bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Justin Peck
Authors: Aloff Mindy
Published: April 2021

Justin Peck, barely thirty, not only is the resident choreographer at New York City Ballet (NYCB) but also is in demand by dance companies throughout the United States and in Europe. He received a Tony Award for his choreography for the 2018 Broadway production of Carousel, and Steven Spielberg hired him to choreograph Spielberg’s new film of West Side Story. This chapter focuses on Everywhere We Go, the spectacular “epic” that Peck and indie composer Sufjan Stevens made for NYCB in 2014, including discussions of Peck’s musicality, his composition of duets and use of sneakers in some dances, and influences he acknowledges from the works of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. At the end is an essay by Peck from 2008, “How to Become an Artist.”
Digitalisation and Administrative Justice: An Access to Justice Perspective
Authors: Sossin Lorne , Thompson Darin
Published: April 2021

This chapter examines the impact of digitalisation on access to justice and administrative justice. It discusses the significant potential of digitalisation to enhance access to justice as well as the accompanying risks, and argues for a more contextualized approach to the subject. It advocates for a focus on user needs as well as design and administrative justice architecture. The chapter concludes that the relationships between digitalisation and access to justice must not be over-simplified. Increased reliance on technology is often thought to increase access to justice based on assumptions that digital legal services will be less expensive and easier to use. Poorly designed digital interfaces and processes, however, can add unnecessary complexity to simple justice transactions. Perspectives on digitalisation and access should recognize the nuance of this evolving landscape. The chapter sketches out a more holistic approach to access to justice in a digital age that places considerable emphasis on the importance of design with an intention to benefit administrative justice users. The analysis is divided into five sections. The first section examines key frameworks and perspectives on access to administrative justice in the digital age. The second section considers the ‘digital divide’ and the importance of careful design. The third section considers the impact of digital access to various forms of legal supports. The fourth section reviews the digital architecture of administrative justice specifically. Finally, the fifth section explores online dispute resolution in administrative justice and its potential for enhancing access to justice.
Courtroom Workgroups
Authors: Heumann Milton , Kavin Rick , Chugh Anu
Published: April 2021

“Courtroom workgroup” is a term used to describe the ongoing relationships between judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. These three interrelated relationships define how the central figures operate and indeed how a case progresses. The authors survey the existing literature on such workgroups and conduct twelve interviews with key stakeholders in the workgroup structure at both the state and federal levels. Such interviews allow the authors to compare the literature—often decades old—to the experiences of judges and attorneys in today’s courtrooms. The authors examine how the relationships in the three courtroom roles explain some case outcomes, but also examine the host of other variables which arguably sometimes individually, and more often collectively, contribute to a richer, more nuanced, and more comprehensive understanding of court outputs and outcomes, including the nature of workgroups themselves. The authors caution against “concept hagiography”—i.e. too enthusiastically touting the explanatory power of the concept being studied, while giving shorter shrift to underlying explanatory variables. Finally, note is taken of how the recent election of exceptionally progressive prosecutors in several major jurisdictions may lead to opportunities for quasi-experimental testing of how changes in workgroups affect case outcomes.
The Relationship between Prosecutors and Defenders
Authors: Yaroshefsky Ellen
Published: April 2021

The interactions between prosecutors and defense attorneys in any given legal system depends on a number of factors. The most important is the power differential between the two positions, and the difference between the two is greatest in the United States. The deep-seated differences between adversarial and inquisitorial legal systems has an important influence on the gap in power between prosecutors and defenders. The nature of the relationship between prosecutors and defense lawyers also depends on professional and office culture within both the prosecutor’s office and the defender’s office. Individual characteristics of the attorneys, including experience, age, race, ethnicity, gender, and personalities, also shape the relationship. This chapter summarizes the effects of these structural and individual qualities, while describing the limited empirical research on the topic and the challenge of drawing generalizable lessons from studies that focus on institutions in only a few locations.
Shrinking the Accountability Deficit in Capital Charging
Authors: Thaxton Sherod
Published: April 2021

The price of capital trials, appeals, and clemency proceedings have skyrocketed since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted its moratorium on the death penalty, but this has not translated to more reliable case outcomes—the rate of serious reversible error and wrongful convictions has steadily increased during the same time period. The overly aggressive use of the death penalty by prosecutors has not only been convincingly linked to these high reversal rates, but may also increase crime, decrease the likelihood of arrests for homicides, and lead to heightened risks of miscarriages of justice for non‐capital defendants. It follows that limiting hawkish prosecutorial decision‐making in potentially capital cases may be particularly effective in reducing the prevalence of error and reducing unnecessary expense. Curbing the virtually unfettered discretion of prosecutors is not a new idea, but extant proposals tend to suffer from shortcomings that are likely to render them impractical or ineffective. Any viable legal intervention must increase prosecutorial accountability for inadequate charge‐screening in capital cases while still permitting prosecutors to retain discretion in seeking the death penalty. This essay describes a reform that consists of two primary components: (1) an advisory (i.e., non‐binding) opinion from a reviewing authority assessing the appropriateness of a prosecutor’s decision to seek the death penalty in a case based on the totality of evidence, and (2) financial and administrative cost-shifting mechanisms capable of disincentivizing prosecutorial overreaching in capital charging.
Prosecutors and Trials
Authors: Heinze Alexander
Published: April 2021

This chapter captures the role of the prosecutor or an equivalent authority during the trial phase. The object of the analysis—the trial phase—is generally divided into the following stages: opening stage, presentation of evidence, closing stage, and judgment/sentence. In exceptional cases, the stage of jury selection is added. The perspective of the analysis is twofold: in the first half of the chapter, the prosecutor’s role at these stages is described from a normative perspective. Here, the stages mentioned are broken down into selected prosecutorial measures and procedural facets in various legal systems and procedural models. The legal systems and procedural models analyzed have been chosen to represent either the common law tradition (the United States, England, and Wales) or civil law tradition (Germany and France). In the second part of the chapter, the prosecutor’s role is analyzed from an ethical perspective. It displays both the features and normative foundations of prosecutorial ethics and describes certain types of prosecutorial misconduct that may occur in the previously mentioned stages of a trial. The findings and observations of the chapter are combined in a conclusion at the end of the chapter. Upon identifying the multiple roles of the prosecutor at trial, the chapter proves that prosecutorial work at trial is influenced by two role-related factors: role duality and role ambiguity.
Prosecutors Post-Conviction
Authors: Garrett Brandon L.
Published: April 2021

In recent years, the involvement of prosecutors in post-conviction proceedings has begun to change from a strictly adversarial to a more investigative and remedial posture. Particularly in the United States, prosecutors’ offices have taken the affirmative responsibility to conduct post-conviction investigations of closed cases. A growing number of exonerations occur because prosecutors themselves agree to review new evidence of innocence or locate it themselves. Prosecutors have created specialized conviction integrity units tasked with reviewing such cold cases. They have created units to conduct other types of audits and reviews to investigate systemic issues, including regarding forensic evidence and police misconduct. They have even, in some offices, conducted investigations of their own conduct. Although most offices may follow a traditional model in which work largely consists in defending final convictions, there has been a notable trend towards experimentation with reconception of the post-conviction role of prosecutors. This chapter describes each of those changes and describes their implications for post-conviction criminal procedure.
Socioeconomic Inequalities and Digital Skills
Authors: Dodel Matías
Published: April 2021

This article discusses the links between socioeconomic inequalities and digital skills, understood here as the digital abilities, competences, and knowledge critical to participate fully in contemporary societies. The article starts by discussing what digital skills are and how they have been conceptualized in the literature. The article then describes digital skills’ roles in shaping and being shaped by socioeconomic inequalities such as age; gender; education; race, ethnicity, and sensorial disabilities–based disparities; and material access to the internet. Afterward, a summary of the evidence concerning how digital skills mediate the impact of structural disparities in tangible outcomes is presented, describing issues such as educational and occupational outcomes, subjective well-being, capital-enhancing consequences of internet use, and online safety and privacy. Finally, the article summarizes the key findings and outlines directions for future research on digital skills and socioeconomic inequalities, signaling the need to improve the measurement of digital skills and the scarce assessment of which policies work to foster and democratize them.
Transnational Food Law
Authors: Canfield Matthew
Published: April 2021

Transnational food law is a growing field of practice that has emerged with the globalization of food and agricultural systems. This chapter analyzes the role of food and agriculture as a legally constitutive site of struggle. As both a basic need and an economic commodity, food is an object around which struggles over the organization of markets, the authority of legal institutions, and the regulation of powerful actors have consistently fomented. After surveying the role of agrarian struggles in shaping early international law, this chapter analyzes the contentious regulatory space of transnational food security governance. It argues that contemporary governance is shaped by competing paradigms—a “productivist” and “food sovereignty” paradigm—which transnational actors struggle to translate across a variety of regulatory institutions, arenas, and processes. This chapter thereby demonstrates how food and agricultural governance remain a critical space of struggle over the democratic and regulatory possibilities of global governance.
The Standardization of Oil and Gas Law: Transnational Layers of Governance
Authors: Saidov Djakhongir
Published: April 2021

This chapter investigates the main sources governing international oil and gas operations around the world, with a view to examining whether we are witnessing the emergence of transnational petroleum law (lex petrolea). The chapter explores the nature of governance in the petroleum industry and the extent to which the oil and gas industry is self-governed or governed by the state-made law. It assesses the degree of standardization of governance to determine whether it is so high as to give rise to the emergence of lex petrolea. The main focus is on sources, specific to the oil and gas industry, such as: model contracts, industry usages, standards, and guidelines promulgated by industry organizations and associations. This chapter argues that lex petrolea is not yet a mature legal order. Its sources are best characterized as transnational layers of governance of the international exploration and production operations. As to the relationship between the alleged lex petrolea and the state-made law, it is demonstrated that the two are vitally important to and mutually dependent on each other.
Out of Site: Transnational Legal Culture(s)
Authors: Dedek Helge
Published: April 2021

Since the inadequacy of the traditional theoretical frameworks for the study of the “global transformation of modernity” (Beck) was becoming more and more evident in the last decades of the twentieth century, “culture” has figured prominently in many literatures that engage with the post-national condition. Yet in legal academia, despite studying similar phenomena of displacement, fragmentation and hybridization, cultural analysis perspectives have traditionally played a rather marginal role in the discourse on globalization and transnationalization. Although some authors have indeed attempted to operationalize the concept of culture in grappling with effects of legal globalization, the emerging field of “transnational law” never took a significant “cultural turn”. This chapter retraces this disciplinary development and reflects on the use of “culture” in transnational law discourse. While not advocating a more prominent role for the notoriously difficult concept of culture, this brief survey serves as a reminder that the same substantive and theoretical choices that kept transnational law from drawing more heavily on cultural analysis and traditional, “social fact” legal pluralism also may limit its scope and create theoretical blind spots. Not determined by a distinct “body of law” but rather understood as a developing discourse within a discipline in the process of coming into its own, transnational law and its gatekeepers have to decide just how methodologically and substantively inclusive, interdisciplinary, and critical they want it to be.
“Africa Needs Many Lawyers Trained for the Need of Their Peoples”: Struggles over Legal Education in Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana
Authors: Harrington John , Manji Ambreena
Published: April 2021

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the setting up of university law schools in many African nations led to often bitter battles over the purpose of legal education. The stakes in these struggles were high. Deliberately neglected under colonial rule, legal education was an important focus for the leaders of new states, including Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana. It was also a significant focus for expatriate British scholars and American foundations seeking to shape the development of new universities in Africa. Disputes centered on whether training would have a wholly academic basis and be taught exclusively in the University of Ghana or be provided in addition through a dedicated law school with a more practical ethos. This debate became entangled in a wider confrontation over academic freedom between Nkrumah’s increasing authoritarian government and the university, and indeed in wider political and class struggles in Ghana as a whole. Tensions came to a head in the period between 1962 and 1964 when the American Dean of Law was deported along with other staff over allegations of their seditious intent. This chapter documents these complex struggles, identifying the broader political stakes within them, picking out the main, rival philosophies of legal education which animated them, and relating all of these to the broader historical conjuncture of decolonization. Drawing on a review of archival materials from the time, the chapter shows that debates over legal education had a significance going beyond the confines of the law faculty. They engaged questions of African nationalism, development and social progress, the ambivalent legacy of British rule and the growing influence of the United States in these territories.
Language
Authors: Webb Heather
Published: April 2021

Focusing on the stagings of linguistic and personal encounters that emerge in Paradiso, but with the broad context of Dante’s work in mind, this chapter seeks to construct a picture of Dante’s view of language that accounts for a variety of modes of eloquence, from the textual to the emphatically verbal to the depiction of non-verbal communication. The Commedia stages an immense range of encounters and situations in which words and bodies are configured to meet and adapt to the new, performing a plurality of ways of seeing, hearing, reading, and recognizing the individual who speaks, gestures, or otherwise shows themselves as subject. For Dante, this chapter suggests, language communicates and constitutes selves and communities not by virtue of stability but indeed thanks to its ability to constantly transform itself.
James and Peirce
Authors: Tiercelin Claudine
Published: April 2021

After presenting some parallels between James and Peirce, as regards their views on psychology, truth, ethics, and even realism, some differences between both philosophers are pointed out: whether they favor concrete individuals rather than the community of inquirers, favor life rather than knowledge, take or do not take all aspects of the sceptical challenge seriously, and are committed or not committed to a strong realistic (rather than nominalistic) metaphysics. Such differences, or even oppositions, may have more to do with what they took as decisive in philosophy and, more generally, with their respective conceptions of our ethical priorities.
The mobile SAR signal N-hydroxypipecolic acid induces NPR1-dependent transcriptional reprogramming and immune priming
Authors: Yildiz Ipek , Mantz Melissa , Hartmann Michael , Zeier Tatyana , Kessel Jana , Thurow Corinna , Gatz Christiane , Petzsch Patrick , Köhrer Karl , Zeier Jürgen
Published: April 2021

N-hydroxypipecolic acid (NHP) accumulates in the plant foliage in response to a localized microbial attack and induces systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in distant leaf tissue. Previous studies indicated that pathogen inoculation of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) systemically activates SAR-related transcriptional reprogramming and a primed immune status in strict dependence of FLAVIN-DEPENDENT MONOOXYGENASE 1 (FMO1), which mediates the endogenous biosynthesis of NHP. Here, we show that elevations of NHP by exogenous treatment are sufficient to induce a SAR-reminiscent transcriptional response that mobilizes key components of immune surveillance and signal transduction. Exogenous NHP primes Arabidopsis wild-type and NHP-deficient fmo1 plants for a boosted induction of pathogen-triggered defenses, such as the biosynthesis of the stress hormone salicylic acid (SA), accumulation of the phytoalexin camalexin and branched-chain amino acids, as well as expression of defense-related genes. NHP also sensitizes the foliage systemically for enhanced SA-inducible gene expression. NHP-triggered SAR, transcriptional reprogramming, and defense priming are fortified by SA accumulation, and require the function of the transcriptional coregulator NON-EXPRESSOR OF PR GENES1 (NPR1). Our results suggest that NPR1 transduces NHP-activated immune signaling modes with predominantly SA-dependent and minor SA-independent features. They further support the notion that NHP functions as a mobile immune regulator capable of moving independently of active SA signaling between leaves to systemically activate immune responses.
The SvFUL2 transcription factor is required for inflorescence determinacy and timely flowering in Setaria viridis
Authors: Yang Jiani , Bertolini Edoardo , Braud Max , Preciado Jesus , Chepote Adriana , Jiang Hui , Eveland Andrea L
Published: April 2021

Inflorescence architecture in cereal crops directly impacts yield potential through regulation of seed number and harvesting ability. Extensive architectural diversity found in inflorescences of grass species is due to spatial and temporal activity and determinacy of meristems, which control the number and arrangement of branches and flowers, and underlie plasticity. Timing of the floral transition is also intimately associated with inflorescence development and architecture, yet little is known about the intersecting pathways and how they are rewired during development. Here, we show that a single mutation in a gene encoding an AP1/FUL-like MADS-box transcription factor significantly delays flowering time and disrupts multiple levels of meristem determinacy in panicles of the C4 model panicoid grass, Setaria viridis. Previous reports of AP1/FUL-like genes in cereals have revealed extensive functional redundancy, and in panicoid grasses, no associated inflorescence phenotypes have been described. In S. viridis, perturbation of SvFul2, both through chemical mutagenesis and gene editing, converted a normally determinate inflorescence habit to an indeterminate one, and also repressed determinacy in axillary branch and floral meristems. Our analysis of gene networks connected to disruption of SvFul2 identified regulatory hubs at the intersection of floral transition and inflorescence determinacy, providing insights into the optimization of cereal crop architecture.
Post-Golgi trafficking of rice storage proteins requires the small GTPase Rab7 activation complex MON1–CCZ1
Authors: Pan Tian , Wang Yihua , Jing Ruonan , Wang Yongfei , Wei Zhongyan , Zhang Binglei , Lei Cailin , Qi Yanzhou , Wang Fan , Bao Xiuhao , Yan Mengyuan , Zhang Yu , Zhang Pengcheng , Yu Mingzhou , Wan Gexing , Chen Yu , Yang Wenkun , Zhu Jianping , Zhu Yun , Zhu Shanshan , Cheng Zhijun , Zhang Xin , Jiang Ling , Ren Yulong , Wan Jianmin
Published: April 2021

Protein storage vacuoles (PSVs) are unique organelles that accumulate storage proteins in plant seeds. Although morphological evidence points to the existence of multiple PSV-trafficking pathways for storage protein targeting, the molecular mechanisms that regulate these processes remain mostly unknown. Here, we report the functional characterization of the rice (Oryza sativa) glutelin precursor accumulation7 (gpa7) mutant, which over-accumulates 57-kDa glutelin precursors in dry seeds. Cytological and immunocytochemistry studies revealed that the gpa7 mutant exhibits abnormal accumulation of storage prevacuolar compartment-like structures, accompanied by the partial mistargeting of glutelins to the extracellular space. The gpa7 mutant was altered in the CCZ1 locus, which encodes the rice homolog of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) CALCIUM CAFFEINE ZINC SENSITIVITY1a (CCZ1a) and CCZ1b. Biochemical evidence showed that rice CCZ1 interacts with MONENSIN SENSITIVITY1 (MON1) and that these proteins function together as the Rat brain 5 (Rab5) effector and the Rab7 guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF). Notably, loss of CCZ1 function promoted the endosomal localization of vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 9 (VPS9), which is the GEF for Rab5 in plants. Together, our results indicate that the MON1–CCZ1 complex is involved in post-Golgi trafficking of rice storage protein through a Rab5- and Rab7-dependent pathway.
All-cause and cause-specific mortality in systemic lupus erythematosus: a population-based study
Authors: Moghaddam Bahar , Marozoff Shelby , Li Lingyi , Sayre Eric C , Zubieta J Antonio Aviña-
Published: April 2021

Objective

To investigate all-cause and cause-specific mortality in SLE patients between two time periods, 1997–2005 and 2006–14.

Methods

We used an administrative health database from the province of British Columbia, Canada to match all incident SLE patients to 10 non-SLE individuals on sex, age and index date. Cohorts were divided into two subgroups, according to diagnosis year: early cohort 1997–2005 and late cohort 2006–14. The outcome was death [all-cause, renal disease, cancer, infection, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other]. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% CIs were estimated using univariate and multivariable Cox models.

Results

Among 6092 SLE patients and 60 920 non-SLE individuals, there were 451 and 1910 deaths, respectively. The fully adjusted all-cause mortality HR (95% CI) in the overall SLE cohort was 1.85 (1.66, 2.06), with no statistically significant improvement between early and late cohorts [1.95 (1.69, 2.26) vs 1.74 (1.49, 2.04)]. There was excess mortality from renal disease [3.04 (2.29, 4.05)], infections [2.74 (2.19, 3.43)] and CVD [2.05 (1.77, 2.38)], but not cancer [1.18 (0.96, 1.46)], in the overall SLE cohort. There was no statistically significant improvement in cause-specific mortality between early and late cohorts for renal disease [3.57 (2.37, 5.36) vs 2.65 (1.78, 3.93)], infection [2.94 (2.17, 3.98) vs 2.54 (1.84, 3.51)] and CVD [1.95 (1.60, 2.38) vs 2.18 (1.76, 2.71)]. There was no increase in cancer-related mortality in either cohort [1.27 (0.96, 1.69) vs 1.10 (0.82, 1.48)].

Conclusion

This population-based study demonstrates a persisting mortality gap in all-cause and cause-specific deaths in SLE patients, compared with the general population.
Pure red cell aplasia in systemic lupus erythematosus, a nationwide retrospective cohort and review of the literature
Authors: Lobbes Hervé , Mahévas Matthieu , Alviset Sophie , Galicier Lionel , Costedoat-Chalumeau Nathalie , Amoura Zahir , Alric Laurent , Hot Arnaud , Durupt Stéphane , Michel Marc , Godeau Bertrand
Published: April 2021

Objectives

To characterize the clinical and biological course, management and response to treatment in SLE-associated pure red cell aplasia (PRCA).

Methods

This was a nationwide, multicentre, retrospective cohort study. From 2006 to 2018, we included adults with a diagnosis of PRCA supported by bone marrow examination and SLE or biologic manifestations of SLE after ruling out parvovirus B19 infection.

Results

We enrolled 24 patients (20 women). SLE was diagnosed before PRCA for 14 patients (median delay 81 months). At PRCA diagnosis, mean age, haemoglobin level, and reticulocyte and differential erythroblast count were 39.2 (13.2) years, 62 ( 20) g/l, 9.1 (7.6) × 109/l and 2.8 ( 2.5)%, respectively. Eleven (45%) patients experienced multiple PRCA flares (median 6, range 2–11). CS therapy resulted in only three complete sustained responses, and 19 (79%) patients required immunosuppressive agents with highly variable regimens. After a median follow-up of 76 months (range 13–173), 17 (71%) patients showed complete response for PRCA, 5 (21%) partial response and 2 (8%) treatment failure. In total, 21 (87%) patients required red blood cell transfusion; 5 had a diagnosis of transfusion-related iron overload. Eighteen (75%) patients experienced severe infectious events requiring hospitalization.

Conclusion

SLE-associated PRCA is a severe condition. Repeated red blood cell transfusions and several lines of immunosuppressant therapy are mostly required, with high risk of severe infectious events and iron overload. Despite sustained response for PRCA and SLE obtained in most patients, the best therapeutic strategy remains to be determined.
Elevated CO2 causes different growth stimulation, water- and nitrogen-use efficiencies, and leaf ultrastructure responses in two conifer species under intra- and interspecific competition
Authors: Yu Lei , Dong Haojie , Huang Zongdi , Korpelainen Helena , Li Chunyang
Published: April 2021

The continuously increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]) has substantial effects on plant growth, and on the composition and structure of forests. However, how plants respond to elevated [CO2] (e[CO2]) under intra- and interspecific competition has been largely overlooked. In this study, we employed Abies faxoniana Rehder & Wilson and Picea purpurea Mast. seedlings to explore the effects of e[CO2] (700 p.p.m.) and plant–plant competition on plant growth, physiological and morphological traits, and leaf ultrastructure. We found that e[CO2] stimulated plant growth, photosynthesis and nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC), affected morphological traits and leaf ultrastructure, and enhanced water- and nitrogen (N)- use efficiencies in A. faxoniana and P. purpurea. Under interspecific competition and e[CO2], P. purpurea showed a higher biomass accumulation, photosynthetic capacity and rate of ectomycorrhizal infection, and higher water- and N-use efficiencies compared with A. faxoniana. However, under intraspecific competition and e[CO2], the two conifers showed no differences in biomass accumulation, photosynthetic capacity, and water- and N-use efficiencies. In addition, under interspecific competition and e[CO2], A. faxoniana exhibited higher NSC levels in leaves as well as more frequent and greater starch granules, which may indicate carbohydrate limitation. Consequently, we concluded that under interspecific competition, P. purpurea possesses a positive growth and adjustment strategy (e.g. a higher photosynthetic capacity and rate of ectomycorrhizal infection, and higher water- and N-use efficiencies), while A. faxoniana likely suffers from carbohydrate limitation to cope with rising [CO2]. Our study highlights that plant–plant competition should be taken into consideration when assessing the impact of rising [CO2] on the plant growth and physiological performance.
Occurrence, Distribution, and Genomic Characteristics of Plum Pox Virus Isolates from Common Apricot (Prunus armeniaca) and Japanese Apricot (Prunus mume) in China
Authors: Zhou Jun , Xing Fei , Wang Hongqing , Li Shifang
Published: April 2021

Plum pox, or Sharka disease, caused by infection with plum pox virus (PPV), results in enormous economic losses to the stone fruit industry. However, the frequency and distribution of PPV remain unclear in China, the world’s largest stone fruit producer. Systemic visual surveys were performed on stone fruit trees in China from 2008 to 2018, and the results suggest that plum pox disease is widely distributed on common apricots (Prunus armeniaca) and Japanese apricots (Prunus mume), with an average symptoms incidence rate >30% in the latter. In samples collected from Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Wuxi, and Yuncheng, PPV was detected in 77% (85 of 110) of collected samples by immunochromatographic (IC) strip tests and reverse transcription PCR, and 96% (67 of 70) of samples showing Sharka symptoms were PPV positive. Transmission electron microscopy revealed filamentous particles of ∼640 × 12.5 nm (n = 19) in size and pinwheel inclusions in symptomatic plants but not in the asymptomatic and PPV-negative plants. Full-length genomes were determined for four isolates (three from Japanese apricot and one from common apricot), and phylogenetic analyses indicated that all four isolates belong to a clade PPV-D, despite slight differences in genome size. These findings not only highlight the widespread occurrence and distribution of PPV in China but also provide detailed information about the genomic characteristics and evolutionary position of PPV isolates in China.
Sensitive and Specific qPCR and Nested RT-PCR Assays for the Detection of Tobacco Streak Virus in Soybean
Authors: Zambrana-Echevarría Cristina , Roth Mitchell G. , Dasgupta Ranjit , German Thomas L. , Groves Carol L. , Smith Damon L.
Published: April 2021

Tobacco streak virus (TSV) is a reemerging and understudied pathogen of soybean (Glycine max). Management of TSV is challenging due to the multiple modes of transmission, widespread susceptibility of commercial soybean, and lack of reliable diagnostic tests for the virus. Soybean plants with TSV-like, virus-like, or no symptoms were collected from commercial and research fields in seven counties in Wisconsin. Two sensitive assays were developed for the detection of TSV: a fluorescent dye-based quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (qPCR) assay and a nested reverse-transcription PCR (nRT-PCR). TSV was detected in 47 and 91% of symptomatic samples using the qPCR and nRT-PCR assays, respectively, suggesting that the nRT-PCR assay has higher sensitivity for detecting TSV. The qPCR assay’s limit of detection was determined at 10 fg and the assay was used to estimate the viral load in TSV-symptomatic samples. The titer of TSV in these samples was determined by absolute quantification and ranged from 15 fg to 0.796 ng. The two assays reported here provide diagnostic tools for the rapid and accurate detection of TSV that can aid in monitoring outbreaks, assessing management strategies, or screening soybean cultivars or accessions for resistance to the virus.

[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
Current concepts in the evaluation and management of preoperative anemia
Authors: Neef Vanessa , Choorapoikayil Suma , Piekarski Florian , Schlesinger Tobias , Meybohm Patrick , Zacharowski Kai
Published: April 2021

Purpose of review

In the past years, patient blood management (PBM) has evolved to improve patient‘s care and safety. Anemia is one of the most common medical diseases in the world and is an independent risk factor for morbidity and mortality. Iron deficiency is the main cause for anemia and constitutes a potentially preventable condition with a great impact on surgical outcome. However, preoperative anemia management is not yet established in most hospitals. Changing workflows and re-thinking is challenging. Numerous published studies confirmed the positive effect of preoperative anemia diagnosis and treatment recently.

Recent findings

Iron supplementation in iron-deficient anemic (IDA) patients reduce the need for allogenic blood transfusion thereby improving perioperative outcome.

Since the introduction of PBM programs, important movements towards early detection and therapy of preoperative anemia have been observed. However, preoperative anemia management is not implemented on a large scale as many healthcare professionals are not aware of the most recent findings in the field. Preoperative anemia management, particularly iron supplementation in IDA patients, has proven to be highly effective and has a tremendous effect on patient safety and outcome.
Pediatric obesity and perioperative medicine
Authors: Mpody Christian , Owusu-Bediako Kwaku , Raman Vidya T. , Nafiu Olubukola O.
Published: April 2021

Purpose of review

Childhood obesity is a public health emergency that has reached a pandemic level and imposed a massive economic burden on healthcare systems. Our objective was to provide an update on (1) challenges of obesity definition and classification in the perioperative setting, (2) challenges of perioperative patient positioning and vascular access, (3) perioperative implications of childhood obesity, (3) anesthetic medication dosing and opioid-sparing techniques in obese children, and (4) research gaps in perioperative childhood obesity research including a call to action.

Recent findings

Despite the near axiomatic observation that obesity is a pervasive clinical problem with considerable impact on perioperative health, there have only been a handful of research into the many ramifications of childhood obesity in the perioperative setting. A nuanced understanding of the surgical and anesthetic risks associated with obesity is essential to inform patients’ perioperative consultation and their parents’ counseling, improve preoperative risk mitigation, and improve patients’ rescue process when complications occur.

Anesthesiologists and surgeons will continue to be confronted with an unprecedented number of obese or overweight children with a high risk of perioperative complications.
Use of Simulation to Improve Nurses' Response to COVID-19 Code Blue
Authors: Shelton Charity L.
Published: April 2021

Simulation is an innovative teaching tool that is widely used to improve nursing practice. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has revealed new areas of learning for nurses who care for patients in acute healthcare settings. Particularly, the COVID-19-positive patient who experiences a medical emergency, such as a code blue, needs nurses who are skilled in safely delivering lifesaving interventions. This article provides a review of the literature on the use of simulation to improve nurses' response to a code blue emergency with patients with COVID-19. This review includes literature on using simulation to enhance donning and doffing of personal protective equipment. No previous literature discussed conducting a code blue rescue with a patient who has COVID-19. On the basis of the literature reviewed, simulation should be considered as a tool to improve code blue outcomes, confidence of nurse responders, and compliance in proper donning and doffing of personal protective equipment. This article offers implications for further research on the use of simulation to advance knowledge about best practices for nurse response to COVID-19 code blue.

Highlights:

• Simulation is a tool that improves code blue outcomes, such as improving early recognition of cardiac emergencies and time to first compressions.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has left nurses with increased fear and anxiety when caring for patients with COVID-19.

• Simulation provides a safe environment for nurses to practice donning and doffing of personal protective equipment in preparation of a COVID-19 rescue.

Key Points:

• Simulation helps nurses deliver quality interventions in a code blue emergency.

• Self-confidence of nurses caring for patients with COVID-19 must be addressed so quality of care can be delivered.

• Simulation of COVID-19 code blue should be used as a training tool to improve outcomes for the patient and safety for nurses.
Chronic Medial Collateral Ligament Sprain Treated With Percutaneous Ultrasonic Debridement: A Case Report
Authors: Park David J. , Rucci Paul , Sussman Walter I.
Published: April 2021

The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is the most commonly injured ligament of the knee. Most grade I and II injuries respond to conservative management, but symptoms persist in some patients. In these cases, treatment options are limited. Percutaneous ultrasonic debridement is increasingly being used for tendinopathy and fasciopathy refractory to conservative management, but this has not been reported as a treatment for ligament injury. Here, we present a case of a chronic grade II MCL sprain successfully treated with percutaneous ultrasonic debridement.
Evaluation of Minimal Change Lesions Using Linked Color Imaging in Patients With Nonerosive Reflux Esophagitis
Authors: Zhang Ni-Na , Ma Yi-Min , Sun Qi , Shi Liang-Liang , Xie Yin , Zou Xiao-Ping
Published: April 2021

Background and Aims:

High prevalence of minimal change lesion (MCL) in nonerosive reflux esophagitis (NERD) patients is commonly recognized by many endoscopists. However, it is difficult to detect MCL with conventional white-light imaging (WLI) endoscopy. Linked color imaging (LCI), a novel image-enhanced endoscopy technology with strong, unique color enhancement, is used for easy recognition of early gastric cancer and detection of Helicobacter pylori infection. The aim of the study was to compare the efficacy of LCI and WLI endoscopy in evaluating MCL in patients with NER.

Materials and Methods:

Forty-one patients with NERD and 38 subjects with nongastroesophageal reflux disease (non-GERD) were recruited in this study between August 2017 and July 2018. During upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, the distal 5 cm of the esophageal mucosal morphology at the squamocolumnar junction was visualized using WLI followed by LCI. MCL was defined as areas of erythema, blurring of the Z-line, friability, decreased vascularity, white turbid discoloration, and edema or accentuation of the mucosal folds. Three experienced endoscopists evaluated the color patterns for MCL on WLI images and on WLI combined with LCI images in both groups. A biopsy was taken 2 cm above the esophagogastric junction. Histologic slides were scored by a pathologist in a blinded manner.

Results:

The proportion of MCL was higher in the patients with NERD (70.7%, 29/41) than in patients with non-GERD (39.5%, 15/38) using WLI combined with LCI. In 12 patients with NERD, both WLI and LCI showed normal mucosa. The MCL detection rate was significantly higher when using WLI combined with LCI than when using WLI (70.7% vs. 51.2%, P=0.039) in patients with NERD. The histopathologic score of MCL (+) was significantly higher than that of MCL (−) patients in both the NERD group (4.59±0.32 vs. 2.36±0.34, P<0.01) and the non-GERD group (3.47±0.50 vs. 2.00±0.28, P<0.01). The intraobserver reproducibility levels and interobserver agreement were better with LCI than with WLI alone.

Conclusions:

Frequency of MCL was higher in patients with NERD than in those with non-GERD. MCL can be identified by using WLI combined with LCI in patients with NERD. By enhancing endoscopic images, LCI is more sensitive in detecting MCL compared with WLI.
The role of nursing care in the type 2 diabetes treatment associated with chronic liver diseases
Authors: Fu Bai Yu , Wang Xue Jiao
Published: April 2021

Objective

Diabetes is the fifth leading cause of death in the People’s Republic of China. The aim of the article is to compare the effects of nursing care on the laboratory findings and ultrasound results of diabetic patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD) who were treated with antiglycemic drugs.

Methods

Diabetic were patients treated with metformin hydrochloride in combination with gliclazide, pioglitazone hydrochloride, sitagliptin, exenatide or liraglutide. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was evaluated by abdominal ultrasound, and fibrosis stages were evaluated at baseline and 8 months. All the patients were equally divided into two groups depending on the therapeutic approach.

Results

The first group of patients additionally received nursing care, and the second group adhered to the prescribed therapy on their own. In total 90 patients, or 55.6%, had NAFLD at baseline, and its course was dependent upon changes in the weight (P = 0.009) and waist circumference (P = 0.012). The proportions of patients who demonstrated an ultrasonographic improvement in the control group were: 24 (56.8%) with gliclazide, 15 (41.3%) with pioglitazone hydrochloride, 28 (66.1%) with sitagliptin, 16 (79%) with exenatide and 15 (66.7%) with liraglutide (P = 0.2). For the group that received nursing care an ultrasonographic improvement was in: 29 (68.16%) with gliclazide, 18 (49.56%) with pioglitazone hydrochloride, 33 (79.32%) with sitagliptin, 19 (94.8%) with exenatide and 21 80.04% with liraglutide (P = 0.2).

Conclusions

Outcomes from the type 2 diabetes treatment paralleling of CLD were presented. Treatment of type 2 diabetes with pioglitazone hydrochloride, gliclazide, sitagliptin, liraglutide and exenatide was proven effective.
High Levels of Prevention-Effective Adherence to HIV PrEP: An Analysis of Substudy Data From the EPIC-NSW Trial
Authors: Bavinton Benjamin R. , Vaccher Stefanie , Jin Fengyi , Prestage Garrett P. , Holt Martin , Zablotska-Manos Iryna B. , Guy Rebecca , Amin Janaki , Templeton David J. , Yeung Barbara , Hammoud Mohamed A. , Lewis David , Baker David , Dharan Nila , McNulty Anna M. , Grulich Andrew E. ,   for the Expanded PrEP Implementation in Communities in New South Wales (EPIC-NSW) research group
Published: April 2021

Background:

Preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) prevents HIV infection but relies on good adherence at times of risk, termed “prevention-effective adherence.” Most studies assess adherence without reference to sexual behaviur, making it challenging to determine if poor adherence coincides with HIV risk.

Setting:

We examined data from a behavioral substudy of a large-scale PrEP implementation trial in New South Wales, Australia.

Methods:

Trial participants completed optional brief quarterly surveys, reporting the number of pills taken and sexual behavior with male partners for each day of the “last full week” before each survey. Condomless sex (CLS) was defined as “higher risk” for HIV when with HIV-positive men with detectable/unknown viral loads or unknown HIV status men. Adequate PrEP protection was defined as ≥4 pills for participants assigned male sex at birth and ≥6 pills for participants assigned female sex at birth (including transgender men).

Results:

Of 9596 participants dispensed PrEP, 4401 completed baseline and ≥1 follow-up survey. Participants reported on 12,399 “last full weeks”: 7485 weeks (60.4%) involved CLS and 2521 weeks (33.7% of CLS-weeks) involved higher risk CLS. There were 103 weeks in which participants did not have adequate PrEP protection and had higher risk CLS: 4.1% of higher-risk CLS weeks (n = 103/2521), 1.4% of all CLS weeks (n = 103/7485), and 0.8% of all observed weeks (n = 103/12,399).

Conclusions:

In a large PrEP trial, prevention-effective adherence to PrEP was very high at 99%. Our findings illustrate the importance of measuring pill-taking and sexual behavior in the same period so that prevention-effective adherence can be better estimated.
EAST Oriens Award: Why I want a career in trauma and acute care surgery
Authors: Carlin Margo Nicole
Published: April 2021

The opportunity to compose this essay for the Eastern Association for the Surgery Trauma’s Oriens Award has been the most terrific privilege of my training thus far. This award gave my passion a voice. It helped me better understand myself and my need to be a part of this world, this universe that selflessly dedicates every moment of themselves to the care of the critically ill and injured patient. I found every single past Oriens Essay and Keynote Address is a testament to the pure resilience, strength, and grit necessary to embody the calm and collected exterior of the internally screaming trauma surgeon. To me, this award, and all the previous essays, represents the genuine passion of this community and its continued support of each other. As I continue to process the honor of being selected for this prestigious award, I would like to thank my peers, mentors, and the entire trauma community for your perpetual inspiration and education. Your success and timeless dedication to the evolution of this field simply fascinates me. In preparing to join this society, it is my hope that some of these words may inspire, in an effort to reprise my mentors and truly thank you for selecting my essay for this year’s award.