bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Automated platforms for reaction self-optimization in flow
Authors: Mateos Carlos , Nieves-Remacha María José , Rincón Juan A.
Published: April 2019

This article highlights recent progress in continuous flow self-optimizing platforms.
Theoretical design of a technetium-like alloy and its catalytic properties
Authors: Xie Wei , Koyama Michihisa
Published: April 2019

Based on the concept of density of states (DOS) engineering, we theoretically designed a pseudo-Tc material (Mo–Ru alloy) and investigated its electronic structure, phase stability and catalytic activity by using density functional theory.
Ocean acidification impacts on coastal ecosystem services due to habitat degradation
Authors: Hall-Spencer Jason M. , Harvey Ben P.
Published: April 2019

The oceanic uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions is changing seawater chemistry in a process known as ocean acidification. The chemistry of this rapid change in surface waters is well understood and readily detectable in oceanic observations, yet there is uncertainty about the effects of ocean acidification on society since it is difficult to scale-up from laboratory and mesocosm tests. Here, we provide a synthesis of the likely effects of ocean acidification on ecosystem properties, functions and services based on observations along natural gradients in pCO2. Studies at CO2 seeps worldwide show that biogenic habitats are particularly sensitive to ocean acidification and that their degradation results in less coastal protection and less habitat provisioning for fisheries. The risks to marine goods and services amplify with increasing acidification causing shifts to macroalgal dominance, habitat degradation and a loss of biodiversity at seep sites in the tropics, the sub-tropics and on temperate coasts. Based on this empirical evidence, we expect ocean acidification to have serious consequences for the millions of people who are dependent on coastal protection, fisheries and aquaculture. If humanity is able to make cuts in fossil fuel emissions, this will reduce costs to society and avoid the changes in coastal ecosystems seen in areas with projected pCO2 levels. A binding international agreement for the oceans should build on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to ‘minimise and address the impacts of ocean acidification’.
Age Effects on Neural Representation and Perception of Silence Duration Cues in Speech
Authors: Roque Lindsey , Gaskins Casey , Gordon-Salant Sandra , Goupell Matthew J. , Anderson Samira
Published: April 2019

Purpose

Degraded temporal processing associated with aging may be a contributing factor to older adults' hearing difficulties, especially in adverse listening environments. This degraded processing may affect the ability to distinguish between words based on temporal duration cues. The current study investigates the effects of aging and hearing loss on cortical and subcortical representation of temporal speech components and on the perception of silent interval duration cues in speech.

Method

Identification functions for the words DISH and DITCH were obtained on a 7-step continuum of silence duration (0–60 ms) prior to the final fricative in participants who are younger with normal hearing (YNH), older with normal hearing (ONH), and older with hearing impairment (OHI). Frequency-following responses and cortical auditory-evoked potentials were recorded to the 2 end points of the continuum. Auditory brainstem responses to clicks were obtained to verify neural integrity and to compare group differences in auditory nerve function. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the peripheral or central factors that contributed to perceptual performance.

Results

ONH and OHI participants required longer silence durations to identify DITCH than did YNH participants. Frequency-following responses showed reduced phase locking and poorer morphology, and cortical auditory-evoked potentials showed prolonged latencies in ONH and OHI participants compared with YNH participants. No group differences were noted for auditory brainstem response Wave I amplitude or Wave V/I ratio. After accounting for the possible effects of hearing loss, linear regression analysis revealed that both midbrain and cortical processing contributed to the variance in the DISH–DITCH perceptual identification functions.

Conclusions

These results suggest that age-related deficits in the ability to encode silence duration cues may be a contributing factor in degraded speech perception. In particular, degraded response morphology relates to performance on perceptual tasks based on silence duration contrasts between words.
Lexical Influences on Errors in Masked Speech Perception in Younger, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults
Authors: Jesse Alexandra , Helfer Karen S.
Published: April 2019

Purpose

In situations with a competing talker, lexical properties of words in both streams affect the recognition of words in the to-be-attended target stream. In this study, we tested whether these lexical properties also influence the type of errors made by listeners across the adult life span.

Method

Errors from a corpus collected by
Helfer and Jesse (2015)
were categorized as phonologically similar to words in the target and/or masker streams. Younger, middle-aged, and older listeners had produced these errors when trying to identify key words from a target stream while ignoring a single-talker masker. Neighborhood density and lexical frequency of target words and masker words had been manipulated independently.

Results

Lexical properties of target words influenced all types of errors. With higher frequency maskers, the probability of responding with a masker word increased and the phonological influence of target words decreased. Lower levels of lexical competition for maskers increased the probability that listeners reported a word phonologically related to both masker and target words. The influence of masker words increased across the adult life span, as evidenced by phonological intrusions into responses and the temporary failure in selectively attending to the target stream. The effects of lexical properties on error patterns, however, were consistent across age groups.

Conclusions

The ease of recognition of words in both attended and unattended speech influences the breakdown of speech perception. These influences remain robust across the adult life span.
Poorer Speech Reception Threshold in Noise Is Associated With Lower Brain Volume in Auditory and Cognitive Processing Regions
Authors: Rudner Mary , Seeto Mark , Keidser Gitte , Johnson Blake , Rönnberg Jerker
Published: April 2019

Purpose

Hearing loss is associated with changes in brain volume in regions supporting auditory and cognitive processing. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a systematic association between hearing ability and brain volume in cross-sectional data from a large nonclinical cohort of middle-aged adults available from the UK Biobank Resource (
http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk
).

Method

We performed a set of regression analyses to determine the association between speech reception threshold in noise (SRTn) and global brain volume as well as predefined regions of interest (ROIs) based on T1-weighted structural images, controlling for hearing-related comorbidities and cognition as well as demographic factors. In a 2nd set of analyses, we additionally controlled for hearing aid (HA) use. We predicted statistically significant associations globally and in ROIs including auditory and cognitive processing regions, possibly modulated by HA use.

Results

Whole-brain gray matter volume was significantly lower for individuals with poorer SRTn. Furthermore, the volume of 9 predicted ROIs including both auditory and cognitive processing regions was lower for individuals with poorer SRTn. The greatest percentage difference (−0.57%) in ROI volume relating to a 1
SD
worsening of SRTn was found in the left superior temporal gyrus. HA use did not substantially modulate the pattern of association between brain volume and SRTn.

Conclusions

In a large middle-aged nonclinical population, poorer hearing ability is associated with lower brain volume globally as well as in cortical and subcortical regions involved in auditory and cognitive processing, but there was no conclusive evidence that this effect is moderated by HA use. This pattern of results supports the notion that poor hearing leads to reduced volume in brain regions recruited during speech understanding under challenging conditions. These findings should be tested in future longitudinal, experimental studies.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7949357
Iterative complex network approach for chemical gas sensor array characterisation
Authors: Cardellicchio Angelo , Lombardi Angela , Guaragnella Cataldo
Published: April 2019

Gas sensor arrays, also known as e‐noses, are used in several heterogeneous fields, ranging from environmental monitoring to food quality control. Often, these measurement systems operate within dynamic environments and are subject to conditions which may dramatically vary over time. Furthermore, the response of an e‐nose is influenced by several parameters, whose interactions may be complex and highly non‐linear. Therefore, in this study, the authors propose a complex network approach to model the overall interaction pattern of e‐noses. They show that this approach can significantly improve the understanding of the overall behaviour of e‐noses, and can be used as a basis to optimise the design of these measurement systems.
A VLT/FLAMES survey for massive binaries in Westerlund 1
Authors: Clark J. S. , Ritchie B. W. , Negueruela I.
Published: April 2019

Context. X-ray emission from massive stars was first reported four decades ago, but the precise physics governing its formation as a function of stellar properties and binarity remains not fully understood. With the recent suggestion that such objects may be important sites of cosmic ray production, a better understanding of their high-energy properties is particularly timely.

Aims. The young massive cluster Westerlund 1 provides an ideal testbed for understanding this emission, with over 50 cluster members detected in historical X-ray observations. In the decade since these data were obtained, significant new multi-epoch observations of the cluster have been made, allowing a fundamental reappraisal of the nature of both X-ray bright and dark stars.

Methods. Optical spectroscopy permits accurate classification of cluster members, while multi-epoch observations of a sub-set allow identification and characterisation of the binary population.

Results. A total of 45 X-ray sources within Wd1 now have precise spectral classifications. Of these, 16 have been identified as candidate or confirmed massive binaries. X-ray emission is confined to O9-B0.5 supergiants, Wolf-Rayets and a small group of highly luminous interacting/post-interaction OB+OB binaries. Despite their presence in large numbers, no emission is seen from earlier, less evolved O stars or later, cooler B super-/hypergiants. A total of 22 stars have X-ray properties that are suggestive of a contribution from emission originating in a wind collision zone.

Conclusions. We suppose that the lack of X-ray emission from O giants is due to their comparatively low intrinsic bolometric luminosity if, as expected, they follow the canonical LX/Lbol relation for hot stars. The transition away from X-ray emission for OB supergiants occurs at the location of the bistability jump; we speculate that below this limit, stellar wind velocities are insufficient for internal, X-ray emitting shocks to form. Our results are consistent with recent findings that massive binaries are not uniformly brighter than single stars of comparable luminosity or spectral type, although it is noteworthy that the brightest and hardest stellar X-ray sources within Wd1 are all either confirmed or candidate massive, interacting/post-interaction binaries.
Fortschritte in der Pankreatologie
Authors: Rosendahl Jonas
Published: April 2019

Prof. Dr. med. Joachim Mössner has always been committed to an honest, evidence-based medicine that focuses on the patient. To him, research has always been an important basis of good medicine: His research focuses on the physiological and pathophysiological processes of pancreatic diseases. He was successful in characterizing signaling pathways at the cellular level. Based on his findings, genetic association studies were conducted. He thus contributed to a better understanding of the development of acute and chronic pancreatitis.
Sepsis nach elektiver Septumplastik und
Nasenmuschelverkleinerung
Authors: Stölzel Katharina , Zhang Lichun , Borowski Tordis , Olze Heidi , Schroeder Tim , Eckardt Kai-Uwe , Nee Jens
Published: April 2019

Fallbericht

Ein 20-jähriger adipöser Patient stellte sich im August 2018 in einer auswärtigen
Klinik zur Septumplastik und Muschelverkleinerung bei Septumdeviation und
Muschelhyperplasie ohne relevante Vorerkrankungen vor. Intraoperativ war keine
Antibiotikagabe erfolgt. Postoperativ wurde der Patient zur weiteren Betreuung mit
Doyle-Splinten und Gelaspon® auf die Normalstation verlegt. Es war
Hochsommer und die Krankenzimmertemperatur bei ausgefallener Klimaanlage sehr hoch.
Wie erst später fremdanamnestisch bekannt wurde, hatte der Patient eine bereits vor
stationärer Aufnahme mehrere Tage bestehende, aber nicht mitgeteilte Enteritis. Am
Morgen des ersten postoperativen Tages wies der Patient Zeichen der Sepsis auf:
arterielle Hypotonie, Tachykardie, Tachypnoe und Desorientierung (= quick Sepsis –
related organ failure assessment Score [qSOFA Score] = positiv). Es erfolgte die
Gabe von Kristalloiden und bei Schwellung des Gesichtes die Entfernung der
Doyle-Splinte. Ungeachtet dessen kam es zur progredienten Verschlechterung und
Entwicklung eines schweren Schocks, so dass mit der Gabe von Vasopressoren begonnen
wurde. Bei zusätzlich beginnender respiratorischer Erschöpfung wurde die Indikation
zur Intubation gestellt. Während der Intubation kam es zur Aspiration. Zur weiteren
intensivmedizinischen Versorgung erfolgte aus kapazitären Gründen die Verlegung auf
die interdisziplinäre internistische Intensivstation unserer Klinik mit zunächst
unklarem Infektfokus. Bei Übernahme war der Patient intubiert und beatmet (CPAP PEEP
9 mbar, Druckunterstützung 16 mbar, FiO2 0,8) und hoch katecholaminpflichtig
(Noradrenalin 1 µg/kg/min, Epinephrin 0,2 µg/kg/min).
Effect of the surface roughness of epoxy resin on its creeping flashover characteristics in C4F7N-CO2 gas mixtures
Authors: Zhan Zhenyu , Zhang Qizhe , Lü Fangcheng , Liu Yan , Liu Wei , Li Zhibing , Xie Qing
Published: April 2019

Epoxy resin samples were processed by one direction and multi-directions polishing methods in this research. The contact angles of the samples, the AC/DC flashover voltage in C4F7N/CO2 gas mixtures and the charge dissipation rate of the polished samples were measured. The results show that the contact angle of the polished epoxy resin sample increases. In the gas mixtures, the surface roughness modification of the epoxy resin under different voltage types is proposed. According to the charge dissipation rate, the development mechanism of creeping flashovers under different voltage is revealed. Different dissipative properties ultimately enhance the creeping discharge voltage of the samples by suppressing electron secondary electron emission. This paper offers a basis for insulation design in the C4F7N/CO2 gas mixture.
Good times, bad times: inter-annual reproductive output in a montane endemic succulent (Aloe peglerae; Asphodelaceae) driven by contrasting visitor responses of small mammals and birds
Authors: Payne Stephanie L. , Witkowski Ed T. F. , Symes Craig T.
Published: April 2019

The movements of birds and small mammals may be affected by spatial and temporal variation in resource availability. For the genus Aloe, bird abundance and diversity increase in response to increases in nectar availability during flowering. Aloe peglerae Schönland, endemic to the Magaliesberg Mountain Range, South Africa, is primarily pollinated by the Cape rock-thrush (Monticola rupestris), but the nocturnal Namaqua rock mouse (Micaelamys namaquensis) contributes to pollination. To test the independent contributions of different pollinator guilds, i.e. birds and small mammals, we conducted selective pollinator exclusion experiments during two consecutive flowering seasons – one ‘good’ year and one ‘poor’ year (14 and 7% of plants flowering respectively). Reproductive output for both years was measured for A. peglerae plants assigned to selective exclusion treatments: (i) no visitors; (ii) nocturnal visitors; (iii) diurnal visitors; and (iv) all visitors, with camera traps recording visitors to each treatment. Bird visitation rates to the ‘diurnal visitors’ treatment were higher during the good year; subsequently, reproductive output in the poor year was lower, with plants in this treatment producing no fruit in the poor flowering year. In the ‘nocturnal visitors’ treatment, nocturnal visitation rates were similar with no significant difference in reproductive output between years. Seed viability was maintained between years, although less seed was produced during the poor flowering season. Mobile birds are less abundant in the A. peglerae population during poor flowering years – years when nectar resources are less abundant than in good flowering years, resulting in reduced plant reproductive output. However, the presence of non-flying, small mammals that cannot relocate to better feeding grounds compensates for the absence of birds in poor flowering years. This aloe may be resilient against Allee effects in the absence of primary pollinators. Nonetheless, conservation of A. peglerae should still be prioritised since low flowering densities and ongoing anthropogenic disturbance could be detrimental to the species’ survival.
Phylogeography and population genetic structure of an exotic invasive brine shrimp, Artemia Leach, 1819 (Crustacea : Anostraca), in Australia
Authors: Asem Alireza , Eimanifar Amin , Li Weidong , Wang Pei-Zheng , Brooks Samantha A. , Wink Michael
Published: April 2019

Native American Artemia franciscana has become an introduced species in the Old World due to the rapid development of the aquaculture industry in Eurasia. The recent colonisation of A. franciscana in Mediterranean regions and Asia has been well documented, but Australia is a continent where the dispersal of this species is not well understood. In the present study, we sequenced the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and examined the phylogenetic relationships, haplotype network and population genetic structure of Artemia from four geographical localities in Australia and two American native localities. Our results confirmed the colonisation of Australia in all four localities by A. franciscana. First, we document the occurrence of Artemia in Mulgundawa and St Kilda localities in Australia. The Dampier population is a monomorphic population, but there is high genetic variation and a degree of demographic expansion observed in other introduced A. franciscana populations in Australia. This observation suggests an interaction between environmental conditions and adaptive potentials of A. franciscana. Our findings imply that populations from St Kilda and Port Hedland might have originated from a San Francisco Bay source, while the two other locations resulted from admixture between Great Salt Lake and San Francisco Bay sources, perhaps resulting from secondary introduction events.
The International Criminal Court in Africa and the Politics of International Justice
Authors: Clark Phil
Published: April 2019

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has generated considerable controversy since it came into force in 2002, principally because of its overriding focus on African conflict situations and suspects. This has led to accusations that the ICC is a neocolonial meddler in African affairs, wielding undue and unaccountable influence over the domestic political arena. Drawing on the author’s field research in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2006 this article contends that the neocolonialism critique of the ICC exaggerates the power of the Court while underestimating the capacity of African states to use the ICC to their own ends. Delivering distanced justice from The Hague with limited expertise on African societies and spending scant time in the field, the ICC has failed to grapple sufficiently with complex political dynamics “on the ground.” Combined with the Court’s heavy reliance on state cooperation, these factors have enabled African governments to use the ICC to target their political and military enemies while protecting themselves from prosecution. This has also emboldened African states in continuing to commit atrocity crimes against civilians, especially during periods of mass conflict and fraught national elections. While claiming to hover above the political fray, the ICC has become heavily politicized and instrumentalized by African states, with lasting and damaging consequences for the practice of national politics across Africa. To avoid being willfully used by African governments, the ICC must bolster its political expertise and become politically savvier. Rather than claiming to be neutral while hovering above the domestic terrain, the ICC must embrace its inherently political nature and deliver justice in a way that improves rather than undermines the practice of national and community-level politics across Africa.
Hearing Loss in Agricultural Workers Exposed to Pesticides and Noise
Authors: Choochouy Nattagorn , Kongtip Pornpimol , Chantanakul Suttinun , Nankongnab Noppanun , Sujirarat Dusit , Woskie Susan R
Published: April 2019

Agricultural workers who have concurrent exposure to pesticides and noise are at increased risk of hearing loss. We recruited 163 Thai conventional and 172 organic farmers to answer our questionnaires about personal demographics, agricultural activities, and pesticide and agricultural machinery use. This information was used to calculate the years of conventional (pesticide use) farming and the years of agricultural noise exposure, and to estimate semiquantitative metrics for pesticide exposure (cumulative intensity score-years) and cumulative noise exposure (dB(A)-years) for each conventional farmer. All participants underwent pure tone audiometric testing. The mean hearing threshold in the low-frequency band (0.5–2 kHz) and high-frequency band (3–6 kHz) were used for analysis. Years involved in conventional farming and years using agricultural machinery were associated with an increase in the average hearing threshold for the high-frequency band after controlling for age, ever exposed to industrial noise and cigarette smoking. The highest category of cumulative insecticide exposure (score-years), cumulative organophosphates exposure (score-years) and cumulative noise exposure (dB(A)-years) were also associated with an increased high-frequency band hearing threshold among conventional farmers. Results from the full cohort and the subcohort of conventional farmers support each other and the hypothesis that pesticide and noise have an additive effect on hearing, since no model interactions were significant.
Phaeobacter inhibens controls bacterial community assembly on a marine diatom
Authors: Majzoub Marwan E , Beyersmann Paul G , Simon Meinhard , Thomas Torsten , Brinkhoff Thorsten , Egan Suhelen
Published: April 2019

Bacterial communities can have an important influence on the function of their eukaryotic hosts. However, how microbiomes are formed and the influence that specific bacteria have in shaping these communities is not well understood. Here, we used the marine diatom Thalassiosira rotula and the algal associated bacterium Phaeobacter inhibens as a model system to explore these questions. We exposed axenic (bacterial-free) T. rotula cultures to bacterial communities from natural seawater in the presence or absence of P. inhibens strain 2.10 or a variant strain (designated NCV12a1) that lacks antibacterial activity. We found that after 2 days the bacterial communities that assembled on the host were distinct from the free-living communities and comprised predominately of members of the Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Cyanobacteria. In the presence of P. inhibens a higher abundance of Alphaproteobacteria, Flavobacteriia and Verrucomicrobia was detected. We also found only minor differences between the communities that established in the presence of either the wild type or the variant P. inhibens strain, suggesting that the antibacterial activity of P. inhibens is not the primary cause of its influence on bacterial community assembly. This study highlights the dynamic nature of algal microbiome development and the strong influence individual bacterial strains can have on this process.
Does Good Governance Matter more for Energy Investment? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Sy Amadou N R , Sow Mariama
Published: April 2019

This paper examines the relationship between three global priorities: access to energy, good governance, and financing for development. Using the World Governance Indicators (WGI), it finds that while governance matters for raising domestic revenues, its effect on external financing sources is mixed. Good governance, except for political stability, does not appear to matter much for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to oil exporting countries but is positively associated with FDI to oil importing countries. In contrast, official development finance (ODA) is positively associated with good governance. The bigger bang for improving governance is at home in the form of increased tax revenues (excluding resource rents). The paper also uses the newly developed Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) and finds that improved governance is associated with increased private investment and ODA to the energy sector. In contrast, Chinese investment to the sector appears not to be responsive to changes in governance.
In vitro 3D phenotypic drug screen identifies celastrol as an effectivein vivoinhibitor of polycystic kidney disease
Authors: Booij Tijmen H , Leonhard Wouter N , Bange Hester , Yan Kuan , Fokkelman Michiel , Plugge Anna J , Veraar Kimberley A M , Dauwerse Johannes G , van Westen Gerard J P , van de Water Bob , Price Leo S , Peters Dorien J M
Published: April 2019

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a prevalent genetic disorder, characterized by the formation of kidney cysts that progressively lead to kidney failure. The currently available drug tolvaptan is not well tolerated by all patients and there remains a strong need for alternative treatments. The signaling rewiring in PKD that drives cyst formation is highly complex and not fully understood. As a consequence, the effects of drugs are sometimes difficult to predict. We previously established a high throughput microscopy phenotypic screening method for quantitative assessment of renal cyst growth. Here, we applied this 3D cyst growth phenotypic assay and screened 2320 small drug-like molecules, including approved drugs. We identified 81 active molecules that inhibit cyst growth. Multi-parametric phenotypic profiling of the effects on 3D cultured cysts discriminated molecules that showed preferred pharmacological effects above genuine toxicological properties. Celastrol, a triterpenoid from Tripterygium Wilfordii, was identified as a potent inhibitor of cyst growth in vitro. In an in vivo iKspCre-Pkd1lox,lox mouse model for PKD, celastrol inhibited the growth of renal cysts and maintained kidney function.
Diagnosis of primary central nervous system lymphoma: a systematic review of the utility of CSF screening and the role of early brain biopsy
Authors: Morell Alexis A , Shah Ashish H , Cavallo Claudio , Eichberg Daniel G , Sarkiss Christopher A , Benveniste Ronald , Ivan Michael E , Komotar Ricardo J
Published: April 2019

Background

Because less-invasive techniques can obviate the need for brain biopsy in the diagnosis of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), it is common practice to wait for a thorough initial work-up, which may delay treatment. We conducted a systematic review and reviewed our own series of patients to define the role of LP and early brain biopsy in the diagnosis of PCNSL.

Methods

Our study was divided into 2 main sections: 1) systematic review assessing the sensitivity of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis on the diagnosis of PCNSL, and 2) a retrospective, single-center patient series assessing the diagnostic accuracy and safety of early biopsy in immunocompetent PCNSL patients treated at our institution from 2012 to 2018.

Results

Our systematic review identified 1481 patients with PCNSL. A preoperative LP obviated surgery in 7.4% of cases. Brain biopsy was the preferred method of diagnosis in 95% of patients followed by CSF (3.1%). In our institutional series, brain biopsy was diagnostic in 92.3% of cases (24/26) with 2 cases that required a second procedure for diagnosis. Perioperative morbidity was noted in 7.6% of cases (n = 2) due to hemorrhages after stereotactic brain biopsy that improved at follow-up.

Conclusions

The diagnostic yield of CSF analyses for PCNSL in immunocompetent patients remains exceedingly low. Our institutional series demonstrates that early biopsy for PCNSL is safe and accurate, and may avert protracted work-ups. We conclude that performing an early brain biopsy in a suspected case of PCNSL is a valid, safe option to minimize diagnostic delay.
Effect of dietary intervention, with or without co-interventions, on inflammatory markers in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a systematic literature review
Authors: Reddy Anjana J , George Elena S , Roberts Stuart K , Tierney Audrey C
Published: April 2019

Context

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) represents a spectrum of liver disorders, ranging from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), with inflammation acting as a key driver in its pathogenesis and progression. Diet has the potential to mediate the release of inflammatory markers; however, little is known about the effects of various diets.

Objective

This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary interventions on cytokines and adipokines in patients with NAFLD.

Data Sources

The electronic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library were searched for clinical trials investigating dietary interventions, with or without supplementation, on cytokines and adipokines in NAFLD patients.

Data Extraction

Basic characteristics of populations, dietary intervention protocol, cytokines, and adipokines were extracted for each study. Quality of evidence was assessed using the American Dietetic Association criteria.

Data Analysis

Nineteen studies with a total of 874 participants were included. The most frequently reported inflammatory outcomes were C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), adiponectin, and leptin. Hypocaloric, isocaloric, or low-fat diets significantly (P < 0.05) lowered levels of CRP, TNF-α, and adiponectin. The addition of nutraceutical or pharmacological supplementation to dietary interventions appeared to elicit additional benefits for all of the most frequently reported inflammatory markers.

Conclusions

Hypo- or isocaloric diets alone, or with co-interventions that included a nutraceutical or pharmacological supplementation, appear to improve the inflammatory profile in patients with NAFLD. Thus, anti-inflammatory diets may have the potential to improve underlying chronic inflammation that underpins the pathophysiological mechanisms of NAFLD. In the absence of any known liver-sensitive markers, the use of cytokines and adipokines as a surrogate marker of liver disease should be further investigated in well-controlled trials.
Adrienne Rich
Authors: Birkle Carmen
Published: April 2019

Adrienne Cecile Rich (b. 16 May 1929 in Baltimore, MD; d. 27 March 2012 in Santa Cruz, CA) is one of the best-known feminist poets, essayists, and activists from the 1950s onward into the 21st century. She published about twenty-six volumes of poetry, six collections of essays, and quite a number of individual essays in numerous journals or as single volumes. She gave hundreds of interviews, and the scholarly studies on her work are too numerous to be counted. In most of her poems and essays, Rich focused on her own and, thus, a woman’s relationship to a world that she described as patriarchal, with predetermined and fixed gender roles that made being a successful poet, having a family, and being a mother and wife incompatible—an experience depicted in “‘When We Dead Awaken’: Writing as Re-Vision” (1971). This self-exploration and yearning to understand how she herself might fit into a male-dominated world shaped Rich’s poetry and prose, accompanied by a strong sense of social criticism. She received a number of prestigious awards, prizes, and fellowships, among them the Yale Younger Poets Award in 1950, for her first collection of poems, A Change of World (1951); a Guggenheim Fellowship (1952); the National Book Award for Poetry (1974); honorary doctorates from Smith College (1979) and Harvard University (1989); several lifetime achievement awards; the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (2006); and many more. In the late 1960s, she joined Gwendolyn Brooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde on the faculty of the City College of New York and, thus, took her first steps into the African American and, to some extent, lesbian community. The year 1970 was a turning point in her life and career, with the divorce from her husband and his subsequent suicide and the publication of poetry that inaugurated her rise as a leading feminist figure. In the course of the 1970s, she came out as a lesbian (see “It Is the Lesbian in US . . .” [1976], The Dream of a Common Language [1978], and “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” [1980]) and turned to political activism. Her long essay Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (1976) has become her most frequently discussed work, in which she distinguishes between motherhood as a personal experience and motherhood as an institution that controls women. To being a woman, a mother, a writer, and a lesbian, she later added her concerns about her own Jewishness. In the 1980s, her poetry and prose became manifestations of her own physical pain and remained true to her idea of the “Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” (1978). For Rich, the feminist slogan “the personal is the political” was always true. After 2000 she participated in antiwar movements and continued to write poetry and prose. From 1976 until her death in 2012, she lived with her partner, the Jamaican-born writer and editor Michelle Cliff, in California.
Greek Inscribed Epigram
Authors: Petrovic Andrej , Petrovic Ivana
Published: April 2019

“Epigram,” (Gr. epigramma) is one of the terms that the Greeks employed, from Herodotus onward, for short verse-inscriptions, poems typically composed in hexameters or elegiacs in order to be inscribed, and as a rule originally associated with a particular object, occasion, and context (such as dedicatory, funeral, honorific, or sympotic). By the virtue of its metrical form it constitutes a category separate from the prose inscriptions, and by the virtue of its conciseness, its reliance on the object, and the occasion, it stands apart from other verse-inscriptions (such as metrical oracles, hymns, or aretalogies which in some cases may also have extraordinary length). The history of inscribed epigram started in the second half of the 8th century bce and continued throughout the entirety of Greco-Roman antiquity. Inscribed epigrams are attested in significant numbers in all major areas inhabited by the Greeks, but also in remote areas of Asia and Egypt where Hellenization was relatively short-lived. Inscribed epigram flourished again during the Byzantine period, and the practice of carving epigrams on public monuments continued in Greece well into the modern period. These texts represent an invaluable source for literary, cultural, social, religious, art, and military history. From the Archaic and Classical periods, around 950 inscribed epigrams survive; from the Hellenistic period, based on the estimates, more than 1,500; from the later periods, and until the end of antiquity, several thousand poems survive. Poems are composed in a variety of meters, among which elegiac, hexameter, and iambic and trochaic tetrameter were most popular, but later texts also occasionally employ relatively less common meters such as Sotadeus or Priapeus. Some of the earliest inscriptional epigrams, attested on pottery, are composed in iambic meter and associated with the sympotic setting; in the course of early 6th century bce, dedicatory and funerary epigrams, often consisting of a single hexameter, gain in numbers. From around the middle of the 6th century bce, elegiac became by far the most dominant meter and would remain so until the end of Classical Antiquity. From the late 6th century bce onward new epigrammatic genres appeared (such as, e.g., epigrams that are distinctly honorific in nature, which are sometimes called “epideictic”), and prose inscriptions of various genres increasingly find their counterparts in verse-inscriptions (such as, e.g., iamata, binding spells, or building inscriptions). From the 5th century bce onward, professional poets are attested as authors of inscriptional epigrams. From the 4th century bce onward, there is conclusive evidence of collections of inscribed poems. From the early 3rd century bce at the latest, inscriptional epigram becomes a model for the by then fully established genre of literary epigram.
Islamic Law and Gender
Authors: DeLong-Bas Natana
Published: April 2019

Studies of gender in Islamic law combine methodologies from two distinct fields of study: Islamic law, and women and gender. While Western scholarly study of Islamic law began in earnest during the era of Orientalist scholarship (late 19th through mid-20th centuries), focusing largely on questions of origins and mechanics, particularly outlining rules and regulations and the rights and duties of various groups of people, the application of women and gender methodologies to Islamic law dates to the 1980s, with substantial work beginning in the 1990s. Since then, the field has expanded to include case studies of different times, places, and variations between law schools (madhhabs), comparative analyses, and attention to contemporary reform efforts, particularly in family law.
Karl Popper
Authors: Rowbottom Darrell P.
Published: April 2019

Sir Karl Popper was one of the most prolific philosophers of the 20th century, and remains one of the most influential. His most significant academic contributions were in the philosophy of science, and he collaborated with several scientists. His social and political philosophy was largely responsible for his extra-academic fame, and has had more impact. Overall, his work was exceptionally broad. He also made contributions to ancient philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of biology, philosophy of education, philosophy of history, philosophy of mind (and psychology), philosophy of physics, and the foundations of probability theory (both mathematical and philosophical).
Ottonian Manuscript Illumination
Authors: O'Driscoll Joshua
Published: April 2019

After the collapse of the Carolingian empire in the 880s, the east Frankish kingdom (roughly equivalent to modern-day Germany with parts of Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands) experienced a period of pronounced instability in which political authority became largely decentralized in the hands of local dukes. Despite the challenges posed by crumbling political structures and repeated foreign incursions (Vikings from the north and Magyar attacks from the east), one such duke was particularly effective at building alliances and establishing stability in the region. This man, Henry I (also called Henry the Fowler), was a duke of Saxony, and his election as king of East Francia in 919 essentially established a new line of rulers that would continue to hold power in the region for more than a century. This dynasty, known as the Ottonians after their penchant for the name Otto, succeeded in transforming a kingdom into an empire by bringing northern Italy under their authority. This transformation was marked by the imperial coronation of Otto I, son of Henry I, which took place in 962 at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. As emperors, the Ottonians looked back not only to Imperial Rome, but also to the model established by the Carolingian empire. Just as Charlemagne and his successors cultivated learning and the production of manuscripts, so too did the Ottonians. The production of illuminated manuscripts, however, seems to have taken time to develop—picking up only toward the end of the 10th century. Unlike the Carolingians, there were never “court schools” of painting. Rather, illuminated manuscripts were produced at important monastic centers, many of which were closely tied to the imperial family. As an art-historical category, Ottonian manuscript illumination generally refers to book painting produced in the Holy Roman Empire from the mid-10th to late-11th centuries—that is, several decades after the end of the Ottonian dynasty proper, in 1024. The majority of these illuminated manuscripts are biblical or liturgical books, many of which were intended to function as gifts or as ceremonial objects to be used on high feast days. As such, painters often made extensive use of gold, purple, and other precious materials, which transformed the books into veritable treasures. Indeed, the finest examples of Ottonian illumination count among the most spectacular survivals of art from the entire Middle Ages. Traditionally, scholarly accounts of these objects have been written largely as histories of style. To a certain extent, this is due to the dearth of factual information about when and where so many of the manuscripts were created. Nevertheless, scholars have begun to approach the corpus from several different perspectives, and now that so many manuscripts have been digitized in their entirety and are freely available online, this splendid body of material is accessible to an extent that was never possible before.
Wildfire as a Catalyst for Hydrologic and Geomorphic Change
Authors: Rengers Francis K.
Published: April 2019

Wildfire has been a constant presence on the Earth since at least the Silurian period, and is a landscape-scale catalyst that results in a step-change perturbation for hydrologic systems, which ripples across burned terrain, shaping the geomorphic legacy of watersheds. Specifically, wildfire alters two key landscape properties: (1) overland flow, and (2) soil erodibility. Overland flow and soil erodibility have both been seen to increase after wildfires, resulting in order-of-magnitude increases in erosion rates during rainstorms with relatively frequent recurrence intervals. On short timescales, wildfire increases erosion and leads to natural hazards that are costly and threatening to society. Over longer timescales, wildfire-induced erosion can account for the majority of total denudation in certain settings with long-term implications for landscape evolution. There is a special focus on debris flows in this document because they are the most destructive geomorphic processes observed to follow wildfires after high severity burns. To date, research on post-wildfire debris flows has focused on: the provenance of sediment moved in debris flows, the hydrologic and soil properties required to produce debris flows, and debris flow initiation mechanisms. Herein we highlight the relevant research articles showing the current state of progress in debris flow research as well as pointing to the fundamental research on post-wildfire hydrology and erosion necessary for understanding how water and sediment behave after wildfires.
Ideology, Values, and Foreign Policy
Authors: Beattie Peter
Published: April 2019

Ideology is a prototypical “contested concept,” though competing definitions can generally be sorted into pejorative and nonpejorative categories. Pejorative definitions consider ideology to be a set of false beliefs about the world and how it operates, typically facilitating exploitation or injustice. Nonpejorative definitions consider ideology to be something neutral (or its normative dimension to be undetermined a priori), a kind of systematized thinking about politics or political economy; a worldview. It is the latter definition that is most common in international relations scholarship outside of the Marxian tradition, and it will be used here. Values are commonly defined as rank-ordered ideas about what is desirable, transcending specific situations, that guide behavioral choices and influence evaluations. Given these two definitions, values are subsumed under ideology; they form the normative dimension of ideology. For example, A may value both self-determination and democracy (and A may see elections as a means of ensuring self-determination); but if A’s ideology pictures the international system as dominated by a superpower that regularly interferes in elections, she may support the decision of a less powerful state to avoid elections to evade the superpower’s interference. Ideology, as a systematized way of thinking about politics, can help adjudicate conflicts between values—as in this example, between self-determination and democracy. International relations scholarship has traditionally overlooked the influence of ideology and values on foreign policy and public opinion about foreign policy. Considerations of power maximization and balancing were commonly hypothesized to overwhelm any influence of ideational factors, such that the latter could be safely ignored as mere epiphenomena of the former. More recently, the variously named ideational, interpretivist, or constructivist turn in international relations has opened the way for IR scholars to investigate the effects of ideas within the international system. Foreign policy analysis, operating at a less abstract level, has been more open to ideational factors as influences on policymakers. Yet a great deal remains to be explored about the way ideology and values constrain and influence foreign policy decision-makers, and public opinion (which, in turn, may constrain and influence decision-makers). Ideology and values can be conceptualized at the micro level as beliefs held by individuals and at the macro level as widely shared beliefs (akin to “social representations”) enforced, inculcated, and/or reproduced by institutions.