bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Editor and the Faithful Ally
Authors: LaCroix Alison L.
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the legal and political crisis of the Cherokee Nation in the 1820s and 1830s, which culminated in the Nation’s forced removal west along what became known as the Trail of Tears. The battle over the status of the Cherokee Nation witnessed a resurgence of old fears of imperium in imperio, “a sovereign within a sovereign,” which the founding generation had rejected. In the 1820s, however, the concern was not about the structural integrity of the Union, but rather of one state. The state of Georgia revived the old imperium in imperio idea to frame its hunger for Cherokee lands in terms of constitutional theory. Cherokee constitutional theorists, in contrast, articulated a theory that the chapter terms “fractal federalism.” The Cherokee Nation was a nation within a state that was within a nation. Cherokee leaders such as Elias Boudinot and John Ross understood themselves to be juridically separate from Americans. Nevertheless, they presented their claims as supported by, not antithetical to, U.S. law in all its varied forms—treaties, statutes, executive-branch interpretations, and the Constitution. In their view, the Cherokee Nation was a nation within a nation—an allied republic, not an alien body.
The Customs of Commerce
Authors: LaCroix Alison L.
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines controversies over persons and goods crossing interstate and international borders. By the late 1830s, debates about commerce were explicitly about apportioning control among multiple overlapping jurisdictions. In addition to the existential question of what a commercial union was, lawyers and jurists struggled with the practical question of of which government could claim regulatory supremacy in which domain. Interbellum Americans accepted jurisdictional multiplicity as a given. But the emphasis of their commerce-power inquiries changed in the late 1830s. Lawyers and judges became less focused on defining what “commerce among the states” was, and more concerned with the specific things and persons being regulated. Ships, passengers, imported goods—all were unquestionably subjects of regulation. But not all of them were commerce in the technical, constitutional sense. The immense mass of commercial regulation that had existed in the states, and before that in the colonies, required a more precise definition of which types of commerce belonged to which levels of government. Moreover, the chapter explores the ways in which issues concerning slavery and ideas of race suffused the Taney Court’s jurisprudence, at times varying from the ways in which they had influenced the Marshall Court.
Introduction
Authors: Vushko Iryna
Published: October 2024

This book presents a portrait of a particular milieu—the overlapping political and intellectual circles from the late Habsburg Empire and interwar Europe—in order to examine broader issues of European history in the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. It covers the Austrian part of what after 1867 became the federative Austro-Hungarian Empire, and several states of interwar Europe, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Italy, Yugoslavia, post-1918 Ukraine, and the post-1922 Soviet Union. The focus here is the transfer of institutional models and practices across 1918, from the empire to interwar Europe and beyond. This book explores how a cluster of ideas rooted in the nineteenth-century Habsburg Empire —conservatism, liberalism, nationalism, Christian socialism, Austro-Marxism, federalism, and internationalism—continued to shape European politics and society in the twentieth century. To the usual story of Europe from the fall of its last empires to 1945 and beyond, it proposes an alternate narrative, one that highlights the connections between the fin-de- siècle and post–Second World War eras and yields a new chronology of twentieth-century Europe. The First World War represented a landmark moment, especially in military, territorial, and human terms, but its political effects were not as radical as those of the Second World War. The Habsburg epoch in European history, that is, may be understood to have come to an end not in 1918 but between 1938 and 1945.
Liberalism, Conservatism, Internationalism, and the End of Empire
Authors: Vushko Iryna
Published: October 2024

This chapter sheds light on the malleability and versatility of late imperial politics, on the coexistence of nationalism and imperial loyalty, national and internationalism, autonomy and federalism. It shows that the empire’s physical collapse hardly erased imperial minds. Instead, for many, it reinforced the values of the bygone empire. This chapter brings together two individuals from the empire’s Austrian core—Heinrich Lammasch and Joseph Redlich. Lammasch played a key role in the history of European internationalism leading up to the creation of the League of Nations in 1919. Redlich served as finance minister in the empire and the Austrian republic, espousing continuities between the two Austrias. Lammasch died in 1920 after participating at the Saint-Germain Conference between the Entente powers and Austria. Redlich lived until 1936. They are part of a broader political cohort with strong personal and professional ties to many other protagonists who appear in subsequent chapters. Their stories, set against the background of late empire and the post-Habsburg Europe, illuminate the broader histories of sovereign transitions, revealing the intricate links between politics and personal lives across political and chronological divides.
Nationalism, Marxism, and Communism
Authors: Vushko Iryna
Published: October 2024

This chapter represents an analysis of Italian and Slovenian socialism and Marxism in the empire, with a focus on two different areas: (1) the city of Trieste, a major center of the Habsburg Littoral, a region that became known as Venezia Giulia in post-1918 Italy, and (2) Alpine Trentino in the Austrian-Italian borderland. The socialism of the empire’s Italian subjects was unique in the way it generated two sharply differing variants of Marxism. Italian socialists in Trieste developed a durable tradition of internationalism that was even stronger here than in Austria. Italian socialists in Trentino preferred a nationality-based party and rejected interethnic alliances; the compatibility of Marxism and nationalism here was even more evident than in Bohemia or Galicia. Socialism was weaker among the Slovenes. In Galicia, Marxism and socialism developed in conversations between Poles and Ukrainians. Similarly, the Italian-Slovene socialist encounters in the empire affected politics in Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes after 1918.
Pins, Needles, and Wampum in Mary Rowlandson and Hobomok
Authors: Smith Chloe Wigston
Published: October 2024

This chapter studies the small objects that were central to the maker’s knowledge of Indigenous women and white settler women—and to their reworking of material forms. It discusses small things, ranging from the shell beads of wampum to knitting needles, pins, and bodkins, which supported the household and creative labor of handiwork. It opens with discussions of the importance of bodkins in Penelope Aubin’s The Life of Charlotta Du Pont and Edward Kimber’s The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Anderson, before turning to Mary White Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs Mary Rowlandson. Throughout Rowlandson’s account, dress, material exchanges, and sewing punctuate her perceptions of Indigenous cultural rituals. Rowlandson preserves her identity through her knitting, sewing, and mending, while devaluing the political, cultural, and technical complexities of Weetamoo’s wampum making. The chapter concludes by discussing wampum and marriage in Lydia Maria Child’s Hobomok, a historical novel that imagines an alternative to the material relations of Rowlandson’s narrative. Child’s novel invests in small objects that present alternative pathways for material and cultural connection.
La didáctica del tiempo en educación secundaria. La construcción del pensamiento histórico a partir de estructuras temporales
Authors: Sabido-Codina Judit
Published: October 2024

El presente artículo pretende exponer los principales resultados de la tesis doctoral titulada “El tiempo como núcleo base de la construcción conceptual del pensamiento histórico”. Dicha investigación explora cuáles son las categorías temporales desarrolladas entre los estudiantes en la conceptualización del tiempo histórico en la etapa de escolarización obligatoria, cuarto de ESO, y la posobligatoria, segundo de Bachillerato. Para ello, se ha analizado qué categorías temporales manifiestan los estudiantes en relación con su etapa educativa y qué rendimiento máximo tienen los estudiantes de ellas, así como su percepción temporal. El análisis de los resultados de los estudiantes de cuarto de ESO (n = 154) y segundo de Bachillerato (n = 59) han plasmado, por un lado, una percepción temporal cronológica en ambos cursos educativos. Y, por otro lado, unos niveles de rendimiento máximo bajos en cuarto de ESO y moderados en segundo de Bachillerato. Estos resultados presentan un desafío para los contenidos escolares, dado que se manifiesta una necesidad didáctica de replantear la posición de las distintas categorías temporales a la hora de plantear los contenidos históricos.
De Kiev a Weimar: el uso del método retrospectivo para el aprendizaje de la historia contemporánea (2022-1919)
Authors: Carbonell Gou David , Parellada Torres Ernest
Published: October 2024

Tras el inicio de la invasión rusa de Ucrania el 24 de febrero de 2022, los autores del presente artículo, ambos profesores de Educación Secundaria, decidimos replantear su programación didáctica y diseñar e implementar un proyecto, titulado “De Kiev a Weimar: una cronología inversa del mundo contemporáneo (2022-1919)”, cuyos objetivos son la adquisición de una visión global del mundo contemporáneo, el empleo del conocimiento histórico para argumentar ideas y revisarlas de manera crítica, y el desarrollo de un pensamiento crítico y creativo que permita analizar los problemas sociales relevantes. Su metodología gira alrededor de tres ejes: la aplicación del método retrospectivo, el tratamiento integrado de lengua y contenidos (TILC) y el uso de metodologías activas. Un trabajo que se alinea con las directrices establecidas tanto en la LOMLOE como en el nuevo currículum de ordenación de las enseñanzas de bachillerato en Catalunya. El proyecto, todavía en fase de implementación, ha presentado dos dificultades hasta el momento: por un lado, la resistencia de parte del alumnado ante una metodología no basada en la presentación cronológica de los hechos para su memorización. Por otro, la cantidad de esfuerzo invertido por los docentes para programar y planificar de forma minuciosa todas las tareas. Sin embargo, estas dificultades se han visto compensadas por el grado de participación y motivación que el proyecto está despertando en el aula, convertida en un espacio mucho más participativo y abierto al debate y a la opinión.
La enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la periodización. Representaciones en contextos de diversidad étnica
Authors: Cartes Pinto Daniela
Published: October 2024

El artículo versa sobre las representaciones de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la periodización en contextos de diversidad étnica en Auracanía (Chile). Las multitemporalidades subyacen en la enseñanza y en los diferentes contextos socioculturales y ello impacta en el aprendizaje temporal complejo del estudiantado. La periodización es un operador temporal fundamental en la enseñanza y aprendizaje del tiempo histórico porque determina mayores posibilidades de expansión temporal (multitemporal) y la construcción de una conciencia histórica – relaciones pasado, presente y futuro – integrada a la cosmovisión mapuche: tayiñ chegenmu. La investigación es de carácter cualitativa, a partir de un estudio de casos que facilita el análisis de las representaciones del estudiantado de secundaria mapuche y no mapuches y del profesorado. Las categorías de análisis se articulan sobre el tiempo, la periodización, el cambio, la temporalidad y la cosmovisión. Las conclusiones nos permiten hablar de la persistencia de una enseñanza temporal lineal– tiempo cronológico eurocéntrico – que excluye otros ritmos temporales.
Música y mística como lenguajes de lo inefable
Authors: Polo Pujadas Magda
Published: October 2024

Reseña del libro: Ressenya del llibre: Enrico Fubini, Laurence Wuidar, I linguaggi dell’ineffabile. Música e mistica: tradizioni ebraiche e cristiane a confronto, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2022.
Rembrandt behind the scenes. Christ disputing with the doctors: An intriguing panel from seventeenth-century Barcelona
Authors: Torras Tilló Santi
Published: October 2024

Between July 2012 and December 2013, the CRBMC (Centre de Restauració de Béns Mobles de Catalunya) restored two severely damaged works, painted probably around the middle of the seventeenth century by an anonymous and second-rate artist. The paintings were Christ Disputing with the Doctors and The Flight into Egypt. When the restoration was completed, it brought to light several interesting aspects: New painting had been applied over ancient panels from a sixteenth-century altarpiece, and the details in the new works, especially the first, did not follow the usual formula of Catalan baroque masters. The article analyses the clues that could point to the author’s being a Dutch or Flemish Rembrandtesque artist temporarily settled in Barcelona.
Los pueblos originarios en la Ciudad de México: una multiplicidad de injusticias sociales, espaciales y ambientales
Authors: Pino Hidalgo Ricardo Adalberto
Published: October 2024

A partir de la revisión de la experiencia arrojada por algunos conflictos socioambientales de carácter urbano protagonizados por pueblos originarios asentados en lo que hoy es la Ciudad de México (capital de México), se acude a la justicia espacial como propuesta teórico-conceptual que posibilita una lectura e interpretación de las injusticias enfrentadas históricamente por estas comunidades que han perdido su lengua, y gran parte de sus tierras y su territorio y que, resisten a la urbanización capitalista neoliberal y neoestatista.
En la búsqueda del reconocimiento de sus derechos sociales y políticos ha emergido, cada vez con mayor fuerza, la lucha por su autonomía política, cultural y territorial, siendo este contexto en el que el derecho que tienen los pueblos a un medio ambiente limpio en términos de una justicia ambiental, puede virar y dar atisbos de una justicia ecológica desde los pueblos originarios. Finalmente, los reclamos, acciones y proyectos tendientes a la construcción de una autonomía para los pueblos originarios, nos coloca nuevamente frente a la cuestión de una justicia social universal que exige discutir las formas particulares de enfrentar y concebir las injusticias espaciales particulares.
Los sin hogar en la puerta trasera de la ciudad turística
Authors: Rodríguez González Patricio , Gómez Tejera Alejandro
Published: October 2024

La Plaça de la Gardunya en el Raval ha sido objeto de múltiples intervenciones arquitectónicas en la última década. Pese a las inversiones destinadas a convertirla en la nueva puerta de entrada al Raval turístico, la plaza sigue siendo un espacio incompleto y se percibe como inhóspito, especialmente debido a la presencia de personas sin hogar. Este estudio investiga las razones detrás de esta resistencia a la rehabilitación, explorando cómo las políticas urbanas y las estrategias de renovación han moldeado el lugar. A través de la observación activa en el terreno y el análisis de entrevistas, buscamos comprender por qué las personas sin hogar usan y son toleradas en este espacio. Nuestros hallazgos plantean que la tolerancia hacia las personas sin hogar en la Plaça de la Gardunya está estrechamente ligada a intereses políticos y económicos. Su presencia, junto con la estigmatización que conlleva, desempeña un papel crucial en la dinámica de renovación urbana, enmarcándose en la noción de espacios grises y políticas higienistas destinadas a "civilizar" el espacio público para atraer turismo e inversiones.
“Puertas para adentro, hace cada uno lo que quiera": microrrelatos "interiores" de un realojamiento urbano imperfecto
Authors: Tapada-Berteli Teresa
Published: October 2024

La transformación del barrio del Raval, ha sido objeto de exhaustivos análisis a escala urbana, destacando su importancia como modelo para el urbanismo nacional e internacional. La construcción de la actual Rambla del Raval, una de las operaciones emblemáticas del Plan de Reforma Interior de Raval (PERI), implicó la demolición más extensa de bloques de vivienda de la historia de la Barcelona preolímpica.
Este artículo se plantea recuperar algunos retazos de la vida “interior” y cotidiana de un grupo de afectados por la demolición de la primera manzana de viviendas derribadas para construir
La transformación del barrio del Raval ha sido objeto de exhaustivos análisis a escala urbana, destacando su importancia como modelo para el urbanismo nacional e internacional. La construcción de la actual Rambla del Raval, una de las operaciones emblemáticas del Plan de Reforma Interior de Raval (PERI), implicó la demolición más extensa de bloques de vivienda de la historia de la Barcelona preolímpica.
Este artículo se plantea recuperar algunos retazos de la vida “interior” y cotidiana de un grupo de afectados por la demolición de la primera manzana de viviendas derribadas para construir la Rambla del Raval, cuyas historias cotidianas de reubicación y adaptación siguen siendo parcialmente desconocidas. Los residentes afectados por las demoliciones fueron realojados en diversas fases en 1988 a un bloque de vivienda pública de nueva construcción cercano a la zona en regeneración o “esponjamiento”.
Este texto se plantea como un reencuentro en tiempo presente de la primera fase de construcción de la Rambla del Raval, a través de los datos de un trabajo de campo de corte etnográfico desarrollado entre julio de 1989 y agosto de 1990, tres años después del proceso de demolición y posterior reubicación. El paisaje humano presentado, abarca las microhistorias vividas de los vecinos en el espacio “interior” del bloque de viviendas de protección oficial donde fueron reubicados, cercano a sus viviendas antiguas, ya demolidas. Sus vivencias, traumas y esperanzas conforman una historia velada de retazos cotidianos y aparentemente intrascendentes en su supuesta pequeñez.
Can eye-tracking help to create a new method for X-ray analysis of rheumatoid arthritis patients, including joint segmentation and scoring methods?
Authors: Quéré Baptiste , Méneur Léonie , Foulquier Nathan , Pensec Hugo , Devauchelle-Pensec Valérie , Garrigues Florent , Saraux Alain
Published: October 2024

Reading hand and foot X-rays in rheumatoid arthritis patients is difficult and time-consuming. In research, physicians use the modified Sharp van der Heijde Sharp (mvdH) score by reading of hand and foot radiographs. The aim of this study was to create a new method of determining the mvdH via eye tracking and to study its concordance with the mvdH score. We created a new method of quantifying the mvdH score based on reading time of a reader monitored via eye tracking (Tobii Pro Lab software) after training with the aid of a metronome. Radiographs were read twice by the trained eye-tracking reader and once by an experienced reference radiologist. A total of 440 joints were selected; 416 could be interpreted for erosion, and 396 could be interpreted for joint space narrowing (JSN) when read by eye tracking (eye tracking could not measure the time spent when two pathological joints were too close together). The agreement between eye tracking mvdH Sharp score and classical mvdH Sharp score yes (at least one erosion or JSN) versus no (no erosion or no JSN) was excellent for both erosions (kappa 0.97; 95% CI: 0.96–0.99) and JSN (kappa: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.93–0.097). This agreement by class (0 to 10) remained excellent for both erosions (kappa 0.82; 95% CI: 0.79–0.0.85) and JSN (kappa: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.65–0.0.71). To conclude, eye-tracking reading correlates strongly with classical mvdH-Sharp and is useful for assessing severity, segmenting joints and establishing a rapid score for lesions.
The chromatin remodeler SMARCA5 binds to d-block metal supports: Characterization of affinities by IMAC chromatography and QM analysis
Authors: Andrikopoulos Prokopis C. , Čabart Pavel
Published: October 2024

The ISWI family protein SMARCA5 contains the ATP-binding pocket that coordinates the catalytic Mg2+ ion and water molecules for ATP hydrolysis. In this study, we demonstrate that SMARCA5 can also possess an alternative metal-binding ability. First, we isolated SMARCA5 on the cobalt column (IMAC) to near homogeneity. Examination of the interactions of SMARCA5 with metal-chelating supports showed that, apart from Co2+, it binds to Cu2+, Zn2+ and Ni2+. The efficiency of the binding to the last-listed metal was influenced by the chelating ligand, resulting in a strong preference for Ni-NTA over the Ni-CM-Asp equivalent. To gain insight in the preferential affinity for the Ni-NTA ligand, QM calculations were performed on model systems and metal-ligand complexes with a limited protein fragment of SMARCA5 containing the double-histidine (dHis) motif. The calculations correlated the observed affinity with the relative stability of the d-block metals to tetradentate ligand coordination over tridentate, as well as their overall octahedral coordination capacity. Likewise, binding free energies derived from model imidazole complexes mirrored the observed Ni-NTA/Ni-CM-Asp preferential affinity. Finally, similar calculations on complexes with a SMARCA5 peptide fragment derived from the AlphaFold structural prediction, captured almost accurately the expected relative stability of the TM complexes, and produced a large energetic separation (~10 kcal∙mol-1) between Ni-NTA and Ni-CM-Asp in favour of the former.
Cross-national variation in the prevalence and correlates of current use of reusable menstrual materials: Analysis of 42 cross-sectional surveys in low-income, lower-middle-income, and upper-middle-income countries
Authors: Roy Nitai , Amin Md. Bony , Aktarujjaman Md. , Hossain Ekhtear , Mugo Cyrus , Islam Farhadul , Mamun Mohammed A. , Kumar Manasi
Published: October 2024

Objectives

This study investigates the prevalence of the use of reusable menstrual materials in LMICs, examines differences in prevalence between countries and areas, and identifies individual and country-level factors associated with their use.

Methods

Data from Multiple Indicator Cluster surveys conducted between 2017 and 2020 in LMICs were used. Prevalence estimates and 95% CIs were calculated for overall, rural, and urban areas. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify individual and country-level factors associated with the use of reusable menstrual materials.

Results

The study included 42 surveys from LMICs, with 1653850 weighted women and girls aged 15–49 years. The overall prevalence of the use of reusable menstrual materials was 12.1% (95% CI 12.1–12.2), with significant variation between and within countries, ranging from 0.5% (0.3–0.8) in Serbia to 97.2% (96.5–97.9) in Sao Tome and Principe. The prevalence was higher in rural areas (23.9% [23.8–24.0]) than in urban areas (6.2% [6.2–6.2]), with significant differences between most countries. Use of reusable menstrual materials was associated with lower education levels, being married, low economic status, living in Asia and Africa, living in countries with lower GDP, living in rural areas, and limited availability of private places to wash menstrual materials. The prevalence of the use of reusable menstrual materials had an inverse linear relationship with the country’s GDP.

Conclusions

The study found that the use of reusable menstrual materials is more prevalent among women and girls in rural areas, those with lower education levels, lower economic status, and those living in countries with lower GDP. Given these disparities, policies and initiatives targeted at improving menstrual health in LMICs should focus on socioeconomically disadvantaged groups to ensure they have access to safe and appropriate menstrual materials.
Adjusting dialysis dose (Kt) scaled to Body Surface Area (BSA) could be a more logical approach
Authors: Liu Wei , Qiao Zhenguo , Xu Yan , Zhang Qin , Xie Mengmeng , Ma Chunyuan
Published: October 2024

The dialysis dose, quantified as Kt, is conventionally scaled to the urea distribution volume (V) to calculate the Kt/V ratio as an indicator of dialysis adequacy. However, the body surface area (BSA) is recognized as a more accurate reflection of metabolic activity compared to V. This study presents evidence supporting the enhanced efficacy of the Kt/BSA ratio as an indicator of hemodialysis adequacy. The study population comprised 211 individuals undergoing hemodialysis, all of whom had Kt/V values determined. Body composition was assessed using bioimpedance techniques, and BSA was calculated employing the DuBois and DuBois formula. The ratio of V/BSA served as the conversion factor to derive Kt/BSA from the standard Kt/V. Participants were categorized by gender, and a comparative analysis was performed on dialysis-related parameters alongside body composition indicators. Concurrently, linear regression analysis was applied to Kt/V and Kt/BSA, as well as to pairs of V and BSA, to elucidate the relationships among these variables. The average Kt/V ratio was 1.50 with a standard deviation of 0.28. The Kt/V ratio was significantly higher in women (P < 0.01). Conversely, the Kt value, when not adjusted for body size, was significantly lower in women (P < 0.01). Upon scaling Kt to BSA to calculate Kt/BSA, the gender difference in dialysis dose adequacy was no longer statistically significant (P = 0.06). Men exhibited a significantly higher mean V/BSA ratio. Additionally, women had a slightly higher mean percentage of fat mass (P < 0.01). In contrast, women had a lower mean percentage of muscle mass (P < 0.01). Our findings suggest that the Kt/V ratio may underestimate the required hemodialysis dose for women. There was no gender difference when Kt scaling to BSA. Consequently, the Kt/BSA ratio, which accounts for body surface area, may play a significant role in more accurately scaling the hemodialysis dose.
Impact of macroeconomic indicators and regime change on debt stress in Zambia
Authors: Phiri Joseph , Choolwe Veronica Chimuka , Phiri Peter Kondwani , Chiseni Michael Chanda , Simaundu Briven Muchanga , Osabuohien Evans
Published: October 2024

This paper quantifies the economic impact of regime changes and macroeconomic indicators on debt stress in Zambia using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds test. A 1% short run increase in gross domestic products (GDP) increases debt stress by 3.16% and in the subsequent year lowers it by 7.21%; in the long-run the 1% GDP increases lowers debt stress by 22%. In the long-run, a 1% rise in inflation and the lending rate negatively and positively impacted debt stress levels by -1.52% and 3.90%, respectively. Short-run shocks culminated regime change had short-run adverse impact on debt stress by 3.45% in one year and in the subsequent year by -10.35%, with the variables adjusting to long-run equilibrium at a speed of 71.5%. This is the first paper to quantify the empirical effect of macroeconomic indicators and change in Presidents on debt stress, especially in Africa were the problem of the debt trap is perpetuated. The results from the study implies that to deescalate the impact of debt stress on the economy, the electorate should vote in governments that will not fall short on growth driven macroeconomic policies, making it possible for economic sustainability to prevail; and paper seeks to promote good governance and good economic policies as a premise for sustained macroeconomic stability and development.
Public awareness of gastric cancer risk factors and screening behaviours in Shijiazhuang, China: A community-based survey
Authors: Wang Qian , He Xiao-Ci , Geng Lian-Xia , Jiang Shu-Lin , Yang Chuan-Jie , Xu Kai-Yue , Shen Shu-Fang , Cao Wen-Wen , Qi Wei , Zhao Shu-Ping
Published: October 2024

Background

Reducing exposure to risk factors and screening represent 2 major approaches to gastric cancer (GC) prevention, but public knowledge GC risk factors and screening behaviour remain unknown. We aimed to investigate public awareness of GC risk factors, adherence to screening, and barriers hindering screening practices in China.

Methods

This community-based household survey was conducted within Shijiazhuang, China, and 1490 residents were recruited through a multistage stratified cluster random sampling approach. A self-administered questionnaire was completed which consisted of three sections: demographics, awareness of GC risk factors, and personal screening behaviours. Factors associated with knowledge of risk factors and screening behaviours were evaluated using binary logistic regression analysis.

Results

The mean risk factor awareness score of 12 (7, 15) revealed insufficient knowledge in 51.1% of participants. Dietary lifestyle factors were better understood than physical activity and weight-related factors. Marital status (OR 1.967; 95% CI 1.415 to 2.734), higher income (OR 1.197; 95% CI 1.010 to 1.418), and a history of upper gastrointestinal problems (OR 0.048; 95% CI 1.002 to 1.311) were associated with higher awareness. Merely 21.5% underwent GC screening, with higher rates linked to older age (OR 1.642; 95% CI 1.418 to 1.902), higher education (OR 1.398; 95% CI 1.176 to 1.662), a history of upper gastrointestinal problems (OR 3.842; 95% CI 2.833 to 5.209), and moderate (OR 2.077; 95% CI 1.352 to 3.191) and high (OR 2.529; 95% CI 1.311 to 4.878) perceived GC risk. Notably, participants commonly refused gastroscopy due to the absence of symptoms or signs.

Conclusions

In Shijiazhuang, more than half of participants demonstrated inadequate knowledge of GC risk factors, and screening participation rates were remarkably low. This emphasizes the need for targeted interventions to enhance GC awareness and significantly improve screening rates.
The association of mental health with physical activity and its dimensions in Chinese adults: A cross-sectional study
Authors: Shen Changming , Li Yan
Published: October 2024

Background

Selecting the most efficient type of physical activity that improves mental health can assist in choosing appropriate interventions. Hence, the objective of this study was to evaluate the associations between physical activity and its various aspects, including weekly physical activity, weekly walking and exercise sessions, and the frequency of walking and exercise per week, with the mental health of Chinese adults.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was carried out in Hangzhou (2023) involving 512 adults aged 18 and 64. Each participant received a self-completed questionnaire comprising three sections. The initial section focused on gathering basic information about the participants, such as gender, age, annual income, and marital status. The second section consisted of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), which aimed to evaluate the mental health status of the participants. Lastly, the third section included the International Physical Activity Questionnaire–Short Version (IPAQ-SV), which assessed the metabolic equivalent (MET) of activities like walking, moderate-intensity exercises, and high-intensity exercises.

Results

The study found that mental health problems affected 25.74% of adults, while physical inactivity was prevalent in 49.63% of adults. The statistical model was highly significant (F = 25.143, p < 0.001), suggesting that at least one predictor has a significant impact on mental health. The model accounted for 39% of the variance in mental health, with all variables showing predictive value. Notably, the number of walking days per week emerged as the most influential predictor of mental health (β = -0.392), followed by level of weekly physical activity in MET, the number of exercise training sessions per week, weekly exercise training in MET, and weekly walking in MET (β = -0.312, -0.301, -0.212, and -0.202, respectively).

Conclusions

Adults can allocate more days per week to walking and their usual physical activity to improve their mental health.
The association between serum HDL levels and infertility among American women aged 20–44 years: A retrospective cross-sectional study of NHANES, 2013–2020
Authors: Wang Hui , Wang Dongmei , Chen Hui , Yang Liping , Xie Chunying , Ruan Zhenzhen , Han Zhe
Published: October 2024

Background

Infertility is a significant national public health concern, and the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that it will rank as the third most prevalent disease following tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The impact of dysfunctional lipoproteins on female infertility remains relatively understudied; therefore, the research focuses on exploring the relationship between serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) concentration and infertility.

Methods

This is a retrospective cross-sectional study where we employed multivariate logistic regression analysis to examine the association between serum HDL concentrations and female infertility. The strength of association was quantified using odds ratios (OR) along with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals and statistical significance was evaluated at a level of P < 0.05 (two-tailed).

Results

The study found that there was a significant correlation between serum HDL and infertility without adjusting the model (OR = 0.62, 95%CI 0.48–0.82, P<0.001). After adjusting for covariates, a weak correlation between HDL and infertility remained (OR = 0.70, 95%CI 0.49–1.00). When HDL concentrations were divided into quartiles, there was a trend of strengthened correlation between HDL and infertility risk with the increase in HDL concentrations. Specifically, individuals in the highest concentration quartile exhibited a 44.0% lower risk of infertility compared to those in the lowest concentration quartile (95% CI 0.38–0.84). In the age-stratified analysis, after adjusting for covariates, the correlation between HDL and infertility was statistically insignificant across all age groups. Furthermore, after categorizing HDL levels into quartiles, we observed a dose-dependent trend between HDL and the reduction of female infertility risk in the adjusted models of the secondary infertility group. Specifically, in the adjusted model, the high-concentration group exhibited a 67.0% lower risk of infertility compared to the low-concentration group (OR = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.12–0.940, P = 0.04).

Conclusion

Our research findings suggest weak negative correlation between serum HDL and female infertility. However, upon stratified analysis by age, the correlation between HDL and infertility did not attain statistical significance. In cases of secondary infertility, a subtle dose-dependent trend was observed between serum HDL and infertility.
Fish diversity assessment through conventional morphological identification and recent advances in Saudi Arabia: A review
Authors: Santanumurti Muhammad Browijoyo , Nugraha Muhammad Ar Rozzaaq , Dewi Novi Rosmala , Awaluddin Muhammad , Tang Pei Wen , Pardede Helen Indah , Al Solami Lafi , Sulmartiwi Laksmi , Abu El-Regal Mohamed Ahmed
Published: October 2024

Fish identification in the Red Sea, particularly in Saudi Arabia, has a long history. Because of the vast fish diversity in Saudi Arabia, proper species identification is required. Indeed, identifying fish species is critical for biodiversity conservation, food and drug safety, and sustainable fishery management. Numerous approaches have been used to identify fish species, including conventional morphological identification, next-generation sequencing (NGS), nanopore sequencing, DNA barcoding, and environmental DNA analysis. In this review, we collected as much scientific information as possible on species identification in Saudi Arabia. Our findings suggest that the identification process has advanced and spread rapidly and broadly, as evidenced by the discovery of new fish species in Saudi Arabia. The advantages and disadvantages of each method were discussed as part of a comprehensive comparison. This study aimed to provide further scientific knowledge to promote the growth of fish diversity worldwide.

Keywords: fish diversity, identification process, Saudi Arabia.
Influence of polymer flow rate, mold cavity volume and injection speed on selected properties of polypropylene molded parts
Authors: Palutkiewicz Paweł , Garbacz Tomasz , Hura Łukasz
Published: October 2024

Influence of the height of the molding cavity and the injection speed for three PP grades with different mass melt flow rate (MFR) on the molded parts mass and longitudinal shrinkage, before and after UV aging, was investigated. It was shown that the mass of the molded parts depends on the flow rate of the material and the volume of the molding cavity, while shrinkage depends only on the volume of the mold cavity and is greater after aging.
Diffuse plasma surface modification of natural rubber-based composite
Authors: Ďurišová Silvia , Pajtášová Mariana , Darina Ondrušová Darina Ondrušová , Janík Róbert , Lokšíková Simona , Božeková Slavomíra , Labaj Ivan , Klepka Tomasz
Published: October 2024

The article investigates the effect of diffusion plasma exposure time (30 s, 60 s) on the physicochemical properties of the surface of a natural rubber-based composite. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to assess the properties. Wettability and surface free energy tests were also performed. The application of plasma leads to surface oxidation (EDS). The obtained properties did not change for 21 days, and the plasma exposure time had no significant effect on the physicochemical changes of the composite surface.
The Mississippi River
Authors: Herndon Ernest , Parker Patrick , Elise  , Parker Patrick
Published: October 2024

This chapter describes the Mississippi as one of the largest river systems in the world and elaborates on peoples who lived near and depended on the Mississippi River. Evocative description of wildlife and valuable canoeing advice is included. Numerous personal anecdotes illustrate the chapter.
Strong River
Authors: Herndon Ernest , Parker Patrick , Elise  , Parker Patrick
Published: October 2024

This chapter describes the Strong River as an important river in the state and elaborates on peoples who lived near and depended on the Strong River. Evocative description of wildlife and valuable canoeing advice is included. Numerous personal anecdotes illustrate the chapter.
Big Black River
Authors: Herndon Ernest , Parker Patrick , Elise  , Parker Patrick
Published: October 2024

This chapter describes the Big Black River as an important river in the state and elaborates on peoples who lived near and depended on the Big Black River. Evocative description of wildlife and valuable canoeing advice is included. Numerous personal anecdotes illustrate the chapter.
Bear Creek
Authors: Herndon Ernest , Parker Patrick , Elise  , Parker Patrick
Published: October 2024

This chapter describes Bear Creek in northeast Mississippi and valuable canoeing advice is included, along with some relevant history.
Okatoma Creek
Authors: Herndon Ernest , Parker Patrick , Elise  , Parker Patrick
Published: October 2024

This chapter describes Okatoma Creek as an important river in the state and elaborates on peoples who lived near and depended on Okatoma Creek. Evocative description of wildlife and valuable canoeing advice is included. Numerous personal anecdotes illustrate the chapter.
Biloxi River
Authors: Herndon Ernest , Parker Patrick , Elise  , Parker Patrick
Published: October 2024

This chapter describes the Biloxi River as an important river in the state and elaborates on peoples who lived near and depended on the Biloxi River. Evocative description of wildlife and valuable canoeing advice is included. Numerous personal anecdotes illustrate the chapter.
Freedom Narratives, History, and Black Agency
Authors: Chandler Karen Michele
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores socio-cultural contexts for the freedom narratives’ challenges to commonly taught histories of African Americans that emphasize failure, inadequacy, and victimhood. The chapter argues that these challenges grow out of the Black Arts Movement’s directives to center Black cultural frameworks and experiences. The chapter discusses how through this pro-Black emphasis the texts resist neoliberal tendencies to downplay or pathologize Blackness and to deny systemic socioeconomic injustice. From the 1980s to the present, Black authors of historical narratives have been moved to reconstruct Black history to foreground African Americans’ everyday strengths in the face of societal oppression. This aesthetic, as the chapter acknowledges, is related to an important current in the Black children’s literature of the New Negro Renaissance that emphasized making Black history present. Yet the freedom narratives are fueled less by the earlier literature’s integrationist politics and more by an emphasis on Black communal and individual power.
Black Women Athletes, Protest, and Politics
Authors: Farmer Ashley
Published: October 2024

Ashley Farmer interviewed Amira Rose Davis regarding African American female athletes’ role in making sports arenas places of political and ideological protest. An assistant professor of African American studies at Penn State University, Davis examines the ideological and institutional development of recreational, competitive, and professional sporting opportunities for Black women in the United States. Her article “No League of Their Own: Baseball, Black Women, and the Politics of Representation” appeared in the May 2016 issue of Radical History Review. In her interview with Farmer, Davis elaborated on the challenges faced by African American female athletes who take a stand individually or collectively, and the degree to which their activism is marginalized in the popular mind by their male counterparts.
For the Movement and Not for the Moment
Authors: Hawkins Billy
Published: October 2024

In his second essay in this volume, Billy Hawkins examines the link between the Black Power movement and the current Black Lives Matter movement (BLM). He argues that BLM can be considered an extension of the Black Power movement. Hawkins points out that Dr. Harry Edwards’s scholarly/activist attempts have sustained the relevance and momentum of the Black Power movement of the 1960s to its current expression in BLM.
Yamasee-African Ties in Carolina and Florida
Authors: Landers Jane
Published: October 2024

This chapter considers the complex interaction between the Yamassee people and Black maroons, a relationship that began in South Carolina and continued when the two peoples migrated to Florida. The essay rehearses the early history of Florida’s African Americans, especially those who served in the Spanish militia. Both the British in the Carolinas and the Spaniards in Florida employed Native Americans and Africans in their recurring combats; the British invaders killed many indigenous people, wiping out many Native settlements. Landers shows how the abuse of the Yamassee in the Carolinas by bands of traders, and the failure of the British to free Black militiamen, led to increased numbers of immigrants from both groups to the lands around St. Augustine. Inevitably, the two peoples mixed, creating a new caste the Spanish termed mustee. When abuses of the Natives in Carolina—including enslavement—led to the Yamassee War, enslaved Africans joined their indigenous neighbors against the British and became members of the Yamassee Confederacy; the amalgamated group migrated to Florida, settling in ten towns set out by the Spanish in the periphery of St. Augustine.
The Rape of Florida and Albery Whitman’s Poetic-Political Theory of a Reparative Ontology
Authors: Alvergue José Felipe
Published: October 2024

This chapter positions Albery Whitman’s 19th-century epic The Rape of Florida as a decolonial poetic critique of Florida’s statehood, a “breach” that arises between both early American settler-colonial violence and post-Civil War American exceptionalism. Through the poetic archive of the work, as a dramatization of the first two Seminole Wars (1817-18 and 1835-42), Whitman’s demonstrative brush portrays a 30-year span of blatant white supremacy. The epic poem, and the black ontology it suggests, situates institutional evolutions of political apparatuses like racialized voting restrictions, gerrymandering, and physical displacement as designs of an exceptionalist worldmaking, against which the heroic actions of the Black Seminoles portray democratic, liberatory, and morally just decision making, nation building, and life defining. The implications of this black ontology as a faithfully democratic ontology reverberate in contemporary conflicts between public emotions around political participation, voting, and the occupation of land
Interrogating Ethnography
Authors: West Genevieve
Published: October 2024

This essay discusses the ways in which Hurston’s little-known play Polk County (1944) revises and extends her commentary on the ethnographic project in Mules and Men (1935). In Mules and Men, Hurston, the ethnographer, studies the community. In Polk County she reveals the ways in which the gaze of an anthropologist on the community she studies, and the power relation implied, is at times reversed. Hurston’s remarkable revision makes the ethnographer a subject of study as much as an observer. Her alteration of perspective demonstrates that the community, ostensibly the subject of study, exercises a level of agency not immediately apparent in Mules and Men. Hurston's innovative work challenges anthropology’s researcher/subject dichotomy and the hierarchy of the gaze. When read against one another, the play and ethnography reveal Hurston’s insights on ethnography as a genre.
African American and West Indian Folklife in South Florida
Authors: Jackson Joyce Marie
Published: October 2024

This is the first publication to provide an overview of African American and West Indian folklife in South Florida, mostly covering Miami-Dade County. The author, Joyce Marie Jackson, folklorist and ethnomusicologist, brings together a wide array of folklife genres as diverse as occupational folklife, the Black Church and Afro-based religions, domestic arts, verbal lore, sacred and secular musical traditions, rituals, and other life celebrations. Her ethnographic field research was done in both communities and revealed how major strategies for reinforcing ethnic identities were accomplished by the maintenance of traditional folklife culture.
The Art of the Highwaymen
Authors: Monroe Gary
Published: October 2024

This essay is designed to stimulate scholarship about a loose assemblage of African American self-taught landscape painters in Florida whose productive years were from 1960 to 1980. They worked in near anonymity and without organizational rules. During the mid-1990s, after most of the artists ceased creating and their paintings faded from view, they were dubbed the Highwaymen. Then, like spontaneous combustion, their paintings resurfaced, their prices skyrocketed, and the artists gained the status of folk legends. Today the paintings are seen as markers of modern Florida, identifiers of the postwar American dream.