bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of postoperative cognitive training on neurocognitive decline after heart surgery: a randomized clinical trial
Authors: Butz Marius , Gerriets Tibo , Sammer Gebhard , El-Shazly Jasmin , Tschernatsch Marlene , Huttner Hagen B , Braun Tobias , Boening Andreas , Mengden Thomas , Choi Yeong-Hoon , Schoenburg Markus , Juenemann Martin
Published: April 2022

OBJECTIVES

Following cardiac surgery, postoperative cognitive decline (POCD) is a common complication that can impair the quality of life and increase mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate whether early postoperative cognitive training can decrease POCD after cardiac surgery.

METHODS

The study was a multi-centred, two-arm, randomized (1:1 ratio), controlled trial involving older patients undergoing elective heart valve surgery with extracorporeal circulation. Recruitment took place at the Department of Cardiac Surgery of the Kerckhoff-Clinic in Bad Nauheim (Germany) and the University-Hospital in Giessen (Germany). The patients were randomized to either a paper-and-pencil-based cognitive training group or a standard rehabilitation care control group. The cognitive training started 1 week after surgery and lasted about 3 weeks until discharge from rehabilitation. To detect POCD, neuropsychological functions were assessed prior to surgery, upon discharge from rehabilitation (primary outcome), and 3 months after discharge (secondary outcome). Data were primarily analysed in a per-protocol fashion.

RESULTS

The frequency of POCD at discharge from rehabilitation (training group, n = 37; control group, n = 44) was 50% in the control group and 19% in the training group (χ2[1] = 8.45, P = 0.004; odds ratio = 4.29, 95% confidence interval [1.56–11.80]). Three months after the cognitive training (training group, n = 33; control group, n = 34), POCD frequency was 29% in the control group and 6% in the training group (χ2[1] = 6.21, P = 0.013; odds ratio = 6.46, 95% confidence interval [1.29–32.28]).

CONCLUSIONS

Since our cognitive training showed beneficial effects, it could be a promising method to prevent POCD.
Systemic resilience and COVID-19: lessons from Taiwan
Authors: Wang Victoria Y
Published: April 2022

In May 2021, Taiwan experienced its first COVID-19 surge. Up until then, this geopolitically vulnerable nation had contained the pandemic well. The situation seemed dire at the peak of the surge, however, within two months, the crisis had been resolved. Aside from technical measures such as border control and mandated social distancing, other underlying systemic factors- including an accreditation-strengthened and digitalized healthcare system, government resourcefulness, and continuously adaptive strategies- were crucial to Taiwan’s success, and have demonstrated the importance of systemic resilience in terms of navigating the pandemic.
Protective effect and possible mechanism of arctiin on broilers challenged by Salmonella pullorum
Authors: Peng Fang , Yi Jinhui , Xiao Jian , Chen Junlie , Zhang Haihan , He Xi , Song Zehe
Published: April 2022

This study was aimed to investigate the effects of dietary arctiin (ARC) supplementation (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) on the growth performance and immune response of broilers after a Salmonella pullorum (S. pullorum) challenge, and we conducted in vitro antibacterial test to explore the bacteriostatic mechanism of ARC. The in vivo trial was randomly assigned to six groups: noninfected control (NC) group and positive control (PC) group received a basal diet; TET group, received a basal diet supplemented with 100 mg/kg chlortetracycline; ARC100, ARC200, and ARC400 groups received a basal diet containing 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg ARC, respectively. From days 14 to 16, all birds (except the NC group) were infected with 1 mL (1 × 108 CFU per mL) fresh S. pullorum culture by oral gavage per day. In vivo results showed that dietary supplementation of 200 mg/kg ARC significantly increased average daily gain (P < 0.05) and decreased feed-to-gain ratio of broilers vs. the PC group during days 15 to 28 after being challenged with S. pullorum (P < 0.05). The jejunal crypt depth (CD) was decreased by supplementing 100 or 200 mg/kg ARC in diets compared with PC birds at day 19 (P < 0.05). The jejunal villi height (VH) was increased by supplementing 100, 200, or 400 mg/kg ARC in diets compared with PC birds at day 28 (P < 0.05). Besides, dietary supplementation of 200 mg/kg ARC increased the jejunal VH to CD ratio than the PC group both at days 19 and 28 (P < 0.05). Notably, the broilers had lower serum lipopolysaccharide and diamine oxidase levels in the ARC100 and ARC200 groups at day 28 than those in the PC group (P < 0.05). Furthermore, in comparison to PC birds, the birds in ARC groups (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) had higher serum contents of IgM and IL-10, and the birds in the ARC200 group had higher serum contents of IgA at day 19 (P < 0.05). At day 28, the birds in ARC groups (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) had lower serum contents of IL-8, and the birds in the ARC200 group had lower serum contents of IFN-γ compared with PC birds (P < 0.05). The in vitro experiment showed that ARC significantly inhibited the biofilm formation and adhesion of S. pullorum (P < 0.05). Metabonomics analysis revealed that ARC can restrain the formation of the biofilm by affecting a variety of metabolic pathways of S. pullorum. Therefore, dietary supplementation of 200 mg/kg ARC might be a potential way to substitute antibiotics to control S. pullorum infection in broilers.
A large case series of travel-related Mansonella perstans (vector-borne filarial nematode): a TropNet study in Europe
Authors: Tamarozzi Francesca , Rodari Paola , Salas-Coronas Joaquín , Bottieau Emmanuel , Salvador Fernando , Soriano-Pérez Manuel Jesús , Cabeza-Barrera María Isabel , Van Esbroeck Marjan , Treviño Begoña , Buonfrate Dora , Gobbi Federico G
Published: April 2022

Background

Infection with Mansonella perstans is a neglected filariasis, widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, characterized by an elusive clinical picture; treatment for mansonellosis is not standardized. This retrospective study aimed to describe the clinical features, treatment schemes and evolution, of a large cohort of imported cases of M. perstans infection seen in four European centres for tropical diseases.

Methods

Mansonella perstans infections, diagnosed by identification of blood microfilariae in migrants, expatriates and travellers, collected between 1994 and 2018, were retrospectively analysed. Data concerning demographics, clinical history and laboratory examinations at diagnosis and at follow-up time points were retrieved.

Results

A total of 392 patients were included in the study. Of the 281 patients for whom information on symptoms could be retrieved, 150 (53.4%) reported symptoms, abdominal pain and itching being the most frequent. Positive serology and eosinophilia were present in 84.4% and 66.1%, respectively, of those patients for whom these data were available. Concomitant parasitic infections were reported in 23.5% of patients. Treatment, administered to 325 patients (82.9%), was extremely heterogeneous between and within centres; the most commonly used regimen was mebendazole 100 mg twice a day for 1 month. A total of 256 (65.3%) patients attended a first follow-up, median 3 months (interquartile range 2–12) after the first visit; 83.1% of patients having received treatment based on mebendazole and/or doxycycline, targeting Wolbachia, became amicrofilaremic, 41.1–78.4% of whom within 12 months from single treatment.

Conclusions

Lack of specific symptoms, together with the inconstant positivity of parasitological and antibody-based assays in the infected population, makes the clinical suspicion and screening for mansonellosis particularly difficult. Prospective studies evaluating prevalence of infection in migrants from endemic areas, infection-specific morbidity, presence of Wolbachia endosymbionts in M. perstans populations from different geographical areas and efficacy of treatment regimens are absolutely needed to optimize the clinical management of infection.
Musical Experience in the Bower: D. G. Rossetti, Listening, and Space
Authors: Stinis Marte
Published: April 2022

This essay traces Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s use of the bower as a visual space in relation to musical subject matter. Following the increasing popularity of instrumental music and musical discourse in the mid-nineteenth century, the idea of art music and its expressive abilities had become a pervasive discourse for painters. Through an examination of Rossetti’s images of bowers with a musical subject – specifically The Blue Bower (1865), Veronica Veronese (1872), and La Ghirlandata (1873) – this essay explores ideas of musical temporality and artistic spatiality, tonal relations between colour and music, and Rossetti’s emphasis on subjective experience in these images. The bower became a crucial feature in this exploration of music and painting, signalling a visual space characterized by ideas of immersion, artistic correspondences, and the abstracting of colour and form. This essay proposes that Rossetti’s bowers were sites of visual immersion for its viewers, alluding and appealing to the sensuous impact music could have on a listener by mimicking listening behaviour in a visual format. My discussion uncovers new contexts for Rossetti’s musical images and draws parallels between listening and viewing behaviour for both the Victorian and current public. The essay concludes that visual sites alluding to music can act as immersive spaces, contending that abstraction and temporality are drawn out in painting by virtue of an appeal to music.
LOFAR detection of faint radio emission from the supernova remnant SRGe J0023+3625 = G116.6−26.1: probing the Milky Way synchrotron halo
Authors: Churazov E M , Khabibullin I I , Bykov A M , Chugai N N , Sunyaev R A , Zinchenko I I
Published: April 2022

A supernova remnant (SNR) candidate SRGe J0023+3625 = G116.6–26.1 was recently discovered in the SRG/eROSITA all-sky X-ray survey. This large (∼4° in diameter) SNR candidate lacks prominent counterparts in other bands. Here we report detection of radio emission from G116.6–26.1 in the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Surveyr (LoTSS-DR2). Radio images show a shell-like structure coincident with the X-ray boundary of the SNR. The measured surface brightness of radio emission from this SNR is very low. Extrapolation of the observed surface brightness to 1 GHz places G116.6-26.1 well below other objects in the Σ–D diagram. We argue that the detected radio flux might be consistent with the minimal level expected in the van der Laan adiabatic compression model, provided that the volume emissivity of the halo gas in the lofar band is ${\sim}10^{-42}\, {\rm Wm^{-3}\,Hz^{-1}\,sr^{-1}}$. If true, this SNR can be considered as a prototypical example of an evolved SNR in the Milky Way halo. In the X-ray and radio bands, such SNRs can be used as probes of thermal and non-thermal components constituting the Milky Way halo.
Prehistoric Developments in Nigeria
Authors: Breunig Peter
Published: April 2022

States are characterized by a settlement system with urban sites where many people live close, by social and political structures that organize such communal living, and economic productivity that secures the population’s food supply. In Nigeria, these characteristics appear long before the first recognized states. This chapter describes the prehistoric forerunners of such states, using as examples the Chad Basin and central Nigeria and focusing on the last two millennia BCE, as it is in this period that the relevant developments can first be seen to arise. They include food production and the transition from family-based, small villages to later large-scale settlements in the Chad Basin. In central Nigeria, food-producing communities created artistic sculptures that show complex rites and offer insight into spiritual beliefs. These developments are followed by the rise of iron production, population shifts, and another rise in large-scale settlement formation. While these prehistoric developments cannot explain precisely why and how state formation occurred a short time later, they nevertheless give an impression of the basis on which state formation could build.
Culture and Self-Construal
Authors: Goto Sharon G. , Lewis Richard S. , Grayzel-Ward Sarah
Published: April 2022

The construct of self-construal is central to our understanding of cultural differences and similarities in cognition and behavior with implications for the effective prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of major nervous system (MNS) disorders. Self-construal reflects the ways in which a person interacts with others and the environment. Interdependent self-construal refers to individuals whose selves are highly integrated and dependent on their significant social groups. In contrast, independent self-construal refers to those whose selves are less integrated with others and their significant social groups are based on instrumental transactions and goals. The cultural neuroscience literature triangulates the behavioral literature to help understand differences in self-construal across populations, the extent to which self-construal is determined and fluctuates based on situational factors, and the important interactions between genes and culture in understanding behavior. Theory, commonly used research methods, and implications of self-construal for understanding boundary conditions of health conditions, mechanisms of health disparity, and the possibility for intervention and prevention of MNS disorders are discussed.
Cross-Cultural Mental Health Promotion and Prevention for Global Mental Health
Authors: Tang Yi-Yuan , Tang Rongxiang
Published: April 2022

Global mental health has increasingly adopted a medicalized approach to addressing challenges and problems. However, medicalizing global mental health produces a narrow view of the problems and solutions because it mainly emphasizes biomedical factors in the globalization of mental health and is disputed cross-culturally. The focus of this chapter is to summarize the cultural differences associated with mental health such as attention, beliefs and attitudes, and feelings and experiences of symptoms and mental disorders, and conclude with suggestive future directions of research pertaining to cultural influences on global mental health. The chapter proposes an integrative health model to promote global mental health and prevent mental disorders cross-culturally.
Service-Connected Disability and Poverty Among US
Veterans
Authors: London Andrew S. , Landes Scott D. , Wilmoth Janet M.
Published: April 2022

This chapter examines Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) service-connected disability (SCD) status and poverty among US veterans using data from the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS). Participation in the US Armed Forces simultaneously entails occupational exposure to military harm and access to military capital. SCD is different from other forms of adult-onset and occupationally acquired disability because it connects veterans who have an SCD to an array of federally funded benefits that are unavailable to non-veterans and veterans without an SCD. Because access to these resources does not preclude employment, SCD may not have the same association with poverty as early-onset disability and other kinds of adult-onset, occupationally acquired disability. This chapter argues that it is the combination of VA benefits and earnings in the civilian labor market that contributes to the apparent advantage that veterans with SCD have with respect to poverty reduction. For example, veterans with an SCD rating of 70% or higher: receive the highest VA disability compensation; participate in the civilian labor force at modest levels (one-third are employed, and 28% work fifty to fifty-two weeks per year); and have the lowest rate of poverty relative to other groups of veterans, with and without SCD, and non-veterans. Generally, sociologists who study disability and socioeconomic outcomes have not taken veterans and SCD into account. Greater collaboration between sociologists who study disability and sociologists who study the life-course consequences of military service would be beneficial.
French Drug Control from Poisons to Degeneration
Authors: Black Sara
Published: April 2022

Morphine and other psychotropic drugs were staples of therapeutic medicine in nineteenth-century France. However, they also gained widespread use as stimulants and intoxicants. In the 1870s and 1880s, amid growing concerns about the degeneration of France’s population, new medical research on the dangers of morphine addiction alarmed doctors and social reformers. Earlier legislation from the 1840s had regulated opiates and other such drugs alongside arsenic and strychnine to protect the public from harmful poisons. However, fin-de-siècle discourses in calls for more stringent drug regulations increasingly targeted particular types of consumption as deviant behaviors, ones that would weaken and corrupt the French population and empire. Ultimately, the French government passed new drug legislation in 1916. This law criminalized the consumption of drugs in public in an attempt to curtail social forms of drug use which legislators considered to be a threat to the moral and physical health of the French nation.
The Creation and Impact of Global Drug Prohibition
Authors: Bewley-Taylor David
Published: April 2022

This chapter examines the development of the international drug control system from its inception in 1909 through to the United Nations General Assembly on Drugs (UNGASS) in 1998. It begins by charting the shifting impact of US campaigns to export its prohibitionist ideology via international legal structures in the foundational years between the Shanghai Opium Commission and the outbreak of the World War II in Europe. US ideals and efforts remained ineffective during the League of Nations decades. The chapter then examines the rapid transformation of drug politics after World War II under the auspices of the United Nations and into the modern era of international drug control. This led to the bedrock of the global drug prohibition regime, the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and the modern UN institutions around it. The chapter then traces the development and perpetuation of the international control system since the watershed 1961 treaty until UNGASS 1998.
Individuals as Perpetrators of Atrocity Crimes
Authors: Smeulers Alette
Published: April 2022

This chapter addresses individuals as perpetrators of atrocity crimes and focuses on the research conducted in this inter- and multidisciplinary field. It aims to identify the main findings, the current state of the art, the core debates, and the crucial questions. Some of the main findings so far are that most perpetrators are ordinary human beings in extraordinary circumstances, and that many get caught up and obey their superiors and conform to others. This chapter, however, also concludes that perpetrators differ, and that there can be many different reasons for people to become involved in mass atrocities. It ends by stating that human behavior is extremely complex, but that doing research on perpetrators, while not easy, nevertheless needs to be done, as knowledge is the only thing that might help us to—in the future—try to stop perpetrators and prevent atrocity crimes.
Transitional Justice in the 21st Century
Authors: Tolbert David , Prieto Rudolphy Marcela
Published: April 2022

This chapter examines the development, effectiveness, and history of transitional justice in the 20th and 21st centuries. Then, it reviews some of the key issues facing transitional justice in the 21st century. These include the emergence of a normative framework for the field of transitional justice, arising in the 20th century in the shadows of World War II and the Holocaust. It then addresses a number of the key issues that have emerged in the 21st century, including transitional justice and its relationship with criminal justice, gender justice, the role of victims, transformative justice, the template or ‘check the box’ approach and the role donors play in transitional justice efforts. This chapter thus suggests that practitioners and scholars alike are challenging the limits of transitional justice and moving past the approaches, dogmas, and conventional boundaries of the field as it arose in the mid-1990s.
Amnesties and Truth Commissions
Authors: Sarkin Jeremy Julian
Published: April 2022

This chapter focuses on the, so far neglected, role of truth commissions in amnesty processes. It first examines what amnesties and truth commissions are and explores how past amnesties affect the work of truth commissions in various countries. Subsequently, it discusses the amnesty process in South Africa, as the South African truth commission has been the only one with the power to directly grant amnesty. The chapter then explores truth commissions in a number of other countries to understand how the fact that these bodies only had the power to recommend amnesty affected their role in their quest to deal with the past. Generally, truth commissions have not dealt separately with atrocity crimes versus less serious ones. The debates about whether states have duties to investigate and prosecute atrocity crimes are outlined, and existing (empirical) research on truth commissions and amnesties is summarized. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future research.
Guatemala
Authors: Roht-Arriaza Naomi
Published: April 2022

Genocide against several groups of Indigenous peoples who descended from the Maya took place in Guatemala in the early 1980s. This chapter explores the origins, explanations, and different views on whether the events in Guatemala meet the legal definition of genocide, and why it matters. It discusses the 2013 genocide trial of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt—the first time a national court tried to hold its own citizens to account for genocide. It then turns to the aftermath of the trial and to other efforts to come to terms with genocide in Guatemala. It concludes with some thoughts on the current significance of these efforts.
Genocide against the Êzidîs in Iraq
Authors: Anderson Kjell
Published: April 2022

In 2014 the “Islamic State” commenced a systematic campaign of violence against the Êzidîs (Yazidis) religious group within their traditional homelands in northern Iraq. This chapter systematically analyzes this campaign through the lens of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention). It considers intercommunal relations before the Sinjār Massacre, as it came to be known, as well as the nature of ISIS’ campaign, and questions of identity, legal accountability, and victim trauma after the massacre. It is concluded that the Sinjār Massacre and its aftermath may constitute the crime of genocide. This crime was enacted through multiple methods, including, but not limited to, killing, forced displacement, forced conversion, forced marriage, and the destruction of cultural property.
Korean Reunification
Authors: Yoon Young-Kwan
Published: April 2022

A review of German reunification in 1990 shows that a peaceful reunification can be explained as the result of an interaction between the centrifugal forces in international dimension in favour of the status quo and the centripetal forces in internal dimension towards reunification. Similarly, a peaceful reunification of Korea is assumed to occur when international forces against reunification can be minimized, while internal (inter-Korean) forces for reunification are maximized. On the one hand, the geostrategic concerns of Korea’s four neighbouring states (the United States, China, Japan, and Russia) about the uncertain future of reunified Korea have been the important source of strong centrifugal forces. Four states view the issue of Korean reunification from the perspective of their strategic games with others. Three major factors—the lack of multilateral security cooperation mechanism in Northeast Asia, hostile US–North Korea relations, and China’s concern on losing strategic buffer zone—have strengthened centrifugal forces. On the other hand, South Korean governments’ political efforts to improve inter-Korean relations, and thereby strengthen centripetal forces, could not bear fruit. Two major factors—the lack of bipartisan consensus on North Korea policy between the liberal and conservative political camps in South Korea and top leaders’ fear of regime instability and nuclear development in North Korea—weakened centripetal forces. Whether and how effectively the Koreans will be able to influence the operation of these five factors will probably affect the likelihood of peaceful reunification significantly in the future.
The Circle of Metarealist Poets
Authors: Zhitenev Aleksandr
Published: April 2022

This chapter takes Aleksei Parshchikov, Aleksandr Eremin, and Ivan Zhdanov as representatives of “metarealism” in order to examine the school’s poetic theory and practice in the context of the late-Soviet underground “lifeworld.” Metarealism is treated in the context of its reception, taking account of discussions regarding its creative strategies and the terms “metametaphor,” “metabole,” “metacode,” and “metarealism.” The author notes that metarealism arose in a situation of disintegrating Soviet sociality and that its practitioners, to legitimize themselves, made proactive use of tools associated with both official and unsanctioned literature in an effort to get beyond this binary scheme. Metarealists’ interest in the conventionality of literary form, elaborate metaphor, and uninterpreted reality reflect the crisis of Soviet ideology. The “metametaphor,” as a means for showing the multi-layered nature of reality and the mutual intersection of distant phenomena, can justifiably be seen as, among other things, a reaction to the Soviet world’s “opacity.” The article describes metarealism’s poetic concepts—“perfection,” “aura,” “complexity,” and more.
From Victimized to Victorious
Authors: Neuman Gdalit
Published: April 2022

The late Yehudit Arnon’s contributions to the world of dance preceded her tenure as Founding Artistic Director of Israel’s Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. In the immediate postwar period and in the framework of the Hashomer Hatzair Zionist youth movement, she created Zionist dance works which embodied the spirit of the day and which, at their core, expressed revolutionary ideas about gender and the Jewish body. This chapter examines two such dances and their impact on the identity formation of the Hungarian child Holocaust survivors who performed them. Utilizing extensive archival research, oral history interviews, and reconstruction methodologies, the chapter argues that Arnon utilized her platform of performance to promote the potential of these youths while they rapidly transitioned from their diasporic to Land of Israeli identities.
Feminism and #MeTooThe Power of the Collective
Authors: Green Tristin K.
Published: April 2022

#MeToo as a significant feminist movement calls us to consider what it—and the responses to it—reveal about challenges for feminism. In considering the strength and potential of this collective movement, we can draw lessons from contemporary commentary and from history, including the effort to combat sexual harassment through employment discrimination law. #MeToo may turn out to be the most powerful feminist movement of the twenty-first century. It brings to the forefront the depth and breadth of sexual abuse and harassment in our society and seeks meaningful structural change. It will only achieve that change, however, if its supporters can resist efforts to individualize what are at bottom collective stories and if they can respond adequately to competing collective counter-narratives.
Occulti Manifestatio: the Journey to God in Dionysius and Eriugena
Authors: Carabine Deirdre
Published: April 2022

This essay examines creation in Dionysius and Eriugena. Building on the Neoplatonic thematic of procession and return, it demonstrates that both thinkers held radical theological views on creation as the manifestation of the transcendent God. Pointing up the ontological significance of the apophatic and kataphatic theologies, Eriugena builds on the apophaticism of Dionysius to explain how God, through theophany, both makes all things and is made in all things. He further argues that creation ex nihilo is creation ex deo, but is resolute in his assertion that creation does not reveal God; rather, it conceals God. In the outward journey of unity into multiplicity God becomes not-God. Through the process of ex-stasis God goes out from God into the appearances of God, and ultimately calls all things back to God in a love-fuelled ecstasy. In this way the process of alterity, of God becoming not-God, is simultaneous revelation and concealment.
Origen, Celsus, and the Philosophers
Authors: Edwards Mark
Published: April 2022

This chapter investigates Origen’s knowledge of and skill in the polemical deployment of rhetoric in Contra Celsum. A new portrait of Origen as an apologist emerges as the author sketches a passable performance by a philosopher of the genre of rhetorical invective. In this chapter, the author shows how Origen’s mastery of the entire philosophical tradition, insider knowledge of its disputes, and the clever satire with which he outmanoeuvres Celsus redeem his reputation as an apologist and enhance his reputation as a scholar conversant with the entire philosophical tradition.
The Hermeneutical Foundations of Origen’s Soteriology
Authors: Niculescu Mihai Vlad
Published: April 2022

For the author of this chapter, the performative aspects of the language of exegesis, rather than doctrinal formulations reveal the dynamism of Origen’s system. Origen’s soteriology functions only through the performance of a complex exegetical process situated in a liturgical matrix. In exegetical preaching the interpreter of Scripture mediates an incarnation or presence of the Logos and the addressee is placed under the agency of the interpreted scriptural text with the power to transform. The transformative interpretation is coded for a progression of learning and insight for mixed communities (the simpliciores, the catechumens, the more advanced, and the spiritually mature). In this light, hermeneutically enacted salvation appears not only as a transformative comprehension of biblical doctrine, but also as a pertinent response to the Bible’s agency.
Origen’s Christology in the Context of the Second and Third Centuries
Authors: Martens Peter W.
Published: April 2022

This chapter grapples with the problem that the theological terms used to interpret Origen’s Christology and eschatology map a later set of terms and relations crafted in a different intellectual milieu. Origen’s Christology preceded the Chalcedonian binary of heresy and orthodoxy; ‘Christology’ did not become a theological term until the seventeenth century. The term ‘eschatology’ originated in the Scholastic period and ‘apocalyptic’ in the early twentieth century. To expand the scope of what Origen would have considered Christology, the author of this chapter introduces the notion of a biography of Christ that begins with protology, moves through Incarnation and the ministry of Jesus, and ends with eschatology. He then tracks Origen’s titles across the long arc between protology and eschatology, thus using Origen’s own categories to map a biography of Christ.
Health Literacy in Plastic Surgery: A Scoping Review
Authors: Tiourin Ekaterina , Barton Natalie , Janis Jeffrey E.
Published: April 2022

Background:

Health literacy of plastic surgery patients may affect surgical decision-making and perioperative outcomes. In addition to consulting a plastic surgeon, patients often refer to online-based resources to learn about surgical options. The aim of this scoping review was to identify evidence detailing the state of health literacy of plastic surgery patients and available resources to highlight areas of improvement for clinical practice and future research.

Methods:

Utilizing PubMed and Web of Science databases, 46 eligible studies that analyzed health literacy in plastic surgery patients and readability of plastic surgery resources were included. Extracted characteristics from eligible studies included study size, type of analysis, findings, and conclusions.

Results:

Regardless of plastic surgery procedure or subspecialty, resources presenting plastic surgery information to patients exceeded the American Medical Association and National Institutes of Health recommended sixth- to eighth-grade reading level. Plastic surgery patients demonstrated greater knowledge of preoperative indications and surgical benefits compared with postoperative outcomes and surgical risks.

Conclusions:

Most health literacy research in plastic surgery focuses on readability of written internet-based resources as opposed to direct assessment of health literacy in plastic surgery patients. Plastic surgery resources exceed the recommended mean reading grade level. Dedicated efforts to recognize and accommodate a patient’s level of health literacy in plastic surgery should be considered.
Nurse practitioners in home-based prepalliative care demonstrate an innovative, value-based approach to end-of-life care planning
Authors: Coppa Denise , Winchester Suzy Barcelos , Maestri Xristin , Roberts Mary B.
Published: April 2022

Background:

Nurse practitioners (NPs) demonstrate value-based, home-based primary health care (HBPC) to home-bound patients with high disease burden at reduced cost.

Purpose:

The research questions were as follows: (a) Does patient-centered, prepalliative care delivered by HBPC NPs decrease number of hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits and increase patient satisfaction? and (b) What are the criteria for patients to receive end-of-life (EOL) discussions by NPs?

Methodology:

This was a quasi-experimental, retrospective two-group design with a convenience sample of 233 HBPC patients from an academic clinical partnership compared with 234 clinic patients matched on age and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score over 4 years. Measures included signed advanced directives (ADRs), medical orders of life-sustaining treatment (MOLST) forms, number and length of home visits, hospitalizations, and ED visits after diagnosis. Chi-square analyses and general linear models using a Poisson distribution were conducted.

Results:

Home-based primary health care patients had higher disease burden, statistically higher CCI scores, and signed ADR and MOLST agreements more often than clinic patients with significantly fewer hospitalizations and ED visits, and longer visits with providers.

Conclusions:

Patients receiving HBPC for prepalliative, EOL illness benefit from more time to discuss the difficult factors surrounding access to care for those with life-threatening illnesses.

Implications:

Recipients of prepalliative HBPC by NPs could require fewer provider visits, hospitalizations and ED visits, patient satisfaction, and a potential decrease in health care spending at EOL.
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Adult Patients With Neoplasms: Outcomes and Trend Over the Last 2 Decades
Authors: Suzuki Yota , Mobli Keyan , Cass Samuel H. , Silva Madeline M. , DeAnda Abe , Tyler Douglas S. , Radhakrishnan Ravi S.
Published: April 2022

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is utilized in the management of severe respiratory and circulatory failure. Advanced malignancy is a relative contraindication, but the indication for ECMO in the oncologic population has not been clearly established because of the wide spectrum of malignant disease and prognoses. The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization database was queried for patients older than 18 years with an International Classification of Diseases code of neoplasm over the past 2 decades (2000–2019). The data were divided into 2 decades to analyze and compare the trends with background and outcomes. One thousand six-hundred ninety-seven patients met inclusion criteria from the latest decade which is over 15 times the previous decade (n = 110). Compared with the previous decade, ECMO was used more in patients with older age (56 vs. 50.5 years old; p < 0.001), cardiac and extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) support type (p = 0.011), and lower oxygenation index (23.0 vs. 35.6; p < 0.001) in the latest decade. Although overall survival did not show significant improvement overall (38.9% vs. 33.6%; p = 0.312), survival in pulmonary ECMO has significantly improved in the latest decade (41.6% vs. 29.1%; p = 0.032). Compared with the previously reported data for all adult ECMO, our patients had a significantly lower survival with pulmonary (41.6% vs. 61.1%; p < 0.001) and cardiac (38.4% vs. 44.3%; p = 0.008) support while not with ECPR.
Comparative Study on Elution of Polyvinylpyrrolidone on Dialyzers Using Ultraviolet Analysis and Iodine Method
Authors: Woiterski Claudia , Jäger Sandra , Dröschel Stefan
Published: April 2022

It is known that poly(arylethersulfone)-based dialyzers can elute poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP). With regard to chronic renal replacement therapy, this is a burden for the patient, because PVP is deposited in different organs and cannot be degraded or released from there; so elutable PVP has to be minimized. Usually, the iodine method is used for quantification of extractable PVP. To overcome the chain length dependency of this method, we used an ultraviolet method that is independent from the PVP chain lengths; so the absolute amount of eluted PVP can be quantified. The current study shows the amount of eluted PVP on differently sterilized low flux dialyzers (1.6 m2, similar storage time, n = 12)—PS160 (Allmed, Egypt), F7HPS (Fresenius Medical Care, Germany), F16 (Wego, China), and B-16P (Bain, China). Using the ultraviolet method, the irradiated filters show a sum total of approximately 9 mg more eluted PVP compared with the steam-sterilized ones, whereas the iodine method shows a value about three times lower between different types of sterilization. The boundary conditions during the radiation sterilization could lead to PVP degradation instead of cross-linking. The resulting shorter PVP chains can be more easily rinsed out and can falsely decrease the calculated eluted PVP amount by using the iodine complexation method.
Qualitative and quantitative methods in post-chemoradiation PET for head and neck cancer
Authors: Oldan Jorge D. , Beaty Brian M. , Jewells Valerie L. , Muhleman Mitchel A. , Benefield Thad , Chera Bhishamjit
Published: April 2022

Objective

The aim of this study was to determine whether quantitative methods could aid in the evaluation of post-treatment head and neck scans, particularly taking human papillomavirus status into account.

Methods

Clinical readings of positron emission tomography/computed tomography scans as well as standardized uptake value (SUV)max (and other metrics) of nodes visible on PET conducted on a total of 172 patients with head and neck squamous cell cancer were examined. Locoregional recurrence at 2 years was assessed. In total 88 of these patients had close enough follow-up to determine whether individual nodes were positive or negative, and 233 nodes on these patients were compared to surgical pathology notes or follow-up (if no path was available).

Results

General negative predictive value (NPV) of complete response was 93% and an equivocal response was 89%; focusing on nodal recurrence, NPV was found to be 97% and positive predictive value (PPV) 46% if equivocal reads were treated as negative and NPV 98% and PPV 16% if equivocal reads were treated as positive. Using SUVmax of the hottest node with a cutoff of 3.4 gave NPV 97% and PPV 26%; a direct re-read (using 2 observers) gave NPV 98% and PPV 32% if equivocal reads were treated as negative, and NPV 99% and PPV 18% if equivocal reads were treated as positive. Using other first-order radiomics data such as SD and skewness did not improve this.

Conclusions

Quantitative data such as SUVmax does not show additional value over qualitative evaluation of response to chemoradiation in head and neck tumors.
Strategies to Increase Nursing Certification
Authors: Edwin Hephzibah Sophie
Published: April 2022

Nursing specialty certification is essential for delivering competent patient care based on evidence and improving outcomes. Certification enhances nurses’ professional growth, promotes satisfaction, and creates stability in an organization. Nurses value certification, but certain barriers hinder them from taking the certification examination. This article describes strategies incorporated by a nursing professional development specialist to increase nurses’ participation in the Progressive Care Certification for Nurses review course, certification success, and retention in the organization.
When Blind Pathologists Lead Mute Clinicians: Autopsy of a Misdiagnosis Involving a Metastatic Lung Adenocarcinoma to the Breast Mimicking Primary Invasive Ductal Carcinoma
Authors: Gama Alcino , Novo Jorge Eduardo
Published: April 2022

Metastatic cancers to the breast are rare and can be diagnostically challenging. We present the case of a 59-year-old woman, previously diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma, who developed breast masses. Her medical history was not known to the pathologist, and the case was misdiagnosed as invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Following communication with the clinical team, ancillary tests were performed, and the report was amended to metastatic lung adenocarcinoma to the breast, highlighting the importance of specimen transfer of care and communication of key clinical data.
Parasite-associated mortality in birds: the roles of specialist parasites and host evolutionary distance
Authors: Galen Spencer C. , Ray Suravi , Henry Marissa , Weckstein Jason D.
Published: April 2022

The factors that influence whether a parasite is likely to cause death in a given host species are not well known. Generalist parasites with high local abundances, broad distributions and the ability to infect a wide phylogenetic diversity of hosts are often considered especially dangerous for host populations, though comparatively little research has been done on the potential for specialist parasites to cause host mortality. Here, using a novel database of avian mortality records, we tested whether phylogenetic host specialist or host generalist haemosporidian blood parasites were associated with avian host deaths based on infection records from over 81 000 examined hosts. In support of the hypothesis that host specialist parasites can be highly virulent in novel hosts, we found that the parasites that were associated with avian host mortality predominantly infected more closely related host species than expected under a null model. Hosts that died tended to be distantly related to the host species that a parasite lineage typically infects, illustrating that specialist parasites can cause death outside of their limited host range. Overall, this study highlights the overlooked potential for host specialist parasites to cause host mortality despite their constrained ecological niches.
Bioinformatic prediction of putative metallothioneins in non-ciliate protists
Authors: Balzano Sergio , Sardo Angela
Published: April 2022

Intracellular ligands that bind heavy metals (HMs) and thereby minimize their detrimental effects to cellular metabolism are attracting great interest for a number of applications including bioremediation and development of HM-biosensors. Metallothioneins (MTs) are short, cysteine-rich, genetically encoded proteins involved in intracellular metal-binding and play a key role in detoxification of HMs. We searched approximately 700 genomes and transcriptomes of non-ciliate protists for novel putative MTs by similarity and structural analyses and found 21 unique proteins playing a potential role as MTs. Most putative MTs derive from heterokonts and dinoflagellates and share common features such as (i) a putative metal-binding domain in proximity of the N-terminus, (ii) two putative MT-specific domains near the C-terminus and (iii) one to three CTCGXXCXCGXXCXCXXC patterns. Although the biological function of these proteins has not been experimentally proven, knowledge of their genetic sequences adds useful information on proteins that are potentially involved in HM-binding and can contribute to the design of future biomolecular assays on HM–microbe interactions and MT-based biosensors.
Fouling of mammalian hair fibres exposed to a titanium dioxide colloidal suspension
Authors: Krsmanovic Milos , Ali Hessein , Biswas Dipankar , Ghosh Ranajay , Dickerson Andrew K.
Published: April 2022

Fouling of surfaces in prolonged contact with liquid often leads to detrimental alteration of material properties and performance. A wide range of factors which include mass transport, surface properties and surface interactions dictate whether foulants are able to adhere to a surface. Passive means of foulant rejection, such as the microscopic patterns, have been known to develop in nature. In this work, we investigate the anti-fouling behaviour of animal fur and its apparent passive resistance to fouling. We compare the fouling performance of several categories of natural and manufactured fibres, and present correlations between contamination susceptibility and physio-mechanical properties of the fibre and its environment. Lastly, we present a correlation between the fouling intensity of a fibre and the cumulative impact of multiple interacting factors declared in the form of a dimensionless group. Artificial and natural hair strands exhibit comparable anti-fouling behaviour in flow, however, the absence of flow improves the performance of some artificial fibres. Among the plethora of factors affecting the fouling of fur hair, the dimensionless groups we present herein provide the best demarcation between fibres of different origin.
The aldehyde hypothesis: metabolic intermediates as antimicrobial effectors
Authors: Darwin K. Heran , Stanley Sarah A.
Published: April 2022

There are many reactive intermediates found in metabolic pathways. Could these potentially toxic molecules be exploited for an organism's benefit? We propose that during certain microbial infections, the production of inherently reactive aldehydes by an infected host is a previously unappreciated innate immune defence mechanism. While there has been a significant focus on the effects of aldehydes on mammalian physiology, the idea that they might be exploited or purposefully induced to kill pathogens is new. Given that aldehydes are made as parts of metabolic programmes that accompany immune cell activation by the cytokine interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) during infections, we hypothesize that aldehydes are among the arsenal of IFN-γ-inducible effectors needed for pathogen control.
What do participants think of our research practices? An examination of behavioural psychology participants' preferences
Authors: Bottesini Julia G. , Rhemtulla Mijke , Vazire Simine
Published: April 2022

What research practices should be considered acceptable? Historically, scientists have set the standards for what constitutes acceptable research practices. However, there is value in considering non-scientists’ perspectives, including research participants'. 1873 participants from MTurk and university subject pools were surveyed after their participation in one of eight minimal-risk studies. We asked participants how they would feel if (mostly) common research practices were applied to their data:
p
-hacking/cherry-picking results, selective reporting of studies, Hypothesizing After Results are Known (HARKing), committing fraud, conducting direct replications, sharing data, sharing methods, and open access publishing. An overwhelming majority of psychology research participants think questionable research practices (e.g.
p
-hacking, HARKing) are unacceptable (68.3–81.3%), and were supportive of practices to increase transparency and replicability (71.4–80.1%). A surprising number of participants expressed positive or neutral views toward scientific fraud (18.7%), raising concerns about data quality. We grapple with this concern and interpret our results in light of the limitations of our study. Despite the ambiguity in our results, we argue that there is evidence (from our study and others’) that researchers may be violating participants' expectations and should be transparent with participants about how their data will be used.