bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Australian schools as deliberative spaces: framing the goal of active and informed citizenship
Authors: Sorial Sarah , Peterson Andrew
Published: January 2019

Educating for active and informed citizenship represents a core goal of Australian education and schooling. Owing to a range of factors – including the contested conceptual nature of citizenship and democracy – there is reason to question the extent to which this goal is being translated into practice. Similarly, while the Australian Curriculum requires students to engage with others in talk, this is framed rather broadly. Recognizing the value of greater conceptual precision about citizenship, democracy and discursive interactions, this article explores the value of deliberative democracy as a frame for active and informed citizenship. In doing so it argues that viewing schools as deliberative spaces which do/could engage in deliberative pedagogies provides a useful and focused basis for conceiving how young Australians do and can engage in, and learn, the capacities necessary for democratic citizenship.
An amphipathic helix enables septins to sense micrometer-scale membrane curvature
Authors: Cannon Kevin S. , Woods Benjamin L. , Crutchley John M. , Gladfelter Amy S.
Published: January 2019

Cell shape is well described by membrane curvature. Septins are filament-forming, GTP-binding proteins that assemble on positive, micrometer-scale curvatures. Here, we examine the molecular basis of curvature sensing by septins. We show that differences in affinity and the number of binding sites drive curvature-specific adsorption of septins. Moreover, we find septin assembly onto curved membranes is cooperative and show that geometry influences higher-order arrangement of septin filaments. Although septins must form polymers to stay associated with membranes, septin filaments do not have to span micrometers in length to sense curvature, as we find that single-septin complexes have curvature-dependent association rates. We trace this ability to an amphipathic helix (AH) located on the C-terminus of Cdc12. The AH domain is necessary and sufficient for curvature sensing both in vitro and in vivo. These data show that curvature sensing by septins operates at much smaller length scales than the micrometer curvatures being detected.
Molecular determinants of ER–Golgi contacts identified through a new FRET–FLIM system
Authors: Venditti Rossella , Rega Laura Rita , Masone Maria Chiara , Santoro Michele , Polishchuk Elena , Sarnataro Daniela , Paladino Simona , D’Auria Sabato , Varriale Antonio , Olkkonen Vesa M. , Di Tullio Giuseppe , Polishchuk Roman , De Matteis Maria Antonietta
Published: January 2019

ER–TGN contact sites (ERTGoCS) have been visualized by electron microscopy, but their location in the crowded perinuclear area has hampered their analysis via optical microscopy as well as their mechanistic study. To overcome these limits we developed a FRET-based approach and screened several candidates to search for molecular determinants of the ERTGoCS. These included the ER membrane proteins VAPA and VAPB and lipid transfer proteins possessing dual (ER and TGN) targeting motifs that have been hypothesized to contribute to the maintenance of ERTGoCS, such as the ceramide transfer protein CERT and several members of the oxysterol binding proteins. We found that VAP proteins, OSBP1, ORP9, and ORP10 are required, with OSBP1 playing a redundant role with ORP9, which does not involve its lipid transfer activity, and ORP10 being required due to its ability to transfer phosphatidylserine to the TGN. Our results indicate that both structural tethers and a proper lipid composition are needed for ERTGoCS integrity.
The activity of Sac1 across ER–TGN contact sites requires the four-phosphate-adaptor-protein-1
Authors: Venditti Rossella , Masone Maria Chiara , Rega Laura Rita , Di Tullio Giuseppe , Santoro Michele , Polishchuk Elena , Serrano Ivan Castello , Olkkonen Vesa M. , Harada Akihiro , Medina Diego L. , La Montagna Raffaele , De Matteis Maria Antonietta
Published: January 2019

Phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PI4P), a phosphoinositide with key roles in the Golgi complex, is made by Golgi-associated phosphatidylinositol-4 kinases and consumed by the 4-phosphatase Sac1 that, instead, is an ER membrane protein. Here, we show that the contact sites between the ER and the TGN (ERTGoCS) provide a spatial setting suitable for Sac1 to dephosphorylate PI4P at the TGN. The ERTGoCS, though necessary, are not sufficient for the phosphatase activity of Sac1 on TGN PI4P, since this needs the phosphatidyl-four-phosphate-adaptor-protein-1 (FAPP1). FAPP1 localizes at ERTGoCS, interacts with Sac1, and promotes its in-trans phosphatase activity in vitro. We envision that FAPP1, acting as a PI4P detector and adaptor, positions Sac1 close to TGN domains with elevated PI4P concentrations allowing PI4P consumption. Indeed, FAPP1 depletion induces an increase in TGN PI4P that leads to increased secretion of selected cargoes (e.g., ApoB100), indicating that FAPP1, by controlling PI4P levels, acts as a gatekeeper of Golgi exit.
Neuraminidase inhibition contributes to influenza A virus neutralization by anti-hemagglutinin stem antibodies
Authors: Kosik Ivan , Angeletti Davide , Gibbs James S. , Angel Matthew , Takeda Kazuyo , Kosikova Martina , Nair Vinod , Hickman Heather D. , Xie Hang , Brooke Christopher B. , Yewdell Jonathan W.
Published: January 2019

Broadly neutralizing antibodies (Abs) that bind the influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) stem may enable universal influenza vaccination. Here, we show that anti-stem Abs sterically inhibit viral neuraminidase (NA) activity against large substrates, with activity inversely proportional to the length of the fibrous NA stalk that supports the enzymatic domain. By modulating NA stalk length in recombinant IAVs, we show that anti-stem Abs inhibit virus release from infected cells by blocking NA, accounting for their in vitro neutralization activity. NA inhibition contributes to anti-stem Ab protection in influenza-infected mice, likely due at least in part to NA-mediated inhibition of FcγR-dependent activation of innate immune cells by Ab bound to virions. Food and Drug Administration–approved NA inhibitors enhance anti-stem–based Fc-dependent immune cell activation, raising the possibility of therapeutic synergy between NA inhibitors and anti-stem mAb treatment in humans.
Hemorrhagic conversion after alteplase administration in a patient with vasculitis and acute ischemic stroke
Authors: Gilbert Brian W , Dhakal Laxmi , Lacy Alison , Huffman Joel B
Published: January 2019

Purpose

A case of alteplase administration to a patient with vasculitis and acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is reported.

A 38-year-old woman with a recent diagnosis of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) received alteplase for AIS and developed symptomatic hemorrhagic conversion. Published reports regarding the safety of thrombolytic therapy in patients with a high inflammatory burden are inconsistent. The current case adds to the literature on the topic.

Conclusion

More data regarding alteplase treatment in patients with GPA are needed to further establish the safety of this therapy.
Efficient implementation of convolutional neural networks in the data processing of two-photon in vivo imaging
Authors: Wang Yangzhen , Su Feng , Wang Shanshan , Yang Chaojuan , Tian Yonglu , Yuan Peijiang , Liu Xiaorong , Xiong Wei , Zhang Chen
Published: January 2019

Motivation

Functional imaging at single-neuron resolution offers a highly efficient tool for studying the functional connectomics in the brain. However, mainstream neuron-detection methods focus on either the morphologies or activities of neurons, which may lead to the extraction of incomplete information and which may heavily rely on the experience of the experimenters.

Results

We developed a convolutional neural networks and fluctuation method-based toolbox (ImageCN) to increase the processing power of calcium imaging data. To evaluate the performance of ImageCN, nine different imaging datasets were recorded from awake mouse brains. ImageCN demonstrated superior neuron-detection performance when compared with other algorithms. Furthermore, ImageCN does not require sophisticated training for users.

Availability and implementation

ImageCN is implemented in MATLAB. The source code and documentation are available at https://github.com/ZhangChenLab/ImageCN.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Best-first search guided multistage mass spectrometry-based glycan identification
Authors: Wang Yaojun , Bu Dongbo , Huang Chuncui , Wang Hui , Zhou Jinyu , Dong Junchuan , Pan Weiyi , Zhang Jingwei , Zhang Qi , Li Yan , Sun Shiwei
Published: January 2019

Motivation

Glycan identification has long been hampered by complicated branching patterns and various isomeric structures of glycans. Multistage mass spectrometry (MSn) is a promising glycan identification technique as it generates multiple-level fragments of a glycan, which can be explored to deduce branching pattern of the glycan and further distinguish it from other candidates with identical mass. However, the automatic glycan identification still remains a challenge since it mainly relies on expertise to guide a MSn instrument to generate spectra.

Results

Here, we proposed a novel method, named bestFSA, based on a best-first search algorithm to guide the process of spectrum producing in glycan identification using MSn. BestFSA is able to select the most appropriate peaks for next round of experiments and complete the identification using as few experimental rounds. Our analysis of seven representative glycans shows that bestFSA correctly distinguishes actual glycans efficiently and suggested bestFSA could be used in practical glycan identification. The combination of the MSn technology coupled with bestFSA should greatly facilitate the automatic identification of glycan branching patterns, with significantly improved identification sensitivity, and reduce time and cost of MSn experiments.

Availability and implementation

http://glycan.ict.ac.cn

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
How can we make renal medicine careers more appealing to UK trainees?
Authors: Karangizi Alvin H K , Chanouzas Dimitrios , Mahdi Amar , Foggensteiner Lukas
Published: January 2019

Background

There is a global decline in interest in careers in renal medicine. This is concerning given the increasing global burden of kidney disease. Previous studies in the USA and Australia have identified factors such as a poor work–life balance, lack of role models and the challenging nature of the speciality as possible reasons behind recruitment struggles. This study aimed to identify factors associated with declining interest among trainees in the UK.

Methods

We conducted a survey of 150 National Health Service Foundation trainees (interns) and Core Medical Trainees in Health Education West Midlands. Participants completed a 14-part paper-based questionnaire capturing data on trainee demographics, medical school and postgraduate exposure to renal medicine and perceptions of a career in renal medicine.

Results

There was limited early clinical exposure to renal medicine both in terms of time spent in the speciality and perceived exposure to the range of domains of the speciality. Trainees perceived the speciality as complex with a heavy workload. Very few trainees considered the speciality to be lifestyle oriented. There was also disinterest in taking on the associated general medicine commitments of the training programme. Job experience and identification of role models increased the likelihood of consideration of the speciality.

Conclusion

This survey has identified key areas to drive interest in the speciality, including early engagement, enthusiastic supervision and increased training flexibility. Urgent attention is required to address these areas and make renal medicine careers more appealing.
Perioperative management of adult cadaveric and live donor renal transplantation in the UK: a survey of national practice
Authors: Morkane Clare M , Fabes Jez , Banga Neal R , Berry Peter D , Kirwan Christopher J
Published: January 2019

Background

There is a limited evidence base and no national consensus regarding the perioperative management of patients undergoing renal transplantation. We developed an electronic survey to capture an overview of renal transplant perioperative practice across UK renal transplant centres and determine the need for future guidelines on patient management.

Methods

A 29-question survey was developed to encompass the entire renal transplant perioperative pathway and input was sought from clinicians with expertise in renal transplant surgery, anaesthesia, nephrology and intensive care. The survey was sent to lead renal anaesthetists at each of the 23 transplant centres across the UK.

Results

A 96% response rate was achieved with 22 out of 23 centres returning complete responses. There was limited evidence of guideline-based approaches to preoperative workup. Questions regarding intraoperative fluid management, blood pressure targets, vasopressor administration and central venous pressure (CVP) monitoring identified a broad range of practice. Of note, the routine use of goal-directed fluid therapy based on cardiac output estimation was reported in six (27.3%) centres, while nine centres (40.9%) continue to target a specific CVP intraoperatively. In all, 12 (54.5%) centres perform transversus abdominis plane blocks with fentanyl-based patient-controlled analgesia as the most common mode of postoperative analgesia. A single centre reported a renal transplant-specific Enhanced Recovery after Surgery programme for cadaveric organ recipients.

Conclusions

This questionnaire highlighted a high degree of heterogeneity in current UK practice as regards the perioperative management of renal transplant recipients. Development of evidence-based national consensus guidelines to standardize the perioperative care of these patients is recommended in order to improve patient outcomes and focus areas of future research.
Anthropocene Feminism, Companion Species, and the MaddAddam Trilogy
Authors: Jennings Hope
Published: January 2019

This article claims that Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy (2003–2013) offers insights into an emerging “anthropocene feminism” that disrupts the universalized “human” asserted by the Anthropocene. Likewise, Atwood decolonizes Anthropocene discourses by critiquing their reliance on human exceptionalism. By contrasting male characters who adopt humanist–imperialist perspectives with the character of Toby, whose evolving relations with nonhumans are aligned with a feminist new materialist vision, Atwood develops a compelling politics of the posthuman. The trilogy’s privileging of hybrid ontologies reveals the mutually entangled relations that exist between companion species. Arguing for a posthuman ethics, Atwood challenges the Anthropocene’s apocalyptic determinisms and suggests that only such an ethics makes possible a world that continues rather than ends.
P043 Secretome modulation of Caco-2 cell line induced by a multi-strain probiotic
Authors: Petito V , Greco V , Laterza L , Graziani C , Lopetuso L , Scaldaferri F , Urbani A , Gasbarrini A
Published: January 2019

Background

Probiotics are defined as live, non-pathogenic bacteria that confer health benefits beyond their nutritional value. Particularly VSL#3, a probiotic mix containing 4 strains of Lactobacilli (L. paracasei, L. plantarum, L. acidophilus and L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus*), 3 strains of Bifidobacteria (B. longum**, B. infantis***, B. breve) and Streptococcus thermophilus, has demonstrated efficacy in the management of diseases characterised by increased intestinal permeability such as irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis.

*Recently reclassified as L. helveticus. **Recently reclassified as B. longum subsp. lactis. ***Recently reclassified as B. infantis subsp. lactis. The aim of the present study was to study secreted bioactive factors to evaluate the mechanisms of action of VSL#3 to enhance intestinal epithelia.

Methods

Two different lots of VSL#3 ( Nutrilinea Srl, Gallarate (VA), Italy, lot #802097 and lot #802100) were used. Caco-2 cell line were treated with a conditioning media (CM) prepared using 1 g of probiotic formula grown in D-MEM cell culture medium (free of serum and antibiotics) at 37°C for 48 h without shaking and in anaerobic conditions. Caco-2 were treated with diluted CM at 1:10 and 1:25 for 24 and 48 h. Media culture for each conditions has been collected and analysed by a deeper proteomics approach. Differential protein expression in was evaluated by shotgun proteomics analysis based on nLC-HDMSE and carried out on Synapt G2-Si mass spectrometer. Protein identification and protein expression analysis were perfomed by Protein Linx Global Server (PLGS v. 3.0.3, Waters Corp).

Results

The analysis of supernatants from Caco-2, treated with CM, showed the presence of bacteria strain-specific proteins. Human proteins synthesised from CaCo-2 were also identified, such as caspase 1, IL8, HSP70, HSP70b, HSP90, HSP105. The production were time- and dose- dependent. In CM diluted 1:10, probiotic derived proteins have been shown to be more expressed at 24 h. Human caspase 1, IL8, HSP 70, HSP 70b, HSP 90, HSP 105 were also found up-regulated in CaCo-2 treated for 24 h with CM diluted 1:10.

Conclusions

This is the first time where a probiotic secretome was explored. The study on probiotic secretome is useful to understand if the probiotic was well reconstituted. Analysis of secretome from CaCo-2 treated with CM helped us to understand the mechanism by probiotics can enhance intestinal barrier: by strengthen the autophagy process, an arm of innate immunity, by overexpression of caspase 1, IL8 and HSP 70, and by HSPs dependent modulation of inflammation.
Proactive Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Adalimumab Is Associated With Better Long-term Outcomes Compared With Standard of Care in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Authors: Papamichael Konstantinos , Juncadella Anna , Wong Danny , Rakowsky Shana , Sattler Lindsey A , Campbell James P , Vaughn Byron P , Cheifetz Adam S
Published: January 2019

Background and Aims

Therapeutic drug monitoring [TDM] has proven to be effective for optimising anti-tumour necrosis factor [TNF] therapy in inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]. Nevertheless, the majority of data refer to infliximab and reactive testing or association studies. We aimed to compare the long-term outcome of patients with IBD who received at least one proactive TDM of adalimumab, with standard of care, defined as empirical dose escalation and/or reactive TDM.

Methods

This was a multicentre retrospective cohort study. Patients on maintenance adalimumab therapy from June 2006 to December 2015 were eligible. We analysed time to treatment failure from start of adalimumab until the end of follow-up [July 2016]. Treatment failure was defined as drug discontinuation for secondary loss of response or serious adverse event or need for IBD-related surgery. Serum adalimumab concentrations and antibodies to adalimumab were measured using the Prometheus homogeneous mobility shift assay.

Results

A total of 382 patients with IBD [Crohn’s disease, n = 311, 81%] were included and received either at least one proactive TDM [n = 53] or standard of care [empirical dose escalation, n = 279; reactive TDM, n = 50]. Patients were followed for a median of 3.1 years [interquartile range, 1.4–4.8 years]. Multiple Cox regression analyses showed that at least one proactive TDM was independently associated with a reduced risk for treatment failure (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.4; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.2–0.9; p = 0.022).

Conclusions

This multicentre, retrospective cohort study reflecting real-life clinical practice provides the first evidence that proactive TDM of adalimumab may be associated with a lower risk of treatment failure compared with standard of care in patients with IBD.
Predictors of mortality and heart transplantation in patients with Chagas’ cardiomyopathy and ventricular tachycardia treated with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators
Authors: Gali Wagner L , Sarabanda Alvaro V , Baggio José M , Silva Eduardo F , Gomes Gustavo G , Junqueira Luiz F
Published: January 2019

Aims

Data on long-term follow-up of patients with Chagas’ heart disease (ChHD) receiving a secondary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) are limited and its benefit is controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term outcomes of ChHD patients who received a secondary prevention ICD.

Methods and results

We assessed the outcomes of consecutive ChHD patients referred to our Institution from 2006 to 2014 for a secondary prevention ICD [89 patients; 58 men; mean age 56 ± 11 years; left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), 42 ± 12%]. The primary outcome included a composite of death from any cause or heart transplantation. After a mean follow-up of 59 ± 27 months, the primary outcome occurred in 23 patients (5.3% per year). Multivariate analysis showed that LVEF < 35% [hazard ratio (HR) 4.64; P < 0.01] and age ≥ 65 years (HR 3.19; P < 0.01) were independent predictors of the primary outcome. Using these two risk factors, a risk score was developed, and lower- (no risk factors), intermediate- (one risk factor), and higher-risk (two risk factors) groups were recognized with an annual rate of primary outcome of 1.4%, 7.4%, and 20.4%, respectively. A high burden of appropriate ICD therapies (16% per year) and electrical storms were documented, however, ICD interventions did not impact on the primary outcome.

Conclusion

Among ChHD patients receiving a secondary prevention ICD, older age (≥65 years) and left ventricular dysfunction (LVEF < 35%) portend a poor outcome and were associated with increased risk of death or heart transplantation. Most patients received appropriate ICD therapies, however, ICD interventions did not impact on the primary outcome.
On the error estimates of a hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method for second-order elliptic problem with discontinuous coefficients
Authors: Chen Gang , Cui Jintao
Published: January 2019

Hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) methods retain the main advantages of standard discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods, including their flexibility in meshing, ease of design and implementation, ease of use within an $hp$-adaptive strategy and preservation of local conservation of physical quantities. Moreover, HDG methods can significantly reduce the number of degrees of freedom, resulting in a substantial reduction of computational cost. In this paper, we study an HDG method for the second-order elliptic problem with discontinuous coefficients. The numerical scheme is proposed on general polygonal and polyhedral meshes with specially designed stabilization parameters. Robust a priori and a posteriori error estimates are derived without a full elliptic regularity assumption. The proposed a posteriori error estimators are proved to be efficient and reliable without a quasi-monotonicity assumption on the diffusion coefficient.
β-Nonintersecting Poisson Random Walks: Law of Large Numbers and Central Limit Theorems
Authors: Huang Jiaoyang
Published: January 2019

We study the $\beta $ analogue of the nonintersecting Poisson random walks. We derive a stochastic differential equation of the Stieltjes transform of the empirical measure process, which can be viewed as a dynamical version of the Nekrasov’s equation in [7, Section 4]. We find that the empirical measure process converges weakly in the space of cádlág measure-valued processes to a deterministic process, characterized by the quantized free convolution, as introduced in [11]. For suitable initial data, we prove that the rescaled empirical measure process converges weakly in the space of distributions acting on analytic test functions to a Gaussian process. The means and the covariances coincide with those of $\beta $-Dyson Brownian motions with the initial data constructed by the Markov–Krein correspondence. Especially, the covariance structure can be described in terms of the Gaussian free field. Our proof relies on integrable features of the generators of the $\beta $-nonintersecting Poisson random walks, the method of characteristics, and a coupling technique for Poisson random walks.
Correlations Between Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection and Rectal Gonorrhea Incidence in Men Who Have Sex With Men: Implications for Future HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis Trials
Authors: Mullick Charu , Murray Jeffrey
Published: January 2019

Using published data, we found a direct correlation between the incidence of rectal gonorrhea and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in men who have sex with men who were not using oral preexposure prophylaxis. HIV incidence was predicted using rectal gonorrhea incidence as the determinant in regression analysis. The observed correlation suggest that rectal gonorrhea incidence can potentially serve as a predictor of HIV incidence. If confirmed with additional data, a quantitative correlation for incidence of the 2 infections could be useful in active-controlled HIV prevention trials where low HIV incidence is expected. Widespread improvements in treatment as prevention and gonorrhea control can negatively impact the correlation and its utility.
MicroRNA-221 and MicroRNA-222 in Common Human Cancers: Expression, Function, and Triggering of Tumor Progression as a Key Modulator
Authors: Amini Sima , Abak Atefe , Sakhinia Ebrahim , Abhari Alireza
Published: January 2019

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of short (~22 nucleotides [nt]), single-stranded RNA oligonucleotides that are regulatory in nature and are often dysregulated in various diseases, including cancer. miRNAs can act as oncomiRs (miRNAs associated with cancer) or tumor suppressor miRNAs and have the potential to be a diagnostic, prognostic, noninvasive biomarker for these diseases. MicroRNA-221 (miR-221) and microRNA-222 (miR-222) are homologous miRNAs, located on the human chromosome Xp11.3, which factored significantly in impairment in the regulation of a wide range of cancers. In this review, we have highlighted the most consistently reported dysregulated miRNAs that trigger human tissues to express cancerous features and surveyed the role of those miRNAs in metastasis, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and tumor prognosis. Also, we applied the causes of drug resistance and the role of coordinated actions of these miRNAs to epigenetic changes and selected miRNAs as a potential type of cancer treatment.
A Machine Learning Method for Detecting Autocorrelation of Evolutionary Rates in Large Phylogenies
Authors: Tao Qiqing , Tamura Koichiro , U. Battistuzzi Fabia , Kumar Sudhir
Published: January 2019

New species arise from pre-existing species and inherit similar genomes and environments. This predicts greater similarity of the tempo of molecular evolution between direct ancestors and descendants, resulting in autocorrelation of evolutionary rates in the tree of life. Surprisingly, molecular sequence data have not confirmed this expectation, possibly because available methods lack the power to detect autocorrelated rates. Here, we present a machine learning method, CorrTest, to detect the presence of rate autocorrelation in large phylogenies. CorrTest is computationally efficient and performs better than the available state-of-the-art method. Application of CorrTest reveals extensive rate autocorrelation in DNA and amino acid sequence evolution of mammals, birds, insects, metazoans, plants, fungi, parasitic protozoans, and prokaryotes. Therefore, rate autocorrelation is a common phenomenon throughout the tree of life. These findings suggest concordance between molecular and nonmolecular evolutionary patterns, and they will foster unbiased and precise dating of the tree of life.
Virtual Reality Angiogram vs 3-Dimensional Printed Angiogram as an Educational tool—A Comparative Study
Authors: Bairamian David , Liu Shinuo , Eftekhar Behzad
Published: January 2019

BACKGROUND

Three-dimensional (3D) visualization of the neurovascular structures has helped preoperative surgical planning. 3D printed models and virtual reality (VR) devices are 2 options to improve 3D stereovision and stereoscopic depth perception of cerebrovascular anatomy for aneurysm surgery.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate and compare the practicality and potential of 3D printed and VR models in a neurosurgical education context.

METHODS

The VR angiogram was introduced through the development and testing of a VR smartphone app. Ten neurosurgical trainees from Australia and New Zealand participated in a 2-part interactive exercise using 3 3D printed and VR angiogram models followed by a questionnaire about their experience. In a separate exercise to investigate the learning curve effect on VR angiogram application, a qualified neurosurgeon was subjected to 15 exercises involving manipulating VR angiograms models.

RESULTS

VR angiogram outperformed 3D printed model in terms of resolution. It had statistically significant advantage in ability to zoom, resolution, ease of manipulation, model durability, and educational potential. VR angiogram had a higher questionnaire total score than 3D models. The 3D printed models had a statistically significant advantage in depth perception and ease of manipulation. The results were independent of trainee year level, sequence of the tests, or anatomy.

CONCLUSION

In selected cases with challenging cerebrovascular anatomy where stereoscopic depth perception is helpful, VR angiogram should be considered as a viable alternative to the 3D printed models for neurosurgical training and preoperative planning. An immersive virtual environment offers excellent resolution and ability to zoom, potentiating it as an untapped educational tool.
Antiretroviral Prescription Pick-up and Physician Follow-up After Hospital Discharge Among Medically Complex People With HIV
Authors: Antoniou Tony , Graves Erin , Plumptre Lesley , Stewart Ann , Chan Carusone Soo
Published: January 2019

In this study, only 22 of 206 (10.7%) socially marginalized individuals living with HIV and multiple comorbid conditions filled a prescription for antiretroviral therapy within 7 days of discharge from an HIV specialty hospital, despite comprehensive discharge planning. Additional interventions facilitating postdischarge continuity of care are required for this population.
Plasmodium vivax Parasite Load Is Associated With Histopathology in Saimiri boliviensis With Findings Comparable to P vivax Pathogenesis in Humans
Authors: Peterson Mariko S , Joyner Chester J , Cordy Regina J , Salinas Jorge L , Machiah Deepa , Lapp Stacey A ,   MaHPIC Consortium, Meyer Esmeralda V S , Gumber Sanjeev , Galinski Mary R
Published: January 2019

Background

Plasmodium vivax can cause severe malaria with multisystem organ dysfunction and death. Clinical reports suggest that parasite accumulation in tissues may contribute to pathogenesis and disease severity, but direct evidence is scarce.

Methods

We present quantitative parasitological and histopathological analyses of tissue sections from a cohort of naive, mostly splenectomized Saimiri boliviensis infected with P vivax to define the relationship of tissue parasite load and histopathology.

Results

The lung, liver, and kidney showed the most tissue injury, with pathological presentations similar to observations reported from autopsies. Parasite loads correlated with the degree of histopathologic changes in the lung and liver tissues. In contrast, kidney damage was not associated directly with parasite load but with the presence of hemozoin, an inflammatory parasite byproduct.

Conclusions

This analysis supports the use of the S boliviensis infection model for performing detailed histopathological studies to better understand and potentially design interventions to treat serious clinical manifestations caused by P vivax.
Transthoracic Discectomy for Symptomatic Thoracic Disc Herniation: 2-Dimensional Operative Video
Authors: Saadeh Yamaan S , Khalsa Siri S , Smith Brandon W , Joseph Jacob R , Khorfan Rhami F , Park Paul
Published: January 2019

Thoracic disc herniations are an infrequent occurrence, but can be a cause of significant myelopathy. Diagnosis typically requires a high clinical suspicion that is confirmed with appropriate imaging. Classically, the transthoracic approach for discectomy is the treatment of choice for symptomatic cases. This video concerns a 48-yr-old woman who presented with worsening mid-back pain and progressive gait difficulty. Her examination was significant for proximal lower extremity muscle weakness, difficulty with tandem gait, and urinary incontinence. Imaging demonstrated a large T7-8 disc herniation causing severe spinal cord compression. The patient underwent T7-8 transthoracic discectomy and interbody fusion. She tolerated the procedure well without complication, and postoperative imaging demonstrated decompression of her spinal cord. On follow-up, she had improved mid-back pain, strength, and ambulatory function.

The patient consented to the recording of this surgical video for potential publication.
Local Government and Health Governance
Authors: Baum Fran
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines how local governance can be most effective in promoting health and then reviews developments in first urban and then rural and regional governance in terms of contributions to health equity, well-being, and sustainability. The chapter notes that while local government can be a positive part of the governance for health, it is not always benign. It can be captured by vested interests whose aim is to profit from development in a city, rather than acting in the interests of the public good. The argument is made that local government requires safeguards so that those who have only a profit motive in mind are not able to capture local authorities or exercise undue influence over them. The characteristics of good local governance are described. Examples are provided of urban and rural local governments acting in the interests of health and equity.
Time Will Tell
Authors: Riess Jones Mari
Published: January 2019

This book is about time and synchrony and the roles these constructs play in our everyday encounters with events in our world. It focuses on auditory events in music and speech with the aim of demonstrating the potential of concepts such as entrainment and resonance for explaining how we interact, in real time, with these events. The book is divided into two parts. Part I is devoted to introducing basic theoretical concepts such as entrainment and resonance as they apply to rhythmical properties of fast and slow environmental events. Part II applies these concepts to events in music and speech. An overarching theme holds that similar dynamic attending concepts underlie the way we attend to and perceive communicative time patterns in domains of music and speech.
Tuning in to World Events
Authors: Riess Jones Mari
Published: January 2019

The chapter introduces one of the two major hypotheses in Dynamic Attending Theory (DAT). This is the general attending hypothesis, which maintains that attending to an external event is governed by cortical oscillation(s) involuntarily phase entrained to an event (exogenous entrainment). Selective attending is specifically linked to timed amplitude elevations of exogenously driven oscillations. Voluntary attending can also contribute to momentary attending via selective amplitude elevation of this driven rhythm’s oscillation. Other important topics introduced in this chapter involve phase response curves, which describe driving–driven entrainment, and attending energy curves, which describe allocations of heightened attending energy that figure in expectancy and capture curves of attending. Both regularity and force of the external driving rhythm figure in its entraining potential are described according to the general attending hypothesis.
Tuning in to Slow Events
Authors: Riess Jones Mari
Published: January 2019

This chapter addresses entrainments in various slow events. It challenges the idea that only slow events that are isochronous are capable of entraining neural oscillations. It tackles entrainments in events that afford quasi-isochronous driving rhythms as well as in events that are markedly non-isochronous (but coherent). Coherent sequences have time patterns as in short-short-long or long-short-short sequences. This is an important chapter as it differentiates two entrainment protocols: traditional mode-locking versus transient mode-locking. Traditional mode-locking is familiar; it describes entrainment when neither the driving rhythm nor the driven rhythm change significantly (fluctuations are all right). Traditional mode-locking is governed by a single (global) attractor. By contrast, transient mode-locking refers to fleeting entrainments to changing driving rhythms, given the persisting period of driven oscillation. This form of mode-locking delivers a series of (local) attractors. This chapter develops these ideas and provides many examples.
Meter and Rhythm
Authors: Riess Jones Mari
Published: January 2019

The primary goal of this chapter is to establish that meter and rhythm, usually treated as distinctly different structures in music, share similar origins in dynamic attending theory. Against a review of prominent approaches that concentrate on differentiating rhythm from meter, this chapter points out ways in which both types of time structure afford musical driving rhythms. However, meters in music tend to activate metric oscillator clusters in listeners whereas the time patterns of rhythm typically activate rhythmic attractor profiles in listeners. Also discussed in this chapter are accents and distinctions between objective and subjective salience in accents.
Introduction: Questioning the Punitive Paradox
Authors: Koch Insa Lee
Published: January 2019

The introduction starts with what many have seen as a worrying paradox: the illiberal turn that liberal democracies have taken with, or perhaps because of, popular support. While commentators have focused on ‘why’ liberal democracy has taken an illiberal turn, the book proposes an alternative starting point that focuses on the ‘how’ and the ‘what’: what democracy means to some of Britain’s most marginalized citizens in the first place and how these citizens engage with the state. It is by shifting the analytical focus to these questions that a more encompassing legacy of state coercion than commonly acknowledged in narratives of the punitive turn can be brought into focus, as well as the possibility of its critique and subversion. The introduction sets out council estates as a historical and ethnographic setting for such a project, outlines the methodology, and introduces the anthropological framework at the core of the book.
A Political History of Council Estates: Council Estates as State-Building Projects
Authors: Koch Insa Lee
Published: January 2019

Chapter 1 provides a political history of council estates. Built in the inter- and post-war decades as homes for the working classes, council estates have often been seen as a central pillar of the British welfare state. This chapter argues that far from being only about the provision of bricks and mortar, council estates were always projects of state-building that were tied to class segregation and class control. In the post-war decades, paternalistic policies ensured that working-class tenants were living up to state-sponsored standards of respectability. This legacy of classed state control became more pronounced under neoliberal governance in the 1980s, and from the mid-1990s onwards, under the ‘law and order’ state, and most recently, with the shift to ‘austerity politics’. A political history of council estates challenges the dichotomy of a ‘golden era’ of post-war social democracy and the subsequent punitive turn by foregrounding a legacy of classed control both across historical periods and across areas of policy making that are not often considered together.
The Good Person and the Bad Citizen: History, Class, and Sociality
Authors: Koch Insa Lee
Published: January 2019

Chapter 2 introduces the building blocks of an alternative political–moral order, as viewed from the perspective of council estate residents. It argues that official understandings of deservingness and respectability have at times dovetailed with, but more often diverged from, what residents understand to be a righteous person and by extension also a rightful citizen who is deserving of public resources and protection. In the post-war period, a fragile moral union existed between paternalistic welfare policies that prioritised the white, male-headed nuclear household and tenants’ aspirations for respectable homes and neighbourhoods. This fragile moral union, however, became dismantled in the decades that followed, when the ideal of the worker-citizen was replaced by that of the consumer-citizen and those renting on council estates increasingly seen as subjects of failure and lack. Today, working class residents’ own understandings of what makes a good person, based on their reliance on informal networks of support and care, stand in stark contrast to classed portrayals that see them as citizens of lack.
Political Brokers: Active Citizenship
Authors: Koch Insa Lee
Published: January 2019

Chapter 6 examines what grassroots mechanisms estate residents have at their disposal to make their voices heard. Private–public partnerships and civic initiatives that address problems of disorder and crime abound on Britain’s post-industrial housing estates. The chapter argues that official expectations of ‘active citizenship’ do not fit with residents’ own understandings of grassroots activism and change. As the daily work of both community activists and locally based politicians shows, good governance from residents’ point of view is about bringing policies in line with their daily struggles for security and survival. And yet, this alternative politics—referred to as a ‘bread and butter politics’—is also vulnerable to being silenced by officials who see it as evidence of petty, even corrupt behaviour. In the absence of adequate institutional and political mechanisms that can capture people’s demands, a ‘bread and butter politics’ not only reinforces deep-seated feelings of disenchantment with the political system but also fails to translate into an agenda for sustainable change.
Conclusion: A Different Kind of Paradox
Authors: Koch Insa Lee
Published: January 2019

The conclusion returns to the punitive paradox introduced at the beginning of the book: the paradox of how we can explain liberal democracy’s illiberal turn. It contrasts this with a different kind of paradox that emerges when we shift from the question of ‘why’ to the ‘how’ and the ‘what’: the paradox of how the expansion of state power to forcibly control its citizens is also the inverse to its powers to control the means of its own application. This paradox expands the debate on punishment by, first, moving beyond a focus on criminal law; second, revealing the crisis of state authority at the heart of governance today; and, third, bringing into focus an alternative political theory that reconnects the exercise of statecraft with a political economy of care.
Vaðmál and Cloth Currency in Viking and Medieval Iceland
Authors: Smith Michèle Hayeur
Published: January 2019

In medieval Iceland, apparently alone among the North Atlantic Norse colonies, cloth evolved into a highly standardized form of currency within a broader-based commodity-money system imported from Norway. Within the Icelandic economy, the production of currency cloth (vaðmál or vöruvaðmál) was legally regulated and was used within Iceland to pay debts, taxes, and tithes. This chapter presents the first detailed analyses of over 1,000 archaeological textiles stored in Icelandic museum collections. The way in which this ‘legal cloth’ was woven and constructed provides insights into the emergence of standardized cloth currency and its use across Iceland. Analyses challenge the assumption that organic forms of commodity-currency are unavailable to archaeologists studying early economic systems. Cloth currency, produced chiefly by women, emerged around the end of the Viking Age. It was central to the Icelandic economy until the mid 1500s, after which its role progressively declined as Iceland entered into the increasingly globalized trade networks of the early modern industrialized world.
The Emergence of Hindi Literature: From Transregional Maru-Gurjar to Madhyadeśī Narratives
Authors: Bangha Imre
Published: January 2019

Imre Bangha locates the source of what would later become the literary idioms associated with the Hindi heartland—Brajbhasha, Avadhi, Khari Boli, and so on—in Maru-Gurjar, an idiom originating not in the Gangetic plain but in western India, particularly the lands of modern Gujarat and western Rajasthan. Bangha argues that it was this literary language, originally cultivated by Jains beginning in the late twelfth century, that eventually spread to the lands known as madhyadeś, where in the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it developed into the forms that we now associate with Brajbhasha and Avadhi. Bangha also reveals that the linguistic and literary evidence for this connection has been apparent for some time, but modern Hindi literary historiography, taking nationalism as its organizing principle and embracing a strict sense of religion as one of the significant boundaries of literary culture, has been largely unable to see it.
Rites, Rights and Rhythms
Authors: Birenbaum Quintero Michael
Published: January 2019

Colombia has the largest black population in the Spanish-speaking world, but Afro-Colombians have long remained at the nation’s margins. Their recent irruption into the political, social, and cultural spheres is tied to appeals to cultural difference, dramatized by the traditional music of Colombia’s majority-black Southern Pacific region, often called currulao. Yet that music remains largely unknown and unstudied despite its complexity, aesthetic appeal, and social importance. Rites, Rights & Rhythms: A Genealogy of Musical Meaning in Colombia’s Black Pacific is the first book-length academic study of currulao, inquiring into the numerous ways that it has been used: to praise the saints, to grapple with modernization, to dramatize black politics, to demonstrate national heritage, to generate economic development, and to provide social amelioration in a context of war. The author draws on both archival and ethnographic research to trace these and other opinions about how currulao has been understood, illuminating a history of struggles over its meanings that are also struggles over the meanings of blackness in Colombia. Moving from the eighteenth century to the present, this book asks how musical meaning is made, maintained, and sometimes abandoned across historical contexts as varied as colonial slavery, twentieth-century national populism, and neoliberal multiculturalism. What emerges is both a rich portrait of one of the hemisphere’s most important and understudied black cultures and a theory of history traced through the performative practice of currulao.