complicated in Political Liberalism and The Law of Peoples, where he is guided by questions of political legitimacy and the feasibility (or “stability”) of liberal regimes.2 In Political Liberalism and later works,3 Rawls appears to give up on the idea that a well-
There Are No Ordinary Things
Authors: Unger Peter
Published: November 2023

Human experience, it may be said, naturally leads us to have a certain view ofreality, which I call the view of common sense. This view is tempered by cultural advance, but in basic form it is similar for all cultures on this planet, even the most primitive and isolated. According to this prevalent view, there are various sorts of ordinary things in the world. Some of these are made by man, such as tables and chairs and spears, and in some ‘advanced’ cultures also swizzle sticks and sousaphones. Some are found in nature such as stones and rocks and twigs, and also tumbleweeds and fingernails. I believe that none of these things exist, and so that the view of common sense is badly in error. In this paper, I shall argue for this negative belief of mine.
The Mental Problems Of The Many
Authors: Unger Peter
Published: November 2023

Many years ago, I blush to recall, I published some arguments against the existence of all sorts of commonly supposed entities-against rocks and desks, plants and planets, stars and salt shakers, human brains and bodies, and, perish the thought, against us human thinking experiencers, including even the one who’s me. By contrast, now I’m trying to develop, in a book I’ve been long writing, a humanly realistic philosophy, wherein my existence, and yours, has the status of a quite undeniable philosophic datum. As it seems to me now, certain trying ideas then deployed in such nihilistic reasoning may bear importantly on the question of what sort of a humanly realistic view we should adopt. These are ideas to the effect that, where I’m apt first to think that there’s just this one human body, “my body”, seated in just this one chair, “my desk chair”, there are, more accurately, many billions of human bodies, each seated in many billions of chairs. And, where I’m first given to believe that there’s just one healthy active brain, “my brain”, promoting someone’s mentality, there may be many billions of brains, each of them largely overlapping so many of the others, and each serving, quite equally, to promote a thinking, experiencing and choosing human being, or human self. Maybe each brain promotes the very same mind, or self, as do each of the others, in which case there’s just one self promoted (rather redundantly?) by them all; or maybe each promotes a numerically distinct conscious individual, in which case many billions of experiencers may be, in my situation, simultaneously promoted. Right now, these remarks should seem no better than cryptic comments; but, in the course of this essay their import should become clearer.
Précis Of Identity, Consciousness And Value
Authors: Unger Peter
Published: November 2023

While it concerns other large issues as well, a single question focuses the inquiry of this book1: What is involved when an actual person, like me, survives until some future time, like a century from now? To this question, some seek a completely general answer. Even if Berkeley should be right and there is no physical reality, their (desired) answer is to inform us about our survival. Although pretty ambitious in the matter, I’m content to settle for a lot less than that. For me, it’s enough to give an answer that articulates, along lines general enough to prove philosophically interesting, our deep beliefs about the conditions of our survival. There’s a good reason for this: By disclosing our deep beliefs about our survival, I indirectly articulate what are, as we most deeply believe, some quite general conditions of our survival. How do I detect these deep beliefs? Doing informal psychology, I uncover them by noting people’s responses to examples. But many examples have contexts where responses are misleading. And, even in revealing contexts, some examples promote responses that are best explained away, as arising from sources other than our deep beliefs about ourselves. Still, often, we may sensibly avoid all the pitfalls. In chapter 1, I describe and defend the aims and methods of the inquiry.
The Search for New Sources of Pluripotent Stem Cells
Authors: Cohen Cynthia B
Published: November 2023

The number of human embryonic stem cell lines currently available for research in the United States, some scientists, legislators, and commentators maintain, is insuffcient for research and therapeutic eVorts. They find that the policy of President George W. Bush of providing federal funding only for research on twenty-two embryonic stem cell lines derived before August 2001 has left researchers with too small a number of stem cell lines with which to go forward at a rapid pace. Furthermore, cells that are maintained in culture for a significant length of time tend to deteriorate, including those listed on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) registry. Many of these stem cell lines, although some say not all, have been cultured with nonhuman cells or serum that would pose health risks to patients who received differentiated offshoots from them in research or therapy. For such reasons, stem cell investigators are attempting to develop a larger pool of human pluripotent stem cells—cells that can transform into almost any cell of the body except placental tissue—by expanding the use of certain currently available sources of these cells and developing new sources.
International Stem Cell Research and Research Cloning: Three Contrasting Approaches
Authors: Cohen Cynthia B
Published: November 2023

Recent advances in stem cell research have led a surprising number of countries around the globe to grapple with the question of whether to engage in research on these novel cells. These countries have responded in different ways to the ethical and policy challenges posed by stem cell research, depending on their history, cultural traditions, prevalent ethical and religious values, degree of technological optimism, and attitudes toward economic development through innovative scientific research.

Some, galvanized by the strong scientific, therapeutic, ethical, and economic pull of this research, have resolved to pursue stem cell research vigorously. The United Kingdom, Japan, China, Israel, Singapore, and South Korea are among them. They have not only embraced both embryonic stem cell research and research cloning but also set out to become the premier centers of stem cell research in the world. However, they have not allowed such research to proceed willy-nilly. Instead, they have established guidelines and regulations to govern it. I term their approach to stem cell research a “permissive” one.
In Pursuit of National Review and Oversight of Stem Cell Research in the United States
Authors: Cohen Cynthia B
Published: November 2023

Stem cell research brings to the fore unique and fundamental ethical questions not only about whether to engage in research using early human embryos but also about a host of other issues that revolve around how we ought to use the regenerative powers that this research offers. These additional issues include such current questions as whether to employ some of the innovative techniques proposed for developing additional sources of human pluripotent stem cells, not only to treat those laid low by diseases, but also to bring babies into the world who would not have such diseases, and where to draw ethical boundaries around the transfer of human stem cells into nonhumans in the course of stem cell research designed to regenerate damaged human cells.
Development of Epidermal Appendages: Teeth and Hair
Authors: Ohazama Atsushi , Sharpe Paul T
Published: November 2023

The skin serves several functions, including thermoregulation, protection from the external environment, maintaining internal tissue Muid from evaporation, reduction of friction in water, sensation, defense against predation and infection, and supporting the hair and feathers. The distribution of pigment in skin and odors from the skin are also important for social interaction and defense. To ful7ll these multiple functions, the skin develops many structures as epidermal appendages (e.g., scales, feathers, hair, horns, nails, claws, sweat glands, sebaceous glands, and mammary glands). In addition, other epidermal appendages, most notably teeth, develop from the same ectoderm as skin in the oral cavity.
The Sonic Hedgehog Signaling Pathway
Authors: Iannaccone Philip , Holmgren Robert , Lamm Marilyn L G , Ahlgren Sara , Lakiza Olga , Yoon, Joon Won , Walterhouse David
Published: November 2023

The highly conserved hedgehog (Hh) family of signaling proteins triggers crucial processes in early vertebrate and invertebrate development, including cell fate speci7cation, patterning, and organogenesis. The development of a large number of organ systems is directly affected by the Hh signaling pathway. Indeed, the Hh ligands, patched and smoothened transmembrane proteins, and the Ci/Gli family of transcription factors are at the nexus of mesodermal development and they are critical to epithelial–mesenchymal interactions throughout the body. It is also becoming clear that a relatively small number of pathways, the Hh pathway included, operating in a combinatorial manner are responsible for pattern formation in early development. Genetic and epigenetic aberrations, pharmacological perturbations, and environmental insults that impact the Hh signaling pathway translate to various developmental disorders and diseases, including cancer (reviewed in Villavicencio et al., 2000; Cohen, 2003). The wide variety of diseases associated with the genes in this pathway usually involves the organs and tissues in which the pathway normally operates, including the brain, gastrointestinal tract, skin, prostate, ovary, lung, muscle, and bone. Although still incompletse, our understanding of the Hh pathway has progressed rapidly in the past few years, promising a future of accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of diseases related to defects in Hh signaling.

Several proteins cooperatively transduce an extracellular signal from the Hh ligand through a cascade of steps, the net result of which is a change in the pattern of expression of genes within the target cell. This change then coordinates and regulates proliferation and differentiation of various cells in a way that develops and maintains pattern. The main cast of characters in the story includes Drosophila Hh and the vertebrate homologs, Sonic hedgehog (Shh), Indian hedgehog (Ihh), and Desert hedgehog (Dhh); Drosophila Patched (Ptc) and the vertebrate homologs Ptc1 and Ptc2; Drosophila and vertebrate Smoothened (Smo); Drosophila Costal 2 (Cos2), vertebrate Kif family members, and yet unidenti7ed vertebrate homolog(s); Drosophila and vertebrate Fused (Fu); Drosophila and vertebrate Suppressor of fused [Su(fu)]; Drosophila Cubitus interruptus (Ci) and the vertebrate homologs, Gli1, Gli2, and Gli3; and a variety of interacting proteins and intracellular regulators. In this chapter, we will examine the components and function of the pathway in the Drosophila (fruit My) model system from where most of the seminal discoveries originate and in vertebrate systems, including mouse and human, which exhibit unique features.
ROR2 and Brachydactyly Type B and Recessive Robinow Syndrome
Authors: Wilkie Andrew O M
Published: November 2023

Rutations of the gene ROR2 (receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1), which maps to 9q22 and encodes a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) that participates in Wingless-type (Wnt) signaling, have been identi%ed in two distinct skeletal disorders, dominantly inherited brachydactyly type B (BDB) (OMIM 113000) and recessive Robinow syndrome (RRS). This demonstrates that ROR2 is required for the development of multiple organs, most prominently bone, but including, in the case of RRS, the face, heart, and urogenital system. A single unlinked paralogue Ror1/ROR1 is present in mice and humans, but mutations of ROR1 have not yet been identi%ed in any human disorder.