bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conceptual model of implementation of Lean Production in Russian enterprise
Authors: Novikov Sergey V. , Veas Iniesta Daniela S.
Published: May 2020

Taking as basis the research on the introduction and application of lean production (LP), the authors describe the development sequence of LP tools that allowed the formulation of a modern LP tools system. Considering also the classical principles of LP, the article proposes a conceptual model of the multidimensional modern content of LP based on a multi-level understanding of the LP apparatus and takes into account its organizational components and the scale of the required transformations in the organization's activities.
United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Middle East Politics After Khashoggi’s Murder
Authors: Gamawa Yusuf Ibrahim
Published: May 2020

There is no doubt that the murder of Jamal Khashoggi has brought about dramatic changes in the politics of the Middle East, and the key players; U.S., Saudi Arabia and Turkey are all playing different roles in shaping opinion in the region in the aftermath of the murder. While Turkey continues to push for justice for the murder of the journalist, the U.S. is seen to be divided between support for Saudi Arabia and call for justice, and Saudi Arabia on its part is pushing hard to see that it overcomes all attempts to undermine its government and leadership. This article argues that the murder of the journalist has pushed Saudi Arabia into taking steps that would ensure its survival and dominance in the region. The Saudi regime appears to be stepping up its power in the region and has reached out to neighbors and renewed its ties with its Gulf partners and wider Middle East, including Syria to neutralize all attempts by Turkey to undermine its regime. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3376365
Factors Contributing Students Motivation Toward English Language Learning
Authors: Anwari Ahmad
Published: May 2020

The purpose of this research is to identify those factors that students are motivated toward English language learning. Furthermore, the study applied quantitative approach and the instrument was questionnaire to collect the data, and the questionnaire have been adopted, the software for analyzing the data were SPSS and calculated the percentage for the findings. Moreover, the major findings revealed as follow; first, English helps/will help me meet foreigners, second, English will be helpful for my career, third; English helps/will help me in my travel overseas and fourth; Studying English can be important for me because it will help me to further my studies.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3376488
The German Shakespeare
Authors: Mouelhi Oumeima
Published: May 2020

Over The past four hundred years, Shakespeare has played a significant role within a European framework, particularly, where a series of political events and ideologies were being shaped. The birth of the nation during the late 18th and 19th centuries, the first and second world wars, the process of European unification during the 1990s, are a case in point. This part challenges the idea of an all-encompassing universal Shakespeare by demonstrating that Shakespeare and his plays transmitted across different histories, languages, and traditions meant something significantly different in these geographical contexts. Rejecting the existence of a universally absolute and singular Shakespearean meaning, I attempt to demonstrate that Shakespeare is always what he is imagined to be in a cultural and historical context. The various local and national appropriations and the universality of the cultural icon, “Shakespeare”, clash in the daily practice of interpreting, performing, and teaching his plays. This paper discusses Shakespeare’s appropriation and performance in East Germany. It focuses on the theatrical production and its cultural context in this country.
VOICES OF POLITICAL WOMEN ON WOMEN ISSUES IN THE MEDIA: A CASE OF PAKISTAN’S 2013 ELECTIONS
Authors: Rahman Bushra H , Rizvi Fakiha
Published: May 2020

The study examines if women politicians of Pakistan in the media are portrayed as effective decision-makers who demonstrate their leadership abilities and dynamism in advocating women issues. It aims to study whether media was used as an organized effort to use political women to bring social and economic improvement in the status of women by examining the Pakistani media on the issues of women during Pakistan’s 2013 general elections. It explores the assumption put forward by the ‘critical mass theory’, that if women form the critical mass in the political power structure, they have a major effect on becoming a voice in the media for women issues. It is a content analysis of articles, editorials and features of four major dailies and talk shows of three major television channels during the Pakistan’s election year 2013. Findings show that women issues were just not sidelined but also women politicians were marginalized in the media to talk on women issues. The discourses on women by ‘empowered’ women were almost non-existent in the media.
METAANALYSIS OF RESEARCH STUDIES RELATED TO EFFECTS OF TELEVISED-VIOLENCE ON SOCIETY
Authors: Hafeez Erum
Published: May 2020

With the advent and popularity of Television by the end of 1950s and early 1960s, researchers focused the role and effects of this new medium on its growing audience. Himmelweit (1958) and Schramm (1961) are considered the pioneer researchers in the field. The volume of scientific studies regarding televised violence was largely increased following the landmark State Reports in US published between 1972 and 1982. These reports indicated that the proliferation of TV has exposed children to media violence at home. However, violence is rarely caused by a single factor, it rather involves multiple factors. Signorielli (2005) in her book Violence in the Media rightly commented that television plays a unique role of an entertaining storyteller but the increasing commercialization of TV is a serious matter of concern.1 The objective of this literature review is to provide a holistic overview of the landmark studies conducted on televised violence and its contribution to real life crimes and violence in society.
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA AND RUSSIA DURING THE COLD WAR
Authors: Khan Samra Sarfaraz
Published: May 2020

The research paper entitled “Political and Economic Development in China and Russia During the Cold War,” focuses on the struggles made by the Chinese and Russian governments during the Cold War years for the improvement of economic situation of the two countries. By addressing such questions as the viability of the economic policies of Russia and China, the paper aims to bring to light the various methods used by the two governments to ensure improvement of the economic condition of the state, as well as of its people. Effort has also been made to draw a critical analysis of the power struggles and confrontations within the two regimes and the influence of the same on the political and economic graph of the two states. The paper, therefore, discusses the political issues within the People’s Republic of China and Russia and the effects of these frictions on the overall political and economic condition of the country. Moreover, the paper is also an attempt to analyze the reasons why Chinese attempts at economic development were more fruitful than the efforts made by their Russian counterparts.
THREATS TO JOURNALISTS IN SINDH: EVENTS AND PERCEPTIONS (2000-2017)
Authors: Hussain Fazal , Kamal Auj-e
Published: May 2020

This study explores threats to journalists in Sindh, searching the journalist’s community, allocating its existence through a premeditated survey with directional questionnaire. Consulting 150 journalists to find out the essence, magnitude and targeting aspects of the threats they are facing in wake of their line of duty. Journalists and threats are both enter-linked since the birth of journalism, a journalist is a Watch-Dog or Gate-Keeper, who guards the boundaries of transparency, freedom of expression, sphere of laws and protects and promotes the social values and norms and facilitates political communication to educate and update the citizens. Doing all this in a part of the state where the situation of law and order is deteriorated, the population is heterogeneous in its nature, is a big challenge. Attacks on journalists have been searched from the history of media landscape for last 17 years in Sindh to weigh up the threats to Watch-Dogs. The study generalizes, whether working journalists are serving under pressure in an environment governed by threats or they feel safe and free to perform their journalistic duties. It also calculates the responses of the affected journalists in the outward appearance of complaints they file in connection with the threats faced for their professional work.
Prevalence of polypharmacy in the older adult population within primary care in Portugal: a nationwide cross-sectional study
Authors: Simões Pedro Augusto , Santiago Luiz Miguel , Simões José Augusto
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Polypharmacy is commonly defined as the simultaneous use of five or more medications; however, there is a lack of consensus regarding the most appropriate definition. It is a significant predictor of morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of polypharmacy in the population of older adults attending primary care in Portugal and to identify associated sociodemographic and clinical factors.

Material and methods

We conducted a cross-sectional, analytical study in primary care centres from the five Portuguese healthcare administrative regions and the two autonomous regions. We used a random sample of 757 older adult patients provided by the information department of the ministry of health (SPMS) and family doctors from the autonomous regions. Data collection occurred in March 2018. The variables utilised were sociodemographic characteristics, clinical profile and medication. For each patient, polypharmacy was measured either by the concurrent use of ≥ 5 drugs or by the median number of drugs at the time of data collection. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine associations between polypharmacy and other variables.

Results

Polypharmacy (≥ 5 drugs) was present in 77% of the sample. A cut-off of over the median number of drugs was present in 55%. The likelihood of having polypharmacy increased significantly with age (OR = 1.05 (1.02–1.08)), number of chronic health problems (OR = 1.24 (1.07–1.45)) and number of prescribers (OR = 4.71 (3.42–6.48)). Cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal medications were the most commonly involved in polypharmacy.

Conclusions

Polypharmacy was a very common occurrence in Portugal. Future primary healthcare policies should address polypharmacy.
Frequency of oligosymptomatic gastrointestinal tract diseases and its relation to IGF-I in idiopathic (non-GH-deficient) short stature children
Authors: Stawerska Renata , Kolasa-Kicińska Marzena , Kolejwa Michał , Smyczyńska Joanna , Hilczer Maciej , Czkwianianc Elżbieta , Lewiński Andrzej
Published: May 2020

Introduction

There is a discussion about growth hormone therapy in idiopathic short stature (ISS) children. To diagnose ISS, it is necessary to exclude other diseases; gastrointestinal tract diseases (GIDs) are among them. However, GID symptoms may be scarce. The aim of the study was to evaluate the frequency of unexpected oligosymptomatic GIDs in ISS and assess their influence on auxological parameters and IGF-I concentration.

Material and methods

The analysis included 101 children with ISS and 95 controls. All patients were tested for celiac disease (CD), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), lactose malabsorption (LM), cystic fibrosis (CF), Helicobacter pylori (HP) and Ascaris sp. (Asc) infections, as well as Candida albicans (Calb) colonization, by applying simple blood and stool tests and gastrofiberoscopy.

Results

In 75.2% of short children, one or more than one GIDs listed above were diagnosed, with the highest frequency of: Calb (46.5%), LM (33.7%), HP (24.7%) and/or Asc (21.8%). The incidence of GIDs was significantly higher than in the control group. The GID frequency increases with the age of children. In most ISS children, the IGF-I SDS was below –1.0 and it was the lowest in children with HP (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

High frequency of unexpected oligosymptomatic GIDs in children diagnosed with ISS indicates the need to search for gastrointestinal (GI) causes in each case of short stature in children. The pathomechanisms responsible for short stature in these cases may vary, although it seems that reduced production of IGF-I plays an important role.
Down-regulation of miR-133a-3p protects lung tissue against sepsis-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome by up-regulating SIRT1
Authors: Hui Qin , Zhang Qi , Li Xuan , Wang Kundi , Zhang Jing , Zhou Zhongshu
Published: May 2020

Introduction

MicroRNA-133a-3p (miR-133a-3p) is a potential gene regulator having an important role in the process of inflammation and lung injury. The present work studied the role of miR-133a-3p in sepsis-mediated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and the mechanism involved.

Material and methods

C57BL/6 mice were selected for the study. Protein expression of Bcl-2, cleaved caspase-3 and Bax was assessed by western blot analysis. Expression of mRNA was assessed by RT-PCR. Effects of inflammation were studied by myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. Quantification of albumin was done by measuring the albumin conjugated with Evan’s blue. The alveolar macrophages were separated from the lungs of mice by the bronchoalveolar lavage procedure and were submitted to sepsis challenge in vitro; the macrophages were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS).

Results

Treatment of LPS resulted in upregulation of miR-133a-3p in alveolar macrophages. Suppression of miR-133a-3p halted the over-expression of inflammatory cytokines in macrophages and caused remission of histopathologic changes. The ARDS lungs showed a decrease in levels of proinflammatory cytokines and an increase in levels of apoptotic protein, establishing the protective role for miR-133a-3p. The results suggested sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) as a potential target of miR-133a-3p in the macrophages, also showing that expression of SIRT1 was inversely associated with expression of miR-133a-3p. The protective effect of miR-133a-3p down-regulation in LPS-mediated alveolar macrophages and sepsis-induced ARDS could be corrected by a SIRT1 inhibitor.

Conclusions

Down-regulation of miR-133a-3p may exert a protective effect on lung tissue against sepsis-mediated ARDS by up-regulating the levels of SIRT1 via suppressing the inflammatory response and inhibiting the cellular apoptosis in lung tissues.
MicroRNA-939 induces apoptosis in human liver cancer cells by targeting CRKL expression
Authors: Bao Hongbin , Yao Hao , Ma Dawei , Xu Haoyi , Li Ning , Li Hengli , Li Xinguo , Xu Binghui
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Over the years, microRNAs (miRs) have been shown to exhibit therapeutic implications in the treatment of cancer. Consistently, this study was designed to examine the expression profile and to decipher the therapeutic implications of miR-939 in human liver cancer.

Material and methods

Expression profiling was performed by qRT-PCR and the proliferation rate of liver cancer cells was monitored by Cell Counting Kit 8 (CCK8) and clonogenic assays. 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining and annexin V-FITC assays were used to determine the induction of apoptosis. Ultrastructural analysis was performed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Western blotting was used to determine protein expression.

Results

miR-939 was found to be significantly (p < 0.05) downregulated in the liver cancerous tissues and cell lines. miR-939 overexpression significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the proliferation and colony formation of liver cancer cells. Ultrastructural analysis, DAPI and annexin V/PI assays showed induction of apoptosis in miR-939 overexpressing liver cancer cells. This was accompanied by upregulation of Bax, p53 and suppression of Bcl-2. In silico analysis showed CRKL to be the target of miR-939. The down regulation of CRKL mimicked the molecular effects of miR-939 in liver cancer cells. Nonetheless, CRKL overexpression abolished the growth inhibitory effects of miR-939 on liver cancer cells.

Conclusions

The present study established the role of the miR-939/CRKL molecular axis in regulation of liver cancer proliferation, and it may also prove an essential therapeutic target for its management.
MicroRNA let-7f protects against H2O2-induced oxidative damage in neuroblastoma cells by targeting AKT-2
Authors: Li Kuo , Wang Zhan-Qiang , Zhang Jun-Ling , Lv Pei-Yuan
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia in late adult life. Emerging evidence shows that microRNAs (miRNAs) play vital roles in the pathogenesis of AD. The aim of the present study was to eluci-date the underlying role of miR-let-7f in oxidative damage in SH-SY5Y cells.

Material and methods

miRNA microarray analysis was performed to detect the miRNAs’ differential expression in AD patients and normal elderly volun-teers. Cell injury was evaluated on the basis of cell viability and apoptosis. The effect of miR-let-7f on H2O2-induced oxidative damage was estimated after cell transfection. qRT-PCR and western blot were used to measure the expression of miR-let-7f, AKT-2 and apoptosis-related proteins. The target gene of miR-let-7f was analyzed by luciferase reporter gene assay.

Results

MiR-let-7f was overexpressed in AD patients. When exposed to H2O2 in vitro, SH-SY5Y cells showed significant apoptosis accompanied by up-regulation of miR-let-7f and increased expression of apoptosis-related proteins. In the presence of H2O2, the up-regulation of miR-let-7f significant-ly increased the cell viability and inhibited cell apoptosis, while down-regulation showed the opposite effect. The luciferase reporter assay showed that ATK-2 is the direct target gene of miR-let-7f. Western blot analysis further showed that miR-let-7f negatively regulated ATK-2 expression.

Conclusions

The up-regulation of miR-let-7f alleviated the H2O2-induced oxidative damage in SH-SY5Y cells by targeting AKT-2. These findings provided a novel perspective in the role of miR-let-7f in pathogenesis of oxidative damage during AD.
The role of periampullary diverticulum on the incidence
of pancreaticobiliary diseases and the outcome
of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
Authors: Chen Qiaofeng , Zhang Yuanyuan , Tang Zhihua , Yu Mingju , Liu Zhijian , Zhou Xiaojiang , Li Guohua , Chen Youxiang , Zhou Xiaodong
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Periampullary diverticulum (PAD), although commonly discover¬ed in patients undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatograp¬hy (ERCP), remains controversial regarding its role in pancreaticobiliary diseases and the failure rate of cannulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of PAD with pancreaticobiliary diseases and its impact on the outcome of ERCP.

Material and methods

A retrospective analysis was carried out on 1455 patients who underwent an ERCP. Patients were divided into a PAD group and a control group without PAD, and propensity score matching was performed to adjust for clinical differences. The comparison was focused on pancreaticobiliary diseases, technical success, and complications of ERCP.

Results

The occurrence of PAD is associated significantly with increasing age (p < 0.001). Incidences of acute pancreatitis (AP), suppurative cholangitis, and pancreatic head cancer were significantly higher in the PAD group (p < 0.05). After propensity score matching, the PAD group exhibited a higher rate of post-ERCP complications including haemorrhage, post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP), and hyperamylasaemia (p < 0.05). However, the prevalence of perforation and the success rate of ERCP did not differ between groups (p > 0.05).

Conclusions

Periampullary diverticulum develops with aging and seems to be associated with an increase in pancreaticobiliary diseases and post-ERCP complications except for perforation. Additionally, the presence of PAD does not affect the technical success of ERCP.
The tubular damage markers: neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin and kidney injury molecule-1 in newborns with exposure to maternal diabetes during pregnancy
Authors: Kamianowska Monika , Szczepański Marek , Sawicka Ewa , Bebko Barbara , Wasilewska Anna
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease have been found to be caused by diabetes. More recently, the renal tubulointerstitium has been increasingly assumed to play a role in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy with prolonged exposure to a variety of metabolic and haemodynamic injuring factors associated with sustained hyperglycaemia as contributing factors. This study aimed to investigate whether maternal diabetes could be the factor affecting kidney function in a newborn with the use of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) – biomarkers of renal injury.

Material and methods

The study included 138 full-term newborns: 50 newborns from diabetic pregnancies and 88 healthy newborns. The concentrations of NGAL and KIM-1 were determined in urine in the first or the second day of life with a commercially available ELISA kit.

Results

Considerably higher urine level of NGAL (25.7 (11.8–40.8)) and NGAL/cr. (29.1 (19.1–47.4)) in babies from diabetic pregnancies has been found when compared to the reference group (16.74 (9.9–27.5)) and (21.9 (14.6–29.8)) (p = 0.01, p < 0.01) respectively. We also found a significantly higher urine level of NGAL (27.8 (13.6–44.2)), NGAL/cr. (31.9 (17.6–57.4)), and KIM-1/cr. (2.6 (1.6–5.5)) in babies of diabetic mothers treated with insulin when compared to the reference group (16.7 (9.9–27.5)), (21.9 (14.6–29.8)), (1.9 (0.8–3.2)), (p = 0.01, p = 0.02, p = 0.02), respectively.

Conclusions

Based on the results of this study, we indicate for the first time that maternal diabetes mellitus during pregnancy may be considered as the cause of tubular kidney damage in newborns.
Non-attachment and happiness: mediating versus moderating roles of grit personality
Authors: Siah Poh Chua , Tun Pei , Chan Mun
Published: May 2020

Background

Studies have revealed that grit personality and non-attachment are positively associated with happiness. Grittier people are happier while they persist in pursuing their long-term goal, whereas non-attached people are hap-pier as they are not clinging onto any object. These contrasting findings seem to suggest that the two concepts may have some relevancies. Accordingly, this study aims to use the mediator and moderator models to exam-ine whether grit personality either moderates or mediates the effects of non-attachment on happiness.

Participants and procedure

Three hundred sixty undergraduates were recruited by the purposive sampling method to participate in a survey. They needed to fill in the Short Grit Scale, Non-Attachment Scale and Subjective Happiness Scale.

Results

The results showed that non-attachment is positively associated with a component of grit; that only persever-ance of efforts, but not consistency of interest, was positively associated with non-attachment. In addition, per-severance of efforts mediates rather than moderates the effects of non-attachment on happiness.

Conclusions

The findings suggesting that non-attached people are happier does not mean they detach from life. They are able to work with perseverance on their long-term goals, but they do not attach to the outcome of their goals. The findings provide further conceptual clarification of grit personality and non-attachment and further infor-mation to educators and program managers while designing programs to improve happiness.
Adaptation to the disease – the psychological resources of families struggling with multiple sclerosis
Authors: Treder-Rochna Natalia
Published: May 2020

Background

The functioning of a person affected with a chronic illness within a family is a complex and many-sided issue. The illness produces an adaptive mechanism, and the ultimate goal of all adaptive measures is to deal with the new situation. The present research was intended to determine the psychological and clinical factors underly-ing the correct functioning of families with a multiple sclerosis sufferer.

Participants and procedure

The research covered 108 families (216 persons) divided into three groups. We used an interview, the FACES IV questionnaire, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, the Berlin Social Support Scales, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, the Acceptance of Illness Scale, the Beck Depression Scale, the Mini-Mental State Exami-nation, the Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, and the Similarities task from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.

Results

The results of the research showed a significant difference in how family life was assessed by the three groups regarding cohesion and flexibility. A significant difference also related to communication and family life satis-faction. The best fit with the data was shown by the model incorporating two groups of predictors – global psy-chological variables (family variables) and individual psychological variables.

Conclusions

Based on the research, it is highly probable that the majority of families with multiple sclerosis sufferers adjust relatively well to the disease. Despite chronic illness, a family can function correctly, but this largely depends on its ability to cope with stress. Clinical parameters of the illness, such as the degree of disability, proved to be irrelevant as predictors. It was also established that a system’s functioning depends on the mental condition of the healthy care-giving spouse. The patient’s cognitive impairment, especially his/her executive deficits, was found to be important.
Role of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in the evaluation of vertebral bone marrow lesions
Authors: Kaur Arashdeep , Thukral Chuni L. , Khanna Gagan , Singh Paramdeep
Published: May 2020

Purpose

To evaluate the role of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) in differentiating vertebral marrow pathologies. To determine the sensitivity, specificity, and threshold apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values that can aid in the differentiation of malignant from benign bone marrow lesions.

Material and methods

This observational study included 100 patients, who underwent MRI examination with a 1.5 Tesla scanner. The ADC values of normal and pathological vertebrae were estimated, and the threshold ADC values were computed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The results were correlated with histopathological diagnosis, clinical follow-up, and other investigations. Statistical analysis was done by employing unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test and the p-value of < 0.05 was deemed as statistically significant.

Results

Vertebral bone marrow lesions had a male predominance and there was a predilection towards thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, with L4 being the commonest. Metastasis was the commonest lesion, followed by spondylodiscitis. The mean ADC value of benign pathologies was significantly greater than malignant pathologies (p < 0.05). The threshold value for the demarcation between benign and malignant pathologies was computed to be 1.21 × 10-3 mm2/s. DW imaging had sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 92.31%, positive predictive value of 87.5%, and negative predictive value of 100%.

Conclusions

Vertebral marrow lesions can be differentiated as benign or malignant with good sensitivity and specificity with the help of DW-ADC maps.
Effects of ascending and descending direct current on grip strength assessed through dynamometry and myofeedback: a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Ortiz Hernán Andrés de la Barra , Cancino Jaime Opazo , Goluboff Nicole Minzer , Obando Ghyslaing Andrade , Jara Macarena Herrera , Vera María Fernanda González
Published: May 2020

Introduction

To investigate effects of ascending and descending direct current (ADC and DDC) on muscle strength evaluated with dynamometry. Muscle strength values in kilograms were compared in 3 groups (ADC, DDC, and control) before and after galvanic electrical intervention.

Methods

A randomized clinical trial was performed in the Physiotherapy Laboratory of Andrés Bello University among 83 healthy volunteers. The intervention was a direct current session at an intensity of 4 mA for 12 minutes with 48-cm2 electrodes (dose: 48 mA · min; current density: 0.04 mA/cm2). The difference between the groups was galvanic therapy type applied. Current application followed a hand dynamometric test and myofeedback evaluation. The main outcome was maximum strength difference (MSdif) and its corresponding value in microvolts (μV-MSdif) obtained with myofeedback.

Results

There were statistically significant changes regarding MSdif in groups who received direct current (p = 0.0001). These variations were also seen when comparing the 3 groups with the consideration of men (p = 0.0012) and women (p = 0.0021) separately. No statistically significant changes were observed in the μV-MSdif values (p = 0.9409).

Conclusions

ADC can generate variations in grip strength after an intervention session, with an increase in strength of 8.9%. The increase in strength was observed both in men (6.7%) and in women (9%) of the ADC group.
Caribbean New Orleans
Authors: Vidal Cécile
Published: May 2020

Combining Atlantic and imperial perspectives, Caribbean New Orleans offers a lively portrait of the city and a probing investigation of the French colonists who established racial slavery there as well as the African slaves who were forced to toil for them. Casting early New Orleans as a Caribbean outpost of the French Empire rather than as a North American frontier town, Cécile Vidal reveals the persistent influence of the Antilles, especially Saint-Domingue, which shaped the city’s development through the eighteenth century. In so doing, she urges us to rethink our usual divisions of racial systems into mainland and Caribbean categories. Drawing on New Orleans’s rich court records as a way to capture the words and actions of its inhabitants, Vidal takes us into the city’s streets, market, taverns, church, hospitals, barracks, and households. She explores the challenges that slow economic development, Native American proximity, imperial rivalry, and the urban environment posed to a social order that was predicated on slave labor and racial hierarchy. White domination, Vidal demonstrates, was woven into the fabric of New Orleans from its founding. This comprehensive history of urban slavery locates Louisiana’s capital on a spectrum of slave societies that stretched across the Americas and provides a magisterial overview of racial discourses and practices during the formative years of North America’s most intriguing city.
“The Mulatto of the House”
Authors: Vidal Cécile
Published: May 2020

This chapter contends that the household needs to be considered as a crucial category of analysis to determine how French New Orleans society became racialized. As censuses demonstrate, the urban milieu brought people of all conditions and backgrounds together within small residential units. This intimate coexistence tempered the slave system which always involved personal interactions in the city. This closeness, however, did not entirely protect urban slaves from exploitation and violence. In both domestic households and residential institutions such as the hospitals and the Ursuline convent, various mechanisms were used to create social distance and maintain the racial divide. As for the soldiers who lived in the only residential institution which did not rely on slave labor—the barracks—they fought hard not to be confused with the enslaved.
“A Scandalous Commerce”
Authors: Vidal Cécile
Published: May 2020

This chapter explores how the slave system weakened the European religious and moral ideal that restricted sexuality and the family to Christian marriage in French New Orleans. Yet, it challenges the common view according to which the prevalence of métissage was the sign of a lenient racial regime. Sexual relationships across the racial line did not undermine racial formation; on the contrary, they contributed to reinforcing the system of racial domination. Rather than a general moral and religious disorder, what developed was a plural set of sexual and family values and practices that differed according to status, gender, and race.
The Paths and the Rivers
Authors: Huler Scott
Published: May 2020

This chapter examines Huler’s meeting with Dale Loberger who is interested in uncovering old roads in the Charlotte area. Together, they compare old maps and modern maps. During Huler’s and Loberger’s time together, they cook using modern tools and use modern technology to record their data. Huler recognizes that his purpose is not to do exactly what Lawson did, but to walk, talk to people, and look at the environment. Loberger advises Huler about surveying land and the math that will help determine old paths and lands. In Charlotte, Huler acknowledges the beauty of creeks but also addresses pollution. At the end of this chapter, Huler reflects on Lawson’s barbecue meal with the Indians. Huler, on the other hand, prefers sandwiches and fish.
Power, Marginality, and Participation in Mexico City, 1870–2000
Authors: Tutino John
Published: May 2020

Traces changing economic ways and political participations in the Mexican capital from the era of late nineteenth liberalism and emerging informalities, into times of revolution after 1910, through the post-revolutionary turn to national capitalism and the construction of an authoritarian regime. With industrial boom after 1940, neither employment or resources proved sufficient to formal development in a rapidly expanding city, leading to barrio-based informal urbanization, as people built their own homes and new neighbourhoods—and turned to neighbourhood mobilizations to make demands and preserve limited gains. With globalization under NAFTA from 1990s, de-industrialization spread marginality while population continued to grow. The democratization of 2000 brought few gains to people facing marginal and informal lives in a city still the national capital, a pivot of power serving globalization, and the largest metropolitan region in the Americas.
The Arc of Formality in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro
Authors: Mccann Bryan
Published: May 2020

Rio de Janeiro began the twentieth century as capital of a nation that had ended slavery and monarchical rule only in 1888-89. In the new republic, coffee exports and early industrialization concentrated in São Paulo. Rio drew people recently out of slavery and/or escaping the struggling sugar economy of Northeast to irregular subdivisions and informal favelas. As the century moved forward, both the Vargas regime (1930-54, 1950-54) and the military dictatorship (1964-85) promoted formal urban development with land titles and services while the national capital and much of the bureaucracy moved to Brasilia after 1960 and Rio’s limited industrial base corroded. The urban population kept growing, driving a return of informal development as military rule ceded to re-democratization. Favelas, informal subdivisions, and social marginality spread again as criminal enterprises linked to the global drug economy brought limited prosperity and rising violence to the metropolis—contradictions that hosting the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics could not resolve.
Energy Capital and Opportunity City
Authors: Pratt Joseph A. , Melosi Martin V.
Published: May 2020

Houston began the twentieth century as a small cotton port linked to the Gulf of Mexico by a ship channel. It became an important center of oil production and refining before World War II, a leading producer during the war and its aftermath, and the global capital of energy focusing on technological innovation, refining, and petrochemicals as the world economy globalized. As it grew, the city drew migrants, Anglo- and African-American, from the U.S. South, many from Louisiana, to become a diverse but not simply segregated city. The long-term economic benefits of oil-led development allowed unequal yet shared gains and funded the rise of leading medical centers, sustaining a diversified economy after the 1980s oil bust made it a symbol of a major city built on oil. It expanded employment and improved infrastructure, but economic opportunities and physical growth came with high environmental costs, including health challenges and urban problems ranging from water supply, to pollution, to chronic flooding—as the city grew with a new wave of migration from Mexico into the twenty-first century.
Occupied Territory
Authors: Balto Simon
Published: May 2020

Chapter five focuses on the years from 1960 to 1967, aligning with the tenure of Chicago Police Department Superintendent Orlando Wilson. Hired in the wake of a massive scandal within the police department, Wilson came in as a departmental outsider, and with aims to reform and professionalize the department and ensure greater accountability to the public. For these efforts, Wilson is remembered as perhaps the most consequential leader of the CPD in the department’s history. He implemented the first Internal Investigations Division and labored to better the image of the police in the eyes of the public. However, he was also a strong law-and-order proponent who firmly believed in an expansive police power, leading to an evermore aggressive police presence in Black neighborhoods that would have longstanding consequences and a contentious relationship with Chicago’s civil rights movement (known as the Chicago Freedom Movement) when it sought to use civil disobedience in pursuit of racial justice. At the same time, Wilson’s reform efforts—especially those intended to bring more oversight and accountability to police behavior—were fought tooth and nail by many of his subordinates, led by groups like the Chicago Patrolman’s Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, and other police organizations that were direct ancestors of modern police unions. In the end, this meant that systems of accountability, while technically implemented during this period, were dysfunctional in actually halting police brutality and other abuses of power.
The Historian's Eye
Authors: Jacobson Matthew Frye
Published: May 2020

Between 2009 and 2013, as the nation contemplated the historic election of Barack Obama and endured the effects of the Great Recession, Matthew Frye Jacobson set out with a camera to explore and document what was discernible to the "historian's eye" during this tumultuous period. Having collected several thousand images, Jacobson began to reflect on their raw, informal immediacy alongside the recognition that they comprised an archive of a moment with unquestionable historical significance. This book presents more than 100 images alongside Jacobson's recollections of their moments of creation and his understanding of how they link past, present, and future.
The images reveal diverse expressions of civic engagement that are emblematic of the aspirations, expectations, promises, and failures of this period in American history. Myriad closed businesses and abandoned storefronts stand as public monuments to widespread distress; omnipresent, expectant Obama iconography articulates a wish for new national narratives; flamboyant street theater and wry signage bespeak a common impulse to talk back to power. Framed by an introductory essay, these images reflect the sober grace of a time that seems perilous, but in which “hope” has not ceased to hold meaning.
All-Indian Shiʿism, Colonial Modernity, And The Challenge Of Pakistan
Authors: Fuchs Simon Wolfgang
Published: May 2020

This chapter explores the late colonial milieu with its opposing discourses of communalism and nationalism that left a deep impact on Shi‘i community formation. In the first half of the 20th century, India’s Shi‘is portrayed themselves as being on a higher spiritual level in contrast to the common (Sunni) Muslims. Yet, once the Muslim League (ML) adopted the creation of Pakistan as its goal, influential Shi‘i voices expressed deep and increasing skepticism toward the founding of a state that claimed to form an inclusive homeland for all Muslims of the subcontinent. This chapter further demonstrates the substantial links that connected South Asian Shi‘is to major events in the Middle East. Finally, the chapter shows that Lucknow’s religious scholars were far from secure in their leadership position of the Shi‘i community. The modernist-minded All India Shi‘a Conference (AISC) viewed these mujtahids as hopelessly out of touch with the challenges of the time and regarded the AISC as a more appropriate vehicle of communal leadership.
Theology, Sectarianism, and the Limits of Reform
Authors: Fuchs Simon Wolfgang
Published: May 2020

This chapter investigates the first decades after the founding of Pakistan in 1947. Shi‘i immigrants from North India became pitted against a local Punjabi trend of reformist Shi‘i teaching that maintained close ties with the leading seminaries in Iraq. Young scholars accused the immigrants of being wolves in ‘ulama clothes who held dangerous “extremist” views. The traditionalists defended a transcendent vision of God that implied a radically contrasting conception of religious authority. This chapter pays attention to local and transnational dimensions of these theological debates because both sides attempted to marshal positions held by Iranian and Iraqi scholars in support of their particular views. Ayatollah Khomeini’s writings play a particularly important role in this regard. The chapter also argues that both reformist agendas and their traditionalist refutations were driven by the hope of reaching a rapprochement with the Sunnis. While reformist ‘ulama suggested discontinuing “offensive” Shi‘i rituals and rethinking the events of Karbala as a political struggle, traditionalist scholars propagated a Sufi-Shi‘i synthesis and universal access to the Hidden Imam.
A Friendship Was Formed
Authors: Broadwater Jeff
Published: May 2020

In this chapter, which among other things, discusses the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, Jefferson and Madison encounter the major political issues confronting the new republic: allocating representation in the national legislature and accounting for America’s enslaved population; resolving state land claims in the West; securing American access to the Mississippi River; and maintaining a stable currency, all while waging a war for independence. Convinced nevertheless that even more important work remained to be done within the individual states, Jefferson embarked on a campaign to reform Virginia’s legal code. Elected governor in June 1779, Jefferson began to form a close friendship with Madison, who served on the governor’s council before being elected to the Continental Congress in December 1779. After entering Congress, Madison soon emerged as a leader of the more nationalistic delegates.
Fire in the Streets
Authors: Christensen Rob
Published: May 2020

Bob Scott was governor during one of the most difficult periods in the 20th century. His term coincided with black student activism, anti-Vietnam War protests, and school integration. North Carolina was the scene of building takeovers, marches, fire bombings, and riots. Scott responded by taking a tough law-and-order stance that offended many African-Americans and white liberals, but was popular among many white conservatives and moderates.
Our Common Country
Authors: Toomey Michael
Published: May 2020

John Sevier settled in the Watauga region on the North Carolina frontier shortly before the American Revolution. A veteran Indian fighter, Sevier soon entered politics and received a commission as a militia officer. Campaigns against the Cherokee and his role in the defeat of British forces at the Battle of King’s Mountain made him a hero among many backcountry whites. After North Carolina indicated a willingness to cede its western lands to Congress, Sevier served briefly as governor of the ill-fated “state” of Franklin. After the cession was completed, Sevier became the first governor of the new state of Tennessee. A pragmatist if not an opportunist, Sevier seems to have been driven by a desire for western land, not by political ideology or a sense of American nationalism.
John Chavis
Authors: Justesen Benjamin R.
Published: May 2020

This essay on the life of John Chavis illustrates both the opportunities and the obstacles facing free African Americans in post-Revolutionary North Carolina. Details of his early life are uncertain. Reportedly a Revolutionary War veteran, Chavis studied at the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, and at Liberty Hall Academy, the forerunner of Washington and Lee University. Licensed in 1801 by the Presbyterian General Assembly as a missionary to enslaved African Americans, Chavis proved more popular with white audiences. His principal income for much of his life came from a school he operated in Raleigh, where he taught black and white students and became a confidant of North Carolina senator William P. Mangum. A conservative and an old-line Federalist, Chavis bemoaned the rise of Jacksonian Democracy and opposed the immediate abolition of slavery. Yet restrictions imposed on black teachers and ministers after Nat Turner’s rebellion made his last years difficult. He died in 1838 almost certainly of natural causes, not, as is sometimes reported, of mob violence.
Left of Poetry
Authors: Ehlers Sarah
Published: May 2020

In this incisive study, Sarah Ehlers returns to the Depression-era United States in order to unsettle longstanding ideas about poetry and emerging approaches to poetics. By bringing to light a range of archival materials and theories about poetry that emerged on the 1930s left, Ehlers reimagines the historical formation of modern poetics. Offering new and challenging readings of prominent figures such as Langston Hughes, Muriel Rukeyser, and Jacques Roumain, and uncovering the contributions of lesser-known writers such as Genevieve Taggard and Martha Millet, Ehlers illuminates an aesthetically and geographically diverse matrix of schools and movements. Resisting the dismissal of thirties left writing as mere propaganda, the book reveals how communist-affiliated poets experimented with poetic modes—such as lyric and documentary—and genres, including songs, ballads, and nursery rhymes, in ways that challenged existing frameworks for understanding the relationships among poetic form, political commitment, and historical transformation. As Ehlers shows, Depression left movements and their international connections are crucial for understanding both the history of modern poetry and the role of poetic thought in conceptualizing historical change.
Fusing an Alloy
Authors: Ehlers Sarah
Published: May 2020

This chapter charts the formation of the documentary poetry tradition in the U.S. through a consideration of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead. It demonstrates how Rukeyser pushed the boundaries of genre and media to imagine modes of expression that resisted traditional notions of liberal subjectivity. Drawing on multiple valences of the term alloy, the chapter argues that Rukeyser imagined documentary writing as a complex fusing of elements that speculates on the ontology of the poem itself. The chapter begins with an account of the historical, definitional, and theoretical concerns that have shaped documentary poetry. The chapter’s subsequent analyses of The Book of the Dead consider the impact of industry on subject formation: demonstrating how Rukeyser experimented with literary and visual genres, as well as poetic tropes and themes, to devise alternate modalities of personhood that interface the human with the materials of history and industry. The chapter concludes by showing how Rukeyser’s plans to adapt The Book of the Dead into a documentary film demonstrate a combination of formal and technical resources that illuminate new principles of composition.