bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Theory for Chameleonlike Thermal Rotators: Extremely Anisotropic Conductivity
Authors: Xu Liu-Jun , Huang Ji-Ping
Published: October 2022

In this chapter, we propose a mechanism for intelligent thermal regulation based on transformation-invariant metamaterials, which possess highly anisotropic thermal conductivities. As an application, we design intelligent thermal rotators that can guide heat flux direction with different environmental parameters. Since the adaptive behavior is similar to chameleons, the present rotators are called chameleonlike rotators. We further perform finite-element simulations and laboratory experiments to validate the scheme and demonstrate the chameleonlike behavior. These results have potential applications for implementing adaptive and adjustable thermal metamaterials. Similar behaviors can also be expected in other fields, such as hydrodynamics.
Hetero-pentamerization determines mobility and conductance of Glycine receptor α3 splice variants
Authors: Lemmens Veerle , Thevelein Bart , Vella Yana , Kankowski Svenja , Leonhard Julia , Mizuno Hideaki , Rocha Susana , Brône Bert , Meier Jochen C. , Hendrix Jelle
Published: October 2022

Glycine receptors (GlyRs) are ligand-gated pentameric chloride channels in the central nervous system. GlyR-α3 is a possible target for chronic pain treatment and temporal lobe epilepsy. Alternative splicing into K or L variants determines the subcellular fate and function of GlyR-α3, yet it remains to be shown whether its different splice variants can functionally co-assemble, and what the properties of such heteropentamers would be. Here, we subjected GlyR-α3 to a combined fluorescence microscopy and electrophysiology analysis. We employ masked Pearson’s and dual-color spatiotemporal correlation analysis to prove that GlyR-α3 splice variants heteropentamerize, adopting the mobility of the K variant. Fluorescence-based single-subunit counting experiments revealed a variable and concentration ratio dependent hetero-stoichiometry. Via cell-attached single-channel electrophysiology we show that heteropentamers exhibit currents in between those of K and L variants. Our data are compatible with a model where α3 heteropentamerization fine-tunes mobility and activity of GlyR-α3 channels, which is important to understand and tackle α3 related diseases.
Nivolumab versus placebo as adjuvant therapy for resected stage III melanoma: a propensity weighted indirect treatment comparison and number needed to treat analysis for recurrence-free survival and overall survival
Authors: Weber Jeffrey S. , Poretta Tayla , Stwalley Brian D. , Sakkal Leon A. , Du Ella X. , Wang Travis , Chen Yan , Wang Yan , Betts Keith A. , Shoushtari Alexander N.
Published: October 2022

Background

Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) data for adjuvant nivolumab versus placebo (proxy for routine surveillance) in patients with high-risk, resected melanoma are lacking. This post hoc, indirect treatment comparison (ITC) used pooled data from the phase 3 EORTC 18,071 (ipilimumab vs. placebo) and CheckMate 238 (nivolumab vs. ipilimumab) trials to assess RFS and OS with nivolumab versus placebo and the numbers needed to treat (NNT) over 4 years.

Methods

Patients with resected stage IIIB-C cutaneous melanoma (American Joint Committee on Cancer seventh edition) were included. Inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW) was used to balance baseline characteristics. RFS NNTs were calculated for nivolumab versus ipilimumab and placebo. OS NNTs were calculated for nivolumab versus placebo. To adjust for different post-recurrence treatments, the difference in post-recurrence survival between the two ipilimumab arms was added to OS of the placebo arm.

Results

This ITC included 278, 643, and 365 patients treated with nivolumab, ipilimumab, and placebo, respectively. Following IPTW, nivolumab was associated with improved RFS versus placebo (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.49; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.39–0.61) and ipilimumab (HR: 0.69; 95% CI 0.56–0.85). RFS NNT was 4.2 for nivolumab versus placebo and 8.9 for nivolumab versus ipilimumab. After post-recurrence survival adjustment, weighted 4-year OS rates were 75.8% for nivolumab and 64.1% for placebo; OS NNT for nivolumab versus placebo was 8.5.

Conclusions

In patients with resected stage IIIB-C cutaneous melanoma in this ITC, nivolumab improved RFS versus placebo and ipilimumab, and OS versus placebo after post-recurrence survival adjustment.
Controlling Nutritional Status Score Serves as a Prognosticator in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Optimal Timing of Evaluation of Patients Undergoing Neoadjuvant Treatment
Authors: Nonogaki Ikue , Kanda Mitsuro , Shimizu Dai , Inokawa Yoshikuni , Hattori Norifumi , Hayashi Masamichi , Tanaka Chie , Koike Masahiko , Nakayama Goro , Kodera Yasuhiro
Published: October 2022

Background

Usefulness of various nutritional indices for management of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has been reported. Although Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score is among promising indices to predict outcome, the optimal timing for its measurement during the perioperative period remains unknown. Here the prognostic value of the CONUT score was assessed among patients with ESCC.

Methods

We analyzed 464 patients who underwent subtotal esophagectomy of ESCC, of which 276 patients were treated with neoadjuvant treatment (NAT). The significance of the associations between candidate parameters including the CONUT score and postoperative prognosis were evaluated.

Result

Among the 25 candidate predictors, the preoperative CONUT score had the highest correlation with overall survival (OS) after surgery. Patients were categorized as follows: normal, mild, and moderate or severe, on the basis of the preoperative CONUT score. OS was significantly shortened as the CONUT score worsened. Multivariable analysis revealed that the CONUT scores of the subgroups mild (Hazard ratio [HR] 1.69) and moderate or severe (HR 2.18) were independent predictors of poor prognosis for OS. Furthermore, in an analysis limited to patients who underwent NAT, OS was significantly shortened as the preoperative CONUT score worsened. On the contrary, there was no significant difference in RFS among patient groups stratified by the CONUT score determined before NAT.

Conclusions

Our study indicates that the preoperative CONUT score serves as a prognosticator in resectable ESCC. The preoperative CONUT value was more useful than that before NAT in patients administered NAT.
Deforestation for agriculture increases microbial carbon use efficiency in subarctic soils
Authors: Schroeder Julia , Peplau Tino , Pennekamp Frank , Gregorich Edward , Tebbe Christoph C. , Poeplau Christopher
Published: October 2022

Agriculture is likely to expand poleward with climate change, encouraging deforestation for agriculture in subarctic regions, which alters soil physical, chemical and biological properties and potentially affects microbial metabolic efficiency. Deciphering how and by which mechanisms land-use change affects microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) will enable the development of mitigation strategies to alleviate C losses. We assessed CUE using 18O-labelled water in a paired-plot approach on soils collected from 19 farms across the subarctic region of Yukon, Canada, comprising 14 pairs of forest-to-grassland conversion and 15 pairs of forest-to-cropland conversion. Microbial CUE significantly increased following conversion to grassland and cropland. Land-use conversion resulted in a lower estimated abundance of fungi, while the archaeal abundance increased. Interestingly, structural equation modelling revealed that increases in CUE were mediated by a rise in soil pH and a decrease in soil C:N ratio rather than by shifts in microbial community composition, i.e. the ratio of fungi, bacteria and archaea. Our findings indicate a direct control of abiotic factors on microbial CUE via improved nutrient availability and facilitated conditions for microbial growth. Overall, this implies that to a certain extent CUE can be managed to achieve a more efficient build-up of stabilised soil organic C (SOC), as reflected in increased mineral-associated organic C under agricultural land use. These insights may also help constrain SOC models that generally struggle to predict the effects of deforestation, something that is likely to take place more frequently in the subarctic.
Quantifying the impact of heat on human physical work capacity; part IV: interactions between work duration and heat stress severity
Authors: Smallcombe James W. , Foster Josh , Hodder Simon G. , Jay Ollie , Flouris Andreas D. , Havenith George
Published: October 2022

High workplace temperatures negatively impact physical work capacity (PWC). Although PWC loss models with heat based on 1-h exposures are available, it is unclear if further adjustments are required to accommodate repeated work/rest cycles over the course of a full work shift. Therefore, we examined the impact of heat stress exposure on human PWC during a simulated work shift consisting of six 1-h work-rest cycles. Nine healthy males completed six 50-min work bouts, separated by 10-min rest intervals and an extended lunch break, on four separate occasions: once in a cool environment (15 °C/50% RH) and in three different air temperature and relative humidity combinations (moderate, 35 °C/50% RH; hot, 40 °C/50% RH; and very hot, 40 °C/70%). To mimic moderate to heavy workload, work was performed on a treadmill at a fixed heart rate of 130 beats·min−1. During each work bout, PWC was quantified as the kilojoules expended above resting levels. Over the shift, work output per cycle decreased, even in the cool climate, with the biggest decrement after the lunch break and meal consumption. Expressing PWC relative to that achieved in the cool environment for the same work duration, there was an additional 5(± 4)%, 7(± 6)%, and 16(± 7)% decrease in PWC when work was performed across a full work shift for the moderate, hot, and very hot condition respectively, compared with 1-h projections. Empirical models to predict PWC based on the level of heat stress (Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature, Universal Thermal Climate Index, Psychrometric Wet-Bulb Temperature, Humidex, and Heat Index) and the number of work cycles performed are presented.
Scientific paper recommendation systems: a literature review of recent publications
Authors: Kreutz Christin Katharina , Schenkel Ralf
Published: October 2022

Scientific writing builds upon already published papers. Manual identification of publications to read, cite or consider as related papers relies on a researcher’s ability to identify fitting keywords or initial papers from which a literature search can be started. The rapidly increasing amount of papers has called for automatic measures to find the desired relevant publications, so-called paper recommendation systems. As the number of publications increases so does the amount of paper recommendation systems. Former literature reviews focused on discussing the general landscape of approaches throughout the years and highlight the main directions. We refrain from this perspective, instead we only consider a comparatively small time frame but analyse it fully. In this literature review we discuss used methods, datasets, evaluations and open challenges encountered in all works first released between January 2019 and October 2021. The goal of this survey is to provide a comprehensive and complete overview of current paper recommendation systems.
Automated repair for timed systems
Authors: Kölbl Martin , Leue Stefan , Wies Thomas
Published: October 2022

We present algorithms and techniques for the repair of timed system models, given as networks of timed automata (NTA). The repair is based on an analysis of timed diagnostic traces (TDTs) that are computed by real-time model checking tools, such as UPPAAL, when they detect the violation of a timed safety property. We present an encoding of TDTs in linear real arithmetic and use the MaxSMT capabilities of the SMT solver Z3 to suggest a minimal number of possible syntactic repairs of the analyzed model. The suggested repairs include modified values for clock bounds in location invariants and transition guards, adding or removing clock resets, etc. We then present an admissibility criterion, called functional equivalence, which ensures that the proposed repair preserves the functional behavior of the considered NTA. We discuss a proof-of-concept tool called TarTar that we have developed, implementing the repair and admissibility analysis, and give insights into its design and architecture. We evaluate the proposed repair technique on faulty mutations generated from a diverse suite of case studies taken from the literature. We show that TarTar can admissibly repair for 69–$$88\%$$

88
%

of the seeded errors in the considered system models.
Nurse rostering with fatigue modelling
Authors: Klyve Kjartan Kastet , Senthooran Ilankaikone , Wallace Mark
Published: October 2022

We use a real Nurse Rostering Problem and a validated model of human sleep to formulate the Nurse Rostering Problem with Fatigue. The fatigue modelling includes individual biologies, thus enabling personalised schedules for every nurse. We create an approximation of the sleep model in the form of a look-up table, enabling its incorporation into nurse rostering. The problem is solved using an algorithm that combines Mixed-Integer Programming and Constraint Programming with a Large Neighbourhood Search. A post-processing algorithm deals with errors, to produce feasible rosters minimising global fatigue. The results demonstrate the realism of protecting nurses from highly fatiguing schedules and ensuring the alertness of staff. We further demonstrate how minimally increased staffing levels enable lower fatigue, and find evidence to suggest biological complementarity among staff can be used to reduce fatigue. We also demonstrate how tailoring shifts to nurses’ biology reduces the overall fatigue of the team, which means managers must grapple with the issue of fairness in rostering.
Thermophysical Properties Mapping of Composites by Lock-in Thermography: Applications on Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics
Authors: Alasli Abdulkareem , Fujita Ryohei , Nagano Hosei
Published: October 2022

We propose a versatile method for measuring the thermophysical properties of composites by means of lock-in thermography (LIT) technique. The method is based on analyzing the thermal response distribution induced by periodic laser heating, which enables simultaneous high-spatial-resolution mapping of the effective out-of-plane thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and volumetric heat capacity over the surface of the material. We validate the method using a reference material and demonstrate its capability in visualizing the effective properties of laminated carbon fiber reinforced plastic and carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic with discontinuous fibers. The results showed that the LIT-based approach has high reproducibility and sensitivity, which allows observing the effect of fiber orientations on the effective properties. The proposed method will be useful for thermal research in composites, defect detection, and for investigating component geometric arrangement effects on the thermophysical properties.
Energy Loss After Daily Role Stress and Work Incivility: Caring for Oneself with Emotional Wellness
Authors: Garrosa Eva , Blanco-Donoso Luis Manuel , Moreno-Jiménez Jennifer E. , McGrath Eugenia , Cooper-Thomas Helena D. , Ladstätter Felix
Published: October 2022

The present study seeks to build on burnout research by examining daily fluctuations of role stress and work incivility, and their impact on employees’ energy loss. Optimism and recovery (i.e., psychological detachment and relaxation), two mechanisms that allow workers’ self-care and self-defence from these toxic conditions when faced by these job stressors, were included. In a daily study, 117 service sector workers completed surveys three times a day, over a period of one working week. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed work incivility as predictor of daily emotional exhaustion. Optimism and recovery play different roles in protecting workers from daily energy loss. Daily optimism increased employees’energy and decreased emotional exhaustion and negative affect at night. It also moderated the relationship between work incivility and positive affect at night. The results on psychological detachment supported the stressor-detachment model (Sonnentag, 2010), in which psychological detachment from work during nonworking time is not only a direct predictor of increased energy, but could similarly buffer the negative impact of role stress and work incivility. Relaxation basically showed main effects in predicting emotional exhaustion (inversely) and positive affect (directly). Our findings suggest two main implications: (1) the necessity for implemention of workplace policies to prevent role stress and work incivility in reducing daily loss of energy. (2) Training workers in self-care programmes focusing on optimism and recovery can provide early steps toward organizational change and employee daily well-being.
Agent-based models of human response to natural hazards: systematic review of tsunami evacuation
Authors: Mls Karel , Kořínek Milan , Štekerová Kamila , Tučník Petr , Bureš Vladimír , Čech Pavel , Husáková Martina , Mikulecký Peter , Nacházel Tomáš , Ponce Daniela , Zanker Marek , Babič František , Triantafyllou Ioanna
Published: October 2022

This systematic review provides a comprehensive overview of tsunami evacuation models. The review covers scientific studies from the last decade (2012–2021) and is explicitly focused on models using an agent-based approach. The PRISMA methodology was used to analyze 171 selected papers, resulting in over 53 studies included in the detailed full-text analysis. This review is divided into two main parts: (1) a descriptive analysis of the presented models (focused on the modeling tools, validation, and software platform used, etc.), and (2) model analysis (e.g., model purpose, types of agents, input and output data, and modeled area). Special attention was given to the features of these models specifically associated with an agent-based approach. The results lead to the conclusion that the research domain of agent-based tsunami evacuation models is quite narrow and specialized, with a high degree of variability in the model attributes and properties. At the same time, the application of agent-specific methodologies, protocols, organizational paradigms, or standards is sparse.
Split Hamiltonian Monte Carlo revisited
Authors: Casas Fernando , Sanz-Serna Jesús María , Shaw Luke
Published: October 2022

We study Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) samplers based on splitting the Hamiltonian H as $$H_0(\theta ,p)+U_1(\theta )$$

H
0

(
θ
,
p
)

+

U
1

(
θ
)

, where $$H_0$$

H
0

is quadratic and $$U_1$$

U
1

small. We show that, in general, such samplers suffer from stepsize stability restrictions similar to those of algorithms based on the standard leapfrog integrator. The restrictions may be circumvented by preconditioning the dynamics. Numerical experiments show that, when the $$H_0(\theta ,p)+U_1(\theta )$$

H
0

(
θ
,
p
)

+

U
1

(
θ
)

splitting is combined with preconditioning, it is possible to construct samplers far more efficient than standard leapfrog HMC.
Preoperative endogenous testosterone density predicts disease progression from localized impalpable prostate cancer presenting with PSA levels elevated up to 10 ng/mL
Authors: Porcaro Antonio Benito , Bianchi Alberto , Mazzucato Giovanni , Gallina Sebastian , Serafin Emanuele , Tafuri Alessandro , Cerrato Clara , Panunzio Andrea , Vidiri Stefano , D’Aietti Damiano , Orlando Rossella , Brusa Davide , Brunelli Matteo , Siracusano Salvatore , Cerruto Maria Angela , Antonelli Alessandro
Published: October 2022

Objective

To investigate endogenous testosterone density (ETD) predicting disease progression from clinically localized impalpable prostate cancer (PCa) presenting with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels elevated up to 10 ng/mL and treated with radical prostatectomy.

Materials and methods

In a period ranging from November 2014 to December 2019, 805 consecutive PCa patients who were not under androgen blockade had endogenous testosterone (ET, ng/dL) measured before surgery. ETD was evaluated as the ratio of ET on prostate volume (PV). Unfavorable disease was defined as including ISUP ≥ 3 and/or seminal vesicle invasion in the surgical specimen. The risk of disease progression was evaluated by statistical methods.

Results

Overall, the study selected 433 patients, of whom 353 (81.5%) had available follow-up. Unfavorable disease occurred in 46.7% of cases and was predicted by tumor quantitation features that were positively associated with ETD. Disease progression, which occurred for 46 (13%) cases, was independently predicted only by ETD (hazard ratio, HR = 1.037; 95% CI 1.004–1.072; p = 0.030) after adjusting for unfavorable disease. According to a multivariate model, ETD above the third quartile was confirmed to be an independent predictor for PCa progression (HR = 2.479; 95% CI 1.355–4.534; p = 0.003) after adjusting for unfavorable disease. The same ETD measurements, ET mean levels were significantly lower in progressing cancers.

Conclusions

In this particular subset of patients, increased ETD with low ET levels, indicating androgen independence, resulted in a more aggressive disease with poorer prognosis.
Comparing cryptocurrencies and gold - a system-GARCH-approach
Authors: Klose Jens
Published: October 2022

This article investigates similarities and differences between gold and four cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin) with respect to four determinants. To do so, we estimate a system-GARCH-in-mean for the period starting 7/18/2014 at earliest until 7/12/2021. We find that, first, liquidity premia are almost always insignificant for both gold and cryptocurrencies. Second, volatility premia exist in either gold and cryptocurrencies. Third, the response of cryptocurrencies to exchange rate changes is more pronounced than for gold at least if developing countries are included. Fourth, gold exhibits a safe haven status, while cryptocurrencies do not. So according to our results those cannot be seen as a store of value but rather should be seen as speculative assets.
Detailed design for additive manufacturing and post processing of generatively designed high tibial osteotomy fixation plates
Authors: Kanagalingam Sanjeevan , Dalton Chris , Champneys Peter , Boutefnouchet Tarek , Fernandez-Vicente Miguel , Shepherd Duncan E. T. , Wimpenny David , Thomas-Seale Lauren E. J.
Published: October 2022

Integration of advanced technologies have revitalised treatment methods in the current clinical practice. In orthopaedic surgery, patient-specific implants have leveraged the design freedom offered by additive manufacturing (AM) exploiting the capabilities within powder bed fusion processes. Furthermore, generative design (GD), a design exploration tool based on the artificial intelligence, can integrate manufacturing constraints in the concept development phase, consequently bridging the gap between AM design and manufacturing. However, the reproducibility of implant prototypes are severely constrained due to uncomprehensive information on manufacturing and post processing techniques in the detailed design phase. This paper explores the manufacturing feasibility of novel GD concept plate designs for High Tibial Osteotomy (HTO), a joint preserving surgery for a patient diagnosed with osteoarthritis in the knee. A design for AM (DfAM) workflow for a generatively designed HTO plate is presented, including; detailed DfAM of GD concept designs, fabrication of plate prototypes using electron beam powder bed fusion (PBF-EB) of medical grade Ti-6Al-4 V, post processing and inspection. The study established PBF-EB as a suitable manufacturing method for the highly complex GD plate fixations, through evaluating the impact of manufacturing and post processing on the surface finish and geometrical precision of the plate design features.
The Idea and Becoming of a University Across Time and Space: Ivory Tower, Factory and Network
Authors: Matthews Adam
Published: October 2022

The modern university has grown from small scale, elite access institution, growing out of the Enlightenment period in Europe in the early nineteenth century. Freedom to pursue knowledge and ‘dare to know’ was a key characteristic of the Enlightenment university, conceptualised here as Mode 1 Elite Ivory Tower University. The twentieth century saw a rapid rise in national government involvement, funding and regulating universities as a way of nation state building. This developed within social contexts of neoliberal knowledge and information economies. Market demand and regulation, seeing teaching and research as products saw huge growth of universities in size and number globally. More citizens accessed and engaged with universities as large institutions, conceptualised here as a Mode 2 Mass Access Factory University. Globalisation, digital technologies and a move away from big organisations and states is seeing an emergence of a Mode 3 Universal Network University which is universal and unbundled in complex technological and social network relationships, often underpinned by a form of capitalism which is developing neoliberal approaches aided by data collection and information networks. These three modes are developed and explored here through a postdigital lens across time (genealogically) and space (residual, dominant and emerging discourses and cultures remaining in and between institutions) as a theoretical framework with which to research and envisage the characteristics, discourse, perceptions and becoming of the current and future university.
2D boron nitride incorporating homonuclear boron bonds: stabilized in neutral, anionic and cationic charge
Authors: Anota Ernesto Chigo
Published: October 2022

In this work, by means of molecular simulation, we propose two new armchair boron nitride (BN) nanosheets with homonuclear boron bonds with chemical compositions: B30N24H18 and B33N21H18 under the scheme of the density functional theory at the level HSEh1PBE/6–311 +  + g(d,p). The main characteristic that these nanosheets contain is that the homonuclear boron bonds are concentrated at the central zone and the periphery of the central hexagon (B3N3) of the nanosheets, forming pentagonal and triangular geometries. These structural arrangements generate high cohesion energy (for neutral charge − 10.94 and − 10.10 eV/atom, respectively) compared to the nanosheet with heteronuclear bonds (pristine). Also, as a result of quantum simulations, these nanosheets present an insulator (pristine BNNs)—semiconductor (B30N24H18 nanosheet)—conductor-like (B33N21H18 nanosheet) transition. In addition, it is revealed high polarity (in range of 0.30–4.55 D) and possible magnetic behavior for B33N24H18 composition (2.0 magneton bohr). The two nanosheets are stabilized with global neutral charge, anion (− 1|e|) and cation (+ 1|e|), which could be of great interest in the adsorption process and drug delivery.
Axial Generation: Mixing Colour and Shapes to Automatically Form Diverse Digital Sculptures
Authors: Easton Edward , Ekárt Anikó , Bernardet Ulysses
Published: October 2022

Automated computer generation of aesthetically pleasing artwork has been the subject of research for several decades. The unsolved problem of interest is how to please any audience without requiring too much of their involvement in the process of creation. Two-dimensional pictures have received a lot of attention; however, 3D artwork has remained relatively unexplored. This paper showcases an extended version of the Axial Generation Process (AGP), a versatile generation algorithm that can create both 2D and 3D items within the Concretism art style. The extensions presented here include calculating colour values for the artwork, increasing the range of forms that can be created through dynamic sizing of shapes and including more primitive shape types, finally, 2D items can be created from multiple viewpoints. Both 2D and 3D items generated through the AGP were evaluated against a set of formal aesthetic measures and compared against two established generation systems, one based on manipulating pixels/voxels and another tracking the path of particles through 2D and 3D space. This initial evaluation shows that the process is capable of generating visually varied items which exhibit a generally diverse range of values across the measures used, in both two and three dimensions. Comparatively, against the established generation processes, the AGP shows a good balance of performance and ability to create complex and visually varied items.
Historical Research and Sources on El Salvador
Authors: Lauria-Santiago Aldo A.
Published: October 2022

The recent return of peace to El Salvador is providing increasingly favorable conditions for scholarly research. This encouraging climate will help Salvadoran and guest researchers make up for years of difficult and repressive conditions. Some researchers may begin by examining contemporary questions related to the recent revolutionary process, but historical research should also be greatly facilitated. Entrepreneurial searches for archival materials on the period preceding the mid-twentieth century can be surprisingly successful when one combines a national outlook with careful regional probing. This research note will provide a guide to archival and other historical materials available in the United States and El Salvador and will place these sources in the context of major questions left unanswered by the historiography covering 1700 to 1940.
Thirty Years of Transformation in the Agrarian Structure of El Salvador, 1961–1991
Authors: Seligson Mitchell A.
Published: October 2022

Inequality in the distribution of land has long been viewed as the social dynamite that has set off many peasant uprisings in the twentieth century. The most extensive study to date of modern guerrilla wars in Latin America, by Timothy Wickham-Crowley, found land tenure and the overall agrarian structure to be a common element in upheaval in Cuba, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Nicaragua, and El Salvador (Wickham-Crowley 1992, 306–7). Samuel Huntington's classic book on development and stability articulated the explanation for these agrarian insurrections: “Where the conditions of landownership are equitable and provide a viable living for the peasant, revolution is unlikely. Where they are inequitable and where the peasant lives in poverty and suffering, revolution is likely, if not inevitable, unless the government takes prompt measures to remedy these conditions” (Huntington 1968, 375).
Rural History of the Rio de la Plata, 1600–1850: Results of a Historiographical Renaissance
Authors: Garavaglia Juan Carlos , Gelman Jorge D.
Published: October 2022

In the last ten years, the rural history of the colonial Río de la Plata and to a lesser extent that of the first half of the nineteenth century have witnessed an unprecedented boom. Research projects, new sets of questions, and the utilization of new sources and methodologies have all proliferated. Today we have undoubtedly come a long way in our understanding of these issues from where we were only a decade ago.
Taxation and Transition: The Politics of the 1990 Chilean Tax Reform
Authors: Boylan Delia M.
Published: October 2022

In the “fourth wave” of transitions to democracy sweeping the globe over the past twenty years, the Chilean case stands out as an exception. Although most instances of democratization following military rule have tended to yield rightist governments, Chile is one country in which the ruling coalition that emerged was Center-Left in ideological orientation.
Agricultural Export Booms and the Rural Poor in Chile, Guatemala, and Paraguay
Authors: Carter Michael R. , Barham Bradford L. , Mesbah Dina
Published: October 2022

The economic crisis of the 1980s and the shift to outward-looking development strategies ignited interest in promoting agricultural exports throughout Latin America. In the 1990s, export strategies continue to dominate discussion on agricultural development in the region. Especially for smaller developing countries in Latin America, agricultural and natural-resource exports appear likely to lead efforts to stimulate export growth. Extraordinarily rapid agro-export growth has already been achieved in many countries. From the middle to late 1980s, nontraditional agricultural exports grew at rates of 222 percent in Chile, 78 percent in Guatemala, and 348 percent in Costa Rica. In Paraguay, the most agrarian country in Latin America, agricultural exports nearly tripled during the otherwise difficult decade of the 1980s.
Distilled Conclusions: The Disappearance of the Agrarian Question in El Salvador
Authors: Diskin Martin
Published: October 2022

A recurring theme in the study of social stability is the relation of rural conditions to political violence and revolution as well as to subtler and less violent forms of opposition and resistance. El Salvador has served as an example for study because of its recent twelve-year civil war and the participation of its rural population. Given the depth and richness of data concerning rural conditions leading up to the civil war, it is somewhat baffling to find that rural social tensions are explained away in the terms used by Mitchell Seligson in “Thirty Years of Agrarian Transformation in El Salvador.”
Inflation and Insouciance: The Peculiar Brazilian Game
Authors: Armijo Leslie Elliott
Published: October 2022

The politics of inflation typically have been cast as reflecting an underlying “collective-action problem,” in which actions that would benefit the entire group are irrational from the viewpoint of each individual. Everyone would be better off without inflation. But in the absence of a mechanism that would permit social groups such as workers and owners to construct a lasting bargain, each group finds itself structurally obliged to push for higher money incomes, even if each one knows that any temporary gains in real income will be inflated away. Brazilian inflation has been described in these terms (Franco 1989). This article will suggest instead that the attitudes of one key Brazilian social group may be better understood as a case of “rent seeking.” In other countries, financial capital as a net-creditor sector opposes inflation. But because of Brazil's unique set of financial regulations, Brazilian bankers and upper-income investors have reaped substantial economic benefits from inflation in recent decades. Although they might prefer as citizens to have lower inflation, their rational economic interests give them few strong reasons to make sacrifices in the interest of solving society's “collective-action problem.” Because not all important actors desire stabilization, bringing prices down becomes intrinsically more difficult than if the problem were simply one of finding a means of overcoming mutual distrust to reach a cooperative solution.
Cocaine and Parallel Polities in the Brazilian Urban Periphery: Constraints on Local-Level Democratization
Authors: Leeds Elizabeth
Published: October 2022

The observation that redemocratization in Latin America is a fragile process has become a commonplace in the social science literature of the past few years. The social movements crucial to the return of procedural democracy have, we are told, lost their momentum to the very forces they helped to restore. Electoral democracy has returned in many places with neoclientelistic overtones that are eroding the gains in consciousness achieved in the nonelectoral years (Hagopian 1993). The absence of a common enemy, most often an authoritarian military regime, has tended to mask less visible but often equally pernicious enemies in the form of violence that is nonofficial but tolerated nonetheless (Pinheiro 1992). And although procedural democratic practices may have returned for the middle classes, nothing inherent in the transition to democracy guarantees either procedural or substantive democracy for the lower classes (Huggins, ed., 1991; O'Donnell 1992; Fox 1994a).
Databases for Large Latin American Companies
Authors: Bulmer-Thomas Victor , Rodas-Martini Pablo
Published: October 2022

Several databases now provide information on large-scale companies in Latin America. This information is being made available on a commercial basis to clients (mainly financial institutions interested in emerging markets in Latin America). The information is also available to academics, however, and promises to be a rich source that thus far has been undervalued by Latin Americanists. This research note will explore the possibilities generated by one database, Economática in São Paulo.
Cartography and Power in the Conquest and Creation of New Spain
Authors: Craib Raymond B.
Published: October 2022

With the so-called linguistic turn, historians have begun to study the ways in which a multitude of cultural forms are imbricated in the colonial and imperial project. In analyzing the infinite ways in which power is exercised and manifested, historians are turning a critical eye toward a myriad of cultural productions for a better understanding of how culture, politics, and power work in concert. One example is the increasing scrutiny given to geographical conceptions and representations. In Latin American colonial studies, a number of recent works have analyzed the ways in which deep, culturally rooted structures of spatial perception and representation have influenced the colonial process. This essay attempts to bring a number of those works into meaningful dialogue with one another with respect to the cultural and political facets of cartography. It also introduces work by scholars studying other regions of the world that may push the field farther and the work of the “new cultural cartographers” who have problematized traditional notions about the mimetic quality of maps and their presumed objectivity. In sum, this essay surveys recent literature pertaining to colonial cartography in Latin America, analyzes a number of comparative and theoretical studies that may broaden future research, and suggests that cartography and maps offer a fruitful avenue for further study and analysis of colonialism, imperialism, and state formation.
Neoliberalism, Corporatism, and Small Business Political Activism in Contemporary Mexico
Authors: Shadlen Kenneth C.
Published: October 2022

In the 1980s and 1990s, neoliberalism and changing policy-making regimes presented social actors throughout Latin America with new challenges and opportunities. This article analyzes the political strategies developed by two organizations representing small manufacturers in Mexico for responding to these sweeping economic and political changes, emphasizing the organizational bases of political activism. Strategies are assessed according to organizations' public expression of support for or opposition to economic policies, the extent to which organizations work within existing arrangements for interest representation, and the political alliances made by small business organizations and their leaders. One strategy in Mexico entailed acquiescing to radical economic policy changes, deploying significant resources to preserve a set of corporatist institutions that regulated business association, and supporting the government incumbents. Another strategy entailed voicing persistent public criticism of neoliberalism, spearheading a national campaign against business corporatism, and supporting the Center-Left opposition. Analysis of these strategies demonstrates the important effects of institutional legacies during periods of regime change. The perseverance of corporatist institutions can make it difficult for weak actors to shed old modes of activism, notwithstanding a changed array of material and political incentives.
Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in Brazil: The Negotiation of Workers' Identities in Porto Alegre's 1906 Strike
Authors: Bak Joan
Published: October 2022

This article examines one formative moment in the making of a working class in Brazil to show how workers refashioned multiple identities in response to interlocking structural transformations from artisanal to factory production, from homogeneous to heterogeneous ethnic communities, and from a male labor force to one that was increasingly female. Anarchist labor organizers contested the myth of the happy artisan and conflated the exploitation of artisans and factory workers to advance class consciousness. Ethnic ties that had initially fostered organization began to hamper class solidarity, now strained under new ideological conflicts, and facilitated effective resistance from employers. As appeals to ethnicity became problematic, appeals to gender emerged: women workers made themselves visible and audible and played an important role in the evolution of the movement. The ways in which they were seen and heard in the streets, however, contrasted with their representations in elite discourse, which sought to use gender to manipulate divisions within the emerging working class.
Estado, Capital Cafeeiro e Politica Tributaria Na Economia Paulista Exportadora, 1889–1930
Authors: Perissinotto Renato Monseff
Published: October 2022

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a relação entre os agentes estatais e umafração da classe economicamente dominante da economia cafeeira paulista—o “capital cafeeiro”—durante a Primeira República brasileira (1889–1930). Para tanto, escolhi como objeto de análise a política tributária promovida pelo governo do estado de São Paulo durante o período. A minha intencão é mostrar que os agentes estatais ao promoverem uma política tributária essencialmente calcada no imposto de exportação serviram-se de parte significativa do excedente pro-duzido pelo capital cafeeiro para financiar as atividades ordinárias do aparelho estatal paulista (educação, polícia, saúde, judiciário), o que muito desagradou aos membros daquela fração de classe. Estes reagiram à política oficial tanto pela via corporativa como pela via política, sem, contudo, conseguir revertê-la. Por fim, afirmamos que os conflitos políticos oriundos desse embate foram importantes para a configuração da cena política do final da Primeira República.
Towards an Environmental History of the Amazon: From Prehistory to the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Cleary David
Published: October 2022

This article reviews the environmental history of the Amazon basin from early prehistory to the 1850s, concluding at the start of the rubber boom. It argues that the Amazon's past can be understood in terms of a transition from wilderness to landscape, in a broadly similar way to the environmental history of Europe and North America. A detailed overview of the archaeological record suggests that both floodplain and upland environments were heavily influenced by human intervention during prehistory. The colonial and early republican periods also saw dramatic environmental changes. Interpretations of the Amazon that stress environmental constraints on human agency or portray it as largely virginal or unsettled prior to the modern period are at best an oversimplification.
The Peruvian Population Census of 1725–1740
Authors: Pearce Adrian J.
Published: October 2022

The population census of 1725–1740 was one of the few general censuses to occur in Peru during the colonial period. The census left a mass of detailed demographic data recording a unique moment when the population of the viceroyalty stood at its lowest historical level. It was the centerpiece of a major body of viceregal reform that affected levels of Indian tribute and the mita labor draft and permanently changed the base population subject to both levies, incorporating a large new sector previously partially or wholly exempt. It strongly influenced Peru's Indian and mestizo peoples throughout its execution and provoked the first major wave of popular unrest under the Bourbons. Yet despite the significance of the census, it remains largely unknown. This article provides a detailed introduction to the census as a major administrative reform and a source for demographic and other history.
Editor's Foreword
Authors: Merkx Gilbert W.
Published: October 2022

This issue begins the last volume of the twenty years of LARR edited at the University of New Mexico. A new team of editors at the University of Texas at Austin, led by Peter Ward, is already at work selecting and editing the articles and review essays that will appear in next year's Volume 38 (2003). The transition offers an appropriate time to reflect on the broader issues involved in the enterprise of academic publishing of a journal such as LARR.
State Policies and the Preservation of Forest Cover: Lessons from Contrasting Public-Policy Regimes in Costa Rica
Authors: Brockett Charles D. , Gottfried Robert R.
Published: October 2022

This study evaluates the impact of state policies on forest cover in Costa Rica, focusing on the influence of public policies on private incentives for preserving forest cover. Three periods are analyzed: the “laissez-faire period” when high rates of deforestation were largely unrestrained; the “interventionist period” when state policies created protection for some wildlands, especially with the creation of parks and reserves, but when many regulatory policies produced mixed results at best; and the current “hybrid period” featuring major policy changes and mixing market-oriented and interventionist approaches but not always in a coherent design. Despite significant successes, current policies appear unlikely to provide sufficient incentive to maintain the desired amount of forest cover unless the international community compensates Costa Ricans for the benefits that their forests provide the world.
The Renaissance of Oaxaca City's Historical Archives
Authors: Velázquez Mark Overmyer , Yannakakis Yanna
Published: October 2022

This research note is meant to serve as a working tool for scholars interested in pursuing archival investigations in Oaxaca City. Over the last fifteen years, the city has experienced a cultural renaissance characterized by renovation of its colonial architectural treasures and the establishment of institutions dedicated to the arts. This cultural renewal has provided the context for an equally impressive reinvigoration of the city's archives, thanks to the commitment of local historians, social scientists, and archivists to rescuing and cataloguing a wealth of historical documentation. To encourage and facilitate research, we provide a summary of the holdings and contact information for ten archives in addition to a select bibliography of secondary sources.
Dry Law, Wet Politics: Drinking and Prohibition in Post-Revolutionary Yucatán, 1915–1935
Authors: Fallaw Ben
Published: October 2022

Two radical revolutionary governors of Yucatán, Salvador Alvarado (1915–1918) and Felipe Carrillo Puerto (1922–1923), as well as many Yucatecan men and especially women considered prohibition as the key to reform, as was the case in many other regions of Mexico. Scholars, however, have long ignored the crucial role of alcohol in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Mexico. This article examines the linkages among prohibition, gender, and politics in Yucatán from the revolution to the eve of the Cardenista era. It also considers the role of alcohol as a lubricant in machine politics.