bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Racial Inequality Across Income Volatility and Employment
Authors: Carr Michael , Hardy Bradley L.
Published: February 2022

Volatility is an under-explored facet of economic insecurity, and it further helps to characterize otherwise omitted nuance in the economic situation facing many socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Defined as a measure of short-run intragenerational mobility, standard measures of volatility leverage panel data in order to estimate higher moments of the growth rate of earnings or income, most often as variance transformations. Broadly, volatility can arise from one of two sources: instability in earnings among the continuously employed due to variable hours, hourly earnings, or salary changes; and/or instability in employment. The current literature shows that while both sources play an important role in the level of volatility for both men and women, trends are similar whether or not employment instability is accounted for, with overall declines in volatility for women and a largely flat trend for men over the last 40 years. The overall flat trend in volatility for men does seem at odds with other evidence that shows falling labor force participation for working-age men, and for Black men in particular. The link between these two processes—earnings changes over short periods of time and weekly or monthly snapshots of employment and labor force participation—remains largely absent from the literature because the most commonly used panel data sets are unable to capture within-year fluctuations in employment instability. Whether declining labor force participation for men increases or decreases volatility depends on whether there is a bifurcation in employment where some men are consistently employed over longer time horizons and some are not employed at all, or if declines in labor force participation at a point in time reflect increasing instability in employment over time. If the latter is true, then volatility could increase and could result in notably different trends in volatility over time by both race and gender.
Planetary Atmospheres: Chemistry and Composition
Authors: Visscher Channon
Published: February 2022

The observed composition of a planetary atmosphere is the product of planetary formation and evolution, including the chemical and physical processes shaping atmospheric abundances into the present day. In the solar system, the gas giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune possess massive molecular envelopes consisting mostly of H2 and He along with various minor amounts of heavy elements such as C, N, and O (present as CH4, NH3, and H2O, respectively) and numerous additional minor species. The terrestrial planets Venus, Earth, and Mars each possess a relatively thin atmospheric envelope surrounding a rocky surface. The atmospheres of Mars and Venus are characterized by abundant CO2 with a small amount of N2, whereas the atmosphere of the Earth is dominated by N2 and O2. Such differences provide clues to the divergent pathways of atmospheric evolution.

Numerous closely coupled physical and chemical processes give rise to the abundances observed in the planetary atmospheres of the solar system. These processes include the maintenance of thermochemical equilibrium, reaction kinetics, atmospheric transport, photochemistry, condensation (including cloud formation) and vaporization, deposition and sublimation, diurnal and seasonal effects, greenhouse effects, surface–atmosphere reactions, volcanic activity, and (in the case of Earth) biogenic and anthropogenic sources. The present understanding of the chemical composition of planetary atmospheres is the result of over a century of observations, including ground-based, space-based, and in situ measurements of the major, minor, trace, and isotopic species found on each planet. These observations have been accompanied by experimental studies of planetary materials and the development of theoretical models to identify the key processes shaping atmospheric abundances observed today.
Gender, Mobility, and Displacement: From the Shadows to Questioning Binaries
Authors: Sert Deniz , Turkmen Fulya Felicity
Published: February 2022

The evolution of the construction of gender in migration studies can be appraised under several distinct headings. In the beginning, women were simply “in the shadows” with no recognition of them as potential or actual migrants. Eventually, the field moved to an “add women, mix, and stir” approach, which saw women recognized in migration studies and statistics for the first time. Here, gender was no more than a demographic category to ensure women were counted alongside men in migration flows. However, deconstructing the feminization of migration required that gender be understood as integral to the experience of migration, thus demanding more refined theoretical and analytical tools. Subsequently, migration intersected with masculinity studies, which showed the reciprocal relation where masculinity can be decisive in migratory decision making, and in return, mobility can be an essential factor in how men think about masculinity. More recently, gender in migration studies has moved beyond binary gender roles. Research on the lived experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) refugees and asylum seekers demonstrates the importance of the relationship between sexual orientation, gender identity, and identity construction in navigating migration journeys beyond the male-female binary. This raises the question of how salient this development is for international studies. While the disciplines of political science and international relations were rather late to the study of international migration, migrants and refugees have become issues of high politics in the early 21st century. Thus, there is a need to revisit and revise how different disciplines intersect in the interest of more effective policymaking based on better data.
International Relations (IR) in Colombia
Authors: Cepeda-Másmela Carolina , Tickner Arlene B.
Published: February 2022

Assessing the International Relations (IR) discipline in Colombia requires deep description of key aspects related to its genealogy, the nature of its scholars and research, and its community structure. IR in Colombia grew out of practical concerns about the creation of adequate human and institutional resources needed to analyze world affairs and Colombian foreign policy. As the field expanded and consolidated, the IR professoriate became more robust and diverse in terms of thematic and geographical trends in research and increased levels of integration at the national and international levels. Several factors have figured prominently in shaping the discipline in Colombia, including the academic training and professional focus of IR scholars, foreign policy interests of the Colombian state, internationalization processes in academia, financial and institutional constraints on research, and patterns of interaction between scholars and policy makers. IR studies in Colombia have not been thoroughly explored, and broad description both allows for a preliminary explanation of their general character and highlights the need for greater reflection about the field’s evolution, shape, and challenges.
Mexican Foreign Policy
Authors: Schiavon Jorge A.
Published: February 2022

Mexican foreign policy should be analyzed in a comprehensive and systematic way. To do so, it is necessary to study the history of Mexican diplomacy, explaining how foreign policy has been used as a central instrument for the creation and consolidation of the Mexican national sovereign state. Then, it is necessary to examine the most relevant actors and institutions involved in the decision-making process and implementation of foreign policy, evaluating their powers, capacities, and actions. Based on this, it is possible to analyze the strategies and actions of Mexican foreign policy vis-à-vis the most important regions of the world (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa), with a special emphasis on its relationship with the United States, as well as its participation in multilateral and regional organizations.
Mexican Americans in the United States
Authors: Rodriguez Iliana Yamileth
Published: February 2022

Mexican American history in the United States spans centuries. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire colonized North American territories. Though met with colonial rivalries in the southeast, Spanish control remained strong in the US southwest through the 19th century. The mid-1800s were an era of power struggles over territory and the construction of borders, which greatly impacted ethnic Mexicans living in the US-Mexico borderlands. After the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), the passage of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo allowed the United States to take all or parts of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Ethnic Mexicans living in newly incorporated regions in the mid- through late 19th century witnessed the radical restructuring of their lives along legal, economic, political, and cultural lines.

The early 20th century witnessed the rise of anti-Mexican sentiment and violence. As ethnic Mexican communities came under attack, Mexican Americans took leadership roles in institutions, labor unions, and community groups to fight for equality. Both tensions and coalition-building efforts between Mexican Americans and Mexican migrants animated the mid-20th century, as did questions about wartime identity, citizenship, and belonging. By the late 20th century, Chicana/o politics took center stage and brought forth a radical politics informed by the Mexican American experience. Finally, the late 20th through early 21st centuries saw further geographic diversification of Mexican American communities outside of the southwest.
Native American Captivity and Slavery in North America, 1492–1848
Authors: Little Ann
Published: February 2022

The capture, adoption, and/or enslavement of enemies in North American warfare long predated the European invasion of the 16th century. In every region and among nearly every nation of Native North America, captive-taking continued after the arrival of the Spanish, English, and French and accelerated in the 18th century as a result of the opportunities and pressures that colonialism brought to bear on indigenous peoples. Although the famous narratives of Indian captivity were written by people of European descent, the majority of people who were taken and adopted or enslaved by Native Americans were themselves Native American women, girls, and boys. One scholar estimates that perhaps as many as 2.5 to 5 million Indigenous slaves were owned by Europeans in the Western hemisphere from 1492 to 1900; this estimate excludes the millions more who were retained within other Indigenous communities.

Within these Native American communities, captives served a variety of purposes along a continuum: depending on their age and sex, they might be adopted fully into a new kinship network, or they might be ritually executed. Most captive adults seem to have endured fates in-between these dramatic poles: they might be marked as “adopted slaves” and set to the most tedious and repetitive work; they might be traded or given as gifts for profit or diplomacy; they might be subjected to coerced sex; or they might marry a captor and have children who were full kin members of their new community. Most would probably experience more than one of these fates.

In the early 21st century, important scholarship on Native American captivity has emphasized its similarities to African slavery and how the African slave trade influenced Native American captive raiding, trading, and enslavement in the colonial era and in the early United States. But there were two possibly interrelated important differences between these two slaveries. First, unlike the adult male African captives who were preferred by Europeans for enslavement in North America, most captives taken by other Native Americans were women and children. Second, this Indigenous slavery was not heritable, although the captives themselves were frequently marked or even mutilated to signify their status as outsiders, or not-kin, in a world defined by kinship ties.

Although the differences of intersecting European and Indigenous cultures, chronology, and context made for widely disparate experiences in Indian captivity and slavery over four centuries, one constant across time and space is that captive-taking seems to have been intended to grow the captors’ populations as well as deprive their enemies of productive and reproductive labor. The appropriation of girls’ and women’s sexuality and reproductive power became the means by which female captives might suffer intensely as well as possibly improve their standing and their children’s futures.
Black Brotherhoods in the Iberian Atlantic
Authors: Valerio Miguel A.
Published: February 2022

Black confraternities or lay Catholic brotherhoods were colonial Afro-Latin Americans’ main site of social action and expression, striking a balance between rebellion and flight and assimilation. Modeled on the Roman collegia, burial of deceased members was a central preoccupation. Black brothers and sisters cared for infirm cofrades (confraternity members) in their own hospitals and other hospitals of colonial Latin America. They commissioned, fashioned, and maintained ornate altars and shrines for their saints, thereby engaging in artistic patronage and art collecting. They staged lavish festivities for their patron’s feast and other holidays, so dazzling that they were incorporated into local public festivities. But their festive practices were also seen by colonial authorities as unorthodox and even subversive. Yet, despite all opposition, colonial Afro-Latin Americans managed to avail themselves of religious brotherhoods to fashion meaningful existence in the diaspora through community formation, mutual aid, and religious and festive expression. Brotherhoods thus allowed Afro-Latin Americans to fashion group cohesion and a sense of belonging they would translate into political action in future generations. As colonial Afro-Latin Americans’ principal site of social action, confraternities offer us important avenues for studying black subjectivities and ways to account for black vocality in Latin America.
Digital Resources: Digital Informal Archives in Contemporary Brazil
Authors: Marino Ian Kisil , Silveira Pedro Telles da , Nicodemo Thiago Lima
Published: February 2022

The category of “informal archives” was initially proposed by Adam Auerbach in a case study on the role of informal archives held by social leaders of peripheral communities in India. “Informal archives” imply forms of historical documentation beyond state authority, and preserved in a rough, poor, and ephemeral manner (in the digital realm). They typically involve connections to the past articulated by different social demands, whether regarding the dispute for a national memory in the digital-public realm, or the nostalgic nature of certain connections to the past, or even the social/political activism of civil society organizations. For this reason, informal archives are in unmapped locations, and in order to be accessed they need to be ethnographically reached. An empirical research based on data raised in early 2020 shows that, even with the creation of a theoretical basis for this kind of digital resource, constant updates will remain necessary due to the unstable nature of the subject.
Future Lake Development in Deglaciating Mountain Ranges
Authors: Haeberli Wilfried , Drenkhan Fabian
Published: February 2022

Continued retreat and disappearance of glaciers cause fundamental changes in cold mountain ranges and new landscapes to develop, and the consequences can reach far beyond the still ice-covered areas. A key element is the formation of numerous new lakes where overdeepened parts of glacier beds become exposed. With the first model results from the Swiss Alps around 2010 of distributed glacier thicknesses over entire mountain regions, the derivation of glacier beds as potential future surface topographies became possible. Since then, climate-, water-, and hazard-related quantitative research about future lakes in deglaciating mountains all over the world rapidly evolved.

Currently growing and potential future open water bodies are part of new environments in marked imbalance. The surrounding steep icy slopes and peaks are affected by glacial debuttressing and permafrost degradation, with associated long-term stability reduction. This makes the new lakes potential sources of far-reaching floods or debris flows, and they represent serious multipliers of hazards and risks to down-valley humans and their infrastructure. Such hazard and risk aspects are also of primary importance where the lakes potentially connect with hydropower production, freshwater supply, tourism, cultural values, and landscape protection.

Planning for sustainable adaptation strategies optimally starts from the anticipation in space and time of possible lake formation in glacier-covered areas by numerical modeling combined with analyses of ice-morphological indications. In a second step, hazards and risks related to worst-case scenarios of possible impact and flood waves must be assessed. These results then define the range of possibilities for use and management of future lakes. Careful weighing of both potential synergies and conflicts is necessary. In some cases, multipurpose projects may open viable avenues for combining solutions related to technical challenges, safety requirements, funding problems, and societal acceptance. Successful implementation of adaptive projects requires early integration of technical-scientific and local knowledge, including the needs and interests of local users and decision makers, into comprehensive, participatory, and long-term planning. A key question is the handling of risks from extreme events with disastrous damage potential and low but increasing probability of occurrence.

As future landscapes and lakes develop rapidly and are of considerable socioeconomic and political interest, they present often difficult and complex situations for which solutions must be found soon. Related transdisciplinary work will need to adequately address the sociocultural, economic, and political aspects.
Queering “Gender and Disaster” for Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction
Authors: Baumann Louise , Sharan Aditi , Gaillard JC
Published: February 2022

In disaster studies, the “gender question” has so far been mainly addressed through the conceptual Western binary sex/gender alignment. This results in excluding from the conversation a large part of the population: those who live and present themselves in gender roles that do not match the one assigned to them at birth, do not experience gender in a way that is exactly male or female, or sometimes even reject the simple existence of what we call “gender.” Trans, nonbinary, queer, and other nonconforming gender identities’ experience of disasters remains therefore largely excluded from broader gender and disaster literature, policy, and practice. Yet, by endorsing the Western binary sex/gender alignment, gender and disaster scholars and practitioners not only risk reproducing the same oppressive discourses they intend to dismantle but also might miss the opportunity to advance their objective of implementing effective and inclusive disaster risk reduction policies and practices.
Water Resource Management: Challenges and Opportunities with Game Theory Approaches
Authors: Pham Do Kim Hang
Published: February 2022

Water is essential to life and development in terms of both quantity and quality. Water resources continue to face various pressures brought about by climate change, growing population, and increased economic demand for water. Managing this unique and precious resource has become a global challenge. The conflicts over water issues often arise not only among stakeholders facing limited water resources but also from social and political aspects of the design, operation, and management of water supply projects. A fair and sustainable system of sharing water resources, therefore, is one of the greatest challenges we face in the 21st century. In the absence of negotiation and lack of clear property rights, water is a source for human conflicts.

Game theory as strategic analysis has provided powerful tools and been applied to many fields, including water resources management. The basic assumptions of game theory emphasize that rational players who pursue well-defined objectives and assume knowledge of others would accordingly form expectations of other decision makers’ behavior. Hence, game theory is used to predict agents’ behaviors toward fulfilling their own interests during the interactive decision-making process with other agents.

Since the 1950s, game theory has become an important tool for analyzing important aspects of water resource management. Yet despite the rapid increase in the application of game theoretical approaches to water resource management, many challenges remain. The challenges of the early 21st century, including resource constraints, financial instability, inequalities within and between countries, and environmental degradation, present opportunities to address and reach resolutions on how water is governed and managed to ensure that everyone has sufficient access to water.
Kaseke, Edwell
Authors: Mupedziswa Rodreck
Published: February 2022

Professor Edwell Kaseke (1954–2017) was a respected African scholar who left an indelible mark in the field of social work and social development in Africa. During his professional career, he made immense contributions to scholarship both in Africa and internationally. Incontrovertibly, his writings made a significant contribution to the development and strengthening of institutions and approaches to addressing the plight of vulnerable groups in Africa. He might be gone, but his ideas live on.
2. Remaking radicalism, 1835–45
Authors: Claeys Gregory
Published: February 2022

‘Remaking radicalism, 1835–45’ discusses two issues that dominated John Stuart Mill’s life. The first questions how one can possess ‘free will’ while one’s behaviour is determined by circumstances. Mill’s answer to this inspired his account of the self-formation of character, which became central to Logic and On Liberty. Mill’s answer to the second issue, on how the centrality of emotions in human life can be incorporated into a rationalist account of the progress of opinion, required a revaluation of Benthamism. At this time, Mill gradually became his own person and explored the new world, even acknowledging the conservative critics of Benthamism.
5. Later writings, 1861–79
Authors: Claeys Gregory
Published: February 2022

‘Later writings, 1861–79’ explores the defence of freedom in John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, which was based on utility and the interests of man as a progressive being. Utilitarianism aimed to show how greater individuality was compatible with pursuing the greatest happiness and to defend secular ethics against theologically based morality. Mill’s starting-point in On Liberty emphasized that ‘Utility’ or the ‘Greatest Happiness Principle’ implies that actions are in proportion to promoting happiness. Mill made a statement declaring that the utilitarian standard of what is right in conduct is not only the agent's own happiness. Alexander Bain and other commentators faulted Mill for not defining happiness carefully enough.
2. Galileo and the philosophy of science
Authors: Dixon Thomas , Shapiro Adam R.
Published: February 2022

‘Galileo and the philosophy of science’ looks at the complicated relationship between Galileo Galilei and the Catholic Church during the years of his research and writing about the heliocentric theory—the theory that the Earth moves around the Sun rather than remaining stationary. Galileo’s observations and writings raised profound questions in the philosophy of science: about the nature of knowledge, the role of scientific instruments, and what it means to make an observation of the natural world. Many of these philosophical questions that informed the early modern philosophical debates of the 17th century continue in debates among philosophers about realism and anti-realism today. Galileo’s conflict with the church was based partly in differences of opinion with regard to these philosophical answers, but also to do with the nature of authority and theological interpretation in Counter-Reformation era Italy.
6. The worlds of science and religion
Authors: Dixon Thomas , Shapiro Adam R.
Published: February 2022

Although the concepts of ‘science’ and ‘religion’ as two distinct and contrasting ways of thinking about the world first developed in one small region of the globe, they have spread to influence how much of the world understands its knowledge and culture, and to shape how international relations and public policy decisions are made. Through processes of colonialism, globalization, and other forms of intellectual and cultural interaction, thinking about science and religion—and formulating a notion of a relationship between the two—has become an essential hallmark of modern society. Scientific and religious ideas have also played a crucial role in colonialism and in shaping the postcolonial world, from medical missionaries both creating and transforming knowledge, to the role of religious organizations distributing health services to combat emerging diseases. ‘The worlds of science and religion’ looks at the recent trends and the emerging events and issues that are likely to dominate the discussion of religion and science to come, examining how science–religion debates shape our understanding of race, gender, and human identity, how scientific and religious ideas interact in the face of public health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic or environmental ones such as species extinction, and the ecological and human effects of climate change.
Effect of sex on survival after resection of oesophageal cancer: nationwide cohort study
Authors: Zhang Ji , Bellocco Rino , Ye Weimin , Johansson Jan , Nilsson Magnus , Lindblad Mats
Published: February 2022

Background

Accumulating evidence suggests a survival benefit after curative oesophageal cancer surgery in women compared with men. The aim of this study was to explore sex disparities in survival after surgery with curative intent in patients with oesophageal cancer.

Methods

This was a population-based cohort study, including all patients with oesophageal or gastric cancer who underwent surgery with a curative intent between 2006 and 2017 in Sweden. Female versus male mortality rate ratio (MRR) and excess mortality rate ratio (EMRR) were used as measures of survival. Two different parametric models were designed to account for potential confounders. Patients with gastric cancer were used as a comparison group as no differences in survival between sexes were expected among these patients.

Results

A total of 1301 patients underwent resection for oesophageal adenocarcinoma and 305 patients for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Women had a lower EMRR (0.76, 95 per cent c.i. 0.58 to 1.01, P = 0.056; 0.52, 95 per cent c.i. 0.32 to 0.84, P = 0.007 respectively) in both histological subtypes. The effect was more profound in early clinical stages, in patients receiving neoadjuvant treatment, and without postoperative complications. No sex-related difference was observed in survival of patients with gastric cancer.

Conclusions

Women undergoing resection for oesophageal carcinoma have better survival compared with men.
The effect of early trauma on suicidal vulnerability depends on fronto-insular sulcation
Authors: Olié Emilie , Le Bars Emmanuelle , Deverdun Jérémy , Oppenheim Catherine , Courtet Philippe , Cachia Arnaud
Published: February 2022

Improving our understanding of pathophysiology of suicidal behavior (SB) is an important step for prevention. Assessment of suicide risk is based on socio-demographic and clinical risk factors with a poor predictivity. Current understanding of SB is based on a stress-vulnerability model, whereby early-life adversities are predominant. SB may thus result from a cascade of developmental processes stemming from early-life abuse and/or neglect. Some cerebral abnormalities, particularly in fronto-limbic regions, might also provide vulnerability to develop maladaptive responses to stress, leading to SB. We hypothesized that SB is associated with interactions between early trauma and neurodevelopmental deviations of the frontal and insular cortices. We recruited 86 euthymic women, including 44 suicide attempters (history of depression and SB) and 42 affective controls (history of depression without SB). The early development of prefrontal cortex (PFC) and insula was inferred using 3D magnetic resonance imaging-derived regional sulcation indices, which are indirect markers of early neurodevelopment. The insula sulcation index was higher in emotional abused subjects; among those patients, PFC sulcation index was reduced in suicide attempters, but not in affective controls. Such findings provide evidence that SB likely traced back to early stages of brain development in interaction with later environmental factors experienced early in life.
The Principle of Non-Recognition of States Arising from Serious Breaches of Peremptory Norms of International Law
Authors: Escudero Espinosa Juan Francisco
Published: February 2022

The concept of recognition of States comprises both political and legal aspects. Over time, its nature has been addresssd in different ways that have given rise to a debate encompassing the topic of what statehood is, according to international law. The notions of international personality, which is bestowed upon certain international actors, and of capacity to act, as a manifestation of the former, aid in understanding recognition in the present day. On this basis, an “obligation of non-recognition” when faced with new States arising as a result of the commission of unlawful international actions takes the shape of a restriction upon the capacity to act. Moreover, it may be observed that when the breach is of peremptory norms of international law, the corollary of a principle of non-recognition would come into play, affecting the appearance of elements of statehood.
Safe Assets
Authors: Barro Robert J , Fernández-Villaverde Jesús , Levintal Oren , Mollerus Andrew
Published: February 2022

This paper investigates the quantity of safe assets. First, we estimate that the average safe-asset ratio (ratio of safe to total assets) in 34 OECD countries was 37% in 2015. Further, we document that this ratio is relatively stable over time. Second, we build a heterogeneous-agent model with rare disasters and risk aversion coefficients that accounts for (i) the average level of the safe-asset ratio; (ii) the stability of this ratio over time; (iii) the observed risk-free rate of around 1.0% per year; and (iv) the empirical unlevered equity premium of about 4.2%. The model also replicates the observed highly concentrated distributions of wealth and equity. Finally, Ricardian equivalence holds in our model: issuing additional government bonds has no effect on rates of return and the net quantity of safe assets. Surprisingly, the crowding-out coefficient for private bonds with respect to public bonds is around −0.5, a value found in empirical studies.
Which patients with aortic stenosis should be referred to surgery rather than transcatheter aortic valve implantation?
Authors: Windecker Stephan , Okuno Taishi , Unbehaun Axel , Mack Michael , Kapadia Samir , Falk Volkmar
Published: February 2022

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has matured into a standard treatment option for patients with severe symptomatic aortic valve stenosis (AS) across the whole spectrum of risk. The advances in the interventional treatment of AS raise the question of which patients with severe AS should be referred to surgery. The myriad of clinical permutations does not allow providing a single, uniform treatment strategy. Rather, the advent of TAVI along with established surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) fundamentally enforces the role of the multidisciplinary heart team for decision-making recommending the best individual choice of the two options based on a thorough review of clinical and anatomical factors as well as lifetime management considerations. Involvement of the informed patient expressing treatment preferences is a key for a shared decision-making process. Herein, we provide an in-depth review of evidence informing the decision-making process between TAVI and SAVR and key elements for treatment selection. Special attention is given to the populations that have been excluded from randomized clinical trials, and also lifetime management strategies of patients with severe AS are proposed.
Cardiotoxicity from chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy for advanced malignancies
Authors: Totzeck Matthias , Michel Lars , Lin Yi , Herrmann Joerg , Rassaf Tienush
Published: February 2022

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy is the next revolutionary advance in cancer therapy. By using ex vivo engineered T cells to specifically target antigens, a targeted immune reaction is induced. Chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy is approved for patients suffering from advanced and refractory B cell and plasma cell malignancies and is undergoing testing for various other haematologic and solid malignancies. In the process of triggering an anticancer immune reaction, a systemic inflammatory response can emerge as cytokine release syndrome (CRS). The severity of CRS is highly variable across patients, ranging from mild flu-like symptoms to fulminant hyperinflammatory states with excessive immune activation, associated multiorgan failure and high mortality risk. Cytokine release syndrome is also an important factor for adverse cardiovascular (CV) events. Sinus tachycardia and hypotension are the most common reflections, similar to what is seen with other systemic inflammatory response syndromes. Corrected QT interval prolongation and tachyarrhythmias, including ventricular arrhythmias and atrial fibrillation, also show a close link with CRS. Events of myocardial ischaemia and venous thromboembolism can be provoked during CAR-T cell therapy. Although not as closely related to CRS, changes in cardiac function can be observed to the point of heart failure and cardiogenic shock. This may also be encountered in patients with severe valvular heart disease in the setting of CRS. This review will discuss the pertinent CV risks of the growing field of CAR-T cell therapy for today’s cardiologists, including incidence, characteristics, and treatment options, and will conclude with an integrated management algorithm.
The GUIDE-HF trial of pulmonary artery pressure monitoring in heart failure: impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Zile Michael R , Desai Akshay S , Costanzo Maria Rosa , Ducharme Anique , Maisel Alan , Mehra Mandeep R , Paul Sara , Sears Samuel F , Smart Frank , Chien Christopher , Guha Ashrith , Guichard Jason L , Hall Shelley , Jonsson Orvar , Johnson Nessa , Sood Poornima , Henderson John , Adamson Philip B , Lindenfeld JoAnn
Published: February 2022

Aims

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, important changes in heart failure (HF) event rates have been widely reported, but few data address potential causes for these changes; several possibilities were examined in the GUIDE-HF study.

Methods and results

From 15 March 2018 to 20 December 2019, patients were randomized to haemodynamic-guided management (treatment) vs. control for 12 months, with a primary endpoint of all-cause mortality plus HF events. Pre-COVID-19, the primary endpoint rate was 0.553 vs. 0.682 events/patient-year in the treatment vs. control group [hazard ratio (HR) 0.81, P = 0.049]. Treatment difference was no longer evident during COVID-19 (HR 1.11, P = 0.526), with a 21% decrease in the control group (0.536 events/patient-year) and no change in the treatment group (0.597 events/patient-year). Data reflecting provider-, disease-, and patient-dependent factors that might change the primary endpoint rate during COVID-19 were examined. Subject contact frequency was similar in the treatment vs. control group before and during COVID-19. During COVID-19, the monthly rate of medication changes fell 19.2% in the treatment vs. 10.7% in the control group to levels not different between groups (P = 0.362). COVID-19 was infrequent and not different between groups. Pulmonary artery pressure area under the curve decreased −98 mmHg-days in the treatment group vs. −100 mmHg-days in the controls (P = 0.867). Patient compliance with the study protocol was maintained during COVID-19 in both groups.

Conclusion

During COVID-19, the primary event rate decreased in the controls and remained low in the treatment group, resulting in an effacement of group differences that were present pre-COVID-19. These outcomes did not result from changes in provider- or disease-dependent factors; pulmonary artery pressure decreased despite fewer medication changes, suggesting that patient-dependent factors played an important role in these outcomes.

Clinical Trials.gov: NCT03387813
Impact of state of emergency for coronavirus disease 2019 on hospital visits and disease exacerbation: the Japan COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey
Authors: Yoshida Satomi , Okubo Ryo , Katanoda Kota , Tabuchi Takahiro
Published: February 2022

Background

Studies on the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on people’s routine medical care are limited, and understanding the factors associated with medical care avoidance can inform us about the ongoing pandemic.

Objectives

We aimed to assess the impact of Japan’s state of emergency and stay-at-home policy for COVID-19 on hospital visits and disease exacerbation; we also identified related factors.

Methods

This cross-sectional study used data from the Japan COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey (JACSIS), which included randomly sampled research agency panellists in Japan. Among the 28,000 participants, we included 7,747 respondents who reported having any disease. We described baseline characteristics and avoidance-related hospital visit outcomes. We used multivariable logistic regression analyses to assess the association between chronic diseases and outcomes of hospital visit avoidance.

Results

Among 7,747 participants, 17.7% of patients with chronic diseases avoided hospital visits, 2.1% of patients postponed hospitalization or surgery, 4.9% of patients ran out of drug, and 5.3% of patients experienced disease exacerbation during the COVID-19 pandemic in April and May 2020. Exacerbations occurred mostly in participants with mental diseases, chronic pain and headache, and diabetes (OR 3.33 [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.51–4.41], 2.83 [95% CI: 2.19–3.66], and 1.53 [95% CI: 1.10–2.13], respectively). Patients with cardiovascular disease or cancer did not experience exacerbation [OR 0.55 (95% CI: 0.31–0.97), 0.79 (95% CI: 0.43–1.45)].

Conclusions

The rates of hospital visit avoidance and exacerbation varied among patients with different diseases under the COVID-19 stay-at-home policy in April and May 2020, and disease-specific preparedness may be necessary for the pandemic.
Neutralizing Antibody Kinetics and Immune Protection Against Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Genital Disease in Vaccinated Women
Authors: Belshe Robert B , Blevins Tamara P , Yu Yinyi , Nethington Amanda E , Bellamy Abbie , Bryant Christopher , Morrison Lynda A
Published: February 2022

Background

Previously, our group conducted the Herpevac Trial for Women, a randomized efficacy field trial of type 2 glycoprotein D (gD2) herpes simplex virus (HSV) vaccine adjuvanted with ASO4 in 8323 women. Study participants were selected to be seronegative for HSV-1 and HSV-2. We found that the vaccine was 82% protective against culture-positive HSV-1 genital disease but offered no significant protection against HSV-2 genital disease. Efficacy against HSV-1 was associated with higher levels of antibody to gD2 at enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Methods

To better understand the results of the efficacy study, we measured postvaccination concentrations of neutralizing antibody (nAb) to either HSV-1 and HSV-2 from HSV-infected study participants and matched uninfected controls. Statistical modeling was used to determine whether these responses were correlated with protection against HSV.

Results

nAbs to either HSV-1 or HSV-2 were correlated with ELISA binding antibodies to gD2. HSV-1 or HSV-2 nAb findings support the observation of protection by higher levels of antibody against HSV-1 infection, but the lack of protection against HSV-2 remains unexplained.

Conclusions

The protection against HSV-1 infection observed in the Herpevac Trial for Women was associated with nAbs directed against the virus, although the power to assess this was lower in the nAb study compared with the ELISA results owing to smaller sample size.

Clinical trials registration

NCT00057330.
Wild boar foraging and risk perception—variation among urban, natural, and agricultural areas
Authors: Davidson Achiad , Malkinson Dan , Shanas Uri
Published: February 2022

When making foraging decisions, animals evaluate the risk of being preyed upon or hunted. This applies particularly to large-bodied, long-lived species with a long evolutionary history of human persecution, such as wild boars (Sus scrofa). Wild boar populations are rapidly expanding throughout natural, agricultural, and urban areas worldwide, thus escalating human–wild boar conflicts. Most of these conflicts are associated with crop and garden damages by foraging wild boars. To study the foraging behavior of wild boars across a gradient of human risk, we evaluated the combined effects of hunting, land use type, and wild boar group size and structure on boar use of feeding devices. We installed corn-supplemented feeding devices in four land-use types and hunting combinations: urban areas with and without hunting, rural areas (namely, agricultural areas with hunting), and nature reserves without hunting. Our results show that rural areas and urban areas were the most important predictors of the wild boars’ decision to eat or not and the time it took them to start eating from the moment they arrived at the feeding device (TBE—Time Before Eating). In addition, our study suggests that the TBEs of urban boars were significantly lower compared to boars from nature reserves. We further found that TBEs of urban boars were significantly lower than TBEs of boars in nature reserves. Our results suggest that the foraging behavior of wild boars varies spatially, corresponding to the different land-use types. We propose that the readiness of boars to forage in urban areas results from their habituation to human presence and lower perception of risk.
Skills for Thinking
Authors: Steffen Ann M. , Dick-Siskin Leah P. , Bilbrey Ann Choryan , Thompson Larry W. , Gallagher-Thompson Dolores
Published: February 2022

Harsh self criticism and habitual use of unhelpful thinking patterns can create the context for depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults. This workbook module of Treating Later-Life Depression: A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Approach promotes self-compassion and cognitive reappraisal skills that are consistent with clients’ personal values and strengths. Easy-to-read, large-print Learn pages are selected by behavioral health providers to help aging clients understand the role of unhelpful thinking habits in depression, replace self-criticism with self-compassionate thoughts and actions, as well as build cognitive reappraisal skills. Practice forms are provided for aging clients’ use between sessions to develop, practice and use these skills. Clinicians must attend to the ways that cultural and generational norms and beliefs influence clients’ responses to specific cognitive therapy strategies. Practitioners are encouraged to apply strategies that are responsive to the needs of culturally diverse aging clients.
Depression and Age-Related Issues
Authors: Steffen Ann M. , Thompson Larry W. , Gallagher-Thompson Dolores
Published: February 2022

This chapter provides an overview of later-life depression and information about age-related changes and concerns that are often contributing factors. Clinicians preparing to implement this treatment approach will find it quite helpful to have a solid grasp of depression in the context of normative aging, along with understanding common issues for clients in the second half of life. This chapter also discusses societal ageism (ways in which stereotypical attitudes and beliefs about aging influence access to opportunities and resources) and two prevalent myths about aging (“to be old is to be sick” and “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”). Core concepts in the psychology of aging that clinicians should know are that aging comes with increased variability, involves both gains and losses, and represents only one aspect of diversity.
Employment-Focused Interventions
Authors: Schall Carol , Carr Staci , Avellone Lauren , Wehman Paul
Published: February 2022

Adults with ASD seeking employment are part of an ecological system that involves public policy, societal beliefs about disability, the availability of supports at work, and the attitudes of employers. These are all issues that lie outside the scope of the person’s individual skills and can either help or hinder their quest to gain competitive integrated employment. Thus, interventions to increase employment among adults with ASD must include both individual skill development and community connections. This chapter focuses on the ways adults with ASD can access employment through evidence-based and emerging interventions. In particular, the chapter focuses on the individual characteristics of adults with ASD that may serve as barriers, and it discusses the evidence regarding the use of therapeutic strategies to address these in employment. Finally, a selected review is provided of evidence-based interventions for individuals with ASD who have high support needs and lower support needs.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Authors: Taylor Lorna , Neophytou Ermione , Johnston Kate
Published: February 2022

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is an intensive intervention primarily aimed at reducing risk behavior and addressing underlying emotional and interpersonal difficulties. Following its demonstrated utility in addressing a wide range of target risk behaviors, there has been an emerging focus on establishing adaptations of the therapy to widen its range to different age groups and those with neurodevelopmental differences. Despite autistic individuals experiencing high rates of risk behavior (including self harm, suicidality, and aggression, there is an absence of effective intervention to address these risks. This chapter discusses the rationale for employing a DBT approach when addressing risk with autistic individuals, outlines relevant empirical evidence for its potential utility with this client group, and highlights key therapeutic considerations and adaptations.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy
Authors: Fisher Naomi , Diest Caroline van
Published: February 2022

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful and effective psychotherapy which is increasingly being used with autistic people. This chapter outlines the research on the efficacy of EMDR in the wider population and with autistic populations. It uses an ecological model to understand trauma and autistic. It suggests that therapists need to explore a full range of adverse experiences when assessing, formulating, and planning interventions. It uses a case study to illustrate the use of EMDR and to demonstrate some of the adaptations used. It emphasizes the importance of getting alongside the person and finding meaningful goals for them before starting EMDR.