bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Climate and Disease in Medieval Eurasia
Authors: Green Monica H.
Published: June 2018

When the first hominins and their successors migrated north from Africa into Eurasia, they created a new, interlinked disease environment. They brought some diseases, such as malaria, with them from Africa, and newly encountered others, such as plague, in Eurasia. Regional changes in climate played a role in human health, not simply due to their influence in determining the success of year-to-year harvests and grazing lands, but also because periods of warming or severe and sudden cooling shifted the interactions between humans and the flora and fauna that made up their environment. Exchanges of disease between the two continents would continue up through the medieval era. Whereas vast distances and low population density likely shielded Eurasian populations from frequent epidemic outbreaks up through the Neolithic period, by the beginning of the common era, with its vastly intensified trade networks, Eurasia would begin to see a new phenomenon: pandemics, including the Justinianic Plague and the Black Death, the largest mortality events in human history. The diseases of medieval Eurasia are still among the world’s leading infectious killers and causes of debilitating morbidity. Because they have all persisted to the present day (with the exception of smallpox), modern science plays an important role in their historical reconstruction.
Ethiopia in the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Tibebu Teshale
Published: June 2018

The history of Ethiopia during the 19th century involved three fundamental processes: (1) the Zämänä Mäsafənt (Era of Princes) and its coming to an end under Kassa Häylu, later Emperor Tewodros II; (2) the repeated attempts by Egypt and Italy to colonize Ethiopia, culminating in the Battle of Adwa on March 1, 1896; and (3) Mənilək’s territorial expansion and conquest of what is now southern Ethiopia during the last quarter of the 19th century in campaigns known as agär maqnat. These three distinct, yet related, processes laid the foundations for the making of modern Ethiopia.

The end of the Zämänä Mäsafənt was a key factor in centralizing state power in the hands of the emperors of Ethiopia. It enabled consolidating the power of the regional lords under the emperor, which in turn played a critical role in confronting Egypt and Italy’s colonial intrusions in the late 19th century. Mənilək’s territorial conquests in the south further strengthened the state, garnering vast human and material resources that played a critical role in the Ethiopian victory at the Battle of Adwa. All three processes worked in tandem: the end of the Zämänä Mäsafənt created a strong centralized state; such a state succeeded in nipping in the bud the colonial invasions of Egypt and Italy; and the successes of the agär maqnat campaigns added to the overall strength of the country. It also laid the ground for the problems of the 20th century, chief among them being the “national question.”
The Archaeology of Gender in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Wadley Lyn
Published: June 2018

The meaning and context of gender is contested even in the 21st century. No generalizations about gender are applicable through time or across space. Even where gender roles are defined by particular cultural norms, they are not static, and an individual may pass through several gendered social transformations in a lifetime. Sub-Saharan African rites of passage into adulthood are sometimes marked by gender-specific physical mutilations such as circumcision, dental modification or scarification, together with other forms of symbolic marking that invariably adopt a binary gender system as the norm. The initiations are largely designed to instruct initiates about behavior appropriate for men and women of reproductive age belonging to a specific community. Some aspects of initiation rites may be detected archaeologically through skeletal alterations, rock art motifs, and props such as scarified dolls. Concepts of gender are also connected to the last rite of passage: burial. Through this, people gain access to the ancestral world. In some parts of Africa such as Mali, men and women are buried with the artifacts they owned in life, while in Ethiopia, stelae mark the gender of the deceased. Elsewhere, as in the Stone Age of southern Africa, gender-undifferentiated grave goods are placed with men, women, and children, suggesting a genderless ancestral world. Gender roles can be identified in some archaeological sites in parts of Africa, and these roles sometimes appear to have altered through time. Gender roles changed with environmental shifts, and certain tasks such as big-game hunting disappeared as a result. In other cases, gender roles were revised because of social pressures imposed on specific communities.
The Lifetime Dynamics of Health and Wealth
Authors: St-Amour Pascal
Published: June 2018

Life-cycle choices and outcomes over financial (e.g., savings, portfolio, work) and health-related variables (e.g., medical spending, habits, sickness, and mortality) are complex and intertwined. Indeed, labor/leisure choices can both affect and be conditioned by health outcomes, precautionary savings is determined by exposure to sickness and longevity risks, where the latter can both be altered through preventive medical and leisure decisions. Moreover, inevitable aging induces changes in the incentives and in the constraints for investing in one’s own health and saving resources for old age. Understanding these pathways poses numerous challenges for economic models.

The life-cycle data is indicative of continuous declines in health statuses and associated increases in exposure to morbidity, medical expenses, and mortality risks, with accelerating post-retirement dynamics. Theory suggests that risk-averse and forward-looking agents should rely on available instruments to insure against these risks. Indeed, market- and state-provided health insurance (e.g., Medicare) cover curative medical expenses. High end-of-life home and nursing-home expenses can be hedged through privately or publicly provided (e.g., Medicaid) long-term care insurance. The risk of outliving one’s financial resources can be hedged through annuities. The risk of not living long enough can be insured through life insurance.

In practice, however, the recourse to these hedging instruments remains less than predicted by theory. Slow-observed wealth drawdown after retirement is unexplained by bequest motives and suggests precautionary motives against health-related expenses. The excessive reliance on public pension (e.g., Social Security) and the post-retirement drop in consumption not related to work or health are both indicative of insufficient financial preparedness and run counter to consumption smoothing objectives. Moreover, the capacity to self-insure through preventive care and healthy habits is limited when aging is factored in. In conclusion, the observed health and financial life-cycle dynamics remain challenging for economic theory.
Health Policies and Systems in Latin America
Authors: Laurell Asa Cristina , Giovanella Ligia
Published: June 2018

Since the early 1990s, health policy in Latin America has focused on reform in most countries with the explicit purpose to increase access, decrease inequity, and provide financial protection. Basically, two different and opposed models of reform have been implemented: the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) model and the Single Universal Health System model. The essential characteristics of Latin American UHC are that health care is commodified by the introduction of competition that depends, in turn, on the payer/provider split, free choice, and pre-priced health service plans. In this framework, insurance, be it public or private, is crucial to assuring market solvency, because health needs not backed by purchasing power do not constitute a market that is particularly important in the Latin American region, the most unequal in the world. The Single Universal Health System (in Spanish, Sistema Universal de Salud, SUS) model is a model inspired by the principles of social justice and egalitarian, universal social rights. Characteristically funded by tax revenues, it makes provision of health services to the whole population a responsibility of the State and a universal citizens’ entitlement, independent of individual ability to pay or prior contributions. It considers health to be a public good that, for reasons of efficiency and equity, the market cannot provide. Everyone is entitled, as a right, to free care financed by the State.

Given that health system reform occurs in specific historical contexts, these models have had different results in each country. In order to highlight the concrete reform outcomes, the following issues need be addressed: the political scenario and the stakeholders involved; the previous health system and the relative strength of the public and private sectors; coverage achieved by public institutions or insurance, public or private; the different health packages existing within each country; the institutional (re)organization; and the relative importance of public health actions. An analysis is needed of the UHC reforms in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, on the one hand; and the Single Universal Health System in Brazil, Venezuela, and Cuba on the other.

The UHC model in practice tends to increase inequity in access, create new bureaucratic barriers to timely care, fail to provide financial protection, and leads to deteriorated public health measures. It has also created new powerful private sector stakeholders, particularly in Chile and Colombia, while in Mexico the predominance of a strong public sector has “crowed-out” the private one. The Single Universal Health System has significantly increased access for millions that before reform had almost no access and has also strengthened public health actions. However, the strong preexisting private sector providers have profited from the public-sector purchases of complex medical services. Private health insurance has also increased among the upper middle class and workers belonging to strong labor unions.
Tectonism of Mercury
Authors: Byrne Paul K.
Published: June 2018

Mercury, like its inner Solar System planetary neighbors Venus, Mars, and the Moon, shows no evidence of having ever undergone plate tectonics. Nonetheless, the innermost planet boasts a long record of tectonic deformation. The most prominent manifestation of this history is a population of large scarps that occurs throughout the planet’s cratered terrains; some of these scarps rise kilometers above the surrounding landscape. Mercury’s smooth plains, the majority of which are volcanic and occupy over a quarter of the planet, abound with low-relief ridges. The scarps and ridges are underlain by thrust faults and point to a tectonic history dominated by crustal shortening. At least some of the shortening strain recorded by the ridges may reflect subsidence of the lavas in which they formed, but the widespread distribution of scarps attests to a planetwide process of global contraction, wherein Mercury experienced a reduction in volume as its interior cooled through time.

The onset of this phenomenon placed the lithosphere into a net state of horizontal compression, and accounts for why Mercury hosts only a few instances of extensional structures. These landforms, shallow troughs that form complex networks, occur almost wholly in volcanically flooded impact craters and basins and developed as those lavas cooled and thermally contracted. Tellingly, widespread volcanism on Mercury ended at around the same time the population of scarps began to form. Explosive volcanism endured beyond this point, but almost exclusively at sites of lithospheric weakness, where large faults penetrate deep into the interior. These observations are consistent with decades-old predictions that global contraction would shut off major volcanic activity, and illustrate how closely Mercury’s tectonic and volcanic histories are intertwined.

The tectonic character of Mercury is thus one of sustained crustal shortening with only localized extension, which started almost four billion years ago and extends into the geologically recent past. This character somewhat resembles that of the Moon, but differs substantially from those of Earth, Venus, or Mars. Mercury may represent how small rocky planets tectonically evolve and could provide a basis for understanding the geological properties of similarly small worlds in orbit around other stars.
Icy Satellites: Interior Structure, Dynamics, and Evolution
Authors: Nimmo Francis
Published: June 2018

This article consists of three sections. The first discusses how we determine satellite internal structures and what we know about them. The primary probes of internal structure are measurements of magnetic induction, gravity, and topography, as well as rotation state and orientation. Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, and (perhaps) Pluto all have subsurface oceans; Callisto and Titan may be only incompletely differentiated. The second section describes dynamical processes that affect satellite interiors and surfaces: tidal and radioactive heating, flexure and relaxation, convection, cryovolcanism, true polar wander, non-synchronous rotation, orbital evolution, and impacts. The final section discusses how the satellites formed and evolved. Ancient tidal heating episodes and subsequent refreezing of a subsurface ocean are the likeliest explanation for the deformation observed at Ganymede, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Miranda, Ariel, and Titania. The high heat output of Enceladus is a consequence of Saturn’s highly dissipative interior, but the dissipation rate is strongly frequency-dependent and does not necessarily imply that Saturn’s moons are young. Major remaining questions include the origins of Titan’s atmosphere and high eccentricity, the regular density progression in the Galilean satellites, and the orbital evolution of the Saturnian and Uranian moons.
The Politics of the Spanish Language
Authors: Lozano Rosina A.
Published: June 2018

Language rights are an integral part of civil rights. They provide the tools that permit individuals to engage with and participate in society. The broad use of the Spanish language in the United States by both citizens and immigrants—it is the second-most-spoken language in the country by far—has a long history. Spanish was the first European governing language in parts of the future United States that included the Southwest, portions of the Louisiana Purchase, and Florida. The use of the language did not disappear when these regions became part of the United States, but rather persisted in some locales as a politically important language. In the 20th century, Spanish-speaking immigrants entered not just the Southwest and Florida, but also Chicago, New York, the South, Michigan, and other locales across the country in large numbers. Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century, Spanish speakers and their advocates have reasserted their cultural preference by fighting for monolingual speakers’ right to use Spanish in legal settings, in public, as voters, as elected officials, at work, and in education. The politics of the Spanish language have only grown in importance as the largest influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants ever has entered the United States. This demographic shift makes the longer history of Spanish a crucial backstory for future language-policy decisions.
Haymarket Riot and Conspiracy
Authors: Messer-Kruse Timothy
Published: June 2018

The Haymarket Riot and Conspiracy of 1886 is a landmark in American social and political history. On May 4, 1886, during an open-air meeting near Haymarket Square in Chicago, someone threw a dynamite bomb into a squad of police, sparking a riot that resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four rioters. Eight anarchists were brought to trial. Though the bomb-thrower was never apprehended, the eight radical leaders were charged as accessories before the fact for conspiring to murder the police. After the longest criminal trial in Illinois history up to that time, seven men were convicted and condemned to death and one to a long prison term. After all appeals were exhausted, four were executed, one cheated the hangman with a jail cell suicide, and the death sentences of two others were commuted to life imprisonment (all three incarcerated men were later pardoned by Governor John Peter Altgeld in 1892).

The Haymarket bombing and trial marked a pivotal moment in the history of American social movements. It sparked the nation’s first red scare whose fury disrupted even moderately leftist movements for a generation. It drove the nation’s labor unions onto a more conservative path than they had been heading before the bombing. The worldwide labor campaign for clemency for the convicted men became the foundation for the institution of International Workers’ Day on May 1, a holiday ironically observed in most countries except for the United States. It also began a tradition within the American left of memorializing the Haymarket defendants as the first martyrs to their cause.
The Age of Revolutions
Authors: Donakowski Conrad L.
Published: June 2018

A variety of economic, ideological, aesthetic, and nationalist forces shape Christian worship in its varied manifestations today. Historical perspectives and areas of knowledge which are too often discussed in compartmentalized fashion are presented here as acting with and on each other and often serving each other’s purposes. Liturgical, musical, artistic, and architectural expressions are shown to be inextricably bound not only to theology, philosophy, and ecclesial hierarchy but also to political and socioeconomic structural change, technological innovation, and—not least—the culture and the human need for authentic spiritual experience.

The Enlightenment “Age of Reason,” Romanticism, the nation-state, and the Industrial Revolution from the 17th through the 19th centuries affected religious practices that were the only mass medium that reached into every town, house, and heart. Connections are established with not only overtly religious events such as urban Evangelism, preservation of old architecture, the Oxford movement, and tradition versus innovation but also socialistic communal experiments and ethnic conflict among US immigrants.
Gabriel García Moreno, Conservative President of Ecuador
Authors: Henderson Peter V. N.
Published: June 2018

Ecuador’s Gabriel García Moreno was one of the preeminent South American conservative politicians of the early national period. His historical notoriety rests in large measure on two seemingly contradictory elements of his administration. First, despite his fervid defense of the prerogatives of the Catholic Church, he embraced a modernization project inspired by liberal notions of progress. Second, his embrace of the Catholic faith flew in the face of the 19th century’s liberal anticlerical tendencies. Hence, nearly all biographies of García Moreno paint him as a villain or a saint. His state formation project transformed the historic relationship between the state and the Catholic Church, making the Catholic faith and the Church an instrument of state formation. Simultaneously, he sought to modernize the country by promoting the construction of roads, a railroad, and telegraph lines that would overcome the topography of the Andes Mountains and unify the country physically. Within Ecuador, debate about his ideas and actions continues to ignite storms of controversy and passionate rhetoric even today.
Roles of Non-Government Organizations in Disaster Risk Reduction
Authors: Lassa Jonatan A.
Published: June 2018

The collaborative disaster risk governance framework promises better collaboration between governments, the private sector, civil society, academia, and communities at risks. In the context of modern disaster risk reduction systems, the key triadic institutions, namely government (state), the private sector (business/market), and NGOs (civil society), have been gradually transforming their ecosystem to utilize more proactive disaster response strategies, equipped with professional staff and technical experts and armed with social and humanitarian imperatives to reduce the risks of disasters. While the roles of governments and public actions have received greater attention in disaster and emergency management studies, recent shifts in attention to promote bolder engagements of both non-governmental organizations and business communities in risk reduction can be seen as a necessary condition for the future resilience of society.

Historically speaking, NGOs have exercised models of moral imperative whereby they build their relevancy and legitimacy to address gaps and problems at global and local levels. NGOs have been part of the global disaster risk reduction (DRR) ecosystem as they continue to shape both humanitarian emergencies action and the DRR agenda at different levels where their presence is needed and valued and their contribution is uniquely recognized. This article exemplifies the roles of NGOs at different levels and arenas ranging from local to international disaster risk reduction during the last 70 years, especially since World War II. It also provides examples of potential roles of NGOs under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2030.
Flood Insurance and Flood Risk Reduction
Authors: Surminski Swenja
Published: June 2018

The rapid increase in losses from flooding underlines the importance of risk reduction efforts to prevent or at least mitigate the damaging impacts that floods can bring to communities, businesses, and countries. This article provides an overview of how the science of disaster risk management has improved understanding of pre-event risk reduction [or disaster risk reduction (DRR)]. Implementation, however, is still lagging, particularly when compared to expenditure for recovery and repair after a flood event. In response, flood insurance is increasingly being suggested as a potential lever for risk reduction, despite concerns about moral hazard. The article considers the literature that has emerged on this topic and discusses if the conceptual efforts of linking flood insurance and risk reduction have led to practical action. Overall, there is limited evidence of flood insurance effectively promoting risk reduction. To the extent there is, it suggests that more complex behavioral aspects are also at play. Further evidence is required to support this potential role, particularly around data and risk assessment, and the viability of different risk reduction measures.
Economics of Invasive Species
Authors: Eiswerth Mark , Lawley Chad , Taylor Michael H.
Published: June 2018

Introductions of nonnative invasive species can harm ecosystems, heighten the risk of native species extinctions and population reductions, and lead to substantial economic damages on a worldwide scale. Increasingly, economists have made contributions that help other researchers, policymakers, and society better understand the economic implications of invasive species as well as the most economically efficient approaches for managing them. The complexity of invasive species management problems has pushed economists to ask novel economic questions and to develop new analytical approaches in order to address specific policy questions. There are three areas, in particular, where the economic analysis of invasive species management has led to significant innovations. First, there are substantial challenges to quantifying economic damages from invasive species for application in benefit−cost analysis. The challenges relate to defining the counterfactual state of an invaded ecosystem with and without management/policy and to the fact that, in a given ecosystem, estimates of economic damages are available for only a subset of the species and for only a subset of damages for any one species. Recent economic research has proposed innovative approaches to systematically dealing with these two issues in the context of invasive species that have implications for applied benefit−cost analysis more broadly. Second, unique among natural resource management problems, invasive species have the feature that their current and future extents are directly tied to a country’s participation in international trade. This feature has led to innovative research into the design of efficient measures to prevent or delay invasive species introductions along national borders, and into the trade-offs between these measures and the use of border controls as protectionist tools. The issues of optimal inspection policy and the use of nontariff barriers as a form of covert protectionism both have implications beyond invasive species management. Third, researchers have developed bioeconomic models that integrate economic and biological factors in order to analyze strategies to more cost-effectively reduce the damages caused by invasive species. These modeling efforts have dealt with issues related to temporal and spatial dynamics of the biological invasions, imperfect information regarding the extent of the invasion and the effectiveness of management, linkages between management applied at different stages of an invasion, and complications arising from ecosystems’ crossing over ecological thresholds due to invasions. In the face of increasingly rapid ecosystem change due to global climate change, increases in extreme weather, urban encroachment into wild lands, and other factors, many of these features of invasive species management problems are likely to become features of ecosystem management more broadly in the near future if they are not so already.
BMC3C: binning metagenomic contigs using codon usage, sequence composition and read coverage
Authors: Yu Guoxian , Jiang Yuan , Wang Jun , Zhang Hao , Luo Haiwei
Published: June 2018

Motivation

Metagenomics investigates the DNA sequences directly recovered from environmental samples. It often starts with reads assembly, which leads to contigs rather than more complete genomes. Therefore, contig binning methods are subsequently used to bin contigs into genome bins. While some clustering-based binning methods have been developed, they generally suffer from problems related to stability and robustness.

Results

We introduce BMC3C, an ensemble clustering-based method, to accurately and robustly bin contigs by making use of DNA sequence Composition, Coverage across multiple samples and Codon usage. BMC3C begins by searching the proper number of clusters and repeatedly applying the k-means clustering with different initializations to cluster contigs. Next, a weight graph with each node representing a contig is derived from these clusters. If two contigs are frequently grouped into the same cluster, the weight between them is high, and otherwise low. BMC3C finally employs a graph partitioning technique to partition the weight graph into subgraphs, each corresponding to a genome bin. We conduct experiments on both simulated and real-world datasets to evaluate BMC3C, and compare it with the state-of-the-art binning tools. We show that BMC3C has an improved performance compared to these tools. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the codon usage features and ensemble clustering are used in metagenomic contig binning.

Availability and implementation

The codes of BMC3C are available at http://mlda.swu.edu.cn/codes.php?name=BMC3C.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Quokka: a comprehensive tool for rapid and accurate prediction of kinase family-specific phosphorylation sites in the human proteome
Authors: Li Fuyi , Li Chen , Marquez-Lago Tatiana T , Leier André , Akutsu Tatsuya , Purcell Anthony W , Ian Smith A , Lithgow Trevor , Daly Roger J , Song Jiangning , Chou Kuo-Chen
Published: June 2018

Motivation

Kinase-regulated phosphorylation is a ubiquitous type of post-translational modification (PTM) in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. Phosphorylation plays fundamental roles in many signalling pathways and biological processes, such as protein degradation and protein-protein interactions. Experimental studies have revealed that signalling defects caused by aberrant phosphorylation are highly associated with a variety of human diseases, especially cancers. In light of this, a number of computational methods aiming to accurately predict protein kinase family-specific or kinase-specific phosphorylation sites have been established, thereby facilitating phosphoproteomic data analysis.

Results

In this work, we present Quokka, a novel bioinformatics tool that allows users to rapidly and accurately identify human kinase family-regulated phosphorylation sites. Quokka was developed by using a variety of sequence scoring functions combined with an optimized logistic regression algorithm. We evaluated Quokka based on well-prepared up-to-date benchmark and independent test datasets, curated from the Phospho.ELM and UniProt databases, respectively. The independent test demonstrates that Quokka improves the prediction performance compared with state-of-the-art computational tools for phosphorylation prediction. In summary, our tool provides users with high-quality predicted human phosphorylation sites for hypothesis generation and biological validation.

Availability and implementation

The Quokka webserver and datasets are freely available at http://quokka.erc.monash.edu/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Population-Based Assessment of HPV Genotype-Specific Cervical Cancer Survival: CDC Cancer Registry Sentinel Surveillance System
Authors: Hallowell Benjamin D , Saraiya Mona , Thompson Trevor D , Unger Elizabeth R , Lynch Charles F , Tucker Tom , Copeland Glenn , Hernandez Brenda Y , Peters Edward S , Wilkinson Edward , Goodman Marc T ,   for the HPV Typing of Cancers Workgroup
Published: June 2018

Background

Human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype influences the development of invasive cervical cancer (ICC); however, there is uncertainty regarding the association of HPV genotype with survival among ICC patients.

Methods

Follow-up data were collected from 693 previously selected and HPV-typed ICC cases that were part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Cancer Registry Surveillance System. Cases were diagnosed between 1994 and 2005. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate five-year all-cause survival. A multivariable Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the effect of HPV genotype on survival after adjusting for demographic, tumor, and treatment characteristics.

Results

Five-year all-cause survival rates varied by HPV status (HPV 16: 66.9%, HPV 18: 65.7%, HPV 31/33/45/52/58: 70.8%, other oncogenic HPV genotypes: 79.0%, nononcogenic HPV: 69.3%, HPV-negative: 54.0%). Following multivariable adjustment, no statistically significant survival differences were found for ICC patients with HPV 16–positive tumors compared with women with tumors positive for HPV 18, other oncogenic HPV types, or HPV-negative tumors. Women with detectable HPV 31/33/33/45/52/58 had a statistically significant 40% reduced hazard of death at five years (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.38 to 0.95), and women who tested positive for nononcogenic HPV genotypes had a statistically significant 57% reduced hazard of death at five years (95% CI = 0.19 to 0.96) compared with women with HPV 16 tumors. Few statistically significant differences in HPV positivity, tumor characteristics, treatment, or survival were found by race/ethnicity.

Conclusions

HPV genotype statistically significantly influenced five-year survival rates among women with ICC; however, screening and HPV vaccination remain the most important factors to improve patient prognosis and prevent future cases.
The Role of Wound Care in 2 Group A Streptococcal Outbreaks in a Chicago Skilled Nursing Facility, 2015‒2016
Authors: Ahmed Sana S , Diebold Kasey E , Brandvold Jacob M , Ewaidah Saadeh S , Black Stephanie , Ogundimu Abimbola , Li Zhongya , Stone Nimalie D , Van Beneden Chris A
Published: June 2018

Two consecutive outbreaks of group A Streptococcus (GAS) infections occurred from 2015–2016 among residents of a Chicago skilled nursing facility. Evaluation of wound care practices proved crucial for identifying transmission factors and implementing prevention measures. We demonstrated shedding of GAS on settle plates during care of a colonized wound.
Far-infrared dust properties of highly dust-obscured active galactic nuclei from the AKARI and WISE all-sky surveys
Authors: Lam Anson , Malkan Matthew , Wright Edward
Published: June 2018

The combination of the AKARI and WISE infrared all-sky surveys provides a unique opportunity to identify and characterize the most highly dust-obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the universe. Dust-obscured AGNs are not easily detectable and are potentially underrepresented in extragalactic surveys due to their high optical extinction, but are readily found in the WISE catalog due to their extremely red mid-infrared (IR) colors. Combining these surveys with photometry from Pan-STARRS and Herschel, we use spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling to characterize the extinction and dust properties of these AGNs. From mid-IR WISE colors we are able to compute bolometric corrections to AGN luminosities. Using AKARI’s far-IR wavelength photometry and broadband AGN/galaxy spectral templates we estimate AGN dust mass and temperature using simple analytic models with three or four parameters. Even without spectroscopic data we can determine a number of AGN dust properties only using SED analysis. These methods, combined with the abundance of archival photometric data publicly available, will be valuable for large-scale studies of dusty, IR-luminous AGNs.
‘Pottes of Tryacle’ and ‘Bokes of Phisyke’: The Fifteenth-century Disease Management Practices of Three Gentry Families
Authors: Ingram Hannah
Published: June 2018

This paper explores the gentry response to disease and illness in the fifteenth century. It examines the private letter collections of the Paston, the Stonor and the Plumpton families through a comparative methodology. The first section, focusing upon disease terminology in the letters, explores the diagnostic understanding of these families. Analysis of incidences of particular diseases, such as malaria and sciatica, is used to demonstrate their comprehension of illness through symptomatic observation. The second section examines the methods used for treating disease, analysing the various remedies used by the families. Important emphasis is placed upon the choice between using medical professionals and home healing. Finally, the role of female family members is assessed, determining whether it was medicinal matriarchs or male physicians who dominated in the sphere of family medicine. Ultimately this paper will uncover the complex and sophisticated ways gentry families managed and treated disease in this period.
Kinesin‐dependent transport of keratin filaments: a unified mechanism for intermediate filament transport
Authors: Robert Amélie , Tian Peirun , Adam Stephen A. , Kittisopikul Mark , Jaqaman Khuloud , Goldman Robert D. , Gelfand Vladimir I.
Published: June 2018

Keratin intermediate filaments (IFs) are the major cytoskeletal component in epithelial cells. The dynamics of keratin IFs have been described to depend mostly on the actin cytoskeleton, but the rapid transport of fully polymerized keratin filaments has not been reported. In this work, we used a combination of photoconversion experiments and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats–associated protein 9 genome editing to study the role of microtubules and microtubule motors in keratin filament transport. We found that long keratin filaments, like other types of IFs, are transported along microtubules by kinesin‐1. Our data revealed that keratin and vimentin are nonconventional kinesin‐1 cargoes because their transport did not require kinesin light chains, which are a typical adapter for kinesin‐dependent cargo transport. Furthermore, we found that the same domain of the kinesin heavy chain tail is involved in keratin and vimentin IF transport, strongly suggesting that multiple types of IFs move along microtubules using an identical mechanism.—Robert, A., Tian, P., Adam, S. A., Kittisopikul, M., Jaqaman, K., Goldman, R. D., Gelfand, V. I. Kinesin‐dependent transport of keratin filaments: a unified mechanism for intermediate filament transport. FASEB J. 33, 388–399 (2019). www.fasebj.org
Identification of Gambling Problems in Primary Care: Properties of the NODS-CLiP Screening Tool
Authors: Cowlishaw Sean , McCambridge Jim , Kessler David
Published: June 2018

Introduction:

There are several brief screening tools for gambling that possess promising psychometric properties, but have uncertain utility in generalist healthcare environments which prioritize prevention and brief interventions. This study describes an examination of the National Opinion Research Centre Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS-CLiP), in comparison with the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), when used to operationalize gambling problems across a spectrum of severity.

Methods:

Data were obtained from 1058 primary care attendees recruited from 11 practices in England who completed various measures including the NODS-CLiP and PGSI. The performance of the former was defined by estimates of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values (PPVs), and negative predictive values (NPVs), when PGSI indicators of problem gambling (5+) and any gambling problems (1+), respectively, were reference standards.

Results:

The NODS-CLiP demonstrated perfect sensitivity for problem gambling, along with high specificity and a NPV, but a low PPV. There was much lower sensitivity when the indicator of any gambling problems was the reference standard, with capture rates indicating only 20% of patients exhibiting low to moderate severity gambling problems (PGSI 1–4) were identified by the NODS-CLiP.

Conclusions:

The NODS-CLiP performs well when identifying severe cases of problem gambling, but lacks sensitivity for less severe problems and may be unsuitable for settings which prioritize prevention and brief interventions. There is a need for screening measures which are sensitive across the full spectrum of risk and severity, and can support initiatives for improving identification and responses to gambling problems in healthcare settings such as primary care.
Diagnostic Accuracy of 3-Dimensional Endoanal Ultrasound in Identifying Perianal Crohn’s Fistulas
Authors: Luglio Gaetano , Giglio Mariano Cesare , Rispo Antonio , Bucci Cristina , Sollazzo Viviana , Castiglione Fabiana , De Palma Giovanni Domenico , Bucci Luigi
Published: June 2018

BACKGROUND:

Perianal fistulizing Crohn’s disease is a challenging clinical situation that requires proper management. Some features seen on the endoanal ultrasound can be helpful in discriminating between cryptoglandular and Crohn’s disease fistulas.

OBJECTIVE:

The aim of this study was to define the diagnostic accuracy of 3-dimensional endoanal ultrasound in differentiating between Crohn’s disease and cryptogenic fistulas.

DESIGN:

This was a prospective observational study.

SETTINGS:

The study was conducted in the colorectal unit of an IBD referral center.

PATIENTS:

Consecutive patients referred for suspected perianal sepsis from September 2015 to December 2016 were included.

INTERVENTIONS:

Three-dimensional endoanal ultrasonography was the studied intervention.

MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES:

Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios of 4 ultrasonographic features (Crohn’s ultrasound fistula sign, the presence of a double track, debris or an abscess within the fistula track, and the maximum width of the track) in discriminating between cryptoglandular and Crohn’s disease fistulas were calculated. The interobserver agreement for each feature was quantified.

RESULTS:

In this study, 158 patients, of whom 33 had a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease, were included. The interobserver agreement was good for all of the ultrasonographic features. All of these features were more frequent in cases of Crohn’s disease fistulas (p = 0.0001). The maximum width of the fistula track was highly accurate for discriminating between cryptogenic and Crohn’s disease fistulas (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.922). The simultaneous presence of 2 features was suggestive of Crohn’s disease fistula. In particular, the presence of a track width >4 mm in conjunction with either a double track or the Crohn’s ultrasound fistula sign showed very high specificity (1.00). Conversely, a fistula track width ≤3 mm had high sensitivity (0.97).

LIMITATIONS:

Patients included in the cryptogenic group might be diagnosed as having Crohn’s disease at follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS:

The combination of specific endoanal ultrasonographic features allows for highly accurate discrimination between Crohn’s disease and cryptogenic fistulas. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/A619.
Outcome After Redo Surgery for Complicated Colorectal and Coloanal Anastomosis: A Systematic Review
Authors: Westerduin Emma , Klaver Charlotte E.L. , van Geloven Anna A.W. , Westerterp Marinke , Bemelman Willem A. , Tanis Pieter J.
Published: June 2018

BACKGROUND:

When a colorectal or coloanal anastomosis fails because of persistent leakage or stenosis, or the anastomosis has to be resected for recurrent cancer, constructing a new anastomosis might be an option in selected patients. This is a rare and complex type of redo surgery.

OBJECTIVE:

The aim of this review was to evaluate the current literature on redo anastomosis for complicated colorectal or coloanal anastomosis.

DATA SOURCES:

A systematic literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, the PROSPERO register, clinicaltrials.gov, and the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform database was performed.

STUDY SELECTION:

Two reviewers independently screened the available literature. All studies reporting on redo surgery and aiming at reconstruction of a prior low colorectal or coloanal anastomosis for any indication were included.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Primary outcome was successful restoration of continuity. Secondary outcomes were postoperative morbidity, pelvic sepsis, incontinence, and mortality.

RESULTS:

Nine studies were included, comprising 291 patients, of whom 76% had index surgery for colorectal cancer. Pooled proportions showed an overall success rate of 79% (95% CI, 69–86), with a pooled incidence of major postoperative morbidity of 16% (95% CI, 10–24). The pooled pelvic sepsis rate was 16% (95% CI, 9–27), and the pooled surgical reintervention and readmission rates were 11% (95% CI, 8–17) and 7% (95% CI, 3–15). Five studies reported on incontinence, with a pooled proportion of 17% (95% CI, 10–26).

LIMITATIONS:

The limitations of this review are the lack of randomized controlled trials and high-quality studies, and the small sample sizes and heterogeneous patient populations in the included studies.

CONCLUSIONS:

Redo surgery is a valuable treatment option for the complicated colorectal or coloanal anastomosis with 79% successful restoration of bowel continuity in the published literature from experienced tertiary centers.
How to Insert a Draining Seton Correctly
Authors: Bolshinsky Vladimir , Church James
Published: June 2018

INTRODUCTION:

Misconceptions exist about the proper way to use draining setons in the management of anal fistulas. This technical note lays out the principles for their use.

TECHNIQUE:

Insertion of draining setons is a prerequisite to successful management of anal fistulas. The correct technique involves identification of the correct track and internal opening and drainage of the track with a silastic seton. This sets the stage for definitive repair after the inflammation subsides.

RESULTS:

Three cases are presented to illustrate common errors made during the insertion of draining setons.

CONCLUSIONS:

Appropriate seton drainage of an anorectal fistula is an important part of the ultimate repair. Correct use of setons minimizes symptoms from the seton itself and optimizes its effectiveness.
Objectively Measured Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Cardiac Rehabilitation
Authors: Freene Nicole , McManus Margaret , Mair Tarryn , Tan Ren , Davey Rachel
Published: June 2018

Purpose:

Physical inactivity and sedentary behavior (SB) are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. No studies appear to have investigated whether SB in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) participants changes over time. The aim of this study was to objectively assess physical activity (PA) and SB of CR participants over 6 wks.

Methods:

Using a prospective cohort study design, 72 CR participants, age = 64.2 ± 9.6 y (mean ± standard deviation [SD]) (79% male), wore an ActiGraph ActiSleep accelerometer for 7 consecutive days at the beginning and end of a 6-wk program to assess daily minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and SB (<100 counts/min). Other outcomes collected were self-reported MVPA (Active Australia Survey) and SB (Past-Day Adults' Sedentary Time Questionnaire), body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, lipid profile, blood glucose level, quality of life (MacNew), exercise capacity (6-min walk test), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale).

Results:

Time spent in MVPA and SB did not change over 6 wks. However, exercise capacity and light-intensity PA significantly improved (P < .01). On average, participants spent 11.8 ± 1.1 hr daily in SB, with 9.5 ± 14.7 min daily in MVPA at the end of the CR program. There was some evidence that males and females had different movement patterns.

Conclusions:

Levels of PA are low and SB is high in CR participants despite changes in exercise capacity over 6 wks. Participants in CR did increase their PA but only in the light-intensity range. Alternative approaches in CR should be considered to encourage participants to move more and sit less.
Physiological Responses and Dynamic Hyperinflation Induced by Unsupported Arm Activities Involved in Multiple-Task Activities of Daily Living Test in Patients With COPD
Authors: Gulart Aline Almeida , Munari Anelise Bauer , dos Santos Karoliny , Tressoldi Caroline , Karloh Manuela , Mayer Anamaria Fleig
Published: June 2018

Purpose:

This study aimed to analyze the isolated role of unsupported arm activities and the physiological responses and dynamic hyperinflation (DH) induced by activities of daily living in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Physiological responses and DH were compared using the Glittre activities of daily living test (TGlittre) and a modified protocol that emphasized unsupported arm activities and excluded squats and bending down to move objects on shelves (TGlittre-M). Data were also compared from the isolated shelf tasks of TGlittre (TSHELF) and TGlittre-M (TSHELF-M).

Methods:

This cross-sectional study included 30 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who performed the TGlittre, TGlittre-M, TSHELF and TSHELF-M. The physiological responses were evaluated during the 4 protocols and inspiratory capacity was measured before and immediately after the tests for evaluation of DH.

Results:

Patients had higher oxygen uptake, ventilatory demand, dyspnea, and DH in the TGlittre than in the TGlittre-M (mean differences: 123 ± 119 mL/min; 0.11 ± 0.10, 1 [−1 to 3], and − 0.14 ± 0.22, respectively; P < .05 for all). Oxygen uptake, ventilatory demand, and dyspnea were also higher in the TSHELF than in the TSHELF-M (mean differences: 408 ± 185 mL/min; 0.26 ± 0.17; 1 [−1 to 3], respectively; P < .05 for all). However, DH was similar for both tasks (P > .05).

Conclusions:

In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the physiological demands during unsupported arm activities were lower than during the task performed with squatting and bending down; however, the magnitude of DH did not differ between them. These results suggest that the isolated arm activities contribute less to the TGlittre's physiological requirement than the lower-limb and trunk activities.