bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Striped Blandford/Znajek jets from advection of small-scale magnetic field
Authors: Mahlmann J F , Levinson A , Aloy M A
Published: April 2020

Black hole – accretion disc systems are the central engines of relativistic jets from stellar to galactic scales. We numerically quantify the unsteady outgoing Poynting flux through the horizon of a rapidly spinning black hole endowed with a rotating accretion disc. The disc supports small-scale, concentric, flux tubes with zero net magnetic flux. Our general relativistic force-free electrodynamics simulations follow the accretion on to the black hole over several hundred dynamical time-scales in 3D. For the case of counter-rotating accretion discs, the average process efficiency reaches up to 〈ϵ〉 ≈ 0.43, compared to a stationary energy extraction by the Blandford/Znajek process. The process efficiency depends on the cross-sectional area of the loops, i.e. on the product l × h, where l is the radial loop thickness and h its vertical scale height. We identify a strong correlation between efficient electromagnetic energy extraction and the quasi-stationary setting of ideal conditions for the operation of the Blandford/Znajek process (e.g. optimal field line angular velocity and fulfillment of the so-called Znajek condition). Remarkably, the energy extraction operates intermittently (alternating episodes of high and low efficiency) without imposing any large-scale magnetic field embedding the central object. Scaling our results to supermassive black holes, we estimate that the typical variability time-scale of the system is of the order of days to months. Such time-scales may account for the longest variability scales of TeV emission observed, e.g. in M87.
The flavivirus polymerase NS5 regulates translation of viral genomic RNA
Authors: Fajardo Teodoro , Sanford Thomas J , Mears Harriet V , Jasper Annika , Storrie Skye , Mansur Daniel S , Sweeney Trevor R
Published: April 2020

Flaviviruses, including dengue virus and Zika virus, contain a single-stranded positive sense RNA genome that encodes viral proteins essential for replication and also serves as the template for new genome synthesis. As these processes move in opposite directions along the genome, translation must be inhibited at a defined point following infection to clear the template of ribosomes to allow efficient replication. Here, we demonstrate in vitro and in cell-based assays that the viral RNA polymerase, NS5, inhibits translation of the viral genome. By reconstituting translation in vitro using highly purified components, we show that this translation block occurs at the initiation stage and that translation inhibition depends on NS5-RNA interaction, primarily through association with the 5′ replication promoter region. This work supports a model whereby expression of a viral protein signals successful translation of the infecting genome, prompting a switch to a ribosome depleted replication-competent form.
The Social Consequences of Phubbing
Authors: Abeele Mariek Vanden
Published: April 2020

Recent empirical work suggests that phubbing, a term used to describe the practice of snubbing someone with a phone during a face-to-face social interaction, harms the quality of social relationships. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this chapter presents a framework that integrates three concurrent mechanisms that explain the relational impact of phubbing: expectancy violations, ostracism, and attentional conflict. Based on this framework, theoretically grounded propositions are formulated that may serve as guidelines for future research on these mechanisms, the conditions under which they operate, and a number of potential issues that need to be considered to further validate and extend the framework.
Older People Go Mobile
Authors: Fernández-Ardèvol Mireia
Published: April 2020

This chapter examines the ways heterogeneous groups of older individuals appropriate mobile devices, the meanings of these uses, and the paramount role of the smartphone. Images, text messages, and voice messages have become key elements of (asynchronous) communication. In contexts where smartphones are pervasive, expectations and pressures come from relatives and peers, shaping mobile practices and associated learning processes. The chapter also analyzes the causes and consequences of non-use and limited use as the digital divide affects older people significantly. Finally, it discusses the need for non-patronizing empirical research going beyond health-centered perspectives, enabling a better understanding of the multiple dimensions of the mobile revolution and favoring an inclusive design of products, services, and policies.
Death and the Mobile
Authors: Cumiskey Kathleen M.
Published: April 2020

This chapter discusses the increasing role that mobiles are playing in meaning-making related to significant events in users’ lives. The focus of this chapter is on death and loss in relation to increasing ubiquity and ever-presence of mobile devices. The unique features of mobile communication can shift users’ views of death and culturally specific rituals related to grief and mourning. A review of the literature moves the role of mobiles in death beyond the use of social media platforms and online memorialization to include a focus on the devices themselves. When a death or loss occurs, specific capabilities and functions of mobile devices shape how users perceive and reflect upon shifts to their assumptive worlds.
Political Protest and Mobile Communication
Authors: Neumayer Christina
Published: April 2020

This chapter explores the role of mobile phones and smartphones for activists in political protest. Activist practices and modalities of organizing and coordination, identity formation and representation of political protest, production of visibility and maintenance of security may have changed as a result of the presence of these technologies. The chapter engages with this issue as a sociotechnical process at the intersection of social movement studies and (mobile) media studies. It explores the evolution of mobile media technologies and political activism and illustrates the tensions that have emerged in this interrelationship. It emphasizes the extent to which political protest has become dependent upon and constrained by mobile phones. The chapter concludes by arguing that political activism and mobile technologies are interdependent and that it is at this sociotechnical intersection that we must ask critical questions concerning the roles mobile phones play in political protest today.
Mobile Health
Authors: Labrique Alain B. , Gibson Dustin G. , Rajan Radha , Vasudevan Lavanya
Published: April 2020

In this chapter, the authors explore the rapidly changing landscape of mobile health (mHealth) over the past decade. From a time of discordant innovation at the beginning of the global mobile phone “revolution” to one where national mHealth strategies are the norm, a number of key innovations and digital strategies have emerged as catalysts for clinical and public health service delivery. In 2019, the World Health Organization released the first-ever digital health guidelines, based on extensive systematic reviews, to help ministries of health and implementing agencies to make evidence-based investments in digital health. Several key mHealth approaches to health system strengthening have been identified across the various layers of complex health systems—from improving target population denominators to strengthening service quality and affordability. Across layers of patient, provider, and system interventions, examples of digital strategies will be used to illustrate the ways in which mHealth can be used to overcome persistent bottlenecks or cost drivers. Seminal frameworks and tools to describe, evaluate, and measure the maturity of digital health innovations will be introduced, with links to key resources. Finally, the importance of engagement is discussed as an emergent frontier of digital “adherence” to prescription-strength digital applications.
Ambient Play
Authors: Hjorth Larissa , Richardson Ingrid
Published: April 2020

In this chapter the authors conceptualize the shifts in mobile gaming through two key rubrics—ambient play and digital wayfaring—that help to coalesce the multiple forms of domestic, casual, and urban play that constitute mobile gaming. In the first two sections the authors provide a definition of these two terms and then a short history of mobile casual gaming in terms of the mobilization of private space. This is followed by a discussion of pervasive games as vehicles for transforming urban environments into playspaces. The authors finish with a brief discussion of the Pokémon Go phenomenon in terms of what constitutes mobile gaming today.
Defining mGender
Authors: Pei Xin , Chib Arul
Published: April 2020

The authors coin the term mGender to refer to the strand of mobile communication research concerning the role of mobile phone use in gender construction processes. From a gender lens, they map out the landscape of extant scholarship, categorizing its historical progression into four phases. In general, the research focus has evolved from mobile phone use for doing gender to undoing gender to being without guarantees, culminating in contextualized interpretations of the part played by the phone. The authors suggest that future mGender research broaden the investigation, shifting from solely examining mobile mediated individual gender negotiation to understanding the transformation of gendered social power structures. Additionally, more inclusive constructions of mGender would allow for scholarly exploration of the possible social meanings embodied by mobile phone use of underrepresented social groups, such as LGBTQ communities, in their largely ignored gender construction processes.
The Diversionary Art of Zeina Abirached in Le Piano Oriental
Authors: McKinney Mark
Published: April 2020

Zeina Abirached, a Lebanese and French cartoonist, has published several graphic novels exploring possibilities for creative self-expression amid and against violence. Four conceptual metaphors are used to analyze Abirached’s diversionary art in her graphic novel Le piano oriental (The Oriental Piano, 2015), which offers a model for evading monocultural constraints and (post) colonial exclusion. One is from the author of this chapter (affrontier), one is from literary history (clinamen), and two are from Abirached (déhanchement and tricotage). It is argued here that déhanchement (hip swaying) is an apt metaphor for transcultural alternation between the Eastern and Western cultural poles in her book. Tricotage (knitting) offers a powerful variation on, or substitute for, tressage (braiding), a metaphor through which Thierry Groensteen theorized exceptional repetition of images in comics. The chapter also shows how Abirached deftly combines fiction with auto-/biography to escape constraints of the latter on her artistic creativity.
Thomas Pogge’s Conception of Taking the Global Institutional Order as the Object of Justice Assessments
Authors: Chin Arthur
Published: April 2020

Might our reasoning about social justice at the domestic level—for instance, with regard to the kind of objects that our justice assessments are immediately concerned with and the content of principles employed—properly diverge from its counterpart at the global level? This is the question around which much of the current global justice debate revolves. This chapter is devoted to examining and arguing that the answers provided by Thomas Pogge for the most part retain their plausibility despite the barrage of criticism they have provoked. While Pogge is particularly renowned for his contention that existing world poverty constitutes an injustice that implicates ordinary citizens of affluent societies in negative duty violations, this chapter will not be directly weighing in on this debate. Rather, it seeks to examine a fundamental commitment in Pogge’s justice theorizing: if we are to take the basic institutional scheme of a domestic society as the primary subject of justice in virtue of its profound and pervasive effects, then consistency requires us to subject the global institutional scheme to the same type of justice analysis, and to devise a corresponding set of principles governing its design. Through clarifying the meaning and implications of this proposition, this chapter hopes to bring out a more lucid and unified reading of Pogge’s institutional approach to justice theorizing, one that is both appealing and remains viable in the absence of a world government.
Political Legitimacy And Territorial Rights
Authors: Wellman Christopher Heath
Published: April 2020

Few deny that states should be delineated territorially, but questions abound as to what moral rights states can claim to which parcels of territory. In other words, even if one assumes that states can be legitimate and must be territorially districted (and not everyone does, of course), why think that Norway is entitled to exclusive jurisdiction over the particular piece of territory it currently occupies? And even if Norway does have a special claim to this land, what rights does this give it against which parties? More specifically, does Norway have exclusive rights of jurisdiction (the right to make and enforce law on its territory), resources (the right to control and consume the natural resources available in its territory), and/or border control (the right to design and enforce its own immigration policy as it sees fit)? This chapter explores how functional theorists (those who believe that states are justified in virtue of the important functions they perform) might try to ground a legitimate state’s claims to jurisdiction, border control, and resources. I argue that functional theorists can provide plausible accounts of the first two territorial rights, but it remains unclear how they can justify the third. Assuming that this is correct, the plausibility of functional theories of political legitimacy will depend upon whether natural resources should be understood as belonging exclusively to the citizens of the country in which they lie.
The Holders of Human Rights
Authors: Besson Samantha
Published: April 2020

International human rights law and practice reveal an ambivalent approach to the personal scope of human rights: human rights are often less equal or general than they claim and are claimed to be. The inequalities of human rights are of two kinds: some vulnerable individuals are also protected by special rights, thus drawing an internal boundary within the scope of human rights-holders, while others have limited or no human rights at all, thus delineating an external boundary around the scope of human rights-holders. This chapter presents an argument that fits and justifies the core of the practice of international human rights law regarding the scope of human rights-holders, while criticizing it at the same time for some of its contradictions. More specifically, it argues for an egalitarian reading of human rights, before accounting on that basis for the humanity-based, capacity-related, and individualistic boundaries of human rights, on the one hand, and defending it against the tendency to expand the scope of special rights beyond what it refers to as justified “non-discriminatory rights” and “developing rights,” on the other.
Mystical Theology and Christian Self-Understanding
Authors: Williams Rowan
Published: April 2020

The beginnings of a distinctive Christian theology lie in the conviction that human beings had been granted a new level of access to or presence to the God of Israel through the death and rising of Jesus: they were introduced into the heavenly sanctuary and accorded the dignity of priests and the intimacy of access to God as sons and daughters of the Father of Jesus. This prompts both doctrinal definition and definitional reserve: some new things must be said about God, but there is an intensified sense of what cannot be said of God, and of the truth that God cannot be an object among others. This becomes a central tension in the tradition of ‘mystical’ writing and reflection, but is congruent with central theological affirmations about the encounter of finite and infinite action in Christ and in Christ’s people. In both individual and corporate prayer, this is understood as a present anticipation of eternal relatedness, so that the ‘mystical’ is essentially an eschatological category.
Mystical Poetics
Authors: Hampton Alexander J. B.
Published: April 2020

The development of Christian mysticism is deeply bound to poetics. This examination first considers Platonic poetry, Hebrew creation, and Christian kenosis as sources of poetic mysticism, before turning to an elaboration of the role of rhythm, language, and the poetic imagination. The appraisal then considers the historical development of mystical poetry, beginning with early Christian reflection on the figurative and lyrical use of scriptural language to express a deep personal relationship with God. The development of vernacular mysticism, and its adoption of this scriptural model, is then explored through a detailed consideration of four mystical poets (Dante, Jacopone, Hadewijch, and Angelus Silesius). The interaction of poetic form and spiritual content is elaborated throughout, with the aim of demonstrating how poetics allows the mystical writer to achieve a result for the reader otherwise not possible in discursive forms of communication.
Depth, Ground, Abyss
Authors: Radler Charlotte
Published: April 2020

Christian mystics have used the topographical metaphors of depth, ground, and abyss to illuminate the continuity between God and creation. This chapter first proffers a brief survey of the biblical and early Christian usage of these metaphors. It then moves to a more extensive exploration of them in the writings of medieval, modern, and post-modern Christian thinkers Meister Eckhart (c.1260-1328), Thomas Merton (1915–68), and Dorothee Sölle (1929–2003). In the writings of Eckhart, Merton, and Sölle, the metaphors depth, ground, and abyss are used to depict an ever-expanding continuum of God and human, time and eternity, immanence and transcendence, challenging static identities and relationships. The spiritual and political implications of Eckhart’s conceptual expansion of these metaphors continue to be appropriated and reworked in contemporary mysticism as illustrated in the writings of Merton and Sölle.
Christology
Authors: Hollywood Amy , Smith Rachel
Published: April 2020

This chapter examines the Christologies found not only among scholastic theologians but also in hagiography, vision books, didactic letters, poems, and spiritual guidebooks. At the forefront are male and female authors within the Western Christian tradition who claim that human beings might be so fully united with Christ as to be an alter Christus or, alternatively, who are claimed by others to have attained that state. The chapter begins with more recognizable Christological arguments before exploring how certain medieval texts and communities, through their claims about the possibility of being conformed to Christ, make theological arguments about Christ that stand in tension with his purported singularity.
Pneumatology
Authors: Gallaher Brandon
Published: April 2020

This chapter seeks to show that mysticism is not about the rarefied experience of certain spiritual athletes but the Holy Spirit’s ordinary or common call to transformation of every Christian into a potentially extraordinary ‘second Christ’. The author contends that in Christian teaching the Spirit hides himself but in this age is made known in the faces of transformed Christians—saints and mystics—as little ‘christs’. The Spirit is said to be the author of the Body of Christ in which Christians are called to put on Christ, living lives headed by the Spirit, as ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Pet. 1: 4). Examples are drawn from the mystical and liturgical tradition in Christian East and West: Symeon the New Theologian, Seraphim of Sarov, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, as well as in baptismal and eucharistic theology and especially in the work of Augustine.
Theosis
Authors: Papanikolaou Aristotle
Published: April 2020

For certain Christians, the word theosis raises red flags. The very mentioning of theosis inevitably conjures up images of Zeus or Thor, as well as many other mythological themes and stories that blur the boundary between the divine and the human. A closer look at the history of Christian thought will reveal that theosis is very closely linked to the basic question that Jesus himself posed: ‘who do you say that I am?’ If Christianity begins with the proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah, Christian thought throughout the centuries is a history of debate on the answer to this basic question. The Christian affirmation of theosis emerges as a particular response to this question, one that experiences the messianic message of Jesus as the presencing of the divine, both in the person of Jesus and in the human being. This Christian understanding of theosis thus constitutes one of the clearest examples of ‘mystical theology’ both in the sense of how the experience of Jesus as the Christ informed particular Christian expressions about God, and how, in turn, such theological articulations continued to shape the Christian experience of the presencing of the divine. This chapter will look to the past to demonstrate how theosis was at the heart of the amplification of the Christian understanding of God as Trinity and the Christian understanding of virtue.
Ecclesiology
Authors: Simmonds Gemma
Published: April 2020

Holiness is as crucial an element within the Church’s authentication as union, universality, apostolic origin, and outward dynamism. This holiness originates not in the Church’s members but in the holiness of the Spirit of God dwelling within the community. The tradition of holiness within the Church is essential to its very life and sustainability and must be viewed within an eschatological perspective that acknowledges the fallen nature of all believers and the reality of sin while affirming that all are called without exception to be faithful to the Spirit alive within the community. The mystical tradition, while including its noted proponents and practitioners, is part of the universal baptismal vocation to holiness. A tension between hierarchy and charism, holiness and authority, has existed since the Church’s foundation. Despite this inevitable tension, where sin abounds universally within the Church so grace also abounds by God’s mercy throughout its history.
Chiefs, elders, and traditional authority
Authors: Osborn Michelle
Published: April 2020

For over a century, Kenya’s chiefs have served as central figures in the formation and implementation of state bureaucracy. Inextricably linked with the colonial and post-colonial state, Kenya’s chiefs are not representative of traditional forms of authority in the way that elders may be said to be, but are rather an embodiment of the state’s bureaucratic apparatus. As a key component of Kenyan bureaucracy through their position in provincial administration, chiefs have played a central role in the implementation of policies, the provision of order, and mobilization of political support. They act as an integral link between the state and ordinary citizens. While chiefs have obtained their right to govern through the state, their power has nevertheless waxed and waned over the years, as they have had to continuously negotiate legitimacy within a pluralistic landscape of locally recognized authorities. This chapter discusses chiefs’ authority in Kenya and the change and continuity of historical processes, which have created, reinforced, and challenged their position and role.
NGOs and public service provision
Authors: Brass Jennifer N.
Published: April 2020

Since the 1980s, international and Kenyan-based NGOs have come to play a pivotal position in the governance of service provision in Kenya. Not only do they provide services directly to citizens, but they also engage in indirect provision, collaborative provision, and policy-making related to service provision locally or nationally. As such, NGOs have come to form part of the de facto organizational composition of the Kenyan public administration. The political economy effects of this NGO participation have been mixed: service provision has expanded, particularly where there is collaboration in delivery, and there has been some movement toward greater line-ministry accountability and participatory development techniques. At the same time, however, NGOs may lend legitimacy to undeserving local or national political regimes, may reduce the possibility for democratic accountability for service provision, and may thrive at the expense of Kenya state capacity.
International relations and the International Criminal Court
Authors: Wamai Njoki
Published: April 2020

The tensions generated by the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) indictment of four prominent Kenyans—including Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, who went on to become president and deputy president of the Kenyan Republic, respectively—in 2013 promised to reorder the relationship between Kenya and the international community. This chapter discusses the ICC’s intervention and its impact on both local Kenyan politics and Kenya’s relationship with its regional and international partners including its traditional Western partners, such as Europe, the UK, and the US. The chapter also discusses how tensions between Kenya and the West influenced Kenya’s relationship with the East including China, India, and Japan.
Foreign policy and regional relations
Authors: Wanyeki L. Muthoni
Published: April 2020

In recent years, and particularly since the 2013 general election and the ascent to power of the Jubilee Alliance, Kenya has sought to enhance its influence and standing beyond the regional economic communities of the East African Community (EAC) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). This chapter explores Kenya’s foreign policy and changing relationship with the EAC and IGAD, the ways in which it has sought to expand its regional integration to include the African Union (AU), the reasons for this shift, and the implications for Kenya’s domestic economy and politics. It posits that, due to both internal and external factors—such as military involvement in Somalia and the LAPSSET corridor project—Kenya is now pursuing a far more aggressive and proactive bilateral and multilateral diplomatic strategy with both positive and negative effects.
Nairobi
Authors: Jones Peris S.
Published: April 2020

This chapter charts some of the key characteristics of Nairobi County, particularly those of development and governance that are directly relevant for how we may imagine the capital as a city of politics. The aim is, first, to provide an overview of the key issues that have an important bearing on contemporary politics, such as the historical geography of the capital’s divided urban areas and the enduring politics of the majority’s exclusion through control over and through space. Second, the chapter briefly explains the latest developments in the context of devolution, and what difference (if any) devolution has made to local politics in terms of addressing and/or exacerbating existing issues. The chapter concludes that, while recent events show that politics is livelier than ever in the capital city, it is far from clear whether devolution is delivering development or democratization.
The Coast
Authors: Waddilove Hannah
Published: April 2020

Rooted in perceptions of marginalization, ideas of the Coast’s autonomy from Kenya have long animated regional politics, at times expressed as ambitions for secession. However, the appeal of coastal autonomy lies in a lack of resolution on the terms upon which the Coast’s diverse communities can stake a claim as being part of Kenya. This chapter will consider how the Coast’s divisions along ethnic, racial, and religious lines have produced different understandings of marginalization, contributing to the political disunity that has hindered the region’s national integration. Competition for political office under devolution has invigorated participation in local politics. However, when devolved offices are considered as new platforms from which to engage in national politics, the trajectory of county politics reveals that the idea of “the Coast” as a political bloc remains elusive, and that divisions within coastal society may sustain the region’s unequal incorporation into Kenya.
The science, suspicion, and sustainability of opinion polls
Authors: Wolf Thomas P.
Published: April 2020

The past 30 years have seen political surveys, particularly those related to elections, evolve from an occasional novelty to a staple feature of the Kenyan political scene. This chapter considers several issues with regard to these surveys. These include: (1) the practical challenges in conducting them as well as recent technological advances; (2) the reasons why a high level of suspicion is often attached to election polls in particular, and the main rhetorical forms that such suspicion takes; and, (3) several factors likely to affect the future of such surveys, beyond the widespread awareness of and considerable public support for them, especially the attitudes of those in, and aspiring to, power. It concludes by suggesting that the recent “proliferation” of such polls is no guarantee of their continuation.
Daniel arap Moi and one-party rule (1978–1991)
Authors: Throup David W.
Published: April 2020

This chapter examines Daniel arap Moi’s succession to the presidency in 1978 and his efforts to consolidate power. After initially seeking to allay fears of change, Moi moved to construct a new coalition following the 1979 elections by removing Kikuyu from key positions and appointing members of his own Kalenjin community, along with other Rift Valley communities, the Luhya of Western Province, and Coastal groups. Following the failed coup of August 1, 1982, the President moved against Charles Njonjo, the most powerful Kikuyu leader, and purged Parliament and the military of senior Kikuyu officers. Rigged elections in 1983 and 1988 eventually generated sustained resistance to the regime’s autocracy. Street protests, the launch of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD), as well as international pressure and withholding of aid eventually led Moi to allow a multi-party system to re-emerge in 1991.
Race and ethnicity in colonial Kenya
Authors: Lonsdale John
Published: April 2020

From the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the region that became Kenya changed from a marketplace for loose-knit ecological and immigrant ethnicities into a power structure in which the same ethnic groups compete as political tribes. This chapter analyzes this fundamental change in the nature of ethnic community and its associated moral economy in five phases: the stateless past; the building of a racial state; the colonial agrarian-educational revolution that benefitted agriculturalists at the expense of pastoralists; the rise of co-operative patriotic ethnicities among the former; and, finally, the birth of the conflict between ethnic self-mastery and the hierarchical power of nationalism, epitomized in the Mau Mau uprising with which independent Kenya has been wrestling ever since.
The political role of Islam
Authors: Chome Ngala
Published: April 2020

This chapter discusses Muslim politics in the context of wider debates about political inclusion and exclusion in Kenya. It submits that a common narrative of exclusion and injustice amongst Kenya’s minority Muslim population exists, but that an imagined political community of Muslims has failed to emerge. In part, this is due to ethnic, racial, class, and doctrinal differences. It is also due to different understandings of what needs to be done to address a commonly felt sense of marginalization, with two broad narratives emerging since the early 1990s. The first narrative encourages Muslim participation in formal political processes. The second narrative discourages such involvement and seeks a solution in transnational efforts to overthrow the international system. It is through such differences, debates, and contestations that ongoing, but largely unsuccessful, struggles to create an imagined political community of Muslims, and the more recent articulation of an Islamist ideology in Kenya’s public discourse, should be understood.
Ethnic Politics in American History
Authors: Connolly James J.
Published: April 2020

This chapter traces the ways that ethnic politics evolved in the United States. During the mid-nineteenth century, amid heavy immigration from Europe, ascendant mass parties mobilized newcomers rapidly, spurring nativism. Although the incorporation of immigrants gradually slowed after 1870 and Congress established immigration restriction laws during the 1920s, pluralism remained strong enough to allow the gradual integration of ethnics into the nation’s civic life. The revival of immigration after 1965, chiefly from Latin America and Asia, reinvigorated arguments about ethnic inclusion and nationalism. These debates developed in an altered civic environment, one marked by interest group activism and an emphasis on multiculturalism. Despite these differences, the preponderance of evidence suggests that the incorporation of ethnics during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries proceeded at a pace and in a manner comparable to previous eras.
The Long Shadow of Prohibition
Authors: Martin Scott C.
Published: April 2020

This chapter examines the legacy of Prohibition and prohibitory policies for twentieth-century U.S. alcohol and drug policy. It traces twentieth-century alcohol and drug policy from nineteenth-century antecedents through the Harrison Act, National Prohibition, the Marijuana Tax Act, the Boggs Act, and the regulatory regime established during the War on Drugs in the closing decades of the century. The chapter demonstrates how federal agencies tasked with enforcing drug legislation, notably the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the Drug Enforcement Administration, both emerged from and furthered prohibitory policies. It concludes that alternatives to the current War on Drugs, such as decriminalization or legalization, have been hampered by the historic investment in prohibitory policies.
The Politics of Slavery and the Coming Civil War
Authors: Ashworth John
Published: April 2020

This article is divided into four parts. The first recounts the events of the sectional crisis up to the Compromise of 1850. The second looks at factors underlying these events: the relationship between slavery and the Democratic Party, deepening attachment of the South to slavery, the economic and social changes that generated antislavery sentiment in the North (including the shift to wage labor), and the much neglected role of slave resistance in the politics of the sectional conflict. The third shows the decisive impact of these factors in the final decade of peace. The fourth refers to, and criticizes, some current interpretations and misunderstandings of the origins of the Civil War,
Politics of the Civil War and Reconstruction
Authors: Alexander Erik B.
Published: April 2020

This essay traces political developments in the Civil War Era between 1861 and 1877. In doing so, it argues that unpredictability and uncertainty defined the politics of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Political parties and party labels were fluid and malleable in the midst of contemporary predictions of political realignment. The essay attempts to interpret the major events of the period through this lens of political instability. It outlines party politics during the Civil War in both the North and the South, discusses the Lincoln administration, and interprets the elections of 1862 and 1864. The essay then moves to the politics of Reconstruction, discussing the clash between Andrew Johnson and Congress, Radical Reconstruction, and the presidential elections of 1868 and 1872. The essay concludes with political developments in the South, the failure of Reconstruction, and the presidential election of 1876.
Applications of Positive Psychology
Authors: Wood Alex M. , Davidson Adam T. , Linley P. Alex , Maltby John , Harrington Susan , Joseph Stephen
Published: April 2020

It is in the applications of positive psychology that the area has the most potential to impact people’s lives. As such, it is here that the greatest rigor needs to be used to evaluate the claims of the potential of positive psychology approaches, lest they do harm, either directly or through crowding out existing more effective approaches. This chapter discusses the changes that have occurred in the area of positive psychology applications over the last 15 years and the issues that have emerged, including the initial enthusiasm, later criticisms, and the high potential for new research into positive psychology applications at the present time. Positive psychology can inform and readily sit within the current zeitgeist of a number of applied areas, benefiting itself from the win–win of interdisciplinary collaboration. The chapter concludes that the greatest potential is to remove the arbitrary separation of focusing on either the “positive” or the “negative” in applied fields. Such an approach is already gaining traction within clinical and health psychology, and there is potential for this to expand to other applied fields. The various positive interventions that have been developed are viewed as promising, but not yet meeting normal clinical standards of evidence. Such trials are strongly encouraged to be carried out to ensure that positive interventions are properly evidence based, and so that those that do work can be more widely used in evidence-based practice.
Specialized Visual Experiences
Authors: Landers Casey
Published: April 2020

Through extensive training, experts acquire specialized knowledge and abilities. In this paper, I argue that experts also acquire specialized visual experiences. Specifically, I articulate and defend the account that experts enjoy visual experiences that represent gestalt properties through perceptual learning. I survey an array of empirical studies on face perception and perceptual expertise that support this account. I also look at studies on perceptual adaptation that some might argue present a problem for my account. I show how the data are subject to an interpretation that is friendly to it. Last, I address two theoretical objections to the claim that visual experiences represent gestalt properties.
Chitin Triggers Calcium-Mediated Immune Response in the Plant Model Physcomitrella patens
Authors: Galotto Giulia , Abreu Isidro , Sherman Catherine , Liu Boyuan , Gonzalez-Guerrero Manuel , Vidali Luis
Published: April 2020

A characteristic feature of a plant immune response is the increase of the cytosolic calcium (Ca2+) concentration following infection, which results in the downstream activation of immune response regulators. The bryophyte Physcomitrella patens has been shown to mount an immune response when exposed to bacteria, fungi, or chitin elicitation, in a manner similar to the one observed in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nevertheless, whether the response of P. patens to microorganism exposure is Ca2+ mediated is currently unknown. Here, we show that P. patens plants treated with chitin oligosaccharides exhibit Ca2+ oscillations, and that a calcium ionophore can stimulate the expression of defense-related genes. Treatment with chitin oligosaccharides also results in an inhibition of growth, which can be explained by the depolymerization of the apical actin cytoskeleton of tip growing cells. These results suggest that chitin-triggered calcium oscillations are conserved and were likely present in the common ancestor of bryophytes and vascular plants.
Detection and Characterization of Carboxylic Acid Amide-Resistant Plasmopara viticola in China Using a TaqMan-MGB Real-Time PCR
Authors: Huang Xiaoqing , Wang Xina , Kong Fanfang , van der Lee Theo , Wang Zhongyue , Zhang Hao
Published: April 2020

Grape production is increasing globally and so are problems with downy mildew, one of the main constraints in grape production. Downy mildew on grape is caused by Plasmopara viticola, an obligate biotrophic pathogen belonging to the oomycetes. Control of the disease is usually performed by fungicide applications, of which carboxylic acid amide (CAA) fungicides represent one of the most widely used groups of fungicides. Our previous research showed that the extensive application of CAA fungicides can result in fungicide resistance and in China, CAA-resistant isolates of P. viticola were collected from the field in 2014. To monitor the distribution and spread of CAA fungicide resistance, we developed a TaqMan-minor groove binder (MGB) real-time PCR-based method designed on a functional mutation in the PvCesA3 gene that allows efficient identification of CAA fungicide resistant and sensitive genotypes. The assay was validated on 50 isolates using Sanger sequencing and fungicide bioassays and exploited in a comprehensive survey comprising 2,227 single-sporangiophore isolates from eight major grapevine regions in China. We demonstrate that CAA fungicide resistance in P. viticola is widespread in China. On average, 53.3% of the isolates were found to be resistant, but marked differences were found between locations with percentages of resistant isolates varying from 0.3 to 96.6%. Furthermore, the frequency of CAA-resistant isolates was found to be significantly correlated with the exposure to CAA fungicides (P < 0.05). We further discussed the possibilities to apply the TaqMan-MGB real-time PCR assay to assess the frequency of fungicide-resistant P. viticola isolates in each region or vineyard, which would facilitate the correct choice of fungicide for grape downy mildew and resistance management strategies.
Optimizing the Treatment of CRPS With Ketamine
Authors: Kirkpatrick Anthony F. , Saghafi Abolfazl , Yang Kai , Qiu Peihua , Alexander James , Bavry Egle , Schwartzman Robert
Published: April 2020

Objective:

This study aimed to develop a method that objectively measures the clinical benefits of ketamine infusions to treat complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), thus making it possible, for the first time, to determine the optimal dosing of ketamine and duration of treatment to treat CRPS.

Materials and Methods:

All patients were diagnosed with hyperalgesia associated with CRPS. Patients underwent an outpatient, 4-day, escalating dose ketamine infusion. Hyperalgesia was measured using pain thresholds. Clinical outcome was determined without knowledge of the patient’s pain thresholds throughout treatment.

Results:

We found a correlation between pain thresholds and the intensity of pain reported by the patient at various sites of the body. We found that clinical outcomes correlated with improvement in pain thresholds. There was a plateau in pain thresholds between days 3 and 4 for the lower extremities. There was no plateau in pain thresholds observed for the upper extremities.

Discussion:

Our findings suggest that 4 days of treatment are sufficient for the treatment of CRPS of the lower extremities. For the upper extremities, >4 days may be required. Our study is the first to utilize quantitative sensory testing to direct the treatment of a chronic pain disorder.
Efficacy and safety of linaclotide for opioid-induced constipation in patients with chronic noncancer pain syndromes from a phase 2 randomized study
Authors: Brenner Darren M. , Argoff Charles E. , Fox Susan M. , Bochenek Wieslaw , D'Astoli Patricia , Blakesley Rick E. , Reasner David S. , O'Dea Christopher R. , Cash Brooks D.
Published: April 2020

Constipation is the most common adverse event (AE) of opioid therapy. This multicenter, phase 2 study evaluated the efficacy and safety of linaclotide in treating opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in patients with chronic noncancer pain syndromes (NCT02270983). Adults with OIC (<3 spontaneous bowel movements [SBMs]/week) related to chronic noncancer pain were randomized 1:1:1 to receive linaclotide 145 µg, linaclotide 290 µg, or placebo once daily for 8 weeks. The primary endpoint was change from baseline in 8-week SBM frequency rate (SBMs/week). Secondary efficacy endpoints included 6/8-week SBM 3 + 1 responders, time to first SBM, and changes from baseline in 8-week stool consistency, abdominal bloating, and straining. Additional endpoints included treatment satisfaction and adequate relief responders. In total, 254 patients were randomized: 87, 88, and 79 received linaclotide 145 µg, linaclotide 290 µg, and placebo, respectively. The mean changes from baseline in SBMs/week during the treatment period were 2.9 and 3.5 in the linaclotide 145 and 290 µg groups (P < 0.01 for both doses), respectively, vs 1.6 in the placebo group. Diarrhea, the most common AE, was generally mild, resulting in 1.1%, 5.7%, and 1.3% of patients discontinuing in the linaclotide 145 μg, linaclotide 290 μg, and placebo groups, respectively. No serious AEs related to diarrhea were reported in any treatment group. Compared with placebo, linaclotide-treated patients had significant improvements in stool consistency, straining, abdominal bloating, and treatment satisfaction scores (P < 0.05). Linaclotide significantly improved OIC symptoms and was well tolerated in patients with chronic noncancer pain.
Potential therapeutic agents against COVID-19: What we know so far
Authors: Lu Chih-Chia , Chen Mei-Yu , Lee Wan-Shin , Chang Yuh-Lih
Published: April 2020

The emerging outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 continues to spread all over the world. Agents or vaccines of proven efficacy to treat or prevent human coronavirus infection are in urgent need and are being investigated vigorously worldwide. This review summarizes the current evidence of potential therapeutic agents, such as lopinavir/ritonavir, remdesivir, favipiravir, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, interferon, ribavirin, tocilizumab, and sarilumab. More clinical trials are being conducted for further confirmation of the efficacy and safety of these agents in treating COVID-19.
A Systematic Review of Tests for Postcolposcopy and Posttreatment Surveillance
Authors: Clarke Megan A. , Unger Elizabeth R. , Zuna Rosemary , Nelson Erin , Darragh Teresa M. , Cremer Miriam , Stockdale Colleen K. , Einstein Mark H. , Wentzensen Nicolas
Published: April 2020

Objective

For the 2019 ASCCP Risk-Based Management Consensus Guidelines, we conducted a systematic review of diagnostic assays for postcolposcopy and posttreatment management.

Materials and Methods

A literature search was conducted to identify articles reporting on tests/assays for cervical cancer screening, triage, postcolposcopy surveillance, and posttreatment surveillance published between 2012 and 2019 in PubMed and Embase. Titles and abstracts were evaluated by co-authors for inclusion. Included articles underwent full-text review, data abstraction, and quality assessment. Pooled absolute pretest and posttest risk estimates were calculated for studies evaluating management of patients after treatment.

Results

A total of 2,862 articles were identified through the search. Of 50 articles on postcolposcopy, 5 were included for data abstraction. Of 66 articles on posttreatment, 23 were included for data abstraction and were summarized in the meta-analysis. The pooled posttreatment risk of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 2+ in all studies was 4.8% (95% CI = 3.4%–6.8%), ranging from 0.4%–19.5% (τ2 = 0.57) in individual studies. Among individuals testing negative for human papillomavirus (HPV) posttreatment, the risk of CIN 2+ was 0.69% (95% CI = 0.3%–1.5%); among individuals testing positive for HPV posttreatment, the risk of CIN 2+ was 18.3% (95% CI = 12.1%–26.6%) in all studies. All risk estimates were substantially higher for liquid-based cytology. The HPV–cytology co-testing provided slightly better reassurance compared with HPV alone at the cost of much higher positivity.

Conclusions

Despite a large number of published studies on postcolposcopy and posttreatment surveillance, only few met criteria for abstraction and were included in the meta-analysis. More high-quality studies are needed to evaluate assays and approaches that can improve management of patients with abnormal screening.