bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Victims and Prosecutors
Authors: Konradi Amanda , Ochrach-Konradi Tirza Jo
Published: April 2021

This chapter explores crime victims’ experiences in U.S. trial courts in relation to the passage, application, and adjudication of state and federal victims’ rights legislation (VRL). It reviews victims’ current rights established through legislation and case law: to privacy, information, and notification; to be present; and to be heard in pre-trial hearings, in trials, in plea bargaining, and in victim impact statements. It reviews qualitative research documenting how and why prosecutorial discretion is often exercised to limit victims’ participation in trials and pleas, highlighting incentives for emotion management. It also reviews proposals, which are counter to this standard, designed to achieve greater victim participation and to produce higher quality testimony, including extensive pre-court preparation and courtroom intermediaries. It assesses the efficacy of practices to protect victims from secondary victimization in court, including shielding (close circuit video and screens) and support dogs. It explores use of private attorneys to (1) ensure that prosecutors and judges comply with VRL and (2) pursue victim-directed, private prosecution of sexual assault in the United States and elsewhere. It concludes that the promise of VRL—to provide therapeutic justice outcomes, achieve victim satisfaction, and enact procedural justice—is yet to be realized in the United States; however, an evidence-based approach toward prosecutorial practice would be advantageous for victims.
Youth Employment, Informality, and Precarity in the Global South
Authors: Fennell Shailaja
Published: April 2021

Characteristics of labor markets are often assumed to be universal, when in fact they are peculiar to patterns of employment in Europe and North America. This essay makes these universalist assumptions about labor markets for youth explicit, challenging their foundational claims in relation to trends in parts of the Global South. Urbanization, the Standard Employment Relationship (SER), and the notions of precarity are all analyzed for their Northern biases. The work of early labor market theorist W. Arthur Lewis is then explored, critiquing how his theory was reduced to one aspect—rural labor migration to urban factory work to increase productivity—when it had complex social, political, educational, and policy-related implications. Southern scholars should not be interpreted in terms of their relevance to Northern processes. They should be grappled with on their own terms, in relation to the Southern contexts from which they speak. Finally, an agenda for Southern labor market theory building is offered.
Department Stores and Luxury Business
Authors: Fujioka Rika , Pitkänen Jouko
Published: April 2021

Luxury business developed alongside department stores, which created a new market for luxury brands and proved to be a crucial marketing channel for two reasons. First, the highly respected image of department stores enhanced that of their luxury-branded in-house boutiques for a wider range of consumers. Second, department stores used the good reputation of luxury brands to upscale their offering and include high-fashion merchandise. Some department stores have now become tourist attractions for luxury shopping. However, a new trend has appeared in emerging countries: shopping malls have largely taken over the former role of department stores. This chapter examines, from a historical perspective, the major role that department stores have played in the development of luxury business.
Digital Media in Grassroots Anti-Corruption Mobilizations
Authors: Mattoni Alice
Published: April 2021

Corruption is a global problem that affects millions of people, and activists all over the world mobilize against it. When they do so, they increasingly employ various types of digital media. First, the chapter discusses two leading roles that digital media might have in grassroots anti-corruption struggles, each of them linked to one specific approach to corruption. On the one hand, they are in line with a view of corruption as a principal–agent problem, hence assisting activists in enlarging the monitoring and denouncing capacity of people concerning corruption. On the other hand, they can sustain a view of corruption as a collective action problem, hence helping activists in increasing the public awareness on corruption to change the normative understanding of what corruption is and does to societies. Second, the chapter addresses digital media as they entangle with big data. While anti-corruption activists have always relied on data of all kinds to support their struggles, this section tackles three specific types of data-related practices (data production, data embedment, and data transformation). It also shows how they are in tune with either the collective action or the principal–agent approach to corruption. Third, the chapter discusses another, more pragmatic, and situated approach to corruption and, in its framework, the potential role of digital media for anti-corruption activists, arguing for the development of comparative studies on the subject matter. Finally, conclusions revisit the previous sections, taking into consideration three main directions toward which research on anti-corruption from the grassroots and its relationship with digital media might develop in the near future.
Transnational Antitrust Law
Authors: Buxbaum Hannah L.
Published: April 2021

In light of the significant diversity that remains among legal systems regarding the purpose and substance of market regulation, it is no surprise that efforts to develop a body of international antitrust law have failed. Instead, we rely on a diverse set of norms and transnational practices to regulate the increasingly globalized economy. This chapter discusses those practices, focusing on the actors and institutions involved. Section II addresses the production of substantive antitrust law at different levels (national, regional, and international) and discusses some of the ways in which these norms spread across legal systems. Section III turns to mechanisms for improving cooperation among legal systems in the enforcement of divergent regulatory norms, as well as to continuing sites of contestation among regimes. Section IV concludes with an analysis of the prospects for increased convergence in the field of antitrust law and policy.
Transnational Law and Conflict of Laws: A Japanese Perspective
Authors: Yokomizo Dai
Published: April 2021

This chapter reflects on the relation between transnational law and conflict of laws. Whereas the methodology of transnational law is, to a certain extent, in line with new approaches on conflict of laws seeking to find solutions for conflict of laws in a context of increasing global governance, the transnational method seems less compatible with classical choice-of-law methodology used in Japan and would therefore bring serious challenges to Japanese conflict of laws. To respond to these challenges, the chapter proposes identifying the specific situations in which a classical approach might still work and those in which it might bring an undesirable solution for global governance, before considering a complete change of the choice-of-law method. Finally, the chapter suggests that conflict of laws as a methodology could provide transnational law with fresh techniques to resolve conflict of norms in an era of global legal pluralism.
Transnational Property Law
Authors: Gupta Priya S.
Published: April 2021

Transnational property law offers an account of common law property doctrines as they emerged through transnational encounters between people and legal regimes. It places property at the intersection of global economic governance, international political economy, and law by offering both a historical account of property regimes and a methodological argument for understanding property in context. It proposes that common law property regimes around land should be understood not just as compartmentalized into domestic jurisdictional realms, but rather as spaces in which different concepts, claims, and contestations of property—local, national, and transnational—are constantly in conflict with each other. Instead of tracing the development of common law property thought as a linear trajectory without regard to concrete historical and geographical circumstances, it suggests looking for answers instead by taking a closer look at the new settings in which property law regimes are grounded today through interdisciplinary methods of analysis.
Transnational Family Law
Authors: Fenton-Glynn Claire
Published: April 2021

Family law is no longer an isolated field that simply represents the traditions and values of an individual culture. Transnational influences, including human rights, regional and international institutions, and social movements, have played a crucial role in opening family law to widening perspectives. At the same time, individuals and families are moving across borders in a manner not seen in previous eras. This chapter will revisit the traditional understanding of the family and family law, tied exclusively to domestic norms, and generate a greater understanding of the modern regulatory framework through a transnational lens.
Transnational Migration Law: Authority, Contestation, Decolonization
Authors: Dehm Sara
Published: April 2021

This chapter trace how “transnational migration law” has come to construct human mobility. It argues that transnational migration law is best conceived of as a useful methodological approach, rather than a distinct area of legal doctrine or spatial domain of law. Conceived as a method, transnational migration law can reveal the juridical assemblage of practices, subjects, and relations for regulating migration. This chapter illuminates some of the core and potentially rival sites, forms, and practices of transnational migration lawmaking, drawing attention to the productive and coercive forces of transnational migration law that have resulted in the maintenance of a “global hierarchy of mobility.” Yet, recognizing that state attempts to monopolize “the legitimate means of movement” are incomplete and contested, the chapter argues that scholars of “transnational migration law” must pay attention to diverse and situated Indigenous legal traditions as sources of authority. In doing so, the chapter critically unpacks the relationship between migration and struggles for decolonization and global justice.
Queering the Transnational: Notes on an Emerging Politics of Law and Sexuality
Authors: Jain Dipika
Published: April 2021

This chapter argues that transnational law holds significant potential as a methodological lens to study the intersection of gender, sexuality, and law. The discourse on gender and sexual rights has been cultivated by transnational dialogue and deliberation, and serves as an apt site to study the regulation of gender and sexuality. “Law and sexuality” as an academic discipline is meaningful when explored through the lens of transnational law and legal scholarship. Law schools ought to incorporate the dynamic interaction between domestic decision-making, foreign jurisprudence, and the international legal system and critical perspectives on each into their curricula. The first section of this chapter provides a primer to the study of law and sexuality through feminist and queer perspectives to critically engage with the legal regulation of gender identity and sexuality. Following this, the second section discusses the relevance of bringing transnational perspectives to the legal curriculum, particularly in the context of gender and sexuality studies.
Climate Change Governance, International Relations, and Politics: A Transnational Law Perspective
Authors: Minas Stephen
Published: April 2021

This chapter applies a transnational law perspective to climate change governance. Climate change is increasing the interdependence of different states and economic activities, as the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions from somewhere are felt everywhere. This has prompted an international climate politics in which diverse actors grapple with growing interdependencies. The transnational nature of the climate crisis is however but partially reflected in international climate law. The chapter argues that the Paris Agreement has the potential, as a central node in a still-heterarchical climate governance, to interlink instruments and mechanisms from different levels of law and from the public and private sectors. The chapter also draws attention to interactions with often-overlooked sites of climate governance, including transnational commercial law, private international law, and contractual dispute resolution. It concludes with suggestions for further work in the domains of scholarship and practice.
Transnational Law and Legal Positivism
Authors: Giudice Michael , Scarffe Eric
Published: April 2021

This chapter assesses the theoretical adequacy of legal positivism in explanation of several forms and features of transnational law. We suggest that while legal positivism emerged as a philosophical account of state law in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, its connection to state law is best viewed as historical and contingent rather than conceptual and necessary. Among the two core commitments of legal positivism, while the separation thesis requires no modification from its original form, the social fact thesis must be revised and developed to explain the character of transnational law. We also show how the exercise of revising a philosophical theory of law such as legal positivism provides an opportunity to illustrate the continuity between conceptual, empirical, and evaluative studies of transnational law.
Representing Transnational Law: Drone Warfare and Transnational Legal Text
Authors: Rajah Jothie
Published: April 2021

What can entertainment media tell us about a contemporary concept of law that is being transnationalized, and why should scholars pay attention to ostensibly fictional representations of law in transnational contexts? In this chapter, I consider representations of transnational law through an analysis of Gavin Hood’s 2016 film on drone warfare, Eye in the Sky (Eye). Eye is driven by a compelling narrative tension: a child is likely to be harmed if a missile is launched at a room occupied by terrorists loading suicide vests with explosives. But if this child is not risked (sacrificed?) and the terrorists conduct their suicide mission, a minimum of eighty civilian deaths is the probable result. With lives at stake, we watch a transnational alliance of American and British state actors debate law, the rules governing drone strikes, and accountability to publics, as the decision is made to conduct the targeted killing. Dramatizing questions of law in relation to the secretive workings of drone warfare, Eye offers a valuable representation of how a very specific account of law as security is being transnationalized.
Transnational Criminal Law: A Field in the Making
Authors: Kotiswaran Prabha , Palmer Nicola
Published: April 2021

Twenty years into the current phase of globalization, a new field of transnational criminal law is in the making, expanding to cover issues as diverse as money laundering, counterterrorism, global banking, human trafficking, infringements of intellectual property rights, and cybercrime. The chapter introduces the concept of transnational criminal law (TCL) and deliberates on the dilemmas of TCL as applied to empirical legal phenomena before suggesting a sociolegal approach to further develop the field of TCL. In particular, the chapter brings to bear on TCL the rich debates within global governance and transnational legal theory. The chapter does this by decentering formal state law and examining the full range of technologies of governance, that nonstate actors increasingly propose in order to address transnational social problems.
Towards a New Vision for Australian Politics
Authors: Tiernan Anne
Published: April 2021

Australian politics is often characterized as derivative, pragmatic, and utilitarian—as insufficiently interesting or important to devote much time to. This Handbook challenges that contention, arguing it reflects a narrow, colonial perspective and ignores the richness and diversity of the deep-time history of the Australian continent and the unique inheritance the blending of Australia’s many histories and traditions has produced. Australian political studies encompasses a broad family of research disciplines, whose diverse and methodologically plural efforts have transformed our understanding of Aboriginal cultures and of European settlement. This volume’s thematic approach captures the politics, policies, and societies that have evolved in Australia’s many different landscapes and places. Its chapters present a theoretically rigorous, empirically informed, and historically nuanced account of what is distinctive about Australian politics, its capacity for democratic innovation and what accounts (its many shortcomings notwithstanding), for the resilience of its political traditions and Australia’s relative success.
Pantomimic Conceptions of Language Origins
Authors: Wacewicz Sławomir , Żywiczyński Przemysław
Published: April 2021

Could pantomime have been the key step in the evolutionary emergence of symbolic communication? Such a possibility has been consistently present in the intellectual reflection on language origins. What makes pantomime interesting from this perspective is its rich expressive potential, since it can convey open-ended, semantically universal and displaced meanings without relying on semiotic conventions, so that spontaneous pantomimes can be recognized as such and successfully interpreted. Definitions are important in classifying a particular scenario as “pantomimic.” In this chapter, the authors employ a “rich” definition of pantomime: it is described as bodily-mimetic communication which is non-conventional, improvised, performed with the whole body, holistic, and communicatively and semantically complex. Based on this foundation, the authors review and evaluate pantomimic accounts of language origins, from the past to the present, and particularly focus on the contemporary pantomime accounts given by Michael Arbib, Michael Tomasello, and Jordan Zlatev.
A Timeline for the Acquisition of Symbolic Cognition in the Human Lineage
Authors: Tattersall Ian
Published: April 2021

Human beings are symbolic in the sense that they—uniquely—partition the world into a vocabulary of mental symbols that can be recombined to make statements not only about things as they are, but as they might be. An appraisal of the archaeological and fossil records shows that this unusual way of manipulating information was a recent acquisition, and one that occurred within the tenure of Homo sapiens on the planet. Almost certainly, the necessary neural underpinnings were exaptively acquired along with the distinctive skeletal structure of Homo sapiens, although the new potential was only subsequently released by a necessarily cultural stimulus. This stimulus was most likely the spontaneous and sudden invention of language, the quintessential symbolic activity. That the algorithmic change in brain function involved was more frugal metabolically than its intuitive predecessor is strongly supported by the observed 12.7 percent diminution in average human brain volumes since the late Pleistocene.
Medicine
Authors: Tonelli Natascia
Published: April 2021

From the outset of his career as a writer Dante demonstrated a profound and not at all predictable expertise in the medical field, particularly when it came to the physiology of the human body, and especially with respect to the pathologies linked to amorous passion. This study argues that it was precisely on this physiological and scientific foundation related to the humoral complexion of a person that Dante, beginning with the Vita Nuova, built his intellectual self-portrait. We encounter here an evolving yet coherent self-portrait of a visionary poet-figure, with physical and psychological characteristics that over time were ever more clearly identified as specifically prophetic, so much so that they were featured as assets in his journey through the afterlife and his final vision of God. In this way, Dante’s own authorial path appears unified under the aegis of a certain ‘humoral determinism’.
The Materiality of the Text and Manuscript Culture
Authors: Eisner Martin
Published: April 2021

This article investigates the significance of the manuscripts of Virgil and other classical poets that Dante might have read. Calling attention to the presence of musical notation (neumes) in copies that share the particular Virgilian readings Dante quotes, this essay explores the resonance of one of those passages (Aeneas’ dream of Hector) in Dante’s poem. It shows how Dante uses this Virgilian episode to craft his encounter with Manfred where he considers the relationship of body and soul that constitutes one of the major differences between classical and Christian thought, as Augustine frequently noted. Just as Christian anthropology maintains that the body constitutes an essential element of the human person, this essay argues that the materiality of the texts Dante read constitutes a crucial source for understanding how Dante interpreted these texts.
The Law
Authors: Quaglioni Diego
Published: April 2021

This chapter discusses the way Dante’s major works, like Monarchia and Convivio, articulate a strong and complex interrelation among religious, political, and legal concepts. Dante’s Commedia, too, is a universal masterpiece whose literary-theoretical framework is simultaneously and manifestly a legal one. Dante the political philosopher as well as Dante the poet fully assimilated the legal culture of his century. He was not a canonist or a jurist either, even though he quoted canon and Roman law everywhere, castigating papal decretals and the decretalists in the harshest terms but also following some traditional lines of legal thought. Indeed, the legal maxims quoted by Dante are one with the structure of his discourse and argumentation, even when Dante follows closely precise legal enunciations of the sources, showing how phrases from the texts of the Corpus iuris civilis or of the Corpus iuris canonici had become part of general educated discourse among non-lawyers.
Politics
Authors: Kay Tristan
Published: April 2021

This chapter addresses key aspects of Dante’s political thought in its cultural, biographical, and intellectual context. Its opening section stresses that Dante’s political theory responds to his lived experience of the volatility of fourteenth-century Italy. The chapter then questions the generic parameters of Dante’s ‘political writings’ and draws attention to some of the intellectual currents that inform them. The following two sections use passages from the Commedia and Monarchia, in particular, to illuminate key tenets of Dante’s theologized political philosophy: firstly, the institutions of papacy and empire and their respective functions and responsibilities; and secondly, the importance of cities, and specifically factional medieval Florence and imperial Rome, in the Commedia’s political imaginary. The final part of the chapter argues that, while critics sometimes address politics as a vital but intellectually isolated branch of Dante’s work, we should emphasize the ways in which he brings political ideas into fruitful contact with diverse forms of expression and knowledge.
The East
Authors: Schildgen Brenda Deen
Published: April 2021

This chapter addresses four aspects of Dante’s use of the concept of oriens or the East: First, scientific, his geographical knowledge and orientation, that is the orbis terrarum model that underlies the Commedia and the Monarchia and the role of the East in it; second, political geography whereby he renders the theory of a tripartite single-landmass Earth in service to his historical theory that puts Rome in the center of the political world; third, his use of Arabic learning and philosophy; fourth, the fictive ‘orient’ or East, which poses political Islam as a danger and threat (and includes North Africa and the Middle East); imagines India as a revered East; finally, presents the ‘East’ as the source for ‘wonders’ that reveal God’s creative grandeur and incommensurability. Dante, thus, represents many Easts, including a political East and a geographical East, a learned East, as well as an imaginary East.
Eschatological Anthropology
Authors: Gragnolati Manuele
Published: April 2021

This chapter explores selfhood in the Commedia. Focusing on the concept of the aerial body that the separated soul creates in the afterlife and that continues to express sensitive faculties, it argues that this concept is paradoxical. On the one hand it can be taken as the symbol of the separated soul’s full experience in the eschatological time between physical death and the final resurrection of the flesh. This is most interesting in Purgatory, where physical pain is productive and transformative. On the other hand, the concept of the aerial body also indicates that an even fuller experience will only be possible with the final, fleshly reconstitution of the person. This applies not only to Hell but also to Heaven, where the blessed, who have learnt to renounce their identity and merge with God, nonetheless also long for a corporeal materiality that carries their memory and past desires.
The Master Narrative and its Paradoxes
Authors: Crisafi Nicolò
Published: April 2021

The chapter explores alternatives to the uplifting linear narrative of progress that underpins Dante’s Commedia and can be regarded as its ‘master narrative’. It investigates three counter-narratives that stand in tension with, and often subvert, its teleological trajectory. These are enacted by (i) the poem’s representations of an uncertain, open-ended future; (ii) the alternative endings voiced by various characters who imagine how their lives might have turned out differently; and (iii) the paradoxes that resist the poem’s linear temporality and offer important illustrations of a more unresolved Commedia that does not always seek ‘total coherence’. The chapter concludes that alongside established notions of Dante’s plurilingualism and pluristylism, it is fruitful to think of the Commedia in terms of its narrative pluralism. Exploring counter-narratives balances a popular image of Dante as a carefully controlling author with that of a writer open to a more liberal and reciprocal relationship with his readers.
Commentary (both by Dante and on Dante)
Authors: Fiorentini Luca
Published: April 2021

The first part of this chapter aims to reconstruct the essential moments of Dante’s self-exegesis through an examination of the conditions that inspired it: a redefinition of the function of lyric, in the Vita nova; the explanation of the transmission of philosophical truths in poetic forms, in the Convivio; the original explanatory dialectic between the two planes of meaning, literal and allegorical, implemented in the Commedia. The second section of the chapter is devoted to the first commentaries on Dante’s Commedia, from the general introduction to Dante’s poem in the Epistle to Cangrande to the Esposizioni sopra la ‘Comedia’ by Giovanni Boccaccio.
A Decolonial Feminist Dante: Imperial Historiography and Gender
Authors: Waller Marguerite
Published: April 2021

This chapter brings a decolonial dimension to Euro-American feminist readings of Dante’s constructions of gender and sexuality. Corroborated by the religious art of the first millennium of the church in Rome, the Commedia’s concern with gender and sexuality relates directly to Pope Boniface VIII’s official disenfranchisement of women as part of his effort to imperialize the papacy. The ‘decolonial’ turn taken by several feminist theorists over the last forty years draws upon strategies and metaphors similar to Dante’s to challenge a post-1492 colonial sex/gender system. Early church art needs to be consulted in Dante studies for evidence of an anti-imperial Christian culture, subjugated and occluded by Dante’s time, that embraced the sensuous, the female, and a decentralizing relational imaginary. The ninth-century Basilica of Santa Prassede in Rome and the story of Titus unfolded across Purgatorio and Paradiso suggest a ‘decolonial’ alternative to the sex/gender system on which imperial sovereignty depends.
Roman de la Rose
Authors: Montefusco Antonio
Published: April 2021

This chapter intends to outline, in a succinct yet critical manner, the essential elements allowing us to establish a link between Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun’s Roman de la Rose and the works of Dante, from the contested Fiore and Detto d’amore to the Commedia. Rather than seeking to provide an exhaustive picture, given the abundant critical literature available, this chapter addresses the following questions: 1) what is the Rose? 2) What did it represent to the generation of Tuscan poets from the second half of the 13th century, Cavalcanti and the young Dante, in particular? 3) What was its role in Dantean writing, especially in its complex poetics, politics, and organization of knowledge?
Withdrawn as duplicate: Spatial and temporal localization of SPIRRIG and WAVE/SCAR reveal roles for these proteins in actin-mediated root hair development
Authors: Chin Sabrina , Kwon Taegun , Khan Bibi Rafeiza , Sparks J Alan , Mallery Eileen L , Szymanski Daniel B , Blancaflor Elison B
Published: April 2021

This article has been withdrawn due to a publisher error that caused the article to be duplicated. The definitive version of this article is published under DOI 10.1093/plcell/koab115.
Complex evolution of novel red floral color inPetunia
Authors: Berardi Andrea E. , Esfeld Korinna , Jäggi Lea , Mandel Therese , Cannarozzi Gina M. , Kuhlemeier Cris
Published: April 2021

Red flower color has arisen multiple times and is generally associated with hummingbird pollination. The majority of evolutionary transitions to red color proceeded from purple lineages and tend to be genetically simple, almost always involving a few loss-of-function mutations of major phenotypic effect. Here we report on the complex evolution of a novel red floral color in the hummingbird-pollinated Petunia exserta (Solanaceae) from a colorless ancestor. The presence of a red color is remarkable because the genus cannot synthesize red anthocyanins and P. exserta retains a nonfunctional copy of the key MYB transcription factor AN2. We show that moderate upregulation and a shift in tissue specificity of an AN2 paralog, DEEP PURPLE, restores anthocyanin biosynthesis in P. exserta. An essential shift in anthocyanin hydroxylation occurred through rebalancing the expression of three hydroxylating genes. Furthermore, the downregulation of an acyltransferase promotes reddish hues in typically purple pigments by preventing acyl group decoration of anthocyanins. This study presents a rare case of a genetically complex evolutionary transition toward the gain of a novel red color.
Neurophysiological contributors to advantageous risk-taking: an experimental psychopharmacological investigation
Authors: MacCormack Jennifer K , Armstrong-Carter Emma , Humphreys Kathryn L , Muscatell Keely A
Published: April 2021

The ability to learn from experience is critical for determining when to take risks and when to play it safe. However, we know little about how within-person state changes, such as an individual’s degree of neurophysiological arousal, may impact the ability to learn which risks are most likely to fail vs succeed. To test this, we used a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design to pharmacologically manipulate neurophysiological arousal and assess its causal impact on risk-related learning and performance. Eighty-seven adults (45% female, Mage = 20.1 ± 1.46 years) took either propranolol (n = 42), a beta-adrenergic receptor blocker that attenuates sympathetic nervous system–related signaling, or a placebo (n = 45). Participants then completed the Balloon Emotional Learning Task, a risk-taking task wherein experiential learning is necessary for task success. We found that individuals on propranolol, relative to placebo, earned fewer points on the task, suggesting that they were less effective risk-takers. This effect was mediated by the fact that those on propranolol made less optimal decisions in the final phase of the task on trials with the greatest opportunity for advantageous risk-taking. These findings highlight that neurophysiological arousal supports risk-related learning and, in turn, more advantageous decision-making and optimal behavior under conditions of risk.
Manuka Honey: Feasibility and Safety in Postoperative Neurosurgical Wound Care
Authors: Felbaum Daniel R. , Dowlati Ehsan , Jacobs Matthew , Tom Laura K.
Published: April 2021

OBJECTIVE

To date, no reports have been published on active Leptospermum manuka honey (ALH) feasibility as a postoperative topical wound supplement in neurosurgical patients. The objective of the study is to present the authors’ initial experience with using ALH in postoperative neurosurgical patients.

METHODS

A single-surgeon retrospective case series review of cranial and spinal operations between 2018 and 2020 was performed in patients with nonhealing wounds or wounds deemed “at risk” as defined by grade 1 Sandy surgical wound dehiscence grading classification. An ALH gel or ointment was applied to these incisions once a day for 2 to 4 weeks. Patients were followed up in the clinic every 2 weeks until incisions had healed.

RESULTS

Twenty-five postoperative patients (12 cranial, 13 spinal) were identified to be at high risk of operative debridement. All 25 patients were prescribed a topical application of ALH, which was easily adopted without patient-related adverse events. Seven (four cranial, three spinal) patients required operative debridement and treatment with long-term antibiotic therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

In this small case series of neurosurgical patients who were at risk of poor wound healing, the application of medical-grade ALH was well tolerated without patient-reported adverse events. The ALH may have prevented the need for operative debridement in the majority of patients. Further prospective studies are necessary to establish its efficacy in wound healing in the neurosurgical population.
Retrospective Cohort Noninferiority Analysis of Barrier Cream in Preventing Pressure Injuries
Authors: Garcia-Carretero Rafael , Ballesteros-Ubeda María-Vicenta , Martínez-Alvarez Ana , Martinez-Gimeno María-Lara
Published: April 2021

OBJECTIVE

To assess the effectiveness of a dimethicone- and zinc-based barrier cream compared with hyperoxygenated fatty acids in preventing pressure injuries (PIs) in patients at high or very high risk.

METHODS

Researchers conducted a retrospective noninferiority study in an inpatient acute care hospital in Spain that included hospitalized patients in nonsurgical departments with impaired mobility.

RESULTS

The study authors reviewed 522 patients in a control group (hyperoxygenated fatty acids) and an experimental group (barrier cream) over a period of 7 days. The incidence of PI was 31% in the control group and 31.1% in the experimental group. The hazard ratio for developing PI was 0.84 (confidence interval, 0.61-1.17; P = .32) in the experimental group compared with the control group, meeting the criteria for noninferiority. The Kaplan-Meier estimator indicated no statistically significant difference between groups (log-rank = 0.654).

CONCLUSIONS

Dimethicone- and zinc-based barrier cream was not inferior to hyperoxygenated fatty acids in preventing PIs in hospitalized patients at high or very high risk of developing them during their hospital stay.
Resection of Anterior and Lateral Muscle Compartments Does Not Preclude Limb Salvage and Functions
Authors: Dunlap Eleanor , Fitzpatrick Suzanna , Jinwala Felecia , Drucker Charles , Liang Willie , Nagarsheth Khanjan
Published: April 2021

BACKGROUND

Fasciotomy with resection of nonviable muscle is often necessary when there is a delay in compartment syndrome (CS) diagnosis after revascularization. The reported rate of major amputation following missed CS or delayed fasciotomy ranges from 12% to 35%. Herein, the authors present a series of critically ill patients who experienced delayed CS diagnosis and required complete resection of the anterior and/or lateral compartments but still achieved limb salvage and function.

METHODS

A retrospective chart review identified five patients from April 2018 to April 2019 within a single institution who met the inclusion criteria. Patient charts were reviewed for demographic data, risk factors, time to diagnosis following revascularization, muscle compartments resected, operative and wound care details, and functional outcome at follow-up.

RESULTS

All of the patients developed CS of the lower extremity following revascularization secondary to acute limb ischemia and required two-incision, four-compartment fasciotomies. Further, they all required serial operative debridements to achieve limb salvage; however, there were no major amputations, and all of the patients were walking at follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Delay in CS diagnosis can have devastating consequences, resulting in major amputation. In cases where myonecrosis is isolated to two or fewer compartments, complete compartment muscle resection can be safely performed, and limb preservation and function can be maintained with aggressive wound management and physical therapy.
Characteristics of Injury in Collegiate Rodeo
Authors: Watts Melinda , Bobo Linda , Whitehead Malcolm T. , Dompier Thomas P. , Oliver Gretchen D.
Published: April 2021

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to investigate injury occurrence sustained by collegiate rodeo athletes during practice and competition.

Design:

Descriptive epidemiology.

Setting:

Eleven National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association member institutions across the United States.

Participants:

Participants included 264 male and female college rodeo athletes. Athletic trainers (ATs) from each institution reported injury and exposure data using the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance Program.

Interventions:

Institutional ATs reported athlete exposures (AEs) and injuries that occurred from collegiate rodeo practices and competitions.

Main Outcome Measure:

Injury and AEs from practices and competitions for one college rodeo season were analyzed. Injury rates and ratios were calculated for non-time loss (NTL) and time loss (TL) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results:

Data revealed a higher proportion of TL than NTL injuries [2.47 vs 1.77 per 1000 AE; injury rate ratios (IRRs) = 1.39; 95% CI: 0.93-2.08]. There was a higher injury rate during competition as compared with practice (10.98 vs 3.09 per 1000 AE; IRR = 3.56; 95% CI: 2.36-5.35), but more injuries were reported in practice (62.2%).

Conclusions:

Although the injury rate during rodeo competition was significantly higher than during practice in this study, a greater number of injuries were reported during practice. This indicates all college rodeo athletes can potentially benefit from available medical care.
Hydration Strategies for Physical Activity and Endurance Events at High (>2500 m) Altitude: A Practical Management Article
Authors: Trease Larissa , Singleman Glenn , Windsor Jeremy , Allan Stuart , Albert Edi
Published: April 2021

A growing number of adventurous athletes are seeking new challenges through endurance events or physical activities held at high altitude (>2500 m). This coincides with a significant increase in the numbers of trekkers who ascend into the world's mountains. Altitude itself influences and complicates the athlete's effective and safe hydration. This article considers the physiology of adaptation to altitude and the effects on hydration at altitude compared with sea level, reviews the “ad libitum versus programmed hydration” controversy in conventional endurance event hydration, examines the evidence for extrapolation of sea level hydration strategies to the high-altitude environment, and synthesizes these disparate factors into a set of practical recommendations for hydration management during high-altitude physical activity. The guidelines will be relevant to participants of physical activity at altitude and health care staff who may care for them in the preparation or performance phases of their adventure.
Analysis of Viscoelastic Testing in Pediatric Patients Using the Pediatric Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Outcomes Registry
Authors: Burton Cassondra L. , Furlong-Dillard Jamie M. , Jawad Kahir , Feygin Yana , Berkenbosch John W. , Tzanetos Deanna Todd
Published: April 2021

Use of viscoelastic tests (VETs), including thromboelastography (TEG) and rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM), is increasing in the management of anticoagulation in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) patients. A retrospective review of data on 265 pediatric (<20 years old) ECMO patients who underwent VET and were submitted to the Pediatric ECMO Outcomes Registry (PEDECOR) was conducted to describe common coagulopathies in patients who underwent VET; associations between the VET parameters and traditional tests of coagulation; and comparisons in blood product usage in patients who underwent VET with those who did not. We calculated patient-level summary statistics and assessed differences between the groups using χ2 tests (categorical variables) and Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests (continuous variables). Viscoelastic test was utilized in 77% of patients in the analysis. Platelet dysfunction was the most common abnormality identified by TEG (30.8%) and ROTEM (9.7%). Bleeding patients who had VET performed received more cryoprecipitate transfusions than those who did not have VET (VET median = 9.7 ml/kg; interquartile range (IQR) = 4.3–22.0 ml/kg vs. no VET median = 5.1 ml/kg; IQR = 0–10.4 ml/kg; p = 0.0013). Given the growing use of VET in pediatric ECMO patients, further studies evaluating VET in managing complications as well as aiding in titration of anticoagulation therapy are needed.
Early Improvement in Clinical Status Following Ventricular Assist Device Implantation in Children: A Marker for Survival
Authors: Conway Jennifer , Ravekes William , McConnell Patrick , Cantor Ryan S. , Koehl Devin , Sun Benjamin , Daly Richard C. , Hsu Daphne T.
Published: April 2021

While clinical status at the time of ventricular assist device (VAD) implant can negatively affect outcomes, it is unclear if early improvement after implant can have a positive effect. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to describe the clinical status of pediatric patients supported with a VAD and determine the impact of clinical status on the 1-month follow-up form on survival and ability to discharge. This was a retrospective analysis of data collected prospectively by the Pediatric Interagency Registry for Mechanical Circulatory Support Registry (Pedimacs) Registry. The Pedimacs database was queried for patients implanted between September 19, 2012, and September 30, 2019, who were alive on VAD support at 1-month postimplant on either a paracorporeal pulsatile or intracorporeal continuous device. Four factors on the 1-month follow-up were the focus of this study: mechanical ventilation, supplemental nutritional support, inotropic support, and ambulatory status. These factors were regarded as present if detected between 1-week and 1-month postimplant and were analyzed to determine their impact on survival following 1 month of VAD support and on successful discharge from hospital in patients with implantable continuous-flow devices. The eligible study cohort consisted of 414 patients with a mean age of 9.6 ± 6.2 years, weight of 40.8 ± 32.3 kg with the majority being male (56.7%) and having cardiomyopathy (68%). An isolated left ventricular assist device (LVAD) was the most common implant (85.5%). At implant, 40% were ventilated, 57% required nutritional support, 93% were on inotropes, and 58% were nonambulating. On the 1-month postimplant form, there were significant improvements in all four categories (14% ventilator support, 46% nutritional support, 53% on inotropes, and 25% nonambulating). However, there was no significant early change in the percentage of patients requiring supplemental nutrition in the paracorporeal pulsatile devices (88% vs. 82%; p = 0.2). Presence of these clinical parameters in early follow-up postimplant had a significant negative impact on survival and on the ability of patients with continuous-flow devices to be discharged. Presence of four specific clinical parameters early after VAD placement is associated with worse overall survival and an inability to discharge patients on VAD support. Ongoing work is needed for optimization of patients before implant and aggressive rehabilitation after implant to help improve long-term outcomes.
Development and Validation of the Chronic Gastritis Scale Under the System of Quality of Life Instruments for Chronic Diseases QLICD-CG Based on Classical Test Theory and Generalizability Theory
Authors: Wan Chonghua , Chen Ying , Gao Li , Zhang Qingqing , Li Wu , Quan Peng
Published: April 2021

Background and Aim:

Quality of life (QOL) for patients with chronic gastritis (CG) is of interest worldwide and disease-specific instruments are needed for clinical research and practice. This paper focused on the development and validation of the CG scale under the system of Quality of Life Instruments for Chronic Diseases (QLICD-CG) by the modular approach and both classical test theory and generalizability theory.

Methods:

The QLICD-CG was developed based on programmed decision procedures including multiple nominal and focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and quantitative statistical procedures. Based on the data measuring QOL 3 times before and after treatments from 142 inpatients with CG, the psychometric properties of the scale were evaluated with respect to validity, reliability and responsiveness employing correlation analysis, multi-trait scaling analysis, factor analyses, t tests and also G studies and D studies of generalizability theory analysis.

Results:

Correlation, multi-trait scaling and factor analyses confirmed good construct validity and criterion-related validity when using SF-36 as a criterion. The internal consistency α for all domains were higher than 0.70 except for the social domain (0.62). Test-retest reliability coefficients (Pearson r and intraclass correlations) for the overall score and all domains were higher than 0.80 except for the social domain (0.77), while they were ranging between 0.72 to 0.94 at facets level; The overall score and scores for all domains/facets had statistically significant changes (P<0.01) after treatments except for facets of social effects and sexual function with standardized response mean ranging from 0.04 to 1.03, but from 0.34 to 1.03 for the domain level scores. G-coefficients and index of dependability (Ф coefficients) confirmed the reliability of the scale further with more exact variance components, and decision information on number of items changing.

Conclusions:

The QLICD-CG could be used as a useful instrument in assessing QoL for patients with CG, with good psychometric properties including validity, reliability and responsiveness and also several advantages.