bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Luffin Xavier
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines the development of the novel genre in Somalia, Chad, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal. It begins with a discussion of the use of Arabic in sub-Saharan Africa and the emergence of a new literary tradition in English, French, and Italian during and after independence. It then considers the works of Arabophone novelists from those five countries. The chapter shows that Arabic literature in sub-Saharan Africa is not homogenous and that African authors enrich the contemporary Arabic novel by introducing new perspectives on familiar themes ranging from migration to war, exile, and new cultural features, while insisting on local history and customs.
Syria
Authors: Firat Alexa
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines the origins of the novel genre in Syria. Approximately eighteen novels by “Syrians” were published between 1865 and the 1930s, but only a limited number would have a significant influence in subsequent decades. In the 1930s, literary histories described an emerging “new generation” and the beginnings of a modern literary movement in the novel and the short story, and during the 1950s the practice of novel writing took on a truly meaningful proportion in Syria. This chapter also considers the role played by women writers and women’s issues in the development of the Syrian novel, works that showed tendencies of romanticism and social realism, contemporary historical novels, and the emergence of experimental novels and new narrative modes dealing with the Syrian experience.
The United Arab Emirates
Authors: al-Kilani Rehab
Published: August 2017

This chapter focuses on the development of the novel genre in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It begins with a background on the founding of the Union and the beginnings of Emirati literature, including the novel, and continues with a discussion of novels produced in the first three decades of the UAE. The chapter then shows that the Emirati novel began to take a new, bolder, and more experimental turn during the first decade of the new millennium, citing works that primarily tackle issues related to women’s status in society. It also considers trends in the novel genre since 2010, a period of transition for the Emirati novel.
Yemen
Authors: Wagner Mark
Published: August 2017

This chapter focuses on the development of the novel genre in Yemen. The novelistic form has taken a relatively long time to emerge in Yemen, but since 1992 Yemeni writers have produced a number of remarkable novels and the pace of publishing has increased. In addition, scholarly criticism of Yemeni fiction as a distinctive regional tradition has gotten well underway within the last decade. This chapter begins with an overview of the beginnings of the Yemeni novel before turning to works published from the revolution to unification (1962–1990), including historical novels. It also considers novels published from unification to the present, noting that Yemeni authors through the years have tackled a range of themes, including emigration, exile, racism, Muslim-Jewish relations, and cultural pluralism.
Australia
Authors: Hajjar Nijmeh
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines the development of the Arab Australian novel since its beginnings, surveying works produced in Arabic and English by three generations of Arab Australian authors. It first considers David Malouf, whose Johnno (1975) marks the beginning of the Arab Australian novel, before turning to first-generation immigrants who introduced the Arabic-language novel in the 1980s and the English-language immigrant novel in the mid-1990s. It then discusses the contribution of the second-generation Arab Australians in the literary field. It shows that the Arab Australian novel is more than just an “immigrant narrative,” or fictional “Arab voices in Diaspora,” and that all Arab Australian novelists, except for Malouf, are preoccupied with the questions of home and identity.
Britain
Authors: Nash Geoffrey P.
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines the development of Arab British fiction. It begins with an overview of the making of Arab British fiction, citing anti-colonialism, Orientalism, and hybridization as the main elements of Anglophone Arab writing up to the close of the twentieth century. It then considers British novels about Egypt in which paternalistic “genuine love” for, and “wise understanding” of, the politics of Egypt overlaid colonial attitudes. It also analyzes Arab British fiction in relation to the colonial experience Arabs received from British domination in Arab lands, which lasted from the end of World War I to the early 1950s. Finally, it discusses postcolonial crosscurrents in the works of Arab British women, along with the predicament of exile and Diasporic consciousness in male Arab British fiction.
Germany
Authors: Mohammad Yasemin
Published: August 2017

This chapter focuses on the development of the Arab German novel. Arab writers came to Germany primarily as students and political exiles and became well known in the country in the 1980s. In the beginning, most of them engaged with the thematics of immigration and cultural diversity and encountered prejudice in the reception of their works, as had Turkish writers. The work of the pioneers of Arab German literature was also categorized under the exclusionist term Gastarbeiterliteratur (guest worker literature) and Ausländerliteratur (literature of foreigners). After providing an overview of the beginnings and major themes of the Arab German novel, this chapter considers the works of pioneer writers from Syria, Lebanon, and the Negev, as well as those of Iraqi German writers.
Sweden
Authors: Lacatus Corina
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines novels of migration written in Swedish by authors with roots in Arab countries. Focusing on three autobiographical novels, the chapter shows that migration literature in Sweden is a reflection of sociopolitical realities of exclusion and discrimination. The three novels create a fictional reality informed by autobiographical experiences, represent the life of immigrants in Sweden, are told through the eyes of teenage characters, and may be considered coming-of-age narratives about the ontological experience of identity formation through a constant negotiation of personal experiences and stereotypes.
Translations and Adaptations from the European Novel, 1835–1925
Authors: Selim Samah
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines translations and adaptations of the European novel into Arabic during the period 1835–1925. More specifically, it considers the ways in which the novel and its translation into Arabic drew on and transformed much older forms of local, popular narrative knowledge that previously had been beyond the reach of authorizing discourses and structures. The chapter begins with a discussion of works of translated fiction that were published serially in journals and periodicals as part of the flowering of the periodical press. It then looks at the emergence of unattributed and falsely attributed translations, or what scholars of translation studies call pseudo-translations, before turning to Arabic novels that show how adaptations of the mysteries genre spoke directly to a local and contemporary social imaginary. The chapter also explores the relationship between fiction adaptation and the medieval Arab storytelling tradition.
Exploring Intersections of Technology, Play, Informality, and Innovation
Authors: Howell Gillian
Published: August 2017

The idea that “humans are the ones making the music” (Pignato, this volume) is the starting point for reflection upon the factors beyond new technologies that encourage musical innovation. In their core perspectives, Pignato, Peppler, and Kigozi offer illustrations of practices that demonstrate the inseparability of context, informality, and innovation. Context is critical, as different settings afford access to different technologies and produce diverse sociocultural structures. Informality—as a learning style, an approach to engagement, and settings beyond the formal music education institutions—is important for its accommodation of playfulness, open-ended exploration, and improvisation around imposed constraints. I argue that these factors, and the innovative responses that emerge when technologies and creative people converge, are interrelated and multidirectional. Regardless of how advanced our technological capabilities become, innovation and new musical expressions remain products of humans interacting and exploring technological possibilities within a specific time, space, and social environment.
Re-Situating Technology in Music Education
Authors: Tobias Evan
Published: August 2017

Technology’s place in music education is largely related to how it is socially constituted. Despite how technology enables intersections of and blurred boundaries between ways of being musical, it is often situated in terms of hard boundaries and compartmentalized notions of musical engagement. Furthermore, music education often situates technology as tools without necessarily considering related social, cultural, or musical contexts. This chapter addresses how philosophical, pedagogical, and curricular perspectives play a key role in the types and degree of change that occur in relation to technology and music education. I propose that music educators reconceptualize curriculum and resituate technology to address social and cultural issues explicitly. I invite music educators to consider the potential of digitally mediated musical engagement within the contexts of curriculum as experience and as social reconstruction. I consider how such change might occur and conceptual frameworks that might help in forwarding such work.
Equity and Access in Out-of-School Music Making
Authors: Peppler Kylie
Published: August 2017

This chapter focuses on the importance of community to both music education and the ways that youth shape their ideas, interests, and identities in music. Musical learning is rarely, if ever, about a learner operating a new musical technology-based tool in isolation. Music is inherently social, and these influences have a great impact upon the development of musical identities. This chapter explores the ways that out-of-school spaces like those in the Computer Clubhouse Network, YOUmedia, and Musical Futures support social music learning by providing private recording studios that allow youth to assume increasingly public roles as musicians, performers, and producers. The chapter also describes how mixing formal, nonformal, and informal learning spaces helps to develop a youth’s musical maturity through what is known as the “progression pathways model.”
Neural Connectivity of the Creative Mind
Authors: Loui Psyche , O'Brien Setareh , Sontag Samuel
Published: August 2017

Human creativity contributes to the engagement, achievement, and subjective well-being of individuals. As positive psychology embraces the use of scientific inquiry to increase happiness and improve well-being, the movement would be incomplete without a thorough investigation of this core human strength. While historiometric and psychometric studies have defined multiple areas for creativity research, a neuroscientific understanding of how the human brain serves creativity is only beginning to be realized. This chapter reviews the literature on the neuroscience of creativity, with special foci on how different components of creative cognition and domains of perception relate to the structural and functional connectivity of the human brain, and how these patterns of brain connectivity can inform interventions that foster creativity and innovation.
The Evolution and Exploitation of Transcendence
Authors: Gorelik Gregory
Published: August 2017

This chapter discusses the transcendent experience, which is defined as an ego-dissolving encounter with something greater than one’s self. The transcendent experience is cross-cultural and panhistorical. This chapter presents a model describing the evolution and function of various evolved modes of transcendence, such as group-directed transcendence, theory of mind (ToM) transcendence, aesthetic transcendence, and epistemic transcendence. It then discusses the susceptibility of these modes of transcendence to costly exploitation by selfish individuals. The ensuing sections discuss the relationship between transcendence and human development across the lifespan, and concludes with some thoughts on the epistemic and ethical utility of transcendence.
Forensic History
Authors: Hutson Lorna
Published: August 2017

Written at the time of the accession of a Scots king to the English throne, Henry V has been called a ‘succession play’. Yet although critics have discussed the play’s representation of Ireland and Wales, its representation of Scotland goes unmentioned. This chapter argues that Henry V’s chronicle sources and dramatic precursors are profoundly engaged with England’s disputed claim to legal overlordship of Scotland, revived by England’s invasion of Scotland in the 1540s and thereafter by various legal treatises on the Stewart succession. Shakespeare’s success in effacing the Scottish dimensions of his historical sources is a triumph of the dramatic use of forensic rhetoric to shift legal questions of national sovereignty into apparently universal questions of inwardness, conscience, and ‘character’.
The Literary Thing
Authors: Sale Carolyn
Published: August 2017

The chapter situates one of the first known printed books of verse by an Englishwoman, Isabella Whitney’s Sweet Nosgay or Pleasant Posye (1573), in relation to one of the watershed legal developments of the sixteenth century, the Statute of Wills (1540), and a case reported by Edmund Plowden in his Commentaries (1571, 1579), Paramour v. Yardley, to establish the political character of the book’s final poem, its ‘Wyl to London.’ In the face of legal developments that supported a culture of ownership, especially in relation to land-holding arrangements, the poem manifests literature’s importance to a countervailing culture of holding things in common.
Epieikeia and Conscience
Authors: Cromartie Alan
Published: August 2017

St German changed the course of legal history by linking ‘equity’ with epieikeia. The Aristotelian concept originally denoted a personal virtue involving clemency and moderation, but could be taken to refer to a hermeneutic method requiring reconstruction of a law-maker’s intentions. St German’s understanding borrowed from Gerson the idea that laws tacitly incorporate ‘exceptions’ in the name of higher laws of God and nature. Equity/epieikeia was an expression of the Chancellor’s conscience because ‘conscience’ was an act of application of a rule. This rule-based theory of equity assimilated it to law and severed it from purely gratuitous mercy. There were long-term implications for English monarchy.
The Legal Masque
Authors: Butler Martin
Published: August 2017

Masques and revels at the Inns of Court were public ritual occasions in which the termers could symbolically display the values of law and liberty with which they identified, as well as stage the aspirations and tensions experienced by their profession. Sometimes (as with The Triumph of Peace, 1634) these masques involved implied critique of the legality of royal policies. More often (as with masques danced during the period when Sir Francis Bacon was pre-eminent), they dramatized the on-going rapport between the Crown and its lawyers, underlining the obligations on both sides to pursue the values of trust and mutual respect.
The Torture of John Felton, 1628
Authors: Bellany Alastair
Published: August 2017

The chapter explores the legal, political, and literary contexts of the possible torture of John Felton, the 1628 assassin of the royal favourite George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. It reassesses the authorities’ debates about torturing Felton, analyses newsletter reports of the assassin’s alleged response to the threat, and concludes with a close reading of the representation of torture in Zouche Townley’s libel ‘To His Confined Friend Mr. Felton’, and Philip Massinger’s play The Roman Actor. The chapter illustrates the connections among early modern English legal, literary, and political imaginaries, while exploring how these imaginaries shaped and were shaped by controversial political events. It argues that these representations of the Felton case reveal diverse attitudes to judicial torture and expose the depth of political polarization in later 1620s England.
Henry V, Anachronism, and the History of International Law
Authors: Warren Christopher N.
Published: August 2017

Historians, literary scholars, and international lawyers interested in the early modern period have all grappled with the problem of anachronism, yet mostly independently of one another. This essay uses the question of war crime in Shakespeare’s Henry V to argue that early modernists interested in international law need not reject synchronic historicism for explicitly anachronistic or presentist approaches. Proposing as a new context for Shakespeare’s play a little-known humanist disputation by the civil lawyer Alberico Gentili, De amis Romanis (1599), it illuminates a juridical approach to the international past cultivated in the early modern period alongside the rise of international law—an approach closely linked with literary epistemologies.
Managing the Later Stuart Press, 1662–1696
Authors: Dzelzainis Martin
Published: August 2017

The system of pre-publication censorship laid down in 1662 finally collapsed when the Printing Act expired in 1695. Yet even in the interim censorship rarely took the form of a direct confrontation between a writer and the state. In practice, the authorities simply lacked the means to police a regime of censorship of the kind now associated with the impersonal agency of the state. More representative of the way in which the Stuarts managed the press is the career of George Larkin (c.1642–1707), a printer, bookseller, and author overlooked in standard accounts of the London literary underground. This chapter provides a case study of Larkin against the background of these legislative developments.
The Sermon
Authors: Shami Jeanne
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines the sermon in post-Reformation England, and its development as the pre-eminent genre of instruction, edification, and conversion to Christian believers of all stripes. Beginning with its roots in traditional religious and classical forms and its development as a flexible form restrained by ecclesiastical regulation, censorship, and gender, the chapter emphasizes the sermon’s radically occasional nature and its elusive performative impact. The chapter explores the experience of sermon delivery and reception in oral and written forms, shaped by the institutional and public settings in which it was delivered, and by the historical/political contexts (both national and local) in which it emerged. Connections to other genres—plays, conduct books, catechisms, newsbooks, satiric pamphlets are also outlined. The chapter emphasizes the sermon as a form with family features adapted to local circumstances with an inherently political and controversial potential both at the moment of delivery and beyond.
John Milton
Authors: Martin Catherine Gimelli
Published: August 2017

Milton’s religious outlook blends Christian humanism, including its dedication to close textual analysis, with idealistic, even futuristic or Baconian longings for a new, thoroughly reformed church and state. His most radical and unpuritanical ideas include ending state censorship, state support of the clergy, and clerical control of divorce, since he views marriage as a civil contract cancellable on grounds of incompatibility. Milton’s early prose and poetry express these ideas, but his most successful early poems blend Neoplatonic motifs of ascent with a strong moral emphasis on free choice. Paradise Lost continues that emphasis, but tempered by a vivid portrait of Satan and a deferred, if still sublime vision of heavenly reward. Its expanded epic cosmos reappears in Paradise Regained, but without the extraterrestrial landscapes or dynamic conflicts of the original. This chapter concludes that Samson Agonistes is truly ‘Greek’ in its tragic, meditative focus on self-betrayal, self-knowledge, and social renewal.
Lay Households
Authors: Trill Suzanne
Published: August 2017

This chapter is primarily concerned with how devotional texts were used within lay (that is, non-clerical) households. As the household was frequently identified as ‘a little commonwealth’ such ‘private’ devotions had ‘political’ connotations, especially during a period in which officially sanctioned religious practices were continually shifting. This chapter focuses on how these changes impacted upon the devotions of three quite distinct seventeenth-century households: the controversial community established at Little Gidding by Nicholas Ferrar; the Presbyterian practice of Nehemiah Wallington’s household in Eastcheap; and, finally, the experience of Anne, Lady Halkett (née Murray) who solidly maintained her commitment to the Church of England whatever household she inhabited (whether in England or Scotland). While the differences between them are numerous, collectively these cases bear witness to the material ways in which early modern household devotions were a political minefield.
The Jewish Diaspora
Authors: Shoulson Jeffrey
Published: August 2017

Though Jews were almost entirely physically absent from England between the end of the thirteenth and the end of the seventeenth centuries, they were nevertheless the source of considerable interest. They served as a focal point for the volatile English–Spanish relations of the period. Their writings were extensively consulted in the controversy surrounding the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In addition, with the fitful advance of the English Reformation, Jewish sources become increasingly important to confessional disputes and competing efforts at Bible translations. Throughout the period, the figure of the converted Jew came to embody anxieties about religious transformation and the political and economic treachery that came along with spiritual infidelity, even as providentialist and millenarian enthusiasts looked forward to Jewish conversion as a sure sign of the end of time.
Sacred and Secular Love
Authors: Wilcox Helen
Published: August 2017

This chapter explores early modern literary responses to one of the most fundamental issues in the Christian faith—the love of God for humankind, and its reception and reciprocation by individuals and communities. Textual explorations of sacred love, closely interlinked with writings about secular love, are drawn from the full chronological span of the volume, ranging from Richard Rolle in 1506 to Damaris Masham in 1696. The works discussed are from a wide variety of genres, including lyric poetry, devotional prose, prayers, sermons, and autobiographical writings. The subject of love is seen to open up some of the major religious controversies of the period, including the nature of Christ’s redemptive love and its expression in the Eucharist; the possible tension between love for God and charity towards others; and the roles of gender, sacrifice, perplexity, and mystery in the relationship between God and humanity.
The Elizabethan Church of England and the Origins of Anglicanism
Authors: Kirby Torrance
Published: August 2017

Chapter 4 examines the history of worship, ecclesiastical government, theological developments, and religious change in Britain during the reign of Elizabeth. It commences with a wider-ranging discussion of the changing sense of the designation ‘ecclesia anglicana’. It pays attention to: the growing diversification of schismatic forces at work in the British isles during this period; changes in doctrinal programmes promulgated in response to changes of monarch; and the proliferation of cultural debate concerning the representation of Christian and non-Christian in manuscript and print culture in this period. The chapter explores selected ‘test cases’ of writers and documents from the period to illuminate particular issues. It considers the hermeneutics proposed by John Jewel in his famous ‘Challenge Sermon’ of 1559, the doctrinal formula of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (1563/71) and concludes with a consideration of the distinctive synthesis of ‘Reformed’ and ‘Catholic’ tendencies in the Elizabethan religious settlement.
Early Stuart Controversy
Authors: Prior Charles W. A.
Published: August 2017

The literature of religious controversy that appeared between 1603 and 1642 was concerned with much more than debates on predestinarian theology. Instead, it should be seen as a vital conduit for the discussion of one of the most powerful legacies of the English Reformation: the relationship of church and state. Chapter 5 explores this theme by indicating how the reformation process generated political questions on the nature of power over and outside of the Church, before tracing prominent themes in the controversial literature of the Jacobean and Caroline Churches. The chapter argues that religious controversy drove the process of state-formation in the British Atlantic world, and fed into debates on liberty, toleration, and freedom of conscience.
How Meat Made us Human
Authors: Bunn Henry T. , Pickering Travis Rayne , Domínguez-Rodrigo Manuel
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines the oldest known archaeological evidence from 2.6–1.5 million years ago (Ma) from several sites in East Africa, to improve understanding of the diet and related behavioural capabilities of early human ancestors (hominins) from that period. The archaeological evidence from the period consists of both small scatters and large, dense concentrations of flaked stone tools often found with fossil bones of large animals. The proportions of different skeletal elements, particularly once-meaty limb bones, and the abundance of stone-tool butchery damage on those bones, indicate that by 1.84 Ma at the FLK Zinj site at Olduvai Gorge, hominins had first access to prey carcasses. Moreover, mortality (age at death) profiles suggest active hunting by early Homo rather than secondary access to scavenged carcasses. Evidently, early Homo was repeatedly transporting meaty portions of large carcasses for delayed consumption and probable food sharing—behaviours characteristic of humans, not apes.
Principles of Aphasia Rehabilitation
Authors: Raymer Anastasia M. , Gonzalez Rothi Leslie J.
Published: August 2017

This chapter reviews the broad literature on approaches to treatment of aphasia. Behavioral interventions for aphasia are influenced by perspectives from neuroscience that emphasize that neuroplasticity in rehabilitation is experience-dependent and potent. Several principles of neuroplasticity are reviewed, and examples are described from the aphasia treatment literature. Additional principles are considered regarding influences of error production and feedback in aphasia rehabilitation outcomes. Adjuvant treatments then are described that are meant to enhance behavioral treatment outcomes through pharmacologic and neuromodulatory interventions. Finally, life participation approaches are highlighted that encourage use of multi-modality communication for daily life activities along with training of communication partners. An interdisciplinary process is emphasized in which many professionals work together to provide individuals with aphasia the maximum benefits in language recovery, communication skills, and meaningful social engagement and quality of life.
Impact of Insecticide Applications on Arthropod Predators and Plant Feeders in Cambodian Rice Fields
Authors: Ngin Chhay , Suon Seng , Tanaka Toshiharu , Yamauchi Akira , Kawakita Kazuhito , Chiba Sotaro
Published: August 2017

Rice (Oryza sativa) is the staple crop of Cambodia. The heavy use of pesticides has caused significant financial losses to local farmers. This study examined the necessity and economic viability of insecticide use for rice cultivation, and the multiple interactions between the populations of both insect pests and natural enemies in dry-season rice fields. The outcomes of calendar-based insecticide-sprayed and non-sprayed rice fields were compared at three provincial research stations in Cambodia in terms of rice growth, economic returns, damage caused by insect pests, and population dynamics of insect pests and arthropod natural enemies. The results showed that rice fields without insecticide application did not suffer significant damage by insect pests or by diseases and had similar yields to those treated with insecticide application in two provinces. Although the occurrence of caseworm was observed in the third province, this was successfully controlled by an integrated pest management (IPM) treatment without using insecticides. Insufficient densities of natural enemies appeared to correlate with the caseworm outbreak in this location, whereas high densities of natural enemies relative to those of insect pests contributed to control potential pest expansion in the other two provinces. Natural enemy populations were significantly decreased by insecticide applications. Reduced insecticide input in the insecticide-free control and IPM plots resulted in higher net profits than those in insecticide-applied plots, except for plots in the region with a caseworm outbreak (insecticide-free). Overall, this study provides encouraging insight into cost effective and environmentally friendly pest management in Cambodian rice fields.
The changing landscape of gene editing in hematopoietic stem cells: a step towards Cas9 clinical translation
Authors: Dever Daniel P. , Porteus Matthew H.
Published: August 2017

Purpose of review

Since the discovery two decades ago that programmable endonucleases can be engineered to modify human cells at single nucleotide resolution, the concept of genome editing was born. Now these technologies are being applied to therapeutically relevant cell types, including hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), which possess the power to repopulate an entire blood and immune system. The purpose of this review is to discuss the changing landscape of genome editing in hematopoietic stem cells (GE-HSC) from the discovery stage to the preclinical stage, with the imminent goal of clinical translation for the treatment of serious genetic diseases of the blood and immune system.

Recent findings

With the discovery that the RNA-programmable (sgRNA) clustered regularly interspace short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas9 nuclease (Cas9/sgRNA) systems can be easily used to precisely modify the human genome in 2012, a genome-editing revolution of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) has bloomed. We have observed that over the last 2 years, academic institutions and small biotech companies are developing HSC-based Cas9/sgRNA genome-editing curative strategies to treat monogenic disorders, including β-hemoglobinopathies and primary immunodeficiencies. We will focus on recent publications (within the past 2 years) that employ different genome-editing strategies to ‘hijack’ the cell's endogenous double-strand repair pathways to confer a disease-specific therapeutic advantage.

The number of genome-editing strategies in HSCs that could offer therapeutic potential for diseases of the blood and immune system have dramatically risen over the past 2 years. The HSC-based genome-editing field is primed to enter clinical trials in the subsequent years. We will summarize the major advancements for the development of novel autologous GE-HSC cell and gene therapy strategies for hematopoietic diseases that are candidates for curative allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.
A systems approach to the characterization and classification of T-cell responses
Authors: Yamamoto Shinobu , Whalen Elizabeth , Chujo Daisuke , Nattamai Durgha , Baldwin Nicole , O’Brien Kimberly , Nguyen Quynh-Anh , Gersuk Vivian , Anguiano Esperanza , Yang Junbao , Kwok William W , Banchereau Jacques , Ueno Hideki , Chaussabel Damien
Published: August 2017

Types of T-cell responses are categorized on the basis of a limited number of molecular markers selected usinga prioriknowledge about T-cell immunobiology. We sought to develop a novel systems-based approach for the creation of an unbiased framework enabling assessment of antigenic-peptide specific T-cell responsesin vitro. A meta-analysis of transcriptome data from PBMCs stimulated with a wide range of peptides identified patterns of gene regulation that provided an unbiased classification of types of antigen-specific responses. Further analysis yielded new insight about the molecular processes engaged following antigenic stimulation. This led for instance to the identification of transcription factors not previously studied in the context of T-cell differentiation. Taken together this profiling approach can serve as a basis for the unbiased characterization of antigen-specific responses and as a foundation for the development of novel systems-based immune profiling assays.
Pathway-Level Integration of Proteogenomic Data in Breast Cancer Using Independent Component Analysis
Authors: Liu Wenke , Ma Sisi , Fenyö David
Published: August 2017

Recent advances in the multi-omics characterization necessitate pathway-level abstraction and knowledge integration across different data types. In this study, we apply independent component analysis (ICA) to human breast cancer proteogenomics data to retrieve mechanistic information. We show that as an unsupervised feature extraction method, ICA was able to construct signatures with known biological relevance on both transcriptome and proteome levels. Moreover, proteome and transcriptome signatures can be associated by their respective correlation with patient clinical features, providing an integrated description of phenotype-related biological processes. Our results demonstrate that the application of ICA to proteogenomics data could lead to pathway-level knowledge discovery. Potential extension of this approach to other data and cancer types may contribute to pan-cancer integration of multi-omics information.
Computational investigation of biological and technical variability in high throughput phenotyping and cell line identification
Authors: Friedman Samuel H. , Macklin Paul
Published: August 2017

High-throughput cell profiling experiments are characterizing cell phenotype under a broad variety of microenvironmental and therapeutic conditions. However, biological and technical variability are contributing to wide ranges of reported parameter values, even for standard cell lines grown in identical conditions. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model of cell proliferation assays that account for biological and technical variability and limitations of the experimental platforms, including (1) cell confluency effects, (2) biological variability and technical errors in pipetting, (3) biological variability in proliferation characteristics, (4) technical variability and uncertainty in measurement timing, (5) cell counting errors, and (6) the impact of limited temporal sampling. We use this model to create synthetic datasets with growth rates and measurement times typical of cancer cell cultures, and investigate the impact of the initial cell seeding density and the common practice of fitting exponential growth curves to three cell count measurements. We find that the combined sources of variability mask the sub-exponential growth characteristics of the synthetic datasets, and that researchers profiling the same cell lines under different seeding characteristics can find significant (p< 0.05) differences in the measured growth rates. Even seeding the cells at 1% of the confluent limit can cause significant (p< 0.05) differences in the measured growth rate from the ground truth. We explored the effect of reducing errors in each part of the virtual experimental system, and found the best improvements from reducing timing errors, reducing cell counting errors, or reducing the interval between measurements (to reduce the inaccuracy of the exponential growth assumption when fitting curves). Reducing biological variability and pipetting errors had the least impact, because any improvements are still masked by cell counting errors. We close with a discussion of recommended practices for high-throughput cell phenotyping and cell line identification systems.
The punctilious RNA polymerase II core promoter
Authors: Vo ngoc Long , Wang Yuan-Liang , Kassavetis George A. , Kadonaga James T.
Published: August 2017

The signals that direct the initiation of transcription ultimately converge at the core promoter, which is the gateway to transcription. Here we provide an overview of the RNA polymerase II core promoter in bilateria (bilaterally symmetric animals). The core promoter is diverse in terms of its composition and function yet is also punctilious, as it acts with strict rules and precision. We additionally describe an expanded view of the core promoter that comprises the classical DNA sequence motifs, sequence-specific DNA-binding transcription factors, chromatin signals, and DNA structure. This model may eventually lead to a more unified conceptual understanding of the core promoter.
Overview of challenges to implementation of good practice in perinatal mental health promotion and management, in universal primary care and community services
Authors: Marks Lucy
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the barriers and solutions to implementing good practice in perinatal mental health promotion in universal services, and propose some ways forward.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper describes the rationale and evidence base for proactive management of perinatal mental health in primary care and community services and good practice recommendations. There is considerable evidence that these recommendations have not been implemented nationally in the UK. A range of solutions and proposed ways forward to manage barriers to implementation are set out.

Findings

It is proposed that a number of factors need to be in place in order to deliver best practice in perinatal mental health.

Originality/value

The value of this paper is to set out what needs to be in place in order for services to promote good perinatal mental health and secure attachment and change the life chances of children and their parents, by intervening early. This will also ultimately save financial resources for public services, because the quality of early relationships is linked to health and mental health.
Predicting the impacts of wind farms on seabirds: An individual‐based model
Authors: Warwick‐Evans Victoria , Atkinson Phil W. , Walkington Ian , Green Jonathan A.
Published: August 2017

Individual‐based models (IBMs) are a powerful tool in predicting the consequences of environmental change on animal populations and supporting evidence‐based decision making for conservation planning.

There are increasing proposals for wind farms in UK waters and seabirds are a vulnerable group, which may be at risk from these developments.

We developed a spatially explicit IBM to investigate the potential impacts of the installation of wind farms in the English Channel and North Sea on body mass, productivity and mortality of a breeding population of Northern gannets for which we have tracking data.

A baseline model with no wind farms accurately represented the status of a sample of tracked gannets at the end of the 90‐day chick‐rearing period, and the behaviour‐time budget was similar to that of tracked gannets.

Model simulations in the presence of wind farms indicated that installations should have little impact on the gannet population, when either avoidance behaviour or collision risk scenarios were simulated. Furthermore, wind farms would need to be ten times larger or in more highly used areas in order to have population‐level impacts on Alderney's gannets.

Synthesis and applications. Our spatially explicit individual‐based models (IBM) highlight that it is vital to know the colony‐specific foraging grounds of seabirds that may be impacted, when identifying potential wind farm sites, in order to account for cumulative impacts from multiple sites. Avoiding areas highly used for foraging and commuting, and avoiding large‐scale developments should be effective in limiting gannet mortality as a result of collision, competition and energy expenditure. Our IBM provides a robust approach which can be adapted for other seabird populations or to predict the impacts from other types of spatial change in the marine environment.
Basidiomycete‐specific PsCaMKL1 encoding a CaMK‐like protein kinase is required for full virulence of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici
Authors: Jiao Min , Yu Dan , Tan Chenglong , Guo Jia , Lan Dingyun , Han Ershang , Qi Tuo , Voegele Ralf Thomas , Kang Zhensheng , Guo Jun
Published: August 2017

Calcium/calmodulin‐dependent kinases (CaMKs) are Ser/Thr protein kinases (PKs) that respond to changes in cytosolic free Ca2+ and play diverse roles in eukaryotes. In fungi, CAMKs are generally classified into four families CAMK1, CAMKL, RAD53 and CAMK‐Unique. Among these, CAMKL constitutes the largest family. In some fungal plant pathogens, members of the CaMKL family have been shown to be responsible for pathogenesis. However, little is known about their role(s) in rust fungi. In this study, we functionally characterized a novel PK gene, PsCaMKL1, from Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst). PsCaMKL1 belongs to a group of PKs that is evolutionarily specific to basidiomyceteous fungi. PsCaMKL1 shows little intra‐species polymorphism between Pst isolates. PsCaMKL1 transcripts are highly elevated at early infection stages, whereas gene expression is downregulated in barely germinated urediospores under KN93 treatment. Overexpression of PsCaMKL1 in fission yeast increased resistance to environmental stresses. Knock down of PsCaMKL1 using host‐induced gene silencing (HIGS) reduced the virulence of Pst accompanied by reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and a hypersensitive response. These results suggest that PsCaMKL1 is a novel pathogenicity factor that exerts it virulence function by regulating ROS production in wheat.
Racial entanglements and sociological confusions: repudiating the rehabilitation of integration
Authors: Valluvan Sivamohan
Published: August 2017

In line with the broader nationalist advances currently remaking the Western political landscape, the concept of integration has witnessed a marked rehabilitation. Whilst many influential critiques of the sociology of integration are already available, this article contests the concept's renewed purchase through addressing its own internal incoherence. Based on research in Stockholm, this critique concerns the relationship between ethnic identity and cultural integration. It will be argued that integration and the production of difference are intertwined, entangled dualities, and far from being a benign entanglement, this duality is premised on the force and reach of everyday civic racisms. Of pivotal and unique analytical significance here is the observation that racism should not only be considered an exogenous process that impedes integration, but as a multifaceted phenomenon folded into integration.
About how to capture and exploit the CO2 surplus that nature, per se, is not capable of fixing
Authors: Godoy Manuel S. , Mongili Beatrice , Fino Debora , Prieto M. Auxiliadora
Published: August 2017

Human activity has been altering many ecological cycles for decades, disturbing the natural mechanisms which are responsible for re‐establishing the normal environmental balances. Probably, the most disrupted of these cycles is the cycle of carbon. In this context, many technologies have been developed for an efficient CO2 removal from the atmosphere. Once captured, it could be stored in large geological formations and other reservoirs like oceans. This strategy could present some environmental and economic problems. Alternately, CO2 can be transformed into carbonates or different added‐value products, such as biofuels and bioplastics, recycling CO2 from fossil fuel. Currently different methods are being studied in this field. We classified them into biological, inorganic and hybrid systems for CO2 transformation. To be environmentally compatible, they should be powered by renewable energy sources. Although hybrid systems are still incipient technologies, they have made great advances in the recent years. In this scenario, biotechnology is the spearhead of ambitious strategies to capture CO2 and reduce global warming.
Biofloc technology application in aquaculture to support sustainable development goals
Authors: Bossier Peter , Ekasari Julie
Published: August 2017

Biofloc technology (BFT) application offers benefits in improving aquaculture production that could contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals. This technology could result in higher productivity with less impact to the environment. Furthermore, biofloc systems may be developed and performed in integration with other food production, thus promoting productive integrated systems, aiming at producing more food and feed from the same area of land with fewer input. The biofloc technology is still in its infant stage. A lot more research is needed to optimise the system (in relation to operational parameters) e.g. in relation to nutrient recycling, MAMP production, immunological effects. In addition research findings will need to be communicated to farmers as the implementation of biofloc technology will require upgrading their skills.
High frequency jet ventilation for motion management during ablation procedures, a narrative review
Authors: Galmén K. , Harbut P. , Freedman J. , Jakobsson J. G.
Published: August 2017

Background

High frequency jet ventilation (HFJV) is a method of ventilation that has gained renewed interest over the recent years as it can reduce organ movement to near static conditions, thus enhancing surgical precision in minimal invasive procedures, for example, ablation procedures for atrial fibrillation and solid organ tumours. The aim of this review was to create a summary of the current evidence concerning the clinical use of HFJV for ablative procedures.

Method

PubMed was searched for the key words high frequency ventilation and ablation January 1990–December 2016.

Result

The search initially identified 34 papers, 14 met the inclusion criteria. Articles in other languages than English (n = 1), comments regarding other articles (n = 4) and articles that did not include HFJV or ablative procedures (n = 15) were excluded. Two articles were added from references in papers included from the primary search. Sixteen studies were finally included in the review; four updates/reviews and 12 papers with results from studies of HFJV on humans, with a total of 889 patients; 498 patients ventilated with HFJV and 391 controls. There were no randomised studies. The overall scientific quality of the studies was low.

Conclusion

There is a lack of well‐designed studies evaluating HFJV during ablation procedures. The available information, while sparse, supports the effect of less tissue movement, resulting in better surgical precision and outcome; such as shorter procedural time, fewer shock waves (ESWL) and less recurrence of atrial fibrillation. Randomised controlled studies are needed in this promising area of research to prove its superiority to standard ventilation.