bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Shorter Telomeres Among Individuals With Physical Disability: The Moderating Role of Perceived Stress
Authors: Lahav Yael , Avidor Sharon , Levy David , Ohry Avi , Zeilig Gabi , Lahav Meir , Golander Hava , Guber Anat-Chacham , Uziel Orit , Defrin Ruth
Published: October 2021

Objectives

Evidence suggests that individuals with physical disability may suffer from psychological distress and accelerated cellular aging, manifested by shortened telomere length (TL), compared with healthy individuals. Studies indicate that high levels of perceived stress and depression may increase the physiological susceptibility and, thus, may contribute to a short TL. However, the moderating role of perceived stress and depression within the relationship between physical disability and TL remains unknown.

Method

The participants consisted of 119 male subjects (mean age 54.36 years, range 35−70). Of them, 30 were able-bodied and 89 had a physical disability: 34 were due to poliomyelitis (polio) and 55 were due to spinal cord injury. Blood samples for TL analysis were collected; the participants completed questionnaires and underwent disability evaluation.

Results

Participants with disability had a shorter TL as well as elevated levels of perceived stress and depression compared with able-bodied controls. Both the perceived stress and depression were correlated with a shorter TL. Nonetheless, perceived stress, rather than depression, moderated the relationship between disability and TL; among participants with higher perceived stress levels, in particular, individuals with physical disability had a shorter TL than the able-bodied controls.

Discussion

The present findings suggest that individuals with physical disability and who exhibit high levels of perceived stress may be particularly vulnerable for accelerated cellular aging, suggesting that perceived stress can be used as a valuable target for intervention.
Protective Effect of Conditioned Media of Human Fetal Dermal Mesenchymal Stem Cells Can Inhibit Burn-induced Microvascular Hyperpermeability
Authors: Pan Yi , Wang Xiao , Wang Xinglei , Shan Fei , Wang Maoying , Zhang Jixun , Zhang Jingjuan , Jia Shanshan , Jiao Ya , Qi Yongjun , Gong Hongmin , Jiang Duyin
Published: October 2021

Burns often cause loss of skin barrier protection, fluid exudation, and local tissue edema, which hinder functional recovery. Effectively improving the quality of deep burn wound healing, shortening the wound healing time, and reducing tissue fluid leakage are urgent problems in the medical field. Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can effectively stabilize vascular endothelial injury. Fetal dermal MSCs (FDMSCs) are a newly discovered source of MSCs derived from the skin of accidentally aborted fetuses. However, the effect of FDMSCs on vascular permeability remains poorly understood. In this study, conditioned media from FDMSCs (F-CM) extracted from fetal skin tissue was prepared. The effect of F-CM on vascular permeability was evaluated using the internal circulation method FITC-dextran in vivo, and several in vitro assays, including cell viability assay, transwell permeability test, immunofluorescence, and western blotting. Altogether, our results demonstrate that F-CM could inhibit burn-induced microvascular hyperpermeability by increasing the protein expression levels of occludin and VE-cadherin, while restoring the expression of endothelial F-actin, and providing the foundation of a novel therapy for the treatment of burns with F-CM.
Risk Sharing in Village Economies Revisited
Authors: Bold Tessa , Broer Tobias
Published: October 2021

We quantitatively evaluate a model of insurance with limited commitment where the requirement that contracts be immune to deviations by subcoalitions makes group size endogenous, as proposed by Genicot and Ray. We compare the model’s predictions to panel data from rural Indian villages. Apart from predicting a realistic degree of insurance, the model captures the evidence along two new dimensions: First, the largest coalition-proof groups are substantially smaller than typical villages. Second, with strong insurance in small groups, individual consumption responds symmetrically to income rises and falls, while alternative models predict strong counterfactual asymmetry.
“If You Compete with us, We Shan’T Marry You”The (Mary Paley and) Alfred Marshall Lecture
Authors: Pande Rohini , Roy Helena
Published: October 2021

Alfred Marshall and Mary Paley Marshall are often described as the first academic economist couple. Both studied at the University of Cambridge, where Paley became one of the first women to take the Tripos exam and the first female lecturer in economics, with Marshall’s encouragement. But in later life, Marshall opposed granting Cambridge degrees to women and their participation in academic economics. This paper recounts Alfred Marshall’s use of gender norms, born out of a separate spheres ideology, to promote and ingrain women’s exclusion in academic economics and beyond. We demonstrate the persistence of this ideology and resultant norms, drawing parallels between gendered inequities in labor market outcomes for Cambridge graduates in the UK post-Industrial Revolution and those apparent in cross-country data today. We argue that the persistence of the norms produced by separate spheres ideologies is likely to reflect, at least in part, the rents associated with preferential access to better paid, high-skilled labor market opportunities. In doing so, we ask who benefits from gender norms, who enforces them, and suggest relevant policy work and areas for future research.
To be connected or not to be connected? The role of long-haul economies
Authors: Koster Hans R A , Tabuchi Takatoshi , Thisse Jacques-François
Published: October 2021

We investigate whether localities gain or lose employment when there are connected to a transportation network, such as a high-speed railway line. We argue that long-haul economies—implying that the marginal transportation cost decreases with network distance—play a pivotal role in understanding the location choices of firms. We develop a new spatial model to show that improvements in transportation infrastructure have nontrivial impacts on the location choices of firms. Using data on Japan’s Shinkansen, we show that ‘in-between’ municipalities that are connected to the Shinkansen witness a sizable decrease in employment.
Early-type galaxies with recent star formation have low metallicities – evidence for star formation triggered by external processes?
Authors: Jeong Hyunjin , Oh Kyuseok , Joo Seok-Joo , Yi Sukyoung K
Published: October 2021

On the basis of the Galaxy Evolution Explore (GALEX) ultraviolet (UV) data, many studies have demonstrated that recent star formation (RSF) is common in early-type galaxies. In particular, near-ultraviolet (NUV) light is used to investigate star formation activity in early-type galaxies, owing to its high sensitivity to the presence of young stars. This study characterized the stellar population properties of luminous early-type galaxies (Mr ≤ −20.65 mag) in the redshift range 0.005 ≤ z ≤ 0.09 on the basis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data. Initially, the most frequently used criterion of NUV $-\, r$ ≤ 5.4 was applied to identify early-type galaxies with RSF, and 19  per cent (172/913) of the sample galaxies met this criterion, in agreement with previous studies. A more robust sample of galaxies with RSF along with a stricter criterion (70 galaxies with NUV $-\, r$ ≤ 5.0) were then used for further analysis, and consequently 7.7  per cent (70/913; lower limit of the RSF fraction) of the sample galaxies were classified as early-type galaxies with RSF. These galaxies tended to exhibit higher H β absorption-line strengths and stronger emission lines than quiescent (QST, NUV $-\, r$ > 5.4) early-type galaxies. The most prominent feature of early-type galaxies with RSF identified in this study was that they were more metal-poor than QST galaxies owing to metal-poor stellar populations that were possibly formed from materials accreted from gas-rich satellites during (minor) mergers or interactions. The results strongly indicate that the observed RSF in the sample galaxies at the present epoch is mainly driven by external processes (i.e. mergers or interactions).
Molecular line search towards the flaring 6.7-GHz methanol masers of G 24.33+0.13 and G 359.62−0.24: rare maser transitions detected
Authors: McCarthy T P , Orosz G , Ellingsen S P , Breen S L , Voronkov M A , Burns R A , Olech M , Yonekura Y , Hirota T , Hyland L J , Wolak P
Published: October 2021

We have performed a molecular line search towards the flaring 6.7-GHz masers G 24.33+0.13, and G 359.6−0.24 using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We present spectra of the 6.7-GHz class II methanol and 22.2-GHz water masers towards these sources and provide a comparison with other recent flaring events these sources have experienced. We also detect the fourth example of a 23.4-GHz class I methanol maser and the 11th example of a 4.8-GHz formaldehyde maser towards G 24.33+0.13. Alongside these results, we also observe the previously detected ammonia (3,3) emission and report upper limits on the presence of various other cm-wavelength methanol, ammonia, and OH transitions. Our results are consistent with the flaring of G 24.33+0.13 being driven by a variable accretion rate in the host high mass young stellar object.
Long-term safety and effectiveness of mycophenolate mofetil in adults with lupus nephritis: a real-world study in Japan
Authors: Takeuchi Tsutomu , Hashimoto Hideyuki , Matsumoto Mika
Published: October 2021

Objectives

To assess the safety and effectiveness of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in Japanese adults with lupus nephritis (LN) in real-world clinical practice.

Methods

This multicentre, prospective, post-marketing surveillance study investigated the effectiveness and safety of MMF, as induction or maintenance therapy, in LN patients. Primary endpoints were adverse drug reactions (ADRs), changes in renal function from baseline, and relapse rate (RR) after 6 months in the maintenance group, estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Complete remission (CR) and partial remission (PR) were estimated by renal measurements.

Results

Overall, 112 patients were enrolled in the induction group and 340 in the maintenance group. Of these 452 patients, 418 were evaluable for safety and 396 for effectiveness. Eighty-three patients (19.85%) experienced ADRs, most commonly herpes zoster (3.34%) and diarrhoea (3.11%). Serious ADRs occurring in more than three patients were cytomegalovirus infections (1.43%), acute pyelonephritis (0.71%), and herpes zoster (0.71%). One patient died from herpes zoster disseminated. CR and PR were 19.54% and 44.82%, respectively, in the induction group, and 40.62% and 66.16%, respectively, in the maintenance group. RR in the maintenance group was 0.70%.

Conclusions

The tolerability of MMF is in line with that reported in other studies. Since the average dose of MMF was <1.5 g/day, research into the optimal dose for achieving effectiveness is required.
Consciousness and the fallacy of misplaced objectivity
Authors: Ellia Francesco , Hendren Jeremiah , Grasso Matteo , Kozma Csaba , Mindt Garrett , P. Lang Jonathan , M. Haun Andrew , Albantakis Larissa , Boly Melanie , Tononi Giulio
Published: October 2021

Objective correlates—behavioral, functional, and neural—provide essential tools for the scientific study of consciousness. But reliance on these correlates should not lead to the ‘fallacy of misplaced objectivity’: the assumption that only objective properties should and can be accounted for objectively through science. Instead, what needs to be explained scientifically is what experience is intrinsically—its subjective properties—not just what we can do with it extrinsically. And it must be explained; otherwise the way experience feels would turn out to be magical rather than physical. We argue that it is possible to account for subjective properties objectively once we move beyond cognitive functions and realize what experience is and how it is structured. Drawing on integrated information theory, we show how an objective science of the subjective can account, in strictly physical terms, for both the essential properties of every experience and the specific properties that make particular experiences feel the way they do.
Activation of Raf signalling in NF2-null Schwann cells leads to sustained proliferation; an investigation of a new and inducible model for human schwannoma
Authors: Lespade Charlotte , Laraba Liyam , Woodhouse Evyn , Srotyr Marie , Lloyd Alison C , Parkinson David B
Published: October 2021

Aims

The NF2 gene encodes the tumour suppressor Merlin, which is deleted in 100% of patients with the familial tumour predisposition syndrome neurofibromatosis type 2 but also in 70% of those who develop sporadic schwannomas. The Raf-TR mouse model uses a tamoxifen-inducible Raf-kinase/ oestrogen receptor fusion protein (Raf-TR) expressed in myelinating Schwann cells to mimic a nerve injury response in Schwann cell by activating Raf/MEK/ERK signalling in the absence of peripheral nerve injury.

We will assess whether Raf/MEK/ERK activation on an NF2 null background leads to tumourigenesis within the vestibular nerves and dorsal root ganglia (DRGs), two tumour sites identified in the Periostin-Cre mouse model in which schwannoma formation is spontaneous, with a view to generating an inducible NF2 null schwannoma mouse model.

Method

Mice with a Schwann cell specific loss of Merlin were crossed with mice carrying a tamoxifen-inducible Raf-TR gene to generate Raf-TR+/-; P0-Cre+/-; NF2fl/fl (Cre+) mice which were NF2 null and compared to Raf-TR+/-; P0-Cre-/-; NF2fl/fl (Cre-) littermate controls. Mice were injected with tamoxifen or vehicle for five consecutive days and their vestibular nerves and dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) were analysed at various timepoints . An EdU proliferation assay was used to quantify the proliferation in the vestibular ganglia, as well as the DRGs. Rates of proliferation were compared to Cre- age-matched littermate controls treated with tamoxifen or vehicle.

Results

In the Periostin-Cre NF2 null schwannoma model, tumours form spontaneously in the DRGs and vestibular ganglia. In our new model, we see a clear increase in proliferation at 21 d post-injection in the NF2 null (Cre+) tamoxifen-treated mice compared to control (Cre-) tamoxifen-treated controls in both DRGs and vestibular ganglia. Cre- tamoxifen-treated mice do not show increased proliferation compared to Cre- vehicle controls. Taken together, this shows that activation of the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway in Schwann cells only causes a sustained proliferation response on an NF2 null background in the DRGs and vestibular ganglia. We are assessing later timepoints to further characterise tumour development in these mice.

Conclusion

Combining the Raf-TR mouse model to create a demyelinating phenotype with an NF2 null background leads to vastly increased rates of proliferation at the sites of schwannoma tumourigenesis within the peripheral nervous system: the DRGs and the vestibular ganglia. The high proliferation in the vestibular ganglia in particular is similar to the development of vestibular schwannomas in patients with Neurofibromatosis type 2. The new mouse model used in this study shows potential to be very useful as an inducible schwannoma tumour model, in which we can study the early events of tumour formation.
Evaluating the impact of a joint Clinical Nurse Specialist and Allied Health Care Professional clinic for neuro-oncology patients attending Velindre Cancer Centre, Cardiff
Authors: Evans Rachel , Burke Rhian , Lewis Cathryn , Goode Helena , Ellam Sarah , Gee Amy , Mullan Deborah , Begum Rehana , Powell James , MacLean Jillian , Iqbal Najmus , Tilsley Owen , Love-Gould Lisa , Baker Kate
Published: October 2021

Aims

Key governing guidelines recognise that the holistic and complex needs of neuro-oncology patients are best served by a cohesive multidisciplinary team (MDT). Achieving a joint Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and Allied Healthcare Professional (AHP) clinic (including Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy, Dietetics and Occupational Therapy) for neuro-oncology patients has been a longstanding vision at Velindre Cancer Centre (VCC) in Cardiff. A successful funding application to Welsh Government in July 2020 allowed the establishment of a virtual “one stop shop” clinic with CNS and AHPs available along the care trajectory to improve patient and carer quality of life. The project reports on whether this innovative clinic model successfully achieved the desired coordinated, anticipatory and holistic care.

Method

The project utilised service improvement methodology principles with aims inherent within quarterly timeframes. This included robust data collection on patient attendances and interventions, improving patient education and self-management and wide patient, care and staff engagement by means of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The mixed methods approach yielded rich quantitative and qualitative data.

Results

The data demonstrates an increasing demand for the joint neuro-oncology clinic indicating that additional resources may be required. From triangulation of patient, carer and wider team engagement the key benefits were perceived to be having accessibility to the team in a convenient way, the provision of support and timely information and the overall perception of enhanced holistic care.

Conclusion

The data demonstrates the huge successes of the joint neuro-oncology clinic so far, including improvements to patient and carer quality of life, wider VCC benefits and cost saves. The persuasive case was presented to Welsh Government, and ongoing endorsement has been achieved for the next financial year.
Re-operation for recurrent intracranial meningioma – is it worth it?
Authors: Richardson George , Gillespie Conor , Mustafa Mohammad , Taweel Basel , Millward Christopher , Islim Abdurrahman , Jenkinson Michael
Published: October 2021

Aims

Meningioma is the commonest primary brain tumour. Despite surgery, meningiomas can recur. Surgery is usually the first line treatment for recurrent meningioma. The aim was to determine the risk factors associated with clinical outcomes (performance status, morbidity, mortality, recurrence) following re-operation for recurrence of intracranial meningioma.

Method

Retrospective cohort study (1998-2018). Eligible patients had re-operation for local recurrence of a previously operated meningioma. Collected data included baseline clinical and imaging characteristic. Primary outcome measure was performance status after each re-operation. Secondary outcome measures were medical and surgical morbidity, recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS).

Results

Fifty-eight patients were eligible (38 female, mean age at 1st re-operation 56 years (SD=11.4)). Eleven patients (18.9%) had 2 re-operations and 3 patients (3.4%) had 3 re-operations. Median follow up was 125.5 months (IQR 73-191.5). Median time to 1st recurrence and 1st re-operation were 36.5 (IQR 24.2–79.1) and 43.8 months (IQR 22.9–102.7), respectively. Fifteen patients (25.9%) had worse performance status after 1st re-operation, compared to 6.9% (n=4) after the primary operation (Figure 1). Complication rate was 32.8% (n=19) after the primary operation compared to 46.6% (n=27) after 1st re-operation. At primary operation, there were 29 (50%) grade 1, 26 (44.8%) grade 2, and 1 (1.7%) grade 3 tumours. Median RFS after first re-operation was 68 months (95% CI 45.5-90.5) (figure 2). Median OS was 312 months (95% CI 236.9-387.1) (Figure 3). Post-operative complications were a risk factor for worsened performance status following re-operation (OR 4.91, 95% CI 1.3-18.4).

Conclusion

Re-operation is associated with a worse performance status and increased risk of complications. Re-operating meningiomas for radiological recurrence without symptoms increases patient morbidity. Shared-care management decision should be made with patients when considering operating for radiological recurrence only.
Measuring tuberculosis medication adherence: a comparison of multiple approaches in relation to urine isoniazid metabolite testing within a cohort study in India
Authors: Subbaraman Ramnath , Thomas Beena E , Kumar J Vignesh , Lubeck-Schricker Maya , Khandewale Amit , Thies William , Eliasziw Misha , Mayer Kenneth H , Haberer Jessica E
Published: October 2021

Background

Nonadherence to tuberculosis medications is associated with poor outcomes. However, measuring adherence in practice is challenging. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of multiple tuberculosis adherence measures.

Methods

We enrolled adult Indians with drug-susceptible tuberculosis who were monitored using 99DOTS, a cellphone-based technology. During an unannounced home visit with each participant, we assessed adherence using a pill estimate, four-day dose recall, a last missed dose question, and urine isoniazid metabolite testing. We estimated the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for each alternate measure in comparison to urine testing. 99DOTS data were analyzed using patient-reported doses alone and patient- and provider-reported doses, the latter reflecting how 99DOTS is implemented in practice. We assessed each measure’s operating characteristics, with particular interest in specificity—i.e., the percentage of participants detected as being nonadherent by each alternate measure, among those who were nonadherent by urine testing.

Results

Compared to urine testing, alternate measures had the following characteristics: 99DOTS patient-reported doses alone (AUC 0.65, specificity 70%, 95%CI:58—81%), 99DOTS patient- and provider-reported doses (AUC 0.61, specificity 33%, 95%CI: 22—45%), pill estimate (AUC 0.55, specificity 21%, 95%CI:12—32%), four-day recall (AUC 0.60, specificity 23%, 95%CI: 14—34%), and last missed dose question (AUC 0.65, specificity 52%, 95%CI:40—63%).

Conclusions

Alternate measures missed detecting at least 30% of people who were nonadherent by urine testing. The last missed dose question performed similarly to 99DOTS using patient-reported doses alone. Tuberculosis programs should evaluate the feasibility of integrating more accurate, objective measures, such as urine testing, into routine care.
Bilateral Nervus Intermedius Sectioning for Geniculate Neuralgia: Case Report and Operative Video
Authors: Piper Keaton , Zheng Qizhi Victoria , Heller Robert S , Agazzi Siviero
Published: October 2021

BACKGROUND AND IMPORTANCE

Geniculate neuralgia is a rare condition characterized by excruciating ear pain. Surgical options for geniculate neuralgia include microvascular decompression and sectioning of the nervus intermedius. We report herein a case of bilateral geniculate neuralgia treated by nervus intermedius sectioning without prior microvascular decompression. To our knowledge, this is the first report of this treatment strategy with a subsequent description of the side effects of bilateral nervus intermedius disruption.

CLINICAL PRESENTATION

A 54-yr-old woman presented with bilateral geniculate neuralgia, worse on the left, refractory to medical therapy. Surgical treatment options were reviewed, including microvascular decompression and sectioning of the nervus intermedius. She opted for left nervus intermedius sectioning. The procedure was uncomplicated and no compressive vascular loop was identified during surgery. Postoperatively, she had complete symptom resolution with no discernable side effects. Three years later, the patient developed worsening geniculate neuralgia on the contralateral side. After the discussion of treatment options, she opted again for sectioning of the contralateral nervus intermedius with successful resolution of all symptoms after surgery. Following surgery, the patient identified partial impairment of lacrimation and gustation. She continued to have functional taste of the anterior two-thirds of the tongue, lacrimation, and hearing bilaterally.

CONCLUSION

Bilateral sectioning of nervus intermedius may provide benefit in patients with bilateral geniculate neuralgia without egregious side effects. However, lacrimatory and gustatory alterations are a potentially significant side effect with a wide range of symptomatology.
Negotiating Critical and Constructive Scholarship in the Study of Religion
Authors: Schaeffer Kurtis R.
Published: October 2021

In this chapter Kurtis Schaeffer and Martin Kavka debate both the normative and authoritative dimensions of religion. Schaeffer argues that Kavka’s initial definition, that religion is “an authorizing system,” is little different from other such authorizing systems (e.g., the nation). Kavka responds that we need to spend more time differentiating between such systems because such differentiation will ideally bring that which we call religion into sharper focus. At issue in this debate is the role of normativity in the study of religion and whether it is the scholar’s business to engage in such issues, including the role of constructive scholarship in the academic study of religion.
Religion Is . . . What It Does
Authors: Jensen Jeppe Sinding
Published: October 2021

In this chapter Jeppe Sinding Jensen and Anthony B. Pinn both focus on the idea of religion as a technology. Agreeing with Pinn’s definition, Jensen argues that the advantage of envisaging religion in this manner helps us to understand some things as other things. By this, he means that conceiving of religion as a technology returns us to the idea, so prevalent in the early study of religion, that religion has a function. By introducing value into a traditional classification system, Jensen argues, religion successfully creates, regulates, and disseminates important social “stuff.” Though Jensen takes Pinn to refer to the mind, Pinn rejects this and argues that an understanding or definition of religion cannot fail to take into consideration the body.
Industry: Turning the Titanic
Authors: Gordon Deborah
Published: October 2021

Chapter 5 examines the structure and role of the oil industry and details the various actors that make up the industry. It argues that self-reported greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are not comprehensive or trustworthy. There are too many ways that companies can game emissions reports. Different companies are surveyed to separate the leaders from the laggards. The investigation reaches beyond multinational and national oil and gas companies and touches upon industry actors in the wings: investors, industry advisers, traders, and certification agents. Efforts to establish industry benchmarks are laid out. The chapter recommends rethinking self-regulation and concludes with a challenging premise about whether the goal is to defeat or partner with the oil and gas industry to effectively combat climate change.
Common Knowledge and Cheap Talk in Democratic Discourse and Law
Authors: Brooks Richard R. W.
Published: October 2021

This commentary illuminates key aspects of Shiffrin’s view by appeal to concrete examples and notions from game theory. It underscores the role of law as a means for the public communication of moral commitments by invoking the idea of common knowledge. Our commitments must be known to be shared, that knowledge itself must be known to be shared, and so on ad infinitum. This offers a perspective on the importance of common law from a democratic framework: common law can be seen as a mechanism for generating common knowledge about disputes and their resolution. The commentary invokes another game-theoretic notion, that of the contrast between cheap talk and costly signaling, to illuminate Shiffrin’s discussion of constitutional balancing. Where the interests of speaker and addressee are not aligned, cheap talk lacks credibility, and this is something to which courts need to be sensitive in balancing state and constitutional interests.
Using Life Story Methods to Illuminate Cultural-Historical Dimensions of LGBTQ+ Identity Development Across Generations
Authors: Weststrate Nic M.
Published: October 2021

For the better part of the last century, members of LGBTQ+ community have been constructing identities in a rapidly shifting cultural-historical landscape. How has this evolving ecological frame shaped identity development across generational cohorts of LGBTQ+ people? To answer this question, this chapter will introduce the life story model of identity and argue that life stories present a rich vantage point for observing the influence of culture on development. The cultural embeddedness of life stories is discussed first, with a focus on the significance of cultural and subcultural master narratives. An overview of life story research methodology is provided next. Finally, the chapter highlights three examples of how life story methods have been used to investigate identity development in generational cohorts of LGBTQ+ people. Life story work is more than a method for illuminating culture—it is a tool for transforming lives.
Social Media as Tools for Cultural Change in the Transition to Adulthood
Authors: Manago Adriana M. , Santer Nicholas D. , Barsigian Logan L. , Walsh Abigail S.
Published: October 2021

Tools are at the interface of culture and mind. Tools such as language and social media are the results of many generations of social learning and innovation, and they mediate human interaction and thinking in everyday life. This chapter illustrates how conceptualizing social media as tools is useful for understanding connections between culture, technological change, and psychological development in the transition to adulthood. The chapter focuses on social and identity development during the transition to adulthood in the United States and in a Tzotzil Maya community called Zinacantán in Mexico. First, the theoretical underpinnings of the approach are established and then three methods—social network mapping, focus groups, and social media tours—are outlined, all designed to understand how youth are shaping their development and their society through their use of social media. The chapter ends with additional considerations for applying these methods and propose some future research directions.
Participatory Action Research With Immigrant-Origin Youth
Authors: Katsiaficas Dalal
Published: October 2021

Participatory action research (PAR) methods hold the potential to make transformational change for our communities, our institutions, and society. This chapter illuminates the ways in which PAR holds the potential to democratize the research process and support the development of immigrant-origin youth. Working with immigrant-origin youth rather than designing studies on them requires fundamental theoretical and methodological shifts to take place. The chapter begins by drawing on frameworks of critical bifocality, intersectionality, and community engagement and resistance to frame our theoretical understanding of critical issues in the field. Next, a deeper examination of methodological frameworks of participatory action research are provided along with ethical considerations for engaging in this work with immigrant-origin youth. Lastly, a “how-to” guide of effective ways PAR has been utilized with immigrant-origin youth is followed by a brief conclusion.
The Spirit of the ’70s
Authors: Grossman Lewis A.
Published: October 2021

This chapter explores how in the 1970s, freedom of therapeutic choice advocacy, previously the domain of right-wing extremists, became bipartisan and mainstream. It examines how various cultural trends contributed to this trend, including a loss of trust in orthodox medicine, government, and other establishment institutions; a “rights revolution” (including the rise of patients’ rights); and the emergence of the women’s health movement. The chapter shows how Americans’ use of alternative remedies surged during this period and discusses in detail two 1970s social movements in favor of alternative treatments: a successful rebellion against the FDA’s attempt to regulate vitamin and mineral supplements more stringently and a campaign to resist the FDA’s ban on Laetrile, an alternative cancer treatment derived from apricot pits. The chapter also describes how American courts briefly seemed prepared to elaborate the holding of Roe v. Wade into a generalized right to freedom of therapeutic choice.
AIDS Activists, FDA Regulation, and the Amendment of America’s Drug Constitution
Authors: Grossman Lewis A.
Published: October 2021

This chapter explores the topic of freedom of therapeutic choice within modern orthodox medicine. It focuses especially on the epic struggle in the late 1980s and early 1990s, led by groups such as ACT UP, to persuade the FDA to permit early access to unapproved AIDS drugs and to facilitate their approval. This movement, emblematized by ACT UP’s symbolic takeover of the FDA in 1988, resulted in significant and permanent changes to the agency’s practices and attitudes regarding drugs for fatal and serious diseases. It also led Congress to make important changes to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Finally, the AIDS community forged a now widely used model for direct citizen involvement in FDA decision-making. This chapter considers all the manifestations of this new American attitude toward drug regulation up to the present day.
H. D. & Bryher
Authors: McCabe Susan
Published: October 2021

This dual biography takes on the daring task of examining how two women, who didn’t feel like women, survived as a couple, raising an illegitimate child during a period when such arrangements were frowned upon, if even recognized. When they met in 1918, H.D. (born Hilda Doolittle in 1886), had already achieved recognition as an Imagist poet, engaged in a lesbian affair, was married to a shell-shocked adulterous poet, and was pregnant by another. She fell in love with Bryher (born Annie Winifred Ellerman in 1894), who was trapped both in a female body and in the shadow of her father, Sir John Ellerman, a wealthy shipping magnate. They felt a telepathic and electric connection, bonding over Greek poetry, geography, ancient history, and a shared bodily dysphoria. Bryher introduced H.D. to cinema, psychoanalysis, and politics, herself rescuing refugees from Nazis throughout the 1930s. Bryher engaged in legal strategies to protect H.D., marrying Kenneth Macpherson, who adopted H.D.’s child and collaborated with the couple in filmmaking. Both H.D. and Bryher were on vision quests, and their cerebral eroticism led them to otherworldly experiences. During World War II, they held séances in London. After V-J Day was announced, H.D. had a severe breakdown, which Bryher, taking great pains, ensured she survived. As a love story born out of war and modernism, the book speaks to their struggles to escape binary gender and homophobic and white supremacist agendas, while celebrating their creative triumphs and courageous aspirations.
The Meeting
Authors: McCabe Susan
Published: October 2021

The chapter introduces H.D. and Bryher, their powerful relationship near cultural erasure. It begins with their meeting in 1918, pivoting against studies of H.D. that underplay the almost lifelong relationship between H.D. and the shipping heiress and proto-transgender Bryher. It outlines their revival and relevance to our contemporary grappling with nomenclature to designate multiple genders, and the role Bryher’s money played in their conception of psychic exchange. H.D. described her relationship with Bryher as a “whole machine,” a model of their creative collaboration, with herself as a “live wire” for visions and Bryher as conductor, the wire’s wrapping, images expressive of the pair’s complementarity. The chapter sets up the book’s main through lines: ancient wisdom, psychoanalysis, trances, time travel, and activism.
H.D.’s Ancestors Circle
Authors: McCabe Susan
Published: October 2021

This chapter explores the formative elements in H.D.’s childhood in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania—her Moravian inheritance and her father’s New England ancestry. Her mother, with the auspicious name Helen, married an outsider, Charles Leander Doolittle, an astronomy professor. She taught German and painting at the seminary where H.D.’s grandfather was principal. H.D. was drawn to her father’s telescope dome as well as her grandmother’s ravings about a failed peace plan between indigenous people and early Moravian refugees from Germany. She was exposed to Moravian iconography, depicting Jesus with a “side-hole” wound, welcoming the congregant to imagine entering it to have a womb-like experience. Both her ancestral lines cast huge shadows, showing her childhood aptitude for metaphoric lenses, having “visions” her mother discouraged. When the family moved from Bethlehem, H.D. suffered terrible dislocation.
Twilight Zone & “the Combined UNK”
Authors: McCabe Susan
Published: October 2021

Bryher and H.D., with the Schmidebergs, were at Kenwin when they heard war was declared. Two and half weeks later, Lady Ellerman died, the same week as Freud. After H.D.’s return to London, communication was censored, so they wrote through Moore and Macpherson in New York. At first, H.D. was excited, joining Londoners against the Nazis. The Battle of Britain made Air Marshall Hugh Dowding one of her heroes. Bryher finally left Kenwin with a refugee, the Jewish daughter of her mother’s best friend, taking a perilous, stop-and-start journey back to London. An explosion destroyed the Life and Letters office; Edith and Osbert Sitwell, friends of Bryher, let Herring stay at Renishaw until he settled in nearby Eckington. After continuous air raids and Virginia Woolf’s suicide, H.D. visited Herring once; he took her to visit “Major Oak,” in an ancient forest.
Islam and Nationalism in Modern Greece, 1821-1940
Authors: Katsikas Stefanos
Published: October 2021

Drawing from a wide range of primary archival and secondary Greek, Bulgarian, and Turkish sources, the book explores the way the Muslim populations of Greece were ruled by state authorities from Greece’s political emancipation from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s up to the country’s entrance into World War II, in October 1940. In particular, the book examines how state rule influenced the development of the Muslim populations’ collective identity as a minority and how it affected Muslim relations with the Greek authorities, Greek Orthodox Christians, and other ethnic and religious groups. Greece was the first country to become an independent state in the Balkans and a pioneer in experimenting with minority issues. With regards to its Muslim populations, Greece’s ruling framework, and many of the country’s state administrative measures and patterns were to serve as a template at a later stage in other Christian Orthodox Balkan states with Muslim minorities (e.g., Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Cyprus): Muslim religious officials were empowered with authorities they did not have in Ottoman times, and aspects of Islamic law (sharia) were incorporated into the state legal system to be used for Muslim family and property affairs. The book shows that these and any policies can be ambivalent and cannot be a guide to present-day solutions. It also argues that religion remained a defining element and that religious nationalism and public institutions played an important role in the development of religious and ethnic identity.
Defining Life and Death
Authors: Howard Gary C.
Published: October 2021

The difference between life and death is not as simple as it might seem, and defining these two terms has thwarted many excellent scientists. Our definitions of life and death have changed radically over the years, from the loss of a heartbeat to the absence of brain activity. Even now, we struggle with what death is. This chapter will focus on the biological definition of death. Biologists can live comfortably with an understanding of what life and death are, but for some situations a more precise definition is mandatory. That need manifests itself legally at the extremes of life: the beginning and the end. Ironically, it is the invention of the artificial ventilator and the concept of brain death that have complicated matters.
Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust
Authors: Howard Gary C.
Published: October 2021

Death triggers a series of biochemical events that begin the somewhat gruesome task of natural decomposition. We will focus on humans in describing this process, but the basic elements are applicable to all animals. Something similar happens to plants. From a biological point of view, this intricate process involves a fascinating array of reactions and a myriad of other organisms. The end result is a kind of “biological reincarnation” into millions of bacteria, insects, plants, and other living organisms. It is a kind of “rebirth” that guarantees a sort of life after death through the elements of the human body being incorporated into the ongoing life of the planet.
Introduction
Authors: Jorati Julia
Published: October 2021

This introduction to the edited volume Powers: A History provides an overview of the philosophical issues surrounding the concept of powers. It also contends that one common narrative about the history of this concept is incorrect: it is not true that ancient and medieval philosophers generally accepted naïve conceptions of powers and that starting in the early modern period the popularity of this concept declined steadily. Rather, as this volume illustrates, ancient and medieval conceptions of powers were enormously sophisticated, and many philosophers in the early modern period—and even today—view this concept as important and ineliminable. Finally, this introduction offers short summaries of each of the eleven chapters and four interdisciplinary Reflections contained in the volume.
Causal Powers in Aristotle and His Predecessors
Authors: Marmodoro Anna
Published: October 2021

This chapter introduces the reader to Aristotle’s account of causal powers and highlights the conceptual innovations he introduced in relation to the accounts of his predecessors, most notably Anaxagoras and Plato. The chapter argues that Aristotle’s predecessors had a distinctive account of powers, different from Aristotle’s in that their powers exist as always exercising and not interacting with each other. Aristotle famously introduces the distinction between being in potentiality and being in actuality, and between active and passive powers; and provides a definition of powers that has remained mainstream in current philosophy too.
Causal Powers and Ontology in Descartes, Malebranche, and Leibniz
Authors: McDonough Jeffrey K.
Published: October 2021

This essay focuses on an intriguing cycle in early modern ontology—that is, in the early modern study of what exists. René Descartes helped to usher in a new era in ontology by putting pressure on the causal powers posited by his scholastic forbearers. Nicholas Malebranche went a step further in flatly denying the existence of created causal powers. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, however, demurred, arguing for a return once again of causal powers. Having explored the decline, fall, and rise of causal powers in the ontologies of Descartes, Malebranche, and Leibniz, the essay closes by asking if early modern debates over causal powers might have anything to teach us about the study of ontology itself.
Powers in Contemporary Philosophy
Authors: McKitrick Jennifer
Published: October 2021

Four metaphysicians, Charlie Martin, David Lewis, David Armstrong, and George Molnar, offer distinctive approaches to understanding powers. Martin challenges the widely held view that disposition statements can be eliminated in favor of conditional statements. The apparent failure of the conditional analysis clears the path for Martin’s idea that all properties have some degree of irreducible dispositionality. Lewis takes on Martin’s challenge and offers his reformed conditional analysis. This analysis does not purport to eliminate talk of dispositions, but instead metaphysically reduces dispositions to their causal bases. Armstrong also reduces dispositions, but he reduces them to categorical universals governed by natural laws. Molnar argues that each of the aforementioned views falters when confronted with the powers of fundamental particles, which are said to be ungrounded pure powers. Molnar holds that both fundamental and derivative powers exist alongside non-power spatial and temporal properties. Debates among these four philosophers in the latter half of the 20th century constitute a substantial part of the reemergence of discussion of powers in contemporary metaphysics.
Globalization and the Burden of Disease
Authors: Weiss Charles
Published: October 2021

More equitable and need-oriented funding of health services and research would safeguard everyone’s health. Worldwide health expenditures on health disproportionately address problems of the well-off, while research on diseases like malaria affecting hundreds of millions of mostly low-income people are underfunded. Nor are sufficient resources devoted to mental illness, traffic injuries, and natural disasters. As people in low-income countries live longer, chronic, non-communicable, and lifestyle diseases add to long-standing burdens of infectious and parasitic disease, and maternal and child health. This epidemiological transition calls for universal access to health services, which will also improve these countries’ ability to detect and respond to infectious diseases like the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization, coordinator of global epidemic response, needs to be freed from its downward spiral of decreased effectiveness, frozen funding, and increased politicization. Statistics on global causes of death and disability elevate the importance of social determinants of health.
Playing with Fire
Authors: Weiss Charles
Published: October 2021

Post–World War II regimes for global problems are now dated and under stress. They need strengthening and updating. Controls are needed to prevent pandemics, limit climate change, and avoid nuclear war. New technologies require new norms and codes of conduct to guide expected behavior of governments, businesses, NGOs, and individuals. These must be developed against the background of the rise of authoritarian rivals. Russia seeks to undermine democratic powers by disinformation, China to surpass them via information and communications technology. This chapter proposes cross-culturally acceptable norms: respect for facts and evolving knowledge; cooperation; avoiding harm and minimizing risk; equity, sustainability, and participation; and accountability. Science and technology are ubiquitous in world affairs, linked to politics, economics, business, law, psychology, and culture. This synthesis deserves recognition as an academic discipline. The book ends on a fundamental ethical issue: what are people willing to do today to avoid future catastrophic damage?
Realism, Instrumentalism, Particularism
Authors: Stanford P. Kyle
Published: October 2021

This chapter first describes a number of important respects in which historically sophisticated contemporary scientific realists and instrumentalists have come to agree far more with one another than either does with their classical predecessors. It suggests that their central residual disagreement concerns whether we can reliably specify which elements of our theories will persist indefinitely throughout further scientific inquiry, and that the position we take in this crucial remaining disagreement actually makes a difference to how we should pursue the scientific enterprise itself. It concludes by exploring a further dimension of disagreement concerning the level of abstraction or generality at which the realism debate can be profitably pursued, on which contemporary realists and instrumentalists are united against both the complete generality assumed by their classical counterparts and the radical particularist who sees nothing to be gained by ascending to any level of abstraction or generality above that of individual scientific cases.