bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conclusion
Authors: Pollmann Judith
Published: July 2017

Memory mattered to early modern Europeans as much as it does to us, and partly for the same reasons. Between 1500 and 1800 European memory practices changed. There were new and more ways of mediating memories, the subject matter of public memories evolved to include more secular forms of political memory, and towards the end of this period the authority of the past had to vie with new notions of civility and progress. This was, however, neither a cause nor a consequence of a newly discovered ‘sense of change’. Although the age of revolutions was experienced as a form of rupture, this did not lead to a lasting transformation of memory. As they had done before, Europeans bridged the distance between past and present by reimagining the past to suit the present, and old and new ways of practising memory have continued to exist side by side.
Seeking Sanctuary
Authors: McSheffrey Shannon
Published: July 2017

Seeking Sanctuary explores a curious aspect of premodern English law: the right of felons to shelter in a church or ecclesiastical precinct, remaining safe from arrest and trial in the king’s courts. This is the first book in more than a century to examine sanctuary in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Looking anew at this subject challenges the prevailing assumptions in the scholarship that this ‘medieval’ practice had become outmoded and little used by the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Although for decades after 1400 sanctuary-seeking was indeed fairly rare, the evidence in the legal records shows the numbers of felons seeking refuge in churches began to climb again in the late fifteenth century and reached its peak in the period between 1525 and 1535. Sanctuary was not so much a medieval dinosaur accidentally surviving into the early modern era, as it was an organism that had continued to evolve and adapt to new environments and indeed flourished in its adapted state. Sanctuary suited the early Tudor regime: it intersected with rapidly developing ideas about jurisdiction and provided a means of mitigating the harsh capital penalties of the English law of felony that was useful not only to felons but also to the crown and the political elite. Sanctuary’s resurgence after 1480 means we need to rethink how sanctuary worked, and to reconsider more broadly the intersections of culture, law, politics, and religion in the century and a half between 1400 and 1550.
Tavern Brawls, Civil Wars, and Remedies for Tyranny
Authors: McSheffrey Shannon
Published: July 2017

One form of sanctuary, forty-day refuge in a parish church followed by ‘abjuration of the realm’, going into exile, had been part of English law from around 1200. Around 1400 chartered sanctuary, a new form of refuge, appeared in England: felons fleeing to certain abbeys or collegiate churches were permitted to stay indefinitely, a privilege that developed out of a synthesis of those churches’ jurisdictional rights (especially sheltering of debtors) with the general concept of sanctuary. This chapter discusses the patterns in the hard data for sanctuary-seeking of all kinds (more than 1800 cases from 1400 to 1550) and the early development of chartered sanctuary. Particularly important in cementing this new privilege was England’s experience during the civil wars of the second half of the century, during which sanctuary served both literally and figuratively as a refuge from tyranny.
Numbers
Authors: Edele Mark
Published: July 2017

How many Soviet soldiers defected to the Germans? Vague statements abound in the literature, but few scholars have tried to systematically investigate the available quantitative evidence. This chapter discusses the available numbers on defectors from both Soviet and German sources. It discusses the methodological problems involved in establishing the total number and the share of defectors among Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). It also compares these numbers with comparative cases in other fronts of the Second World War in Europe. It shows that despite methodological and source problems we can be confident that defection was much more prevalent at the German–Soviet front than elsewhere.
Scenarios
Authors: Edele Mark
Published: July 2017

This chapter discusses the various ways in which defectors came across the front line. Scenarios varied. Some defectors came as part of organized desertions of entire units; more came in small groups; and about just as many came alone. The front line could be overcome simply by letting it pass, a particularly viable option in 1941, but also possible later in the war; others exploited holes in the front, used planes or tanks to get across, or absconded after having been sent across the line in an attack or a commando operation. Often, defection was a violent process, which required sometimes deadly force against superiors or compadres. The chapter describes these scenarios and puts the moment of defection into a larger framework of the wartime trajectories of men who ended up surrendering.
Collaborations
Authors: Edele Mark
Published: July 2017

This chapter considers what happened to defectors after they crossed the line. Many died in the nightmarish POW camps of the Wehrmacht. Many of those who survived became military collaborators with the Germans. They often retreated with the Wehrmacht and found themselves outside Soviet territory at the war’s end. From there, they were either repatriated to the Soviet Union or went into exile all over the world. Only a minority were prosecuted for their initial treason or for war crimes they might have committed while in German service. The chapter also returns to Ivan Nikitich Kononov, tracing his wartime career on the side of the Germans and his post-war life in Germany and Australia.
Out of the Endless Bathos
Authors: Ross Stephen J.
Published: July 2017

This chapter surveys the “other tradition” within Ashbery’s oeuvre: “bad” poetry. It argues that Ashbery’s courting of “badness”—understood, in quotation marks, to refer to intentional failure, or what Susan Sontag calls “the good taste of bad taste” in “Notes on Camp”—mounts a critique of the very foundations of value judgment in the arts. Ashbery’s “bad” nature poems, in particular, overturn normative standards of value established by the New Criticism and replace them with a “new bathos” that also evades avant-garde norms of experimental rigor. “Bad” nature poems such as “Variations, Calypso, and Fugue on a Theme of Ella Wheeler Wilcox” and “I Saw No Need” transform the kitschy nature of so many conventional nature poems into an object of potent critique, allowing Ashbery to write against and to “queer” the avant-garde fantasy that art can become nature.
Introduction
Authors: Ross Stephen J.
Published: July 2017

On June 17, 1948, just over a month before his 21st birthday, John Ashbery wrote his first sestina, “The Painter.” A homage to masterpieces such as W.H. Auden’s “Paysage Moralisé” and Elizabeth Bishop’s “A Miracle for Breakfast,” it would be the earliest of his poems to appear in ...
Counterfactual Justifications of the State
Authors: Bader Ralf
Published: July 2017

By providing an interpretation of Nozick’s justification of the state in Anarchy, State, and Utopia, this paper identifies and illustrates a form of justification that is distinct from traditional hypothetical, teleological, and historical justifications. The proposed counterfactual or rectificationist justification treats the justification of institutional structures as being analogous to that of property distributions, subsuming these domains under a unified theory of justification. The first part of the paper resolves three interpretative puzzles that arise when trying to understand Nozick’s attempt to justify the minimal state by means of a hypothetical invisible-hand account, whereas the second part of the paper develops the general approach in abstraction from Nozick’s framework.
Epilogue
Authors: Wingfield Nancy M.
Published: July 2017

Austria-Hungary’s defeat in the war was a juncture in long-term historical processes rather than a decisive break with the past in matters of morality. Bureaucratic transition did not necessarily parallel political transition, so there was no dramatic change in the regulation of prostitution in the states of the defunct Monarchy. Most legislation changed regulation only piecemeal in the first months and years after the war, incorporating various forms of control, which reflected attitudes about sexuality, particularly, women’s. Public attention to prostitution continued—anxiety about venereal disease and public hygiene, trafficking, public morals—yet with a modern inflection. Middle class, often female, reformers had more political power in the interwar “democracies” and accomplished change they could only dream about at the turn of the century. Finally, the scientific turn in understanding race and nation infected professional thinking about both the regulation of commercial sex and the women who engaged in it.
Chains of Finance
Authors: Arjaliès Diane-Laure , Grant Philip , Hardie Iain , MacKenzie Donald , Svetlova Ekaterina
Published: July 2017

Investment is no longer a matter of individual savers directly choosing which shares or bonds to buy. Rather, most of their money flows through a ‘chain’: an often extended sequence of intermediaries. What goes on in that chain is of huge importance: the world’s investment managers, who are now almost as well paid as top bankers, control assets equivalent in value to around a year of total global economic output. In Chains of Finance, five social scientists (four of whom have worked in investment management) discuss the ways in which the intermediaries in the chain influence each other, channel the flows of savers’ money, enhance investment decisions, and form audiences for each other’s performances of financially competent selves. The central argument of the book is that investment management is fashioned profoundly by the opportunities and constraints this chain creates. Whether chains constrain or enable, however, they always entangle, tying intermediaries to each other—silently and profoundly shaping the investment management industry. Chains of Finance is a novel analysis that will make students, social scientists, financial professionals and regulators look at the workings of financial markets in a new light. A must-read for anyone looking for insights into the decision-making processes of investment managers and those influenced by and working for them.
Candy Floss, Cellulose, Sugars and Foods
Authors: Segal David
Published: July 2017

Chapter 2 describes conversion of cellulose to useful products in the 19th century (rayon, celluloid, guncotton) and the role of glucose in its chemical structure. The preparation of candy floss (cotton candy) is described and how the method is relevant to spinning synthetic fibres. The composition of sugar and the composition of foods is explained. In particular, the distinction among starch, sugar, carbohydrates, monosaccharides, and polysaccharides is made. Conversion of crops to bioethanol is described.
Healthcare
Authors: Segal David
Published: July 2017

Chapter 5 describes the role of materials in healthcare. It covers use of superconducting alloys in magnetic resonance imaging and lasers in medicine. Biologic drugs that are monoclonal antibodies are described as well as their preparation by recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology. It also covers aspects of drug delivery, nanoparticles in medicine and shape-memory alloys used in coronary stents. Antimicrobial resistance is discussed, as is bioprinting.
The Politics of Banking and Social Democracy
Authors: Davies Aled
Published: July 2017

This chapter concerns the politics of managing the domestic banking system in post-war Britain. It examines the pressures brought to bear on the post-war settlement in banking during the 1960s and 1970s—in particular, the growth of new credit creating institutions and the political demand for more competition between banks. This undermined the social democratic model for managing credit established since the war. The chapter focuses in particular on how the Labour Party attempted in the 1970s to produce a banking system that was competitive, efficient, and able to channel credit to the struggling industrial economy.
The City of London and the Evolution of British Monetarism
Authors: Davies Aled
Published: July 2017

This chapter considers whether the City of London was capable of dictating British macroeconomic policy in the twentieth century. Historians have explored this with regards to the 1960s sterling crises, but have not considered the City’s role in the 1970s transition from ‘Keynesian’ demand management to ‘monetarism’. The chapter argues that investors in the markets for government debt and currency were central to the emergence of British monetarism. The collapse of the global fixed exchange rate regime, coupled with domestic inflationary pressures after 1973, meant investors employed the ‘money supply’ to assess the soundness of British economic management. The 1976 sterling crisis forced the Labour government to adopt monetary targets in an attempt to regain market confidence. This imposed significant constraints on the government’s economic policymaking freedom, as attempts to retain favourable money supply figures were exposed to the volatility of increasingly globalized and highly capitalized financial markets.
Conclusion
Authors: Davies Aled
Published: July 2017

The aim of this book has been to evaluate the relationship between Britain’s financial sector, based in the City of London, and the social democratic economic strategy of post-war Britain. The central argument presented in the book was that changes to the City during the 1960s and 1970s undermined a number of the key post-war social democratic techniques designed to sustain and develop a modern industrial economy. Financial institutionalization weakened the state’s ability to influence investment, and the labour movement was unable successfully to integrate the institutionalized funds within a renewed social democratic economic agenda. The post-war settlement in banking came under strain in the 1960s as new banking and credit institutions developed that the state struggled to manage. This was exacerbated by the decision to introduce competition among the clearing banks in 1971, which further weakened the state’s capacity to control the provision and allocation of credit to the real economy. The resurrection of an unregulated global capital market, centred on London, overwhelmed the capacity of the state to pursue domestic-focused macroeconomic policies—a problem worsened by the concurrent collapse of the Bretton Woods international monetary system. Against this background, the fundamental social democratic assumption that national prosperity could be achieved only through industry-led growth and modernization was undermined by an effective campaign to reconceptualize Britain as a fundamentally financial and commercial nation with the City of London at its heart....
The Grounding Argument against Non-reductive Moral Realism
Authors: Bader Ralf
Published: July 2017

The supervenience argument against non-reductive moral realism threatens to rule out the existence of irreducibly normative properties by establishing that for every normative property there is a corresponding non-normative property that is necessarily co-extensive with it. This chapter identifies a hyperintensional analogue of the supervenience argument that threatens non-reductionism even within a hyperintensional setting by establishing that for every normative property there is a corresponding non-normative property that has the very same grounds and is, accordingly, hyperintensionally equivalent. It is then argued that non-reductionism can nevertheless be salvaged by distinguishing the different grounding relations that are involved in grounding the normative property and the corresponding non-normative property. Non-reductionist versions of moral realism thus turn out to be committed to there being irreducibly different grounding relations.
Ought to Is
Authors: Basl John , Coons Christian
Published: July 2017

While many doubt that purely empirical claims can entail any moral claim, moral premises often appear to have empirical entailments. However, unless the moral premises are treated as stipulated assumptions, it seems like a serious mistake to infer empirical conclusions from moral premises that entail them. The puzzle is trying to plausibly explain why this is so. This chapter surveys and rejects some proposed solutions. Learning what we can from these failed solutions, a proposal is advanced. The chapter argues that every attempted moral science inference faces a dilemma. The moral premise(s), if true, will be contingent on some empirical fact or not. If not, the moral scientist must employ a false premise or rely on non-moral assumptions that already entail the conclusion. On the other horn, if the moral premises are independent of empirical facts, the premises will entail that some fact we know to be contingent is necessary.
Normative Language in Context
Authors: Silk Alex
Published: July 2017

This chapter develops a contextualist account of normative language, focusing on broadly normative readings of modal verbs. The account draws on a more general framework for implementing a contextualist semantics and pragmatics, Discourse Contextualism. The aim of Discourse Contextualism is to derive the discourse properties of normative language from a contextualist interpretation of an independently motivated formal semantics, along with principles of interpretation and conversation. In using normative language, interlocutors can exploit their grammatical and world knowledge, and general pragmatic reasoning skills, to manage an evolving system of norms. Discourse Contextualism provides a perspicuous framework for further philosophical theorizing about the nature of normativity, normative language, and normative judgment. Delineating these issues can help refine our understanding of the space of overall theories and motivate more fruitful ways the dialectics may proceed. Discourse Contextualism provides a linguistic basis for a more comprehensive theory of normativity and normative discourse and practice.
On Leaving Room for Doubt
Authors: Faraci David
Published: July 2017

In print, the central objection to expressivism has been the Frege–Geach problem. Yet most cognitivists seem to be motivated by “deeper” worries, ones they have spent comparatively little time pursuing in print. Part of the explanation for this mismatch between motivation and rhetoric is likely that those deeper worries are largely metaphysical. Since expressivism is not a metaphysical view, it can be hard to see how to mount a relevant attack. The strategy in this chapter is to introduce claims about thought and language, rather than metaphysics, that represent common intuitions about normative objectivity. It then argues that popular forms of expressivism cannot accommodate these claims if they are to solve the negation problem—an aspect of Frege–Geach. If successful, this shows that expressivism really does have a problem accommodating normative objectivity. But, significantly, it does so without requiring any assumptions about what expressivist metaphysics look like.
The Predicament of Choice
Authors: Wedgwood Ralph
Published: July 2017

Normal agents in the actual world are limited: they cannot think about all the options that are available to them—or even about all options that are available to them according to their evidence. Moreover, agents cannot choose an option unless they have thought about that option. Such agents can be irrational in two ways: either by making their choice too quickly, without canvassing enough options, or by wasting time canvassing ever more options when they have already thought of enough options. This chapter proposes an account of this kind of rationality for limited agents. To be rational, such agents need a kind of background sensitivity to whether or not continuing to search for more options has greater expected value than deciding right away. According to this proposal, it is the unavoidable predicament of choice that all rational decision-making depends on the unconscious operation of mental dispositions.
The Military Resources of the Empire
Authors: Morgan-Owen David G.
Published: July 2017

Historians have argued that the British Army was afflicted with an insular focus on home defence in the late nineteenth century and that this preoccupation was evidence of the paucity of military strategic thought and the lack of co-operation and dialogue between the two services. This chapter challenges that viewpoint and argues that the military leadership was, in fact, consistently much more interested in preparing for operations overseas than it was in planning to prevent an invasion. The military authorities were only deflected from this aim by differences of opinion with the Admiralty on the application of naval power and on the Navy’s inability to commit to the safe passage of troops by sea, disagreements which obliged the War Office to limit the scope of its strategic discourse. This had significant implications for both military and imperial policy, particularly the defence of India.
The German Threat
Authors: Morgan-Owen David G.
Published: July 2017

The Admiralty had been confident in the Navy’s ability to prevent a French invasion prior to 1903. Thereafter, however, it quickly became apparent that Germany posed a fundamentally different challenge from the Franco-Russian threat Britain had faced in the 1890s and early 1900s. For a series of geographical, infrastructural, and military reasons, a German invasion of the British Isles came to be viewed with a great deal more apprehension at the Admiralty than had ever been generated by the years of tension with France. This chapter examines how and why Britain’s naval leadership came to fear a German attempt to land in the United Kingdom. Building on the appreciation of contemporary naval thought developed in Chapter 1, it recounts how the Admiralty identified a challenge that came to define its strategic agenda between 1907 and 1914.
Conclusion
Authors: Morgan-Owen David G.
Published: July 2017

This chapter reflects upon the evolution and formation of strategy in Britain from the late nineteenth century down to 1914. It examines the activities of both services and their shortcomings, but argues that a lack of political direction was the primary cause of the unsatisfactory situation that pertained in 1914. It does so on the grounds that—for all his faults—between 1903 and 1905 Balfour showcased that the Committee of Imperial Defence (CID) could have played the co-ordinating role its progenitors conceived it to fulfil: that of directing British strategy. The Liberal government’s subsequent failure to capitalize upon this foundation led to the deterioration in the overall coherence of British strategy, as inconsistent and contradictory political direction facilitated the kind of organic, chaotic interaction between naval and military policy that the CID have been conceived to remedy.
Peace in the New Age of Augustus
Authors: Cornwell Hannah
Published: July 2017

This chapter examines the evolution of pax at Rome within the wider display of the new age (novum saeculum), which is intimately associated with Augustus’ control over the res publica and empire. The monumentalization and dramatization of pax with external peoples is analysed through the lens of how Augustus and the senate depicted diplomatic success with the Parthians at the end of the 20s BC, after decades of unsuccessful military campaigns. In this ‘moment’ pax is not explicitly foregrounded, but rather the diplomatic aspects of peace are subsumed into a rhetoric of empire and triumphalism, displayed in monumental form both at the time and in later Augustan buildings, such as the forum Augustum. Peace was integrated into a rhetoric of Roman victory, firmly associated with the concept of imperium and imperial rule.
Environmental Democracy and Ecological Citizenship: From Theoretical Ideals to Practical Alternatives?
Authors: Fischer Frank
Published: July 2017

This chapter turns to the question of environment and democracy. It takes up two themes in environmental political thought: ecological citizenship and environmental democracy. Not only are these interrelated theoretical orientations advanced by environmental political theorists to counter the kinds of technocratic eco-authoritarianism discussed in the two previous chapters, they are presented as essential foundations of a sustainable way of life. The future of democratic governance in view of the climate crisis is thus seen to depend on the viability of the environmental democratic challenge. The discussion supports the premises of environmental democracy, but points to a pressing need to give more attention to the relationship of this theory to the realities of political power and the limited time frame now available for achieving such a challenging societal eco-transformation. The chapter approaches this through an examination of the literature on deliberative environmental democracy, ecological citizenship, citizen juries, and deliberative systems.
Urban Sustainability, Eco-Cities, and Transition Towns: Resilience Planning as Apolitical Politics
Authors: Fischer Frank
Published: July 2017

After having explored various locally oriented projects in participatory governance that present practical alternatives to the theory of deliberative democracy, this chapter examines the democratic participatory potentials and realities of other local initiatives. It looks at the participatory activities of cities, including large cities, with a particular focus on the role for citizens in programs designed for adaptive responses to the consequences of climate change. Sponsored by city officials, these participatory initiatives are seen to be largely top-down in nature and not generally democratic per se. We then turn to the Transition Town movement, often cited by environmentalists as a progressive ecological alternative founded on citizen engagement. The participatory activities of this movement, while ecologically credible, are shown not to be geared to the furtherance of democratic practices. One main reason has to do with its emphasis on the theory of resilience, which ignores the political questions raised by ecological transition.
Global Production Networks
Authors: Phelps Nicholas A.
Published: July 2017

This chapter outlines the emergence of global production networks (GPNs) from the outsourcing and offshoring processes centred on multinational enterprises. It is important in any relational perspective that understanding of GPNs is not reduced to a flat ontology of a universe of point instants. The territoriality of both the state and the MNE are central to understanding the uneven geography and impacts of GPNs. The chapter underscores the importance of intermediaries to the emergence of GPNs. It then goes on to emphasize how the geography of international trade and production cannot be understood with reference to the network metaphor alone; agglomerations and enclaves persist alongside network forms of economic activity.
The Non-territorial Realm of the International Economy
Authors: Phelps Nicholas A.
Published: July 2017

This chapter emphasizes how the fashioning of the international economy in modern times has itself entailed experimentation with distinctly new economic geographical formations—arenas—for the regulation of many aspects of business. These arenas exist as important new places of sorts in the international economy and coexist with networks of intermediaries, enclaves, and agglomerations as part of the variegated landscape of global capitalism. The chapter thus considers the emergence and significance of a non-territorial realm of the international economy. It outlines the sharing of authority in a multipolar international political economy. It considers the networks of various legal and investment promotion professionals who have promoted this particular economy in between nations. It also considers the logic and significance of the new arenas in the form of temporary clusters such as trade fairs in which much economic activity takes place.
Action
Authors: Ichikawa Jonathan Jenkins
Published: July 2017

This chapter defends a connection between knowledge and practical reasoning, according to which one’s reasons for action constitute all and only that which one knows. A variety of intuitive objections to such principles are considered and rejected—a central theme is that objectors to knowledge norms often make tacit but substantive ethical assumptions about which reasons, if held, would justify which actions. Absent broader ethical theorizing, the proposed counterexamples are inconclusive. The chapter sketches possible approaches to such theories, and indicates reason for optimism about knowledge norms. It also considers the degree to which knowledge norms imply externalism about rational action, suggesting that many internalist intuitions and verdicts may be accommodated and explained by knowledge norms.
Introduction
Authors: Kachun Mitch
Published: July 2017

The introduction outlines Crispus Attucks’s story and the book’s approach, using the concepts of history and memory to explore how Attucks has been remembered and forgotten, lionized and vilified, from the eighteenth through the twenty-first centuries, including a brief description of each chapter. Key themes introduced include the role of Attucks and other black heroes in the centuries-long debate over African American citizenship, patriotism, and inclusion; the meanings both black and white Americans have attached to Attucks’s name, image, and story; different conceptions of who belongs in the nation’s history and who does not; and the process through which national heroes and myths are constructed.
Crispus Attucks Meets Dorie Miller
Authors: Kachun Mitch
Published: July 2017

Interest in promoting Attucks as a national hero was redoubled as African Americans’ heroic participation in World War II once again presented opportunities to sharpen activists’ arguments for black inclusion and full citizenship rights. Even before the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor drew the United States fully into the new world war, African Americans expressed concern about the meaning the global crisis would hold for black citizens and soldiers. African Americans, growing numbers of sympathetic whites, and US government propagandists all used the era’s expanding mass media—books, periodicals, plays, pageants, radio broadcasts, film, visual arts, school programs, and more—in order to make Crispus Attucks and other black heroes visible in American public culture as never before. Yet mainstream attention to black history, as well as advances in African Americans’ ability to participate fully in American social and political life, were still slow in coming.
Risk of anaphylaxis in complementary and alternative medicine
Authors: Gunawardana Natasha C.
Published: July 2017

Purpose of review

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is widespread across the world. Patients with asthma and allergy regularly use CAM therapies. Allergic and anaphylactic reactions to CAM have been reported.

Recent findings

Recent attempts to regulate and monitor adverse reaction to these therapies have given us further insight into potential causes of severe allergic reactions. Several culprits identified including Andrographis paniculata, Echinacea species, bee products, Ginkgo biloba and Ginseng are discussed here.

Knowing the factors that increase the risk of anaphylaxis allows reactions to be recognized, reported and further investigated. Research to identify key causative allergens is necessary in the future. Collaboration between the allergy community and CAM practitioners can allow better understanding of allergy to these therapies.
Effect of Psychosocial and Vocational Interventions on Return-to-Work Rates Post–Acute Myocardial Infarction
Authors: O'Brien Lisa , Wallace Sonal , Romero Lorena
Published: July 2017

Purpose:

To examine whether the effects of psychosocial and vocational interventions delivered in the first 3 mo post–acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are effective for improving work outcomes compared with other interventions.

Methods:

A search was completed for English language publications up to March 2016 across 4 electronic databases and gray literature. Inclusion criteria were (1) psychosocial and/or vocational interventions; (2) adults 18 years or older with an AMI who were within the first 3 mo post-AMI; (3) randomized or clinically controlled trials; and (4) reporting of at least 1 return-to-work (RTW) outcome: including return to paid/unpaid employment, either full-time or part-time, to the previous job role or on modified duties. Studies were independently screened by 2 reviewers and graded using the Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessing risk of bias. A narrative synthesis and meta-analysis of the included studies was undertaken.

Results:

Eighteen studies of varying quality were analyzed. Individually delivered psychosocial and vocational interventions may improve work rates at 3 mo (relative risk = 1.17; P = .05) when compared with usual care but there was no difference at 6 or 12 mo. People receiving group or individual psychological/vocational counselling returned to work 6.11 d sooner than those who received usual care (95% CI, −6.95 to −5.26; P < .001).

Conclusions:

Although psychosocial and vocational interventions show promise in people within 3 mo of AMI, compelling evidence is still limited. There is a need for more detailed, high-quality studies with valid comparison groups and adequate follow-up.
Simple Preoperative Ink Test as a Novel Adjunct to Intrastromal Keratopigmentation for Post-laser Peripheral Iridotomy Dysphotopsias
Authors: Ong Tone Stephan , Li Daniel Q. , Ashkenazy Zach , Borovik Armand , Slomovic Allan R. , Rootman David S. , Chan Clara C.
Published: July 2017

Purpose:

To describe a simple preoperative ink test as a novel adjunct to intrastromal keratopigmentation for post-laser peripheral iridotomy (LPI) dysphotopsias.

Methods:

A surgical marking pen is applied to the area over a peripheral iridotomy before intrastromal keratopigmentation. The patient can then assess whether there is any improvement in their symptoms of dysphotopsias. Manual intrastromal keratopigmentation can then be performed using a crescent blade into the clear cornea at 50% depth and tunneled centrally to create a pocket ensuring that the peripheral iridotomy is fully occluded. The crescent blade is coated with an alcohol-based commercially available black tattoo pigment, and the pocket is filled.

Results:

We have used the preoperative ink marker test on 5 eyes in patients with post-LPI (4 temporal and 1 superior) dysphotopsias before performing intrastromal keratopigmentation, with good patient satisfaction. Patients report immediate symptomatic relief after the procedure. This ink marking technique can also be extended to help identify which iris defect is symptomatic in patients with multiple iris defects.

Conclusions:

The preoperative ink test before intrastromal keratopigmentation is a novel adjunct to the treatment of post-LPI dysphotopsias.
Peripheral Endothelial Cell Count Is a Predictor of Disease Severity in Advanced Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy
Authors: Syed Zeba A. , Tran Jennifer A. , Jurkunas Ula V.
Published: July 2017

Purpose:

In advanced Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD), central endothelial changes do not correlate with disease severity. The peripheral endothelial cell count (ECC) has not been studied as a marker of FECD severity. The goal of this study was to determine the relationship between the peripheral ECC and known clinical markers of FECD in advanced cases.

Methods:

Patients with FECD examined between January 1, 2013, and September 1, 2016, by 1 cornea specialist were identified. Medical records from all previous visits were reviewed to include eyes with high-quality central and peripheral in vivo confocal microscopy images performed on the same day as a clinical evaluation. Endothelial photographs were used to perform manual cell counts centrally and peripherally. Clinical grading of FECD from 1 to 4 was performed at the slit-lamp.

Results:

We identified 154 eyes of 126 patients that met criteria for inclusion. With higher disease grades, central ECC and peripheral ECC decreased, visual acuity worsened, and central corneal thickness (CCT) increased (all P < 0.05). In patients with advanced disease (defined as either grade 3 or 4, CCT >700, or central ECC <350), the peripheral ECC was the best predictor of disease severity and had the highest number of statistically significant correlations with other clinical markers compared with competing variables.

Conclusions:

In advanced FECD, severity is best determined by the peripheral ECC compared with the central ECC, visual acuity, clinical disease grade, and CCT. The peripheral ECC should be added to the clinical parameters used to evaluate FECD severity.
Surgical Emphysema Following Canalplasty for Aural Exostoses
Authors: Baxter Michael C. , Keller Matthew , Shah Anil , Wise Sean
Published: July 2017

Objective:

To describe the presentation and management of surgical emphysema involving the temporomandibular joint and deep neck following exostoses removal.

Patient:

A 60-year-old male surfer presented with hearing loss and recurrent infections in the right ear. An examination revealed obstructing bony exostoses in the right external auditory canal. He underwent right canalplasty using a postauricular approach. At 5 weeks after surgery, he presented with right otalgia, swelling of the right face and neck, and complaints of a squeaking noise in the right ear with mandibular excursions. An otomicroscopic examination demonstrated a focal area of prolapsing soft tissue along the anterior bony external auditory canal with mandibular movement. The examination also revealed palpable crepitus of the right face and neck. Computed tomography was obtained of the temporal bones and neck confirming a focal anterior canal wall defect allowing communication between the glenoid fossa and external auditory canal with subcutaneous emphysema tracking around the temporomandibular joint into the masticator, parotid, and parapharyngeal spaces.

Intervention:

Maxillomandibular fixation for 2 weeks with revision canalplasty using a split tragal cartilage graft.

Results:

At 6 weeks after revision surgery, the patient reported complete resolution of all symptoms. Repeat imaging demonstrated complete resolution of subcutaneous and deep neck emphysema, and the otomicroscopic examination revealed a fully epithelialized external auditory canal with no further evidence of soft tissue prolapse.

Conclusion:

Maxillomandibular fixation with autologous cartilage graft is an effective management strategy for complications of canalplasty resulting in exposure of the temporomandibular joint capsule and surgical emphysema.
Racial Differences in Geographic Access to Medical Care as Measured by Patient Report and Geographic Information Systems
Authors: Wong Michelle S. , Grande David T. , Mitra Nandita , Radhakrishnan Archana , Branas Charles C. , Ward Katelyn R. , Pollack Craig E.
Published: July 2017

Background:

Geographic access—the travel burden required to reach medical care—is an important aspect of care. Studies, which typically rely on geographic information system (GIS) calculated travel times, have found some evidence of racial disparities in spatial access to care. However, the validity of these studies depends on the accuracy of travel times by patient race.

Objectives:

To determine if there are racial differences when comparing patient-reported and GIS-calculated travel times.

Research Design:

Data came from the Philadelphia Area Prostate Cancer Access Study (P2 Access), a cohort study of men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer. We conducted cross-sectional analysis of 2136 men using multivariable linear mixed-effects models to examine the effect of race on differences in patient-reported and GIS-calculated travel times to urology and radiation oncology cancer providers.

Results:

Patient-reported travel times were, on an average, longer than GIS-calculated times. For urology practices, median patient-reported travel times were 12.7 minutes longer than GIS-calculated travel times for blacks versus 7.2 minutes longer for whites. After adjusting for potential confounders, including socioeconomic status and car access, the difference was significantly greater for black patients than white patients (2.0 min; 95% confidence interval, 0.58–3.44).

Conclusions:

GIS-calculated travel time may underestimate access to care, especially for black patients. Future studies that use GIS-calculated travel times to examine racial disparities in spatial access to care might consider including patient-reported travel times and controlling for factors that might affect the accuracy of GIS-calculated travel times.
Implementation of a Nurse-driven Educational Program Improves Management of Sorafenib’s Toxicities in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Authors: Brunot Angélique , Le Roy Florence , Le Sourd Samuel , M’Sadek Amel , Duval Marielle , Crouzet Laurence , Guillygomarc’h Anne , Boucher Eveline , Laguerre Brigitte , Edeline Julien
Published: July 2017

Background:

Sorafenib is the standard treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Because of its unique toxicities, improving patients’ tolerance merits close follow-up. Nurses can play a crucial role by leading a patient educational program (EP).

Objectives:

The aim of this study was to assess whether adding EP to usual care (UC) improves patient’s care.

Methods:

Since 2011, oncologists referred patients treated by sorafenib to the EP led by clinical nurses. The EP included a visit before the first administration, weekly telephone calls, and a visit with the nurse before each oncologist consultation. We retrospectively compared patients in the EP with those in UC followed by an oncologist and patients included in a clinical trial.

Results:

Since 2005, 129 patients were treated with sorafenib for hepatocellular carcinoma: 31 in the EP (24%), 22 in a clinical trial (17%), and 76 with UC (59%). Seventy-one percent of the patients in the EP had toxicities identified during a telephone call, which prompted symptomatic measures in 65% of the patients, leading to treatment modification before the planned on-site visit in 29% of the patients. Educational program patients required fewer dose reductions (39% vs 61% for UC, P = .04), and median time to first dose reduction was shorter with EP than with UC (25 vs 45 days, P = .036).

Conclusions:

This study suggests a clinical benefit of EP related to improved toxicity management of sorafenib that resulted in fewer dose reductions.

Implications for Practice:

Patients treated with sorafenib may benefit from an EP. Different types of EP should be compared prospectively, focusing on patients’ quality of life.
Nurses Exploring the Spirituality of Their Patients With Cancer
Authors: van Meurs Jacqueline , Smeets Wim , Vissers Kris C.P. , Groot Marieke , Engels Yvonne
Published: July 2017

Background:

Attention for spirituality should be an integral part of professionals' caregiving. Particularly, nurses caring for patients with cancer might have opportunities to give attention to this dimension.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to gain insight in the way and extent to which nurses during daily caregiving observe and explore spiritual issues of hospitalized patients with cancer.

Methods:

We performed an ethnographic study with participant observation. Data were collected in 2015 during 4 shifts at the medical oncology department of a university hospital. The researcher, a spiritual care provider (chaplain) wearing the same kind of uniform as the nurses, observed the nurses, participated in their actions, and interviewed them after the shift.

Results:

Although the patients did send many implicit and explicit messages concerning spiritual issues, the nurses did not explore them. If noticed, 3 barriers for exploring spiritual issues were mentioned by the nurses: lack of time, conflict with their mindset, and being reserved to talk about such issues.

Conclusions:

During their daily caregiving to patients with a life-threatening illness, nurses have many opportunities to explore spiritual issues, but they do not often recognize them. If they do, they tend not to explore the spiritual issues.

Implications for Practice:

Communication training for nurses is necessary to develop skills for exploring the spiritual dimension in patients with cancer. In such training, attention to the misconception that such a conversation requires a lot of time and for recognizing signals from patients inviting an exploration of their concerns is necessary.
New-Onset Heart Failure and Mortality in Hospital Survivors of Sepsis-Related Left Ventricular Dysfunction
Authors: Vallabhajosyula Saraschandra , Jentzer Jacob C. , Geske Jeffrey B. , Kumar Mukesh , Sakhuja Ankit , Singhal Akhil , Poterucha Joseph T. , Kashani Kianoush , Murphy Joseph G. , Gajic Ognjen , Kashyap Rahul
Published: July 2017

Background:

The association between new-onset left ventricular (LV) dysfunction during sepsis with long-term heart failure outcomes is lesser understood.

Methods:

Retrospective cohort study of all adult patients with severe sepsis and septic shock between 2007 and 2014 who underwent echocardiography within 72 h of admission to the intensive care unit. Patients with prior heart failure, LV dysfunction, and structural heart disease were excluded. LV systolic dysfunction was defined as LV ejection fraction <50% and LV diastolic dysfunction as ≥grade II. Primary composite outcome included new hospitalization for acute decompensated heart failure and all-cause mortality at 2-year follow-up. Secondary outcomes included persistent LV dysfunction, and hospital mortality and length of stay.

Results:

During this 8-year period, 434 patients with 206 (48%) patients having LV dysfunction were included. The two groups had similar baseline characteristics, but those with LV dysfunction had worse function as demonstrated by worse LV ejection fraction, cardiac index, and LV diastolic dysfunction. In the 331 hospital survivors, new-onset acute decompensated heart failure hospitalization did not differ between the two cohorts (15% vs. 11%). The primary composite outcome was comparable at 2-year follow-up between the groups with and without LV dysfunction (P = 0.24). Persistent LV dysfunction was noted in 28% hospital survivors on follow-up echocardiography. Other secondary outcomes were similar between the two groups.

Conclusions:

In patients with severe sepsis and septic shock, the presence of new-onset LV dysfunction did not increase the risk of long-term adverse heart failure outcomes.
Does Sugammadex Administration Affect Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting After Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A Prospective, Double-Blind, Randomized Study
Authors: Tas Tuna Ayca , Palabiyik Onur , Orhan Mustafa , Sonbahar Tugba , Sayhan Havva , Tomak Yakup
Published: July 2017

Background:

The aim of this study is to assess the effect of sugammadex on postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Methods:

Eighty patients who were scheduled for elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery were enrolled in this prospective study. Patients were randomly assigned to neostigmine (group N) or sugammadex (group S) for neuromuscular antagonism at the end of anesthesia. The incidence of PONV and antiemetic consumption were recorded.

Results:

Nausea and vomiting were observed in 60% of the patients given sugammadex and 77.5% given neostigmine during the initial 24 hours postoperatively. The incidence of nausea and the need for rescue antiemetic were lower in group S than group N during all time intervals but there were no significant differences between the groups.

Conclusions:

Sugammadex seems to be effective in decreasing the incidence of PONV, severity of nausea, number of patients who suffered from nausea and vomiting, and need for rescue antiemetic, although there were no significant differences.