bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Host cell death during infection withChlamydia: a double-edged sword
Authors: Sixt Barbara S
Published: September 2020

The phylum Chlamydiae constitutes a group of obligate intracellular bacteria that infect a remarkably diverse range of host species. Some representatives are significant pathogens of clinical or veterinary importance. For instance, Chlamydia trachomatis is the leading infectious cause of blindness and the most common bacterial agent of sexually transmitted diseases. Chlamydiae are exceptionally dependent on their eukaryotic host cells as a consequence of their developmental biology. At the same time, host cell death is an integral part of the chlamydial infection cycle. It is therefore not surprising that the bacteria have evolved exquisite and versatile strategies to modulate host cell survival and death programs to their advantage. The recent introduction of tools for genetic modification of Chlamydia spp., in combination with our increasing awareness of the complexity of regulated cell death in eukaryotic cells, and in particular of its connections to cell-intrinsic immunity, has revived the interest in this virulence trait. However, recent advances also challenged long-standing assumptions and highlighted major knowledge gaps. This review summarizes current knowledge in the field and discusses possible directions for future research, which could lead us to a deeper understanding of Chlamydia’s virulence strategies and may even inspire novel therapeutic approaches.
How to feel French: the politics of community and emotion in the siege of Paris (1649)
Authors: Coons James
Published: September 2020

As royal forces besieged Parisian frondeur rebels in early 1649, pamphleteers developed potent rhetorical tools to rally virtuous French people against the foreign enemies in their midst. Authors mixed contemporary conceptions of emotion with accepted wisdom on embodied traits in order to bind their audience together. Their vision of patrie community was defined by love and sacrifice for the innocent French, and rage against the foreigners who persecuted them. The rout of frondeur forces at the battle of Charenton on 8 February 1649 provided a tragic, but useful opportunity to distil this message. Propagandists imagined encounters between the royalist general Condé and his slain friend and lieutenant Châtillon to clarify the emotions and actions befitting a true Frenchman, in the throes of a burgeoning civil war. Even in the face of a stinging defeat, rebel authors effectively made shared emotions the foundation of a ‘pure’ French community.
The morality of “ get-threats”: Withholding divorce as extortion
Authors: Rivlin Ram
Published: September 2020

Threatening to withhold Jewish divorce in order to extract concessions, which I term here the “get-threat,” is widely regarded as extortionist. Yet this view is commonly associated with skepticism towards agreements stemming from unequal bargaining power, or with a progressive view of the proper divorce regime. Building on contemporary discussions of what is known as “the paradox of blackmail” this article argues that in many cases get-threats should be regarded as simple cases of extortion even by libertarians and conservatives. It then presents and analyzes the best possible statement of defense for the practice of get-threats, designed for the “reasonable reactionary,” showing that even from that point of view get-threats should be limited in scope and magnitude to a narrow range of cases of justified, reasonable demands. The article thus offers both a precise analysis of a longstanding debate and a normative argument for its proper resolution.
Challenges and Promise of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Remission
Authors: Li Yijia , Mohammadi Abbas , Li Jonathan Z
Published: September 2020

Antiretroviral therapy effectively controls human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication but it is unable to fully eradicate the HIV reservoir and treatment must be life-long. Progress toward a strategy for HIV remission will require overcoming key hurdles to fill gaps in our understanding of HIV persistence, but the identification of individuals who have attained sterilizing or functional HIV cure show that such a goal is achievable. In this review, we first outline challenges in targeting the HIV reservoir, including difficulties identifying HIV-infected cells, ongoing work elucidating the complex intracellular environment that contribute to HIV latency, and barriers to reactivating and clearing the HIV reservoir. We then review reported cases of HIV sterilizing cure and explore natural models of HIV remission and the promise that such HIV spontaneous and posttreatment controllers may hold in our search for a broadly-applicable strategy for the millions of patients living with HIV.
Multi-phenotypic and bi-directional behavioral screening of zebrafish larvae
Authors: Khalili Arezoo , van Wijngaarden Ellen , Zoidl Georg R , Rezai Pouya
Published: September 2020

Multi-phenotypic screening of zebrafish larvae, such as monitoring the heart and tail activities, is important in biological assays. Microfluidic devices have been developed for zebrafish phenotypic assays, but simultaneous lateral–dorsal screening of the same larva in a single chip is yet to be achieved. We present a multi-phenotypic microfluidic device for monitoring of tail movement and heart rate (HR) of 5–7-day postfertilization zebrafish larvae. Tail movements were stimulated using electric current and quantified in terms of response duration (RD) and tail beat frequency (TBF). The positioning of a right-angle prism provided a lateral view of the larvae and enabled HR monitoring. Investigations were performed on zebrafish larvae exposed to 3% ethanol, 250 μM 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) or 1 mM levodopa. Larvae exposed to ethanol showed a significant drop in HR, whereas electric stimulation increased the HR temporarily. Larvae experienced a significant drop in RD, TBF and HR when exposed to 6-OHDA. HR was not affected by levodopa post-treatment, whereas RD and TBF were restored to normal levels. The results showed potential for applications that involve monitoring of cardiac and behavioral parameters in zebrafish larvae. Tests can be done using the same chip, without changing the larvae’s orientation. This eliminates undue stress caused by reorientation, which may affect their behavior, and the use of separate devices to obtain dorsal and lateral views. The device can be implemented to improve multi-phenotypic and quantitative screening of zebrafish larvae in response to chemical and physical stimuli in different zebrafish disease models.
Activity of β-lactam/taniborbactam (VNRX-5133) combinations against carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria
Authors: Mushtaq Shazad , Vickers Anna , Doumith Michel , Ellington Matthew J , Woodford Neil , Livermore David M
Published: September 2020

Background

Boronates are of growing interest as β-lactamase inhibitors. The only marketed analogue, vaborbactam, principally targets KPC carbapenemases, but taniborbactam (VNRX-5133, Venatorx) has a broader spectrum.

Methods

MICs of cefepime and meropenem were determined combined with taniborbactam or avibactam for carbapenem-resistant UK isolates. β-Lactamase genes and porin alterations were sought by PCR or sequencing.

Results

Taniborbactam potentiated partner β-lactams against: (i) Enterobacterales with KPC, other class A, OXA-48-like, VIM and NDM (not IMP) carbapenemases; and (ii) Enterobacterales inferred to have combinations of ESBL or AmpC activity and impermeability. Potentiation of cefepime (the partner for clinical development) by taniborbactam was slightly weaker than by avibactam for Enterobacterales with KPC or OXA-48-like carbapenemases, but MICs of cefepime/taniborbactam were similar to those of ceftazidime/avibactam, and the spectrum was wider. MICs of cefepime/taniborbactam nonetheless remained >8 + 4 mg/L for 22%–32% of NDM-producing Enterobacterales. Correlates of raised cefepime/taniborbactam MICs among these NDM Enterobacterales were a cefepime MIC >128 mg/L, particular STs and, for Escherichia coli only: (i) the particular blaNDM variant (even though published data suggest all variants are inhibited similarly); (ii) inserts in PBP3; and (iii) raised aztreonam/avibactam MICs. Little or no potentiation of cefepime or meropenem was seen for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii with MBLs, probably reflecting slower uptake or stronger efflux. Potentiation of cefepime was seen for Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Elizabethkingia meningoseptica, which have both chromosomal ESBLs and MBLs.

Conclusions

Taniborbactam broadly reversed cefepime or meropenem non-susceptibility in Enterobacterales and, less reliably, in non-fermenters.
Public attitudes toward an authorization for contact program for clinical research
Authors: Niyibizi Nyiramugisha K , Speight Candace D , Gregor Charlie , Ko Yi-An , Kraft Stephanie A , Mitchell Andrea R , Phillips Bradley G , Porter Kathryn M , Shah Seema K , Sugarman Jeremy , Wilfond Benjamin S , Dickert Neal W
Published: September 2020

We conducted an online experimental survey to evaluate attitudes toward an authorization for contact (AFC) program allowing researchers to contact patients about studies based on electronic record review. A total of 1070 participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 flyers varying in design and framing. Participants were asked to select concerns about and reasons for signing up for AFC. Logistic regression and latent class analysis were conducted. The most commonly selected concerns included needing more information (43%), privacy (40%), and needing more time to think (28%). A minority were not interested in participating in research (16%) and did not want to be bothered (15%). Latent class analysis identified clusters with specific concerns about privacy, lack of interest in research, and not wanting to be bothered. A novel flyer with simple and positive framing was associated with lower odds of both not wanting to be bothered (P = .01) and not being interested in research (P = .01). Many concerns about AFC programs appear nonspecific. Addressing privacy, lack of interest in research, and not wanting to be bothered warrant further study as ways to enhance recruitment.
Development of an Assay to Determine the Amount of Ca-Fatty Acid Soaps in Feces
Authors: Stroebinger Natascha , Rutherfurd Shane M , Henare Sharon J , Moughan Paul J
Published: September 2020

Background

The quantification of fecal Ca-fatty acid soaps is important to understand how fatty acids behave in the gastrointestinal tract.

Objective

As current methods to extract Ca-fatty acid soaps from feces give low recoveries an accurate assay to determine the amount of fatty acid soaps in feces was developed.

Method

Ca-fatty acid soaps are determined indirectly after non-soap fatty acid compounds have been extracted from the feces. Synthetic Ca-fatty acid soaps of different chain lengths (C12–C18) and degree of saturation (C18:0–C18:2) were incubated with several solvents to find the solvents that least-solubilize the Ca-fatty acid soaps. A three-step extraction was devised using extractions with hexane, hexane-isopropanol and water either at room temperature or at 60°C, 37°C, or 80°C, respectively. Feces were spiked with free fatty acids, Ca-fatty acid soaps, Na-fatty acid salts, and phospholipids.

Results

All of the free fatty acids and phospholipids and almost all of the Na-fatty acid salts were removed and 98% of Ca-lauric acid soap, 99% of Ca-stearic acid soap, and 93% of oleic acid soap were recovered.

Conclusions

The method is suitable for determining fatty acids in the form of Ca-fatty acid soaps in feces.

Highlights

New method to determine fecal Ca-fatty acid soaps. Consistent and high recovery of fatty acid-soaps.
Impact of previous thoracic radiation therapy on the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced non small cell lung cancer
Authors: Hosokawa Shinobu , Ichihara Eiki , Bessho Akihiro , Harada Daijiro , Inoue Koji , Shibayama Takuo , Kishino Daizo , Harita Shingo , Ochi Nobuaki , Oda Naohiro , Hara Naofumi , Hotta Katsuyuki , Maeda Yoshinobu , Kiura Katsuyuki
Published: September 2020

Objectives

Studies investigating the association between radiation therapy and the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer have provided inconsistent results, likely due to relatively small cohort sizes. This study investigated the effect of previous thoracic radiation therapy on the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in a large non-small-cell lung cancer cohort.

Patients and methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from 531 non-small-cell lung cancer patients who received monotherapy with programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 inhibitors at nine institutions. The effects of thoracic radiation therapy on the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors were investigated.

Results

A total of 531 non-small-cell lung cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors were included in this study. The progression-free survival period was significantly longer in patients that had received thoracic radiation therapy before immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy compared to those without previous thoracic radiation therapy (median progression-free survival 5.0 vs. 3.0 months, P = 0.0013). A multivariate analysis showed that thoracic radiation therapy was an independent predictive factor of improved progression-free survival (hazard ratio of progression-free survival: 0.79, P = 0.049). In contrast, extra-thoracic radiation therapy was associated with inferior outcomes (median progression-free survival 3.0 vs. 4.2 months, P = 0.0008).

Conclusion

Previous thoracic radiation therapy, but not prior extra-thoracic radiation therapy, enhanced the efficacy of anti-programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 therapy in non-small-cell lung cancer patients.
Constraining nucleosynthesis in two CEMP progenitors using fluorine
Authors: Mura-Guzmán Aldo , Yong D , Abate C , Karakas A , Kobayashi C , Oh H , Chun S-H , Mace G
Published: September 2020

We present new fluorine abundance estimations in two carbon enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars, HE 1429−0551 and HE 1305+0007. HE 1429−0551 is also enriched in slow neutron-capture process (s-process) elements, a CEMP-s, and HE 1305+0007 is enhanced in both, slow and rapid neutron-capture process elements, a CEMP-s/r. The F abundances estimates are derived from the vibration–rotation transition of the HF molecule at 23358.6 Å  using high-resolution infrared spectra obtained with the Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) at the 4-m class Lowell Discovery Telescope. Our results include an F abundance measurement in HE 1429−0551 of A(F) = +3.93 ([F/Fe] = +1.90) at [Fe/H] = −2.53, and an F upper limit in HE 1305+0007 of A(F) < +3.28 ([F/Fe] < +1.00) at [Fe/H] = −2.28. Our new derived F abundance in HE 1429−0551 makes this object the most metal-poor star where F has been detected. We carefully compare these results with literature values and state-of-the-art CEMP-s model predictions including detailed asymptotic giant branch (AGB) nucleosynthesis and binary evolution. The modelled fluorine abundance for HE 1429−0551 is within reasonable agreement with our observed abundance, although is slightly higher than our observed value. For HE 1429−0551, our findings support the scenario via mass transfer by a primary companion during its thermally pulsing phase. Our estimated upper limit in HE 1305+0007, along with data from the literature, shows large discrepancies compared with AGB models. The discrepancy is principally due to the simultaneous s- and r-process element enhancements which the model struggles to reproduce.
Fiction
Authors: Abell Catharine
Published: September 2020

The aim of this book is to provide a unified solution to a wide range of philosophical problems raised by fiction. While some of these problems have been the focus of extensive philosophical debate, others have received insufficient attention. In particular, the epistemology of fiction has not yet attracted the philosophical scrutiny it warrants. There has been considerable discussion of what determines the contents of works of fiction, but there have been few attempts to explain how audiences identify their contents, or to identify the norms governing the correct understanding and interpretation of works of fiction. This book answers a wide range of both metaphysical and epistemological questions concerning fiction in a way that clarifies the relations between them. The metaphysical questions include: what distinguishes works of fiction from works of non-fiction; what is the nature of fictive utterances; what determines the contents of works of fiction; what kinds of fictive content are there; how broad in scope is fictive content; and what kinds of things are fictional entities? The epistemological questions include: how do audiences identify the contents of authors’ fictive utterances; how does understanding a work of fiction differ from interpreting it; and what role do thinking and talking about fiction from an external perspective play in enabling communication through fiction? This book develops the first single theory that provides answers to all these questions.
Studies in the Transmission of Latin Texts
Authors: Oakley S. P.
Published: September 2020

After a brief introduction on stemmatic method, this book contains genealogical investigations of the textual traditions of Quintus Curtius Rufus and then Dictys Cretensis. The sections on each author begin with a list of MSS and incunables that will be discussed (they number just over 150 for Curtius, about 80 for Dictys) and then a survey of existing scholarship. There then follows the classification of the MSS and incunables; most of the MSS of both authors were produced in Italy in the fifteenth-century. In the section on Curtius MSS B = Bern, Burgerbibliothek 451, Br = Brussels 10161, and A= Paris, lat. 5720, owned by Petrarch are shown to have been very productive. For Dictys it is argued that a stemma codicum can be established. First witnesses related to G = Sankt Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek 197 (these include an important lost MS of Poggio) are discussed, then those related to MS E, the codex Aesinas, owned by Stefano Guarnieri. There follows discussion of the archetype, of the way in which proper attention to the stemma codicum can improve the text, and of the excerpts from Dictys found in MSS of Dares.
Pronouns and Gender in Language
Authors: Conrod Kirby
Published: September 2020

Pronouns are a grammatical element that take the place of full noun phrases, and in many of the world’s languages, pronouns also convey social information such as the gender of a referent. This chapter surveys the literature on the linguistics of pronouns from a broad array of disciplinary perspectives, focusing on the way social categories of gender interact with linguistic factors. The first section reviews gendered pronouns through the lens of performativity and speech act theory, discussing how pronouns and misgendering can be used for impoliteness and politeness. The second section surveys some semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic analyses of pronouns, including debates on the semantic and syntactic category of pronouns in the grammar. While the bulk of this chapter focuses on gendered pronouns in English, the third section provides a cross-linguistic perspective of gendered pronouns and inflectional morphology, and more interactional data is discussed.
The Practical and Symbolic Functions of Pre-Rameau Opera at the Paris Opéra before Gluck
Authors: Noiray Michel
Published: September 2020

This chapter explains how a uniquely long-lived canon evolved in revivals of operas by Jean-Baptiste Lully and his immediate successors—chiefly André Campra and André-Cardinal Destouches—right up to the early 1770s. The Académie Royale de Musique was unique as the only theater to resist Italian repertory, except in two brief controversial periods. A dogmatic commitment to the old style and repertory survived after Lully’s death, quite separate from the operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau. Opposition to this unique practice broke out occasionally among the public, but such opinion was not widely supported in the press. It is striking that the main critics of ancienne musique, as it was called—Rousseau, Paul Henri d’Holbach, and Friedrich Melchior von Grimm—all came from outside France. This chapter is paired with Franco Piperno’s “Italian opera and the concept of ‘canon’ in the late eighteenth century.”
Opera on Film and the Canon
Authors: Shirley Hugo
Published: September 2020

This chapter discusses the fundamental difficulties of filming opera. Putting opera on the screen is a marriage of art form and media that continues to struggle with the difficulty of adequately reproducing the original work. An opera’s original stage directions are rarely seen to carry the authority of the score, almost invariably failing to provide watertight instructions, a problem that then forces a director to do a lot of connecting the dots. Moreover, any kind of staging of an old work needs to demonstrate that the operatic museum is more than just a fusty mausoleum. Thus do important questions arise about how opera on screen can be expected to interact with, or move in some fashion toward, defining the operatic canon. This chapter is paired with Karen Henson’s “Sound recording and the operatic canon: Three ‘drops of the needle.’”
Canons of the Risorgimento then and now
Authors: Newark Cormac
Published: September 2020

This chapter interrogates the political valency of the operatic canon. The case study is familiar, Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco, but rather than the opera’s political status (re-confirmed in a recent noted performance of the opera in the context of celebration of the 150th anniversary of Italian unification), the emphasis here is on its canonic status, which is both multiplicitous and contentious. In particular, its presence in the influential canone del Risorgimento proposed by Alberto Banti is revealing of certain aspects of operatic canonicity more generally: the difficulties inherent in characterizing reception in the theater, the significance of memory and “rememberedness” in canonic thinking, and the importance to the operatic canon not only of instantiation but also of participation. This chapter is paired with Mark Berry’s “‘Blow the opera houses into the air’: Wagner, Boulez, and Modernist canons.”
“Blow the Opera Houses into the Air”
Authors: Berry Mark
Published: September 2020

This chapter compares interventions in the shaping of the operatic canon by Richard Wagner and Pierre Boulez, proposing that those of the latter, increasingly influenced by the former, proved as influential on the Modernism of the second half of the twentieth century as Wagner’s had during the first half. Both were guided by markedly Hegelian thinking, in terms of dialectics (the chapter stresses that all canonic discourse is dialectical) and of idealism (reshaping the past in their own Modernist image). Both, moreover, also had first-hand practical experience of the realities—especially the frustrations—of operatic repertory production as conductors, giving rise to different yet related Modernist critiques. Their perspectives resulted not only in the same kind of self-programming as canonic reform but also ultimately in their similar stances toward the canon. This chapter is paired with Cormac Newark’s “Canons of the Risorgimento then and now.”
The Evolution of French Opera Repertories in Provincial Theaters
Authors: Taïeb Patrick , Teulon Lardic Sabine
Published: September 2020

Which operas did people most often watch in France—all over France, that is—in 1780, 1820, 1860, and 1890? How did provincial theaters compare with those in Paris, where the great majority of operas originated? This chapter aims to correct the unduly narrow focus on Paris traditionally followed in histories of French opera. The chapter shows how old, indeed canonic, repertories were created in Paris, which then were performed in such cities as Rouen, Bordeaux, and Lyon. It traces how repertories emerged, focusing variously on works by Gluck, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Donizetti, Verdi, and Wagner. The most important respect in which provincial theaters differed from those in Paris was the close intermingling in a single theater of pieces in different genres—opéra comique, grand opéra, and opérette. This chapter is paired with Yannick Simon’s “The mingling of opera genres: Canonic opera at the Théâtre des Arts in Rouen, 1882–1897.”
Theaters, Markets, and Canonic Implications in the Italian Opera System, 1820–1880
Authors: Sorba Carlotta
Published: September 2020

This chapter analyzes how programming in Italian opera houses gradually shifted from new to established old works in the middle of the nineteenth century. By tradition, contractual agreements committed an impresario to stage a consistent number of works, either recently composed or new to the city. From the 1820s, both taste and programming became increasingly focused on a small number of authors and composers, seen most significantly in the successes of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. From 1850, theaters produced fewer new works, and programming became increasingly stable and consistent around a small repertory. Crucially, it was the authority wielded by producers and publishers, reinforced by the will of the public, that defined the new canonic repertory, rather than any leadership from critics. This chapter is paired with Jutta Toelle’s “Operatic canons and repertories in Italy around 1900.”
Evoking Issues of Race and Ethnicity in Research on Physiology and Interpersonal Communication
Authors: Davis Shardé M.
Published: September 2020

Investigating the role of physiology in communication research is a burgeoning area of study that has gained considerable attention by relational scholars in the past decade. Unfortunately, very few published studies on this topic have evoked important questions about the role of race and ethnicity. Exploring issues of ethnicity and race provides a more holistic and inclusive view of interpersonal communication across diverse groups and communities. This chapter addresses the gap in literature by considering the ways in which race and ethnicity matter in work on physiology and interpersonal interactions. More specifically, this chapter will first discuss the conceptual underpinnings of race, ethnicity, and other relevant concepts and then review extant research within and beyond the field of communication on race, ethnicity, interpersonal interactions, and physiology. These discussions set the foundation for this chapter to propose new lines of research that pointedly connect these four concepts and advance key principles that scholars should consider in future work.
Selected Physiological Dimensions of Communication Apprehension
Authors: Beatty Michael J. , Martinez Gonzalez Andrea
Published: September 2020

Communication apprehension (CA) is generally defined as a predisposition to avoid communication, if possible, or experience anxiety symptoms when forced to communicate with others. CA was conceptualized as a trait-like tendency to respond, meaning that the inclination to avoid communication or experience anxiety during social interaction was fairly stable across time. State anxiety, on the other hand, is transitory in nature, and while it often represents the manifestation of CA, it can be triggered by situational factors even in communicators low in the trait. Although the construct was initially conceptualized as a cognitively experienced trait, the psychological literature on anxiety symptoms usually includes physiological symptoms. Indeed, studies published since the initial development of the CA construct have indicated that state anxiety experienced during communication is correlated with physiological measures. More recent work indicates that trait CA, while not typically correlated with measures such as heart rate, is correlated with stable, individual differences in brain activity. This chapter focuses on the complex theoretical and empirical relationships among physiological responses, trait CA, and communication state anxiety.
Role of CPEB-Family Proteins in Memory
Authors: Si Kausik
Published: September 2020

A synapse-based mechanism of formation and persistence of long-term memory (LTM) entails some unique mechanistic challenges. It requires experience-dependent changes in synapse composition, function, and number. These changes must be specific to the synapse of interest, although all synapses in a neuron rely on the same genome. Finally, these changes must persist over time in the face of constant synaptic protein turnover. It has long been known that translation at the synapse is one of the fundamental requirements for LTM, and multiple mechanisms of synaptic translation have been characterized. Among these translation regulatory mechanisms, cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein (CPEB) family members fulfill some of the unique needs of LTM and can even be considered as contributing to the biochemical substrates of memory. These proteins orchestrate a “synaptic mark” and regulate translation of specific mRNAs required for changes in synaptic composition, function, and number. Some CPEB family members also self-assemble and alter their function to maintain the altered synaptic state over time, contributing to persistence of memory. This chapter summarizes the known function of different CPEB family members in memory, their underlying molecular mechanisms, and important issues that remain to be resolved.
Revolution and the Cristeros
Authors: Young Julia G.
Published: September 2020

During Mexico’s Cristero War (1926–1929), when Mexican Catholic rebels took up arms to overthrow the anticlerical government of President Plutarco Elías Calles (1924–1928). After almost three years of fighting, the war formally ended with peace accords between the Catholic hierarchy and the State in June 1929. To understand the Cristero War, however, it is necessary to focus on more than just the three-year period during which the war was fought. Indeed, it was a conflict with deep historical antecedents. Furthermore, after the peace accords it did not completely disappear, but rather persisted and mutated. Additionally, it became a transnational conflict by attracting the attention and participation of migrants; and finally, it has recently been revived as a contemporary issue for Catholics across the globe.
Colonial Community Life
Authors: Bristol Joan
Published: September 2020

Between the early sixteenth and late eighteenth centuries Spanish colonial life was undergirded by a general theory, not always realized in practice, that social and political order would come from imposed categories of identity and community. Spanish colonizers’ ideas about community formation in Mexico were expressed in the two-republic system, ideas about purity of blood, and the caste system. These imperial ideas were put into practice in many ways: through formally created Catholic communities such as female convents and confraternities and through informal communities such as those formed by African-descent people, crypto-Jews, and previously enslaved people known as maroons. Ideas about race, gender, and class, as well as factors such as occupation, neighborhood, membership in religious groups, and family ties all shaped these formal and informal communal groupings which at times supported viceregal objectives of maintaining order and at other times weakened viceregal rule.
Focus Group Research: Retrospect and Prospect
Authors: Kamberelis George , Dimitriadis Greg
Published: September 2020

This chapter is both historical and conceptual, first highlighting the origins, tensions, and continuities/discontinuities of focus group research and then arguing for how such research embodies three primary, related functions: inquiry, pedagogy, and political. The quasiunique potentials or affordances of focus group work are explored, including mitigating the researcher’s authority; disclosing the constitutive power of discourse; approximating the natural; filling in knowledge gaps and saturating understanding; drawing out complexity, nuance, and contradiction; disclosing eclipsed connections; and creating opportunities for political activism. Contemporary threats to focus group work are described and new research frontiers are proposed, especially in relation to new information technologies. The chapter integrates historical, conceptual, and practical perspectives to fully explain the potentials of focus group research, with the goal of advancing a set of understandings about focus group work that attends to its relatively unique potentials for conducting qualitative inquiry across a wide range of topics and disciplinary contexts.
Arts-Based Research: Merging Social Research and the Creative Arts
Authors: Chilton Gioia , Leavy Patricia
Published: September 2020

Arts-based research (ABR) is a rapidly growing methodological genre. Arts-based research adapts the tenets of the creative arts in social research to make that research publicly accessible, evocative, and engaged. This chapter provides a retrospective and prospective overview of the field, including a review of some of the pioneers of arts-based research, methodological principles, and robust examples of arts-based research in different artistic genres. We include literary forms such as poetic inquiry and fiction, performative forms such as playbuilding, ethnodrama, ethnotheater and film, and visual forms such as photography, collage, art journaling, and mixed media. We note researches also use multiple art forms, and evolving and innovative forms of art. We provide suggestions for (contested) assessment criteria, such as utility, aesthetics, authenticity and valuing participatory and transformative approaches. The chapter closes with our thoughts regarding the future of the field, which includes ABR’s potential to improve public scholarship.
Interpretation In Qualitative Research: What, Why, How
Authors: Trent Allen , Cho Jeasik
Published: September 2020

This chapter addresses a wide range of concepts related to interpretation in qualitative research, examines the meaning and importance of interpretation in qualitative inquiry, and explores the ways methodology, data, and the self/researcher as instrument interact and impact interpretive processes. Additionally, the chapter presents a series of strategies for qualitative researchers engaged in the process of interpretation and closes by presenting a framework for qualitative researchers designed to inform their interpretations. The framework includes attention to the key qualitative research concepts transparency, reflexivity, analysis, validity, evidence, and literature. Four questions frame the chapter: What is interpretation, and why are interpretive strategies important in qualitative research? How do methodology, data, and the researcher/self impact interpretation in qualitative research? How do qualitative researchers engage in the process of interpretation? And, in what ways can a framework for interpretation strategies support qualitative researchers across multiple methodologies and paradigms?
The Politics of Research
Authors: Giardina Michael D. , Newman Joshua I.
Published: September 2020

This chapter critically interrogates the politics of research currently dominating U.S. higher education, a politics shaped as much by theoretical and methodological questions and debates as it is by prevailing social, cultural, political, and economic forces. The arguments are guided by four primary questions: (a) How and to what extent do the cultural and political priorities of the free-marketized, corporate university impact, direct, or confound the conduct of research?; (b) How and to what extent does politics situate methodologies?; (3) How and to what extent is the research act impinged on by such particularities as institutional review boards, national funding councils, scholarly journals, and the promotion and tenure process?; and (4) How and where do academics fit into this new research climate? The authors also forward a series of practical recommendations for professors and students alike who seek to actively confront and challenge the academic–industrial complex.
A Changing Terrain: Qualitative Research in the Age of Transdisciplinarity and Public Scholarship
Authors: Leavy Patricia
Published: September 2020

This chapter offers some final comments from Patricia Leavy, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research, second edition, about the future of qualitative research. The chapter suggests there is a widespread move from a disciplinary to a transdisciplinary research structure in which problems of import are at the center of research practices. Within this context, qualitative researchers are well positioned to advance because of their ability to develop responsive and flexible research designs and present their work in multiple formats. Furthermore, the chapter notes how the broader move toward public scholarship is propelling both the practice of qualitative research and the teaching of qualitative methods.
Superheroes and Superpowers: Contemplative, Creative, and De/Colonial Approaches to Teaching Qualitative Research
Authors: Bhattacharya Kakali
Published: September 2020

Teaching qualitative research brings with it some unique challenges, because students are often underexposed or unexposed to the ideas about inquiry that inform qualitative research. Additionally, teaching qualitative research classes online may lead to the perception of sacrificing quality and complexity. Educators and researchers charged with creating such classes face the task of learning a new medium of instruction in addition to the challenges inherent in teaching the subject matter. I share a conceptual framework that I created using superheroes and superpowers, to teach graduate-level introductory qualitative research online. I discuss the potential and the challenges of conceptualizing, creating, and integrating content using the superheroes and superpowers framework.
Introduction to The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research, Second Edition
Authors: Leavy Patricia
Published: September 2020

This chapter serves as the introduction to The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research, second edition. The first half of the chapter responds to two questions. First, the chapter addresses the question, What is qualitative research? In answering the question, the chapter reviews the major elements of research: paradigm, ontology, epistemology (which together form the philosophical basis of research), genre, methods, theory, methodology (which operate at the level of praxis), ethics, values, and reflexivity (which merge the philosophical and praxis dimensions of research). Second, the chapter addresses the question, Who are qualitative researchers? The chapter explains qualitative research as a form of bricolage and qualitative researchers as bricoleurs. The remainder of the chapter reviews the contents of the handbook, providing a chapter-by-chapter summary.
Governance Beyond Governments: The Effort to Slow Climate Change
Authors: Stern Paul C. , Vandenbergh Michael P.
Published: September 2020

Limiting anthropogenic climate change is a commons or public goods problem, typically addressed with top-down approaches such as international treaties and national regulations or taxes. However, research shows that bottom-up institutions developed by resource users can prevent resource depletion over long periods, and it identifies design principles for such governance. This chapter explores the potential to slow climate change with nonstate institutions—what the authors call private environmental governance. The authors address such questions as: Why would private actors voluntarily create regimes that restrict their options? What kinds of organizations join these regimes, and with what motives and roles? How can informal, nongovernmental entities exercise real influence, absent the force of law? What are the strengths and limitations of private governance? Does private governance supplement or impede governmental and intergovernmental governance? How can private governance function at sufficiently large scale to meaningfully affect global greenhouse gas emissions? How can its effectiveness be increased?
Islamically Framed Mobilization in Tunisia Ansar al-Sharia in the Aftermath of the Arab Uprisings
Authors: Volpi Frédéric
Published: September 2020

This chapter addresses two main aspects of Islamically framed social mobilization, with a particular focus on the protest dynamics that took place in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings in Tunisia. It outlines the evolution of such mobilizations over time, as state control of the political and religious field changed and as intra-religious competition was reshaped. In Tunisia, while institutionalized political Islam was mainly channeled through the pragmatic approach developed by Ennahda, Islamically framed social activism was nonetheless significantly influenced by the Salafi network centering on Ansar al-Sharia. The attractiveness of the Salafi discourse, particularly among young and disenfranchised protesters in the aftermath of the Tunisian revolution, was that it offered immediate opportunities for action and for social recognition. Ultimately, Ansar al-Sharia failed to institutionalize their influence and to shape the patterns of democratization in the country, primarily because they could not agree between themselves on a political agenda, and because they could not impose party discipline on their youthful new supporters. The rapid grass-roots mobilization that underpinned the rise of the Salafi movement created a situation of hubris and was quickly followed by demobilization when the state used the security apparatus to repress activities that were seen as a threat to the newly established democratic system.
E-Learning
Authors: Mayer Richard E.
Published: September 2020

E-learning refers to computer-delivered instruction including multimedia presentations, instructional video, interactive simulations, educational games, online courses, and virtual classrooms. E-learning can be delivered on a variety of devices including desktop computers, laptop computers, tablets, smart phones, smart TVs, and virtual or augmented reality systems. This chapter shows how e-learning can play an important role in lifelong learning to the extent that it is informed by research-based principles of instructional design and consistent with how people learn. The chapter provides an introduction to applying the science of learning to e-learning, summarizes an evidence-based theory of e-learning, summarizes evidence-based principles for the design of e-learning, and suggests future directions for research on e-learning.
Globalization and the Impact of Social Change and Economic Transformation in Lifelong Learning in Russia
Authors: Zajda Joseph I.
Published: September 2020

The chapter examines globalization, transformational social and economic changes in Russia, and their implications for lifelong learning and skills training. Some segments of the Russian economy have recognized how knowledge innovation creates wealth. The chapter demonstrates that learning and development are influenced by past and current conditions, as well as the potential for future economic development. The chapter shows the extent to which continuous learning is encouraged and supported in the Russian economy. It begins with a brief economic and historical background to lifelong learning and adult education in terms of its significance as a feature of the Russian cultural heritage. An analysis of ministerial education policy and curriculum changes reveals that these policies reflect neoliberal and neoconservative paradigms in the Russian economy and education between 1992 and 2018.
Age and Lifelong Learning
Authors: Bal P. Matthijs
Published: September 2020

This chapter explores the role of aging and lifelong learning. It introduces the concept of aged heterogeneity, or the notion that older workers tend to be more heterogeneous than younger workers and therefore have more variation in needs when it comes to development and learning, to explain how and why older workers have different learning strategies and needs as they become increasingly heterogeneous in their needs and wishes in relation to their work. The chapter discusses how individual approaches are necessary and explains the ways through which organizations, managers, and employees themselves may benefit from more individualized approaches to lifelong learning, especially in later stages of the career.
Improving Self-Awareness and Self-Insight
Authors: Klimoski Richard , Hu Xiaoxiao
Published: September 2020

This chapter is designed to review the multiple ways that one can improve one’s capacity to seek or generate self-relevant information (self-knowledge) and ways to promote regular self-awareness and (occasional) self-insight. Self-insight generally implies the level of understanding that exists relative to the nature of one’s self-system (self-definition, needs, goals, attributes), while self-knowledge relates to the accuracy of introspection about these internal states and capacities. These are thought to be at the core of interpersonal competence, a capability absolutely essential in today’s work organization. While the “voice” of the chapter is that aimed at informing the human resources professional or practitioner, the material covered would be useful to individuals who are personally motivated to know more about how they might become more effective interpersonally through efforts at improving self-knowledge and self-insight.
Dostoevsky
Authors: Pattison George
Published: September 2020

Focusing only on aspects of Dostoevsky’s work that relate to questions of religion, this chapter begins by examining the role of suffering in its manifold forms, including sickness and disease, social injustice, psychological disturbance, and violence. For Dostoevsky, deliverance from suffering must involve more than material betterment, and freedom must have a decisive role in any truly productive response. However, freedom must do more than protest, since humility and forgiveness also have a central role. Both question and response are figured in an exemplary way in the Bible, and Dostoevsky makes significant use of biblical figures such as Job and, especially, Christ. Several characters in the novels are often seen as Christ figures (Sonia Marmeladova, Prince Myshkin), though their roles remain debatable. More generally, the question is raised as to whether Dostoevsky’s ‘weak’, kenotic Christ has power to save, although Alyosha’s dream in The Brothers Karamazov also hints at the glorified Christ in heaven. Russia has a particular providential role in salvation in Dostoevsky’s journalism and also, though ambiguously, in the novels. Despite possible perceptions of narrow nationalism, Dostoevsky was from early on seen as speaking to the universal-human condition (thus Soloviev), and his work has been positively received in the West as contributing to a theological response to the crises of modernity.