bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Thetis in the ‘Ovens’: A Reconsideration of Herodotus’ Topography of Magnesia
Authors: Van Rookhuijzen J.Z.
Published: November 2017

While scholars have long acknowledged the limitations of Herodotus’ Histories as a historical source, Herodotus’ topography of the Persian Wars is still usually seen as historically reliable information. This article, by contrast, aims to show that memory studies offers an attractive means to understand this layer of information, as the alleged locations of events do not, in many cases, necessarily reflect the historical situation. Instead, these places may, for various reasons, have been designated as such in local traditions in the ca. 50 years between the wars and Herodotus’ research. As a case in point, this article discusses the topography of Herodotus’ story of the Persian shipwreck along the coast of Thessaly before the Battle of Artemision in 480 BC (Hdt. 7.183, 7.188, 7.191–92). It argues that the attitude among scholars automatically to regard the locations in this account as historically correct has created various problems. In doing so, it identifies the elusive place of Sepias with the coast near the town of Veneto where a remarkable cluster of sea caves (the so-called ‘Ovens’) plausibly formed an ‘anchor’ for the myth of the abduction of Thetis by Peleus, as well as for the Persian shipwreck.
Efficient motion generation for a six-legged robot walking on irregular terrain via integrated foothold selection and optimization-based whole-body planning
Authors: Tian Yuan , Gao Feng
Published: November 2017

In this paper, an efficient motion planning method is proposed for a six-legged robot walking on irregular terrain. The method provides the robot with fast-generated free-gait motions to traverse the terrain with medium irregularities. We first of all introduce our six-legged robot with legs in parallel mechanism. After that, we decompose the motion planning problem into two main steps: first is the foothold selection based on a local footstep cost map, in which both terrain features and the robot mobility are considered; second is a whole-body configuration planner which casts the problem into a general convex optimization problem. Such decomposition reduces the complexity of the motion planning problem. Along with the two-step planner, discussions are also given in terms of the robot-environmental relationship, convexity of constraints and robot rotation integration. Both simulations and experiments are carried out on typical irregular terrains. The results demonstrate effectiveness of the planning method.
INTEGRATE-HTA: A LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRY PERSPECTIVE
Authors: Bijlmakers Leon , Mueller Debjani , Kahveci Rabia , Chen Yingyao , van der Wilt Gert Jan
Published: November 2017

Objectives: The INTEGRATE-HTA project recommends that complexity be taken into account when conducting health technology assessments (HTAs) and suggests a five-step process for doing that. This study examines whether the approach suggested by INTEGRATE-HTA could be useful, appropriate, and feasible in the context of low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) given some of the typical challenges that healthcare systems face in those countries.

Methods: A nonexhaustive literature review was performed on the implementation in low and middle income countries of the five aspects recommended by the INTEGRATE-HTA project, using the following search terms: national health planning, health sector strategy, health sector performance, assessment criteria, health (management) information, complexity, context, stakeholder consultation.

Results: HTA is being practiced in LMIC in various ways and through different mechanisms, for example in health sector reviews, even though it is usually not referred to as HTA. It does not necessarily follow the five steps distinguished in the INTEGRATE-HTA model (scoping; defining the initial logic model; providing concepts and methods to identify, collect, and synthesize evidence in relation to various dimensions; extracting and presenting evidence in respect of agreed assessment criteria; providing guidance to draw conclusions and formulate recommendations).

Conclusions: The conditions for functional HTA are not always fulfilled in LMICs. At least four aspects would require special attention: (a) the scope and quality of routine health information that can support and be fed into health technology assessments and strategic planning; (b) consensus on health system performance assessment frameworks and their main criteria, in particular the inclusion of social disparities/equity and sustainability; (c) institutional capacity to set evidence-based priorities based on a variety of explicit criteria; (d) political will to engage with stakeholders in a transparent and inclusive consultation process about health priorities.
Simplicial volume of links from link diagrams
Authors: DASBACH OLIVER , TSVIETKOVA ANASTASIIA
Published: November 2017

The hyperbolic volume of a link complement is known to be unchanged when a half-twist is added to a link diagram, and a suitable 3-punctured sphere is present in the complement. We generalise this to the simplicial volume of link complements by analysing the corresponding toroidal decompositions. We then use it to prove a refined upper bound for the volume in terms of twists of various lengths for links.
Powder diffraction study of Pd2HgSe3
Authors: Laufek F. , Vymazalová A. , Drábek M.
Published: November 2017

The Pd2HgSe3 phase was synthetized from individual elements by the silica glass tube technique and its crystal structure has been refined by the Rietveld method. The Pd2HgSe3 phase crystalizes in P$\bar 3$m1 space group with the unit-cell parameters a = 7.3096(2) Å, c = 5.2829(1) Å, V = 244.45(1) Å3, Dc = 8.84 g/cm3, and Z = 2. In its layered crystal structure, the [PdSe6] octahedra share opposing Se–Se edges with adjacent [PdSe4] squares forming layers parallel with the (001) plane. The layers show AA type stacking along the c-axis. Hg atoms occupy the anti-cubooctahedral voids between two consecutive layers. Pd2HgSe3 is isostructural with Pt2HgSe3 and Pt4Tl2X6 (X = S, Se, or Te) phases. The structure can be viewed as a 2a.2a.c superstructure of PtSe2.
Characterization of West and Central African accessions from a pearl millet reference collection for agro-morphological traits and Striga resistance
Authors: Sattler F. T. , Sanogo M. D. , Kassari I. A. , Angarawai I. I. , Gwadi K. W. , Dodo H. , Haussmann B. I. G.
Published: November 2017

To promote the utilization of West and Central African (WCA) genetic resources of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.], this study aimed at agro-morphological characterization of selected accessions from the pearl millet reference collection, established by the Generation Challenge Program and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). A total of 81 accessions were included, comprising 78 landraces originating from 13, predominantly WCA countries and three improved cultivars. All 81 accessions were evaluated together with 18 checks for resistance to the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. in an artificially infested field at one location in Niger. Determined by available seed quantity, 74 accessions were characterized together with seven checks in the rainy season 2009 in field trials under low-input and fertilized conditions in Nigeria, Niger and Mali, respectively. Wide ranges were observed for various traits. Several accessions were identified as sources for specific traits of interest, i.e. long panicles, high-grain density, earliness, Striga resistance and stable yielding across environments. The observed yield inferiority of all Genebank accessions compared with checks may indicate lost adaptation or inbreeding depression due to an insufficient effective population size during multiplication. A principal component analysis revealed an immense diversity but also strong admixture among the tested accessions, i.e. there were no clearly distinct groups. The seed of all genotypes is available from ICRISAT. The online availability of the characterization data is expected to facilitate efficient use of these pearl millet accessions by breeding programmes in WCA and worldwide.
40th birthday of the Italian Mental Health Law 180 – perception and reputation abroad, and a personal suggestion
Authors: Becker T. , Fangerau H.
Published: November 2017

How things are perceived from a distance may help better understand their nature. Perceptions at home are likely to shape perceptions abroad. The mutual cross-references between local and distant perspectives on the Italian Mental Health Law 180 may help understand the process which preceded and resulted in the reform. This editorial argues that Law 180 came about at a unique – enabling – time in history. It argues that the run-up to and passing of Law 180 constituted a great accomplishment by professionals, the wider public and politicians/administrators. This editorial goes on to argue that the profession managed to cope with (many) adverse effects of the reform. The attention that Law 180 has received internationally should be devoted to other national (or regional) mental health reform processes as this may help us to understand how mental health care systems evolve and what defines ‘windows of (operative) opportunity’ or ‘moments for (public) action’.
Alles im grünen Bereich: Energiejunkies auf Entzug
Authors: Thalmayr Maria
Published: November 2017

„Wir sind Energiejunkies“, erklärte der Präsident der Fachvereinigung Krankenhaustechnik, Horst Träger, auf der FKT-Veranstaltung „Alles im grünen Bereich – Technik macht Gesundheitsökologie“. Was sie tun können, um den hohen Energieverbrauch des Gesundheitswesens zu senken und damit nicht nur den Geldbeutel der Betreiber, sondern auch das Klima zu schonen, diskutierten Krankenhaustechniker, Umweltschutzbeauftrage, Manager und andere Umweltschützer am 20. und 21. September im Elisabeth-Krankenhaus in Essen.
Dietary composition and prey preference of a new carnivorous marsupial species, the buff-footed antechinus (Antechinus mysticus), at the northern and southern limits of its range
Authors: Pearce Coral , Burwell Chris J. , Baker Andrew M.
Published: November 2017

The buff-footed antechinus (Antechinus mysticus) is a newly described carnivorous marsupial from eastern Australia. We examined the diet composition and prey preference of this little known dasyurid in the southernmost (Brisbane) and northernmost (Eungella) populations. Animals were captured over three months (July–September) during 2014 encompassing the breeding period (late July and August) of the species. Seasonal sampling carried over into a second year which followed the succeeding cohort of juveniles as they dispersed from their maternal nest (summer), through their maturation (autumn), to the beginning of breeding (winter), sampling across one complete generation. The diet of A. mysticus consisted predominantly of invertebrates, with 16 prey orders identified (11 Insecta, two Arachnida, two Myriapoda, one Crustacea). Vertebrate (Family Scincidae) consumption was recorded in low abundance at both sites. The diet of A. mysticus was dominated by Araneae (spiders), Blattodea (cockroaches) and Coleoptera (beetles). Comparison of identified prey consumption in scats with prey availability in pitfall traps showed A. mysticus to be a dietary generalist, opportunistically consuming mostly invertebrate prey with supplementary predation on small vertebrates. Juvenile A. mysticus preyed predominantly on Blattodea (33.4% mean percentage volume) and Coleoptera (31.6% mean percentage volume), potentially suggesting a preference for larger, easier to catch, prey items. Further exploration into the relationship between prey and body size is required to determine this.
2. A matter of method
Authors: Bronner Stephen Eric
Published: November 2017

‘A matter of method’ outlines how the aims and methods of the Frankfurt school changed. The Frankfurt School took its inspiration from the intellectual framework provided by Western Marxism with its emphasis on history, agency, and the dialectical method. Georg Lukács, Karl Korsch, Antonio Gramsci, and Ernst Bloch were leading representatives of this trend. Critical theory originally aimed to understand facts in a value-laden context, as traditional theory was neither neutral nor reflective. The Frankfurt School was sympathetic to communism, but as that political regime became totalitarian, the preservation of individuality became the central preoccupation of critical theory, along with eradicating social injustice and causes of unhappiness.
America’s venture into the unknown
Authors: Davies Andrew
Published: November 2017

‘America’s venture into the unknown’ shows how large-scale engineering endeavours were delivered, often very successfully, long before the formal tools, language, and discipline of project management were available. It describes the Erie Canal project, America’s most ambitious and largest engineering project of the early 19th century to create the world’s largest inland waterway connecting New York with Lake Erie. Despite numerous obstacles, the project was completed on time, close to the original cost estimate. The project created knowledge where no such capability existed before and where many unknown conditions would have to be faced and overcome. It became its own school of engineering and a training ground for project managers. It was the key to America’s industrial future.
London’s megaproject ecology
Authors: Davies Andrew
Published: November 2017

‘London’s megaproject ecology’ describes some of the infrastructure megaprojects recently undertaken in London to illustrate some of the different ways of organizing projects. These include the Jubilee Line extension, High-Speed 1, the new fifth terminal at Heathrow, the Crossrail project, and London 2012 Olympics. It is important to understand the context within which projects are initiated and unfold over time. It raises many questions that cannot be answered by project management’s traditional preoccupation with the ‘lonely project’, such as: How do individuals, teams, and organizations involved in projects learn from the past? How do they develop their knowledge and prepare for the future? Four broad categories of project organizing are identified: single-project organizations, project-based organizations, project networks, and project ecologies.
Perception and action
Authors: Rogers Brian
Published: November 2017

Perceptual processes have evolved to allow us to act appropriately. ‘Perception and action’ explains that the strong link between perception and action has been revealed in a variety of relatively low-level tasks such as helping us to maintain balance; providing information about our movements within the world (self-motion); allowing us to determine our direction of travel (heading); and helping us to estimate the time before we reach objects in the surrounding world (time-to-contact). James Gibson has suggested that the purpose of our perceptual systems is not to identify objects as objects, but rather to extract information about what we might do with those objects and how we might respond to events in the world.
2. Environmental problems
Authors: Fisher Elizabeth
Published: November 2017

The inherent complexity of environmental problems resonates throughout the creation and operation of environmental law. It shapes its structure and gives rise to questions that push the legal imagination of lawyers. ‘Environmental problems’ discusses the many types of environmental problems—from air pollution and wilderness destruction to waste dumping and climate change—and considers their common structure. It outlines the common structure of these problems and explains the finite capacity of the physical environment. Science has played a fundamental role in increasing our understanding of environmental problems, but it is also limited by the fact that in studying the environment we are studying large holistic systems in which there are multiple interconnected elements.
5. Expanding legal imagination
Authors: Fisher Elizabeth
Published: November 2017

The creation and operation of environmental law has forced lawyers to reflect upon and develop legal concepts, rules, and principles. This is because environmental law is not confined to the world of contract law in which two parties are legally bound by an agreement—an agreement that manages their legal expectations, obligations, and rights. Legal imagination is needed to develop law to respond to a world of multiple interconnected parties, scientific uncertainty, and socio-political conflict. ‘Expanding legal imagination’ discusses the growth of international environmental law; considers the differences between nuisance law and criminal law; and explains environmental impact assessments as well as legal standing and access to courts.
6. The significance of nation states
Authors: Fisher Elizabeth
Published: November 2017

Environmental problems transcend the boundaries of nation states. That fact is a reminder of the physical reality of such problems, but—for good or ill—political and legal imagination is the product of political communities that cluster into nation states. ‘The significance of nation states’ looks at how environmental law is shaped by the legal culture of nation states. It also discusses the difference between civil law systems and common law systems. The internal constitutional arrangements of a country are fundamental to how environmental law develops in a particular legal culture. Is a ‘global environmental law’ emerging?
9. The many forms of environmental justice
Authors: Fisher Elizabeth
Published: November 2017

For many lawyers and non-lawyers alike environmental law is, and should be, about justice. The socio-political complexity of environmental problems means, however, that justice in the environmental law context is not a single ideal. It is many ways of forging meaning that cross and intersect the landscape of environmental law. ‘The many forms of environmental justice’ first considers the environmental rule of law, which has been aided by the creation of courts and tribunals with the expertise to hear and adjudicate environmental law disputes. It then discusses environmental democracy and the creation and enforcement of legal rights, followed by new ideas, including Earth jurisprudence and wild law, and indigenous concepts of environmental protection.
Conditionals: what’s in an if?
Authors: Priest Graham
Published: November 2017

A conditional is a sentence in the form ‘if a then c’. Logicians call a the antecedent of the conditional, and c the consequent. ‘Conditionals: what’s in an if’ looks at the importance of the conditional, which is fundamental to much of our reasoning. Yet, it is deeply puzzling. Conditionals have been studied in logic ever since its earliest times. It is important to note that in the kind of situation where you learn that a premiss is true by being informed of it, other factors are usually operating. We often make such inferences without thinking about them.
Inverse probability: you can’t be indifferent about it!
Authors: Priest Graham
Published: November 2017

People often confuse probabilities with their inverses. Many inductive arguments require us to reason about inverse probabilities. ‘Inverse probability: you can’t be indifferent about it!’ looks at the relationship between inverse probabilities, illustrating it with the Argument to Design, which asks: does not the fact that the physical cosmos is ordered in the way that it is give us reason to believe in the existence of a god of a certain kind? Logicians use the term Principle of Indifference to describe an important part of intuitive reasoning about probability: given a number of possibilities, with no relevant difference between them, they all have the same probability.
Some Results on the Locally Analytic Socle for $\textrm{GL}_{n}(\mathbb {Q}_{p})$
Authors: Ding Yiwen
Published: November 2017

We study some closed rigid subspaces of the eigenvarieties, constructed by using the Jacquet–Emerton functor for parabolic non-Borel subgroups. As an application (and motivation), we prove some new results on Breuil’s locally analytic socle conjecture for $\textrm {GL}_{n}(\mathbb {Q}_{p})$ and show the existence of companion points for simple reflections.
Local Mixing and Invariant Measures for Horospherical Subgroups on Abelian Covers
Authors: Oh Hee , Pan Wenyu
Published: November 2017

Abelian covers of hyperbolic three-manifolds are ubiquitous. We prove the local mixing theorem of the frame flow for abelian covers of closed hyperbolic three-manifolds. We obtain a classification theorem for measures invariant under the horospherical subgroup. We also describe applications to the prime geodesic theorem as well as to other counting and equidistribution problems. Our results are proved for any abelian cover of a homogeneous space Γ0∖G where G is a rank one simple Lie group and Γ0 < G is a convex cocompact Zariski dense subgroup.
Complication Rates and Maintenance of Correction After 3-Column Osteotomy in the Elderly: Report of 55 Patients With 2-Year Follow-up
Authors: Challier Vincent , Henry Jensen K , Liu Shian , Ames Christopher , Kebaish Khaled , Obeid Ibrahim , Hostin Richard , Gupta Munish , Boachie-Adjei Oheneba , Smith Justin S , Mundis Gregory , Bess Shay , Schwab Frank , Lafage Virginie ,   International Spine Study Group
Published: November 2017

BACKGROUND

Three-column osteotomies (3CO) provide substantial correction for adult spinal deformity (ASD), but carry risks of complications and revisions. The risk-benefit balance of 3CO in the elderly remains unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate sagittal alignment and complications after 3CO in a population over 70-yr old.

METHODS

Radiographic retrospective review of consecutive patients over 70 yr (“Elderly”) undergoing 3CO for ASD. Demographic, operative, and outcomes data were collected. Full-spine radiographs were analyzed at baseline and 2-yr postoperatively. Results were compared to a group of young controls (“Young”) matched by global sagittal alignment.

RESULTS

Elderly (n = 55) and Young (n = 52) were similar in operating room time, blood loss, levels fused, and revision surgeries. Elderly and Young groups had similar baseline radiographic malalignment for pelvic tilt, pelvic incidence−lumbar lordosis (PI-LL), and sagittal vertical axis (P > .5 for all). At 2-yr postoperatively, both groups underwent significant improvement in the setting of sagittal alignment parameters (Elderly: sagittal vertical axis 150 mm to 59 mm, P < .001; pelvic tilt 33° to 25°, P < .001; PI-LL 35° to PI-LL 6°, P < .001). However, the Elderly group underwent significantly greater correction in PI-LL than the Young group (−29° vs −20°, P = .024). There were no differences in total, intraoperative or postoperative complications or revisions between groups, though the Elderly group had more intraoperative complications when major blood loss was included. The Elderly group had more severe proximal junctional kyphosis (22.1° vs 9.6° in Young; P < .001).

CONCLUSION

Compared to young patients, elderly patients may achieve the same, or even better, correction in radiographic spinopelvic parameters. In addition, not only the total intraoperative and postoperative complication rates but also revision rates were comparable between both groups.
Behavior Genetic Approaches for Situation Research
Authors: Briley Daniel A.
Published: November 2017

As a field, behavior genetics has a long and often underappreciated focus on environmental and situational factors. This chapter describes the methodological details and empirical findings of this line of work, as well as what situation research can gain from behavior genetics and vice versa. Genetically informative designs offer tools to quantify the extent to which people actively create their situational experiences as opposed to randomly encountering them, and novel advances in situation research have the potential to clarify the scattered history of environmental variables in behavioral genetics. Current progress in personality psychology will be highlighted. Parallels between behavior genetics and personality work can be found both in terms of mechanisms (e.g., gene-environment correlation and gene × environment interaction contrasting with selection effects and person × situation effects) and explanatory pitfalls. Researchers interested in delineating the pathways from situations to behavior would do well to draw from and build upon work in behavior genetics.
Dewey, Adorno, and the Purpose of Art
Authors: Hammer Espen
Published: November 2017

The chapter focuses on Dewey’s claim that art should be viewed as a model of full, unrestricted human experience. Art, in this sense, is supposed to serve as a cognitive correction of certain key trends in modernity, including the transformation of experience in line with social and scientific requirements of abstraction, quantification, and instrumentality. Drawing on Adorno’s competing account, it is argued that Dewey’s position does not sufficiently grant art autonomy and that modern art, in particular, does not offer a direct alternative to the forms of experiential deformation identified by Dewey. Unlike Dewey, Adorno views art as radically separated from the everyday and able to offer insight only in an indirect, self-negating manner. Despite the many similarities between the two thinkers, the chapter argues that Dewey did not respond with sufficient care to aesthetic modernism, which by and large resisted the organicism he attributes to art in general.
Dewey and Du Bois on Race and Colonialism
Authors: Sullivan Shannon
Published: November 2017

After briefly reviewing some of the ways in which Dewey’s pragmatism has been discussed by contemporary philosophers of race, this essay examines Dewey’s views on race and colonialism via his analyses of World War I. The chapter argues that Dewey’s assessment of the war is shaped by conceptual whiteness: it reflects an unacknowledged white perspective that tends to ignore, overlook, and make invisible matters of race and racism. To detect the conceptual whiteness of Dewey’s work and the white privilege it supports, Dewey is read in conversation with W.E.B. Du Bois on the war. Their radically different analyses of (a) the war’s meaning, (b) the importance of the (white) working class for global stability, and (c) the solution for preventing future world wars help reveal Dewey’s complicity with the white colonialist domination of his time. Their analyses also could help contemporary pragmatists avoid similar complicities in future work on Dewey.
Jesuit Accommodation, Dissimulation, Mental Reservation
Authors: Tutino Stefania
Published: November 2017

This chapter analyzes the role that accommodation, dissimulation, equivocation, and mental reservation played in Jesuit spirituality, theology, and culture. These doctrines came to represent a fundamental component of the religious, theological, and intellectual identity of the Society of Jesus. Indeed, Ignatius Loyola himself made discreción one of the principles differentiating the Society from all other Catholic religious orders. The chapter demonstrates the centrality that these forms of accommodation and dissimulation acquired in the political, religious, and intellectual history of the early modern world, becoming useful tools to articulate one’s political and religious allegiance and thus becoming an integral part of post-Reformation culture. As post-Reformation Catholicism assumed an increasingly global dimension, these doctrines became politically, spiritually, theologically, and hermeneutically necessary for the Catholic missionaries to approach, come to terms with, and adapt to geographically and culturally different contexts, places, and people.
Beyond Dependency
Authors: Hodge Joseph Morgan
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the degree of continuity and rupture between the colonial/post-colonial divide in Africa, and argues that the years between 1930 and the 1970s constitute a single, world historical period in which state-directed and managed plans for economic and social advancement were shared widely among colonial, national, and international organizations and states. It examines important shifts and breaks that occurred throughout the period, including barriers to implementing new development projects, massive strike actions, the view of development as a demand for post-colonial entitlements and rights, and how development became a part of the strategy for managing decolonization as a shared goal of both colonial officials and African nationalist leaders. It also discusses how both new national governments and international organizations like the World Bank sought to triumph where the colonizers had failed, including drafting ambitious development plans, launching large-scale mechanization schemes, and subsidizing the widespread use of artificial fertilizers.
Film and the End of Empire
Authors: Cooke Paul
Published: November 2017

The social, political and economic upheavals that marked the end of empire were mediated through the medium of film, while film was used to present new post-war conceptions of empire—for example, based on partnership and development. This chapter will examine how film was used to represent, legitimize and prolong colonial rule, within and beyond Europe. It will use the subject of film to open up wider questions of how culture could operate variously as a form of camouflage to disguise what was happening in the colonies during decolonization, or as a way of registering underlying discursive shifts in metropolitan ways of thinking about empire, or as an arena in which conflicting perspectives on the collapse of colonial rule confronted each other.
Embodiment
Authors: Matthews Eric
Published: November 2017

The primary aim of this article is to explain the concept of human beings as embodied subjects, which has been proposed as a better alternative view of mind–brain relations than the main traditional views, Cartesian dualism and mechanistic materialism. Whereas the traditional views see “mind” as the name of a substance, the “embodiment” view treats human beings as unities, whose mental activities are influenced by bodily functioning, and vice versa. The concept was developed mainly by some philosophers in the phenomenological tradition, most notably by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The article ends with some examples of clinical applications of the concept in relation to the treatment of three types of mental disorder.
Hope and Depression
Authors: Ritschel Lorie A. , Sheppard Christopher S.
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the relationship between hopeful thinking and major depressive disorder. Hope is a positive psychology construct that comprises goals, agency thinking, and pathways thinking and has been associated with psychological and physical well-being and psychosocial outcomes. Depression is inversely correlated with hope and is characterized by a host of symptoms and psychological correlates, including feelings of sadness, negative self-talk, amotivation, and difficulties in problem-solving and concentrating. This chapter explores the empirical evidence regarding the relationship between hope and depression, including the relationship between the subcomponents of hope (i.e., pathways and agency thinking) and the biological (e.g., neural reward systems) and cognitive (e.g., executive functioning) correlates of depression. In addition, the evidence for hope as a viable route for remediating depressive symptoms is reviewed, and future directions are proposed.
Epistolography
Authors: Hodkinson Owen
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the genre of epistolography, which flourished and proliferated in the variety of its forms and uses in the Empire. The epistolary genre in the Second Sophistic is first briefly situated within rhetorical theory and practice, then contextualized within both earlier Greek literature and developments in Latin letters. The variety of Greek literary uses of the letter form in the Second Sophistic is then illustrated with a series of subgenres and examples. Surveyed are collections of fictional and pseudonymous letters (including Aelian, Alciphron, Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana), epistolary novels (Chion of Heraclea, Themistocles), shorter narratives in letter form, and letters embedded in longer narratives (including the Greek novels and Lucian’s Verae Historiae).
Health Passes, Print and Public Health in Early Modern Europe
Authors: Bamji Alexandra
Published: November 2017

Early modern governments produced a wide range of printed texts as part of their public health strategies, including broadsheets, flysheets and pamphlets. This study focuses on health passes, a form of ephemeral print which asserted that the bearer had travelled from a city which was free from plague. Passes were printed forms with textual, iconographic and material features which sought to enhance their authority, credibility and usability. Completed forms provide evidence of their users and of how passes were adapted in response to particular perceived threats. This study examines passes issued by a large number of European cities to argue for the development of a shared European culture of public health print, inspired by recognition of print’s persuasiveness, efficiency and capacity to transcend the boundaries of place.
Analyzing the Readability of Online Urogynecologic Patient Information
Authors: Stewart J. Ryan , Heit Michael H. , Meriwether Kate V. , Hobson Deslyn T. , Francis Sean L.
Published: November 2017

Objective

We sought to describe the readability of Web sites arising from the most common Google search terms related to pelvic organ prolapse, bladder control, and bowel control.

Methods

Google was queried to capture the top 100 search results for the keywords in each disease group. For the top 20 results of each keyword, we analyzed the text for readability using 4 readability formulas: Dale-Chall, Gunning-Fog, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.

Readability scores were compared using 1-way analysis of variance (α = 0.05), and the Tukey test was performed to characterize any significant differences. The χ

2
tests were used to compare results above and below the eighth grade reading level. Spearman correlations were used to compare the reliability of the different readability formulas.

Results

We evaluated 2731 unique Web sites for readability, of which 2334 (85%) had a SMOG score at or above an eighth grade reading level. The mean SMOG score was 9.7 ± 2.1. Web sites in the bladder control keyword group had statistically higher SMOG scores than those in the bowel control and pelvic organ prolapse groups, with means of 9.9 ± 2.0, 9.4 ± 2.1, and 9.6 ± 2.0, respectively. The SMOG was found to be the most reliable.

Conclusions

The vast majority of urogynecologic information available to patients on the Internet is written at or above an eighth grade reading level despite longstanding recommendations to the contrary. Clinicians should advise patients that the information they find online may be difficult to understand.
Whole-genome sequencing analysis of copy number variation (CNV) using low-coverage and paired-end strategies is efficient and outperforms array-based CNV analysis
Authors: Zhou Bo , Ho Steve S. , Zhang Xianglong , Pattni Reenal , Haraksingh Rajini R. , Urban Alexander E.
Published: November 2017

Background

CNV analysis is an integral component to the study of human genomes in both research and clinical settings. Array-based CNV analysis is the current first-tier approach in clinical cytogenetics. Decreasing costs in high-throughput sequencing and cloud computing have opened doors for the development of sequencing-based CNV analysis pipelines with fast turnaround times. We carry out a systematic and quantitative comparative analysis for several low-coverage whole-genome sequencing (WGS) strategies to detect CNV in the human genome.

Methods

We compared the CNV detection capabilities of WGS strategies (short-insert, 3kb-, and 5kb-insert mate-pair) each at 1x, 3x, and 5x coverages relative to each other and to 17 currently used high-density oligonucleotide arrays. For benchmarking, we used a set of Gold Standard (GS) CNVs generated for the 1000-Genomes-Project CEU subject NA12878.

Results

Overall, low-coverage WGS strategies detect drastically more GS CNVs compared to arrays and are accompanied with smaller percentages of CNV calls without validation. Furthermore, we show that WGS (at ≥1x coverage) is able to detect all seven GS deletion-CNVs >100 kb in NA12878 whereas only one is detected by most arrays. Lastly, we show that the much larger 15 Mbp Cri-du-chat deletion can be readily detected with short-insert paired-end WGS at even just 1x coverage.

Conclusions

CNV analysis using low-coverage WGS is efficient and outperforms the array-based analysis that is currently used for clinical cytogenetics.
Predicting Global Forest Reforestation Potential
Authors: Crowther Thomas W. , Glick Henry , Maynard Daniel , Ashley-Cantello Will , Evans Tom , Routh Devin
Published: November 2017

Executive Summary

Forests are important determinants of the carbon cycle, and they provide countless ecosystem services to support billions of people worldwide. Global-scale forest restoration is one of our most effective weapons in the fight against biodiversity loss, rural poverty and climate change. In this report, we generate a spatial map of tree density within the potential forest restoration areas delineated by the IUCN/WRI’s “Atlas of Forest Landscape Restoration Opportunities” to estimate the potential number of trees that could be restored at a global scale. We also estimate the number of trees that might be saved by avoiding deforestation in currently forested areas.

We show that the restoration areas have the capacity to support a total of 1.33 trillion trees. However, given that a considerable proportion of these areas already contain forests, we estimate that 589 billion new trees (larger than 10 cm diameter) could be restored within these areas, which would have the potential to store 65–91 Gigatonnes of carbon after reaching forest maturation. These values will increase marginally over time, as deforestation is responsible for the removal of living trees within the restoration areas. However, if only 50% or 25% of the mosaic areas (the largest of the designated restoration types) are available for reforestation, this total number will fall to approximately 360, or 246 billion trees, respectively, with corresponding decreases in potential carbon storage. Given that anthropogenic carbon emissions are currently in the order of 9–12 Gigatonnes per year, effective global-scale restoration might potentially have a valuable impact on global-scale climate mitigation over the rest of this century.

This report was produced with funding from WWF-UK as part of the Trillion Trees programme with the Wildlife Conservation Society and BirdLife International
Creating ethnicity-specific reference intervals for lab tests from EHR data
Authors: Rappoport Nadav , Paik Hyojung , Oskotsky Boris , Tor Ruth , Ziv Elad , Zaitlen Noah , Butte Atul J.
Published: November 2017

The results of clinical lab tests are an essential component of medical decision-making. To guide interpretation, test results are returned with reference intervals defined by the range in which 95% of values occur in healthy individuals. Clinical laboratories often set their own reference intervals to accommodate local population and instruments variations. This approach is costly and can be biased. We describe a novel data-driven method for using electronic health record data to extract healthy patients’ information to define reference intervals. We found that the distributions of many clinical lab tests differ among self-identified racial and ethnic groups (SIREs) in healthy patients. Finally, we derived SIRE-specific reference intervals and provide evidence that these intervals have clinical prognostic value. Specifically, we show that for two lab tests, serum creatinine level and hemoglobin A1C, SIRE-specific reference intervals are more predictive for need for dialysis and development type 2 diabetes than existing reference intervals.

One Sentence Summary

A novel method for defining population-specific reference intervals of common clinical laboratory tests from electronical health records has better prognostic value than existing reference intervals.
A mid-level organization of the ventral stream
Authors: Long Bria , Yu Chen-Ping , Konkle Talia
Published: November 2017

Human object-selective cortex shows a large-scale organization characterized by the high-level properties of both animacy and object-size. To what extent are these neural responses explained by primitive perceptual features that distinguish animals from objects and big objects from small objects? To address this question, we used a texture synthesis algorithm to create a novel class of stimuli—texforms—which preserve some mid-level texture and form information from objects while rendering them unrecognizable. We found that unrecognizable texforms were sufficient to elicit the large-scale organizations of object-selective cortex along the entire ventral pathway. Further, the structure in the neural patterns elicited by texforms was well predicted by curvature features and by intermediate layers of a deep convolutional neural network, supporting the mid-level nature of the representations. These results provide clear evidence that a substantial portion of ventral stream organization can be accounted for by coarse texture and form information, without requiring explicit recognition of intact objects.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT

While neural responses to object categories are remarkably systematic across human visual cortex, the nature of these responses been hotly debated for the past 20 years. In this paper, a new class of stimuli (“texforms”) is used to examine how mid-level features contribute to the large-scale organization of the ventral visual stream. Despite their relatively primitive visual appearance, these unrecognizable texforms elicited the entire large-scale organizations of the ventral stream by animacy and object size. This work demonstrates that much of ventral stream organization can be explained by relatively primitive mid-level features, without requiring explicit recognition of the objects themselves.
CalR: A Web-based Analysis Tool for Indirect Calorimetry Experiments
Authors: Mina Amir I. , LeClair Raymond A. , LeClair Katherine B. , Cohen David E. , Lantier Louise , Banks Alexander S.
Published: November 2017

We report a web-based tool for analysis of indirect calorimetry experiments which measure physiological energy balance. CalR easily imports raw data files, generates plots, and determines the most appropriate statistical tests for interpretation. Analysis with the general linear model (which includes ANOVA and ANCOVA) allows for flexibility to interpret experiments of obesity and thermogenesis. Users may also produce standardized output files of an experiment which can be shared and subsequently re-evaluated using CalR. This framework will provide the transparency necessary to enhance consistency and reproducibility in experiments of energy expenditure. CalR analysis software will greatly increase the speed and efficiency with which metabolic experiments can be organized, analyzed according to accepted norms, and reproduced—and will likely become a standard tool for the field. CalR is accessible at https://CalR.bwh.harvard.edu.

Graphical Abstract
Chemical genomic guided engineering of gamma-valerolactone tolerant yeast
Authors: Bottoms Scott , Dickinson Quinn , McGee Mick , Hinchman Li , Higbee Alan , Hebert Alex , Serate Jose , Xie Dan , Zhang Yaoping , Coon Joshua J , Myers Chad L , Landick Robert , Piotrowski Jeff S
Published: November 2017

Background

Gamma valerolactone (GVL) is a promising technology for degradation of biomass for biofuel production; however, GVL has adverse toxicity effects on fermentative microbes. Using a combination of chemical genomics and chemical proteomics we sought to understand the mechanism toxicity and resistance to GVL with the goal of engineering a GVL-tolerant, xylose-fermenting yeast.

Results

Chemical genomic profiling of GVL predicted that this chemical affects membranes and membrane-bound processes. We show that GVL causes rapid, dose-dependent cell permeability, and is synergistic with ethanol. Chemical genomic profiling of GVL revealed that deletion of the functionally related enzymes Pad1p and Fdc1p, which act together to decarboxylate phenolic acids to vinyl derivatives, increases yeast tolerance to GVL. Further, overexpression of Pad1p sensitizes cells to GVL toxicity. To improve GVL tolerance, we deleted PAD1 and FDC1 in a xylose-fermenting yeast strain. The modified strain exhibited increased anaerobic growth, sugar utilization, and ethanol production in synthetic hydrolysate with 1.5% GVL, and under other conditions. Chemical proteomic profiling of the engineered strain revealed that enzymes involved in ergosterol biosynthesis were more abundant in the presence of GVL compared to the background strain. The engineered GVL strain contained greater amounts of ergosterol than the background strain.

Conclusions

We found that GVL exerts toxicity to yeast by compromising cellular membranes, and that this toxicity is synergistic with ethanol. Deletion of PAD1 and FDC1 conferred GVL resistance to a xylose-fermenting yeast strain by increasing ergosterol content in cells. The GVL-tolerant strain fermented sugars in the presence of GVL levels that were inhibitory to the unmodified strain. This strain represents a xylose fermenting yeast specifically tailored to GVL produced hydrolysates
Running reduces firing but improves coding in rodent higher-order visual cortex
Authors: Christensen Amelia J. , Pillow Jonathan W.
Published: November 2017

Running profoundly alters stimulus-response properties in mouse primary visual cortex (V1), but its effects in higher-order visual cortex remain unknown. Here we systematically investigated how locomotion modulates visual responses across six visual areas and three cortical layers using a massive dataset from the Allen Brain Institute. Although running has been shown to increase firing in V1, we found that it suppressed firing in higher-order visual areas. Despite this reduction in gain, visual responses during running could be decoded more accurately than visual responses during stationary periods. We show that this effect was not attributable to changes in noise correlations, and propose that it instead arises from increased reliability of single neuron responses during running.