bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sampling Biases Explain Decision Biases
Authors: Denrell Jerker
Published: July 2017

Sampling explanations focus on biases in the information available to managers instead of biases in how managers process the available information. Managers seldom have access to a random or representative sample of outcomes. The available sample of outcomes is often subject to a selection bias. This chapter reviews recent research on three sampling biases with important implications for organizations: undersampling of failure, the hot-stove effect, and underweighting rare events in small samples. There is evidence from experiments as well as field studies that these sample biases significantly impact decision making. In particular, whether managers will choose a risky or a safe alternative depends on the type of bias in data available to them.
Political Trust and Polarization
Authors: Hetherington Marc J. , Rudolph Thomas J.
Published: July 2017

Trust in government in the United States has become increasingly polarized along partisan lines. Republicans and Democrats are now quite reluctant to trust government when the other party is in power. This chapter explores the sources and consequences of polarized political trust. Analysis of panel data suggests that polarized trust is the result of negative affect toward opposing partisans and a motivated reasoning process in which partisans place greater weight on the evaluative criteria that favor their preferred political party. The chapter further shows that polarized trust has important consequences for individuals’ policy preferences. We explain how the polarization of political trust has contributed to ongoing political dysfunction in Washington. In particular, the results suggest that the polarization of trust encourages party leaders to do what is best for their political party even if it is not best for the larger public interest.
Trust in International Actors
Authors: Brewer Paul R. , Gross Kimberly , Vercellotti Timothy
Published: July 2017

Trust in international actors, from nations in general to specific international governmental organizations and nationalities, can shape how citizens form judgments about international relations. This chapter examines the nature, levels, foundations, and consequences of such trust among mass publics, particularly the US public. Survey data from the past three decades reveal low levels of generalized trust in other nations. This form of trust reflects changes in the international environment along with individual-level demographics, social trust, political trust, partisanship, ideology, and media use. Trust in other nations is linked to an array of foreign policy opinions as well as evaluations of individual nations and trust in international organizations. Citizens’ beliefs about how much they can trust international actors provide them with information shortcuts for forming views about world affairs but may create obstacles to international cooperation.
Echoes of the Colonial Past in Discourse on North Atlantic Popular Music
Authors: Cannady Kimberly
Published: July 2017

This chapter brings a postcolonial perspective into the study of popular music in Iceland and the North Atlantic. The argument is that the fascination with Icelandic culture and nature, in which popular music plays a key role, evolves from a sense of “discovery” in the 1980s in Anglophone media that echoes a longer colonial history. The fascination with the present is grounded in the familiar myth of an isolated culture and nature untouched by modernity. Iceland’s authenticity is thus inseparable from the country’s mythical status as a deep freeze for Old Norse heritage and its location at the margins of Scandinavian modernity. The argument is demonstrated through analysis of the “discovery” motif in international media and in Icelandic record shops, festivals, and tourism marketing. The analysis opens up for a more nuanced understanding of the North Atlantic, looking beyond late twentieth-century dichotomies.
Musical Borealism
Authors: Bohlman Philip V.
Published: July 2017

The chapter develops an original concept of musical borealism, drawing from literatures on European music and cultural history and from orientalism. The chapter looks beyond the simple concept of borealism as an exotic gaze by opening up horizons and offering a series of nuanced distinctions. Basic categories discussed are Nordic myth, Nordic folk and popular music, Nordic global music, Nordic ultra-national music, and non-Nordic Nordic manifestations. The chapter expands the historical, spatial, and experiential dimensions of musical borealism and creates a historical foundation for the remaining chapters in the handbook.
Roots, Routes, and Cosmopolitanism
Authors: Weisethaunet Hans
Published: July 2017

This chapter explores transnational connections and mobilities of Norwegian musicians in a long history of migration to the United States and evolving media spheres of folk and popular music. The analysis begins by addressing the continued desire in contemporary culture for cultural belonging in a globalizing world. This discussion adopts the epistemology of routes, which gained ground in the 1990s, and adds nuance through the analysis of particular experiences of circulation and mobility, highlighting dynamics particular to music. Musical examples are the Hellbillies, one of Norway’s most popular bands since the early 1990s, and David Lindley’s collaboration with Harding Hank (the alter ego of Hallvard Bjørgum).
Music and Landscape in Iceland
Authors: Mitchell Tony
Published: July 2017

This chapter brings much nuance to the constant representation of Icelandic music through landscape, seascape, and icescape, drawing from longitudinal field research and interdisciplinary cultural research on landscape. The narratives of landscape in Iceland have multiple dimensions, including national identity, ecology, and cultural imagination, and they are culturally and politically complex. The main examples are two Icelandic films: The 2009 documentary Draumlandið (Dreamland) about the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project and its environmental impact, the 2003 feature film Nói Albínói (Nói the Albino), and the films of Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. These are discussed in reference to the edited volume of essays on Icelandic landscape Conversations with Landscape (2010) and Kristin Shranmm’s concept of Borealism (2011) as it applies to Icelandic music and cinema.
Biology and Gender in the Labor Market
Authors: Cobb-Clark Deborah A.
Published: July 2017

This article explores whether new research linking economic decision-making to human biology provides an explanation for gendered labor market outcomes, in particular the gender wage gap. Literature in four broad areas is reviewed: behavioral endocrinology (hormones), human genetics (behavioral genetics and genoeconomics), neuroeconomics, and sensory functioning and time-space perceptions. Often the research focus is on biologically-based differences in men’s and women’s abilities to make decisions more generally, and one is left to speculate about the implications for labor market outcomes specifically. Therefore, the article concludes by highlighting some of the fundamental issues that are not yet understood and offering some priorities for future research.
Isaiah Berlin,Four Essays on Liberty
Authors: Ryan Alan
Published: July 2017

This chapter on Isaiah Berlin’s Four Essays on Liberty centers on the most famous piece in it, “Two Concepts of Liberty.” As a matter of genre, it is an essay in conceptual analysis. Because liberty is a historically inflected concept, it is also an essay in the history of ideas. The chapter argues that Berlin was a “Cold War liberal” only in the limited sense that he campaigned against all doctrines that licensed the sacrifice of real individuals on the altar of impersonal entities such as the proletariat or the nation, and Soviet Communism was a salient case both because of the Cold War and Berlin’s own Russian origins. Individuals have an inviolability that governments of any stripe must not infringe. That is the core of negative liberty. Positively, Berlin’s faith was that unimpeded, individuals with adequate resources would spontaneously lead varied and vivid existences.
Positive Psychology on Campus
Authors: Schreiner Laurie A. , Hulme Eileen
Published: July 2017

This chapter synthesizes the research from positive psychology on fulfilled individuals and thriving communities with the research from higher education on student success and institutional effectiveness, in order to build a bridge from one discipline to the other. The construct of thriving, with its emphasis on vital engagement intellectually, socially, and emotionally in the college experience, provides an integrative view of student success and forms the foundation for applying principles from positive psychology in practical ways to the daily work of faculty, staff, and administrators. Key areas explored include: (a) strengths-based teaching and learning, (b) developing authentic student leaders, (c) promoting students’ psychological well-being, and (d) creating a sense of community on campus.
The Promise of Fostering Greater Happiness
Authors: Boehm Julia K. , Ruberton Peter , Lyubomirsky Sonja
Published: July 2017

Philosophers, writers, self-help gurus, and now scientists have undertaken the challenge of how to foster greater happiness. In this chapter, we first discuss the different ways that happy and unhappy individuals construe their worlds, respond to social comparisons, make decisions, and self-reflect. Next, we examine whether deliberate strategies to improve happiness can be effective, and consider factors that may curtail their effectiveness. Specifically, we review evidence from randomized controlled experiments indicating that people can increase their happiness by practicing simple positive activities with effort and commitment. Such activities—including performing kind acts, expressing gratitude or optimism, and re-experiencing joyful events—represent the most promising route to enhanced happiness. We also discuss the optimal conditions under which positive activities increase happiness, and the mechanisms that underlie their success. Future researchers must continue not only to investigate which particular practices make people happier, but how and why they do so.
Morphology
Authors: Oflazer Kemal
Published: July 2017

Morphology is the study of the structure of words and how words are forme3d by combining smaller units of linguistic information called morphemes. Any natural language processing application will need to computationally process the words in a language before any of the more complex processing is done. This is especially a must for morphologically complex languages. After a compact overview of the basic concepts in morphology, this chapter presents the state-of-the-art computational approaches to morphology, concentrating on two-level morphology and cascaded-rules and describing how morphographemics and morphotactics are handled in a finite-state setting. The chapter then summarizes recent approaches to how machine learning techniques are applied in morphological processing.
Parsing
Authors: Carroll John
Published: July 2017

This chapter introduces key concepts and techniques for natural-language parsing: that is, finding the grammatical structure of sentences. The chapter introduces the fundamental algorithms for parsing with context-free (CF) phrase structure grammars, how these deal with ambiguous grammars, and how CF grammars and associated disambiguation models can be derived from syntactically annotated text. It goes on to consider dependency analysis, and outlines the main approaches to dependency parsing based both on manually written grammars and on learning from text annotated with dependency structures. It finishes with an overview of techniques used for parsing with grammars that use feature structures to encode linguistic information.
Judges and their Audiences
Authors: Baum Lawrence
Published: July 2017

In the most widely accepted conception of judges’ relationships with their environments in the United States, influence on judges from the world outside their courts is a result of their strategic efforts to shape the content of legal policy. This chapter presents an alternative conception, one in which judges are influenced by the outside world largely because they care about what other people think of them. This alternative conception of judicial audiences helps to explain why judges sometimes take the general public and the other branches of government into account when they make decisions. It also calls attention to the role of elite groups in shaping the choices of judges, most notably Supreme Court justices. In turn, growing ideological polarization among elites may have changed patterns of elite influence on judges and thus judges’ behavior as decision makers.
Interest Groups and the Judiciary
Authors: Collins Paul M.
Published: July 2017

Interest groups play an important role in the legal system, participating in a wide array of cases as litigants, sponsors, amici curiae, and intervenors. This chapter provides a critical analysis of academic scholarship on interest group litigation, devoting particular attention to establishing the limitations of the current state of knowledge and providing suggestions for future research. This chapter demonstrates that, while there has been a great deal of research on some facets of social movement litigation, such as amicus curiae participation in the U.S. Supreme Court, others have been relatively unexplored, including investigations of coalition formation, venue selection, and extrajudicial lobbying. Thus, there are ample opportunities for future scholars to contribute to our understanding of planned litigation by organized interests.
The Economic Analysis of Judicial Behavior
Authors: Epstein Lee , Knight Jack
Published: July 2017

In the analysis of judicial behavior, “economics” has multiple meanings. Some studies emphasize the economic consequences of judicial decisions while others employ the concepts and tools of economic analysis to explain those decisions. Here we focus on studies proceeding from the assumption of rationality (regardless of their methodological approach). Even with this limited focus, the range of substantive topics is impressive. There are many ways to splice and dice them but six stand out: (1) the judge: motivations, careers and performance; (2) selection and retention of judges; (3) opinions and precedent; (4) collegial courts; (5) the hierarchy of justice; and (6) external actors. For each we synthesize the literature and offer directions for future work.
Law in Judicial Decision-Making
Authors: Klein David
Published: July 2017

Years of effort by many talented and creative scholars to gauge the influence of law on judicial decision-making have produced payoffs, but the payoffs do not seem commensurate with the work that has gone into producing them. After reviewing some of the most important approaches and findings, this chapter identifies key obstacles to progress and suggests a new strategy for making more headway against them. The strategy begins by recognizing that ultimately the questions driving empirical and theoretical inquiry into law’s influence are often less about law itself than about the propriety of judicial decision-making. The chapter concludes with suggestions for empirical questions to complement more familiar ones about the role of law in judges’ decisions.
Judicial Elections
Authors: Gibson James L. , Nelson Michael J.
Published: July 2017

Most judges in the United States retain their judgeships through periodic popular elections. In recent years, these judicial elections have become more salient, with high-profile television advertising becoming commonplace. This chapter discusses the effects of judicial elections, particularly in an age of salient campaigning, on the choices judges make. It reviews existing findings about the influences other institutions of state government, interest groups, and the public have on judges, before discussing the effects of high-profile judicial elections on the information available to voters and the institutional legitimacy of the judiciary. Throughout, the chapter discusses the normative controversies inherent in the use of judicial elections as well as potentially fruitful avenues for future inquiry.
Reconsidering the Movement after the 1845 Crisis
Authors: Macnab Kenneth
Published: July 2017

The conversions to Roman Catholicism of Newman and others close to the heart of the Oxford Movement in the 1840s required responses at many levels from those Tractarians who remained in the Church of England. This coincided with rapid changes in Tractarian forms of parish ministry and the earliest days of a restored Religious Life. From their prominent positions among the remaining Tractarians, E. B. Pusey, John Keble, and Charles Marriott gave spiritual counsel through their private correspondence, and offered philosophical and ecclesiological arguments in their published sermons and writings. They defended the theological basis of the Movement in general, and of Tract 90 in particular, against both Anglican and Roman Catholic critics.
Music and Hymnody
Authors: Orford Barry
Published: July 2017

Although hymn singing has always been a feature of Christian worship, it was largely lost in the Church of England after the Reformation. It experienced a revival in the eighteenth century among Dissenters and Wesleyans, though the Church of England was slow to grasp the opportunity that hymns offered. The Tractarians understood the devotional and didactic value of hymns and they worked to restore hymns within Anglicanism. A number of Tractarians made original contributions in words and music, bringing to their verses an intellectual rigour that discouraged mere emotionalism. Above all, in the publication of Hymns Ancient & Modern they changed permanently the face of Anglican worship.
Christina Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites
Authors: Ludlow Elizabeth
Published: July 2017

In this chapter the author explores the influence of the Oxford Movement on the early Pre-Raphaelite movement in English aesthetics and reveals how the gifted poet Christina Rossetti used the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’s aesthetic in her poetry and devotional prose to inform and disseminate key elements of Oxford Movement theology during the later nineteenth century. The chapter provides a close analysis of the religious themes in Rossetti’s writings and shows how her poetry engages dialogically with the writings of the leaders of the Tractarian Movement in London, contributing to the maturation of their ideas, particularly in the Tractarian understanding of personhood.
High Church Presence and Persistence in the Reign of George III (1760–1811)
Authors: Aston Nigel
Published: July 2017

Tractarian leaders tended to disparage the ‘high-and-dry’ Tory churchmen whom they regarded as only very half-heartedly holding on to a sacramental inheritance. In fact, the signs of doctrinal and mildly ritualistic High Churchmanship in the period between 1760 and 1811 were not inconsiderable, and they fed into the lasting cultural deposit of the Oxford Movement. High Churchmen remained an appreciable presence during those decades, exercising an importance in Church and state out of all proportion to their numerical strength. Their witness deserves attention in its own right, and not simply as a pointer back to the ‘Caroline divines’ and the Nonjurors or forward to Anglo-Catholicism.
The Congress Movement
Authors: Davage William
Published: July 2017

In this chapter the author explores the origin of the Anglo-Catholic Congress Movement, the Congresses held in the 1920s and 1930s and their impact on the Catholic Revival, and the amalgamation of the Congress Movement and the English Church Union. The chapter argues that the Congresses marked the high-water mark of the Catholic Revival and formed the most substantial articulation of the Catholic Revival. However, within that conspectus there could also be discerned the shaping of different understandings of the Movement, which would lead to divisions within the Catholic Movement and its loss of influence in the late twentieth century.
The Prayer Book Controversy
Authors: Maiden John
Published: July 2017

In this chapter the author examines the role of Anglo-Catholicism in the revision process between the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline and the rejection of the 1928 Prayer Book in Parliament. The early twentieth-century project of Prayer Book revision in England in some ways indicated the growing recognition and acceptance of Anglo-Catholicism within the wider Church. However, as the process became increasingly controversial with deliberations over reservation and the eucharistic rite, a tension developed amongst some Anglo-Catholics between the sacramental mission of the party and Church loyalty and obedience. Furthermore, theological and liturgical divisions within the party itself were amplified.
The Oxford Movement and Ecumenism
Authors: Chapman Mark
Published: July 2017

This chapter discusses the impact of the Oxford Movement on relationships between the different Churches. It emphasizes the importance to the Oxford Movement of a ‘temporal’ understanding of catholicity which located the authority of the Church in the undivided Church of the first five centuries. During the Tractarian period most authors retained a strong anti-Romanism and regarded the Church of England as the true heir of the patristic Church. In succeeding years a number of enthusiasts inspired by the Oxford Movement within the Church of England, as well as from other churches, sought reunion, even though they met with little success.
Saints and Saintliness
Authors: Cottingham John
Published: July 2017

This chapter is an exploration of the psychological, ethical, and epistemic dimensions of sainthood. It begins by looking at the discontinuities between the saintly life and the life of ordinary virtue. The transition from ordinary life to saintly life requires certain interior transformations, but these are not merely moral but epistemic shifts, involving a change in how one’s fellow human beings are perceived. The saint is not just one who behaves better, but one who has a more vivid awareness of the vulnerability he or she shares with others (an awareness that is signally lacking in secular conceptions of heroic virtue such as that found in Nietzsche). The chapter concludes by asking how far the epistemic transformations required for sainthood presuppose a theistic framework for understanding the human condition.
Symeon the New Theologian
Authors: Abraham William J.
Published: July 2017

For Symeon, Christianity is first and foremost a transformative experience of the divine, beginning in this life in response to the Gospel and scripture, mediated in the practices of the church, and brought to a fitting climax in the world to come. The epistemic corollary involves a particular conception of theological discourse, a vision of epistemic failure and struggle, and a grounding of theological claims in transformative perception of the divine as depicted in scripture and in the great dogmas of the canonical faith of the church. His epistemic orientation thus focuses on our epistemic faculties or capacities, their repair through divine action and grace, and their success in securing accurate depictions of the triune God. The chapter concludes with six questions and issues that deserve further investigation.
Disagreement and the Epistemology of Theology
Authors: King Nathan L. , Kelly Thomas
Published: July 2017

Philosophers of religion and theologians have long discussed the following question: should an awareness of disagreement about religious questions lead a theist to lose confidence in his or her own religious convictions? This question spawned a vast literature in the 1980s and 1990s—a literature that both anticipated and partially inspired an explosion of more recent work in epistemology on the topic of disagreement. This chapter seeks to glean insights from this more recent work in epistemology and apply what can be applied to the topic of religious disagreement. Particular attention is given to the prospects for vindicating an affirmative answer to the above question by appealing to so-called ‘conciliationist’ views about disagreement that currently enjoy significant popularity among epistemologists, and to some of the obstacles that arise for that project.
Friedrich Schleiermacher
Authors: Hector Kevin W.
Published: July 2017

Friedrich Schleiermacher was concerned throughout his career with the problem of epistemic fit, and his eventual solution belongs to the Reformation tradition according to which God can be apprehended only by faith. His key claims are as follows: (a) that God is the one upon whom all that exists depends absolutely; (b) that God can be apprehended as God only insofar as everything, including oneself, is apprehended as absolutely dependent upon God; (c) that humans are ‘God-forgetful,’ insofar as we apprehend the world as if it were independent, and, so, misapprehend God; and (d) that we can be redeemed from our God-forgetfulness, and so apprehend God properly, only insofar as the perfect God-consciousness of Christ is mediated to us by his Spirit. For Schleiermacher, then, one can stand in a proper epistemic relationship to God only on the basis of God’s redeeming love.
Thermal Physics and Thermodynamics
Authors: Chang Hasok
Published: July 2017

This article discusses some of the significant themes in the development of thermal physics up to the establishment of classical thermodynamics. It begins with a review of the scientific study of heat, focusing on developments in the areas of thermometry and calorimetry. It then considers work on specific and latent heats, including those of Joseph Black, William Irvine, and Adair Crawford, as well as the interesting questions raised by the concepts of specific and latent heat in their interrelationship. It also examines the physics of caloric and gases, with particular emphasis on the debate over adiabatic heating and cooling; the motion of heat and its transfer between bodies; debates on the nature of heat; and heat as a state function. The article concludes with an overview of the emergence of classical thermodynamics.
Engineering Energy: Constructing a New Physics for Victorian Britain
Authors: Smith Crosbie
Published: July 2017

This article focuses on the construction of the new sciences of thermodynamics and energy in Britain during the Victorian era, arguing that it occurred not simply within the broad contexts of industrialized engineering but that the new industries of marine engineering and the new sciences were, in specific local contexts on the Thames and on the Clyde, integral to one another. It begins with an account of James Thomson’s marine engineering networks centred on the Thames at Millwall, followed by a discussion on the work of his brother William at the Glasgow College laboratory. It then considers Robert Mansel’s development of an exceptionally sensitive thermometer before turning to the shipbuilding yards and marine engineering works of the Clyde at Glasgow, still in its relative infancy as the producer of the British Empire’s ocean steamers.
Physics Textbooks and Textbook Physics in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Authors: Simon Josep
Published: July 2017

This article focuses on physics textbooks and textbook physics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular emphasis on developments in France, Germany, Britain, and the United States. It first examines the role that physics textbooks played in the early stages of the professionalization of the history of science before presenting a general overview of the genesis of textbook physics in the nineteenth century. It also looks at major textbooks produced in France and the German states while making some reference to British and American textbooks. Finally, it considers recent scholarship dealing with textbooks in the history of physics. The article shows how our views on textbooks have been shaped by events that have established particular hierarchies between scientific research and science education, and between universities and schools. It argues that the study of textbooks would benefit from greater reflexivity.
Newton’s Optics
Authors: Shapiro Alan E.
Published: July 2017

This article examines Isaac Newton’s contributions to the development of optics. Newton’s Opticks: Or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light (1704) dominated the science of optics for more than a century. His theory of colour and the compound nature of sunlight was central to modern optics. This article first considers Newton’s reflecting telescope before discussing the fundamental elements of his theory of the nature of white light and colour. It then evaluates the reception toward Newton’s ‘new theory about light and colour’ and his refinement of the theory, along with his corpuscular optics, with emphasis on his explanation regarding refraction and dispersion. It also explores Newton’s ideas about the colours of natural bodies and of thick plates, his theory of fits, and the delayed publication of the Opticks. Finally, it reflects on Robert Hooke’s influence on Newton’s concept of diffraction.
Finding the Balance: Pantomime and Dance in Ratmansky’s New/Old Sleeping Beauty
Authors: Fullington Doug
Published: July 2017

This article focuses on the development of the pas d’action by Marius Petipa, its zenith in his 1890 The Sleeping Beauty, and its twenty-first-century restoration by Alexei Ratmansky in his 2015 production of The Sleeping Beauty for American Ballet Theatre. Source materials inform a context-setting discussion of the mid-nineteenth-century scène dansante as found in Giselle (1841), Paquita (1846), and Le Corsaire (1856). Petipa’s subsequent utilization of the elements of the scène dansante in the large-scale pas d’action is introduced with examples from his The Pharaoh’s Daughter (1862) and La Bayadère (1877). The culmination of the form is found in Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty (1890), in which each act includes a pas d’action as its centerpiece. The tradition of the pas d’action continued in Petipa’s late Raymonda (1898) and even into the twentieth century, with Stravinsky’s Apollon-Musagète (1927–1928).
Practical applications of physical activity for successful cognitive aging
Authors: Conner Kelly , Sweeney Cameron Young , Brown Tayla , Childs Lauren , Rogers Samantha , Gregory Tanya
Published: July 2017

As patients lose cognitive function, they lose autonomy and increasingly use fiscal, social, and medical resources. Healthcare costs for Americans older than age 65 years are three to five times higher than for the remaining population, and dementia is the third most costly disease in the United States. Interventions that promote successful aging can help patients and reduce the financial, workforce, and treatment resource burdens on the population. Because a relationship between physical activity, particularly aerobic exercise, and cognitive decline has been established, physical activity interventions may prove practical, affordable, and effective. Attention to empiric research and knowledge of evidence-based strategies for prescribing physical activity are critical for PAs to embrace.
From feldschers to physician assistants in Bulgaria
Authors: Vracheva Penka Petkova
Published: July 2017

The physician assistant (PA) profession was established in Bulgaria in 2014 in response to a growing shortage of medical staff and was modeled on the United States experience. Feldschers provided a similar role in Bulgaria from 1878 to 1999 but feldscher training was discontinued in 1999 because of a physician surplus. However, healthcare in Bulgaria changed after the country joined the European Union, and some physicians left for better opportunities elsewhere. The loss of physicians and an aging population meant that PAs were seen as a strategy to offset Bulgaria's growing healthcare demand.
Beyond the PSA test
Authors: Lewis Ryan , Hornberger Brad
Published: July 2017

The primary method of screening for and detecting prostate cancer is the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. Although this test is very prostate-specific, it is not cancer-specific; conditions other than prostate cancer can cause an elevated PSA. Many efforts have been made to discover more specific tests and methods beyond the PSA. This article describes several literature-supported tests and methods to better stratify a man's risk of having prostate cancer.
Nutrition (Micronutrients) in Child Growth and Development: A Systematic Review on Current Evidence, Recommendations and Opportunities for Further Research
Authors: Yakoob Mohammad Yawar , Lo Clifford W.
Published: July 2017

Objective:

An important aspect of malnutrition is deficiency of different micronutrients during pregnancy or early childhood. We systematically reviewed the role of nutrition in child growth (weight or height gain) and development.

Methods:

A comprehensive literature search was done on PubMed/Cochrane Library browsing through 38,795 abstracts until December 31, 2016 to select systematic reviews/meta-analyses and individual randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of micronutrient supplementation.

Results:

Micronutrients studied included iron, iodine, folate, zinc, calcium, magnesium, selenium, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin B complex, and multiple micronutrients. We summarize evidence with details and results of RCTs, highlight strengths/weaknesses, and critically interpret findings. Effects of breastfeeding-promotion, food-supplementation (complementary and school feeding), conditional-cash-transfers, and integrated nutrition/psychosocial interventions are discussed.

Conclusion:

Based on this evidence we make policy and programmatic recommendations for supplementation to mothers and children at high-risk of deficiency.
Prednisolone and Prednisone Pharmacokinetics in Pediatric Renal Transplant Recipients—A Prospective Study
Authors: Skauby Ragnhild Heier , Bjerre Anna , Sæves Ingjerd , Vethe Nils Tore , Bremer Sara , Svarstad Anja , Bergan Stein
Published: July 2017

Background:

Prednisolone is a standard component of immunosuppressive protocols in renal transplantation (Tx) and despite standardized treatment regimens, adverse side effects are still frequent. The aim of this study was to characterize the pharmacokinetics of prednisolone and prednisone in pediatric renal transplant recipients in the first 52 weeks post Tx, to describe the relationship between prednisolone and prednisone, and to investigate a possible relationship between the development of new-onset diabetes after Tx (NODAT) and glucocorticoid exposure.

Methods:

Renal transplant recipients receiving prednisolone (n = 11, age 1–15 years) were included in this prospective open-label, descriptive, nonrandomized, and noninterventional study. Blood samples were drawn pre-Tx and during selected dose intervals (0, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 12 hours postdose; less frequent in children <10 kg) at 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, and 52 weeks post-Tx. Concentrations of prednisolone and cortisol, their inactive keto forms, plus methylprednisolone, were measured using a validated LC-MS/MS method. Genetic variants in the CYP3A4, CYP3A5, ABCB1, and HSD11B2 genes were analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction and Sanger sequencing. Correlation with NODAT was investigated.

Results:

The patients displayed considerable intra- and inter-individual variability in prednisolone exposure, with up to 5-fold differences in the area under the concentration–time curve (AUC). There were up to 7-fold differences in prednisolone/prednisone AUC ratio between patients, and patients experiencing NODAT tended to have a higher ratio (>12) compared with patients without NODAT (<12). Genetic variants in CYP3A5 and ABCB1 were found, but due to the limited study population causality cannot be definitive.

Conclusions:

The study suggests that a high prednisolone/prednisone AUC ratio may be a possible risk factor for NODAT. Further studies of individualization of glucocorticoid treatment in pediatric organ Tx are warranted.
Association of Insurance Status with the Use of Immediate Breast Reconstruction in Women with Breast Cancer
Authors: Pasalic Dario , Jiang Jing , Jagsi Reshma , Giordano Sharon H. , Smith Benjamin D.
Published: July 2017

Background:

Our group sought to determine the influence of health insurance coverage on use of immediate breast reconstruction for working-age women undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer.

Methods:

We used 2 complementary databases, the Texas Cancer Registry–linked Medicaid database and the MarketScan private insurance database, to identify working-age women in Texas from 2000 to 2007 treated with mastectomy for incident breast cancer. Logistic regression tested the association between Medicaid versus private insurance and receipt of immediate breast reconstruction, adjusting for patient, treatment, and socio-demographic covariates. Reimbursement for reconstruction, adjusted for inflation and reported in 2014 dollars, was estimated from claims.

Results:

Median age was 49.7 years for the Medicaid cohort compared with 50.4 years for the MarketScan cohort (P = 0.02). From 2000 to 2007, use of reconstruction increased significantly for patients in the MarketScan cohort (38.1–53.9%; P
trend = 0.009) but not those in the Medicaid cohort (10.5–16.6%; P
trend = 0.24). In total, 15.7% of patients in the Medicaid cohort underwent immediate reconstruction (n = 213/1,360) compared with 50.7% (n = 1,405/2,772) of patients in the MarketScan cohort (adjusted relative risk, 3.09; 95% CI, 2.78–3.40). Reimbursement for reconstruction was $3,167 (95% CI, $2,512–$3,820) for patients in the Medicaid cohort compared with $15,432 (95% CI, $14,030–$16,834) for patients in the MarketScan cohort.

Conclusions:

Type of insurance coverage is an important factor associated with receipt of immediate breast reconstruction. We postulate that the marked difference in reimbursement for reconstruction between Medicaid and private insurance creates a relative disincentive for plastic surgeons and hospitals to offer breast reconstruction to patients with Medicaid.
Characterization of the Capsule Surrounding Smooth and Textured Tissue Expanders and Correlation with Contracture
Authors: Kuriyama Erika , Ochiai Hiroko , Inoue Yoshikazu , Sakamoto Yoshiaki , Yamamoto Naoki , Utsumi Toshiaki , Kishi Kazuo , Okumoto Takayuki , Matsuura Akihiro
Published: July 2017

Background:

Capsular contracture is a common complication after breast augmentation surgery. This study pathologically evaluated the soft-tissue response to surface modifications in both smooth and textured tissue expander prostheses.

Methods:

Smooth tissue expanders and textured tissue expanders in 5 cases each were used for breast reconstruction after mastectomy. Histological samples were harvested from the capsules when the tissue expanders were replaced by silicone implants. Collagen orientation and cellular responses were assessed histologically. Capsular contracture was evaluated using the Baker classification 6 months and 2 years after the removal of the tissue expander.

Results:

The capsules surrounding the smooth tissue expanders tended to produce more contracture than those surrounding the textured tissue expanders. The collagen architecture of the capsules of the smooth tissue expanders showed random orientation with fragmentation. Conversely, the capsules of the textured tissue expanders showed parallel orientation with collagen bundles of almost normal structure. Significantly more fibrils of elastin and myofibroblasts were found in the capsules surrounding the smooth tissue than in those surrounding the textured ones.

Conclusions:

The collagen fibers surrounding the smooth tissue expanders could be cracked during expansion, which may lead to scarring and contracture. Conversely, the collagen orientation surrounding the textured tissue expanders was excellent. Moreover, the increase in elastic fibers and myofibroblasts in the capsules surrounding the smooth tissue expanders may be associated with in vivo contraction patterns. Therefore, the surface type of tissue expanders affects capsular contraction after replacement with definitive implants.
Novel Cardiac Coordinate Modeling System for Three-Dimensional Quantification of Inflow Cannula Malposition of HeartMate II LVADs
Authors: Lima Brian , Dur Onur , Chuang Joyce , Chamogeorgakis Themistokles , Farrar David J. , Sundareswaran Kartik S. , Felius Joost , Joseph Susan M. , Hall Shelley A. , Gonzalez-Stawinski Gonzalo V.
Published: July 2017

Optimal function of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) depends on proper alignment of the inflow cannula (IC). Quantitative guidelines for IC angulation are lacking because of variation in cardiac geometry and difficulty in analyzing three-dimensional (3D) cannula orientation relative to the left ventricle (LV). Based on contrast-enhanced computed tomography images from five normal and five clinically malpositioned IC cases in patients with HeartMate II LVADs, we developed a method for 3D quantification of IC malpositioning. Using Mimics image software (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium), the native heart, major arteries, and LVAD were segmented to create patient-specific 3D models, allowing LV cavity volume and long-axis length to be measured directly. The deviation of the IC was quantified in a cylindrical coordinate system at the IC insertion point relative to the mitral valve and septum, and IC occlusion was assessed by the distance between cannula inlet and the proximal endocardium. Compared with normal cases, patients with malpositioned pumps had shorter LV length (p = 0.03) and reduced pump pocket depth (p = 0.009). Malpositioned pumps may experience greater obstruction by the nearby myocardium. This quantitative 3D modeling tool may help identify different modes of pump malalignment and migration and may facilitate preoperative planning and minimally invasive approaches via virtual LVAD implantation.
Synergism of Electrospun Nanofibers and Pulsed Electromagnetic Field on Osteogenic Differentiation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Authors: Ardeshirylajimi Abdolreza , Khojasteh Arash
Published: July 2017

According to the current therapies failure for bone fractures and lesions, tissue engineering showed a great potential to help solve these challenges. Because the use of growth factors is very limited in the clinic, it could be very useful that could be introducing an alternative to it. Extremely low frequency pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF, 1 mT, 50 Hz) were used for achieving this aim. The PEMF potential in combination with electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers was used to investigate the osteogenic potential of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Several relevant osteogenic markers, such as Alizarin red staining, alkaline phosphatase activity, calcium content, gene expression, and immunocytochemistry, were used to evaluate osteoinductivity of PEMF. Results were shown that PEMF alone can induce osteogenic differentiation, but this capability increased when used in combination with PCL nanofibers significantly. In addition, simultaneous use of osteogenic medium, PEMF and PCL surprisingly increased osteogenic differentiation potential of iPSCs. According to the results, PEMF alone, iPSCs-seeded PCL, and both of them could be considered as a promising candidate for use in bone tissue engineering applications.
HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device as a Bridge-to-Transplant in a Small Boy with Complicated Kawasaki Disease
Authors: Mascio Christopher E. , Malankar Dhananjay P. , Rome Jonathan J.
Published: July 2017

We report a case of HeartWare ventricular assist device (HVAD) implant as a Bridge-to-Transplant in the smallest and the youngest known patient, a 32-month-old boy (body surface area of 0.66 m2) with known Kawasaki disease and giant coronary artery aneurysms. The disease course was complicated by coronary thromboembolism resulting in acute myocardial infarction, ventricular fibrillation, and cardiac arrest. After short-term support with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for 7 days and long-term support with an HVAD for 5 months, he underwent heart transplantation and is doing well 2 months after the transplant.
Distribution of Esophageal Motor Disorders in Diabetic Patients With Dysphagia
Authors: George Nina S. , Rangan Vikram , Geng Zhuo , Khan Freeha , Kichler Adam , Gabbard Scott , Ganocy Stephen , Fass Ronnie
Published: July 2017

Background:

Diabetes mellitus can cause various gastrointestinal symptoms. Assessment of esophageal dysmotility in diabetic patients has been scarcely studied. The aim of this study was to determine the esophageal motor characteristics of diabetic versus nondiabetic patients who present with dysphagia.

Methods:

High-resolution esophageal manometries (HREMs) of 83 diabetic patients and 83 age and gender-matched nondiabetic patients with dysphagia from 2 medical centers were included in this study. Demographic information, medical comorbidities, and medication usage were recorded for each patient in a single registry. HREM of each patient was evaluated and the different functional parameters were recorded.

Key Results:

Overall, 46% of diabetic patients were found to have an esophageal motor disorder. Diabetic patients with dysphagia were more likely to have failed swallows on HREM (50.6% vs. 33.7%; P=0.03) as compared with nondiabetic patients. Among diabetic patients, those being treated with insulin were more likely to have failed (69.0% vs. 40.7%; P=0.01) and weak (65.5% vs. 33.3%; P=0.005) swallows as compared with diabetic patients not on insulin. Among diabetic patients, those with abnormal manometry were more likely to demonstrate diabetic retinopathy (27.0% vs. 8.7%; P=0.04). There was a trend toward increased incidence of esophagogastric junction outflow obstruction in diabetic patients (10.8% vs. 2.4%; P=0.057) as compared with nondiabetic patients.

Conclusions:

Nearly half of diabetic patients with dysphagia have some type of an esophageal motility disorder. Diabetic retinopathy and the use of insulin are predictive of esophageal motor abnormalities among diabetic patients.
Predictive Model for Neoplastic Potential of Gallbladder Polyp
Authors: Yang Ju-Il , Lee Jong Kyun , Ahn Dae Geon , Park Joo Kyung , Lee Kwang Hyuck , Lee Kyu Taek , Chi Sang Ah , Jung Sin-Ho
Published: July 2017

Goal:

To provide the statistical predictive model for neoplastic potential of gallbladder polyp (GBP).

Background:

Many studies have attempted to define the risk factors for neoplastic potential of GBP. It remains difficult to precisely adapt the reported risk factors for the decision of surgery. Estimating the probability for neoplastic potential of GBP using a combination of several risk factors before surgical resection would be useful in patient consultation.

Study:

We collected data of patients confirmed as GBP through cholecystectomy at Samsung Medical Center between January 1997 and March 2015. Those with a definite evidence for malignancy, such as adjacent organ invasion, metastasis on preoperative imaging studies, polyp >15 mm, and absence of proper preoperative ultrasonographic imaging were excluded. A total of 1976 patients were enrolled. To make and validate the predictive model, we divided the cohort into the modeling group (n=979) and validation group (n=997). Clinical information, ultrasonographic findings, and blood tests were retrospectively analyzed.

Results:

Clinical factors of older age, single lesion, sessile shape, and polyp size showed statistical significance for neoplastic potential of GBP in the modeling group. A predictive model for neoplastic potential of GBP was constructed utilizing the statistical outcome of the modeling group. Statistical validation was performed with the validation group to determine the optimal clinical sensitivity and specificity of the predictive model. Optimal cut-off value for neoplastic probability was 7.4%.

Conclusions:

The predictive model for neoplastic potential of GBP may support clinical decisions before cholecystectomy.