bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Immunomodulation by Entinostat in Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients Receiving High-Dose Interleukin 2: A Multicenter, Single-Arm, Phase I/II Trial (NCI-CTEP#7870)
Authors: Pili Roberto , Quinn David I. , Hammers Hans J. , Monk Paul , George Saby , Dorff Tanya B. , Olencki Thomas , Shen Li , Orillion Ashley , Lamonica Dominick , Fragomeni Roberto S. , Szabo Zsolt , Hutson Alan , Groman Adrienne , Perkins Susan M. , Piekarz Richard , Carducci Michael A.
Published: September 2017

Purpose: On the basis of preclinical data suggesting that the class I selective HDAC inhibitor entinostat exerts a synergistic antitumor effect in combination with high-dose IL2 in a renal cell carcinoma model by downregulating Foxp3 expression and function of regulatory T cells (Treg), we conducted a phase I/II clinical study with entinostat and high-dose IL2 in patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).

Experimental Design: Clear cell histology, no prior treatments, and being sufficiently fit to receive high-dose IL2 were the main eligibility criteria. The phase I portion consisted of two dose levels of entinostat (3 and 5 mg, orally every 14 days) and a fixed standard dose of IL2 (600,000 U/kg i.v.). Each cycle was 85 days. The primary endpoint was objective response rate and toxicity. Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival and overall survival.

Results: Forty-seven patients were enrolled. At a median follow-up of 21.9 months, the objective response rate was 37% [95% confidence interval (CI), 22%–53%], the median progression-free survival was 13.8 months (95% CI, 6.0–18.8), and the median overall survival was 65.3 months (95% CI, 52.6.-65.3). The most common grade 3/4 toxicities were hypophosphatemia (16%), lymphopenia (15%), and hypocalcemia (7%), and all were transient. Decreased Tregs were observed following treatment with entinostat, and lower numbers were associated with response (P = 0.03).

Conclusions: This trial suggests a promising clinical activity for entinostat in combination with high-dose IL2 in ccRCC patients and provides the first example of an epigenetic agent being rationally combined with immunotherapy. Clin Cancer Res; 23(23); 7199–208. ©2017 AACR.
A Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Pancreatic Cancer: Targeting Cell Surface Glycan Using rBC2LC-N Lectin–Drug Conjugate (LDC)
Authors: Shimomura Osamu , Oda Tatsuya , Tateno Hiroaki , Ozawa Yusuke , Kimura Sota , Sakashita Shingo , Noguchi Masayuki , Hirabayashi Jun , Asashima Makoto , Ohkohchi Nobuhiro
Published: September 2017

Various cancers, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), remain intractable even with costly tumor-targeting antibody drugs. Because the outermost coatings of cancer cells are composed of cell-specific glycan layers (glycocalyx), lectins, proteins with glycan-binding potential, were evaluated for possible use as drug carriers in PDAC treatment. A human PDAC cell line with well-to-moderately differentiated properties (Capan-1) was subjected to lectin microarray analysis to identify specific lectin–glycan pairs. The selected lectin was fused with a bacterial exotoxin for the construction of a lectin–drug conjugate (LDC), and its safety and antitumor effects were evaluated. A specific affinity between a recombinant bacterial C-type lectin (rBC2LC-N) and Capan-1 was identified, and its positivity was confirmed in 69 human samples. In contrast to the belief that all lectins mediate harmful hemagglutination, rBC2LC-N did not cause hemagglutination with human erythrocytes and was safely administered to mice. The 50% inhibitory concentration of LDC to Capan-1 (1.04 pg/mL = 0.0195 pmol/L) was 1/1,000 lower than that reported for conventional immunotoxins. The intraperitoneal administration of LDC reduced the tumor weight from 390 to 130.8 mg (P < 0.01) in an orthotopic model and reduced the number of nodules from 48 to 3 (P < 0.001) and improved survival from 62 to 105 days in a peritoneal dissemination model (P < 0.0001). In addition, the effect of LDC was reproduced in nodules from patient-derived PDAC xenografts through intravenous injection. Herein, we show the concept of utilizing lectins as drug carriers to target glycans on the cancer cell surface, highlighting new insights into cancer treatments. Mol Cancer Ther; 17(1); 183–95. ©2017 AACR.
J Curve in Patients Randomly Assigned to Different Systolic Blood Pressure Targets
Authors: Kalkman Deborah N. , Brouwer Tom F. , Vehmeijer Jim T. , Berger Wouter R. , Knops Reinoud E. , de Winter Robbert J. , Peters Ron J. , van den Born Bert-Jan H.
Published: September 2017

Background:

Low systolic blood pressure (SBP) values are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, giving rise to the so-called J-curve phenomenon. We assessed the association between on-treatment SBP levels, cardiovascular events, and all-cause mortality in patients randomized to different SBP targets.

Methods:

Data from 2 large randomized trials that randomly allocated hypertensive patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease to intensive (SBP<120 mm Hg) or conventional (SBP<140 mm Hg) treatment were pooled and harmonized for outcomes and follow-up duration. Using natural cubic splines, we plotted the hazard ratio for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events against the mean on-treatment SBP per treatment group.

Results:

The pooled data consisted of 194 875 on-treatment SBP measurements in 13 946 patients (98.9%). During a median follow-up of 3.3 years, cardiovascular events occurred in 1014 patients (7.3%), and 502 patients died (3.7%). For both blood pressure targets, an identical shape of the J curve was present, with a nadir for cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality just below the SBP target. Patients in the lowest SBP stratum were older, had a higher body mass index, smoked more often, and had a higher frequency of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular events.

Conclusions:

Low on-treatment SBP levels are associated with increased cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. This association is independent of the attained blood pressure level because the J curve aligns with the SBP target. Our results suggest that the benefit or risk associated with intensive blood pressure–lowering treatment can be established only via randomized clinical trials.

Clinical Trial Registration:

URL:
https://www.clinicaltrials.gov
. Unique identifiers: NCT01206062 and NCT00000620.
Multistate 5‐Year Initiative to Improve Care for Out‐of‐Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Primary Results From the HeartRescue Project
Authors: van Diepen Sean , Girotra Saket , Abella Benjamin S. , Becker Lance B. , Bobrow Bentley J. , Chan Paul S. , Fahrenbruch Carol , Granger Christopher B. , Jollis James G. , McNally Bryan , White Lindsay , Yannopoulos Demetris , Rea Thomas D.
Published: September 2017

Background

The HeartRescue Project is a multistate public health initiative focused on establishing statewide out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) systems of care to improve case capture and OHCA care in the community, by emergency medical services (EMS), and at hospital level.

Methods and Results

From 2011 to 2015 in the 5 original HeartRescue states, all adults with EMS–treated OHCA due to a presumed cardiac cause were included. In an adult population of 32.8 million, a total of 64 988 OHCAs—including 10 046 patients with a bystander‐witnessed OHCA with a shockable rhythm—were treated by 330 EMS agencies. From 2011 to 2015, the case‐capture rate for all‐rhythm OHCA increased from an estimated 39.0% (n=6762) to 89.2% (n=16 103;
P
<0.001 for trend). Overall survival to hospital discharge was 11.4% for all rhythms and 34.0% in the subgroup with bystander‐witnessed OHCA with a shockable rhythm. We observed modest temporal increases in bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (41.8–43.5%,
P
<0.001 for trend) and bystander automated external defibrillator application (3.2–5.6%,
P
<0.001 for trend) in the all‐rhythm group, although there were no temporal changes in survival. There were marked all‐rhythm survival differences across the 5 states (8.0–16.1%,
P
<0.001) and across participating EMS agencies (2.7–26.5%,
P
<0.001).

Conclusions

In the initial 5 years, the HeartRescue Project developed a population‐based OHCA registry and improved statewide case‐capture rates and some processes of care, although there were no early temporal changes in survival. The observed survival variation across states and EMS systems presents a future challenge to elucidate the characteristics of high‐performing systems with the goal of improving OHCA care and survival.
Topography and Determinants of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)‐Visible Perivascular Spaces in a Large Memory Clinic Cohort
Authors: Shams Sara , Martola Juha , Charidimou Andreas , Larvie Mykol , Granberg Tobias , Shams Mana , Kristoffersen‐Wiberg Maria , Wahlund Lars‐Olof
Published: September 2017

Background

Magnetic resonance imaging‐visible perivascular spaces (
PVS
) are related to interstitial fluid clearance pathways (including amyloid‐β) in the brain and are suggested to be a marker of cerebral small vessel disease. We investigated the role, topography, and possible implications of
PVS
in cognitive impairment.

Methods and Results

A total of 1504 patients undergoing memory clinic investigation and an associated brain magnetic resonance imaging scan were included in this cross‐sectional study. Magnetic resonance images were assessed for markers of small vessel disease. Additionally, 1039 patients had cerebrospinal fluid analysis of amyloid‐β 42, total tau (T‐tau), and phosphorylated tau (
P
‐tau); 520 patients had apoE genotyping done. Results were analyzed with generalized linear models. A total of 289 (19%; 95% confidence interval, 17–21) had a high‐grade
PVS
in the centrum semiovale (
CSO
) and 65 (4%; 95% confidence interval: 3%–5%) in the basal ganglia (
BG
). Centrum semiovale– and
BG
‐
PVS
were both associated with high age (
P
<0.001), hypertension (
P
<0.001), probable cerebral amyloid angiopathy (
P
<0.05), moderate‐to‐severe white matter hyperintensities (
P
<0.001), cortical superficial siderosis (
P
<0.001), cerebral microbleeds (
P
<0.001), and
PVS
. centrum semiovale–
PVS
was separately associated with strictly lobar cerebral microbleeds (
P
=0.057).
BG
‐
PVS
was associated with strictly deep cerebral microbleeds (
P
<0.001), lacunes (
P
<0.001), and vascular dementia (
P
=0.04).
BG
‐
PVS
showed a tendency to be associated with high cerebrospinal fluid tau (B=0.002,
P
=0.04) in the whole cohort and in Alzheimer's disease (B=0.005;
P
=0.02). No other associations with cerebrospinal fluid or the apoE e4 allele was observed.

Conclusions

Centrum semiovale–
PVS
and
BG
‐
PVS
have different underlying etiology, being associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy and hypertensive vasculopathy, respectively, although a significant overlap between these pathologies is likely to exist.
Apolipoprotein A‐I Modulates Atherosclerosis Through Lymphatic Vessel‐Dependent Mechanisms in Mice
Authors: Milasan Andreea , Jean Gabriel , Dallaire François , Tardif Jean‐Claude , Merhi Yahye , Sorci‐Thomas Mary , Martel Catherine
Published: September 2017

Background

Subcutaneously injected lipid‐free apoA‐I (apolipoprotein A‐I) reduces accumulation of lipid and immune cells within the aortic root of hypercholesterolemic mice without increasing high‐density lipoprotein–cholesterol concentrations. Lymphatic vessels are now recognized as prerequisite players in the modulation of cholesterol removal from the artery wall in experimental conditions of plaque regression, and particular attention has been brought to the role of the collecting lymphatic vessels in early atherosclerosis‐related lymphatic dysfunction. In the present study, we address whether and how preservation of collecting lymphatic function contributes to the protective effect of apoA‐I.

Methods and Results

Atherosclerotic
Ldlr

−/−

mice treated with low‐dose lipid‐free apoA‐I showed enhanced lymphatic transport and abrogated collecting lymphatic vessel permeability in atherosclerotic
Ldlr

−/−

mice when compared with albumin‐control mice. Treatment of human lymphatic endothelial cells with apoA‐I increased the adhesion of human platelets on lymphatic endothelial cells, in a bridge‐like manner, a mechanism that could strengthen endothelial cell–cell junctions and limit atherosclerosis‐associated collecting lymphatic vessel dysfunction. Experiments performed with blood platelets isolated from apoA‐I‐treated
Ldlr

−/−

mice revealed that apoA‐I decreased ex vivo platelet aggregation. This suggests that in vivo apoA‐I treatment limits platelet thrombotic potential in blood while maintaining the platelet activity needed to sustain adequate lymphatic function.

Conclusions

Altogether, we bring forward a new pleiotropic role for apoA‐I in lymphatic function and unveil new potential therapeutic targets for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis.
For-Profit Hospital Status and Carotid Artery Stent Utilization in US Hospitals Performing Carotid Revascularization
Authors: Chandler Justin V. , George Benjamin P. , Kelly Adam G. , Holloway Robert G.
Published: September 2017

Background and Purpose—

Carotid artery stenting may be an economically attractive procedure for hospitals and physicians. We sought to identify the association of hospital ownership (nonprofit versus for-profit) on carotid artery stenting (CAS) versus carotid endarterectomy utilization in US hospitals.

Methods—

Using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample admissions for cerebrovascular disease from 2008 to 2011, we identified all private, nonfederal US hospitals performing at least 20 carotid revascularization procedures annually, including carotid artery stenting (
International Classification of Diseases
-Ninth Revision 00.63) or carotid endarterectomy (
International Classification of Diseases
-Ninth Revision 38.12). We used a multilevel multivariable logistic regression controlling for patient demographics, comorbidities, and hospital characteristics, to assess the effect of hospital ownership on CAS use.

Results—

Across 723 hospitals (600 nonprofit, 123 for-profit), 66 731 carotid revascularization admissions were identified. Approximately 1 in 5 (n=11 641; 17.4%) revascularizations received CAS. The mean CAS rate among nonprofit hospitals was 17.5 per 100 revascularizations (median, 11.5; interquartile range, 5.2–24.5), and the mean CAS rate among for-profit hospitals was 24.2 per 100 revascularizations (median, 16.0; interquartile range, 6.7–33.3;
P
<0.001). Adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics, for-profit hospital designation was associated with greater odds of CAS (adjusted odds ratio, 1.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.07–1.98).

Conclusions—

For-profit hospital ownership is associated with a higher rate of CAS compared to nonprofit hospitals in those receiving carotid revascularization. Further research is needed to understand the individual- and system-level factors driving this difference.
CHA
2
DS
2
-VASc Score for Identifying Truly Low-Risk Atrial Fibrillation for Stroke
Authors: Kim Tae-Hoon , Yang Pil-Sung , Kim Daehoon , Yu Hee Tae , Uhm Jae-Sun , Kim Jong-Youn , Pak Hui-Nam , Lee Moon-Hyoung , Joung Boyoung , Lip Gregory Y.H.
Published: September 2017

Background and Purpose—

As the threshold of stroke risk for initiating oral anticoagulants is lowered after the introduction of the nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants, the focus of stroke prevention in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation has shifted away from predicting high-risk patients toward initially identifying patients with a truly low risk of ischemic stroke, who do not need antithrombotic therapy. We tested the predictive ability of the congestive heart failure, hypertension, age ≥75, diabetes mellitus, prior stroke or transient ischemic attack (doubled; CHADS
2
), congestive heart failure, hypertension, age ≥75 (doubled), diabetes mellitus, prior stroke or transient ischemic attack (doubled), vascular disease, age 65 to 74, female (CHA
2
DS
2
-VASc), and Anticoagulation and Risk Factors in Atrial Fibrillation (ATRIA) risk stratification schemes in oral anticoagulants naive patients with atrial fibrillation in a Korean nationwide sample cohort.

Methods—

From January 2002 to December 2008, a total of 5855 oral anticoagulant naive patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation aged ≥20 years were enrolled from Korea National Health Insurance Service-Sample Cohort database and were followed-up until December 2013.

Results—

At baseline, the proportions categorized as low risk using CHADS
2
, CHA
2
DS
2
-VASc, and ATRIA risk stratification schemes were 1049 (17.9%), 860 (14.7%), and 3280 (56.0%), respectively. During follow-up, the low-risk category using CHADS
2
, CHA
2
DS
2
-VASc, and ATRIA scores was retained in 811 (13.9%), 667 (11.4%), and 2729 (46.6%) patients, respectively. Rates of ischemic stroke (100 person-years) in the low risk categories of CHADS
2
, CHA
2
DS
2
-VASc, and ATRIA scores were 0.42, 0.26, and 1.43, respectively. CHA
2
DS
2
-VASc had the best sensitivity (98.8% versus 85.7% in CHADS
2
and 74.8% in ATRIA) and negative predictive value (98.8% versus 95.3% for CHADS
2
and 93.7% for ATRIA) for the prediction of stroke incidence and was best for the prediction of the absence of ischemic stroke during 5 years of follow-up (odds ratio, 16.4 [95% confidence interval, 8.8–30.8]).

Conclusions—

The CHA
2
DS
2
-VASc score shows good performance in defining truly low-risk Asian patients with atrial fibrillation for stroke compared with CHADS
2
and ATRIA scores.
“Leftover Women” and “Kings of the Candy Shop”: Gendering Chinese American Ancestral Homeland Migration to China
Authors: Wang Leslie K.
Published: September 2017

A growing body of research examines the experiences of highly skilled individuals who “return” to work in their ancestral homeland, but has tended to overlook the gendered dynamics that shape their decisions. This article fills this gap by analyzing how the gendered local context of China affects the experiences of American-Born Chinese (ABC) migrants. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with 52 second-generation ABC professionals in Beijing and Shanghai, I found that both women and men enjoyed comparable career growth and opportunities. Socially, however, men’s foreign citizenship, education, and higher wages transformed them into highly eligible dating and marriage partners, while ABC women were stigmatized as “leftover women” (a social category ascribed to urban, educated single women in China). Thus, ABC women must prioritize either their professional or personal lives, while their male counterparts can enjoy both. By highlighting the personal realm, this case reveals how the trajectories of first-world ancestral homeland migrants are uniquely gendered.
Developmental Dyscalculia in Adults: Beyond Numerical Magnitude Impairment
Authors: De Visscher Alice , Noël Marie-Pascale , Pesenti Mauro , Dormal Valérie
Published: September 2017

Numerous studies have tried to identify the core deficit of developmental dyscalculia (DD), mainly by assessing a possible deficit of the mental representation of numerical magnitude. Research in healthy adults has shown that numerosity, duration, and space share a partly common system of magnitude processing and representation. However, in DD, numerosity processing has until now received much more attention than the processing of other non-numerical magnitudes. To assess whether or not the processing of non-numerical magnitudes is impaired in DD, the performance of 15 adults with DD and 15 control participants was compared in four categorization tasks using numerosities, lengths, durations, and faces (as non-magnitude-based control stimuli). Results showed that adults with DD were impaired in processing numerosity and duration, while their performance in length and face categorization did not differ from controls’ performance. Our findings support the idea of a nonsymbolic magnitude deficit in DD, affecting numerosity and duration processing but not length processing.
Measuring the Persistency of Earnings Components: Applications of the VAR Model to Long-Run Japanese Data
Authors: Kubota Keiichi , Takehara Hitoshi
Published: September 2017

This study investigates the time-series properties of accounting earnings and their components. We propose a new measure of earnings persistency in accordance with the vector autoregressive (VAR) model–linked earnings and stock returns. As a preliminary analysis, we estimate the first-order autocorrelations and test the stationarity of five variables: earnings, cash flows from operations, total accruals, current accruals, and noncurrent accruals. We then confirm that earnings and noncurrent accruals have a more persistent time-series than cash flows and current accruals. Next, we formulate and estimate the first-order autoregressive model composed of the three variables of utmost interest to accounting researchers, namely, cash flows, current accruals, and noncurrent accruals, and explore how future predictions of these three earnings components are affected by unit impulse shocks. Given the results of the impulse response function analysis, we forecast changes in stock prices based on future innovations of these components, finding that a 1% unit shock in the earnings components affects stock prices by 2% to 2.5%. Finally, we are able to demonstrate excess returns by using the portfolio formation method based on our measure of persistence.
The Emergence of Transformative Agency in Professional Work
Authors: Tuominen Tiina M , Lehtonen Mikko H
Published: September 2017

Even though transformative agency is widely discussed in organization studies, recent conceptualizations provide little information about the dynamics through which transformative agency emerges at the individual and collective levels, or how these levels influence one another in a particular context. We employ critical realist theories to explore transformative agency in different types of temporary service development groups in professional service organizations. Our study suggests how individuals’ transformative agency emerges from their reflexivity and bargaining power conditioned by resource distributions, and how collective agency subsequently emerges from different combinations of these individual properties in temporary agentic groups. The study clarifies the interplay between the individual and collective levels of agency, and supports further multilevel studies on transformative agency in organizational change.
Conspiracy Theorists and Organization Studies
Authors: Schreven Stephanie
Published: September 2017

This essay proposes an experiment in workplace emancipation by letting go of the assumption of who knows best in the domain of knowledge and suspending ‘social closure’ (Weber) as a mechanism of exclusion. Specifically, I experiment with a stance I adopt from Jacques Rancière, which is to presuppose equality, in this case with conspiracy theorists, starting by listening to what they have to say, rather than seeking to silence them and dismissing them a priori. Listening to what conspiracy theorists have to say, I propose a reconfiguration and recalibration of our empirical awareness derived from their practices and their aesthetics. In particular, I seek to reclaim close attention to detail, regarded by Hofstadter as a core feature of the paranoid style, for a democratic style. The implication of my experiment is an invitation to rethink knowledge building in the form of cases, resulting by engaging intimately with the unaccounted for as part of a conversation among equals that encourages independent thinking.
Organizing Baristas in Halifax Cafes: Precarious Work and Gender and Class Identities in the Millennial Generation
Authors: Brickner Rachel K. , Dalton Meaghan
Published: September 2017

In 2012–2015, baristas engaged in union drives at five cafes in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In a series of semi-structured interviews with participants in and supporters of these drives, it became clear that issues of gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity were critical in understanding why and how these union drives evolved: women and queer baristas experienced gender-based discrimination and marginalization at work; they were noted leaders in some of the drives and drew on activist networks to rally community support for the unionization effort. Finally, issues of gender and sexuality informed some of the baristas’ broader economic analysis. We argue that the barista union drive in Halifax illustrates a framework for understanding how gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation inform unjust experiences in precarious workplaces and strategies for confronting them. A gendered analysis of the barista union drives underscores the importance of organized labor’s outreach to young workers and, further, that engaging with workers with attention to intersectionality is an important organizational strategy.
Differences in How Mothers and Fathers Monitor Sugar-Sweetened Beverages for Their Young Children (7-12 Years)
Authors: Branscum Paul , Housely Alexandra
Published: September 2017

The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences between how mothers and fathers monitor their children’s sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs; 7-12 years) using constructs from the integrated behavioral model (IBM). Mothers ( n = 167) and fathers ( n = 117) completed a valid and reliable survey evaluating the extent that they monitored their child’s SSB intake and constructs of the IBM. Results showed significant differences between groups, with mothers consistently having higher levels of monitoring SSBs and IBM constructs. Regression models also showed that the core constructs of the IBM predicted a significant amount of the variance for monitoring SSBs for both mothers and fathers (39.4% and 18.3%, respectively), with intentions being the primary predictor for mothers and skillfulness the primary predictor for fathers. This study provides preliminary evidence that mothers and fathers monitor their children’s SSB intake differently, and factors that determine monitoring SSB intake of children differ between mothers and fathers.
What are you afraid of: Collective leadership and its learning implications
Authors: Raelin Joseph A
Published: September 2017

In this provocation, the author attempts to cite the advantages of collective leadership while acknowledging the objections and fears of challengers. Collective leadership is seen as remote because it defies the traditional view of leadership as an individualistic attractive quality that not only protects us but is efficient when applied. Nevertheless, the collective alternative may not only be advisable but required in a connected world featuring a networked economy. The contemporary socio-politico-economic environment requires the contribution of, creativity from, and collaboration among multiple agents providing a dynamic concentration of management and knowledge. If we are to accept and recognize the contribution of a collective leadership, its development would require an entirely different learning model. In particular, collective leadership development occurs as an acute immersion into the practices that are embedded within in situ material–discursive relations—in other words, among people, objects, and their institutions.
Remembering disappeared websites in China: Passion, community, and youth
Authors: Yang Guobin , Wu Shiwen
Published: September 2017

Disappeared websites are the missing pages of web history. We examine over 140 memory narratives of disappeared websites in China, in which 176 disappeared websites are remembered. We find that memories of disappeared websites rarely treat websites as dead objects, machines, or even as media, but more often as people whose death is mourned and memories cherished. They not only narrate the biographies of the websites but also the autobiographies of the story-tellers. The main biographical plot in these narratives of disappeared websites is a lovely life that was tragically cut short. Disappeared websites are most remembered for the passion, community, and sense of youthful idealism which they had inspired. Remembrances of disappeared websites are both retrospective and prospective. They resuscitate a lost golden age while expressing voices of protest at Internet censorship. They both highlight and repair a web history marked by disruption and disappearance.
Safety, pharmacokinetics, and reversal of apixaban anticoagulation with andexanet alfa
Authors: Siegal Deborah , Lu Genmin , Leeds Janet M. , Karbarz Mark , Castillo Janice , Mathur Vandana , Hutchaleelaha Athiwat , Sinha Uma , Kitt Michael , McClure Matt , Hollenbach Stanley J. , Curnutte John T. , Conley Pamela B. , Crowther Mark
Published: September 2017

Key Points

Andexanet reversed apixaban anticoagulation in healthy volunteers within minutes after administration and for the duration of infusion. Andexanet was generally well tolerated, with no evidence of prothrombotic activity in preclinical models and in healthy subjects.
SP- and SS-imaging for 3D elastic reverse time migration
Authors: Gong Xufei , Du Qizhen , Zhao Qiang
Published: September 2017

Three-dimensional elastic reverse time migration has been confronted with the problem of generating scalar images with vector S-waves. The underlying principle for solving this problem is to convert the vector S-waves into scalars. Previous methods were mainly focused on PS-imaging, but they usually cannot work properly on SP- and SS-cases. The complexity of SP- and SS-imaging arises from the fact that the incident S-wave has unpredictable relationship with the raypath plane. We have suggested that S-wave should be treated separately as SV- and SH-waves, which keep predictable relationships with the raypath plane. First, the elastic wavefield is separated into P- and S-waves using the Helmholtz decomposition. Then, we evaluate the normal direction of the raypath plane at each imaging grid. Next, we separate the vector S-wave obtained with curl operator into SH- and SV-waves, both of which are scalars. Finally, correlation imaging conditions are implemented to those scalar wave modes to produce scalar SV-P, SV-SV, and SH-SH images.
Swimming with multiple propulsors: measurement and comparison of swimming gaits in three species of neotropical cichlids
Authors: Feilich Kara L.
Published: September 2017

Comparative studies of fish swimming have been limited by the lack of quantitative definitions of fish gaits. Traditionally, steady swimming gaits have been defined categorically by the fin or region of the body that is used as the main propulsor and named after major fish clades (e.g. carangiform, anguilliform, balistiform, labriform). This method of categorization is limited by lack of explicit measurements, the inability to incorporate contributions of multiple propulsors, and the inability to compare gaits across different categories. I propose an alternative framework for the definition and comparison of fish gaits based on the propulsive contribution of each structure (body and/or fin) being used as a propulsor relative to locomotor output, and demonstrate the effectiveness of this framework by comparing three species of neotropical cichlids with different body shapes. This approach is modular with respect to the number of propulsors considered, flexible with respect to the definition of the propulsive inputs and the locomotor output of interest, and designed explicitly to handle combinations of propulsors. Using this approach, gait can be defined as a trajectory through propulsive space, and gait-transitions can be defined as discontinuities in the gait trajectory. By measuring and defining gait in this way, patterns of clustering corresponding to existing categorical definitions of gait may emerge, and gaits can be rigorously compared across categories.
The effects of pH and Pi on tension and Ca2+ sensitivity of ventricular myofilaments from the anoxia-tolerant painted turtle
Authors: Fanter Cornelia E. , Campbell Kenneth S. , Warren Daniel E.
Published: September 2017

We aimed to determine how increases in intracellular H+ and inorganic phosphate (Pi) to levels observed during anoxic submergence affect contractility in ventricular muscle of the anoxia-tolerant Western painted turtle, Chrysemys picta bellii. Skinned multicellular preparations were exposed to six treatments with physiologically relevant levels of pH (7.4, 7.0, 6.6), and Pi (3 mM and 8 mM). Each preparation was tested in a range of calcium concentrations (pCa 9.0-pCa 4.5) to determine the pCa-tension relationship for each treatment. Acidosis significantly decreased contractility by decreasing Ca2+ sensitivity (pCa50) and tension development (p<0.001). Increasing [Pi] also decreased contractility by decreasing tension development at every pH level (p<0.001), but alone, did not affect Ca2+ sensitivity (P=0.689). Simultaneous increases in [H+] and [Pi] interacted to attenuate the decreased tension development and Ca2+ sensitivity (p<0.001), possibly reflecting a decreased sensitivity to Pi when it is present as the dihydrogen phosphate form, which increases as pH decreases. Compared to mammals, the ventricle of turtles exhibits higher Ca2+ sensitivity, which is consistent with previous studies of ectothermic vertebrates.
“Futile Souls Adrift on a Yacht”
Authors: Hellman Lillian
Published: September 2017

This chapter is an essay which reviews William Faulkner's novel, Mosquitoes, which takes place on a yacht. Mrs. Maurier, a collector of famous people in her own home town of New Orleans, arranges a boating party for the more artistic of her friends. Among her guests are a sculptor, a young niece and the niece's mechanically inclined brother, a Jew and his sister, and a poet. The text praises the humor of Faulkner's writing, claiming that it approaches a brilliance that you can rightfully expect only in the writings of a few men. It also suggests that certain portions of Mosquitoes are “overwritten, certain Joycean passages that have no direct place or bearing, parts that are heavy and dull with overloaded description”.
Review of Soldiers’ Pay
Authors: Bennett Arnold
Published: September 2017

This chapter is an essay which reviews Soldiers' Pay, which it calls a war-book. Soldiers' Pay is about returned soldiers, and the whole story revolves around a terribly scarred aviator who dies of war. War-scenes are directly and well described in the book. The text points out a number of flaws in Soldiers' Pay. It claims that William Faulkner's novel is clumsily constructed, being lopsided; the opening chapters, though admirable, are far too long. Furthermore, the book is over-emphasized throughout and some of the locutions are irritating. A more serious fault, however, is that the book is difficult to read.
“New Technique in Novel Introduced”
Authors: Stegner Wallace
Published: September 2017

This chapter is an essay which considers William Faulkner's novel Absalom, Absalom!, the story of demonic Thomas Sutpen's rise from poor white to opulent planter. Faulkner's narrates Sutpen's matrimonial experiments with whites and Negroes, his desire for a son and a perpetuated name, and the final dissolution of that dream in a flaming house haunted by the whimperings of a half-wit mulatto who is the only survivor of the Sutpen blood. The story is presented through the mouths of seven different people, in what Bernard De Voto calls a “series of approximations.” Absalom, Absalom! cannot be dismissed as 400 pages of turgid and invertebrate sentences about psychopathic ghosts. The text argues that the mere technique of Absalom, Absalom! may prove to be a significant contribution to the theory of the art of fiction, and that the novel will not be the last, or the best, to approach its materials in this way.
“Fiction and Life”
Authors: Orwell George
Published: September 2017

This chapter comments on The Hamlet, arguing that the novel is difficult to read. It begins with the opinion that William Faulkner is one of the most “important” of living American writers, one who raises the question of whether a writer is to be taken seriously merely because he is “intellectual.” It then suggests that the difficulty of reading The Hamlet comes from the fact that Faulkner “crams into each sentence thoughts which occur to him in passing but which have not necessarily much to do with the matter at hand.” The chapter also contends the plot of the story is quite hard to grasp—it is about some people somewhere in the Southern States of America, people who commit a rape or a murder from time to time—and that a second reading would not be worthwhile.
“Mr. Faulkner’s Southern Saga”
Authors: Gordon Caroline
Published: September 2017

This chapter discusses The Portable Faulkner, the first comprehensive survey of William Faulkner's work that chronicles the saga of the South. In his preface to The Portable Faulkner, Malcolm Cowley calls the collection a legend, “because it is obviously no more intended as an historical account of the country south of the Ohio than The Scarlett Letter was intended as a history of Massachusetts or Paradise Lost as a factual account of the Fall.” Cowley and Marion O'Donnell are the only critics see in The Portable Faulkner not a series of novels with sociological implications, but a saga, a legend that is still in the making. The text also compares Faulkner with Gustave Flaubert and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
“The Private World of William Faulkner”
Authors: Bradford Roark
Published: September 2017

This chapter argues that William Faulkner is an individualist, and that his individuality, both in his life and in his writing, is part of his breeding, background, and nature. Faulkner's spirit of individuality can be attributed to his being a Southern Democrat. It is difficult to disassociate him from his home town of Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner is also known for his aversion to personal exploitation and publicity. The chapter discusses Sanctuary, Faulkner's most widely read novel that propelled him from obscurity into fame and notoriety. It also comments on legends that have grown up about Faulkner, including the notion that he is a prodigious drunk and the story surrounding his first experience as a Hollywood writer.
Letter to Edmund Wilson
Authors: Nabokov Vladimir
Published: September 2017

This chapter contains Vladimir Nabokov's letter to Edmund Wilson, in which he criticized William Faulkner's novel Light in August that was sent to him by Wilson. In his letter, dated November 21, 1948, Nabokov expresses his dislike of Faulkner's work. In particular, Nabokov says he detests Faulkner's romanticism and claims that he can only explain the latter's popularity in France by the fact that all the popular mediocre writers in the country in recent years have also had their fling at l'homme marchait, la nuit était sombre [the man was walking, the night was dark]. According to Nabokov, Light in August is one of the tritest and most tedious examples of a trite and tedious genre.
“Author Gave Life to Fictional County”
Authors: Welty Eudora
Published: September 2017

This chapter argues that William Faulkner saw all the world in his fictional county where we can see it now—where he made it live. It suggests that Faulkner's novels and stories were built at every step and stage out of his long passion of seeing life he knew by seeing as well as he could into it and around it. What is great and puny, what is tragic and uproarious about us all in our own dogged lives everywhere, is a living life itself in Faulkner's fiction. And in literature it is this that matters and always will matter. Humanity was his subject, but he was a poet when he was born to see what he saw. His work has a poet's authority by which it travels the world and puts the world to measure.
“Faulkner: Past and Future”
Authors: Warren Robert Penn
Published: September 2017

This chapter offers a local and personal testimony about the influence of William Faulkner. The author of this chapter remembers the day he, while attending Oxford University, received a copy of Soldiers' Pay. It was also the time when he was making his first serious attempt at fiction, with a setting in the part of the South where he had grown up. He suggests that the first, powerful impact of Faulkner's work was by an immediate intuition, not by the exegesis of critics. The author also looks back to the place and time when Faulkner began to write. The chapter argues that Faulkner is the most profound experimenter in the novel that America has produced, but the experiments were developed out of an anguishing research into the southern past and the continuing implications of that past.
“The Sounds are Furious”
Authors: Merton Thomas
Published: September 2017

This chapter discusses the various criticisms leveled against William Faulkner. Thirty years ago, when Faulkner was at the height of his powers, the critics were doing their best to write him off as a failure. Even the few who, like Conrad Aiken, numbered themselves among his “passionate admirers” had serious reservations about Faulkner's style. He was dismissed as an irrelevant oddity, a pessimist, a sensationalist, a poseur, a mere “Southern writer.” He wrote of the South but what he wrote was trifling because it was myth rather than sociology. The chapter examines Norman Podhoretz's criticism of A Fable and considers the present collection of Faulkner criticism, Faulkner: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited with an introduction by Robert Penn Warren.
“Literary Influences”
Authors: Márquez Gabriel García
Published: September 2017

This chapter presents an interview with Gabriel García Márquez, who talks about his literary influences, including William Faulkner. García Márquez cites Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis as the fundamental influence on his writing. A decisive influence on him, according to García Márquez, is Oedipus Rex. He also discusses Faulkner's influence on him, claiming that they share similar experiences. In particular, García Márquez reveals that Faulkner's whole world—the world of the South which he writes about—was very like his world, that it was created by the same people. He also cites the fact that Faulkner is in a way a Latin American writer whose world is that of the Gulf of Mexico.
“The Faulkner Thing”
Authors: Grisham John
Published: September 2017

In this chapter, John Grisham talks about William Faulkner and what a female reporter called “the Faulkner thing”. Grisham was in Dallas, or some other city, for a book tour for The Firm. A TV beat reporter then asked him, “How do you compare yourself with William Faulkner?” and added, “It must be diffilt to write in Oxford.” When Grisham asked why, the woman answered, “Well, you know, the Faulkner thing.” According to Grisham, it was the first time he heard “the Faulkner thing.” The reporter also asked him, “But what about the legend, the aura, the magic of Faulkner? I read somewhere that all Southern writers labor in the shadow of Faulkner.” Grisham replied that he is not a Southern writer, but a commercial writer who lives in the South. The woman's final question was whether Faulkner wrote for money.
Charles W. Chesnutt, Whiteness, and the Problem of Citizenship
Authors: Shaffer Donald M.
Published: September 2017

In this chapter, I will examine perhaps Charles W. Chesnutt’s most celebrated color-line novel, The House Behind the Cedars, as a philosophical and legalistic engagement of the problem of citizenship. Through a reading of Chesnutt’s racial non-fiction, including several of his unpublished essays and speeches, I also want to show how the novel engages Chesnutt’s perspective on race—one that held racial difference to be at once a “social fiction” and a “social disability.” Through his portrayal of the black mulatto in this novel, Chesnutt argues for an inclusive ideal of citizenship in response to the ascriptive ideology that defined American Jim Crow society in the wake of the 1896 Plessy decision.
Making Whiteness in Reenactments of Slavery
Authors: Bery Sadhana
Published: September 2017

I study enactments of slavery in two sites that share a similar educational mission. I argue that white performances of slavery facilitate whites to make racial redemptive claims through their consumptive identification of black bondage and trauma. In these performances, whites seemingly minimize and abdicate their self-ascribed moral superiority by engaging with slavery but as Saidiya Hartman notes, ‘the imagined and simulated captivity…assumes the ease of grappling with terror, of representing slavery’s crime, and ably standing in the other’s shoes…(but, in fact)…it doesn’t minimize the very terror it sets out to represent through these mundane reenactments’. In fact, the performances of slavery re-center and re/produce white supremacy in new ways.
About Schmidt’s Whiteness
Authors: Engles Tim
Published: September 2017

Drawing on recent work in affect studies and on analyses of white masculinity in European American literature and other modes of cultural production, this essay explicates the depiction in Louis Begley’s novel About Schmidt (1996) of a contemporary white male psyche in crisis. Begley’s protagonist, 60-year old widower and recently retired lawyer Albert Schmidt, embodies and enacts the emotional atrophy and consequent “ugly feelings,” in Sianne Ngai’s terms, of a late-twentieth century, self-declared and self-sabotaging White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. In this satiric, traditionally literary novel, the central character demonstrates that in part because, in Thandeka’s psychoanalytic terms, he has “learned to be white” via identity-forming imaginings of racialized others, he has yet to achieve a mature degree of compassionate humanity
Preface
Authors: Dewhurst C. Kurt , Macdowell Marsha
Published: September 2017

The preface positions the Smithsonian Folklife Festival curatorial process in context of the changing roles of museums and curators in relation to society as well as to issues of authority and the production of knowledge. The authors suggest the similarities and differences between museum exhibitions and festival programs; and how the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s approaches to interpretation and presentation have provided models that have been adapted into more traditional museum settings and other places.
Aims, Frames, and Gains: Context, Curatorship, and Building Cultural Capital
Authors: Sheehy Daniel E.
Published: September 2017

Focusing on two Festival music projects in Latin American/American Latino communities, the author (director and curator of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings) demonstrates the relationship between the extra-Festival strategic goals of building cultural capital and the selection and framing of content. The chapter explores how dynamic contextual frames in the community of origin and the Festival setting itself define and enable meaning and purpose in the Festival presentation. It reflects on how a curatorial outlook colored by performance quality sensibilities, but grounded in the Festival’s social justice heritage, evolved over 29 years of experience to feature presentations of music and narrative sessions that enhance visitors’ understanding of the social, cultural contexts of community performance.
Against Curation: The Challenges of Community Self-Representation (or, Confessions of a Former Control Addict)
Authors: Proschan Frank
Published: September 2017

Using the examples from Festival programs on Lao American and Greek American Folklife and reflecting on the author’s experience in operationalizing the UNESCO Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, this chapter examines tensions between the authority/agency of the bearers and practitioners of intangible cultural heritage, on the one hand, and experts, scholars and curators on the other. It takes a provocative stance against conventional notions of “curation” of Festival programs if they do not include the agency or serve the capacity–building aims in service to the featured communities.