bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ІНФОРМАЦІЙНІ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ В РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ РЕАБІЛІТАЦІЙНИХ ПРОГРАМ У ПАЦІЄНТІВ ПОХИЛОГО ВІКУ З ПЕРВИННИМ ГОНАРТРОЗОМ
Authors: Mintser O. P. , Vakulenko D. V. , Sirant H. O. , Misula I. R. , Bakalyuk T. G.
Published: February 2018

An organizational experiment was conducted on the basis of the rehabilitation hospital and sanatorium institution. The possibility of applying information technologies to provide a dynamic assessment of the effectiveness of rehabilitation and individual refinement of rehabilitation measures is shown, which helps to increase the level of rehabilitation care for elderly patients with primary gonarthrosis.
Smooth Muscle Cell–Mineralocorticoid Receptor as a Mediator of Cardiovascular Stiffness With Aging
Authors: Kim Seung Kyum , McCurley Amy T. , DuPont Jennifer J. , Aronovitz Mark , Moss M. Elizabeth , Stillman Isaac E. , Karumanchi S. Ananth , Christou Demetra D. , Jaffe Iris Z.
Published: February 2018

Stiffening of the vasculature with aging is a strong predictor of adverse cardiovascular events, independent of all other risk factors including blood pressure, yet no therapies target this process. MRs (mineralocorticoid receptors) in smooth muscle cells (SMCs) have been implicated in the regulation of vascular fibrosis but have not been explored in vascular aging. Comparing SMC-MR–deleted male mice to MR-intact littermates at 3, 12, and 18 months of age, we demonstrated that aging-associated vascular stiffening and fibrosis are mitigated by MR deletion in SMCs. Progression of cardiac stiffness and fibrosis and the decline in exercise capacity with aging were also mitigated by MR deletion in SMC. Vascular gene expression profiling analysis revealed that MR deletion in SMC is associated with recruitment of a distinct antifibrotic vascular gene expression program with aging. Moreover, long-term pharmacological inhibition of MR in aged mice prevented the progression of vascular fibrosis and stiffness and induced a similar antifibrotic vascular gene program. Finally, in a small trial in elderly male humans, short-term MR antagonism produced an antifibrotic signature of circulating biomarkers similar to that observed in the vasculature of SMC-MR–deleted mice. These findings suggest that SMC-MR contributes to vascular stiffening with aging and is a potential therapeutic target to prevent the progression of aging-associated vascular fibrosis and stiffness.
Spironolactone Versus Clonidine as a Fourth-Drug Therapy for Resistant Hypertension
Authors: Krieger Eduardo M. , Drager Luciano F. , Giorgi Dante M.A. , Pereira Alexandre C. , Barreto-Filho José Augusto Soares , Nogueira Armando R. , Mill José Geraldo , Lotufo Paulo A. , Amodeo Celso , Batista Marcelo C. , Bodanese Luiz C. , Carvalho Antônio C.C. , Castro Iran , Chaves Hilton , Costa Eduardo A.S. , Feitosa Gilson S. , Franco Roberto J.S. , Fuchs Flávio D. , Guimarães Armênio C. , Jardim Paulo C. , Machado Carlos A. , Magalhães Maria E. , Mion Décio , Nascimento Raimundo M. , Nobre Fernando , Nóbrega Antônio C. , Ribeiro Antônio L.P. , Rodrigues-Sobrinho Carlos R. , Sanjuliani Antônio F. , Teixeira Maria do Carmo B. , Krieger Jose E. , Betito Alessandro , Fagundes Moia Diogo Duarte , de Souza Silvia Beatriz Paulino Cavasin , Júnior Hilton de Castro Chaves
Published: February 2018

The aim of this study is to compare spironolactone versus clonidine as the fourth drug in patients with resistant hypertension in a multicenter, randomized trial. Medical therapy adherence was checked by pill counting. Patients with resistant hypertension (no office and ambulatory blood pressure [BP] monitoring control, despite treatment with 3 drugs, including a diuretic, for 12 weeks) were randomized to an additional 12-week treatment with spironolactone (12.5–50 mg QD) or clonidine (0.1–0.3 mg BID). The primary end point was BP control during office (<140/90 mm Hg) and 24-h ambulatory (<130/80 mm Hg) BP monitoring. Secondary end points included BP control from each method and absolute BP reduction. From 1597 patients recruited, 11.7% (187 patients) fulfilled the resistant hypertension criteria. Compared with the spironolactone group (n=95), the clonidine group (n=92) presented similar rates of achieving the primary end point (20.5% versus 20.8%, respectively; relative risk, 1.01 [0.55–1.88];
P
=1.00). Secondary end point analysis showed similar office BP (33.3% versus 29.3%) and ambulatory BP monitoring (44% versus 46.2%) control for spironolactone and clonidine, respectively. However, spironolactone promoted greater decrease in 24-h systolic and diastolic BP and diastolic daytime ambulatory BP than clonidine. Per-protocol analysis (limited to patients with ≥80% adherence to spironolactone/clonidine treatment) showed similar results regarding the primary end point. In conclusion, clonidine was not superior to spironolactone in true resistant hypertensive patients, but the overall BP control was low (≈21%). Considering easier posology and greater decrease in secondary end points, spironolactone is preferable for the fourth-drug therapy.

Clinical Trial Registration—

URL:
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov
. Unique identifier: NCT01643434.
Re-viewing William Blake’s Paradise Regained (c. 1816–1820)
Authors: Billingsley Naomi
Published: February 2018

This article presents a revisionist reading of William Blake’s (1757–1827) twelve watercolor designs for John Milton’s “Paradise Regained” (c. 1816–1820). The designs have previously been dismissed in critical commentary as of little interest to Blake scholarship, or regarded as a narrative merely about Christ’s human nature. This article argues that they are also a visual expression of Blake’s cosmology; it is proposed that the designs express a positive cosmology, in which Paradise is not so much to be regained, as re-viewed. The article argues that Blake emphasizes Christ’s divinity in the designs and that he is depicted as an immanent, sacramental presence in the world; hence, the world that Christ inhabits in the designs is a Paradise. The article begins by outlining its reading of Blake’s view of the material world, and moves on to discuss the “Paradise Regained” designs in detail, with a particular focus on The Baptism of Christ, the opening subject of the series, which establishes the positive cosmology presented throughout the series.
Paradise City
Authors: Coltrin Chris
Published: February 2018

In a century defined by the rise of cities, the early nineteenth-century painter John Martin broke artistic precedents and represented heavenly Paradise as a space premised on urban living. Though he did not entirely reject the more traditional conception of Paradise as a garden, he merged the rural vision of Paradise with urban structures and spaces. Martin’s widespread popularity, combined with the contentious discourses regarding the nature of the city, ensured that his representations engaged a set of public debates regarding the nature of urban life in profound ways. Martin’s paintings and prints suggested that God not only tolerates cities, but that God builds them and resides in them. In essence, his paintings and prints revealed an urban heaven that helped make a political and religious case for urban life in general.
Spires and Cathedrals
Authors: Heitschmidt Gregg
Published: February 2018

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, especially between 1859 and 1872, Union officers and enlisted men, scientists and explorers, artists and writers traveled westward. Surveyors appraised and mapped; expeditionary members explored and then wrote, hoping to convey the wonders they had witnessed. The western wilderness was an enormous expanse, one that as easily represented commercial possibilities as it did a new ideal. Nevertheless, the western wilderness also mesmerized and inspired, provoking a type of awe and wonderment in its languorous canyons, exploding fumaroles, bubbling hot springs, and soaring granite spires. From the Rockies to the Sawtooths, from the Cascades to the Tetons, the mountains of the American West mystified and hypnotized those who saw them. The Sierra Nevadas, in particular, became the locus for artists and writers. Their paintings and publications, in turn, inspired entire groups to travel to the Yosemite Valley in order to ponder the sublime beauties of Nature found there. Through the paintings and sketches of Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, and through the meticulous journal entries and travel narratives of Clarence King and John Muir—whose work as a Naturalist eventually helped establish the Valley as a National Park—Yosemite captured the imagination of the American people, as its spires, cliffs, and waterfalls had been artistically transformed from mere tourist destinations into sites of divine revelation.
Found or Recovered?
Authors: Weichbrodt Elissa Yukiko
Published: February 2018

In the 1880s, American artists Charles Furneaux, Joseph D. Strong, and Jules Tavernier—who later became known as the “Volcano School”—traveled to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and produced dozens of landscapes ranging from otherworldly scenes of volcanoes to vistas of untouched, pristine beaches. While white, upper-class landowners in Hawai‘i served as the primary patrons of such paintings, the reigning monarch, King David Kalākaua, also commissioned his own sweeping landscapes from the same artists. This article focuses on the two competing narratives of paradise at work in both these paintings and writings about the Hawaiian Islands in the 1880s. “Paradise” could invoke a Romantic position, one that celebrated the landscape’s wildness and equated nature in its pure state with the lost Garden of Eden. On the other hand, Kalākaua’s commissions reflect what environmental historian Carolyn Merchant calls the Recovery Narrative: a story of humans reversing the effects of the biblical Fall by subjugating desolate and distant wilds and transforming them into fruitful lands. This article argues that Kalākaua’s presentation of “paradise” was part of a multi-pronged but ultimately failed strategy to resist American imperialism and present the Kingdom of Hawai‘i to the West as a prosperous, profitable nation.
Themes of Paradise in Contemporary British and American Art
Authors: Romaine James
Published: February 2018

The idea of paradise has inspired the artistic imagination in, at least, two directions. One is an impulse to create a more perfect tomorrow by addressing social ills today. The other is sometimes manifest in a desire to recover a lost spiritual consciousness or creative imagination. These directions are evidenced in the work of two contemporary artists. In an exhibition entitled Tomorrow is Another Day, created for the 2017 Venice Biennale, Los Angeles-based artist Mark Bradford draws the viewer toward an imagined social horizon, beyond which dawns a more perfect world. Simultaneously on view in Venice, but not a part of the Biennale, Damien Hirst’s Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable explores a rapacious hunger for immortality. Purporting to be the salvage of an ancient shipwreck, Hirst’s exhibition tests the modern, post-enlightenment, viewer’s willingness, even ability, to believe.
Nicotiana benthamiana as model plant for Meloidogyne graminicola infection
Authors: Naalden Diana , Verbeek Ruben , Gheysen Godelieve
Published: February 2018

Nicotiana benthamiana is widely used as a model plant to analyse cell biology and to obtain insight into the molecular host-pathogen interaction because it is susceptible to many pathogens. Since N. benthamiana can be transformed easily, it is also used to study pathogens for which it is not a known host. Meloidogyne graminicola has a fairly broad host range of mainly monocots and some dicots but no data were available on the ability of M. graminicola to infect N. benthamiana. In this study, we show that M. graminicola is able to infect and complete its life cycle in N. benthamiana, although our experiments demonstrate a lower susceptibility compared to rice. In addition, M. graminicola was also able to develop in N. tabacum but the reproduction was very low. Therefore, we conclude that N. benthamiana can be considered as a host, while this is not the case for N. tabacum.
The ‘Bad Global Citizen’, ‘Naked’, in the ‘Transnational Penal Space’
Authors: Boister Neil
Published: February 2018

This article explores how transnational criminal law is used as a tool to create a legal space within the state where the fugitive resides or is acting, in order in effect to re-set the border inside that jurisdiction and to make it possible, by proxy, to enforce another state’s law. It argues that transnational criminal law is used to establish a kind of fictional transnational legal space, created by changing domestic laws and practices of both the state exercising its jurisdiction and the state in which that jurisdiction is being exercised, so that restrictions on cooperative action are minimalized. It explores how that space is created and how it shapes the structure of transnational criminal law through the building of normative structures—both legal and administrative—to suppress the activities of alleged criminals in this space. But its specific focus is on how this purely functional relationship impacts on individuals caught within that space.
Network Synergy
Authors: Hernandez Exequiel , Shaver J. Myles
Published: February 2018

Acquisitions can dramatically reshape interorganizational networks by combining previously separate nodes and allowing the acquirer to inherit the target’s ties, potentially creating network synergy. Network synergy is the extent to which combining an acquirer’s and a target’s networks through node collapse results in a more favorable structural position for the combined firm as the acquirer gains control of the target’s existing ties. We hypothesize that the likelihood of selecting a target increases when the expected network synergy is greater. Using data from the biotechnology industry (1995–2007), we find support for this hypothesis by showing that acquirers prefer targets that generate greater expected increases in network status and greater expected access to structural holes—even when we control for other known sources of synergies. We further show that these effects are driven by complementary combinations of the acquirer’s and target’s networks that go beyond the attractiveness of the target’s network per se. By integrating the networks and acquisitions literatures, we introduce a novel source of synergies, provide evidence of a previously unexplored mechanism of network change, and show how firms can exert agency in the process of network change.
Influence of Attitudes Toward Immigration on State Legitimacy
Authors: Del Castillo Cristina , Blanco-González Alicia , González-Vázquez Encarnación
Published: February 2018

The current article studies the influence of attitudes toward immigration on state legitimacy. We analyzed the European Union countries that received the greatest immigrant inflows in 2014: Germany, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, through data from the latest edition of the European Social Survey. Our results show that citizens with negative attitudes toward immigration consider their states to be less legitimate. Conversely, positive attitudes toward immigration are not associated with increased state legitimacy (except in Spain). Based on these findings, there is a clear need for communication strategies that provide information on the actual effects of immigration. In their absence, the political discourse on this matter will continue to be co-opted by power-grabbing actors.
How Scandals Act as Catalysts of Fringe Stakeholders’ Contentious Actions Against Multinational Corporations
Authors: Daudigeos Thibault , Roulet Thomas , Valiorgue Bertrand
Published: February 2018

In this article, we build on the stakeholder-politics literature to investigate how corporate scandals transform political contexts and give impetus to the contentious movements of fringe stakeholders against multinational corporations (MNCs). Based on Adut’s scandal theory, we flesh out three scandal-related processes that directly affect political-opportunity structures (POSs) and the generation of social movements against MNCs: convergence of contention toward a single target, publicization of deviant practices, and contagion to other organizations. These processes reduce the obstacles to collective actions by fringe stakeholders by pushing corporate elites to be more sensitive to their claims, by decreasing MNCs’ capability to repress contentious movements, by forcing the targeted MNCs to formalize a policy to monitor and eradicate the controversial practices, and by helping fringe stakeholders find internal and external allies to support their claims. This conceptual model of scandals as catalysts of contentious actions contributes to a better understanding of stakeholder politics by unveiling the role of the political context in the coordination of fringe stakeholders.
Nation Branding as Sustainability Governance: A Comparative Case Analysis
Authors: Frig Meri , Sorsa Ville-Pekka
Published: February 2018

The role of governments in business and society research has remained underexplored, and recent studies have called for further investigations of mechanisms of government intervention. In response to this call, this article studies how nation branding communication can govern businesses toward sustainability by providing qualifications for sustainable business, legitimizing these qualifications, and attaching national aspirations to business conduct that meets these qualifications. A comparative exploratory analysis of the nation branding materials of Denmark and Finland shows that while the two nations qualify business sustainability in similar ways, differences exist in the legitimization of business sustainability and the national aspirations attached to sustainable business conduct. Both countries emphasize principles of efficiency and renewability in their sustainability qualifications. However, while Finland clearly seeks to attract firms to the local business environment to increase exports and improve the local economy, Denmark ascribes more heterogeneous value to sustainable business.
Breaking Institutional Habits: A Critical Paradigm for Social Change Agents in Psychology
Authors: Olle Chad D.
Published: February 2018

There is a growing concern in counseling psychology that the field is not matching its commitment to social justice with adequate preparation of social change agents. Compiling and building off of a uniquely interdisciplinary framework, this article offers an alternative way forward for psychologists and trainees. Recommendations include a reorientation to institutions in which psychologists are immediately embedded and a legitimization of direct-action methods.
Understanding the Priorities of Australian Secondary Schools Through an Analysis of Their Mission and Vision Statements
Authors: Allen Kelly-Ann , Kern Margaret L. , Vella-Brodrick Dianne , Waters Lea
Published: February 2018

Purpose: The vision or mission statement of a school outlines the school’s purpose and defines the context, goals, and aspirations that govern the institution. Using vision and mission statements, the present descriptive research study investigated trends in Australian secondary schools’ priorities. Research Methods: A stratified sample of secondary school vision and mission statements across 308 schools from government, independent, and Catholic sectors in Victoria, Australia, was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative approaches. Findings: Academic achievement was the most common theme, with school belonging and mental health promotion themes cited by over half of the schools. School belonging was emphasized more often by Catholic schools compared with independent and government schools, and by rural schools compared with urban schools. Implications: Australian schools are seemingly adopting a dual purpose: to be academic institutions and well-being enhancing institutions. Understanding the priorities of schools using vision and mission statements may guide researchers, administrators, and teachers about how to better meet the academic and psychological needs of the students. The priorities of schools also have implications for how research in this area is communicated to schools, and this study provides a method for capturing these priorities.
Leadership for Democracy in Challenging Times: Historical Case Studies in the United States and Canada
Authors: Johnson Lauri , Pak Yoon
Published: February 2018

Purpose: This article focuses on the role of school and district leadership in the development and implementation of reform aimed at increasing racial and religious tolerance. It chronicles the rise of intercultural and democratic citizenship curriculum in three North American sites—Springfield, Massachusetts, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, and San Diego, California—during the 1940s. Research Method: Parallel historical case studies were conducted using traditional historical research methods through the analysis of archival documents, school district memos, school board minutes, and contextualization through relevant secondary source literature. Findings: School and district leaders supported curriculum innovation aimed at prejudice reduction and propaganda analysis, networked and collaborated with community organizations, and used foundation funding to support curriculum and professional development for racial and religious inclusion. Implications: These cases highlight the critical role of leadership to support democracy in the development of partnerships between school and district personnel, community activists, and civic foundations; the establishment of advocacy networks across borders; and the “borrowing” of diversity policies from other school districts, which were adapted to their unique community contexts. This historical study has implications for how current school leaders might “lead for democracy” in challenging times.
Mobilization without Movement: How the Chinese State “Fixed” Labor Insurgency
Authors: Chen Patricia , Gallagher Mary
Published: February 2018

Drawing on a qualitative analysis of two recent labor disputes in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, this article asks: Why has a broad-based labor movement failed to emerge in contemporary China? Both pro-labor legislation and the existence of movement-oriented labor NGOs appear to provide opportunities and resources for workers to engage in organized action to expand workers’ rights. Two political mechanisms, however, help explain why a strong labor movement has not developed: 1) legislation and courtroom procedures and 2) official institutions that monopolize the space for representation—specifically the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). We call these two mechanisms “political fixes” and discuss how they interact to engender a feedback between the fragmentation of collective action during labor conflict and the continuous uptick in labor insurgency. This article contributes to labor movement theory: It puts greater emphasis on the institutional mechanisms that constrain labor, as opposed to sheer repression or economic factors.
Hybridity and integration in local collective action: an analytical framework
Authors: Divay Gérard , Slimani Youssef
Published: February 2018

Can an integrated territorial approach successfully do away with the silo structure that marks public action through the hybridisation of sectoral logics? Drawing from various strands of research, as well as an assessment of multiple studies on the impact of integrated territorial approaches on local social development, this article develops an analytical framework to address this question. We argue that integration takes place according to four regimes, whose dynamics range from the simple juxtaposition of sectoral organisations to a hybridisation of their organisational logics. The regimes we identify are operational networking, interstitial effervescence, collaborative accommodation and institutional convergence. Each emerges from an interaction between the specific dynamics of each experience in a given milieu and supra-local socio-institutional processes, which generate new ways of conceiving and organising the coordination of public and collective action at the local level.

Points for practitioners

This article puts into perspective the virtues of the integrated approach as an antidote to public administration silos. An integrated approach to local action only produces the expected effects if each public agency agrees to transform its organisational culture and to direct its action according to the evolution of local ecosystem processes of change in the milieu as a whole.
Novel fully automated 3D coreless filament winding technology
Authors: Minsch N , Müller M , Gereke T , Nocke A , Cherif C
Published: February 2018

Coreless filament winding technologies possess the potential to flexibly produce lightweight rigid frame structures at comparably low costs. The key to versatility, geometrical freedom and cost-effectiveness is the avoidance of core elements. Existing research on the filament winding of rigid frames focusses primarily on “isotruss” or “lattice” structures, manufactured by depositing fibers on polygon-shaped mandrels with carved-out gaps. Therefore, an investigation into the performance of coreless wound laminates and their material characteristics under process conditions is performed. Therefore, generic 2D specimens were manufactured on a new fully automated 3D winding equipment and successively exposed to incineration, micro-CT analysis and tensile testing. The benefits of core elements are evaluated by additional reference samples and opposed to coreless winding methods. The research demonstrates the potential of coreless filament winding and inductively quantifies the positive influence of fiber pretension and core/die elements on the material properties at cost of decreased versatility, costs and design degrees of freedom.
Understanding Optimum Fluoride Intake from Population-Level Evidence
Authors: Spencer A.J. , Do L.G. , Mueller U. , Baines J. , Foley M. , Peres M.A.
Published: February 2018

Policy on fluoride intake involves balancing caries against dental fluorosis in populations. The origin of this balance lies with Dean’s research on fluoride concentration in water supplies, caries, and fluorosis. Dean identified cut points in the Index of Dental Fluorosis of 0.4 and 0.6 as critical. These equate to 1.3 and 1.6 mg fluoride (F)/L. However, 1.0 mg F/L, initially called a permissible level, was adopted for fluoridation programs. McClure, in 1943, derived an “optimum” fluoride intake based on this permissible concentration. It was not until 1944 that Dean referred to this concentration as the “optimal” concentration. These were critical steps that have informed health authorities through to today. Several countries have derived toxicological estimates of an adequate and an upper level of intake of fluoride as an important nutrient. The US Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1997 estimated an Adequate Intake (AI) of 0.05 mg F/kg bodyweight (bw)/d and a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) of 0.10 mg F/kg bw/d. These have been widely promulgated. However, a conundrum has existed with estimates of actual fluoride intake that exceed the UL without the expected adverse fluorosis effects being observed. Both the AI and UL need review. Fluoride intake at an individual level should be interpreted to inform more nuanced guidelines for individual behavior. An “optimum” intake should be based on community perceptions of caries and fluorosis, while the ultimate test for fluoride intake is monitoring caries and fluorosis in populations.
Review of Fluoride Intake and Appropriateness of Current Guidelines
Authors: Buzalaf M.A.R.
Published: February 2018

Since the classical epidemiological studies by Dean, it has been known that there should be an optimum level of exposure to fluoride that would be able to provide the maximum protection against caries, with minimum dental fluorosis. The “optimal” daily intake of fluoride for children (0.05–0.07 mg per kilogram bodyweight) that is still accepted worldwide was empirically determined. In the present review, we discuss the appropriateness of the current guidance for fluoride intake, in light of the windows of susceptibility to caries and fluorosis, the modern trends of fluoride intake from multiple sources, individual variations in fluoride metabolism, and recent epidemiological data. The main conclusion is that it is very difficult to think about a strict recommendation for an “optimal” range of fluoride intake at the individual level in light of existing knowledge of 1) the mechanisms of action of fluoride to control caries, 2) the mechanisms involved in dental fluorosis development, 3) the distinct factors that interfere in the metabolism of fluoride, and 4) the windows of susceptibility to both dental caries and fluorosis development. An “optimal” range of fluoride intake is, however, desirable at the population level to guide programs of community fluoridation, but further research is necessary to provide additional support for future decisions on guidance in this area. This list includes the effect of factors affecting fluoride metabolism, clinical trials on the effectiveness of low-fluoride dentifrices to prevent caries in the primary dentition, and validation of biomarkers of exposure to fluoride.
Linguistic Integration and Immigrant Health: The Longitudinal Effects of Interethnic Social Capital
Authors: Tegegne Mesay A.
Published: February 2018

The literature on immigrant health has by and large focused on the relationship between acculturation (often measured by a shift in language use) and health outcomes, paying less attention to network processes and the implications of interethnic integration for long-term health. This study frames English-language use among immigrants in the United States as a reflection of bridging social capital that is indicative of social network diversity. Using longitudinal data on self-rated health and the incidence of chronic conditions from the New Immigrant Survey (2003, 2007), I examine the contemporaneous and longitudinal associations between interethnic social capital and health. The results show evidence for a positive long-term effect of linguistic integration on health status, but no cross-sectional associations were observed. Overall, these results highlight the possible role of network processes in linking English-language use with immigrant health and the time-dependent nature of the relationship between linguistic integration and health status.
Institutions, Incorporation, and Inequality: The Case of Minority Health Inequalities in Europe
Authors: Bakhtiari Elyas , Olafsdottir Sigrun , Beckfield Jason
Published: February 2018

Scholars interested in the relationship between social context and health have recently turned attention further “upstream” to understand how political, social, and economic institutions shape the distribution of life chances across contexts. We compare minority health inequalities across 22 European countries ( N = 199,981) to investigate how two such arrangements—welfare state effort and immigrant incorporation policies—influence the distribution of health and health inequalities. We examine two measures of health from seven waves of the European Social Survey. Results from a series of multilevel mixed-effects models show that minority health inequalities vary across contexts and persist after accounting for socioeconomic differences. Cross-level interaction results show that welfare state effort is associated with better health for all groups but is unrelated to levels of inequality between groups. In contrast, policies aimed at protecting minorities from discrimination correlate with smaller relative health inequalities.
A non-hydrocephalic goat experimental model to evaluate a ventriculosinus shunt
Authors: Vandersteene Jelle , Baert Edward , Schauvliege Stijn , Vandevelde Kimberley , Dewaele Frank , De Somer Filip , Van Roost Dirk
Published: February 2018

The ventriculosinus shunt is a promising treatment for hydrocephalus. Currently, different shunt techniques exist, and it is not clear whether one is preferable. This pilot study reports on a non-hydrocephalic goat model (Saanen breed) that provides opportunities to evaluate and optimize several aspects of the ventriculosinus shunt technique. Analysis of the coagulation properties of 14 goats by a viscoelastic coagulation monitor showed that goats have a hypercoagulable state compared to humans. This property can be partially counteracted by antiplatelet drugs. During implantation of a ventriculosinus shunt, a pulsatile reflux of blood was observed. After implantation, the animals recovered to their preoperative state, and none of them developed a superior sagittal sinus thrombosis. Evaluation of the shunts after 16 days showed an obstructing luminal clot. Several model-related factors may have promoted this obstruction: the absence of hydrocephalus, the hypercoagulability of caprine blood and the smaller dimensions of the caprine superior sagittal sinus. However, the pulsatile reflux of blood, which is caused by the compliance of the shunt system distal to the valve, may have been an important factor as well. In conclusion, the non-hydrocephalic goat model limits animal suffering and simplifies the study protocol. This model allows researchers to evaluate their implantation technique and shunt hardware but not the efficacy of the treatment or shunt survival.
Historicising the Idea of Human Rights
Authors: Lamb Robert
Published: February 2018

An adequate interpretation of our liberal and cosmopolitan traditions depends absolutely on an adequate understanding of the history of the idea of human rights. There is, however, deep disagreement about this history. In this article, I argue that disagreement about the emergence of human rights is resolvable and can be explained through attention to problematic methodological commitments within exemplary historical narratives. I first consider, and reject, Micheline Ishay’s claim that the concept of human rights can be found in the ancient world. I then move on to a detailed critical engagement with Samuel Moyn’s contrary thesis that human rights are a radically novel political phenomenon. I argue that Moyn’s analysis can only be taken seriously as an action-based account of human rights and therefore cannot sustain the dramatic conclusion he advances. I then defend an alternative, belief-based framework for approaching, and rethinking, the history of the idea of human rights.
Distributions and Relations: A Hybrid Account
Authors: Moles Andres , Parr Tom
Published: February 2018

There is a deep divide among political philosophers of an egalitarian stripe. On the one hand, there are so-called distributive egalitarians, who hold that equality obtains within a political community when each of its members enjoys an equal share of the community’s resources. On the other hand, there are so-called social egalitarians, who instead hold that equality obtains within a political community when each of its members stands in certain relations to other members of the community, such as non-domination and lack of oppression. In this article, we have three aims. Our first aim is to cast doubt on the helpfulness of characterizing the debate in this way. Our second aim is to reconstruct this debate in alternative and more precise terms, so that disagreements between advocates of either side are easier to evaluate. Our third aim is to advance a hybrid account that integrates element from both views.
Form-focussed Instruction in CALL: What Do Learners Think?
Authors: Khezrlou Sima
Published: February 2018

The ways that Iranian universities prepare their students for their future academic and professional lives are changing. Many universities have launched innovative practice in the use of technology in teaching and learning, aiming to present student learners with an engaging experience. The adoption of an innovation necessitates considering the beliefs about it as a substantial part of its integration. The purpose of this study was to explore Iranian university learners’ attitudes towards a computerized reading program in promoting vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. A total of 52 participants read multi-glossed computerized texts in FonF ( N = 27) and FonFs ( N = 25) conditions. In FonF condition, learners read the texts for comprehension and accessed the multimedia glosses, whereas in FonFs, participants were presented with a word list of the target lexical items prior to on-screen reading. Evidence from both quantitative and qualitative measures unravelled the overall success of the program in bringing about a gradual and consistent improvement in learners’ vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. Whereas vocabulary acquisition benefited equally from both FonF and FonFs practices, reading comprehension performance was greater under FonF condition. The effects that each instructional practice had on the different aspects of computer assisted language learning in vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension are discussed in detail.
Fabrication of cotton fabrics with durable antibacterial activities finishing by Ag nanoparticles
Authors: Wu Yunping , Yang Yan , Zhang Zhijie , Wang Zhihua , Zhao Yanbao , Sun Lei
Published: February 2018

In this paper, we propose a facile and mild route to prepare size-tunable silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and their finishing application on fabrication of antibacterial cotton fabrics. The as-prepared Ag NPs, with an average particles size of 2.3 nm, show the minimal inhibitory concentration of 7.8 µg/mL and the minimum bactericidal concentration of 15.6 µg/mL, respectively. In this study, sodium citrate served as a stabilizing agent to prevent Ag NP agglomeration in the synthesis process, and citric acid acted as a binder to fix Ag NPs on the cotton fabrics through chemical bonds in the finishing process. The results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy demonstrate that Ag NPs have been fixed and well dispersed on the cotton fabric surface. Ag contents in the hybrid fabrics were measured by the techniques of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and UV-vis, and the antibacterial properties of hybrid fabrics were tested by the shake flask and agar diffusion plate method. It is found that the Ag NP coated cotton fabrics exhibit excellent antimicrobial activities against both the Gram-negative bacterium of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and the Gram-positive bacterium of Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus). The percentages of reduction bacteria remain at 91.8% and 98.7% for S. aureus and E. coli, respectively, even after 50 cycles of consecutive laundering, which indicates that the antibiotic performance of the as-fabricated hybrid fabrics is also durable.
Narrative before in English
Authors: Bache Carl
Published: February 2018

This paper examines the so-called narrative use of before-clauses in English, as in They had hardly heard her explanation before Jack burst out crying. In such sentences the main situation is narrated by the before-clause, while the main clause offers contextual temporal specification of this situation. The attempt to cope with the descriptive challenge posed by this rather special balance of narrative impact between the two clauses takes its point of departure in Huddleston and Pullum’s (2002:1104) recognition of before as a “comparative governor” and in my findings in connection with a recent study on narrative when-clauses (Bache 2016). Narrative before-clauses are superficially very similar to temporal before-clauses (as in They heard her explanation before Jack called her parents), where the main situation is expressed by the main clause and the before-clause provides contextual temporal specification. However, narrative before-clauses are found to be not only pragmatically but also formally distinct from temporal before-clauses and therefore must be accommodated in our more general grammatical description of before. The basic approach to before as a comparative element goes some of the way to explain the special textual balance in narrative before-constructions, but it must be supplemented with the notion of “functional superordination” resulting from a special pattern of assertiveness, textual cohesion, and “main clause phenomena.” In the analysis of more than 7000 examples of before, the temporal-narrative distinction is found to be too crude. A new typology of constructions is therefore proposed which is sensitive to both formal criteria and textual strategies.
Mozambican adolescents' perspectives on the academic procrastination process
Authors: Fulano Celso , Cunha Jennifer , Núñez José Carlos , Pereira Beatriz , Rosário Pedro
Published: February 2018

The current study explored Mozambican adolescents' perspectives of the process of academic procrastination, focusing on three key aspects: Type of tasks where youth usually procrastinate, antecedents, and the perceived consequences. Twenty-four adolescents from a pool of 300 (11th and 12th graders) reported high levels of procrastination and were selected to be interviewed. Data were analysed using content analysis. Overall, the findings showed that perceived lack of content knowledge can be the antecedent of procrastination behaviors, particularly when it comes to homework. These findings may help teachers and school administrators create a better school environment that promotes learning engagement and inhibits procrastination.
Characteristics and formation mechanisms of silicified carbonate reservoirs in well SN4 of the Tarim Basin
Authors: You Donghua , Han Jun , Hu Wenxuan , Qian Yixiong , Chen Qianglu , Xi Binbin , Ma Hongqiang
Published: February 2018

High-yield natural gas was discovered in well SN4 in the Ordovician Yingshan Formation in the Tarim Basin. The gas is found in unusual, silicified, carbonate reservoirs. According to the degree of silicification, the silicified reservoirs can be divided into a lower section of silicified carbonates, a middle section of limestone, and an upper section of silicified carbonates. The silicified carbonates are mainly composed of quartz and calcite, in which the reservoir space mostly occurs as vugs, inter-crystalline pores of quartz, and partial fractures. Porosity varies widely, ranging from 3 to 20.5% with strong heterogeneity. The homogenization temperatures of fluid inclusions in quartz and calcite show that the silicification temperatures were 150–190°C, with characteristics of high temperature/low salinity and low temperature/high salinity. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios of secondary calcite are 0.709336–0.709732, which are significantly higher than that of concurrent seawater, indicating that the hydrothermal fluid originated from the deep clastic strata or the basement (sialic rock). The δ13C values of the secondary calcite are similar to that of the surrounding limestone, indicating that the carbon in the secondary calcite is derived from the limestone strata, and that the secondary calcite is the product of dissolution and re-precipitation resulting from interaction between the silica-bearing hydrothermal fluids and surrounding limestones. The silicification of silica-bearing hydrothermal fluid was significantly controlled by strike-slip faults. The fluids ascending along the fault zone and branch faults interacted with the surrounding limestone in the Yingshan Formation. As a result, a large amount of quartz and secondary calcite were formed together with various types of secondary pores, resulting in excellent reservoirs.
Constructing Shadow Tests in Variable-Length Adaptive Testing
Authors: Diao Qi , Ren Hao
Published: February 2018

Imposing content constraints is very important in most operational computerized adaptive testing (CAT) programs in educational measurement. Shadow test approach to CAT (Shadow CAT) offers an elegant solution to imposing statistical and nonstatistical constraints by projecting future consequences of item selection. The original form of Shadow CAT presumes fixed test lengths. The goal of the current study was to extend Shadow CAT to tests under variable-length termination conditions and evaluate its performance relative to other content balancing approaches. The study demonstrated the feasibility of constructing Shadow CAT with variable test lengths and in operational CAT programs. The results indicated the superiority of the approach compared with other content balancing methods.
IRT Scoring and Test Blueprint Fidelity
Authors: Camilli Gregory
Published: February 2018

This article focuses on the topic of how item response theory (IRT) scoring models reflect the intended content allocation in a set of test specifications or test blueprint. Although either an adaptive or linear assessment can be built to reflect a set of design specifications, the method of scoring is also a critical step. Standard IRT models employ a set of optimal scoring weights, and these weights depend on item parameters in the two-parameter logistic (2PL) and three-parameter logistic (3PL) models. The current article is an investigation of whether the scoring models reflect an intended set of weights defined as the proportion of item falling into each cell of the test blueprint. The 3PL model is of special interest because the optimal scoring weights depend on ability. Thus, the concern arises that for examinees of low ability, the intended weights are implicitly altered.
Caught between nationalism and transnationalism: How Central and East European states respond to East–West emigration
Authors: Waterbury Myra A
Published: February 2018

This article seeks to explain the varied policy responses to the large wave of emigration from Central and Eastern European states during the last two decades, focusing on the cases of Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland. Differing degrees of emigrant engagement by these states are explained by the role of internal minorities as active members of the emigrant population and the overall political and demographic relevance of historical kin. This study contributes to our understanding of what shapes state policies towards different types of external populations. It also highlights the particular challenges of state-led transnational engagement in a supranational border regime.
Prognostic Value of Lymph Node Yield and Density in Head and Neck Malignancies
Authors: Cheraghlou Shayan , Otremba Michael , Kuo Yu Phoebe , Agogo George O. , Hersey Denise , Judson Benjamin L.
Published: February 2018

Objective

Studies have suggested that the lymph node yield and lymph node density from selective or elective neck dissections are predictive of patient outcomes and may be used for patient counseling, treatment planning, or quality measurement. Our objective was to systematically review the literature and conduct a meta‐analysis of studies that investigated the prognostic significance of lymph node yield and/or lymph node density after neck dissection for patients with head and neck cancer.

Data Sources

The Ovid/Medline, Ovid/Embase, and NLM PubMed databases were systematically searched on January 23, 2017, for articles published between January 1, 1946, and January 23, 2017.

Review Methods

We reviewed English‐language original research that included survival analysis of patients undergoing neck dissection for a head and neck malignancy stratified by lymph node yield and/or lymph node density. Study data were extracted by 2 independent researchers (S.C. and M.O.). We utilized the DerSimonian and Laird random effects model to account for heterogeneity of studies.

Results

Our search yielded 350 nonduplicate articles, with 23 studies included in the final synthesis. Pooled results demonstrated that increased lymph node yield was associated with a significant improvement in survival (hazard ratio, 0.833; 95% CI, 0.790‐0.879). Additionally, we found that increased lymph node density was associated with poorer survival (hazard ratio, 1.916; 95% CI, 1.637‐2.241).

Conclusions

Increased nodal yield portends improved outcomes and may be a valuable quality indicator for neck dissections, while increased lymph node density is associated with diminished survival and may be used for postsurgical counseling and planning for adjuvant therapy.