bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Expression of energy metabolism related genes in the gastric tissue of obese individuals with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Authors: Mehta Rohini , Birerdinc Aybike , Wang Lei , Younoszai Zahra , Moazzez Amir , Elariny Hazem , Goodman Zachary , Chandhoke Vikas , Baranova Ancha , Younossi Zobair M
Published: April 2014

Background

Stomach is an integral part of the energy balance regulating circuit. Studies exploring the effects of cross-system changes in the energy homeostasis in stomach tissue are scarce. The proximity of the stomach to liver - the most common secondary target affected by obesity – suggests that these two organs are exposed to each other’s local secretion. Therefore, we aimed at expression profiling of energy metabolism associated genes in the gastric tissue of obese non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients.

Methods

A total of 24 patients with histologically-proven NAFLD were included. In the gastric tissue, gene expression profiling of 84 energy metabolism associated genes was carried out.

Results

The accumulation of the fat in the liver parenchyma is accompanied by downregulation of genes encoding for carboxypeptidase E (CPE) and Interleukin 1B (IL1B) in the gastric mucosa of same patient. In patients with high grade hepatic steatosis, Interleukin 1 beta encoding gene with anorexigenic function, IL1B was downregulated. The levels expression of 21 genes, including ADRA2B, CNR1 and LEP were significantly altered in the gastric tissue of NAFLD patients with hepatic inflammation. There were also indications of an increase in the opioid signaling within gastric mucosa that may results in a shift to proinflammatory environment within this organ and contribute to systemic inflammation and the pathogenic processes in hepatic parenchyma.

Conclusions

We have shown differential expression of energy metabolism associated genes in the gastric tissue of obese NAFLD patients. Importantly, these gene expression profiles are associated with changes in the hepatic parenchyma as reflected in increased scores for hepatic steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis and NASH. This study suggests the complex interplay of multiple organs in the pathogenesis of obesity-related complications such as NAFLD and provides further evidence supporting an important role for gastric tissue in promoting obesity-related complications.
The implicit midpoint rule for nonexpansive mappings
Authors: Alghamdi Maryam A , Alghamdi Mohammad Ali , Shahzad Naseer , Xu Hong-Kun
Published: April 2014

The implicit midpoint rule (IMR) for nonexpansive mappings is established. The IMR generates a sequence by an implicit algorithm. Weak convergence of this algorithm is proved in a Hilbert space. Applications to the periodic solution of a nonlinear time-dependent evolution equation and to a Fredholm integral equation are included.

MSC:47J25, 47N20, 34G20, 65J15.
Development and application of MIPAR™: a novel software package for two- and three-dimensional microstructural characterization
Authors: Sosa John M , Huber Daniel E , Welk Brian , Fraser Hamish L
Published: April 2014

Three-dimensional microscopy has become an increasingly popular materials characterization technique. This has resulted in a standardized processing scheme for most datasets. Such a scheme has motivated the development of a robust software package capable of performing each stage of post-acquisition processing and analysis. This software has been termed Materials Image Processing and Automated Reconstruction (MIPAR™). Developed in MATLAB™, but deployable as a standalone cross-platform executable, MIPAR™ leverages the power of MATLAB’s matrix processing algorithms and offers a comprehensive graphical software solution to the multitude of 3D characterization problems. MIPAR™ consists of five modules, three of which (Image Processor, Batch Processor, and 3D Toolbox) are required for full 3D characterization. Each module is dedicated to different stages of 3D data processing: alignment, pre-processing, segmentation, visualization, and quantification.

With regard to pre-processing, i.e., the raw-intensity-enhancement steps that aid subsequent segmentation, MIPAR’s Image Processor module includes a host of contrast enhancement and noise reduction filters, one of which offers a unique solution to ion-milling-artifact reduction. In the area of segmentation, a methodology has been developed for the optimization of segmentation algorithm parameters, and graphically integrated into the Image Processor. Additionally, a 3D data structure and complementary user interface has been developed which permits the binary segmentation of complex, multi-phase microstructures. This structure has also permitted the integration of 3D EBSD data processing and visualization tools, along with support of additional algorithms for the fusion of multi-modal datasets. Finally, in the important field of quantification, MIPAR™ offers several direct 3D quantification tools across the global, feature-by-feature, and localized classes.
Adjuvant selenium supplementation in the form of sodium selenite in postoperative critically ill patients with severe sepsis
Authors: Sakr Yasser , Maia Vivian PL , Santos Clesar , Stracke Julia , Zeidan Mohamed , Bayer Ole , Reinhart Konrad
Published: April 2014

Introduction

Plasma selenium (Se) concentrations are reduced in critically ill surgical patients, and lower plasma Se concentrations are associated with worse outcomes. We investigated whether adjuvant Se supplementation in the form of sodium selenite could improve outcomes in surgical patients with sepsis.

Methods

In this retrospective study, all adult patients admitted to a 50-bed surgical ICU with severe sepsis between January 2004 and April 2010 were included and analysed according to whether they had received adjuvant Se supplementation, which was given at the discretion of the attending physician. When prescribed, Se was administered in the form of sodium selenite pentahydrate (Na2SeO3∙5H2O), in which 100 μg of Se corresponds to 333 μg of sodium selenite. A bolus of sodium selenite corresponding to 1,000 μg of Se was injected intravenously through a central venous line for 30 minutes, followed by infusion of 1,000 μg/day for 24 hours for 14 days until ICU discharge or death. We performed logistic regression analysis to investigate the impact of adjuvant Se supplementation on hospital mortality.

Results

Adjuvant Se was administered to 413 (39.7%) of the 1,047 patients admitted with severe sepsis. Age and sex were similar between patients who received adjuvant Se and those who did not. Compared with patients who did not receive adjuvant Se supplementation, patients who did had higher scores on the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, a greater prevalence of cancer upon admission to the ICU and were more commonly admitted after abdominal surgery. Compared with patients who did not receive adjuvant Se, patients who did had higher hospital mortality rates (46% versus 39.1%; P = 0.027), and longer median (interquartile range (IQR)) ICU stays (15 days (6 to 24) versus 11 days (4 to 24); P = 0.01) and hospital lengths of stay (33 days (21 to 52) versus 28 days (17 to 46); P = 0.001). In multivariable analysis, adjuvant Se supplementation was not independently associated with favourable outcome (odds ratio = 1.19, 95% confidence interval = 0.86 to 1.65; P = 0.288).

Conclusions

In this retrospective analysis of a large cohort of surgical ICU patients with severe sepsis, adjuvant Se supplementation in the form of sodium selenite had no impact on in-hospital death rates after adjustment for confounders.
The impact of heatwaves on emergency department visits in Brisbane, Australia: a time series study
Authors: Toloo Ghasem Sam , Yu Weiwei , Aitken Peter , FitzGerald Gerry , Tong Shilu
Published: April 2014

Introduction

The acute health effects of heatwaves in a subtropical climate and their impact on emergency departments (ED) are not well known. The purpose of this study is to examine overt heat-related presentations to EDs associated with heatwaves in Brisbane.

Methods

Data were obtained for the summer seasons (December to February) from 2000–2012. Heatwave events were defined as two or more successive days with daily maximum temperature ≥34°C (HWD1) or ≥37°C (HWD2). Poisson generalised additive model was used to assess the effect of heatwaves on heat-related visits (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 codes T67 and X30; ICD 9 codes 992 and E900.0).

Results

Overall, 628 cases presented for heat-related illnesses. The presentations significantly increased on heatwave days based on HWD1 (relative risk (RR) = 4.9, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.8, 6.3) and HWD2 (RR = 18.5, 95% CI: 12.0, 28.4). The RRs in different age groups ranged between 3–9.2 (HWD1) and 7.5–37.5 (HWD2). High acuity visits significantly increased based on HWD1 (RR = 4.7, 95% CI: 2.3, 9.6) and HWD2 (RR = 81.7, 95% CI: 21.5, 310.0). Average length of stay in ED significantly increased by >1 hour (HWD1) and >2 hours (HWD2).

Conclusions

Heatwaves significantly increase ED visits and workload even in a subtropical climate. The degree of impact is directly related to the extent of temperature increases and varies by socio-demographic characteristics of the patients. Heatwave action plans should be tailored according to the population needs and level of vulnerability. EDs should have plans to increase their surge capacity during heatwaves.
Continuous venovenous hemofiltration versus extended daily hemofiltration in patients with septic acute kidney injury: a retrospective cohort study
Authors: Sun Zhiping , Ye Hong , Shen Xia , Chao Hongdi , Wu Xiaochun , Yang Junwei
Published: April 2014

Introduction

Whether continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVHF) is superior to extended daily hemofiltration (EDHF) for the treatment of septic AKI is unknown. We compared the effect of CVVHF (greater than 72 hours) with EDHF (8 to 12 hours daily) on renal recovery and mortality in patients with severe sepsis or septic shock and concurrent acute kidney injury (AKI).

Methods

A retrospective analysis of 145 septic AKI patients who underwent renal replacement therapy (RRT) between July 2009 and May 2013 was performed. These patients were treated by CVVHF or EDHF with the same polyacrylonitrile membrane and bicarbonate-based buffer. The primary outcomes measured were occurrence of renal recovery and all-cause mortality by 60 days.

Results

Sixty-five and eighty patients were treated with CVVHF and EDHF, respectively. Patients in the CVVHF group had significantly higher recovery of renal function (50.77% of CVVHF group versus 32.50% in the EDHF group, P = 0.026). Median time to renal recovery was 17.26 days for CVVHF patients and 25.46 days for EDHF patients (P = 0.039). Sixty-day all-cause mortality was similar between CVVHF and EDHF groups (44.62%, and 46.25%, respectively; P = 0.844). 55.38% of patients on CVVHF and 28.75% on EDHF developed hypophosphatemia (P = 0.001). The other adverse events related to RRT did not differ between groups. On multivariate analysis, including physiologically clinical relevant variables, CVVHF therapy was significantly associated with recovery of renal function (HR 3.74; 95% CI 1.82 to 7.68; P < 0.001), but not with mortality (HR 0.69; 95% CI 0.34 to 1.41; P = 0.312).

Conclusions

Patients undergoing CVVHF therapy had significantly improved renal recovery independent of clinically relevant variables. The patients with septic AKI had similar 60-day all-cause mortality rates, regardless of type of RRT.
Induction of immunomodulatory monocytes by human mesenchymal stem cell-derived hepatocyte growth factor through ERK1/2
Authors: Chen Pei-Min , Liu Ko-Jiunn , Hsu Pei-Ju , Wei Chung-Fan , Bai Chyi-Huey , Ho Ling-Jun , Sytwu Huey-Kang , Yen B Linju
Published: April 2014

Monocytes are a population of leukocytes that terminally differentiate into macrophages and DCs. Whereas these differentiated progeny have inflammatory and resident—which are more immunomodulatory—phenotypes, less has been reported on the plasticity of monocytes themselves. We found that MSCs, a population of somatic stem cells, can rapidly induce human and murine monocytes through secretion of HGF to acquire an immunomodulatory phenotype to suppress T cell effector function. MSCs are multilineage postnatal progenitor cells with strong immunomodulatory effects toward T lymphocytes, NK lymphocytes, and DCs, but less is known regarding their interactions with monocytes. We found that CD14+ human monocytes express c-Met, the receptor for HGF, and both depletion of HGF-treated CD14+ monocytes and knockdown of HGF secretion in MSCs abrogate the suppression of anti-CD3/28-activated T cell proliferation. HGF-treated monocytes remain undifferentiated and can alter activated T cell cytokine expression from a Th1 toward Th2 profile. Moreover, monocytes cocultured with MSCs or treated with HGF alone can produce high levels of IL-10, a potent immunomodulatory cytokine. Injection of HGF to WT mice also results in an increase in IL-10+-expressing monocytes from the spleen, a known reservoir for circulating monocytes. Mechanistically, HGFs modulate IL-10 production in monocytes through the ERK1/2 pathway. Our data demonstrate further the pleomorphic nature of MSC immunomodulation, as well as highlight the important role of immunomodulatory monocytes in altering T cell effector function.
Steric Interference on the Redox-conjugated Pyrimidine Ring Rotation of Mono- and Dinuclear Copper Complexes with (4-Methyl-2-pyrimidinyl)imine Ligands
Authors: Hattori Yohei , Nishikawa Michihiro , Kusamoto Tetsuro , Kume Shoko , Nishihara Hiroshi
Published: April 2014

A mononuclear copper(I) complex with N-[(4-methyl-2-pyrimidinyl)methylene]-p-toluidine (1·BF4) and a dinuclear copper(I) complex with N,N′-bis[(4-methyl-2-pyrimidinyl)methylene]-p-phenylenediamine (2·(BF4)2) were synthesized as BF4− salts to evaluate the influence of the imine moiety on the pyrimidine ring rotation isomerism. 1·BF4 existed in solution as a mixture of two isomers; 2·(BF4)2 was present as a mixture of three isomers. The redox potentials of the copper centers were changed by pyrimidine ring rotation. Comparison of 1+ and 22+ indicated that increasing the steric congestion around the copper center increased the o/i isomer ratio; the redox potentials of both the o- and i-isomers shifted in the positive direction, and the CuII/I redox reaction became slower.
Edward Said and Recent Orientalist Critiques
Authors: Tahrir Khalil Hamdi
Published: April 2014

There have been many attempts in recent years to discredit Edward Said's thesis of the “affiliation of knowledge with power” (1997: xlix) by those who argue that Orientalist scholarship represents genuine and accurate knowledge of the Arab/Islamic world. Said's detractors claim that much of Orientalist scholarship has been “sympathetic” to the Orient and is free from any power motive. However, this article will attempt to show how all of these arguments fall apart when put to the test of reality, past and present, in literature, Orientalist scholarship and politics. After all the arguments of Bernard Lewis, Ibn Warraq and think tank and area experts, it is Said's voice of humanism that drowns out all of his dissenters' voices in this Orientalist war of words, which as Said believed, is “richly symptomatic of precisely what is denied” (1985: 91).
The Palestinian Spring That Was Not: The Youth and Political Activism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Authors: Jacob Høigilt
Published: April 2014

This article explains the current political role of the Palestinian youth by comparing the period shortly before the First and Second Intifadas with the current situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). It critically interrogates the oft-repeated assertion that the Palestinian youth are characterized by political anomie, showing that the political role of the youth in the OPT is constrained by three factors: Israeli occupation, oppression by Fatah and Hamas, and the political paralysis resulting from the split between these two dominant political organizations. However, the present youth activism challenges the policies of both Fatah and Hamas, and draws strength from its utilization of international cooperation and its popular practices. While it is still small, this youthful activism displays a determination, clearheadedness and independence that contrast with the political culture in the dominant factions of Palestinian politics.
Loxias and Phoebus in Tragedy: Convention and Violation
Authors: Allan Arlene L. , Potter Jamie A.
Published: April 2014

In many discussions of tragedy, the names Loxias and Phoebus are generally ignored because it is assumed that metrical demands are influencing name choice. In this article, we begin by taking the semantics of each name seriously and examine the context in which each is used in four tragedies dealing with the Oedipus story: Aeschylus’ Seven , Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and Oedipus Coloneus , and Euripides’ Phoenissae . The results of this analysis suggest that these two appellations were part of a naming convention with dramatic significance for the audience and its understanding of the characters and their actions at various moments in the plays.
Road to Nowhere: The Mobility of Oedipus and the Task of Interpretation
Authors: Kicey Michael Andrew
Published: April 2014

This article draws on a close reading of the language of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus to explore how the text problematizes concepts of place, space, and movement through the ambiguous figure of Oedipus. Considering Oedipus’ role in the play as well as in the Western intellectual tradition as an archetypal reader of signs and interpreter of riddles, the essay goes on to investigate how Oedipus’ literal and figurative mobility reveals the elusiveness and instability that conditions not only our interpretation of the play, but also the practice of interpretation writ large.
The Barking Cure: Horace’s “Anatomy of Rage” in Epodes 1, 6, and 16
Authors: Hawkins Julia Nelson
Published: April 2014

This article argues that the figure of the dog functions in Horace’s Epodes as a cipher for trauma. My title takes its inspiration from Freud’s “talking cure,” but my contention is that Horace accomplishes an inversion of this psychoanalytic method in his Epodes . I argue that Horace’s rehabilitation of Archilochean iambus in the image of attack animals in Epode 6 at this particular pass in Roman history involves a rehabilitation of the iambic dog and a refocusing of the rabid rage—punning on the semantic link between rabies (anger) and rabies (disease)—that characterized not only the Triumviral period, but also the biography of Archilochus.
Ausonius at Night
Authors: McGill Scott
Published: April 2014

This article examines the fourth-century c.e . Ausonius’ descriptions of himself as a nocturnal poet. Interest lies in passages where Ausonius relates that he wrote at night in order to play the part of the modest, self-deprecating author. Past scholarship has generally dismissed Ausonius’ modesty as insincere and empty or stopped at identifying it with the captatio benevolentiae . I will go further in exploring the rhetorical dimensions of Ausonius’ theme. The examination contributes to the study of paratextuality in Latin antiquity and to our understanding of Ausonius’ authorial identity, of the functions he assigns to poetry, of his methods of shaping the reception of his work, and of his literary culture.
Reading the Walls: The Politics of Architecture in Scribner's Magazine , 1887-1914
Authors: Benert Annette Larson
Published: April 2014

New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, even Washington—they all are rising bodily, constantly, fast, and their climbing skylines are writing with reckless realism across the heavens the same great story of material progress. It is time to read this writing of the walls.
Loren Eiseley and the Self as Search
Authors: Carrithers Gale H.
Published: April 2014

But Mo Tzu was in the strict sense a radical: that is, he was adopting the posture appropriate to a rebel in a traditional society, which is that of a reactionary. He did not believe it any longer possible to govern society by the inherited means of ritual, and had an alternative set of arrangements to suggest; but it was nevertheless so far from possible in that society to forgo deriving authority from antiquity that he must suggest an alternative version of antiquity which would authorise his alternative arrangements. The appropriate location for his image of antiquity was the remotest accessible past.
Droneism
Authors: McNeil Joanne , Burrington Ingrid
Published: April 2014

“Is there racism against drones?” The moderator of a panel at DARC, the Drones and Aerial Robotics Conference in New York City last autumn, was attempting to summarize a question from the audience. A technologist in a suit had just contrasted the racial makeup of drone attack victims to a misconception that all unmanned aircraft are equipped with Hellfire missiles. “Did you know the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk is actually unarmed and used for surveillance?” he asked the speakers on stage. “Do you think the same racism that gets applied to people that we don’t know enough about is applied to drones because people don’t know enough about them?” It wasn’t the only accusation of bigotry toward technology that day.
The Return of Karl Polanyi
Authors: Somers Margaret , Block Fred
Published: April 2014

In the first half century of Dissent ’s history, Karl Polanyi almost never made an appearance in the magazine’s pages. On one level this is surprising, because Polanyi was a presence in socialist circles in New York City from 1947 through the mid-1950s, the period of Dissent ’s gestation. On another level it is unsurprising, in that Polanyi was a heterodox thinker—even among fellow socialists. With some significant exceptions, it has taken decades to recognize the extraordinary theoretical contributions to socialist thought that he made in his masterpiece, The Great Transformation: The Social and Political Origins of Our Time ,first published in 1944.
For the Love of Kink
Authors: Grant Melissa Gira
Published: April 2014

When the old San Francisco Armory was sold to the Internet porn production company Kink.com in 2006, they paid $14.5 million. The long-abandoned property, which is said to resemble a “Moorish castle,” once housed the National Guard, stationed there to quash the city’s 1934 general strike. The armory stands at the corner of Mission and 14th Street, a few blocks from the lone fire hydrant that saved the neighborhood from the flames of the 1906 quake just six years before the armory was built, and also a few blocks from the salvaged-wood cafes and velvet-roped dive bars that herald, for many, a new form of siege. It’s Kink’s flags that fly now from the top of one of the armory’s brick turrets, with the company’s URL visible even on Google Street View.
Kapital for the Twenty-First Century?
Authors: Galbraith James K.
Published: April 2014

What is “capital”? To Karl Marx, it was a social, political, and legal category—the means of control of the means of production by the dominant class. Capital could be money, it could be machines; it could be fixed and it could be variable. But the essence of capital was neither physical nor financial. It was the power that capital gave to capitalists, namely the authority to make decisions and to extract surplus from the worker.
A Foreign Policy for the Left
Authors: Walzer Michael
Published: April 2014

Is there such a thing as a leftist foreign policy? What are the characteristic views of the left about the world abroad? When have leftists, rightly or wrongly, defended the use of force? The arguments about what to do in Syria have led me to ask these questions, but I am after a more general answer, looking not only at the left as it is today but also at the historical left. The questions aren’t easy—first, because there have been, and there are, many lefts; and second, because left views about foreign policy change more often than left views about domestic society. Relative consistency is the mark of leftism at home, but that’s definitely not true abroad. Still, it’s possible to make out a kind of default position and then to describe the various alternative positions and the arguments for and against them.
Introduction
Authors: Leonard Sarah , Losse Kate
Published: April 2014

It is hard to resist a technology that is also a tool of pleasure. The Luddites smashed their power looms, but who wants to smash Facebook—with all one’s photos, birthday greetings, and invitations? New digital technologies, particularly social media, make money by encouraging us to spend our lives on their platforms; they try to turn labor that was previously paid, from drone development to sex work, into play for unpaid amateurs. To what end?
The Computer Did It?: Technology and Inequality
Authors: Gordon Colin
Published: April 2014

Does technological change breed inequality? This notion, in some version or other, has become a staple explanation for our growing economic divide. It features prominently in the “meritocracy” defense of the 1 percent, which assumes (as Harvard economist Greg Mankiw put it recently) that “changes in technology have allowed a small number of highly educated and exceptionally talented individuals to command superstar incomes in ways that were not possible a generation ago.” It peppers the breathless prose of columnist Thomas Friedman, who makes a living mixing metaphors about our flat, smart, hyperconnected, seamless supply chain of a world.
Honduras: The Deep Roots of Resistance
Authors: Main Alexander
Published: April 2014

“Today a new political force of transformation is born!” As former president Manuel “Mel” Zelaya’s speech on June 26, 2011 reached its crescendo, hundreds of delegates from every corner of Honduras roared. After a short but heated debate that day, the 1,500-member assembly of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) approved resolutions paving the way for a new political party: Libertad y Refundación (Liberty and Refoundation), or LIBRE (“FREE” in Spanish). Those supporting the resolutions wanted the party to serve as an instrument of systemic change. With it they’d win the 2013 general elections and, once in power, convene a constituyente, a constituent assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution for Honduras.
On Wall Street
Authors: Serpe Nick
Published: April 2014

For over half a century, Dissent made its home in what was once affectionately called in these pages “the intellectual kibbutz of Manhattan’s Upper West Side.” The neighborhood was synonymous with Jewish intellectual life. It was a small world, perhaps, with its own “ruts of tradition and conformity,” but it was a world that regarded arguing about the larger world as an ethical imperative—in other words, it was a world for Dissent . Most of the magazine’s editors lived on the Upper West Side (some still do), and Dissent lived in the apartment of two of its founders, Simone and Stanley Plastrik. The office emerged each morning from a closet and was packed away again by the evening. The magazine needed a new home when Simone died in 1999, but it didn’t leave the neighborhood or even move into a commercial office.
The University and the Company Man
Authors: Cottom Tressie McMillan
Published: April 2014

The U.S. higher education crisis has been well documented. College is overpriced, overvalued, and ripe for disruption (preferably, for some critics, by the outcome-driven private sector). At the same time, many Americans are flailing in the post-recession economy. With rising income inequality, persistent long-term unemployment, and declining real wages, Americans are searching for purchase on shifting ground. Not so long ago, the social contract between workers, government, and employers made college a calculable bet. But when the social contract was broken and policymakers didn’t step in, the only prescription for insecurity was the product that had been built on the assumption of security.
Let Them Eat Code
Authors: Abrahamian Atossa Araxia
Published: April 2014

Late last year, a Bay Area entrepreneur named Greg Gopman took to Facebook to share his feelings about one of American society’s most stubborn problems: homelessness. “There is nothing more grotesque than walking down market st. [sic] in San Francisco,” wrote Gopman, the CEO of a tech marketing company called AngelHack, in a much-circulated post. “Why the heart of our city has to be overrun by crazy, homeless, drug dealers, dropouts, and trash I have no clue.”
Beyond “Conflict Minerals”: The Congo’s Resource Curse Lives On
Authors: Kinniburgh Colin
Published: April 2014

January 6, 2014. It’s the opening night of the Consumer Electronics Show, and it seems as if the whole of Silicon Valley has descended on the Las Vegas Convention Center and Venetian hotel to peddle its wares. On the show floor, a company called Sensoria introduces a “smart bra” designed to accommodate fitness tracking technology, while rivals brandish other “wearables.” A startup called Parrot introduces its Jumping Sumo toy drone. Tractive unveils a dog remote. Tech gurus and A-list celebs celebrate the rise of the Internet of Things, with its data-crunching onesies and bottle warmers. As the night wears on, T-Mobile CEO John Legere, wearing a bright pink company T-shirt, crashes a swanky AT&T party, only to be kicked out fifteen minutes later. “I just wanted to hear Macklemore,” he tells a reporter.
Exploring the Politics of Pork: Industrial Hog Farming and the Role of Local Newspaper Coverage in State Agenda Setting
Authors: Chan Joana , Babbitt Christina
Published: April 2014

The growth of Nebraska factory hog industry over the past two decades has been contentious, creating both new opportunities for economic growth and substantial hazards to the rural environment and quality of life. Given that news media played a key role in motivating large-scale policy changes in hog industry conflicts in North Carolina, this study uses content analysis to explore how Nebraska’s media coverage relates to legislative actions on the issue in the state. The results suggest that there is a positive but nuanced relationship between state newspaper coverage and state legislative attention to industrial hog farming in Nebraska from 1994 to 2009. The results also indicate the significance of local government in addressing this statewide controversy, and the prominence of concern for water resources in industrial hog operation discussions in Nebraska. This exploratory case study contributes to the currently deficient body of literature on both factory hog farms in Nebraska and the relationship between media and policy attention on a state level.
Status of Native Stream Fishes within Selected Protected Areas of the Niobrara River in Western Nebraska
Authors: Spurgeon Jonathan J. , Stasiak Richard H. , Cunningham George R. , Pope Kevin L. , Pegg Mark A.
Published: April 2014

Lotic systems within the Great Plains are characterized by highly fluctuating conditions through both space and time. Fishes inhabiting these systems have adopted specific life-history strategies to survive in such environments; however, anthropogenic disturbance to prairie streams has resulted in declines and extirpation of many native stream fishes. Terrestrial protected areas (i.e., parks and reserves) are designated to support native flora and fauna and, it is assumed, to provide protection to native fishes. We assessed the presence and relative abundance of stream fish populations within protected areas along the Niobrara River in western Nebraska based on data collected during 1979, 1989, 2008, and 2011. The spatial extent of protection, landscape changes resulting in degraded physiochemical parameters, and introduced species may reduce the effectiveness of these terrestrial protected areas in protecting native fishes in Great Plains stream environments.
The Role of Gender in Rural Population Decline in Kansas and Nebraska, 1990–2010
Authors: Shepard Robert
Published: April 2014

Migration patterns of young adults are thought to have a significant role in the overall dynamics of population change in the Great Plains. Although most research has discussed migration patterns of “young people” as if this group were homogenous, there is evidence of gender differences with regard to residential preferences among youth, and still other research has noted the disparate opportunities afforded to men and women of the rural Great Plains. Sex ratio data for Kansas and Nebraska, calculated from US Census records at the county and subcounty levels for the years 1990, 2000, and 2010, were analyzed for differences in residential outcomes of young men and young women by creating age-sex “cohorts” and comparing their changes over a period of 10 years. Although more young men left areas of low population, places with populations of 800 or fewer residents experienced a mean sex ratio increase of 38.9% (+14.66 net change) over the period from 2000 to 2010, indicating increasing imbalance between men and women in those places. Conversely, places of more than 5,000 residents experienced an increase in young women relative to young men, resulting in a mean sex ratio decrease of 2.26% (–2.88 net change). Further analysis provides evidence that young women are disproportionately more attracted to urban places within the study area, and these places appear to be trending toward far more balance between young men and young women compared to less populous places.
Healthcare Affordability and Access in Nebraska after the Great Recession
Authors: Snowden Monica , Blankenau Joe , Nitzke Joseph
Published: April 2014

The economic fallout from the Great Recession has not been experienced similarly across the United States. Therefore, our understanding of well-being is enhanced by analyzing state-level data. This study employs survey data of Nebraskans compiled shortly after the recession to assess factors affecting healthcare affordability and access. Findings show that the affordability of health care for households is significantly affected by income (i.e., as income increases, problems with affordability decrease) and household size (i.e., as household size increases, problems with affordability increase). Someone in the single-and two-parent household being unemployed and having children in the household also are predictors of increased problems affording health care. Key predictors of individuals delaying health care due to costs are lower income, less education, and being younger. Other contributing factors toward delaying health care are being more affected by the economic downturn, being female, living in rural counties, having more people in the household, and not using a regular physician for routine care.
Zur Sache, Schätzchen : Visual Pleasure and New German Cinema
Authors: Urang John Griffith
Published: April 2014

Though largely ignored by the scholarship on 1960s German film, Zur Sache, Schätzchen (May Spils, 1967/68) offers remarkable insights into the early years of the Young German Cinema. By bringing Spils’s film into dialogue with several key film-theoretical texts of the 1960s and 70s, this essay suggests that Zur Sache, Schätzchen engages in revealing ways with the central questions of modernist film. At the same time, Zur Sache, Schätzchen avoids challenging the affective machinery of cinematic pleasure, especially that of scopic desire. It thus registers, as one contemporary critic wrote, “resolute indecision” about the future of modernist German film.
Simultaneity- across- Borders: Richard Henry Dana Jr., Alexander von Humboldt, Edgar Allan Poe
Authors: Sugden Edward
Published: April 2014

The nineteenth century saw significant shifts in the cognitive life of Americans. As transnational critics have suggested, the energies of imperialism and the contemporaneity of different claims on unsettled land engendered a radically unsettled perception of space, one that permeated into the fabric of day-to-day life. Meanwhile, the co-presence of different orders of time, as Lloyd Pratt and Dana Luciano have argued, undercut their attempts to articulate supralocal categories of affiliation, whether nation, race, or gender. Both national time and transnational space were, then, in a state of contestation, tending towards heterogeneity. As yet critics have not thought about whether the dynamics of transnationalism might permeate into formulations of time; conversely, little analysis has been given to the role of time in transnational discourse. This article aims to begin to fill this lacuna through an extensive reading of antebellum invocations of "simultaneity-across-time." Through rejecting the national framework that supported Benedict Anderson's use of this term, I demonstrate that antebellum Americans understood simultaneity in explicitly transnational terms. The first section argues that as globalization wrought significant changes in the composition of the globe, connecting US citizens, like Richard Henry Dana Jr., and European scientists, like Alexander von Humboldt, to others far distant, conceptions of simultaneity became equally extended, stretching out across oceans. But, as my second section, focused on Edgar Allan Poe's Eureka, suggests, rather than tending to a world in which a single co-extensive time was shared by all, this process tended toward heterogeneity, with spots of temporal locality warping the linear passing of the antebellum clock. There was, then, no absolute sense of a shared, planetary time, instead a deeply-felt terror at a sudden interconnectedness of the planet.
Knowing as Neighboring: Approaching Thoreau’s Kalendar
Authors: Case Kristen
Published: April 2014

In the final years of his life, Thoreau consolidated the detailed observations of seasonal change recorded in the later years of his Journal in a variety of lists and charts sometimes referred to as his "Kalendar." Though these unpublished materials have received relatively little scholarly attention to date, they have important implications not only for the ongoing reassessment of Thoreau's place in the history of ideas in America, but also for our changing understanding of the categories of the literary and the scientific, the human and the natural. In the Kalendar project, Thoreau enacts a model of knowing as "neighboring." Through his daily practices of walking and writing, Thoreau arrives at a new way of being-with, and thus of knowing, the non-human. Such a project poses difficulties for both literary and scientific approaches, a fact which has contributed to the Kalendar's relative obscurity. In this essay, I will map the ways that science studies, particularly the work of Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway and Karen Barad, may be useful for our understanding of Thoreau's Kalendar and for the epistemology he developed in the latter half of his career.
Introduction
Authors: Byrd Jodi A.
Published: April 2014

This forum is conceived as a broad consideration of the methodological and theoretical challenges sovereignty presents to nineteenth and twentieth century studies, especially when paired with the concept of indigeneity. Participants include Frederick Hoxie, Alyosha Goldstein, and Manu Vimalassery, and each of the scholars draw upon their own research and expertise in history, literature, American Indian, postcolonial and political studies to offer insights into how sovereignty functions as a political, legal, cultural, and governmental category of analysis across time. How has sovereignty functioned as a process of differentiation at the site of racialization, nationalization, and territorialization? What are some of the consequences of pinning indigenous critiques of colonialism to political sovereignty and how did sovereignty become such an important site of intervention in nineteenth century studies of empire? Ranging from late medieval European debates over sovereignty to twentieth-century American Indian activism that prioritized sovereignty and self-determination as constitutive elements of resistance, these essays reflect on the different sovereignty has made within histories of colonialism and imperialism while also pointing to possible new formations and new modes of inquiry that push beyond the bio- and geopolitics of conquest.
A Preliminary Methodology, and a Cautionary Tale, for Determining How Students Seek Research Help Online
Authors: Pellegrino Catherine
Published: April 2014

This article reports on a pilot study to examine undergraduate students’ help-seeking behavior when undertaking library research in online courses. A novel methodology incorporating elements of ethnographic research resulted in a small, but rich and detailed, collection of qualitative data. The data suggest that the methodology has promise for future, larger studies on students in online learning environments. The article includes a detailed discussion of the methodology’s strengths and weaknesses, and offers recommendations for modifications that will improve the research design.
Data Curation: A Study of Researcher Practices and Needs
Authors: McLure Merinda , Level Allison V. , Cranston Catherine L. , Oehlerts Beth , Culbertson Mike
Published: April 2014

Colorado State University librarians conducted five focus groups with thirty-one faculty, research scientists, and research associates. The groups explored: (1) The nature of data sets that these researchers create or maintain; (2) How participants manage their data; (3) Needs for support that the participants identify in relation to sharing, curating, and preserving their data; and (4) The feasibility of adapting the Purdue University Libraries’ Data Curation Profiles Toolkit interview protocol for use in focus groups with researchers. The authors report their review of related literature, themes that emerged from analysis of the focus groups, and implications for related library services.
Not Shakespeare: Early Modern Drama and Film
Authors: Sager Jenny
Published: April 2014

The introduction offers a succinct survey of the critical field and the issue's contribution to it. Establishing the contributors' methodological strategies and core arguments, the introduction will set out the principal aims, content and structure of the special issue.
A Love Match in Leviticus
Authors: Lewis Justin Jaron
Published: April 2014

This article begins with the breakdown of boundaries between modern literature and classical Jewish texts, and the freeing insight that all texts, regardless of chronology, are in conversation with one another. It is inspired by Wendy Doniger's explorations of how disparate stories comment on and complete one another. Sylvia Townsend Warner's 1964 short story, "A Love Match," about brother-sister incest, is juxtaposed with a Biblical verse on the same topic, Leviticus 20:17. Close attention is given to the language of the verse and rabbinic commentary throughout the centuries. This analysis sees the Jewish commentators on Scripture as storytellers, and "A Love Match" as a text that fills out their hints about its troubling topic. Introduction: Intertextuality
Two or Three Things I Know About Charles Bernstein
Authors: Kaufmann David
Published: April 2014

Through a reading of Charles Bernstein's poetry and a closer analysis of his libretto, Shadowtime , this essay argues that Bernstein fully inhabits two possibilities for contemporary American Jewish poetry—one that eschews mourning and one that embraces it; one that rejects a romantic tradition of interiority and one that has made its peace with it. It shows that he also posits a third possibility, which is perhaps an extension of the first, a poetry that goes beyond melancholy, to what Gillian Rose called an inaugurated mourning for the European Jewish past.
Genome-Wide Characterization of Circulating Tumor Cells Identifies Novel Prognostic Genomic Alterations in Systemic Melanoma Metastasis
Authors: Chiu Connie G , Nakamura Yoshitaka , Chong Kelly K , Huang Sharon K , Kawas Neal P , Triche Timothy , Elashoff David , Kiyohara Eiji , Irie Reiko F , Morton Donald L , Hoon Dave S B
Published: April 2014

BACKGROUND

Circulating tumor cells (CTC) have been found in patients with metastatic melanoma and are associated with advanced melanoma stage and poor patient outcome. We hypothesize that CTC harbor genomic changes critical in the development of distant systemic metastasis. Here, we present the first genome-wide copy-number aberration (CNA) and loss of heterozygosity (LOH)-based characterization of melanoma CTC.

METHODS

CTC were isolated from peripheral blood monocytes of 13 melanoma patients with regional metastasis stage IIIB/C using antibodies against melanoma-associated cell surface gangliosides.

RESULTS

We characterized 251 CNA in CTC. Comparative analysis demonstrated >90% concordance in single-nucleotide polymorphism profiles between paired CTC and tumor metastases. In particular, there were notable recurring CNA across patients. In exploratory studies, the presence of several top CTC-associated CNA was verified in distant metastasis (stage IV) from 27 patients, suggesting that certain genomic changes are propagated from regional metastasis to CTC and to distant systemic metastases. Lastly, an exploratory biomarker panel derived from 5 CTC-associated CNA [CSMD2 (CUB and Sushi multiple domains 2), 1p35.1; CNTNAP5 (contactin associated protein-like 5), 2q14.3; NRDE2 (NRDE-2, necessary for RNA interference, domain containing), 14q32.11; ADAM6 (ADAM metallopeptidase domain 6, pseudogene), 14q32.33; and TRPM2 (transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily m, member 2), 21q22.3] conferred prognostic utility for melanoma recurrence [hazard ratio (HR), 1.14; CI, 1.00–1.44; P = 0.0471] and death (HR, 2.86; CI, 1.23–14.42; P = 0.0014) in 35 patients with stage IIIB/C melanoma, with a 5-year disease-free survival of 13% vs 69% (P = 0.0006) and overall survival of 28% vs 94% between high-risk and low-risk groups defined by the biomarker panel, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides the first detailed CNA-based profile of melanoma CTC and illustrates how CTC may be used as a novel approach for identification of systemic metastasis.
WNN-Based Prediction of Security Situation Awareness for the Civil Aviation Network
Authors: Ma Lan , Ma Shaopu , Wu Zhijun
Published: April 2014

The security of the civil aviation network is closely related to flight safety. Security situation prediction is the advanced stage of situational awareness in the civil aviation network. In this article, a prediction approach of security situations for the air traffic management network is proposed on the basis of the wavelet neural network. The proposed approach adopts the wavelet theory and neural network, combining a time-series forecasting method for the prediction of security situations in the civil aviation network. The experimental results show that this approach has the advantages of fast training and high prediction accuracy.
The optical near-field: super-resolution imaging with structural and phase correlation
Authors: Lewis Aaron , Lev Dmitry , Sebag Daniel , Hamra Patricia , Levy Hadas , Bernstein Yirmi , Brahami Aaron , Tal Nataly , Goldstein Omri , Yeshua Talia
Published: April 2014

An overview of near-field optics is presented with a focus on the fundamental advances that have been made in the field since its inception 30 years ago. A focus is placed on the advancements that have been achieved in instrumentation. These advances have led to a greater generality of use with ultra-low mechanical and optical noise and the ultimate in force sensitivity with near-field optical probes. An emphasis is placed on the importance of fully integrating near-field optics with other imaging and spectroscopic modalities including Raman spectroscopy and electron/ion beam imaging. Important directions in probe design, force feedback methods and scanner flexibility are described. These developing avenues provide considerable optimism for an ever increasing incorporation of near-field optics to help resolve critical problems in fundamental and applied science.