bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Abdul R. JanMohamed
Authors: Mukhopadhyay Tirtha Prasad
Published: November 2019

Abdul R. JanMohamed (b. 1945) has made a seminal contribution to postcolonial and black studies since the early 1980s. JanMohamed was born and raised in Kenya and educated in Britain and the United States, receiving his PhD from Brandeis University. Since 1982 he has taught in the English Department of the University of California, Berkeley, and has also been Longstreet Professor of English at Emory University. He developed a body of Marxian-psychoanalytical criticism based on Marx, Foucault, Fanon, and Freud. Most of his important publications came out in the 1980s and 1990s, although he is continuing to write and diversify into other areas of postcolonial criticism like Subaltern and Dalit literature. In the 1980s JanMohamed started with analysis of the psychopolitical structures of colonial and African English novels written by Joyce Cary, Isak Dinesen, Nadine Gordimer, Chinua Achebe, Alex La Guma, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. In the next phase of his writings, he critiqued the African American slave autobiography of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the novels of Richard Wright, which now constitute an ideological reference for all future criticism on the literature of colonized and marginalized peoples. His most important single-author publications include Manichean Aesthetics: The Politics of Literature in Colonial Africa (1983) for which he was awarded the Choice book of the year award in 1984. The other crucial read is The Death-Bound-Subject: Richard Wright’s Archaeology of Death (2005) about which Rolland Murray insightfully commented in the journal Novel: A Forum on Fiction (Murray 2006, cited under Book Reviews) that “Should African American studies continue in its pursuit of rendering the vagaries of death intellectually legible, the field should turn to this book as one of its signal events” (Exquisite Corpus, p. 302). JanMohamed considers racial lynching as the most fundamental mode of coercion. In his work on African American Literature, he develops a reflexive Marxian-phenomenological approach through which he deconstructs the feelings of marginalized protagonists who, faced with the threat of death by lynching, begin to contemplate the effects of that threat on their subjectivities. He suggests that the threat of death activates the death drive like a negative dialectic in subjects irremediably trapped between two cultures. In 1985, along with Donna Przybylowicz, he founded and edited the journal Cultural Critique, which at the time offered one of the very few venues for the theorization of postcolonial and American minority discourses. His recent works involve psychoanalytical studies of Dalit narratives of the Indian subcontinent. JanMohamed’s critical oeuvre has been acclaimed and translated into other Asian languages.
Lactantius
Authors: Freund Stefan
Published: November 2019

Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius (c. 250–c. 325 ce) was a Christian Latin author during the Diocletianic persecution and the times of Constantine the Great. Lactantius was born in Africa, studied with the rhetor Arnobius in Sicca Veneria, and became a teacher of rhetoric himself. In about 290, Emperor Diocletian offered him a chair at the court at Nicomedia, one of the new imperial residences of the Tetrarchy. There, in 303 the author faced the beginning of the Diocletianic persecution. The injustice he believed was being done to the Christians is of utmost importance for Lactantius. In order to become the champion of the oppressed, he resolved to defend and explain the Christian faith. His first two writings conceal their Christian character: The elegy on the Phoenix (De ave Phoenice) tries to illustrate the idea of resurrection by retelling the myth of the fabulous bird which dies and comes to life again; with it Lactantius establishes a Christian Latin poetry in the classical manner. His treatise On the Workmanship of God (De opificio dei) gives a detailed account of human physiology, which suggests that it was created through the working of God’s providence. In his magnum opus, the seven books entitled Divine Institutes (Divinae institutiones), consisting of more than six hundred modern pages, Lactantius gives an apologetic overall sketch of Christian teaching for pagan readers. The Divine Institutes were finished before 311, as the whole work suggests that persecution was still in progress while it was being written. Soon after the end of persecution, i.e., in 313/314, Lactantius composed his brief work On the Deaths of the Persecutors (De mortibus persecutorum), the first Latin treatise on ecclesiastical history. When Constantine appointed Lactantius to be tutor to his son Crispus, Lactantius came to the imperial court at Trier. In the following years, Lactantius wrote On the Anger of God (De ira dei), which argues that God does indeed show wrath, and also a short version of his Divine Institutes (Epitome divinarum institutionum). An unfinished second edition of the whole Divine Institutes, which contains dedications to the emperor Constantine and passages explaining the author’s dualistic worldview, presupposes the political conditions of 324 and thus dates the author’s death to 324/325. Lactantius was read in Late Antiquity, but was often supposed to be theologically outdated or problematic. In the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, however, the “Christian Cicero,” as he was called then, was greatly admired for the way he used classical style, rhetoric, poetry, education, and mythology to explain Christianity. The Divine Institutes are contained in the first book which was printed in Italy.
Dhammapada/Dharmapada
Authors: Roebuck Valerie
Published: November 2019

The Buddhist texts known as Dhammapada (Pali) or Dharmapada (Sanskrit and other Indic languages), “Words/Verses of the Teaching,” are collections of wisdom verses, regarded as having been spoken by the Buddha himself. Their equivalents in Mahayanist literature are often called Udānavarga, “Collection of Inspired Utterances [of the Buddha],” effectively a synonymous term. From the large number of versions that are now known, it appears likely that each of the early Buddhist sects had a Dharmapada among its canonical texts. However these different versions are not variations of one original: “Dhammapada” or “Udānavarga” seems to have been more of an idea or template than a single text. Certain characteristics are common to all known versions: the verses are arranged in chapters, each with a key word as title, such as “Pairs,” “Flowers,” or “The Brahmin.” However, they are not necessarily the same chapters, and even when the same titles are used they are not in the same order. Versions vary widely in length, and although there is generally a great deal of overlap in their content, there are many verses that do not occur in every version, or are placed in different chapters in different versions. Some verses or sequences are shared with other canonical Buddhist texts, and indeed with Hindu and Jain texts. Although the various known versions would have belonged to different early Buddhist schools, the differences between them do not seem to reflect doctrinal disagreements. In fact, few of the verses would be controversial to any Buddhist, concerned as they are with the basics of Buddhist teaching. The style is generally simple and straightforward, and clearly aimed at a lay audience as much as at monks and nuns.
Nuns and Abbesses
Authors: Vanderputten Steven
Published: November 2019

Although a substantial number of religious communities in the medieval West consisted partially or entirely of cloistered women, in traditional surveys of monastic history these individuals and their leadership received but scant attention. Until deep into the 20th century, the prevailing view among historians was that the role of nuns and abbesses in driving forward the development of monastic ideology and institutions had been negligible. Many believed that the purpose of female convent life had been only to provide an environment where veiled women would be shielded from the secular world and where their agency could be entirely directed toward intercessory prayer service and commemoration of the dead. With few exceptions, so they argued, those who accessed this existence spent their life in a state of discreet withdrawal, seldom leaving a lasting impression on those who shared their fate or drawing much notice from those living beyond the cloister walls. While a number of earlier specialists had already criticized this view, it was a feminist “wave” in scholarship in the 1970s and 1980s that altered the perception of cloistered women as a marginal, mostly inconsequential offshoot of a monastic phenomenon shaped by male paradigms and actors. These early studies allowed a first glimpse of the scope of the phenomenon, geographically, quantitatively, and in terms of its spiritual and intellectual achievements and its impact on society. However, they did little to change the view that cloistered life for women was a “marginal” phenomenon. This was partly because traditional views took a long time to die out, but also partly because of the tendency of pioneering studies to focus on instances of oppression or emancipation. In the last three decades, these perspectives have been replaced by a wide range of thematic interests that have allowed historians to highlight different aspects of female monasticism in the Middle Ages, including the immense diversity of female monastic experiences; practitioners’ intense involvement in spirituality, intellectual life, and artistic production; their complex interactions with male monastics and clerics, ascetic women living outside of cloistered contexts, and the secular world; and the dynamics behind recruitment and patronage. Much work remains to be done to synthesize paradigm-shifting insights in these studies before we can arrive at a fundamentally revised narrative of female cloistered life, let alone insert it into a new one of medieval monasticism generally. This bibliography omits discussion of “private” monastics such as anchoresses and house ascetics, and of “semi-religious” phenomena such as that of the Beguines and Penitents.
Transboundary Pollution
Authors: Varkkey Helena
Published: November 2019

Transboundary pollution problems have become increasingly important issues on the agenda of politicians, economists, and natural scientists. Transboundary pollution is defined legally as pollution that originates in one country but can cause damage in another country’s environment, by crossing borders through pathways like water or air. The problems of transboundary pollution include issues like the acidification of soils and lakes through acid rain, transboundary air pollution (known variably as smog, haze, or smoke), and downstream river or ocean pollution due to upstream activities. The traditional Westphalian approach that forms the cornerstone of the modern international system is based on the notion of geopolitical units, with borders indicating the limits of state jurisdiction. However, a distinctive characteristic of transboundary pollution problems is that pollution does not remain within political boundaries. Thus, this fluid nature of the environment has posed a challenge for environmental governance within this system. This article provides a bibliographic review of the literature on transboundary pollution as an international relations problem. This review is limited to works analyzing the problem of transboundary pollution through a mainly qualitative lens, mainly using works coming from international law, international relations, and public policy disciplines. After a brief discussion of some general works and issue-based journals, the first substantive section focuses on literature discussing the challenges of single-state regulation of transboundary pollution issues. Due to these difficulties, regulatory authority has gradually shifted from national to more international levels of governance. This is the focus of the second section, which compiles works that focus on developments in international law toward the regulation and governance of transboundary pollution at the international level. This section is broadly divided in two, firstly discussing literature looking at developments in customary international law, and secondly proceeding to look at more formal means through international environmental agreements (IEAs), conventions, and treaties. The third and final section of this bibliography compiles case studies on transboundary pollution governance arranged according to environmental pathways: air and water. While these case studies are not exhaustive, they are those that are most widely covered in the literature, covering regions like North America, Europe, Asia, and to a lesser extent Northeast Asia and Latin America. This work was partially supported by the Singapore Social Science Research Council (SSRC) grant on Sustainable Governance of Transboundary Environmental Commons in Southeast Asia, grant code MOE2016-SSRTG-068.
Women’s Legal and Constitutional Rights
Authors: Sullivan Kathleen
Published: November 2019

The right to vote, equal protection under the law, and the right of privacy are the primary constitutional provisions that are pertinent to women as women. Formal recognition of these rights has failed to achieve full equality for women in the United States, however. The critical social and institutional analyses provided by political scientists can explain the failure of women’s rights to be realized. Adjudication of rights can be found in Supreme Court doctrine, but political scientists routinely look beyond the courts to consider that rights are political in their making, their operation, and their reception. Formal constitutional provisions were the product of social movements and political organization. The social hierarchies that impeded coalitions likewise inflected those victories with ongoing inequality between women, as well as inequality between men and women. Once achieved, those rights were shaped by ongoing legal mobilization, either to expand or to limit their reach. Even where the legal system legitimately sought to protect women’s rights, inadvertent institutional arrangements and practices have served to reproduce conditions of inequality. State-building and policy, then, are important in understanding the lived experience of rights. Finally, rights alone are unlikely to be honored if women lack the standing to be considered as legitimate exercisers of those rights. For that reason, scholars refer to rights in terms of citizenship, in which rights are protected and the polity recognizes the rights-holder as worthy of the claim.
Whiteness
Authors: Cancelmo Cara , Mueller Jennifer C.
Published: November 2019

Across studies of racialized modernity, critical scholars since W. E. B. Du Bois have recognized that no analysis of racism is complete without studying the social dynamics surrounding whiteness. To be sure, studies of racism frequently center on racially subordinate groups——in terms of the discrimination they experience or, worse, as the source of racial inequalities and social problems. Scholars of whiteness, however, turn their attention to the myriad ways this fictional social construction works to reinforce white power, privilege, and wealth at the level of everyday, institutional, and global experience. Notably, though the term invokes ideas related to skin color, whiteness refers more specifically to a structural position—that is, to a racialized social identity that is positioned as superior relative to other “races” within a system of racial hierarchy. Indeed, because race is socially constructed—and not biological—whiteness can be understood as the result of social and cultural processes, rooted in a global history of European colonialism, imperialism, and transatlantic slavery, and maintained today through various institutions, ideologies, and everyday social practices. Whiteness embodies both a material reality—connected to the disproportionate economic and political power wielded by those racialized as white, as well as a symbolic reality—shaped by the cultural meanings attached to whiteness as a form of inflated value, morality, aesthetics, and civilization. White people thus derive both literal and psychological advantages from whiteness through societal norms, traditions, and institutions—conditions that mask and obscure the unjust nature of white domination. Indeed, the ideological component of white supremacy is profound: whiteness is regarded as the norm or standard in society, and yet the advantages that racial dominance accrues to white people are widely unacknowledged and ignored by white people. Du Bois perhaps cut closest to the core, describing whiteness as something that acquired an almost religious character in the modern world. As he wrote in his 1920 essay “The Souls of White Folk”: “I ask soberly: ‘But what on earth is whiteness that one should so desire it?’ Then always, somehow, some way, silently but clearly, I am given to understand that whiteness is ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen!”
Immunization in Pregnancy
Authors: Phadke Varun K.
Published: November 2019

Routine childhood immunization has had a substantial impact on pediatric morbidity and mortality globally. However, owing to suboptimal immune responses to vaccines in very young infants, immunization schedules do not begin until infants are at least two months of age (six weeks of age in countries following the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Expanded Program on Immunization [EPI] schedule). Thus, the youngest infants are unable to benefit from the protective effects of routine vaccines. These infants are also the most vulnerable to complications and death due to many vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunization in pregnancy, often referred to as maternal immunization, has emerged as a promising strategy to address this gap. This immunization strategy takes advantage of the normal transplacental transfer of antibodies from mother to fetus during pregnancy (as well as to the infant through breast milk in the postpartum period) to confer passive immunity to young infants through maternally derived vaccine-induced antibodies. In addition, because pregnant women are at higher risk of complications due to certain infectious diseases that are or may be vaccine-preventable, maternal immunization is increasingly recognized as an essential component of routine antenatal care. Widespread programmatic use of immunization in pregnancy began with the inclusion of maternal tetanus toxoid vaccination in the WHO’s Expanded Program on Immunization in the 1970s. Since then, immunization of pregnant women against influenza and pertussis has now also become routine in many countries, and vaccines against other important pathogens in infancy (e.g., respiratory syncytial virus and group B Streptococcus) that may be prioritized for use in pregnancy are in development. Indeed, with increased recognition of the substantial burden of potentially vaccine-preventable diseases in pregnant women and infants, the potential public health benefits of maternal immunization could be enormous. Maternal immunization has thus grown into a field at the leading edge of vaccinology. This article highlights research that has examined a broad range of questions pertaining to immunization in pregnancy, including the immunology of pregnancy; the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases in pregnant women and young infants; the clinical efficacy and safety of vaccines currently used in pregnancy; issues related to vaccine acceptance, policy, and implementation; and maternal vaccines on the horizon.
Rodney Needham
Authors: Kidd Colin
Published: November 2019

Rodney Needham (b. 1923–d. 2006) was a brilliant and daring anthropologist, possessed of considerable imagination and theoretical sophistication; a facility for languages, both European and Asian; and a broad-ranging comparativist outlook that transcended his immediate specialisms in Borneo and Indonesia. He enjoyed a keen sense of the historical depth of anthropology as a way of looking at the world, and a sharp awareness of the discipline’s wrong-turnings and recently acquired blind spots, though also a generous desire to recover the insights of those unsung but ingenious pioneers who were overlooked in the conventional canon of the discipline, for which Needham had scant regard. Needham was utterly original, as all who encountered him on the page or in person were soon aware, and did not foster a school. Indeed, he seemed to repel rather than woo potential allies. Needham was involved in several biting academic feuds with fellow anthropologists, and there is a significant roll call of anthropologists with whom he broke a lance. There was a major falling-out with Claude Lévi-Strauss, for whom Needham was for a time an acolyte and—as translator and practitioner of structuralism—the Frenchman’s most zealous missionary in the anglophone world. But things went spectacularly awry, and the reason is to be found in the temperaments of both men. For Needham was not the only English anthropologist of his generation—Leach was another—who, while finding structuralism persuasive, was to experience exasperation and disillusionment with the French master’s evasiveness in the face of uncomfortable ethnographic fact and error. Needham’s own positive contributions to the discipline were rich and multifarious, sometimes arresting. He remained unconvinced about aspects of the human condition that other anthropologists cavalierly took for granted, such as the notion that “belief” was a universal ingredient of mental life. Rather, Needham was persuaded by an accumulating mass of ethnographic evidence that certain modes of classification were intrinsic to the human mind. This was the point of departure for his anthropological project. The structuring capacity of the human mind came close to the elusive hard rock on which a robust discipline might be built.
Prosody and Meter: Early Modern to 19th Century
Authors: Martin Meredith
Published: November 2019

Both of the terms prosody and meter have shifting and contested definitions in the history of English literature. Historically, prosody was a grammatical term adopted from early translations of Greek and then Latin grammatical models, forming part of an overarching structure: orthometry, etymology, syntax, prosody. In this structure, meter was not always named, but versification covered “the measure of language” and was a subsection of prosody, after “pronunciation, utterance, figures, versification” (or some variation on these) in most 19th-century grammar books. Therefore, prosody contains within it changing approaches to the study of pronunciation and versification. In the 20th century, prosody has become synonymous in linguistics with pronunciation, and in literary study with versification. Scholars of the history of versification are legion. The versification manual or poetic forms handbook is a genre unto itself. The beginning of these books usually accounts for inadequate predecessors; consequently, many manuals are also bibliographies. Historical discourse about versification is not limited to the manual or handbook, however, and is found in studies of poetry, school textbooks, grammar books, introductions to collected works by individual poets, addendums to dictionaries, articles and reviews of poetry in periodicals and newspapers, pronunciation guides, histories of language, and studies of translation. Because the history of the study of pronunciation in English and Irish studies is so vast, this bibliography will only consider a few key texts that consider pronunciation and versification together as prosody. The development of historical linguistics in the 19th century is concurrent with the largest proliferation of studies of prosody-as-versification, and therefore is an important context for the narrative of prosody’s dual fate in the 20th century, hovering between literary study and the science of linguistics. To provide a history of even the ways that these terms themselves have shifted is outside the scope of this bibliography. As T. V. F. Brogan rightly claimed in 1981, “In studies of the structure of verse the use of terms such as poetry, verse, accent, quantity, Numbers, Measure, rhythm, meter, prosody, versification, onomatopoeia, and rhyme/rime/ryme historically and consistently has been nothing short of Pandemonium.” (Brogan 1981, p. ix, cited under Histories of Prosodic Criticism) Indeed, any modern attempt to define prosody must wrestle with the terminological confusion that Brogan narrates. Following Brogan, this bibliography will highlight the confusion without attempting to correct it. Here, I consider both prosody and versification in their widest sense to mean “verse-theory” and not solely “linguistic prosody,” and will discuss texts that have been considered “canonical” as well as texts that consider prosody in all of its historical and cultural valences.
Medieval Manuscripts
Authors: Faulkner Mark
Published: November 2019

Scholars studying medieval manuscripts work in a variety of disciplines, from literary atudies to history to linguistics to art history to classics. Publications in all these areas use manuscripts and offer important findings about medieval manuscripts. In addition to its practice within different fields, much of the study of medieval manuscripts is strongly interdisciplinary, using techniques native to the study of the medieval book like codicology and paleography, alongside text critical-methods originally developed in classics and refined there, in literary studies and in history, visual analysis pioneered in art history, and philological methods now found in literary studies and linguistics. Insofar as the study of medieval manuscripts has a unified goal, it is to describe and explain the production and use of manuscripts and the textual culture associated with them, generating primary data that assists in the writing of literary, cultural, and linguistic history. Given the breadth of the field, this Oxford Bibliographies entry must necessarily be selective. It focuses primarily on manuscripts of British and Irish literature in English (manuscripts of texts in Irish, Welsh, and other Celtic languages being specialist fields of study in their own right). As a consequence, the vast majority of the material listed is in English, though scholarship on medieval manuscripts is also published in French, Italian, and German, as well as other languages. After sections devoted to General Overviews, Reference Works, Textbooks, Anthologies, Bibliographies and Journals, the bibliography presents lists of Catalogues of Manuscripts and Facsimiles, which are two of the most important tools for medieval book historians. It finishes with lists of works relevant to the major subdisciplines of medieval book history, Codicology (the study of the physical structure of manuscripts); paleography, the study of Scripts used in those manuscripts; as well as studies of Scribal Practice and Manuscript Culture; and works concerned with Ownership and Provenance.
Mountain Meteorology
Authors: Vogt Brandon
Published: November 2019

Meteorology is the science that examines the configuration of fundamental weather elements in Earth’s atmosphere: pressure, temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation, and clouds. Weather defines the arrangement of these elements over short periods (minutes to days) and climate defines the average weather at a location over longer periods (months to centuries). Mountains cover roughly 25 percent of the Earth’s land surface and are home to about 12 percent of the world’s population. With innumerable topographic configurations, mountains disrupt airflow in the troposphere from the valley scale in the mountains themselves to hundreds of kilometers beyond their foothills. Atmospheric motion interacts with mountains via thermal and mechanical forces. Thermally, diurnal heating and cooling differences in complex terrain create circulating motions that reverse direction, day and night. Examples include fine-scale mountain and valley winds and more broad-scale anabatic and katabatic winds. Mechanically, disturbances and waves in atmospheric motion are forced upstream, downstream, above, and adjacent to mountains. Examples include blocking, upslope flow, downslope winds, gravity waves, boundary-layer turbulence, and lee cyclogenesis. Given the right atmospheric conditions, orographic processes generate extreme, damaging, and costly weather events such as strong Chinook/Föhn winds, heavy upslope snow events, steep terrain forcing in monsoon or atmospheric river flows, long-duration frigid valley temperature inversions, invisible lee rotors, and local zones of convergence that initiate strong convective thunderstorms. Finally, mountains create distinctive and often photographed clouds that include caps, lenticulars, and corrugations of standing waves. While the focus of this bibliography is weather, some atmosphere/landscape interactions, such as windward vs. leeward orographic effects, fall largely within climate science literature. Other more fine-scale interactions between the atmosphere and mountains, such as local shade effects and valley temperature inversions, are captured in planetary surface boundary layer topoclimate/microclimate literature. These near-surface processes influence the weather-making troposphere, and as such, are seamlessly tied to mountain meteorology. To build a robust context into this bibliography, select multiscalar climate-themed sources are identified. To glaciologists, atmospheric scientists (including forecasters), climatologists, ecologists, agricultural scientists, hydrologists, and others whose specializations operate in and adjacent to mountainous terrain, understanding the unique influences of mountains is essential. This article identifies key literature and other relevant sources that explore how mountains influence and modify weather, and to a lesser degree, climate. Together, these resources provide a rich set of teaching materials and a platform for more in-depth studies into mountain meteorology set in the context of geography.
Evolutionary Computation
Authors: Banzhaf Wolfgang , Hu Ting
Published: November 2019

Evolutionary computation (EC) is the area of computer science and engineering that concerns itself with algorithms derived from formalizing natural evolution. This is part of a larger effort to draw inspiration from biological systems for computational purposes. Evolutionary computation methods have been used to solve optimization problems, to model systems, and to recognize patterns among other application tasks. Due to their reliance on stochasticity, they are characterized as heuristic search methods. The main features of evolutionary computation methods are their reliance on populations of searchers, the stochasticity of the search processes through mutation and recombination operations, and the application of relative strength as their selection criterion. The principle of cumulative selection allows searchers to continuously improve solutions until predefined termination criteria for the algorithms are fulfilled. The literature on evolutionary computation is comprised of a large body of proposals for algorithmic variants including hybridization schemes with other algorithms; of theoretical examinations of convergence features and other characteristics of particular variants; and of empirical studies of their performance under various testing environments, which are either constructed artificially or taken from practical applications to benchmark these variants. Furthermore, individual practical applications are published as stand-alone contributions to various fields of engineering, science, and other disciplines. Besides explicit fitness, the selection criteria for solution quality driven by external purposes like particular applications, other algorithms are studied under intrinsic selection criteria like reproductive success in an environment. Algorithms of this type come under the heading of digital or computational evolution and intend to more closely model the natural systems EC algorithms draw inspiration from. This entails studies of robustness and evolvability under various systems settings, as well as examinations of the power of algorithms to provide creative novel solutions under more-natural conditions like in an ecosystem.
Microneurosurgical Removal of a Globus Pallidus Tumor With Cottonoid-Guided Intraoperative Ultrasonography: 2-Dimensional Operative Video
Authors: Keleş Abdullah , Harput Mehmet Volkan , Türe Uğur
Published: November 2019

Neuronavigation systems are standard for guiding neurosurgery. Intraoperative-ultrasonography (ioUSG), a real-time neuronavigation modality used for 40-yr in neurosurgery, is easily available, low cost, and does not require excessive preparation. It provides accurate real-time data, even after brain shift. However, even with ioUSG, defining the surgical trajectory is not easy, especially for deep-seated lesions. We used a cottonoid-patty as a marker for ioUSG to define the location of the lesion and best trajectory for safe removal, especially of deep-seated lesions. After obtaining the patient's consent, we report the case of a 10-yr-old male who presented with a 2-mo history of right hemiparesis, gait disturbance, and right central facial paresis from a left-sided globus pallidus tumor. We chose a contralateral approach because of the cortical venous anatomy, nondominant right hemisphere, and right-handed surgeon. After a right parasagittal frontal craniotomy and interhemispheric exploration, a cottonoid-patty was placed as a marker for ioUSG to determine the callosotomy location. To confirm the route, ioUSG was repeated with a second cottonoid-patty placed inside the incision at the lateral side of the thalamostriate and anterior caudate vein junction. After confirming the trajectory, the tumor was removed with microneurosurgical techniques. Total removal was confirmed with ioUSG and intraoperative-magnetic resonance imaging. Early postoperative examination revealed improved muscle strength on the right hemiparetic side. Histopathological studies revealed a mixed germ-cell tumor. ioUSG is an efficient and accurate neuronavigation modality. Using a cottonoid-patty as a marker for ioUSG is valid and reliable in determining the surgical route, especially for deep-seated midline tumors.
New insights in giant molecular cloud hosting the S147/S153 complex: signatures of interacting clouds
Authors: Dhanya Jayakumar Sushama , Dewangan Lokesh Kumar , Ojha Devendra Kumar , Mandal Subhayan
Published: November 2019

In order to understand the formation of massive OB stars, we report a multi-wavelength observational study of a giant molecular cloud hosting the S147/S153 complex (size ${\sim}90\:\:\mbox{pc} \times 50\:$pc). The selected complex is located in the Perseus arm, and contains at least five H ii regions (S147, S148, S149, S152, and S153) powered by massive OB stars with dynamical ages ${\sim}0.2$–$0.6\:$Myr. The Canadian Galactic Plane Survey $^{12}$CO line data (beam size ${\sim}{100{^{\prime \prime}_{.}}4}$) trace the complex in a velocity range of [$-59$, $-43]\:$km$\:$s$^{-1}$, and also reveal the presence of two molecular cloud components around $-54$ and $-49\:$km$\:$s$^{-1}$ in the direction of the complex. Signatures of the interaction/collision between these extended cloud components are investigated through their spatial and velocity connections. These outcomes suggest the collision of these molecular cloud components about $1.6\:$Myr ago. Based on the observed overlapping zones of the two clouds, the collision axis appears to be parallel to the line-of-sight. Deep near-infrared photometric analysis of point-like sources shows the distribution of infrared-excess sources in the direction of the overlapping zones of the molecular cloud components, where all the H ii regions are also spatially located. All elements put together, the birth of massive OB stars and embedded infrared-excess sources seems to be triggered by two colliding molecular clouds in the selected site. High-resolution observations of the dense gas tracer will be required to further confirm the proposed scenario.
A note on the S-dual basis in the free fermion system
Authors: Sasa Shinya , Watanabe Akimi , Matsuo Yutaka
Published: November 2019

The free fermion system is the simplest quantum field theory which has the symmetry of the Ding–Iohara–Miki algebra (DIM). DIM has S-duality symmetry, known as Miki automorphism, which defines the transformation of generators. We introduce the second set of the fermionic basis (S-dual basis) which implements the duality transformation. It may be interpreted as the Fourier dual of the standard basis, and the inner product between the standard and the S-dual is proportional to the Hopf link invariant. We also rewrite the general topological vertex in the form of an Awata–Feigin–Shiraishi intertwiner and show that it becomes more symmetric for the duality transformation.
Paths toward the Same Form of Collective Action: Direct Social Action in Times of Crisis in Italy1,2
Authors: Bosi Lorenzo , Zamponi Lorenzo
Published: November 2019

Heterogeneous collective actors often select the same form of action, but there is no academic investigation into how and when this happens. This article does so focusing on direct social action, that is, a form of collective action that does not primarily focus upon claiming something from the state but instead focuses upon directly transforming some specific aspects of society. Building on conceptual categories developed by social movements’ scholars (context, organization, and identity) and relying on rich qualitative and quantitative data from collective actors in Italy in a time of crisis, this article identifies four paths toward direct social actions (DSA): the social path, the political-social path, the social-political path, and the political path. In doing so, our analysis shifts from the search for causal factors to the reconstruction of the dynamic, patterned sequences of events by which collective actors progress in adopting a certain form of action. The implications of these findings extend beyond studies of DSA in times of crisis in Italy, to an analysis of collective action in general. Capturing these multiple paths also has important implications for understanding how the same form of action is differently implemented and received when it is adopted by different actors.
Early development of tendinopathy in humans: Sequence of pathological changes in structure and tissue turnover signaling
Authors: Tran Peter H. T. , Malmgaard‐Clausen Nikolaj M. , Puggaard Rikke S. , Svensson René B. , Nybing Janus D. , Hansen Philip , Schjerling Peter , Zinglersen Amanda H. , Couppé Christian , Boesen Mikael , Magnusson S. Peter , Kjaer Michael
Published: November 2019

Overloading of tendon tissue with resulting chronic pain (tendinopathy) is a common disorder in occupational‐, leisure‐ and sports‐activity, but its pathogenesis remains poorly understood. To investigate the very early phase of tendinopathy, Achilles and patellar tendons were investigated in 200 physically active patients and 50 healthy control persons. Patients were divided into three groups: symptoms for 0‐1 months (T1), 1‐2 months (T2) or 2‐3 months (T3). Tendinopathic Achilles tendon cross‐sectional area determined by ultrasonography (US) was ~25% larger than in healthy control persons. Both Achilles and patellar anterior‐posterior diameter were elevated in tendinopathy, and only later in Achilles was the width increased. Increased tendon size was accompanied by an increase in hypervascularization (US Doppler flow) without any change in mRNA for angiogenic factors. From patellar biopsies taken bilaterally, mRNA for most growth factors and tendon components remained unchanged (except for TGF‐beta1 and substance‐P) in early tendinopathy. Tendon stiffness remained unaltered over the first three months of tendinopathy and was similar to the asymptomatic contra‐lateral tendon. In conclusion, this suggests that tendinopathy pathogenesis represents a disturbed tissue homeostasis with fluid accumulation. The disturbance is likely induced by repeated mechanical overloading rather than a partial rupture of the tendon.
PAs are a solution to the growing need for clinicians to treat an aging population
Authors: Smith Benjamin J. , McCall Timothy C. , Slaven Elaine M. , Smith Noël
Published: November 2019

Objective:

To elucidate the types of patients cared for by physician assistants (PAs), specifically older adults and those with complex medical conditions.

Methods:

A nationwide survey was sent to PAs asking about their practice demographics, including the complexity of their patients and the types of treatment they provide; 676 responded.

Results:

Less than 2% of PAs specialize in geriatrics but 92.1% of PAs see patients over age 65 years. Most PAs see patients with conditions associated with aging, including hypertension (85.8%) and osteoarthritis (82.1%) as well as those with three or more comorbidities (54.8%) or who are medically complex (52.8%).

Conclusions:

Although few PAs work exclusively in geriatrics, most PAs are providing medical care for older adults and patients with complex healthcare needs. PAs should be considered to fill healthcare needs that will continue to exist when caring for this patient population.
Intraoperative Oxidative Damage and Delirium after Cardiac Surgery
Authors: Lopez Marcos G. , Hughes Christopher G. , DeMatteo Anthony , O’Neal Jason B. , McNeil J. Brennan , Shotwell Matthew S. , Morse Jennifer , Petracek Michael R. , Shah Ashish S. , Brown Nancy J. , Billings Frederic T.
Published: November 2019

Background

Mechanisms of postoperative delirium remain poorly understood, limiting development of effective treatments. We tested the hypothesis that intraoperative oxidative damage is associated with delirium and neuronal injury and that disruption of the blood–brain barrier modifies these associations.

Methods

In a prespecified cohort study of 400 cardiac surgery patients enrolled in a clinical trial of atorvastatin to reduce kidney injury and delirium, we measured plasma concentrations of F2-isoprostanes and isofurans using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to quantify oxidative damage, ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase isozyme L1 to quantify neuronal injury, and S100 calcium-binding protein B using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to quantify blood–brain barrier disruption before, during, and after surgery. We performed the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit twice daily to diagnose delirium. We measured the independent associations between intraoperative F2-isoprostanes and isofurans and delirium (primary outcome) and postoperative ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase isozyme L1 (secondary outcome), and we assessed if S100 calcium-binding protein B modified these associations.

Results

Delirium occurred in 109 of 400 (27.3%) patients for a median (10th, 90th percentile) of 1.0 (0.5, 3.0) days. In the total cohort, plasma ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase isozyme L1 concentration was 6.3 ng/ml (2.7, 14.9) at baseline and 12.4 ng/ml (7.9, 31.2) on postoperative day 1. F2-isoprostanes and isofurans increased throughout surgery, and the log-transformed sum of intraoperative F2-isoprostanes and isofurans was independently associated with increased odds of postoperative delirium (odds ratio, 3.70 [95% CI, 1.41 to 9.70]; P = 0.008) and with increased postoperative ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase isozyme L1 (ratio of geometric means, 1.42 [1.11 to 1.81]; P = 0.005). The association between increased intraoperative F2-isoprostanes and isofurans and increased postoperative ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase isozyme L1 was amplified in patients with elevated S100 calcium-binding protein B (P = 0.049).

Conclusions

Intraoperative oxidative damage was associated with increased postoperative delirium and neuronal injury, and the association between oxidative damage and neuronal injury was stronger among patients with increased blood–brain barrier disruption.

Editor’s Perspective

What We Already Know about This Topic

What This Article Tells Us That Is New
Static and Dynamic Transpulmonary Driving Pressures Affect Lung and Diaphragm Injury during Pressure-controlled versus Pressure-support Ventilation in Experimental Mild Lung Injury in Rats
Authors: Pinto Eliete F. , Santos Raquel S. , Antunes Mariana A. , Maia Ligia A. , Padilha Gisele A. , de A. Machado Joana , Carvalho Anna C. F. , Fernandes Marcos V. S. , Capelozzi Vera L. , de Abreu Marcelo Gama , Pelosi Paolo , Rocco Patricia R. M. , Silva Pedro L.
Published: November 2019

Editor’s Perspective

What We Already Know about This Topic

What This Article Tells Us That Is New

Background

Pressure-support ventilation may worsen lung damage due to increased dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure. The authors hypothesized that, at the same tidal volume (VT) and dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure, pressure-support and pressure-controlled ventilation would yield comparable lung damage in mild lung injury.

Methods

Male Wistar rats received endotoxin intratracheally and, after 24 h, were ventilated in pressure-support mode. Rats were then randomized to 2 h of pressure-controlled ventilation with VT, dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure, dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure, and inspiratory time similar to those of pressure-support ventilation. The primary outcome was the difference in dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure between pressure-support and pressure-controlled ventilation at similar VT; secondary outcomes were lung and diaphragm damage.

Results

At VT = 6 ml/kg, dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure was higher in pressure-support than pressure-controlled ventilation (12.0 ± 2.2 vs. 8.0 ± 1.8 cm H2O), whereas static transpulmonary driving pressure did not differ (6.7 ± 0.6 vs. 7.0 ± 0.3 cm H2O). Diffuse alveolar damage score and gene expression of markers associated with lung inflammation (interleukin-6), alveolar-stretch (amphiregulin), epithelial cell damage (club cell protein 16), and fibrogenesis (metalloproteinase-9 and type III procollagen), as well as diaphragm inflammation (tumor necrosis factor-α) and proteolysis (muscle RING-finger-1) were comparable between groups. At similar dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure, as well as dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure and inspiratory time, pressure-controlled ventilation increased VT, static transpulmonary driving pressure, diffuse alveolar damage score, and gene expression of markers of lung inflammation, alveolar stretch, fibrogenesis, diaphragm inflammation, and proteolysis compared to pressure-support ventilation.

Conclusions

In the mild lung injury model use herein, at the same VT, pressure-support compared to pressure-controlled ventilation did not affect biologic markers. However, pressure-support ventilation was associated with a major difference between static and dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure; when the same dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure and inspiratory time were used for pressure-controlled ventilation, greater lung and diaphragm injury occurred compared to pressure-support ventilation.