bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
RADI-40. STEREOTACTIC RADIOSURGERY FOR BRAINSTEM METASTASES: AN ANALYSIS OF SINGLE FRACTION AND MULTI FRACTION TECHNIQUES
Authors: Nack Elana , Iyengar Varun , Yu Esther , DiPetrillo Thomas , Kinsella Timothy , Wazer David , Cielo Deus , Toms Steven , Hepel Jaroslaw , Koffer Paul
Published: August 2019

PURPOSE: Utilization of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for brainstem metastases (BSM) is increasing. Multi-fraction SRS (MF-SRS) is a potential means of obtaining therapeutic gain while limiting toxicity. However, most available data assesses only single-fraction SRS (SF-SRS). This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of SF-SRS and MF-SRS for BSM. METHODS: Data was retrospectively collected for patients with BSM treated with SRS between 2003–2018 at a single institution. Kaplan-Meier method was used to evaluate overall survival (OS) and local control (LC). Independent t-test was used for correlations between groups. RESULTS: 29 patients (31 lesions) were identified; 13 patients (15 lesions) underwent SF-SRS and 16 patients (16 lesions) underwent MF-SRS. Median follow-up was 6.8 months (1–80.8 months). Post-SRS MRI was available for 78% of patients. Median dose was 16Gy (12–18 Gy) for SF-SRS and 24 Gy (18–30 Gy) for MF-SRS. MF-SRS was delivered in a median of 3 fractions (3–5). There was a trend toward larger mean tumor volume with MF-SRS (1.297 vs 0.302mL, p=0.055). OS was 64.8% at 6 months and 49.3% at 12 months. LC was 90.9% at 6 months and 69.9% at 12 months. LC was similar between SF-SRS and MF-SRS at 6 months (100% vs 79.5%, p=0.143) and 12 months (50.0% vs 79.5%, p=0.812). Among the 4 patients who experienced local recurrence, 3 received salvage whole brain radiation and median OS was 8.1 months after LF. Distant CNS failures occurred in 40.3% of patients at 6 months and 72.4% at 12 months. Tumor volume >0.5 mL was associated with worse LC at 6 months (64.3% vs 100%, p=0.022). One patient developed symptomatic radiation necrosis (1/29 lesions, 3.4%) after MF-SRS. CONCLUSION: SRS is a safe and effective treatment for small BSM. Outcomes were not different between SF-SRS and MF-SRS but analysis is limited by small sample size.
RADI-43. ARTERIAL SPIN LABELING PERFUSION MR IMAGING FOR DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN TUMOR RECURRENCE AND PSEUDOPROGRESSION IN INTRACRANIAL METASTASES FOLLOWING STEREOTACTIC RADIOSURGERY
Authors: Villanueva-Meyer Javier , Diaz Alex , Felix Alex , Braunstein Steve
Published: August 2019

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a standard adjuvant treatment for patients with limited intracranial metastatic disease. Transient growth, increased peritumoral edema, and inflammation can be seen in up to a third of these cases following SRS. Unfortunately, this pseudoprogression is often indistinguishable from true progression by morphologic MR imaging thereby complicating patient management. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion can differentiate tumor recurrence from pseudoprogression after SRS. We reviewed patients treated between 2013 and 2018 and identified 24 patients with 43 intracranial metastases who had imaging suggesting progression following SRS and also had ASL perfusion acquired at time of MR imaging. Median imaging follow-up was 11 months (range 3–64 months). Outcome of tumor recurrence or pseudoprogression was confirmed in each case by pathology or subsequent MR imaging. 25 (58%) lesions were classified as tumor recurrence (13, 52% by pathology), while 18 (42%) were classified as pseudoprogression (3, 18% by pathology). ASL perfusion values (normalized cerebral blood flow) were higher in patients with tumor progression (2.1 vs 1.1 ml/min/100g, p=0.003). No significant difference was observed between histology, time from radiotherapy, marginal dose, volume of lesion, or instances of repeat SRS treatments between groups. In conclusion, elevated blood flow by ASL perfusion was closely associated with the diagnosis of tumor recurrence after SRS. Patients with intracranial metastases undergoing SRS may benefit from this short non-contrast sequence at time of follow-up MR imaging.
SURG-06. LASER INTERSTITIAL THERMAL THERAPY COMPARED TO CRANIOTOMY FOR TREATMENT OF RADIATION NECROSIS OR RECURRENT TUMOR IN BRAIN METASTASES FAILING RADIOSURGERY
Authors: Hong Christopher , Deng Di , Sujijantarat Nanthiya , Vera Alberto , Chiang Veronica
Published: August 2019

Many publications report laser-interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) as a viable alternative treatment to craniotomy for radiation necrosis (RN) and re-growing tumor occurring after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for brain metastases. No studies to-date have compared the two options. The aim of this study was to retrospectively compare outcomes after LITT versus craniotomy for regrowing lesions in patients previously treated with SRS for brain metastases. Data were collected from a single-institution chart review of patients treated with LITT or craniotomy for previously irradiated brain metastasis. Of 75 patients, 42 had recurrent tumor (56%) and 33 (44%) had RN. Of patients with tumor, 26 underwent craniotomy and 16 LITT. For RN, 15 had craniotomy and 18 LITT. There was no significant difference between LITT and craniotomy in ability to taper off steroids or neurological outcomes. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were similar for LITT versus craniotomy, respectively: %PFS-survival at 1-year = 72.2% versus 61.1%, %PFS-survival at 2-years = 60.0% versus 61.1%, p = 0.72; %OS-survival at 1-year = 69.0% versus 69.3%, %OS-survival at 2-years = 56.6% versus 49.5%, p = 0.90. This finding persisted on sub-analysis of smaller lesions under < 3cm in diameter. Craniotomy resulted in higher rates of pre-operative deficit improvement than LITT (p < 0.01). On sub-group analysis, the single factor most significantly associated with OS and PFS was pathology of the lesion. About 40% of tumor lesions needed post-operative salvage with radiation after both craniotomy and LITT. LITT was as efficacious as craniotomy in achieving local control of recurrent irradiated brain metastases and facilitating steroid taper, regardless of pathology. Craniotomy appears to be more advantageous for providing symptom relief in those with pre-operative symptoms.
SURG-08. GASTROINTESTINAL STROMAL TUMOR WITH INTRACRANIAL METASTASIS: CASE REPORT AND SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Authors: Patel Akash
Published: August 2019

BACKGROUND: Intracranial metastasis of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST) is rare but presents unique treatment challenges. We present a case of intracranial metastasis of GIST with a systematic review of the literature regarding this rare clinical scenario. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was performed to identify cases of intradural GIST metastases to the brain. Additionally, a patient case of GIST is discussed. RESULTS: Out of the 18 articles included for analysis in this review and our present case, fifteen of nineteen patients were male, and mean age was 58 years old (range 15–80 years, median 60 years). The primary site of the GIST along with site of intraperitoneal metastasis was variable. There was a large predilection for brain metastasis to the cerebrum with only one to infratentorial elements. The tumors in seven of the cases involved the dura, and there was one case with metastasis to the pituitary. Eight patients died following treatment of their intracranial disease. CONCLUSIONS: Surgery remains the mainstay of intracranial metastatic GIST, however there are many reports of good responses to radiation or chemotherapy alone. More investigation is required to determine the best course of treatment for patients with this unusual sequela of GIST.
SURG-12. A COMPARISON BETWEEN PROGNOSTIC SCORES OF BREAST CANCER BRAIN METASTASES APPLIED TO A NEUROSURGICAL POPULATION
Authors: Bastos Dhiego , Prabhu Sujit , Sawaya Raymond , Joaquim Andrei , Liu Diane , Suki Dima
Published: August 2019

INTRODUCTION: Prognostic scores have been developed to predict overall survival (OS) in patients with brain metastasis from breast cancer, comprising different combinations of prognostic factors. A new prognostic score including the number of brain metastases has been proposed. We aimed to evaluate the use of these prognostic scores on a neurosurgical population. METHODS: Retrospective study with consecutive patients with brain metastasis from breast cancer treated in the neurosurgery department. Clinical end point is overall survival estimated by the Kaplan Meier method. Univariate and multicovariate Cox proportional hazard models are applied to estimate the effect of covariates of interest on OS. We employ Bootstrap validation method to estimate the bias-corrected or over fitting-corrected predictive accuracy of Cox models, which is presented by concordance index(C-index). RESULTS: 315 consecutive patients with brain metastasis from breast cancer. Median OS was 14 months(95% CI 11–16.9), KPS, number of brain metastases, biological subtypes, age and presence of extracranial metastases were significantly associated with improved OS on the univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that KPS, biological subtype, age and number of brain metastases were statistically significant for OS. The recursive partitioning analysis(RPA) classes, the graded prognostic assessment(GPA) score, the diagnostic specific GPA(DS-GPA) and the modified DS-GPA identified individual subgroups with different OS. RPA and DS-GPA had OS statistical significant between all groups with a C-index of 0.561 and 0.586 respectively. DS-GPA had a c-index of 0.639 and modified DS-GPA had an c-index of 0.637. DS-GPA and modified DS-GPA had a better performance in terms of discrimination when compared to RPA(p< 0.001) and GPA(p=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: DS-GPA and modified DS-GPA were able to better discriminate subgroups OS, which most likely reflects the use of biological subtype in the score calculation. The incorporation of number of BM by the modified DS-GPA improved the distinction between the higher score and the lower score group.
Neuro-Oncology Practice Clinical Debate: targeted therapy vs conventional chemotherapy in pediatric low-grade glioma
Authors: Cooney Tabitha , Yeo Kee Kiat , Kline Cassie , Prados Michael , Haas-Kogan Daphne , Chi Susan , Mueller Sabine
Published: August 2019

The treatment of children with low-grade glioma has evolved over the last several decades, beginning initially with focal radiotherapy, which has now been largely replaced by systemic treatment with conventional chemotherapy agents or more recently molecularly targeted therapeutics. A consensus standard of care is not well defined, leaving clinicians and parents to choose from an increasing number of options, often without complete information concerning the associated risks and benefits. Issues critical to this topic include timing of interventions (when to treat), preservation of neurological function (goals of treatment), choice of initial therapy strategy (conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy vs molecularly targeted therapy), duration of treatment (how long, and what clinical or imaging endpoints to consider), and perhaps most important, risk reduction relative to anticipated benefit. The groups from the University of California, San Francisco and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, moderated by Michael Prados, herein debate the merits of cytotoxic chemotherapy and targeted therapeutics as initial treatment strategies in pediatric low-grade glioma, a topic discussed daily in Tumor Boards across the United States and abroad. Prospective, randomized, phase 3 trials comparing the 2 strategies, conducted within homogenous disease settings, with consistently evaluated functional and imaging endpoints, are not available to guide the risks/benefit discussion. As is often the case in rare biologically diverse diseases, in a vulnerable population, therapy decisions are frequently based on incomplete data, physician experience, bias to some degree, and patient/family preference.
Nicotine Induced Neurocognitive Protection and Anti-inflammation Effect by Activating α 4β 2 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Ischemic Rats
Authors: Han Tingting , Wang Qi , Lai Ruihe , Zhang Dalong , Diao Yao , Yin Yafu
Published: August 2019

Introduction

The main objective of this study was to explore the mechanism of nicotine improving cognitive impairments in ischemic rats.

Methods

Twenty adult male Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats underwent ischemic model surgery by injecting endothelin-1 into the left thalamus, which were classified into four different groups with different intervention: nicotine (1.5 mg/kg/d), dihydro-β-erythroidine (DHβE; 3 mg/kg/d), nicotine (1.5 mg/kg/d) + DHβE (3 mg/kg/d), or saline, after ischemic model surgery. Another five male SD rats also underwent same surgery, while not injecting endothelin-1 but saline, as the control group. Morris water maze (MWM) test was adopted to assess the cognition. All the rats underwent the MWM test, micro positron emission tomography imaging with 2-[18F]-A-85380, and messenger RNA (mRNA) test of α 4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), β 2 nAChR, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), IL-1β, and IL-6.

Results

The MWM test showed the rats given nicotine showing better memory than ischemic rats (p < .05), whereas the rats given DHβE or both nicotine and DHβE did not show any statistical difference from the ischemic rats (p > .05). Micro positron emission tomography imaging showed higher uptake of tracer in the left thalamus and whole brain in rats given nicotine than in ischemic rats, but the rats given DHβE or both nicotine and DHβE did not. By real-time PCR test, the mRNA of α 4 nAChR and β 2 nAChR in rats given nicotine increased significantly compared with ischemic rats and decreased TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 mRNA (all ps < .05).

Conclusions

By activating α 4β 2 nAChRs, nicotine plays a role in inhibiting the inflammatory factors, which contributes to improving cognitive impairment in ischemic rats.

Implications

It is well acknowledged that vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. Cholinergic agents have potential for the symptomatic treatment of the cognitive symptoms of dementia, but the exact mechanism still remains unclear. There are potential complex associations and interactions between VCI and inflammation. This study showed that nicotine had anti-inflammatory potency, which is most likely because of the activation of the nAChRs. By activating α4β2 nAChRs, nicotine played a role in inhibiting the inflammatory factors, which contribute to improving cognitive impairment in ischemic rats.
The Politics of Global Tobacco Control
Authors: Lee Kelley
Published: August 2019

This chapter examines the politics that has shifted tobacco control policy over the past three decades, from a long-neglected public health issue to a flagship global health issue supported by collective action by state and non-state actors. These efforts were spurred by the expansion of leading transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) into emerging markets, beginning in the 1960s, amid growing regulation and declining sales in traditional markets. By the 1990s tobacco use was steadily rising in the wake of the global expansion of the tobacco industry. The negotiation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) became the focus of intense political contestation between a powerful industry seeking to protect its commercial interests and an alarmed public health community. Since adoption of the FCTC in 2004, this political battle has shifted to its effective implementation in signatory states. This has included the eventual negotiation of the FCTC Protocol to Eliminate the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products and continued efforts by the tobacco industry to sustain sales through a variety of political strategies.
Opera and the South African Political
Authors: Ballantine Christopher
Published: August 2019

Christopher Ballantine’s focus is on timbre, in particular the timbre of the singing voice, and how this combines with the imagination to create meaning. His investigation is largely philosophical; but the growth in popularity of opera in post-apartheid South Africa provides empirical means for Ballantine to indicate this powerful but analytically neglected way of creating meaning in the performance of music. His case study shows how timbre can produce musical experiences that have a particular, and often surprising, resonance. Through interviews with leading figures in South African opera, Ballantine demonstrates that timbre is a vital wellspring of imagined meaning; it should especially be seen thus if we seek to understand the singing voice in a sociopolitical context such as that of South Africa during and after apartheid.
Radio Imaginaries
Authors: Michelsen Morten
Published: August 2019

Morten Michelsen deals with a number of dualities—intimate/social, private/public, and introvert/extrovert—that are evident in the imaginative production and, especially, consumption of radio broadcasts. Michelsen explores the fields of the microsocial and the macrosocial in the context of radio, how radio broadcasts are used to negotiate social structures in spaces such as the home, and how they are used to form imagined communities between groups of people separated by geography (those communities formed primarily across space). To illustrate these two structures, and to exemplify the imaginaries of radio, Michelsen first explores 1950s Europe, as radio practice becomes engendered through advertising and new broadcast and reception technology, before analyzing two Danish radio broadcasts of the same era, one dealing with the decolonization of Africa and the other being a typical, light variety broadcast.
The Sensation of Sound and Imagination in a Historical Perspective
Authors: Klempe Sven Hroar
Published: August 2019

Sven Hroar Klempe traces the concept of imagination in the history of philosophy and psychology, focusing on the period starting from the German enlightenment, and his chapter deals extensively with the works of a number of prominent scholars from the past three centuries such as Christian Wolff, Alexander Baumgarten, Kant, and Carl Stumpf. Klempe discusses how the imagination of sound and music can be seen as a specific type of imagination, and he elucidates how sound and music provide an alternative understanding of imagination from that provided by language. This discussion focuses on the relationship between sensation and imagination and the complexity of sensory processes that music and sound can reflect in a way that language cannot.
Sound Quality, Language, and Cognitive Metaphors
Authors: Walther-Hansen Mads
Published: August 2019

As Mads Walther-Hansen makes clear, we regularly make use of cognitive metaphors when appraising sound quality. For example, nonauditory descriptors such as warm, cold, and rough might be used to describe auditory parameters, such as when assessing loudspeakers. Equally, we measure such assessments of sound quality against an ideal that, so we are told, is grounded in past sensory-motor experience. However, as Walther-Hansen argues, this explanation is problematic when viewed in light of evolving audio technologies because the cognitive structures behind value- and sense-making are themselves evolving hand-in-hand with those technologies. His focus, therefore, is on the processes of structural coupling that take place between imagined cognitive ideals of sound quality and ever-changing external factors. Walther-Hansen’s thesis is that, in order to explain this process, language should be viewed as a fundamental part of cognitive processing rather than merely being controlled by it.
Speech, Sound, Technology
Authors: Mulder Johannes , van Leeuwen Theo
Published: August 2019

Johannes Mulder and Theo van Leeuwen investigate how the microphone, the amplifier, and the loudspeaker have changed the semiotic potential of the sound of the voice. Based on a social semiotic understanding, the authors discuss the voice from three perspectives: physical, focusing on how bodily experience from speaking and singing informs the understanding of the sound of the voice (covering implications such as pitch, loudness, and alterations of various kinds); social, based on the way human social and cultural experiences, such as accents and different vocal styles, inform the understanding of sound; and, finally, the technologically enhanced voice, showing that, even though the appreciation of this voice rests on prior understanding of biological and social voices, this voice introduces extraexperiential dimensions that slowly assimilate into the culture as a form of disembodied, nonhuman voice.
Concerning the Iconic Signification of Music in Cinema
Authors: Chanan Michael
Published: August 2019

Michael Chanan investigates the complex implications of what is referred to as musical iconography, in which music works as a subtle and polysemic signifier of nonmusical associations and connotations, thereby functioning as a congealed but ambiguous cultural symbol. Through a brief historic sketch covering the period of the silent movie to the present, Chanan points out how music brings codes and connotations from outside and beyond the screen into film. He discusses how music augments narrative ambiguity but can also encompass different superimposed temporalities, comprising historical events, private biographies, and collective memory.
The Listener’s Choice
Authors: Stockfelt Ola
Published: August 2019

Ola Stockfelt theorizes listening through discussion of a number of personal cases, such as listening sessions in his car and his observations during film music teaching sessions. Stockfelt suggests that meaning comes before hearing sounds. Listening involves listening for confirmation of what you already know and this allows us to complete the gestalt of a sound even when the full auditory signal is not present. Hearing something, Stockfelt argues, is a cultural conception of reality, and we usually merely imagine that we heard sounds first, whereas we really experienced meaning. The idea that we listen through meaning rather than listen for meaning is further illustrated in studies of storytelling in documentary films.
Bridging the Other-Real
Authors: Garner Tom A.
Published: August 2019

Through the theoretical frameworks of sonic virtuality and embodied cognition, Tom Garner considers the role of imagination in the context of sound in actualizing the virtual worlds of digital games. In a chapter that takes in Spinoza, Hume, Kant, and Deleuze, Garner uses this consideration of imagination as the foundation to explore world-building in digital games—where the player is a significant agent in constructing a viable world in which to be present—concluding that sound, when allied to imagination, has a major role in world-blurring, Garner’s term for the convergence, and inability to distinguish, between the real physical world and the “other-real” virtual world.
The Necessity of Vagueness and Ambiguity to the Imagining of Sound
Authors: Grimshaw-Aagaard Mark
Published: August 2019

Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard takes issue with the objectification and quantification of (and often outright attempts to eliminate) imprecision and subjectivity in the natural sciences, particularly in acoustics and the field of audio testing. Instead, he argues, experiences of vagueness and ambiguity are essential to an imagining of sound, where that imagination aids in the experiencing of an external world. Such imagination, Grimshaw-Aagaard contends, performs a vital role in the emergence of perceptual hypotheses about the external world and thus the presence of our selves in the context of the nonself that is the external world.
Some Anticipatory, Kinesthetic, and Dynamic Aspects of Auditory Imagery
Authors: Hubbard Timothy L.
Published: August 2019

Timothy Hubbard offers a discussion of recent findings related to auditory imagery. These findings allow Hubbard to focus on how auditory imagery can occur automatically and involuntarily and can be evoked by different activities and/or triggered by memories from previous musical exposure. Hubbard discusses different forms of auditory imagery (e.g., anticipatory musical imagery, earworms, notational audiation, inner speech, in silent reading of text, auditory verbal hallucinations), and he explores differences between the inner ear and the inner voice, possible contributions of subvocalization to auditory imagery, and potential of auditory imagery as a component in musical practice and performance. Suggestions that auditory imagery reflects dynamic representation are considered, and Hubbard speculates that auditory imagery has a more profound role in a wider range of cognitive activities than is commonly assumed.
Empirical Musical Imagery beyond the “Mind’s Ear”
Authors: Bailes Freya
Published: August 2019

Freya Bailes deals with the topic of musical imagery, and she uses embodied cognition as a framework to argue that musical imagery is a multimodal experience. Existing empirical studies of musical imagery are reviewed and Bailes points to future directions for the study of musical imagery as an embodied-cognition phenomenon. Arguing that musical imagery can never be fully disembodied, Bailes moves beyond the idea of auditory imagery as merely a simulation of auditory experience by “the mind’s ear.” Instead, she outlines how imagining sounds involves kinesthetic imagery and she concludes that sound and music are always connected to sensory motor processing.
Imaginative Listening to Music
Authors: Gracyk Theodore
Published: August 2019

Theodore Gracyk takes issue with the claim that imaginative engagement is a prerequisite for the appreciation of music; that the experience of expressiveness in music derives from an imaginative enrichment that allows music to be heard as a sequence of motion and gestures in sound or that the expressive interpretation of music is guided by imaginative description. While not completely rejecting an imaginative response to music, Gracyk instead opts for an imaginative engagement with music described as “hearing-in.” While not all music demands such engagement, hearing-in is not a trigger for imaginative imagery but rather a musical prop that invites the listener to attend to music’s animation, for example, in the form of musical causality and anticipation.
Creating a Brand Image through Music
Authors: Egermann Hauke
Published: August 2019

Hauke Egermann explores the influence of music on how consumers imagine the characteristics of a brand. He deals with several psychological mechanisms in order to outline the associative and emotional potential of music and to illustrate how music aids in establishing brand recognition and recall in consumers. Egermann elaborates on how music can create brand attention and affective responses in consumers and affect the cognitive meaning of a brand image. He sums up by arguing for a brand-music communication model that describes three different functions of music in the creation of a brand identity: brand salience, cognitive meaning, and emotional meaning.
Posthumanist Voices in Literature and Opera
Authors: D'Aoust Jason R.
Published: August 2019

From a background that critically investigates conceptualizations and understandings of the relations and dialectics between the inner and the outer voice and the discursive implications of the posthumanist appraisal of vocality, Jason D’Aoust examines the “operatic voice” or the vocality of opera as it is practiced and understood in the present period. From a philosophically informed perspective, D’Aoust engages with recent reappraisals of phonocentrism in voice studies, and analyzes artistic works from different genres, comprising opera (Mozart’s The Magic Flute), literature (Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), and film (Scott’s Blade Runner), in order to show how opera practitioners, authors, and film-makers use the sonorous imagination to deconstruct the canon.
Digital Mapping of Urban Mobility Patterns
Authors: Wiebe Douglas J. , Morrison Christopher N.
Published: August 2019

Achieving accurate measurements of mobility and where people spend time is an essential step toward understanding how environments influence people’s impressions, actions, well-being, and health. But identifying where people are located in space and time and drawing from these data conclusions about what people actually experience is a challenge. Advances in communication technologies are creating possibilities for research today that even recently would not have been possible. This chapter reviews a classic study in the field of mobility pattern research, demonstrates the interest of mobility patterns to investigators of geography and health, and describes how geographic information systems and Global Positioning Systems are being used to better understand the complex relationships between people’s physical locations and health outcomes. The chapter concludes with predictions about how advances in communication technology will shape future research.
The Neuroscience of Information Sharing
Authors: Scholz Christin , Falk Emily B.
Published: August 2019

Information sharing is a core human activity that catalyzes innovation and development. Recent advances in neuroscience reveal information about the psychological mechanisms that drive sharing, with a particular focus on self-relevance, social cognition, and subjective value. Based on these insights, this chapter proposes a structural model of the neurocognitive and psychological processes that drive sharing decisions, called value-based virality. Further, it maps existing knowledge about neural correlates and moderators of thought processes linked to individual and population-level sharing events and outcomes and suggests avenues for future investigation. Finally, the chapter discusses the potential of the neuroscience of information sharing to interact productively with other methodological traditions such as computational social science. Initial neuroimaging studies of information sharing provide insights into psychological mechanisms that were previously inaccessible. With the development of more realistic experimental setups and multimethod designs, future efforts promise advances toward a unifying theory of why and how people share information.
Dynamical Processes in Time-Varying Networks
Authors: Gonçalves Bruno , Perra Nicola
Published: August 2019

Networks in almost any domain are dynamical entities. New nodes join the system, others leave it, and links describing their interactions are constantly changing. However, due to the absence of time-resolved data and mathematical challenges, the large majority of research in network science neglects these features in favor of static or mean-field representations. While such approximations are useful and appropriate in some systems and processes, they fail in many others where the co-occurrence, duration, and order of contacts are crucial ingredients. This chapter presents a review of recent developments in the study of temporal networks and dynamical processes unfolding on their fabrics. It focuses in particular on activity-driven networks as an empirically motivated and analytically tractable class of models of the time-varying network. Within this framework the chapter studies the effects of temporal connectivity patterns in random walks, the epidemic model, and the rumor spreading model. The results highlight the striking impact that temporal correlations have on dynamical processes taking place over time-varying networks. The chapter ends by considering future research directions and challenges in this important area.
Introduction
Authors: Doak Brian R. , López-Ruiz Carolina
Published: August 2019

In this introductory chapter the editors speak to the relevance of the Phoenicians as active cultural, economic, and political agents in ancient Mediterranean history. The Phoenicians are the constantly underrated, even marginalized “third party” in a story written as a tale of Greek and Roman success in the Mediterranean world. But it is no exaggeration to say that the world that the Greeks and Romans experienced, and to some extent the world we live in today, would have been quite different had the Phoenicians not existed. The editors stress the need for an updated overview stemming from the multiple countries and disciplines that have advanced our study of the Phoenicians in recent decades. They also lay out the rationale behind this Handbook, its organization, and its goals.
Early Carthage
Authors: Dridi Hédi
Published: August 2019

The history of the first centuries of Carthage can only be sketched out, given the paucity of literary sources, which are also of variable quality, and so far as the Greek and Roman sources are concerned, often biased. Exploiting the Classical sources, the result of archaeological research, and epigraphic studies, it is nevertheless possible to paint a picture of a cosmopolitan, dynamic, and ambitious city, which grew rapidly and integrated the trade networks of the western Mediterranean. Thanks to its accumulated resources, its policy of alliances, and its recourse to military action, Carthage succeeded in establishing itself as the key power in the central Mediterranean from the second half of the sixth century bce.
The Punic Wars (264–146 bce)
Authors: de Lisle Christopher
Published: August 2019

The chapter provides a narrative in broad strokes of the period between 264 and 146 bce. The sources for the period are heavily biased in favor of the Romans, but the Romans did loom increasingly large in the Carthaginians’ world. In their treaties, our main source for their self-representation, the Carthaginians emphasize their overwhelming but beneficent power, their control of movement around the Mediterranean Sea, and their Phoenician identity. This representation was challenged by Roman actions, generating a hostility that often contributed to the outbreak of war. The Carthaginians’ actions were deeply influenced by their past experiences, but were also innovative. Their strategy in the First Punic War (264–241 bce) shows signs of path dependency and was a total failure. The conquest of Iberia (238–218 bce) marked a dramatic shift in the focus of Carthaginian power, but the systems of control deployed there built on those used by the Carthaginians elsewhere. The Carthaginian strategy in the Second Punic War (218–201 bce) was highly innovative, building on their failures in the first war by focusing on the disruption of the Roman alliance system in Italy. Carthaginian economic success was not straightforwardly linked to political control. Trade with Sicily intensified after the loss of the island and there was great economic prosperity in the second century when there was no empire at all. Military ventures, notably the conquest of southern Iberia (238–218 bce) were undertaken for the sake of prestige, not just for economic reasons.
Religion
Authors: Xella Paolo
Published: August 2019

Phoenician polytheism—its structure and rites—is not completely unknown to us. There were mythological traditions common to the area, as well as a structure common to the pantheons of the Phoenician cities. At the top there is a divine couple consisting of a male god and a goddess, his spouse, and a divine assembly. The same basic structure is detectable in the Punic world, Carthage and elsewhere, although with differences and innovations. In turn, every Phoenician city had its own tutelary deities: the diversification of gods and cults was a powerful means of cultural identity and identification. As for Phoenician mythology, a theme emerges from available sources, which ultimately dates back to the Late Bronze Age, as exemplified by Ugaritic Baal: Among the ceremonies, particularly important was a solemn feast, called egersis (“awakening”) in Greek sources, which commemorated annually Milqart’s death and return to life. The chapter also discusses the tophet and its rites, both bloody and not, related to the fulfilment of vows concerning severe individual or collective crises, which in some cases involved the sacrifice of children to the gods.
Pottery and Trade
Authors: Núñez Francisco J.
Published: August 2019

This chapter focuses on the economic activity surrounding Phoenician ceramic production and distribution, in contrast with the traditional focus on ceramic typologies or other formal or chronological aspects. Given the limited data available, however, it is difficult to analyze the complex issues surrounding production to their full extent. Therefore, this chapter does not offer definitive answers. Instead, the chapter identifies diverse factors that play an important role in Phoenician pottery production, such as demand, planning, production, and distribution, as well as the respective dynamic behavior, incidence, and consequences accompanying each process, thus offering here an approach to Phoenician ceramics that breaks away from the rigidity of current models.
Birth and Prospects of a Discipline
Authors: Vella Nicholas C.
Published: August 2019

In this third introductory chapter, the author looks back at the formative years of the study of the Phoenician and Punic worlds, taking a cue from a paper written fifty years ago by the person who can arguably be called the most influential scholar in the field during the second half of the twentieth century, Sabatino Moscati. Against the background of Moscati’s work, in particular the limitations of and opportunities provided by his field projects, the author then moves on to propose eight particular ways in which the field can move forward: a geography of knowledge; recognition of difference; life histories of objects’ contextual approach; food, cooking, and social ideas; people, collaboration; and publication.
Sardinia
Authors: Roppa Andrea
Published: August 2019

Starting from the late ninth century bce, groups of Phoenician sailors and merchants landed on the island of Sardinia, searching for resources—metals in particular—to trade along the trans-Mediterranean maritime network they had begun to establish. The earliest permanent Phoenician settlement dates back to the first half of the eighth century bce, and by the end of the following century new Phoenician settlements appeared, mainly on the coasts of Sardinia’s southern part. In this chapter, the author explores interactions between Phoenicians and the local Nuragic culture, which was thriving at the time of the newcomers’ arrival, and the spread of Phoenician material culture on the island. The chapter traces the patterns of Phoenician presence as outcomes of diversified forms of contact and interaction with Nuragic communities, varying significantly across the island throughout the Iron Age. The author lays out the basic features of Iron Age Nuragic society, and explores how and to what extent local communities made use of Phoenician material culture between the late ninth and eighth centuries bce. The chapter then moves to define the archaeological features of Phoenician sites, and focuses on interaction and the appearance of mixed communities, particularly at indigenous sites in the seventh and sixth centuries bce. Finally, the specific context of the Phoenician diaspora on Sardinia is set in the wider western Mediterranean contemporary scenario.
Malta and Gozo
Authors: Anastasi Maxine , Vella Nicholas C.
Published: August 2019

Malta and Gozo are small offshore islands with a millennial history of maritime exploitation, from pioneer farmers to predatory pirates. Settled by the Phoenicians some time in the eighth century bce until they were occupied by Rome in 218 bce, Malta and Gozo offered these Levantine seafarers an ideal place to reside and exploit. The chapter draws on a whole range of evidence and offers a synthesis of earlier studies to show how the islanders managed their resources and how their religious beliefs and practices were fashioned by agricultural concerns, and also by the maritime world in which they were drawn.
Canaanite Roots, Proto-Phoenicia, and the Early Phoenician Period
Authors: Killebrew Ann E.
Published: August 2019

The origins and ethnogenesis of a cultural entity, people, and territory referred to as “Phoenician” in later biblical and Classical sources and modern scholarship remain a topic of debate. This chapter examines the textual and archaeological sources relevant to the northern and central Levantine littoral during the Proto- (Late Bronze) and Early (Iron I) Phoenician periods (ca. fourteenth–eleventh centuries bce). What emerges out of the ruins of the Late Bronze Age is a resilient Early Iron Age coastal culture centered on the commercial interactions of maritime city-states, which survived the demise of the Hittite and Egyptian empires, as well as the collapse of international trade at around 1200 bce. Autochthonous Canaanite traditions dominate Iron I Phoenician cultural assemblages, but intrusive Aegean-style “Sea Peoples” and Cypriot influences are also present. Together they reflect the dynamic interplay of maritime cultural and commercial exchanges characteristic of the northern and central Levantine littoral during the final centuries of the second millennium bce.
Phoenician Exploration
Authors: Roller Duane W.
Published: August 2019

The Phoenicians were famous for their seafaring prowess and long-distance travel and commercial reach. From the beginning of the Iron Age until the fifth century bce, the Phoenicians explored much of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe, going as far north as the British Isles and as far south as tropical West Africa, as well as farther west into the Atlantic waters and around the African continent. Although there is some archaeological evidence for these explorations, the bulk of the source material is limited to Greek and Roman literary accounts of Phoenician periploi (circumnavigations), including some translations of actual Phoenician reports, as is the case of that of Hanno.
Tyre and its Colonial Expansion
Authors: Aubet Semmler María Eugenia
Published: August 2019

The material evidence recovered in the last years in archaic contexts in the West, as well as new radiometric dates obtained in some of the Phoenician colonies, urge us to revise periodically some hypotheses about the origin, aims, and first stages of the Phoenician expansion into the Mediterranean. The first Phoenician expeditions to the West must have been composed of small groups of merchants, accompanied by genuine experts in smelting, mining, and metallurgy. These were specialists in mining and metallurgical technologies, capable of recognizing the potential of these territories (particularly rich in mining resources) and technically prepared to assess, alloy, and smelt metals from which copper, silver, tin, and gold were obtainable.
The Hellenistic Period and Hellenization in Phoenicia
Authors: Bonnet Corinne
Published: August 2019

After Alexander’s conquest, Phoenicia was at the heart of a cultural process whose complexity has not been adequately explained by the concept of “Hellenization.” This chapter offers a critical questioning of this concept and a more fine-grained analysis of the cultural dynamics that resulted from the long-term contact of Phoenician peoples with Greek paideia. It is important to note that this process was largely before Alexander’s arrival, and it varied greatly depending on the perspectives of the sources, which are rather few in number. By examining institutions, cult mediations, and the role of elites, this chapter restores the fluidity and creativity that characterized strategies of integrating newness and claiming ancestrality that were at work in the Phoenician “middle ground” during the Hellenistic period.
Presbyterian Ecumenism
Authors: Weeks Louis B.
Published: August 2019

Most Presbyterians possess an ecumenical spirit. They recognize other denominations as parts of the Body of Christ just as surely as their own. They cooperate enthusiastically in service, worship, and witness with Christians in many different denominations. Their reliance on biblical authority and agreement with Christians in other communions on many theological issues have led American Presbyterians to be involved in practically every major ecumenical endeavor. Many Presbyterians have been leaders in these enterprises as well. The Old Light and New Light Presbyterian reconciliation, major revivals in America and Europe, the mergers of denominations and comity arrangements for mission have provided energy and vision for ecumenism. The planting of newer Reformed churches—in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and predominantly Catholic countries in Europe—embodied this ecumenism. Mainstream Presbyterians played an important role in numerous ecumenical organizations including the Evangelical Alliance, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the Federal Council of Churches, the Faith and Order and the Life and Work movements, and the World Council of Churches. Those who left the larger Presbyterian denominations to create new Reformed bodies have likewise engaged in ecumenism. In recent years, however, the extensive formal ecumenical ties have been eclipsed by the extensive ecumenism of local Presbyterian congregations and their individual officers and members.
Predestination and Election
Authors: Hoffecker W. Andrew
Published: August 2019

Presbyterians have historically advocated predestination and election as intimately related to the doctrines of God as sovereign Creator, providential ruler, and savior of his chosen people. Using Augustine’s interpretation of major Old and New Testament passages as a foundation, Presbyterians have generally understood election to be unconditional and to rest on God’s mercy necessitated by humankind’s original sin. John Calvin answered objections to the doctrines, emphasized predestination as a pastoral comfort to believers, and affirmed human responsibility. Calvin’s successors debated the order of God’s decrees and Jacob Arminius’s attack on Calvinism, which denied double predestination, interpreted predestination as conditional, and proposed prevenient grace as enabling all people to choose to be saved. Calvin’s views were reaffirmed by the Council of Dort’s five points in 1619 and upheld by Presbyterians in the Westminster Confession of Faith, adopted in 1646. In the nineteenth century, Friedrich Schleiermacher proposed a paradigm shift by rejecting original sin and arguing that God’s decree was based on his foreseeing faith in the elect. Presbyterians also debated whether Calvinism should be altered to conform to revivalist practices and whether the Westminster Confession should be revised in light of new theological trends. In the twentieth century, conservative Presbyterians continued to affirm traditional Calvinist theology, while most mainline Presbyterians either rejected or ignored it and focused on the work of the church.
Presbyterians and Social Reform
Authors: Smith Gary Scott
Published: August 2019

Influenced by the writings and example of John Calvin, Presbyterians developed a worldview that rested on the premise that God was supreme over all life and that social institutions and practices should be based on biblical norms. In numerous societies, this led them to strive to develop political, economic, and social structures grounded on their understanding of scriptural teaching. Their worldview also motivated them to work to improve economic and social conditions, reduce discrimination and poverty, and promote people’s full development as image bearers of God. Their diligent efforts to achieve these aims in America, Scotland, Canada, Africa, and Asia had a substantial impact.