bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dyadic Designs in Lifespan Developmental Methodology
Authors: Yorgason Jeremy B. , Hill Melanie S. , Millett Mallory
Published: February 2019

The study of development across the lifespan has traditionally focused on the individual. However, dyadic designs within lifespan developmental methodology allow researchers to better understand individuals in a larger context that includes various familial relationships (husbands and wives, parents and children, and caregivers and patients). Dyadic designs involve data that are not independent, and thus outcome measures from dyad members need to be modeled as correlated. Typically, non-independent outcomes are appropriately modeled using multilevel or structural equation modeling approaches. Many dyadic researchers use the actor-partner interdependence model as a basic analysis framework, while new and exciting approaches are coming forth in the literature. Dyadic designs can be extended and applied in various ways, including with intensive longitudinal data (e.g., daily diaries), grid sequence analysis, repeated measures actor/partner interdependence models, and vector field diagrams. As researchers continue to use and expand upon dyadic designs, new methods for addressing dyadic research questions will be developed.
Personality Disorders in Later Life
Authors: van Alphen S.P.J. , Heijnen-Kohl S.M.J.
Published: February 2019

Personality disorders severely impact a person’s functioning in many ways. Although a person may have found ways to cope throughout life, at an older age underlying dysfunctional patterns can emerge and cause much distress both for the person and those around them. Why normal personality traits shift to abnormality is not easily understood. In literature there are many theories with different definitions. In this chapter a few of the prominent theories on the description of personality will be discussed. For example, some psychologists have described personality as a complex pattern that is deeply tied to psychological characteristics that are largely unaware, hard to wipe out, and expressed in all aspects of functioning. Other psychologists define personality as individual differences in the tendency to display consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The American Psychiatric Association (2013) defines personality traits as enduring patterns in the way someone perceives, relates to, and thinks about the environment and oneself and that these patterns are exhibited in a wide range of social and personal context. These definitions of personality are all concerned with unique and stable characteristics in different situations. These theories are not age-specific, but age-related changes and differences in manifestations do occur. This complicates diagnosis as measurements for older adults have barely been developed or validated. The feasibility of measurements and various information sources will be addressed. Descriptions and diagnosis have the ability to enhance treatment for patients with personality disorders. Known treatment forms have successfully been applied to older adults as well and differing treatment levels will be distinguished. Treatment of first choice can be aimed at changing personality characteristics or enhancing adaptation, but in some cases supportive treatment is the best fit. In clinical practice a variety of possible interventions is needed to provide the best care for different manifestations of personality disorders.
Marxism and Educational Theory
Authors: Cole Mike
Published: February 2019

While Marx and Engels wrote little on education, the educational implications of Marxism are clear. Education both reproduces capitalism and has the potential to undermine it. With respect to reproduction, it is informative to look at key texts by Althusser and Bowles and Gintis (and the latter’s legacy). As far as challenging capitalism is concerned, considerations are given to both theoretical developments and practical attempts to confront neoliberalism and enact socialist principles, the combination of which Marxists refer to as praxis. There have been constant challenges to Marxism since its conception, and in conclusion we look at two contemporary theories—critical race theory and its primacy of “race” over class—and intersectionality which has a tendency to marginalize class.
Socialist Politics in Lusophone Africa
Authors: Panzer Michael G.
Published: February 2019

From the 1950s through the 1970s, several liberation movements emerged in Lusophone Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and the Cape Verde Islands) that fought for independence from Portugal. One of the most significant ideological frameworks that informed the political orientation of these movements was socialism. In Lusophone Africa, several liberation leaders gravitated toward the economic and political potentialities inherent in the discourses and practices of pan-Africanism and Afro-socialism. The liberation movements in Lusophone Africa that most identified with a socialist paradigm were the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA of Angola); Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO of Mozambique); Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands); and Comité de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe (CLSTP—later, MLSTP—of São Tomé and Príncipe). These groups suffered the burden of Portuguese colonialism and actively fought for independence from colonial rule. Although several other liberation movements also emerged in the Lusophone colonies, these four movements most espoused the hallmarks of Afro-socialism to challenge Portuguese colonial rule. All four liberation movements maintained networks with international actors opposed to colonialism, as well as diplomatic connections with sympathetic socialist and communist nations. Most notable among these bases of support were the Conferência das Organizações Nacionalistas das Colónias Portuguesas (CONCP) and the governments of Tanzania, Egypt, Guinea, the People’s Republic of China, East Germany, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and Cuba.
Heat Treatment
Authors: Schmidt Patrick
Published: February 2019

In archaeology, heat treatment is the intentional transformation of stone (normally sedimentary silica rocks) by fire to produce materials with improved fracture properties. It has been documented on all continents, from the Africa Middle Stone Age up to subrecent times. It was an important part of the Mediterranean Neolithic and it sporadically appeared in the Paleolithc and Mesolithic of Asia and Europe. It may have been part of the knowledge of people first colonizing North and South America, and it played an important role for toolmaking in the Australian Prehistory. In all these contexts, heat treatment was normally used to improve the quality of stone raw materials for tool knapping; especially its association with pressure flaking has been highlighted, but a few examples also document the quest of making tools with improved qualities (sharper cutting edges) and intentional segmentation of large blocks of raw material to produce smaller, better-usable modules (fire fracturing). Two categories of silica rocks were most often heat-treated throughout prehistory: relatively fine-grained marine chert or flint and more coarse-grained continental silcrete. The finding of stone heat treatment in archaeological contexts opens up several research questions on its role for toolmaking, its cognitive and social implications, and the investment it required. Important venues for research are, for example: Why did people heat-treat stone? What happens to stones when heated? How can heating be recognized? By what technical means were stones heated? Which cost did heat treatment represent for its instigators? Answering these questions allows light to be shed on archaeologically relevant processes like innovation, reinvention, convergence, or the advent of complexity. The methods needed to produce these answers, however, often stem from other fields such as physics, chemistry, mineralogy, or material sciences.
Chile-US Relations
Authors: Kelly Patrick William
Published: February 2019

The relationship between Chile and the United States pivoted on the intertwined questions of how much political and economic influence Americans would exert over Chile and the degree to which Chileans could chart their own path. Given Chile’s tradition of constitutional government and relative economic development, it established itself as a regional power player in Latin America. Unencumbered by direct US military interventions that marked the history of the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico, Chile was a leader in movements to promote Pan-Americanism, inter-American solidarity, and anti-imperialism. But the advent of the Cold War in the 1940s, and especially after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, brought an increase in bilateral tensions. The United States turned Chile into a “model democracy” for the Alliance for Progress, but frustration over its failures to enact meaningful social and economic reform polarized Chilean society, resulting in the election of Marxist Salvador Allende in 1970. The most contentious period in US-Chilean relations was during the Nixon administration when it worked, alongside anti-Allende Chileans, to destabilize Allende’s government, which the Chilean military overthrew on September 11, 1973. The Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990), while anti-Communist, clashed with the United States over Pinochet’s radicalization of the Cold War and the issue of Chilean human rights abuses. The Reagan administration—which came to power on a platform that reversed the Carter administration’s critique of Chile—reversed course and began to support the return of democracy to Chile, which took place in 1990. Since then, Pinochet’s legacy of neoliberal restructuring of the Chilean economy looms large, overshadowed perhaps only by his unexpected role in fomenting a global culture of human rights that has ended the era of impunity for Latin American dictators.
Cuban Immigration to the United States
Authors: Roorda Eric Paul
Published: February 2019

After more than a century of sporadic immigration from the island of Cuba to the United States, the trajectory of the diaspora accelerated steeply, beginning with Fidel Castro coming to power in 1959. In the ensuing years, as bilateral relations between the Communist regime in Havana and the administrations of President Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy soured and the exodus of upper-class, then middle-class, Cubans increased until Castro clamped down on it. Thereafter, the pace of departures became episodic, involving mainly working-class people, and their nature turned increasingly desperate. Three major immigration events punctuated the next 30 years: in 1965 from the port of Camarioca, in 1980 from the bay city of Mariel, and, again in 1994, a more general wave of flight that also heavily involved the port of Mariel. These bursts of seaborne migration came against a backdrop of constant, low-level, individual efforts to flee adverse circumstances in Castro’s Cuba. These include manifold political pressures, with opponents of the regime and cultural nonconformists alike facing harassment and imprisonment; as well as other severe economic challenges, with food scarcity, fuel shortages, and unreliable electric power making daily life difficult for the vast majority of Cuban citizens.

U.S. opposition to Castro has taken many forms, beginning with economic sanctions. A complete break in relations followed in early 1961, an invasion attempt at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, and, later, a Central Intelligence Agency–sponsored campaign of terrorist attacks and assassination attempts code-named Operation Mongoose. Since the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, a nearly complete embargo has prevented any sort of trade or tourism. In response to the influx of new Cuban arrivals, U.S. policy toward the immigrants themselves altered radically, facilitating their arrival and assimilation as political refugees until August 1994, then actively preventing their entry as economic refugees, until this writing.
metonymy
Authors: Matzner Sebastian
Published: February 2019

The term metonymy denotes a literary trope, that is, a specific form of defamiliarized expression, which indirectly refers to what is at issue. Metonymy achieves this by way of exploiting an already existing association between the term (or terms) used metonymically—the metonym—and the term (or terms) implicitly at issue. Metonymy thus differs from metaphor, among other things, in that it does not invoke an underlying analogy or similarity between what is said and what is at issue. In both ancient and modern criticism, metaphor received significantly more attention than metonymy (partly owed to the fact that the poetic effects of metaphor tend to eclipse those of metonymy, partly because of the stronger appeal of the logical dimension at the heart of metaphor). As a result, metonymy—though widely used—is often ill-defined as a critical concept. Today, it features in literary-aesthetic, diachronic-etymological, (post-)structuralist, and cognitive criticism. Ancient literature, both Greek and Latin, is rich in metonymic usages, albeit with varying degrees of poetic intensity; the pattern is one of relatively few intense outcomes, and relatively many less intense ones. Prominent among the general literary-aesthetic effects of metonymy’s semantic shifts are the creation of a poignantly condensed impression of what is at issue; a change in focalization by zooming out onto a higher plane or zooming in on newly foregrounded micro-level aspects; and movement between the concrete-material and the abstract-conceptual dimensions of what is at issue.
lex Iulia on jurisdiction
Authors: Tarwacka Anna
Published: February 2019

The lex Iulia on jurisdiction was a complex regulation concerning both civil and criminal proceedings. The archaic procedure per legis actiones was generally abolished and substituted with the formulary proceedings. The purpose of the law was to simplify and shorten the trials.
Lexicalization in Morphology
Authors: Hilpert Martin
Published: February 2019

The term lexicalization describes the addition of new open-class elements to a repository of holistically processed linguistic units. At the basis of lexicalization are word-formation processes such as affixation, compounding, or borrowing, which are a necessary precondition for lexicalization. Still, lexicalization goes beyond word formation in important respects. First, lexicalization also involves multi-word expressions and set phrases; second, it includes a range of processes that follow the coinage of a new element. These processes conjointly lead to holistic processing, that is, the cognitive treatment of a linguistic element as a unified whole. Holistic processing contrasts with analytic processing, which is the cognitive treatment of a linguistic unit as a complex whole that is composed of several parts. Lexicalization is usefully contrasted with grammaticalization, that is, the emergence of new linguistic units that fulfill grammatical functions. Finally, lexicalization is also a concept that lends itself to the study of cross-linguistic differences in the types of meaning that are lexicalized in specific domains such as, for example, motion.
Natural Hazards Governance in South Asia
Authors: Bhatt Mihir , Patel Ronak B. , Gleason Kelsey
Published: February 2019

South Asia is faced with a range of natural hazards, including floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis. Rapid and unplanned urbanization, environmental degradation, climate change, and socioeconomic conditions are increasing citizens’ exposure to and risk from natural hazards and resulting in more frequent, intense, and costly disasters. Although governments and the international community are investing in disaster risk reduction, natural hazard governance in South Asian countries remain weak and often warrants a review when a major natural disaster strikes. Natural hazards governance is an emerging concept, and many countries in South Asia have a challenging hazard governance context.
Associations of Sleep Characteristics With Cognitive Function and Decline Among Older Adults
Authors: McSorley V Eloesa , Bin Yu Sun , Lauderdale Diane S
Published: February 2019

Sleep laboratory studies find that restricted sleep duration leads to worse short-term cognition, especially memory. Observational studies find associations between self-reported sleep duration or quality and cognitive function. However self-reported sleep characteristics might not be highly accurate, and misreporting could relate to cognition. In the Sleep Study of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally representative cohort of older US adults (2010–2015), we examined whether self-reported and actigraph-measured sleep are associated with cross-sectional cognitive function and 5-year cognitive decline. Cognition was measured with the survey adaptation of the multidimensional Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-SA). At baseline (n = 759), average MoCA-SA score was 14.1 (standard deviation, 3.6) points of a possible 20. In cross-sectional models, actigraphic sleep-disruption measures (wake after sleep onset, fragmentation, percentage sleep, and wake bouts) were associated with worse cognition. Sleep disruption measures were standardized, and estimates of association were similar (range, −0.37 to −0.59 MoCA-SA point per standard deviation of disruption). Actigraphic sleep-disruption measures were also associated with odds of 5-year cognitive decline (4 or more points), with wake after sleep onset having the strongest association (odds ratio = 1.43, 95% confidence interval: 1.04, 1.98). Longitudinal associations were generally stronger for men than for women. Self-reported sleep showed little association with cognitive function.
A Shoppable Life: Performance, Selfhood, and Influence in the Social Media Storefront
Authors: Hund Emily , McGuigan Lee
Published: February 2019

This article develops a critical analysis of Instagram’s influencer economy by introducing and unpacking a phenomenon we call shoppable life. The term shoppable life is intended to capture the ideas that: (a) social media users perform lifestyles whose constituent elements can be bought; and (b) sociality increasingly unfolds within platforms that encode marketplace logics and capacities into their designs. Drawing on literatures about consumer culture, celebrity, and digital labor; interviews with 25 participants in Instagram’s influencer economy; and industry texts, we elucidate the power dynamics and contradictions manifested in constructing a shoppable life. We emphasize how social media users navigate the imperative to produce an “authentic” but branded and monetizable self, the personal risk they bear in doing so, and the stakeholders who mediate and profit from these productions. We also highlight conceptual points of entry for critical attention to the logic of shoppability, which increasingly pervades spaces and cultures.
Effects of vertical position on trematode parasitism in larval anurans
Authors: Jones Jacob R , Steenrod Camille L , Marino John A
Published: February 2019

Spatial distributions of animals can affect interactions with their natural enemies, such as parasites, and thus have important implications for host–parasite dynamics. While spatial variation in infection risk has been explored in many systems at the landscape scale, less attention has been paid to spatial structure at smaller scales. Here, we explore a hypothesized relationship between a common spatial variable, vertical position, and risk of parasite infection in a model aquatic system, larval frogs (Rana) and trematode (Digenea) parasites. Vertical position is relevant to this system given evidence that the densities of snail first intermediate hosts, tadpole second intermediate hosts, and trematode infective stages can vary with depth. To test the effects of depth on infection risk of larval frogs by trematodes, we performed two enclosure experiments, one in the laboratory and one in the field, in which larval frogs in cages just below the water surface or near the bottom of the water column were exposed to parasites. Compared with near-surface cages, mean infection load (number of cysts) in tadpoles in near-bottom cages was 83% higher after 48-h exposures in the laboratory and 730% higher after 10-day exposures in the field. Our findings thus indicate that infection risk depends on depth, which may have adaptive significance, as tadpoles have previously been shown to change vertical position in response to parasite presence. These results motivate future work examining vertical variation in infection risk and may have broader implications for host–parasite dynamics and evolution of host and parasite behavior.
A single sequential snake saphenous vein graft versus separate left and right vein grafts in coronary artery bypass surgery: a population-based cohort study from the SWEDEHEART registry†
Authors: Wallgren Sara , Nielsen Susanne , Pan Emily , Pivodic Aldina , Hansson Emma C , Malm Carl Johan , Jeppsson Anders , Wallinder Andreas
Published: February 2019

OBJECTIVES

Our goal was to compare short- and midterm outcomes after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) using 2 different revascularization strategies.

METHODS

A total of 6895 patients were included who had CABG in Sweden from 2009 to 2015 using the left internal mammary artery to the left anterior descending artery and either a single sequential saphenous vein graft connecting the left and right coronary territories to the aorta (snake graft, n = 2122) or separate vein grafts to both territories (n = 4773). Data were obtained from the Swedish Web System for Enhancement of Evidence-Based Care in Heart Disease Evaluated According to Recommended Therapies (SWEDEHEART) and the Swedish Patient Registry. The groups were compared using adjusted logistic regression for short-term (30-day) and Cox regression and flexible parametric survival models for midterm outcomes. Primary outcome was a composite of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), reangiography and new revascularization. The median follow-up time was 35 months.

RESULTS

At 30 days, the incidences of the composite end point [odds ratio (OR) 1.31, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–1.68; P = 0.03] and reangiography (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.07–2.14; P = 0.02) were higher in the snake group. There was also a trend towards higher mortality (OR 1.47, 95% CI 0.97–2.22; P = 0.07). The event rates during the complete follow-up period were 6.5 (5.9–7.2) and 5.7 (5.3–6.1) per 100 person-years for the snake group and the separate vein group, respectively. At the midterm follow-up, no significant difference between the groups could be shown for the composite end point [hazard ratio (HR) 1.08, 95% CI 0.95–1.22; P = 0.24], mortality (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.79–1.14; P = 0.56), MI (HR 1.11, 95% CI 0.88–1.41; P = 0.39) or new revascularization (HR 1.19, 95% CI 0.94–1.50; P = 0.15), whereas reangiography remained more common in the snake group (HR 1.25, 95% CI 1.05–1.48; P = 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Snake grafts were associated with a higher rate of early postoperative complications, possibly reflecting a more demanding surgical technique, whereas midterm outcomes were comparable. Based on these data, one strategy cannot be recommended over the other.
QT as a predictor of recurrence after atrial fibrillation ablation and the impact of amiodarone: results from the placebo-controlled AMIO-CAT trial
Authors: Diederichsen Søren Zöga , Darkner Stine , Chen Xu , Johannessen Arne , Pehrson Steen , Hansen Jim , Svendsen Jesper Hastrup
Published: February 2019

Aims

Prolonged corrected QT interval (QTc) might be associated with arrhythmia recurrence after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. The effect of short-term amiodarone in this setting remains unknown. This study seeks to quantify short-term amiodarone’s impact on QTc, and to investigate QTc and amiodarone treatment as predictors of recurrence of arrhythmia after ablation.

Methods and results

The Short-term AMIOdarone treatment after CATheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AMIO-CAT) trial randomized patients to 8 weeks of oral amiodarone or placebo following AF ablation. Scheduled and symptom-driven 12-lead electrocardiography and 3-day Holter-monitorings were performed. The endpoint was atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter or atrial tachycardia (AF/AT) lasting >30 s. The cut-off for prolonged QTc was 450 ms for men and 460 ms for women. A total of 212 patients were included, of which 108 were randomized to amiodarone and 104 to placebo. From baseline to 1 month QTc in the amiodarone group increased by 27 (±30) ms, while at 6 months QTc had normalized. After 3-months of blanking, new AF/AT recurrence was detected in 63% of patients with prolonged QTc vs. 41% of patients with normal QTc at baseline, and in multivariate Cox regression, prolonged QTc was associated with AF/AT recurrence [hazard ratio (HR) 2.19, P = 0.023]. Among patients with baseline QTc below median, amiodarone treatment decreased the rate of AF/AT recurrences (HR 0.43, P = 0.008).

Conclusions

Amiodarone increased QTc with 27 ms compared to placebo, and this effect decreased rapidly after drug discontinuation. Prolonged QTc at baseline independently predicted AF/AT recurrence, and baseline QTc identified patients who would possibly benefit from short-term amiodarone following ablation.
Measuring economic contributions of the marine recreational charter fishing sector using a resampling approach
Authors: Lew Daniel K , Seung Chang K
Published: February 2019

Policy makers and stakeholders often desire information on the economic impact of fishing, which is frequently measured through its contribution to the economy using regional economic impact models. The variance of fishery-related economic contribution estimates is seldom calculated but can improve the quality of policy information. In this study, we illustrate a resampling-based approach for calculating standard errors of contribution estimates within a social accounting matrix (SAM) model with inputs calculated from survey data with missing data. We estimate the contribution of the saltwater recreational charter fishing industry in Alaska to the economy for 2011–2013 and 2015. Statistical tests are then conducted to assess differences between estimates across the years. Of the years studied, the total output (sales) from the Alaska saltwater charter fishing industry in Alaska was found to be (statistically) largest in 2011 ($248 million in 2013 dollars) and lowest in the next year, 2012 (about $141 million in 2013 dollars). Subsequently, the total output increased in 2013 and then remained at a statistically similar level in 2015.
When Justice Leads, Does Politics Follow?
Authors: Rodman Kenneth A
Published: February 2019

One of the arguments for international prosecution of criminal violence regardless of political context is the presumed normative pull of global justice, which can stigmatize targeted leaders to both international and domestic audiences, leading to their marginalization. However, the examples most closely associated with this argument — Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić (arrest warrants issued in 1995), Slobodan Milošević (arrest warrant unsealed in 1999) and Charles Taylor (arrest warrant unsealed in 2003) — are false positives since they were empowered by a political commitment by powerful states to remove those actors from power. In contrast, when powerful third parties prefer to engage regimes whose leaders are subjected to criminal scrutiny — either because of shared interests or a diplomatic approach to conflict management — the stigmatizing impact of criminalization is limited, as demonstrated by the failure of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to prosecute commanders of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the problems the International Criminal Court has encountered in its Darfur and Kenyan investigations. The findings point to the realist limits of the shaming function of international criminal tribunals, whose ability to sideline abusive leaders is dependent on parallel political strategies to achieve the same ends.
A logical framework for view updating in indefinite databases
Authors: Caroprese Luciano , Trubitsyna Irina , Truszczyński Miroslaw , Zumpano Ester
Published: February 2019

This paper introduces and studies a declarative framework for updating views over indefinite databases. An indefinite database is a database with null values that are represented, following the standard database approach, by a single null constant. Typically a database is represented by a single set of facts $D$ that model what is known to be true. This paper proposes a model of an indefinite extensional database that is more expressive with respect to the closed-world assumption (CWA) adapted for the setting of indefinite databases (Libkin, 1995, A semantics-based approach to design of query languages for partial information. In Semantics in Databases, vol. 1358 of LNCS, pp. 170–208. Springer; der Meyden, 1998, Logical approaches to incomplete information: a survey. In Logics for Databases and Information Systems, pp. 307–356. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, USA). More specifically, in our model, databases are determined by two sets of facts: $D$ representing, as usual, all facts that are true in the database, and $E$ that is meant to represent exceptions to the ‘unknown range’, i.e. facts that cannot be unknown. Intuitively, unless they are explicitly implied to be true by the first set, the facts specified as exceptions are assumed false. The semantics is given by means of a two-level CWA tailored to the case of indefinite information. The paper characterizes the semantics of indefinite databases in terms of their possible worlds that are obtained by instantiating occurrences of null values by concrete constants and defines several classes of database repairs that realize view-update requests. Most notable is the class of constrained repairs. Constrained repairs change the database ‘minimally’and avoid making arbitrary commitments. They narrow down the space of alternative ways to fulfill the view-update request to those that are grounded, in a certain strong sense, in the database, the view and the view-update request.
CAR T-Cell Associated Neurotoxicity: Mechanisms, Clinicopathologic Correlates, and Future Directions
Authors: Hunter Bradley D , Jacobson Caron A
Published: February 2019

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a revolutionary new form of immunotherapy for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. The two primary toxicities associated with CAR T-cell therapy include cytokine-release syndrome and neurotoxicity. Cytokine-release syndrome is generally self-limited but high-grade toxicities like hypotension and hypoxemia can be managed with agents that block the effects of IL-6, like tocilizumab, and/or corticosteroids. Although CAR T-cell therapy–associated neurotoxicity is a well-described clinical phenomenon, its pathophysiology remains inadequately understood; treatments and preventive strategies remain elusive. Animal models and clinical trial experience suggest the centrality of monocytes, endothelial dysfunction, and the blood-brain barrier in the development of CAR T-cell–associated neurotoxicity. Here we report what is known from preclinical models, clinical trials, and histopathologic studies regarding the pathophysiology of neurotoxicity, predictors of its incidence, and potential targets for the treatment and prevention of neurotoxicity.
Literary and Historic Flâneuses: Observation, Commentary, Enterprise and Courage in Late-Nineteenth-Century Women’s Professional Lives
Authors: Hall Leo , Grennan Simon
Published: February 2019

Discussions of the conception of that exemplar of late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth century urban modernity, the flâneur, have focused on both critique of the figure’s masculinity and more radical and nuanced conceptions of women’s flânerie. This article considers both the re-gendering and ungendering of flânerie in the character of three flâneuses in fiction published in the 1870s, 1880s and 1910s: Madame Sidonie, Henrietta Stackpole, and Elsie Bengough, and related dissonances and synergies in the career and work of London actress and cartoonist Marie Duval, active 1869–1885. It will argue that changes in types of reading supervened upon the boom in the production and distribution of serial publications during this period, resulting in the embodiment of new female professional identities, relative to both changing experiences of urban life and changing experiences of reading. The article makes a distinction between new ideas of these types of urban professional woman and the development of the identity of the New Woman after 1894. It examines the historic comprehensibility of the fictional flâneuses to readers of Zola, James, and Onions, according to the new opportunities and prohibitions that constituted the lived experiences of the developing urban entertainments industry of the period, in Duval’s comic strips and vignettes in the weekly London magazine Judy, or The London Serio-Comic Journal.
Blood Urea Nitrogen Levels to Verify Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate, as Derived from 2 Commonly Used Equations
Authors: Lin Sheng-Feng , Teng Hao-En , Lin Hsiu-Chen
Published: February 2019

Background

A blood urea nitrogen to creatinine ratio (BCR) of 20 or greater indicates various physiological conditions. Whether glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimates obtained using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) study equation and Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) study equations are affected by a high BCR remains unknown.

Methods

Patients who underwent urine creatinine clearance (CrCl) and serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine assessments on the same day were enrolled in our study. Those with BCR of 20 or greater and less than 20 were categorized into high- and low-BCR groups. The concordance on diagnosing chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages by using urine CrCl level and serum GFR estimates was assessed.

Results

More disagreement in CKD stage diagnosis was observed in the high-BCR group (weighted κ = 0.600 and 0.541 for the MDRD and CKD-EPI study equations, respectively) than in the low-BCR group (weighted κ = 0.816 and 0.758, respectively).

Conclusions

A BCR of 20 or greater caused misestimation of the CKD stage. GFR estimates for patients with high BCR should be interpreted cautiously.
Involvement of Interferon‐γ + 874A/T Polymorphism in the Pathogenesis of and Therapeutic Response to Immune Thrombocytopenia
Authors: Rezaeeyan Hadi , Jaseb Kaveh , Kaydani Gholam Abas , Asnafi Ali Amin , Masbi Mohammad Hosein , Saki Najmaldin
Published: February 2019

Background

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disease characterized by symptoms of thrombocytopenia and bleeding due to production of autoantibodies against platelets. Recently, the occurrence of polymorphisms has been identified as one of the main causes of disease onset.

Methods

To conduct this study, we recruited 140 patients and control individuals with no history of platelet loss. After collection of specimens, the prevalence of interferon-γ polymorphism was evaluated using the allele-specific oligonucleotide–polymerase chain reaction (ASO-PCR) technique and confirmed by sequencing techniques.

Results

The results showed that the frequency of the AA genotype was higher in the control group, compared with patients with ITP; however, in the acute and chronic groups, the frequency of the AT genotype was higher than that of the AA genotype. We also discovered that there was no significant correlation between platelet counts before and after treatment, nor in its related parameters with interferon (IFN)–γ polymorphism.

Conclusion

rs2430561 does not seem to have any role in ITP pathogenesis and treatment response.
Beyond validation: Using programmed diagnostics to learn about, monitor, and successfully complete your DH project
Authors: Holmes Martin , Takeda Joseph
Published: February 2019

Digital humanities projects have long relied on various schema languages—chiefly, RELAX NG and Schematron—for validating the XML documents in their data collections; however, these languages are limited in their ability to check for consistency, coherence, and completeness across the entire project. In our work as part of “Endings”, an umbrella project that comprises four diverse digital edition projects from different fields, we have developed a methodology for checking and enforcing correctness, completeness, and coherence across the entire document set. The following article describes the various stages (what we term “levels”) of our diagnostics process, all of which are driven by XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) stylesheets, and produce a human readable report. These levels include checks for referential integrity, correct entity tagging, and potential duplicates in the data set. Using examples from the Endings projects, we show how diagnostic processes not only ensure correctness in the data set, but can also aid in determining project milestones and completion dates. Diagnostics, we argue, are thus a crucial extension to schema-based validation for complex digital projects and can provide concrete ways for digital humanities projects to enforce coherence and consistency and track their progress toward completion.
Magnetic topologies of young suns: the weak-line T Tauri stars TWA 6 and TWA 8A
Authors: Hill C A , Folsom C P , Donati J-F , Herczeg G J , Hussain G A J , Alencar S H P , Gregory S G ,   MaTYSSE collaboration
Published: February 2019

We present a spectropolarimetric study of two weak-line T Tauri stars (wTTSs), TWA 6, and TWA 8A, as part of the MaTYSSE (Magnetic Topologies of Young Stars and the Survival of close-in giant Exoplanets) programme. Both stars display significant Zeeman signatures that we have modelled using Zeeman Doppler Imaging (ZDI). The magnetic field of TWA 6 is split equally between poloidal and toroidal components, with the largest fraction of energy in higher order modes, with a total unsigned flux of 840 G, and a poloidal component tilted 35° from the rotation axis. TWA 8A has a 70 per cent poloidal field, with most of the energy in higher order modes, with an unsigned flux of 1.4 kG (with a magnetic filling factor of 0.2), and a poloidal field tilted 20° from the rotation axis. Spectral fitting of the very strong field in TWA 8A (in individual lines, simultaneously for Stokes I and V) yielded a mean magnetic field strength of 5.9 ± 0.2 kG. The higher field strengths recovered from spectral fitting suggests that a significant proportion of magnetic energy lies in small-scale fields that are unresolved by ZDI. So far, wTTSs in MaTYSSE appear to show that the poloidal-field axisymmetry correlates with the magnetic field strength. Moreover, it appears that classical T Tauri stars (cTTSs) and wTTSs are mostly poloidal and axisymmetric when mostly convective and cooler than ∼4300 K, with hotter stars being less axisymmetric and poloidal, regardless of internal structure.
Con: Vascular access surveillance in mature fistulas: is it worthwhile?
Authors: Moist Louise , Lok Charmaine E
Published: February 2019

The risks and benefits of hemodialysis arteriovenous (AV) access surveillance have been debated since the introduction of AV access surveillance techniques. The debate is fuelled by the lack of robust, high-quality evidence with consistent and comparable patient-important outcomes. Additionally, there is a lack of clarity regarding the diagnostic cut points for AV access stenosis using the various surveillance techniques, questions about the appropriateness of the ‘knee-jerk’ response to intervention on a stenosis >50% regardless of the presence of clinical indicators and whether the intervention results in desired patient-important outcomes. The physiology of the AV access is complex considering the different hemodynamics within an AV fistula, which vary by time of dialysis, location, size of vessels and location of the stenosis. The current evidence suggests that the use of AV access surveillance in an AV fistula does detect more stenosis compared with clinical monitoring alone and leads to an increased number of procedures. It remains uncertain if that leads to improved patient-important outcomes such as prolonged AV fistula patency. Vascular access is an essential component of hemodialysis and further study is needed to clarify this long-standing debate. There needs to be better distinction between the strategies of vascular access surveillance, clinical monitoring with clinical indictors and preemptive intervention and their respective impacts on patient-important outcomes. Randomized controlled studies must be conducted with defined indications for intervention, reproducible methods of intervention and clinically important AV fistula and patient outcomes. The current guidelines need to be challenged and revised to permit these necessary studies to be done.
A systematic study of ULIRGs using near-infrared absorption bands reveals a strong UV environment in their star-forming regions
Authors: Doi Ryosuke , Nakagawa Takao , Isobe Naoki , Baba Shunsuke , Yano Kenichi , Yamagishi Mitsuyoshi
Published: February 2019

We present a systematic study of the 3.0 μm H2O ice and the 3.4 μm aliphatic carbon absorption features toward 48 local ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) using spectra obtained by the AKARI Infrared Camera to investigate the UV environment in their star-forming regions. All the ULIRGs in our sample exhibit a ratio of optical depth of H2O ice to silicate dust (τ3.0/τ9.7) that is lower than that in the Taurus dark cloud. This implies that ULIRGs cannot be described as an ensemble of low-mass star-forming regions and that a significant amount of high-mass star-forming regions contribute to star-forming clouds in local ULIRGs. The results also show that the ratios of optical depth of aliphatic carbon to silicate dust, τ3.4/τ9.7, exhibit diverse values. We investigate two effects that can affect this ratio: the geometric temperature gradient (which increases the ratio) and the intense UV environment (which decreases it). The geometric temperature gradient is typically considered as a sign of active galactic nuclei (AGN). ULIRGs with AGN signs (optical classification, near-infrared color, and a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission strength of $3.3\, \mu$m) indeed tend to exhibit a large τ3.4/τ9.7 ratio. However, we find that the presence of buried AGN is not the only cause of the geometric temperature gradient, because the enhancement of the ratio is also evident in pure starburst-like ULIRGs without these AGN signs. Regarding the intense UV environment in star-forming regions, the correlation between the aliphatic carbon ratio and the ratio of the [C  ii] 158 μm line luminosity to the far-infrared luminosity ($L_{[\mathrm{C}\,\,\small {ii}]}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}$), which represents the UV environment in photodissociation regions, implies that the intense UV environment causes the decrease of the aliphatic carbon ratio. We find that an intense UV environment (G/nH > 3) in star-forming regions is needed for the aliphatic carbon ratio to be suppressed.
Fossils with Feathers and Philosophy of Science
Authors: Havstad Joyce C , Smith N Adam
Published: February 2019

The last half century of paleornithological research has transformed the way that biologists perceive the evolutionary history of birds. This transformation has been driven, since 1969, by a series of exciting fossil discoveries combined with intense scientific debate over how best to interpret these discoveries. Ideally, as evidence accrues and results accumulate, interpretive scientific agreement forms. But this has not entirely happened in the debate over avian origins: the accumulation of scientific evidence and analyses has had some effect, but not a conclusive one, in terms of resolving the question of avian origins. Although the majority of biologists have come to accept that birds are dinosaurs, there is lingering and, in some quarters, strident opposition to this view. In order to both understand the ongoing disagreement about avian origins and generate a prediction about the future of the debate, here we use a revised model of scientific practice to assess the current and historical state of play surrounding the topic of bird evolutionary origins. Many scientists are familiar with the metascientific scholars Sir Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, and these are the primary figures that have been appealed to so far, in prior attempts to assess the dispute. But we demonstrate that a variation of Imre Lakatos’s model of progressive versus degenerative research programmes provides a novel and productive assessment of the debate. We establish that a refurbished Lakatosian account both explains the intractability of the dispute and predicts a likely outcome for the debate about avian origins. In short, here, we offer a metascientific tool for rationally assessing competing theories—one that allows researchers involved in seemingly intractable scientific disputes to advance their debates.
Improving Yields and Managing Dry Bean Bacterial Diseases in Nebraska with New Copper-Alternative Chemicals
Authors: Harveson Robert M.
Published: February 2019

Bacterial diseases, common blight, halo blight, brown spot, and wilt are major constraints to the production of dry edible beans in western Nebraska. Owing to a lack of effective control options, these diseases have been difficult to properly manage. Cultivars with partial disease resistance are available for some diseases, but not for all. Furthermore, few chemical products are accessible other than copper-based products, which have proven to be erratic in efficacy, depending on variables such as pathogen involved, disease pressure, and environmental conditions. Therefore, field studies were conducted in western Nebraska for 7 years (13 site years) evaluating newly emerging copper-alternative chemicals for managing these diseases in dry beans. Over this time period, five different products were tested for at least 2 years each and were compared with two commercially available copper compounds (Kocide and MasterCop). The new alternatives included two growth-promoting chemicals (ecoAgra A300, WakeUP Summer), and three contact sanitizers (Goldshield 5, SaniDate, and OxiDate). Treatments with SaniDate and ecoAgra A300 more consistently produced higher yields than other treatments, while not reducing disease incidence. These improvements were achieved primarily under high levels of disease, providing promise for use in production systems in western Nebraska.
Clinical Updates in Women’s Health Care Summary: Surgical Considerations
Authors: Shafer Aaron , Gehrig Paola
Published: February 2019

Obstetrician–gynecologists often incorporate surgical procedures in the care of women. Each phase of a woman's life cycle presents different challenges regarding preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative management. Appropriate workup and preparation of patients for surgery are key to a successful surgical outcome. As women age, their risk of medical comorbidities, such as coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, or obesity, increases, as does the need for surgical procedures. Correctly identifying medical conditions and related surgical risks will help obstetrician–gynecologists provide safe, appropriate, and evidence-based care to women. Increasingly, obstetrician–gynecologists work in the setting of multidisciplinary teams, and many have access to preoperative assessment clinics and hospitalists to assist in the management of preoperative and perioperative patients. It is the responsibility of the referring physician to understand the services these clinics and hospitalists provide. An appropriate and cost-effective evidence-based preliminary workup, such as laboratory and imaging tests, also is important. The purpose of this monograph is to help guide obstetrician–gynecologists through the appropriate preoperative assessment of women who require surgery and identify intraoperative and postoperative management strategies that will help decrease avoidable morbidity and mortality of these patients.