bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
China’s Impact on the Global Iron Ore Market
Authors: Massot Pascale
Published: March 2024

This chapter examines China’s impact on the global iron ore market. China emerged as the number one importer of iron ore in 2003, overtaking Japan. At the time, and for many decades prior, the global iron ore market had operated under a negotiated benchmark pricing regime where prices were determined in annual closed-door negotiations between the three main iron ore producers and the Japanese importers. Only four years after Baosteel took over the negotiations, in 2010, the benchmark pricing regime fell apart and a spot-pricing regime emerged in its stead. Chinese stakeholders’ position of market vulnerability in the face of powerful iron ore exporters led to fragmented behavior and the unintended liberalization of the global pricing regime. In contrast, when Japan emerged as the highly coordinated number one importer in the 1960s, it established a stable negotiated pricing regime, the very benchmarking regime China would rise to disrupt fifty years later.
The Composition of Thoughts
Authors: Heck Richard Kimberly , May Robert
Published: March 2024

Are Fregean thoughts compositionally complex and composed of senses? This chapter argues that, in Begriffsschrift, Frege took ‘conceptual contents’ to be unstructured, but that he quickly moved away from this position, holding just two years later that conceptual contents divide of themselves into ‘function’ and ‘argument’. This second position is shown to be unstable, however, by Frege’s famous substitution puzzle. For Frege, the crucial question the puzzle raises is why “The Morning Star is a planet” and “The Evening Star is a planet” have different contents, but his second position predicts that they should have the same content. Frege’s response to this antinomy is of course to distinguish sense from reference, but what has not previously been noticed is that this response also requires thoughts to be compositionally complex, composed of senses. That, however, raises the question just how thoughts are composed from senses. We reconstruct a Fregean answer, one that turns on an insistence that this question must be understood as semantic rather than metaphysical. It is not a question about the intrinsic nature of residents of the third realm but a question about how thoughts are expressed by sentences.
Faith
Authors: Gomes Anil
Published: March 2024

This chapter argues that we have practical grounds for thinking of ourselves as the agents of our thinking: it is an article of faith. It draws on Kant’s account of our moral faith in God to provide an account of the distinction between theoretical and practical grounds for assent and argues that we have practical grounds for assenting to the claim that we are the agents of our thinking because assent in the claim is a condition on self-conscious subjects settling questions about the propriety of their perspective on the world, something which we are required to do in virtue of being self-conscious.
Empirical focus and proposal
Authors: Isac Daniela
Published: March 2024

Chapter 3 offers a succinct description of the patterns of definiteness that can be observed in Balkan Romance, for each possible binary combination between a noun on the one hand and, on the other, a pre-nominal or post-nominal modifier, a pre-nominal or post-nominal demonstrative, a cardinal, a weak or strong quantifier, a complement, and a pre-nominal or post-nominal possessive. The chapter also identifies the possible sources of the variation in definiteness patterns across Balkan Romance: the specific morphosyntactic features of various heads within the DP in each language (including EPP and discourse-related features), and the scope of the proposed Spell-Out rule, which can extend to all the [def] bearing heads that are accessible to D, or be limited to only the closest accessible head bearing [def]. The last part of Chapter 3 discusses the previous literature on definiteness in Balkan Romance languages.
Other Fortran 2023 enhancements
Authors: Metcalf Michael , Reid John , Cohen Malcolm , Bader Reinhold
Published: March 2024

Numerous minor changes to the standard are described. There are a number of new intrinsic procedures. An array or allocatable object may have a coarray component. Simple procedures, which provide more scope for optimization, have been added. New enumeration types have been added. Conditional expressions now provide control flow within expressions. Limits on line length and statement size have been greatly increased. Leading zeros on floating-point output can now be controlled. Minor improvements to C interoperability are added.
The public interest context of the VMDR
Authors: Sadler John Z.
Published: March 2024

This chapter from Vice and Psychiatric Diagnosis considers public interest and opinion regarding people with mental disorders, criminal offenders, and the mentally ill offender. After an introductory section about the concepts of cultural literacy and other ‘literacies’ (health, mental health, and crime/criminology), the chapter reviews the empirical studies of public attitudes and beliefs about various facets of the vice/mental disorder relationship. The public interest is examined from several perspectives: public attitudes about the relationships between crime and mental illness and research into stigma toward mentally ill people, criminal offenders, and mentally ill offenders. The author then examines the empirical associations between crime and mental illness as a contrast with public attitudes and beliefs. Not surprisingly, the prevailing majority of the public holds the false belief that mental illness and crime are commonly linked. This conclusion leads to the related issue about why the public holds such misconceptions. The latter question is examined through a review of the empirical literature on media portrayals of crime, criminal offenders, and people with mental illness.
Einfacher Hausrat
Authors: Jackson-Beckett Michelle
Published: March 2024

This chapter argues that the commodifications of “simple” living and rural vernacular furniture were used as propagandistic tools by the Viennese furniture trade and related magazines, organizations, and retailers in constructing new and refashioning old definitions of Austrian modernity. Specifically, they hoped to sell the idea of Viennese charm to an international audience and shore up cultural and economic stability in the wake of World War I. The centerpiece of this effort was a series of exhibitions titled Einfacher Hausrat (Simple Household Goods) that took place at the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry between 1916 and 1921. Designers such as Hugo Gorge, Rudolf Lorenz, and Fritz Kruh sought comfort in a historicist mélange of styles, reinterpreting neoclassical, baroque, rococo, British Arts and Crafts, and Biedermeier forms in home furnishings. Socialist critics, incensed by the exhibitions’ high prices, argued that Einfacher Hausrat only paid lip service to supporting the dire needs for affordable home furnishings, while in reality the exhibitions served the growing market of luxury export furniture.
Die neuzeitliche Wohnung
Authors: Jackson-Beckett Michelle
Published: March 2024

This chapter examines in depth a series of little-known exhibitions at Vienna’s Messepalast and the Austrian Museum for Art and Industry which illustrated local approaches to the modern interior and the post-World War I lifestyle. Exhibitions over the course of the late 1920s and early 1930s reinforced a connection to the past through a moderated historicism, or a reinterpretation of past forms with a modern sensibility for scale, color, pattern, and material, specifically in exhibitions such as Die zeitgemäße Wohnung (The Contemporary Apartment) within the broader exhibition, Wien und die Wiener (Vienna and the Viennese, 1927), Die neuzeitliche Wohnung (The Modern Dwelling, 1928), and Die neuzeitliche Wohnung: Die Mietwohnung (The Modern Dwelling: The Rental Apartment, 1931–1932). This chapter argues that these exhibitions illustrate how Viennese taste favored user experience, flexibility, affordability, and eclecticism over the luxe Gesamtkunstwerk ideal.
Epilogue
Authors: Jackson-Beckett Michelle
Published: March 2024

This chapter focuses on the livability expressed through human-centered design in interwar Vienna, an interpretation of modern design and architecture that stood apart from mainstream European modernist styles. It argues that these ideas of livability and flexibility became malleable in the political landscape––embraced in varying ways by both progressive and conservative sides alike. The chapter further illustrates how important the role of cultural continuity in the applied arts and interior design was in the art and culture sphere and policies of Austria after World War II, including several interior design and home furnishings exhibitions of the municipal organization Soziale Wohnkultur, and in the founding of the Second Austrian Republic in 1955. The chapter concludes with sections on the continued legacy of Vienna’s interwar Wohnkultur in postmodern design, eclecticism in modern interiors, and user experience.
Inter-Indigenous Encounters in Aboriginal Literature
Authors: Moore Dashiell
Published: March 2024

This chapter examines the inter-Indigenous encounters represented by Aboriginal Australian writers in conversation with critical debates in the field of global Indigenous studies. After contextualizing the internationalism of Aboriginal literature through a commentary on Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Mudrooroo (formerly Colin Johnston), it traces encounters between Aboriginal Australian language groups in Alexis Wright’s fiction, Indigenous peoples of the Pacific and Latin America through the works of Lionel Fogarty, and Dalit poets in India and Celtic ancestors in Ireland through the poetry of Ali Cobby Eckermann. The author argues that these writers redetermine their position in a decolonizing world by articulating a portable, extendable, and dynamic understanding of rootedness. Waanyi novelist Alexis Wright essays this understanding in her essay, ‘A Journey in Writing Place’, where she describes the world as a ‘sacred place’ where ‘we are all interconnected’, a shared homelands for those separated by geography, cultural paradigms, and historical experience.
Phase 4
Authors: Solomon Roger M.
Published: March 2024

The desensitization phase is usually the longest phase of processing. Intense emotions can arise, be reprocessed, and give way to heartfelt, meaningful memories that form an adaptive inner representation. The transformation of the relationship from loving in presence to loving in absence takes place with the mourner feeling a sense of connection to the deceased. Negative memories that emerge, including negative memories involving the deceased, also need to be processed. This chapter covers strategies for dealing with intense emotions and how to navigate through blocked processing. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy does not take away appropriate emotion: hence, the subjective units of disturbance may not go to 0 for ecological reasons.
‘Out of Harm’s Way’
Authors: Paz Reut Yael
Published: March 2024

This chapter explores the influence of German and Jewish traditions of cosmopolitan thought on Mann’s approach to the law of money, in particular. The overarching hypothesis of the chapter is that Mann was both a German conservative lawyer avant la lettre and a child, if not a grandchild, of Jewish/German cosmopolitanism, and the manner in which he wove together money and law remains very Jewish, German, and cosmopolitan. While drawing parallels to two other German-Jewish thinkers—Karl Marx and Georg Simmel—the chapter argues that Mann’s legal approach to money attempts to rehabilitate both ‘money’ and ‘the Jew’ through law.
Jurisdiction and Private International Law
Authors: Dannemann Gerhard
Published: March 2024

Mann was highly critical of the frequent inability of public international lawyers, on the one hand, and private international lawyers, on the other, to even understand what each other was talking about, leading to serious and avoidable misunderstandings in areas where those two fields overlap. This chapter shows how Mann transcended disciplinary boundaries through his expertise in both public and private international law. He used jurisprudence as a linchpin for public law influences on private international law. The chapter draws on his lectures, autobiography, and correspondence with scholars and legislators to highlight Mann’s strong views on expropriation, excessive civil jurisdiction, and so-called overriding mandatory rules.
Gold Clauses in the Capital Markets of the Early 20th Century
Authors: Fox David
Published: March 2024

Gold clauses were one of the most legally troublesome issues in international contracting during the inter-war years while Mann wrote his first edition of The Legal Aspect of Money (1938). At the time, litigation over gold clauses was a sign that the old monetary order based on the international gold standard was breaking down. This chapter scratches beneath the doctrinal analysis to the commercial and political purposes served by gold clauses. It seeks to connect them with the prevailing understanding of money and monetary valuation in the early decades of the 20th century. It considers the gold clause contracts as historical instances of the early international bond markets in operation, and the litigation over them as one reaction to the financial instability of the era. All this was the context that Mann doubtlessly knew, even if he chose to separate it from his exposition of the legal doctrine.
Introduction
Authors: Esu Alberto
Published: March 2024

This Introduction provides an overview of political power and decision-making institutions in ancient Greece. It begins by placing this study in the context of scholarly debates on sovereignty and questions the use of the notion of sovereignty applied to the political decision-making of Greek democracies and non-democratic regimes, also introducing the concept of divided power. The chapter distinguishes between the classic notion of ‘separation of powers’ and the concept of ‘divided power’. It explains the advantages of investigating dynamics of divided power from an institutional perspective and makes the case for the normativity of political institutions in shaping collective behaviour. This introductory chapter also discusses ancient theories of institutional mixing and on the role of institutions in regulating political power, especially in Plato, Aristotle, and Polybius. Building on these ancient ideas, the third section discusses the distinction between legislation and decree-making and justifies the need to study decree-making as a separate form of divided power. Finally, this chapter engages with the critique moved to institutional approaches to ancient Greek decision-making and sets out the book’s new methodology informed by the conceptual tools of historical institutionalism, offering a more nuanced definition of institutions as made of formal rules, practices, and ideas.
Institutionalism
Authors: Rees Wyn
Published: March 2024

This chapter explains institutionalist theory and claims that historical institutionalism offers insights into the Anglo-American military relationship. The two countries have over time developed a reflex of cooperating together in matters of defence. The chapter makes the case for analysing the bilateral military relationship in terms of ‘rules’, ‘practices’ and ‘narratives’. Rules reflect the doctrinal framework for action; practices test this in operations and narratives become the means of explaining and justifying action. The chapter proceeds to outline how institutionalism can be observed in the extensive linkages between the militaries of the UK and the US, in both peacetime and wartime.
The Nuclear Relationship
Authors: Rees Wyn
Published: March 2024

The nuclear relationship has been a source of considerable continuity in post-Cold War Anglo-American relations, contrasting with the tumultuous relationship in the aftermath of World War Two. Cooperation has been sustained between the British and American navies, their nuclear officials, scientists and engineers. As such it has been an exemplar of the institutional relationship between the two countries. At its heart has been high levels of trust within a highly secretive domain. Although it is an unequal relationship in which the UK obtains disproportionate benefit, the US has signalled its desire to support the UK as a nuclear power into the future.
Rational and Non-rational Cognitive Faculties
Authors: Cagnoli Fiecconi Elena
Published: March 2024

It is argued that the non-rational part of the soul is richer, cognitively, than one might initially think. It can grasp means-ends relations, as well as some generalisations. Hence, it is able to guide goal-directed behaviour on its own. Conversely, only the rational part can calculate and grasp universal explanatory accounts. This sheds light on the cognitive abilities characteristic of practical wisdom as a strictly rational excellence and on the limits of the communication between parts of the soul.
Motivational Conflict and Cognitive Conflict
Authors: Cagnoli Fiecconi Elena
Published: March 2024

This chapter explains why, for Aristotle, some forms of clear-eyed akrasia are possible. For Aristotle, grasping the truth about appearances of goodness, fineness and pleasantness is insufficient to regulate action. This explains why, for Aristotle, we are often conflicted and that we can be clear-eyed when we act against our best judgements.
Akrasia
Authors: Cagnoli Fiecconi Elena
Published: March 2024

This chapter shows that the ignorance of the akratic is in fact a lack of phronēsis, and therefore a failure of persuasion. The akratic, like the enkratic, does not fully grasp the reasons or the values that ground her decision to act well and therefore fails to bring in line her non-rational desires. Hence, the ignorance of the akratic is compatible with at least some form of clear-eyed akrasia.
The Universal Invisibility of the French White Writer
Authors: Achille Étienne , PanaÏtÉ Oana
Published: March 2024

The chapter establishes the articulation between the historic phenomenon of racialization of French literature and its enduring if changing manifestations still at work in our postcolonial era. Marie Darrieussecq’s (2013) novel Il faut beaucoup aimer les hommes enjoyed a surprisingly unanimous reception despite its controversial themes: interracial relations, France’s neo-colonial influence in Africa, and the alienating effects of the racial gaze. The authors show how the recipient of the prestigious Médicis Prize emerged as the epitomic French White writer during a period marked by multiple racist incidents extensively covered by the media. The chapter argues that French literary institutions continue to revolve around a largely invisible centre, the White writer, whose visibility has waxed and waned in the last century yet remains the intensely normative figure around which the literary field deploys its reading protocols.
People and politics
Authors: Volckart Oliver
Published: March 2024

This chapter analyses how a public opinion that concerned the monetary economy of the Empire emerged among the ‘common man’ and why political authorities were well advised to take this into account when making political decisions. The chapter shows that there is strong evidence of the common folk favouring the introduction of a common, Empire-wide currency in place of the traditional monetary diversity. Merchants, by contrast, were indifferent as they had found ways to cope with this diversity and at least occasionally to profit from it. The chapter also examines several solutions to the problems caused by Gresham’s Law, with which the members of the Empire—the ‘imperial estates’—experimented in the first half of the sixteenth century: Attempts to control the cross-border traffic in coins failed due to high monitoring costs; attempts to drive out underweight imitations of domestic money triggered rounds of debasements that severely harmed revenues. The analysis shows how the majority of the members of the Empire came to the conclusion that only an Empire-wide currency union would provide a viable solution, while a minority (Saxony and Habsburg Low Countries) preferred to maintain their autonomy in monetary policy matters.
Hamiltonian mechanics
Authors: Kotkin G. L. , Serbo V. G. , Chernykh A. I.
Published: March 2024

Invariance of the Hamiltonian function under a given transformation and the conservation law. The canonical transformations. The Poisson brackets and the classical model of the electron and nuclear paramagnetic resonances. ‘Hidden symmetry’ of the hydrogen atom. Adiabatic invariants.
Rigid-body motion
Authors: Kotkin G. L. , Serbo V. G. , Chernykh A. I.
Published: March 2024

The inertia tensor. The principal axes and the principal moments of inertia. Evolution of the period of the Earth’s rotation around its axis due to the action of tidal forces. Precession of a symmetric top.
‘What Kind of Hindu Are You?’ Muscular Hinduism and the Making of Majorities and Minorities
Authors: Chatterjee Moyukh
Published: March 2024

Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) is often interpreted as the perversion of religion for politics. However, this idea can confound rather than clarify the question of religion (and politics) in India because it is based on the idea that religion is a fixed and immutable theory about the world rather than a form of being in the world. Rather than assume that Hindu supremacy is a perversion of religion, the chapter suggests that Hindu supremacy as performed by Bajrang Dal activists in Ahmedabad, Gujarat is based on crafting a particular kind of everyday religion in public within secular states like India that reinforces and establishes majorities and minorities. Here, religion is not a fixed set of rules but deeply implicated in the genealogy of religion as a form of life in postcolonial states and as a resource for making permanent majorities and minorities in the public sphere, which are recognized as such by the state and the wider public.
Parliamentary legislation
Authors: Baker John
Published: March 2024

Principles of statutory interpretation were developed by the medieval judges and expounded in detail in sixteenth-century cases. The guiding principle was to follow the presumed intention of the maker, which was sometimes ascertained by seeking the ‘equity of the statute’. Whether the courts could go so far as to declare a statute void was a controversial question, since the doctrine that ‘parliament can do anything’ arguably gave way to the proposition that it could hardly do the impossible or be presumed to have intended the absurd. The best-known discussion of this was in Dr Bonham’s Case (1610), as reported by Sir Edward Coke, though Coke was not alone in holding that the courts could sometimes declare a statute void. Some lawyers, such as Thomas Hedley, even held that the common law was superior to parliament. The chapter ends with some texts concerning the effect of repeals.
Offences in respect of property
Authors: Baker John
Published: March 2024

Stealing movable chattels was a felony (larceny) at common law. The chapter begins with expositions of the law of theft in inns of court readings. The principal area of difficulty, pursued in some of the later case law, arose from the requirement of a forcible asportation from someone else’s possession. A person lawfully in possession of goods could not steal them; but possession had to be distinguished from mere custody, such as that of a servant or finder, and it was also decided that delivery of an enclosed bale of goods did not transfer possession of the individual contents. Other questions related to the kinds of property which could be stolen; excluded were real property, including fixtures and growing crops, wild animals, and (according to some) things of mere pleasure such as pet animals or diamonds. Stealing things of small value (petit larceny) was theft, but not capital; there was some initial uncertainty about the financial threshold. However, if the theft was aggravated by robbery, the offence was capital however small the value. Burglary was the breaking and entering of a house by night with the intention of committing theft or some other felony, even if the intention was unfulfilled; the exact scope of these constituent elements was the subject of numerous decisions.
Introduction to General Relativity, Black Holes, and Cosmology
Authors: Choquet-Bruhat Yvonne
Published: March 2024

General Relativity is a beautiful geometric theory, simple in its mathematical formulation but leading to numerous consequences with striking physical interpretations: gravitational waves, black holes, cosmological models, and so on. This introductory textbook is written for mathematics students interested in physics and physics students interested in exact mathematical formulations (or for anyone with a scientific mind who is curious to know more of the world we live in), recent remarkable experimental and observational results which confirm the theory are clearly described and no specialised physics knowledge is required. The mathematical level of Part A is aimed at undergraduate students and could be the basis for a course on General Relativity. Part B is more advanced, but still does not require sophisticated mathematics. Based on Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat's more advanced text, General Relativity and the Einstein Equations, the aim of this book is to give with precision, but as simply as possible, the foundations and main consequences of General Relativity. The first five chapters from General Relativity and the Einstein Equations have been updated with new sections and chapters on black holes, gravitational waves, singularities, and the Reissner-Nordström and interior Schwarzchild solutions. The rigour behind this book will provide readers with the perfect preparation to follow the great mathematical progress in the actual development, as well as the ability to model, the latest astrophysical and cosmological observations. The book presents basic General Relativity and provides a basis for understanding and using the fundamental theory.
Black holes
Authors: Choquet-Bruhat Yvonne
Published: March 2024

It was mainly through the vision of Robert Oppenheimer and John Archibald Wheeler that the reality of black holes was seriously considered. They cannot be seen directly, but astronomical observations, in particular perturbations of motions of various stars, reveal gravitational fields too strong to be explained by an invisible massive companion other than a black hole. Some X-ray sources and active galactic nuclei are interpreted in terms of black holes. Also, some γ-ray bursts are thought to be due ultimately to the explosion of matter accreted near the boundary of a black hole by the gravitational field it generates. There is now a large consensus among astrophysicists on the existence of many black holes in the universe, even at the centre of our own galaxy.
Introduction to cosmology
Authors: Choquet-Bruhat Yvonne
Published: March 2024

A cosmological model is a spacetime that is supposed to represent the whole past, present, and future of our universe. It has long been argued that in the framework of General Relativity, gravitation should model the geometry of the cosmos because its forces are long range (in contrast to nuclear forces) and non-compensated (there are no negative masses—in contrast to the existence of positive and negative electric charges).
Risk Aversion
Authors: Lo Andrew W. , Zhang Ruixun
Published: March 2024

In Chapter 6 we propose an evolutionary explanation for the origin of risk aversion. In the context of Chapter 2’s simple binary choice, we show that risk aversion emerges by natural selection if reproductive risk is systematic (i.e. correlated across individuals in a given generation). In contrast, risk neutrality emerges if reproductive risk is idiosyncratic (i.e. uncorrelated across each given generation). More generally, this framework implies that the degree of risk aversion is determined by the stochastic nature of reproductive rates, and we show that different statistical properties lead to different utility functions. The simplicity and generality of this model suggest that these implications are primitive and cut across species, physiology, and genetic origins
Learning to be Bayesian
Authors: Lo Andrew W. , Zhang Ruixun
Published: March 2024

In Chapter 9 we derive Bayesian inference as an adaptive behaviour that emerges through natural selection in certain stochastic environments. Such behaviour arises purely through the forces of evolution, despite the fact that the population consists of mindless individuals without any ability to reason, act strategically, or accurately encode or infer environmental states probabilistically. In addition, three specific environments favour the emergence of finite memory—those that are Markov and nonstationary, and where sampling contains too little or too much information about local conditions. These results provide an explanation for several known phenomena in human cognition, including deviations from the optimal Bayesian strategy and finite memory above and beyond resource constraints.
Customizing Traditions
Authors: de Maaker Erik
Published: March 2024

Relatedness and custom gain new meanings when the resources which people depend on for their livelihood transform. The state has long been present in Garo Hills, but only recently began to fund a broad array of development-related activities. This has given greater weight to the hierarchical yet personal relationships that people in rural West Garo Hills engage in with civil servants and politicians. Rather than rendering preceding interpretations of social hierarchy obsolete, this results in these being adapted and reinterpreted. So far, the obligation to replace deceased spouses remains, not in the least because property and assets continue to be linked to Houses. As Houses gain more and more ‘privatized’ wealth, ownership and sharing transform, gradually easing the mutual dependencies that have historically shaped relationships among households.
Twisted-plywood-like tissue formation in vitro. Does curvature do the twist?
Authors: Schamberger Barbara , Ehrig Sebastian , Dechat Thomas , Spitzer Silvia , Bidan Cécile M , Fratzl Peter , Dunlop John W C , Roschger Andreas
Published: March 2024

Little is known about the contribution of 3D surface geometry to the development of multilayered tissues containing fibrous extracellular matrix components, such as those found in bone. In this study, we elucidate the role of curvature in the formation of chiral, twisted-plywood-like structures. Tissues consisting of murine preosteoblast cells (MC3T3-E1) were grown on 3D scaffolds with constant-mean curvature and negative Gaussian curvature for up to 32 days. Using 3D fluorescence microscopy, the influence of surface curvature on actin stress-fiber alignment and chirality was investigated. To gain mechanistic insights, we did experiments with MC3T3-E1 cells deficient in nuclear A-type lamins or treated with drugs targeting cytoskeleton proteins. We find that wild-type cells form a thick tissue with fibers predominantly aligned along directions of negative curvature, but exhibiting a twist in orientation with respect to older tissues. Fiber orientation is conserved below the tissue surface, thus creating a twisted-plywood-like material. We further show that this alignment pattern strongly depends on the structural components of the cells (A-type lamins, actin, and myosin), showing a role of mechanosensing on tissue organization. Our data indicate the importance of substrate curvature in the formation of 3D tissues and provide insights into the emergence of chirality.
Cytokeratin-18 is a sensitive biomarker of alanine transaminase increase in a placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover trial of therapeutic paracetamol dosing (PATH-BP biomarker substudy)
Authors: Scullion Kathleen M , MacIntyre Iain M , Sloan-Dennison Sian , Clark Benjamin , Fineran Paul , Mair Joanne , Creasey David , Rathmell Cicely , Faulds Karen , Graham Duncan , Webb David J , Dear James W
Published: March 2024

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a challenge in clinical medicine and drug development. Highly sensitive novel biomarkers have been identified for detecting DILI following a paracetamol overdose. The study objective was to evaluate biomarker performance in a 14-day trial of therapeutic dose paracetamol. The PATH-BP trial was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Individuals (n = 110) were randomized to receive 1 g paracetamol 4× daily or matched placebo for 2 weeks followed by a 2-week washout before crossing over to the alternate treatment. Blood was collected on days 0 (baseline), 4, 7, and 14 in both arms. Alanine transaminase (ALT) activity was measured in all patients. MicroRNA-122 (miR-122), cytokeratin-18 (K18), and glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) were measured in patients who had an elevated ALT on paracetamol treatment (≥50% from baseline). ALT increased in 49 individuals (45%). All 3 biomarkers were increased at the time of peak ALT (K18 paracetamol arm: 18.9 ± 9.7 ng/ml, placebo arm: 11.1 ± 5.4 ng/ml, ROC-AUC = 0.80, 95% CI 0.71–0.89; miR-122: 15.1 ± 12.9fM V 4.9 ± 4.7fM, ROC-AUC = 0.83, 0.75–0.91; and GLDH: 24.6 ± 31.1U/l V 12.0 ± 11.8U/l, ROC-AUC = 0.66, 0.49–0.83). All biomarkers were correlated with ALT (K18 r = 0.68, miR-122 r = 0.67, GLDH r = 0.60). To assess sensitivity, biomarker performance was analyzed on the visit preceding peak ALT (mean 3 days earlier). K18 identified the subsequent ALT increase (K18 ROC-AUC = 0.70, 0.59–0.80; miR-122 ROC-AUC = 0.60, 0.49–0.72, ALT ROC-AUC = 0.59, 0.48–0.70; GLDH ROC-AUC = 0.70, 0.50–0.90). Variability was lowest for ALT and K18. In conclusion, K18 was more sensitive than ALT, miR-122, or GLDH and has potential significant utility in the early identification of DILI in trials and clinical practice.
Regional variations in allergen‐induced airway inflammation correspond to changes in soluble guanylyl cyclase heme and expression of heme oxygenase‐1
Authors: Sumi Mamta P. , Westcott Rosemary , Stuehr Eric , Ghosh Chaitali , Stuehr Dennis J. , Ghosh Arnab
Published: March 2024

Asthma is characterized by airway remodeling and hyperreactivity. Our earlier studies determined that the nitric oxide (NO)–soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC)–cGMP pathway plays a significant role in human lung bronchodilation. However, this bronchodilation is dysfunctional in asthma due to high NO levels, which cause sGC to become heme‐free and desensitized to its natural activator, NO. In order to determine how asthma impacts the various lung segments/lobes, we mapped the inflammatory regions of lungs to determine whether such regions coincided with molecular signatures of sGC dysfunction. We demonstrate using murine models of asthma (OVA and CFA/HDM) that the inflamed segments of these murine lungs can be tracked by upregulated expression of HO1 and these regions in turn overlap with regions of heme‐free sGC as evidenced by a decreased sGC‐α1β1 heterodimer and an increased response to heme‐independent sGC activator, BAY 60‐2770, relative to naïve uninflamed regions. We also find that NO generated from iNOS upregulation in the inflamed segments has a higher impact on developing heme‐free sGC as increasing iNOS activity correlates linearly with elevated heme‐independent sGC activation. This excess NO works by affecting the epithelial lung hemoglobin (Hb) to become heme‐free in asthma, thereby causing the Hb to lose its NO scavenging function and exposing the underlying smooth muscle sGC to excess NO, which in turn becomes heme‐free. Recognition of these specific lung segments enhances our understanding of the inflamed lungs in asthma with the ultimate aim to evaluate potential therapies and suggest that regional and not global inflammation impacts lung function in asthma.
An Effective Protocol for Perioperative Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis in DIEP Flap Breast Reconstruction: A Single Institution Retrospective Review
Authors: Moreno Mathew L. , Essex Hunter , Collins Meredith
Published: March 2024

Background:

Deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) free flap breast reconstruction is one of the most highly used procedures for autologous breast reconstruction. Many venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk assessment models have been proposed in breast reconstructive surgery, including the widely used Caprini score. However, a paucity of data suggests an effective standardized VTE protocol. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of VTE in our DIEP flap patients who were treated with this protocol.

Methods:

A retrospective single-center review of DIEP flap breast reconstruction from 2016 to 2021 was performed. Data were collected on 554 patients and 893 flaps including demographics, intraoperative and perioperative details, and postoperative course. Patients who were not treated with our standard protocol were excluded. Data were analyzed with alpha = 0.05.

Results:

The average age was 50.4 ± 9.9 years, and the total follow-up time was 16.9 ± 12.6 months. The average body mass index for the cohort was 30.1 ± 5.2. During the 90 postoperative days, the mean length of hospital stay was 4.3 days. There were six cases of postoperative VTE: five patients presented with pulmonary embolism (0.9%) and one patient (0.2%) had deep venous thrombosis with an overall VTE prevalence of 1.1%. No specific single factor could be attributed to VTE occurrence.

Conclusions:

Using our standardized VTE prophylaxis protocol, our institution was effective at keeping VTE rates low. Additional studies would be beneficial to determine optimal VTE prophylaxis protocols in higher-risk patients, such as those with known clotting disorders.
Why Liquidity Matters: A Financial Planning and Investment Discussion for Plastic Surgeons
Authors: Janis Brett A. , Frey Jordan D.
Published: March 2024

Plastic surgeons should understand the importance of maintaining liquidity as part of a robust household financial planning and investment strategy. Although investors rightly focus on achieving solid long-term returns, our experience suggests that many plastic surgeons often pay too little attention to liquidity management in their outlook, and some may experience stress as a result. This article discusses why liquidity management matters both in terms of each surgeon’s unique career and in the context of today’s dynamic investment opportunities and risks. We also discuss how best to understand the trade-offs and costs associated with household debt. Finally, we present simple self-diagnostic questions to help surgeons assess whether their current financial planning addresses key liquidity risks. This article belongs to a series that introduces relevant wealth and investment subjects for practicing plastic surgeons, students in plastic surgery, and support function professionals. This discussion is not meant to be exhaustive nor constitutes investment advice regarding any asset class, strategy, or examples cited herein.
Job Insecurity, Mental Health, and General Health Over Time
Authors: Salas-Nicás Sergio , Esteve-Matalí Laura , Llorens-Serrano Clara , Navarro-Giné Albert
Published: March 2024

Objective

The aim of the study is to test the relationship between different conceptualizations of job insecurity and health over time by applying a longitudinal design.

Methods

543 workers were reinterviewed after 1 year to check if being exposed to job insecurity affected their general and mental health. Robust Poisson regressions were fitted to calculate the incidence rate ratio between job insecurities and two health outcomes.

Results

Cognitive job loss insecurity increases the risk of poor mental and general health. Other expressions of job insecurity such as labor market insecurity and working conditions insecurity, as well as affective job insecurity, are not significantly related to health across time.

Conclusions

Caution is needed when interpreting cross-sectional results. Protection against the threat of losing a job would prevent mental health issues and poor general health.
Managing Patient Dissatisfaction and Billing Reconsideration Requests in Outpatient Clinics
Authors: Soares Sharmila , Ritchie Heather , Almodovar Jorge L.
Published: March 2024

Nurse leaders in many settings are responsible for clinic operations. Knowing the medical and financial stakes of each patient encounter, it is not surprising to encounter patients requesting reconsideration of bills after services are provided. This article provides recommendations on how to successfully navigate billing reconsideration requests in outpatient settings.
Implementation of an Enculturation Toolkit for New Nurses During Unit Onboarding
Authors: Grys Crystal A. , Turner Kathleen M. , Drake Amber K. , Flores Melania K.
Published: March 2024

OBJECTIVE

This quality improvement project targeted an enculturation gap among new nurses by assembling and piloting an Enculturation Toolkit.

BACKGROUND

Enculturation of new nurses contributes to engagement, performance, sense of belonging, and retention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, orientation was shortened, virtual, and asynchronous, creating a gap in enculturation.

METHODS

New nurses and their preceptors were surveyed at baseline, 2 to 3 months, and 4 to 5 months to measure engagement and enculturation using the Meaning and Joy in Work Questionnaire (MJWQ) and questions about the history and values of the organization.

RESULTS

Initial MJWQ responses were high and sustained throughout the study period. Participants demonstrated increased knowledge of the organization's mission statement and logo. New nurses rated the toolkit activities favorably, with an average score of 4.6 out of 5.

CONCLUSIONS

An Enculturation Toolkit was effective in improving knowledge about the organization and sustaining engagement and belonging.
Clinical, Laboratory, and Imaging Features Between Men and Women With Axial Spondyloarthritis in a Specialized Center in Argentina
Authors: Garcia-Salinas Rodrigo , Reyes Jara Gisele , Arguello Juan , Ruta Santiago , Almada Felicia , Aguerre Dario
Published: March 2024

Objectives

The aims were to estimate the frequency of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) in women and to analyze the clinical, laboratory, and imaging differences with respect to men at the time of diagnosis.

Methods

Consecutive patients older than 18 years with a diagnosis of axSpA admitted to the “Reumacheck” SpA program were included between 2017 and 2022. At baseline, all patients underwent clinical assessment, laboratory tests including C-reactive protein and human leukocyte antigen B27, and imaging (plain radiography and magnetic resonance imaging of sacroiliac joints, and ultrasound of heel entheses). All evaluators were blinded to the results of the other evaluations.

Results

One hundred sixteen patients with a diagnosis of axSpA were included. The frequency at diagnosis in women was 61.55%. In the univariate analysis, the significant differences between women and men at diagnosis of axSpA were good response to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, elevated C-reactive protein, New York Criteria (+), enthesis ultrasound (+), years of education, number of swollen joints, erythrosedimentation rate, and the very low frequency of bone bridges in the magnetic resonance imaging of the sacroiliac joints. In the logistic regression analysis, the dependent variable was “men,” and the only feature that was independently associated was having radiographic compromise according to the New York criteria (odds ratio, 2.6).

Conclusions

The frequency of axSpA in women was 61.55%; clinical, laboratory, and imaging differences were observed. Women experienced less radiographic compromise.
Halobacterium hubeiense sp. nov., a haloarchaeal species isolated from a bore core drilled in Hubei Province, PR China
Authors: León María José , Sánchez-Porro Cristina , de la Haba Rafael R. , Pfeiffer Friedhelm , Dyall-Smith Mike , Oksanen Hanna M. , Ventosa Antonio
Published: March 2024

Eight colonies of live microbes were isolated from an extensively surface-sterilized halite sample which had been retrieved from a depth of 2000 m from a salt mine in the Qianjiang Depression, Hubei Province, PR China. The eight colonies, obtained after 4 weeks of incubation, were named JI20-1T–JI20-8 and JI20-1T was selected as the type strain. The strains have been previously described, including a genomic analysis based on the complete genome for strain JI20-1T and draft genomes for the other strains. In that study, the name Halobacterium hubeiense was suggested, based on the location of the drilling site. Previous phylogenomic analysis showed that strain JI20-1T is most closely related to the Permian isolate Halobacterium noricense from Alpine rock salt. The orthologous average nucleotide identity (orthoANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) percentages between the eight strains are 100–99.6 % and 99.8–96.4 %, respectively. The orthoANI and dDDH values of these strains with respect to the type strains of species of the genus Halobacterium are 89.9–78.2 % and 37.3–21.6 %, respectively, supporting their placement in a novel extremely halophilic archaeal species. The phylogenomic tree based on the comparison of sequences of 632 core-orthologous proteins confirmed the novel species status for these haloarchaea. The polar lipid profile includes phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate, and sulfated galactosyl mannosyl galactosyl glucosyl diether, a profile compatible with that of Halobacterium noricense. Based on genomic, phenotypic, and chemotaxonomic characterization, we propose strain JI20-1T (=DSM 114402T = HAMBI 3616T) as the type strain of a novel species in the genus Halobacterium, with the name Halobacterium hubeiense sp. nov.
Planococcus notacanthi sp. nov., isolated from the skin of a deep-sea snub-nosed spiny eel
Authors: Uniacke-Lowe Shona , Stanton Catherine , Hill Colin , Ross Paul
Published: March 2024

A novel bacterial strain, APC 4016T, was previously isolated from the skin of a snub-nosed spiny eel, Notacanthus chemnitzii, from a depth of 1000 m in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Cells were aerobic, cocci, motile, Gram-positive to Gram-variable staining, and gave rise to orange-pigmented colonies. Growth occurred at 4–40 °C (optimum, 25–28 °C), pH 5.5–12 (optimum, pH 7–7.5), and 0–12 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1 %). 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic analysis confirmed that strain APC 4016T belonged to the genus Planococcus and was most closely related to Planococcus okeanokoites IFO 12536T (98.98 % 16S similarity). However, digital DNA–DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values between these two strains were low, at 20.1 and 83.8 %, respectively. Major (>10 %) cellular fatty acids of strain APC 4016T were iso-C14 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0 and C16 : 1-ω-Alc. The predominant respiratory quinones were menaquinones 5, 6, 7 and 8. The major cellular polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine, and three unknown lipids were also present. The draft genome sequence is 3.6 Mb with a G+C content of 45.25 mol%. This strain was previously shown to have antimicrobial activity and to encode bacteriocin and secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters. Based on the phylogenetic analysis and its distinct phenotypic characteristics, strain APC 4016T is deemed to represent a novel species of the genus Planococcus, and for which the name Planococcus notacanthi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of this species is APC 4016T (=DSM 115753T=NCIMB 15463T).