bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sex and APOE ɛ4 modify the effect of cardiovascular risk on tau in cognitively normal older adults
Authors: Tsiknia Amaryllis A. , Reas Emilie , Bangen Katherine J. , Sundermann Erin E. , McEvoy Linda , Brewer James B. , Edland Steven D. , Banks Sarah J. ,   for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
Published: February 2022

The interaction between APOE ɛ4 and vascular risk factors on cognitive function is stronger in women than in men. These effects may be mediated by the amount of tau pathology in the brain. Therefore, we examined whether APOE ɛ4 and sex modify cross-sectional associations between cardiovascular risk and tau deposition in cognitively normal older adults from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. We calculated the Framingham Heart Study cardiovascular disease risk score for 141 participants (74 women, 47 APOE ɛ4 carriers) with complete medical history data, processed tau-PET data and a Clinical Dementia Rating global score of 0.0 at the time of the tau-PET scan, implying no significant cognitive or functional impairment. We used linear regression models to examine the effects of sex, APOE ɛ4, cardiovascular risk and their interactions on tau deposition in the entorhinal cortex, inferior temporal cortex and a composite meta-region of interest of temporal lobe areas. We found a significant three-way interaction among sex, APOE ɛ4 status and cardiovascular disease risk on tau deposition in the entorhinal cortex (β = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01–0.07; P = 0.008), inferior temporal cortex (β = 0.02; 95% CI, 0.0–0.05; P = 0.029) and meta-region (β = 0.02; 95% CI, 0.0–0.04; P = 0.042). After stratifying by APOE ɛ4 status to examine interactions between sex and cardiovascular disease risk on tau in APOE ɛ4 carriers and non-carriers, we found a significant two-way interaction between sex and cardiovascular disease risk on tau in the entorhinal cortex (β = 0.05; 95% CI, 0.02–0.08; P = 0.001), inferior temporal cortex (β = 0.03; 95% CI, 0.01–0.05; P =0.009) and meta-region (β = 0.02; 95% CI, 0.01–0.04; P = 0.008) only among APOE ɛ4 carriers. In analyses stratified by sex, higher cardiovascular risk scores were associated with higher levels of tau in the entorhinal cortex (β = 0.05; 95% CI, 0.02–0.08; P = 0.002), inferior temporal cortex (β = 0.02; 95% CI, 0.0–0.05; P = 0.023) and meta-region (β = 0.02; 95% CI, 0.01–0.04; P = 0.013) in female APOE ɛ4 carriers but not in male carriers. Our findings suggest that cognitively normal older women carrying at least one APOE ɛ4 allele, may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of cardiovascular disease risk on early tau deposition.
Astrocytic junctional adhesion molecule-A regulates T-cell entry past the glia limitans to promote central nervous system autoimmune attack
Authors: Amatruda Mario , Chapouly Candice , Woo Viola , Safavi Farinaz , Zhang Joy , Dai David , Therattil Anthony , Moon Chang , Villavicencio Jorge , Gordon Alexandra , Parkos Charles , Horng Sam
Published: February 2022

Contact-mediated interactions between the astrocytic endfeet and infiltrating immune cells within the perivascular space are underexplored, yet represent potential regulatory check-points against CNS autoimmune disease and disability. Reactive astrocytes upregulate junctional adhesion molecule-A, an immunoglobulin-like cell surface receptor that binds to T cells via its ligand, the integrin, lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1. Here, we tested the role of astrocytic junctional adhesion molecule-A in regulating CNS autoinflammatory disease. In cell co-cultures, we found that junctional adhesion molecule-A-mediated signalling between astrocytes and T cells increases levels of matrix metalloproteinase-2, C–C motif chemokine ligand 2 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, pro-inflammatory factors driving lymphocyte entry and pathogenicity in multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, an animal model of CNS autoimmune disease. In experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, mice with astrocyte-specific JAM-A deletion (mGFAP:CreJAM-Afl/fl) exhibit decreased levels of matrix metalloproteinase-2, reduced ability of T cells to infiltrate the CNS parenchyma from the perivascular spaces and a milder histopathological and clinical course of disease compared with wild-type controls (JAM-Afl/fl). Treatment of wild-type mice with intraperitoneal injection of soluble junctional adhesion molecule-A blocking peptide decreases the severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, highlighting the potential of contact-mediated astrocyte–immune cell signalling as a novel translational target against neuroinflammatory disease.
The Effectiveness of Low Dead Space Syringes for Reducing the Risk of Hepatitis C Virus Acquisition Among People Who Inject Drugs: Findings From a National Survey in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland
Authors: Trickey Adam , Croxford Sara , Emanuel Eva , Ijaz Samreen , Hickman Matthew , Kesten Joanna , Thomas Clare , Edmundson Claire , Desai Monica , Vickerman Peter
Published: February 2022

Syringes with attached needles (termed fixed low dead space syringes [LDSS]) retain less blood following injection than syringes with detachable needles, but evidence on them reducing blood-borne virus transmission among people who inject drugs (PWID) is lacking. Utilizing the UK Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring cross-sectional bio-behavioral surveys among PWID for 2016/18/19 (n = 1429), we showed that always using fixed LDSS was associated with 76% lower likelihood (adjusted odds ratio  = 0.24, 95% confidence interval [CI]: .08–.67) of recent hepatitis C virus infection (RNA-positive and antibody-negative) among antibody-negative PWID compared to using any syringes with detachable needles.
Intravascular ultrasound-guided stent implantation in reimplanted left main coronary artery of a 15-year-old child: a case report
Authors: Luo Xing Yu , Zheng Bo , Wu Lin , Huo Yong
Published: February 2022

Background

Only a few cases have been reported about clinical value of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in patients with stenosis of a re-implanted left main coronary artery (LMCA).

Case summary

We herein report a rare case of restenosis after direct reimplantation of an anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) in a 15-year-old girl. At the first evaluation, she had mildly reduced systolic dysfunction with left ventricular ejection fraction of 47%. Three months after surgical repair, the patient developed recurrent precordial pain. Consequent imaging tests and IVUS revealed a restenosis of the LMCA characterized as an attenuated plaque with a large plaque burden. A drug-eluting stent was implanted with IVUS guidance. Follow-up revealed a patent LMCA and preserved systolic function.

Discussion

The current case demonstrated that IVUS-guided PCI can be feasible in the treatment of coronary artery stenosis after repair of an ALCAPA. Further study is needed to explore the pathophysiological mechanism of this condition and the clinical value of PCI and IVUS in patients with stenosis of the LMCA.
Altered lymphatic structure and function in pleural anthracosis: negative role in skip N2 metastasis
Authors: Takeda Aya , Ueda Kazuhiro , Aoki Masaya , Nagata Toshiyuki , Kamimura Go , Umehara Tadashi , Tokunaga Takuya , Tabata Kazuhiro , Tanimoto Akihide , Sato Masami
Published: February 2022

OBJECTIVES

The present study investigated whether or not pleural anthracosis is associated with changes in the pleural lymphatic structures or function, which would interfere with nodal skip metastasis.

METHODS

This study comprised 2 different case series. In the first series, we observed pleural lymphatic drainage using near-infrared fluorescent endoscopy by the subpleural injection of indocyanine green immediately after thoracotomy for lung cancer. We also performed a histological assessment of the pleura. In the second series, we reviewed the nodal metastatic pattern (skip or non-skip metastasis) in pathological N2 lung cancer involving the pleura. These findings were compared with the severity of pleural anthracosis, which was quantified by thoracoscopic vision and a software-based imaging analysis.

RESULTS

In the first series (n = 42), pleural lymphatic drainage was not visualized in 19 (45%) patients who had relatively severe anthracosis, while it was visualized in the remaining 23 (55%) patients who had relatively minimal anthracosis. Histologically, severe anthracosis was associated with pleural thickening accompanied by a decreased incidence of straight-running lymphatic vessels and, in turn, an increased incidence of short lymphatic vessels, which was suggested to be the result of pleural remodelling. In the second series (n = 53), a skip metastatic pattern was found in 24 (45%) patients who predominantly had less-severe anthracosis, while a non-skip metastatic pattern was found in 29 (55%) patients who predominantly had severe anthracosis.

CONCLUSIONS

Pleural anthracosis was associated with pathological changes in the pleural lymphatics and decreased pleural lymphatic drainage, thereby interfering with nodal skip metastasis.
Management of conduction disorders after transcatheter aortic valve implantation: results of the EHRA survey
Authors: Badertscher Patrick , Knecht Sven , Zeljković Ivan , Sticherling Christian , de Asmundis Carlo , Conte Giulio , Barra Sérgio , Jedrzej Kosiuk , Kühne Michael , Boveda Serge
Published: February 2022

Conduction disorders such as left bundle branch block (LBBB) are common after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Consensus regarding a reasonable strategy to manage conduction disturbances after TAVI has been elusive. The European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) conducted a survey to capture contemporary clinical practice for conduction disorders after TAVI. A 25-item online questionnaire was developed and distributed among the EHRA electrophysiology (EP) research network centres. Of 117 respondents, 44% were affiliated with university hospitals. A standardized management protocol for advanced conduction disorders such as LBBB or atrioventricular block (AVB) after TAVI was available in 63% of participating centres. Telemetry after TAVI was chosen as the most frequent management strategy for patients with new-onset or pre-existing LBBB (79% and 70%, respectively). Duration of telemetry in patients with new-onset LBBB varied, with a 48-h period being the most frequently chosen, but almost half monitoring continued for at least 72 h. Similarly, in patients undergoing EP study due to new-onset LBBB, the HV interval cut-off point leading to pacemaker implantation was heterogeneous among European centres, although an HV >75 ms threshold was the most common. Conduction system pacing was chosen as a preferred approach by 3.7% of respondents for patients with LBBB and normal left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and by 5.6% for patients with LBBB and reduced LVEF. This survey suggests some heterogenity in the management of conduction disorders after TAVI across European centres. The risk stratification strategies vary substantially. Conduction system pacing in patients with LBBB after TAVI is still underused.
Methylation quantitative trait loci are largely consistent across disease states in Crohn’s disease
Authors: Venkateswaran Suresh , Somineni Hari K , Kilaru Varun , Katrinli Seyma , Prince Jarod , Okou David T , Hyams Jeffrey S , Denson Lee A , Kellermayer Richard , Gibson Greg , Cutler David J , Smith Alicia K , Kugathasan Subra , Conneely Karen N
Published: February 2022

Recently, we identified 1,189 CpG sites whose DNA methylation level in blood associated with Crohn’s disease. Here, we examined associations between DNA methylation and genetic variants to identify methylation quantitative trait loci across disease states in (1) 402 blood samples from 164 newly diagnosed pediatric Crohn’s disease patients taken at 2 time points (diagnosis and follow-up), and 74 non-inflammatory bowel disease controls, (2) 780 blood samples from a non-Crohn’s disease adult population, and (3) 40 ileal biopsies (17 Crohn’s disease cases and 23 non-inflammatory bowel disease controls) from group (1). Genome-wide DNAm profiling and genotyping were performed using the Illumina MethylationEPIC and Illumina Multi-Ethnic arrays. SNP-CpG associations were identified via linear models adjusted for age, sex, disease status, disease subtype, estimated cell proportions, and genotype-based principal components. In total, we observed 535,448 SNP-CpG associations between 287,881 SNPs and 12,843 CpG sites (P < 8.21 × 10−14). Associations were highly consistent across different ages, races, disease states, and tissue types, suggesting that the majority of these methylation quantitative trait loci participate in common gene regulation. However, genes near CpGs associated with inflammatory bowel disease SNPs were enriched for 18 KEGG pathways relevant to inflammatory bowel disease-linked immune function and inflammatory responses. We observed suggestive evidence for a small number of tissue-specific associations and disease-specific associations in ileum, though larger studies will be needed to confirm these results. Our study concludes that the vast majority of blood-derived methylation quantitative trait loci are common across individuals, though a subset may be involved in processes related to Crohn’s disease. Independent cohort studies will be required to validate these findings.
Anglo-Jewish Humanitarianism and the Jewish Relief Unit, 1943–1950
Authors: Sampson Tom
Published: February 2022

The Jewish Relief Unit (JRU) was an Anglo-Jewish humanitarian agency of 213 members that operated across Europe during 1945/50, particularly in the British Zone of Occupation in Germany. JRU staff cared for the hundreds of thousands of Jewish Displaced Persons (DPs) who lingered in United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) assembly centres such as Belsen before their eventual departure for the United States or the new state of Israel. The JRU has remained a somewhat understudied body relative to other Jewish organizations active in DP camps and this article, based on personnel files and field reports archived at London’s Wiener Library and the London Metropolitan Archives, centres JRU aid workers as valuable objects of study in their own right, in line with increased historiographical interest in the backgrounds and world-views of postwar UNRRA operatives. Through an emphasis on materials related to and produced by individual JRU staff members and on the intimate and everyday character of their work, this article suggests that the JRU work among Jewish DPs in Germany was more substantive and consequential than has often been appreciated. More broadly, the work of the JRU is suggestive of the significance of humanitarian relief and reconstruction to postwar Jewish revival in Germany.
A Scoping Review of Research on Older People and Intergenerational Relations in the Context of Climate Change
Authors: Ayalon Liat , Roy Senjooti , Aloni Omer , Keating Norah
Published: February 2022

Background and Objectives

In view of the inherited temporal dimension of climate change, this study aims to highlight diverse intergenerational effects and coping strategies by examining the state of literature on older people and intergenerational relations in the context of climate change.

Research Design and Methods

A scoping review of peer-reviewed scientific literature was conducted. We searched the following bibliographical data sets: PubMed, Web of Science, and APA PsycNet in addition to a snowballing search based on Google Scholar. The primary search was conducted between September 22, 2021 and September 26, 2021, using variations of the search terms: older people AND intergenerational AND climate change. Two independent raters classified the articles using prespecified inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results

In total, 20 articles were maintained for data extraction. Articles reflect 2 poles in relation to older people and intergenerational relations in the context of climate change. The first emphasizes intergenerational conflicts and differences, whereas the second stresses solidarity and transmission of knowledge and practices between the generations.

Discussion and Implications

Both older and younger people are affected by age-based discrimination in the context of climate change. Generational differences in energy consumption and attitudes toward climate change exist. Nonetheless, these can be overcome by stressing the solidarity between the generations and the ability of older people to contribute to the climate change movement as well as by the ability of both young and old to transmit knowledge and practices related to sustainability.
Are the Patterns of Cytomegalovirus Viral Load Seen After Solid Organ Transplantation Affected by Circadian Rhythm?
Authors: Rafferty Hannah , Murray Matthew J , Tam Jerry C H , Macfarlane Alastair , Smith Colette , Lumley Sheila F , Atabani Sowsan , McKeating Jane A , Sharma Dinesh , Reeves Matthew , Whitmore David , Griffiths Paul
Published: February 2022

Background

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is an important opportunistic pathogen after transplantation. Some virological variation in transplant recipients is explained by donor and recipient CMV serostatus, but not all. Circadian variability of herpesviruses has been described, so we investigated the effect of time of day of transplantation on posttransplant CMV viremia.

Methods

We performed a retrospective analysis of 1517 patients receiving liver or kidney allografts at a single center from 2002 to 2018. All patients were given preemptive therapy with CMV viremia monitoring after transplantation. Circulatory arrest and reperfusion time of donor organ were categorized into 4 periods. Patients were divided into serostatus groups based on previous CMV infection in donor and recipient. CMV viremia parameters were compared between time categories for each group. Factor analysis of mixed data was used to interrogate this complex data set.

Results

Live-donor transplant recipients were less likely to develop viremia than recipients of deceased-donor organs (48% vs 61%; P < .001). After controlling for this, there was no evidence of time of day of transplantation affecting CMV parameters in any serostatus group, by logistic regression or factor analysis of mixed data.

Discussion

We found no evidence for a circadian effect of transplantation on CMV viremia, but these novel results warrant confirmation by other centers.
Embracing multiple aims in healthcare improvement and innovation
Authors: Amalberti Rene , Staines Anthony , Vincent Charles
Published: February 2022

Background

Healthcare and other industries have to manage and coordinate a number of different aims and longer-term ambitions. They must maintain quality, manage costs, support and retain the workforce, manage regulatory demands and consider wider societal objectives. These aims are all legitimate, but they are not necessarily aligned, neither in their time frame nor in their nature. Conflicts between aims have a profound influence on the implementation of safety and quality improvement and wider innovation system change. Healthcare leaders understand that these aims may conflict, but the extent and nature of such conflicts have been underestimated.

Objective

This paper aims to support medical and nursing leadership and executives in the complex task of managing multiple aims in relation to improvement and innovation.

Methods

We drew on our experience and the wider industrial and healthcare literature to find examples of studies and improvement projects with multiple aims and examples of innovation and change in which conflicting aims were apparent. We sought to identify principles that would enable the management of parallel aims and practical strategies that might facilitate implementation.

Results

We argue that almost all improvement and innovation in healthcare should address parallel aims, actively seek to articulate these aims and manage potential conflicts between them. We propose four underlying principles to support a more productive approach to the identification and management of parallel aims: embrace multiple aims, consider both short- and long-term aims and ambitions, consider the wider societal context and appreciate that all changes take place within an evolving, dynamic context. In terms of practical actions, we identified five key strategies: (i) identify and monitor the parallel aims and accept that some will conflict; (ii) slow down to accommodate the natural flexibility of the system; (iii) think both the short term and the long term; (iv) expect and endeavour to anticipate some unintended consequences and (v) resist downgrading the project to partial implementation.

Conclusions

We have argued that most improvement and innovation, unlike controlled trials, should consider multiple aims. We set out some broad principles and practices to reduce conflict and suggest avenues to manage conflicts and support positive synergies. We suggest that if this is not done, conflicts are much more likely to arise, which will be detrimental to the change process. Articulating the multiple aims and actively seeking to manage them in parallel will promote a more flexible and productive approach to innovation and change.
P22 Youth as agents of change in raising AMR awareness in the community in Dodoma region
Authors: Venant Erick , Stanley Baritazar K. , Mosha Michael J. , Mushi DorineGrace J. , Mwingira Israel , Harrison Roger , Wiedenmayer Karin , Ombaka Eva
Published: February 2022

Introduction

One of the strategic objectives of the AMR national action plan is to improve public awareness and understanding of AMR. Changing people's behaviour is not easy and the older a person is, the more they are set in their ways. Schoolchildren are in their formative years, which is the right time to impart knowledge and best practices that will guide their behaviour in life. Importantly, students have links with families and communities and are future leaders. Roll Back Antimicrobial resistance Initiative (RBA Initiative) has been pioneering the use of youth as agents of change to increase AMR awareness, promote positive behavioural change and thus reduce treatment failure.

Objectives

The main objective was to equip young people (schoolchildren) with knowledge and skills to understand antimicrobial use and resistance and ability to pass the knowledge to their families, other students and community at large.

Methods

Through AMR clubs, RBA Initiative used different methodologies to engage and educate schoolchildren on AMR. These included classroom teaching, arts and crafts like songs, skits, drama, traditional dances and storytelling and fun videos. Further motivation for active participation was encouraged through competition. The content of the training included topics such as behaviour that fuels AMR, hand hygiene and sanitation, the impact of fake drugs and the One Health approach.

Results

In 2020, the project build the capacity of 160 students. Subsequently, these trained students have reached over 1000 fellow secondary school students, over 3000 primary school pupils and over 800 community members including family members with key AMR messages.

Conclusions

If engaged and empowered, young people are able to increase community knowledge and awareness regarding AMR as agents of change, contributing to the national action plan on AMR.
Treatment Decisions in Patients With Potentially Nonsurvivable Burn Injury in Australia and New Zealand: A Registry-Based Study
Authors: Tracy Lincoln M , Gold Michelle , Reeder Sandra , Cleland Heather J
Published: February 2022

Whilst burn-related mortality is rare in high-income countries, there are unique features related to prognostication that make examination of decision-making practices important to explore. Compared to other kinds of trauma, burn patients (even those with nonsurvivable injuries) may be relatively stable after injury initially. Complications or patient comorbidity may make it clear later in the clinical trajectory that ongoing treatment is futile. Burn care clinicians are therefore required to make decisions regarding the withholding or withdrawal of treatment in patients with potentially nonsurvivable burn injury. There is yet to be a comprehensive investigation of treatment decision practices following burn injury in Australia and New Zealand. Data for patients admitted to specialist burn services between July 2009 and June 2020 were obtained from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand. Patients were grouped according to treatment decision: palliative management, active treatment withdrawn, and active treatment until death. Predictors of treatment initiation and withholding or withdrawing treatment within 24 hours were assessed using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression. Descriptive comparisons between treatment groups were made. Of the 32,186 patients meeting study inclusion criteria, 327 (1.0%) died prior to discharge. Fifty-six patients were treated initially with palliative intent and 227 patients had active treatment initiated and later withdrawn. Increasing age and burn size reduced the odds of having active treatment initiated. We demonstrate differences in demographic and injury severity characteristics as well as end of life decision-making timing between different treatment pathways pursued for patients who die in-hospital. Our next step into the decision-making process is to gain a greater understanding of the clinician’s perspective (eg, through surveys and/or interviews).
HDL quality features revealed by proteome‒lipidome connectivity are associated with atherosclerotic disease
Authors: Wang Dandan , Yu Bilian , Li Qingrun , Guo Yanhong , Koike Tomonari , Koike Yui , Wu Qingqing , Zhang Jifeng , Mao Ling , Tang Xiaoyu , Sun Liang , Lin Xu , Wu Jiarui , Chen Y Eugene , Peng Daoquan , Zeng Rong
Published: February 2022

Lipoprotein, especially high-density lipoprotein (HDL), particles are composed of multiple heterogeneous subgroups containing various proteins and lipids. The molecular distribution among these subgroups is closely related to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Here, we established high-resolution proteomics and lipidomics (HiPL) methods to depict the molecular profiles across lipoprotein (Lipo-HiPL) and HDL (HDL-HiPL) subgroups by optimizing the resolution of anion-exchange chromatography and comprehensive quantification of proteins and lipids on the omics level. Furthermore, based on the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis of molecular profiles across high-resolution subgroups, we achieved the relationship of proteome‒lipidome connectivity (PLC) for lipoprotein and HDL particles. By application of these methods to high-fat, high-cholesterol diet-fed rabbits and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients, we uncovered the delicate dynamics of the molecular profile and reconstruction of lipoprotein and HDL particles. Of note, the PLC features revealed by the HDL-HiPL method discriminated ACS from healthy individuals better than direct proteome and lipidome quantification or PLC features revealed by the Lipo-HiPL method, suggesting their potential in ACS diagnosis. Together, we established HiPL methods to trace the dynamics of the molecular profile and PLC of lipoprotein and even HDL during the development of CVD.
The relationship between plant and butterfly richness and composition and socioecological drivers in five adjacent cities along the Mediterranean Coast of Israel
Authors: Keren Itay , Malkinson Dan , Dorman Michael , Balaban Amir , Bar (Kutiel Pua
Published: February 2022

Urbanization is the land-use process that most significantly impacts flora and fauna. We conducted a multiple city comparison of two taxa to assess whether richness patterns are similar across cities and taxa. This study aimed to examine the effects socioecological factors, namely open area size, socioeconomic status and the built-up cover, on species richness and composition of plants and butterflies in five adjacent Mediterranean cities in Israel’s coastal plain. Vegetation surveys were conducted in 170 open area sites in various urban settings. In 34 of them, the presence of butterfly species was also recorded. Mixed-effect generalized linear models were used to examine the site's characteristics effect on the species richness. The identity of each city was included as a random effect in the models. Results indicated that overall plant species richness increased with patch size, whereas butterfly richness was not associated with this factor. Plant and butterfly species richness in all categories decreased with the increase in building cover, except for endemic plant species. The results demonstrate the complex contribution of urban open area patches to the biodiversity of different taxa, being conditional on their size, surrounding built-up area and socioeconomic values.
Protecting foreign investments in revolution and civil war: critiquing the contemporary arbitral practice
Authors: Greenman Kathryn
Published: February 2022

The protection of foreign investment during times of revolution and civil war, and especially against acts of non-state forces, has a history—both recent and longer past. The issue has re-emerged as a result of the series of revolutions and civil wars, known as the Arab Spring. This is demonstrated by several recent awards against Libya, Egypt and Syria, as well as a number of pending claims. This article considers what a critique of this practice might look like and how it might fit in with existing critiques of international investment law. It argues first, that the contemporary arbitral practice concerning investment protection during revolution and civil war encourages a particular type of security state—and a particular type of state violence—along gendered and racialised lines and second, that it domesticates revolution and restrains revolutionary contestation of the prevailing economic order.
Floating sanctuaries: The ethics of search and rescue at sea
Authors: Mann Itamar , Mourão Permoser Julia
Published: February 2022

Search-and-Rescue NGOs in the Mediterranean have been increasingly criminalized. This criminalization has chilled conversation about the ethical dilemmas practitioners face. What, if any, can be the adverse byproducts of rescuing life at sea? In this article, we concentrate on the dilemmas involved in search and rescue (SAR) as rescuers have described them. Our aim is two-fold. The first is to offer a phenomenological account of search-and-rescue dilemmas. The article sheds light on the complexity and nuance of the ethical landscape of maritime rescue, revealing an intricate web of interactions acknowledged by rescuers as posing ethical challenges. The second aim is to offer a conceptual framework for what it is that SAR NGOs are, in fact, doing. We contextualize their actions within the larger terrain of ‘border externalization’, in which states have moved enforcement activities to extraterritorial zones, where human rights law is diluted or inapplicable. We thus argue that the set of norms underlying NGO rescue practices amounts to a strategy of counter-externalization. The ideal here is that a window of opportunity can be created at sea, where human rights or international law protections more broadly apply, but enforcement powers of states are suspended. By utilizing these legal gray zones to the benefit of migrants, rescuers effectively turn extraterritorial zones from spaces of lawlessness into spaces of resistance. The rescue ship thus becomes a ‘floating sanctuary’.
Disc precession to explain the superorbital modulation of LMC X-4: results from the Swift monitoring campaign
Authors: Ambrosi E , D’Aì A , Del Santo M , Segreto A , Ferrigno C , Amato R , Cusumano G
Published: February 2022

We studied the spectral changes of the high-mass X-ray binary system LMC X-4 to understand the origin and mechanisms beyond its superorbital modulation (30.4 d). To this aim, we obtained a monitoring campaign with Swift/XRT (0.3–10 keV) and complemented these data with the years-long Swift/BAT survey data (15–60 keV). We found a self-consistent, physically motivated, description of the broad-band X-ray spectrum using a Swift/XRT and a NuSTAR observation at the epoch of maximum flux. We decomposed the spectrum into the sum of a bulk + thermal Comptonization, a disc reflection component, and a soft contribution from a standard Shakura–Sunyaev accretion disc. We applied this model to 20 phase-selected Swift spectra along the superorbital period. We found a phase-dependent flux ratio of the different components, whereas the absorption column does not vary significantly. The disc emission is decoupled with respect to the hard flux. We interpret this as a geometrical effect in which the inner parts of the disc are tilted with respect to the obscuring outer regions.
Non-linear tidal excitation of superharmonic gravity waves in main-sequence stars in binary and exoplanetary systems
Authors: Ivanov P B , Chernov S V , Barker A J
Published: February 2022

We study the role of non-linear effects on tidally excited internal gravity waves in stellar radiation zones in exoplanetary or binary systems. We are partly motivated to study tides due to massive short-period hot Jupiters, which preferentially orbit stars with convective cores, for which wave breaking near the stellar centre cannot operate. We develop a theory (and test it with numerical calculations) for the non-linear excitation of superharmonic ‘secondary’ waves (with frequencies 2ωp) by a ‘primary’ tidal wave (with frequency ωp) near the interface between the radiation zone and convective envelope. These waves have the same horizontal phase speeds to leading order, and this non-linear effect could contribute importantly to tidal dissipation if the secondary waves can efficiently damp the primary. We derive criteria involving the orbital and stellar parameters required to excite these secondary waves to large amplitudes using a local model of the radiative/convective interface, which we convert to apply to tides in a spherical star. We numerically evaluate the critical amplitudes required for this new non-linear effect to become important using stellar models, comparing them to the ‘conventional’ criteria for wave breaking in radiative cores and the application of WKBJ theory near convective cores. The criteria for this new effect are easier to satisfy than the conventional measures of non-linearity in 1.4 and $2\, {\rm M}_\odot$ stars on the main sequence. We predict non-linear effects to be important even for planetary-mass companions around the latter, but this effect is probably less important in stars with radiative cores.
Kishinev Pogrom
Authors: Zipperstein Steven J.
Published: February 2022

Meticulously documented at the time, the Kishinev pogrom would inspire a thicket of myths that would be felt on endeavors as varied as the pre-state Hagannah, the precursor to the Israeli army, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and even the NAACP. What one encounters when confronted by the Kishinev pogrom and its aftermath is a veritable mountain of teachable lessons, many of which are at best only sketchily based on the events themselves. Kishinev’s pogrom of 1903 may well be the best known of all moments in the Russian Jewish past and the one that is most persistently misunderstood.
Introduction
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

This chapter offers a concise description of the origins and evolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the unfolding of the peace process since the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference. It also challenges partisan accounts that pervert the complex truth of what is one of the most intractable conflicts in modern times. It describes the drama of the interplay between leadership and political culture as it was embodied in the three main leaders at the Camp David process, Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, and Yasser Arafat. Although it defines the book as an obituary to the two-state solution, it also challenges the funereal historiography that has emerged in the wake of the Camp David process. It praises its final product, the Clinton peace parameters, as the litmus test of every serious peace proposal in the future. All, from George W. Bush’s roadmap in 2004 to Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” in 2020, are scrutinized.
Forcing the Leaders’ Hands
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

Barak resigned himself to a pre-summit meeting at Andrews Air Force Base not before he instructed us not to compromise his positions ahead of the summit for which he pushed so hard without offering much leeway. Arafat, who arrived in Washington in a combative mood, agreed to proceed with the process only after he got from Clinton an American guarantee that, should the summit fail, he would get the territory due to him in the Interim Agreement. When mentioning the Hezbollah example during my meeting with him, Arafat looked genuinely torn between the military and political options. He would eventually combine them both. This explained Abu Ala’s sudden change of attitude, to which we responded with ideas that deviated from Barak’s instructions. These as well as Saeb Erakat’s unauthorized ideas gave Clinton the sense that the summit might not be a wild gamble after all.
The Promise of an American Steamroller
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

In Washington for a short meeting ahead of the summit, while back home the political support for our peace policy was vanishing. Arafat had better control of his home front. At the State Department meeting, Secretary Albright introduced a dense timetable, and promised a tight American involvement. The Palestinians rebelled against what they saw as “an ultimatum” and an Israeli-American trap. To them, Camp David was not the definitive opportunity, but only one in a series of summits. They would, eventually, be proved right. Yet the Americans were resolute and encouraging, for they had detected in the Palestinian positions, they said, the components of a possible agreement. Faulty political intelligence or sheer misreading of the organizational culture on the Palestinian side? Allaying Arafat’s misgivings, they advised, should be a major task we, the Israelis, needed to assume.
Clinton: “We have Exhausted the Beauty of This Place”
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

The Americans had written a script which the actors refused to follow. The coming days would show that the hasty shift to working groups with no accepted guidelines offered no redemption either. Nor had the internal deliberations within the teams of either of the two main adversaries there as yet produced the kind of dynamic that could lead to a breakthrough. A surprisingly creative backchannel of sorts that developed between the Israelis and the Palestinian younger members turned out eventually to be more a brainstorming exercise around trial balloons than real negotiations. The president’s furious outburst at the Palestinians for their “UN General Assembly-style” discourse at the working groups, and his angry displeasure with our utterly unrealistic proposals led the Americans to weigh their options, either closing the summit or offering their own peace ideas.
A Game Changer (or So It Looked)
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

We had all either to change course or to dissolve the summit. In his despair, Clinton initiated an Israeli-Palestinian backchannel. Alas, our hypercreativity was met by a Palestinian team bunkered in its positions and always incapable of offering counterproposals of their own. But, surprisingly, not Arafat. In response to the advance package of ideas we had offered, he exhibited his extraordinary political cunning by channeling the entire summit to the one issue that truly mattered to him, Jerusalem, for which he knew Barak had no adequate response. He would agree to even 10 percent Israeli annexation in the West Bank provided he got a solution for Jerusalem. Conversely, the recalcitrant Barak lagged behind his team and got embroiled in excessive and ineffective tactical considerations. But Clinton was now more confident than ever that our backchannel had offered him the breakthrough he so laboriously worked for.
Albright’s Intermezzo, Clinton’s Last Push
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

The misunderstanding left behind by Clinton’s negligent treatment of the already explosive Barak-Arafat estrangement and Barak’s decision to seclude himself in his cabin in a sort of solitary confinement did not make Albright’s task any easier. She managed, nonetheless, to initiate work on creative formulae about the status of the Temple Mount, which would stand at the center of the debate leading to the Clinton peace parameters in December 2000. Barak eventually emerged out of his seclusion with renewed vigor and determination, but, snubbed by the Palestinians’ indifference, he cut his losses by retreating altogether from his peace offers. Clinton’s return from Japan would give a momentary new lease on life to our summit, but would fall desperately short of producing a breakthrough on the bones of contention that really mattered, Jerusalem and refugees. Clinton was, according to his men, “in a state of despair.”
Diplomacy under Fire
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

As the “peace of the brave” was turning into “the peace of the grave,” we desperately looked for ways to return to negotiations. A series of international summits was conceived to reach a ceasefire, and proceed then to a final conference in Washington, where President Clinton would reveal his final peace outline. The first summit in Paris got entangled in a debate about an investigation of “Israel’s responsibility” for the bloodshed. President Chirac’s peremptory performance represented the widening gulf between America and Europe over the Israel-Palestine conundrum. Arafat would, in any case, wriggle out of any of the summit’s conclusions. The lynching of two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah and the capture of three others by Lebanon’s Hezbollah aggravated Israel’s tribulations and the predicament of diplomacy under fire. Hezbollah’s kidnappings exposed the inutility of the UN as a peace guarantor.
The Conversion of the Hawks
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

The peace plans produced since the year 2000—Ehud Olmert’s 2008 peace offer, John Kerry’s 2014 Framework Agreement proposal—were reshaped versions of the Barak era’s Clinton parameters. Precisely in order to escape that legacy, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had earlier ignored George W. Bush’s roadmap and conducted instead a unilateral disengagement from Gaza. As always, the intractability of the conflict would be reaffirmed by the parties’ inability to do what was necessary, and doing instead only what they deemed politically possible. In Camp David, it was Arafat’s theological hallucinations that spoiled his people’s chance of redemption; and with his successor Mahmoud Abbas, who turned down even Olmert’s upgraded version of Clinton’s plan, it was his lack of stature that defeated his cause.
The Occupation’s Traits of Permanence
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

Israel has created in Palestine one of the most efficient occupation regimes in history, which is moreover also cost effective, for it is the international community’s donor money to the Palestinian Authority that saves the occupier the burden of directly administering the territories. Israel is a small country with the highest birth rate in the West and one of the highest population densities in the world. The West Bank is her Lebensraum and captive market. Israelis and Palestinians are also the mirror image of each other when it comes to their dysfunctional polities being more an obstacle to, than a vehicle for, assuming historic decisions. The Palestinians’ failure to imbue their struggle with an ethos of state-building and, thanks to major regional and global strategic shifts, Israel’s enjoyment of unprecedented global clout and regional outreach, makes Israelis wonder what is wrong with no peace anyway.
Exit Oslo, Enter Madrid
Authors: Ben-Ami Shlomo
Published: February 2022

The Oslo Accords proved to be a failed circumvention of the now forgotten parameters of the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, where the Palestinian cause was represented by a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, alluding thus to a possible Jordanian-Palestinian solution as well. Oslo has run its course. Is a return to Madrid just a mirage? Certainly not more than the undeliverable two-state solution. Either of the ominous scenarios described in the previous chapter is likely to draw Jordan, out of sheer survival instinct, deeper into the affairs of the West Bank. Palestine’s and Jordan’s destinies are intertwined. A major crisis in the West Bank will always be an inexorable, domestic concern for Jordan. A Jordanian-Palestinian Confederation has a compelling socio-political logic. This can be a homogeneous state in terms of religion, Arab history and socio-cultural structures. The Confederation plan advanced in 2007 by Former Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali elicited an interesting degree of support in the West Bank, and opinion polls still give it a considerable level of support.
Mississippi Appendectomy
Authors: Larson Kate Clifford
Published: February 2022

This chapter looks at the time when Fannie Lou Hamer and her husband, Pap, stayed in Mississippi and cobbled together a living as farmers. Hamer challenged white supremacy and her boldness earned her respect. The chapter then considers how the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and nascent Mississippi civil rights organizations like the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) faced physical and economic reprisals from local white vigilantes. How much Hamer knew about the national issues, or what the NAACP and other civil rights organizations were doing in Mississippi during the 1940s and 1950s is difficult to discern. Nevertheless, when she was robbed of her fertility after a doctor secretly performed a complete hysterectomy on her, Hamer could no longer contain her rage. Hamer later referred to the practice as a "Mississippi appendectomy." Eugenics-inspired support for race-based involuntary sterilization, centralized in the South, promoted the procedure for thousands of African American women and girls without their consent starting in the 1920s and continued through the early 1970s.
Winona
Authors: Larson Kate Clifford
Published: February 2022

This chapter describes Fannie Lou Hamer's experience of police brutality while she was on a trip back to Greenwood with other civil rights activists from various Mississippi counties. This experience would test their commitment to the fight for freedom. Winona had a particularly vicious history of using violence to enforce segregation despite federal laws. No matter how well they had been prepared for getting arrested and lodging in jail, Hamer and her Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) colleagues were not prepared for what was about to happen to them. They were taken to the county jail house where they were interrogated and beaten by the police. Hamer was also raped by one of the men; the sadism-sexual pleasure from the pain, suffering and humiliation of another-was part of a pattern of domination designed to dehumanize and degrade victims. Numerous attorneys from several civil rights organizations then negotiated the activists' release. Finally, three Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) representatives secured the activists' release from jail. Throughout, Hamer's faith and commitment to the causes of freedom and equality did not waver. But the horror, the trauma of Winona stayed with her, driving her anger deep into every speech and protest song she delivered for the rest of her life.