bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Creative Resentments
Authors: Congdon Matthew
Published: November 2023

This chapter explores the role that emotions play in moral change, focusing on the case of resentment. It develops two related theses. The first holds that feelings of resentment are grounded in the resenter’s conviction that some portion of their existing normative expectations has been violated. The second, often voiced by feminist philosophers, holds that resentments can make a rational contribution to the development of new normative expectations, transforming the resenter’s existing normative outlook. Certain expressions of the prior norm requirement in recent discussions of anger and resentment clash with the notion of norm-creative resentments, portraying resentment as essentially conservative of existing norms. Against this, this chapter develops the notion of “emotional articulation,” according to which emotions can involve cognitively complex processes that give rise to genuinely new normative commitments. The chapter compares the resulting view with Martha Nussbaum’s cognitivist theory of emotion.
Moral Progress and Immanent Critique
Authors: Congdon Matthew
Published: November 2023

This chapter assembles the preceding chapters’ arguments to defend an simmanent epistemology of judgments of moral progress and regress. It elaborates this via five theses: (i) that the rational criteria for such judgments are immanent to the transition being judged; (ii) that some of these criteria are available prior to, (iii) some only in the midst of, and (iv) some only retrospectively and after the transition itself; and (v) that moral articulation is ongoing and open-ended. It embraces as non-viciously circular the idea that the moral concepts used in judging the successes and failures of moral articulation are themselves prior results of moral articulation. It draws comparisons with related accounts of moral progress and immanent critique in Elizabeth Anderson and Rahel Jaeggi. It develops Charles Taylor’s notion of “reasoning through transitions” and illustrates this through a case study of Raphael Lemkin’s invention of the concept and term, “genocide,” in 1942.
Ethical Data Science
Authors: Washington Anne L.
Published: November 2023

Predictive data science is often viewed as a public good, yet too often human needs are pitted against the financial interests of large digital infrastructures. Can data science truly serve the public interest? The question of our time is whether the promise of predictive science will exceed the inherent conflicts of interests presented by the organizations that fund it. As one of the first books on public interest technology, Ethical Data Science: Prediction in the Public Interest acknowledges the institutional incentives that drive computational prediction. It argues that data science prediction embeds administrative preferences that often ignore the disenfranchised. The book introduces the prediction supply chain to highlight moral questions alongside the interlocking legal and commercial interests dominating data science. Situating data-driven analysis within multiple layers of effort systematically exposes risky dependencies while also pinpointing opportunities for principled action, research ethics, and policy interventions. The prediction supply chain organizes critical thinking throughout the typical data science workflow, from gathering data through learning from insights. Data scientists can explore the full human potential of prediction by thinking like chefs, painters, historians, librarians, philosophers, and architects. Each stage draws on the arts and humanities as methods to empower broader conversations across multiple forms of expertise. Practitioners, academics, students, and legislators will learn how to identify social dynamics in data trends, reflect on ethical questions, and deliberate over solutions. The book establishes the limits of predictive technology controlled by the few and urges for more inclusive data science.
American Antimonopoly and the Rise of Regulated Industries Law
Authors: Novak William J.
Published: November 2023

William Novak’s chapter “American Antimonopoly and the Rise of Regulated Industries Law” traces the development of this distinctly regulatory antimonopoly tradition from the late nineteenth century to the New Deal. Novak investigates the important role of antimonopoly and antitrust in the larger Progressive Era effort to develop new techniques and technologies of control over American business in the immediate wake of the declining efficacy of nineteenth-century common-law and state charter–based mechanisms for regulating corporations. From the perspective of legal history, Novak emphasizes the crucial role of American antimonopoly and antitrust in the long, steady, and momentous expansion and nationalization of American police power in the early twentieth century. Beyond the specific problem of monopoly per se, Novak’s chapter probes the role of the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act, and the creation of the FTC in the larger expansion of federal police power control over corporations and economic activities formerly dealt with by states through charters and more local police regulations.
Jurisdiction beyond Our Borders
Authors: Phillips-Sawyer Laura
Published: November 2023

In 1945, Judge Learned Hand wrote one of the most influential opinions in modern antitrust law. In declaring that the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) had illegally monopolized the industry for virgin aluminum and had participated in an illegal international cartel, Hand both revived and extended American antitrust law. The ruling is famous for several reasons: it narrowly defined the relevant market in favor of the government; it expanded the category of impermissible dominant firm conduct; it interpreted congressional intent as protecting an egalitarian business environment; and it established the extraterritorial reach of US antitrust laws. This essay offers a historical explanation for the origins of antitrust extraterritoriality and advances two arguments: first, right before and during the interwar years, the antitrust doctrine of strict territoriality had been eroded through a series of distinguishing cases and contradictory congressional policies. Second, the well-documented connection between European fascism and cartelization provided strong external pressures to extend American antitrust law and policy abroad and to redouble anticartel and antimonopoly provisions at home. Thus, both internal and external pressures culminated in the Alcoa case, which signaled a new era in American antitrust law—renewing both anticartel and antimonopolization policy while at the same time linking market competition to the protection of American territorial and popular sovereignty. By 1945, extraterritorial antitrust had emerged as an acceptable means of governance to curtail international cartel behavior, discipline monopolies at home, and impose an American-led liberal—and hegemonic—internationalism on its trade partners.
Duration of the Proceedings
Authors: Kidane Won L.
Published: November 2023

One of the most frequently raised concerns about ISDS is the length of time that the proceedings take. ISDS tribunals often sit in judgment of domestic local processes of that frequently take years to fall apart. The record of proceedings are usually compounded. Do ISDS cases objectively take an unnecessary amount of time given their complexity? To the extent there is any comparison, do they take more time than comparable commercial arbitral cases? Do they take more time than comparable domestic court cases? Is the complaint about delay supported by the evidence? This chapter surveys the duration of the proceedings of the cases under study and evaluates if the concerns of inordinate delay are accurate in light of the nature and complexity of the typical disputes and the procedural steps that need to be followed to ensure due process.
Fair and Equitable Treatment, Full Protection and Security, and Nondiscrimination
Authors: Kidane Won L.
Published: November 2023

Innocuous-sounding terms such as fair and equitable, legitimate expectations, and nondiscrimination have over the decades been subjects of immeasurable acrimony and resulted in more controversy than any other substantive principles of international investment law. Following the claims of expropriation, the second most common claims labeled against the African states have been the denial of Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) and/or Full Protection and Security (FPS), and to a lesser extent, principles of nondiscrimination such as Most Favored Nation (MFN) treatment and national treatment. This chapter examines the nature and scope of the assertion of these principles against African states in the pre-2010 cases.
The Pan-African Investment Code as a Bridge to AfCFTA Investment Protocol
Authors: Kidane Won L.
Published: November 2023

A precursor to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Investment Protocol, the Pan-African Investment Code (PAIC) was considered an innovative approach that attempted to resolve some of Africa’s traditional dilemmas in terms of striking the right balance between investment attraction and protection and the preservation of policy space to the sovereign. Whether PAIC got the balance right is debatable. There is no doubt, however, it provoked significant academic and policy interest since the text was made public. This chapter analyzes the approach that PAIC had taken and how it contributed to the AfCFTA Investment Protocol, which seems to have built on its key innovations and corrected some of the excesses of PAIC’s pro-state approach.
Back to the Museum
Authors: Cheng Anne Anlin
Published: November 2023

The book started with Pablo Picasso in the museum; it ends with Josephine Baker in the museum. This short “coda” chapter tells the story of Josephine Baker responding to a question asked of her about modernism. Baker’s arched reply is seen here as a clever rejoinder to both Picasso and the European modernism that had sought to stereotype and appropriate her. It is yet another instance of how the colonial object can speak back against the “master” and reveals how the so-called object may have her own wayward life that cannot be contained by the modernist-primitivist discourse that sought to constrain her. In the end, this book argues that Baker has instigated a new order of seeing, one that disrupted even as it inspired high modernism.
Detention of Migrants
Authors: McGregor Lorna
Published: November 2023

This chapter examines the compatibility of the current international law on the administrative detention of migrants with the call by certain supranational bodies for its abolition. It identifies and critiques two frameworks governing the legality and legitimacy of the detention of migrants under international law: first, the more widely relied upon lawfulness, necessity, and proportionality test, and second, the narrower approach of the European Court of Human Rights, which does not question the reasons for, or necessity of, detention. While the former approach offers greater protections than the latter, the chapter argues that it also suffers from deficiencies in the breadth of the permitted grounds for detention; how purported risks are evidenced; the lack of clarity on how vulnerability is taken into account in decision-making; and in access to, and the nature of, alternatives. In this respect, the chapter argues that room exists for the significant tightening of international law. However, it submits that the abolition or radical reduction of the practice will not be achieved through a focus on the law on detention alone, but also requires the realisation of a rights-based approach to migration since the drivers for detention regimes emanate from securitised approaches to migration.
Party People
Authors: Sikk Allan , Köker Philipp
Published: November 2023

Political parties are nothing without their people, and candidates are essential to parties’ core functions—contesting elections, filling political offices, and shaping policy. Inspired by evolutionary theories, Party People: Candidates and Party Evolution conceptualizes candidates as ‘party genes’ and develops a candidate-based approach to party evolution. Tracking candidates between elections and parties opens up new perspectives on party development in complex and dynamic settings of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and beyond. Based on an original database ‘Electoral Candidates in CEE’ (ECCEE) of 200,000 electoral candidates from over sixty elections across nine CEE democracies, this book presents a groundbreaking study of party evolution using candidate change as an indicator of party change. The book offers a series of methodological and conceptual innovations for measuring candidate turnover, party fission and fusion, programmatic change, and party leadership change. Party People: Candidates and Party Evolution makes a significant contribution to the study of CEE party politics as well as to the general scholarship on elections, parties, and political change.
A conceptual model of candidate and party change
Authors: Sikk Allan , Köker Philipp
Published: November 2023

This chapter outlines a multidimensional view of party change and the rationale for using candidate change as its indicator. The first section discusses links between candidate turnover and other dimensions of party change (programmatic, leadership, organizational), and situates the approach in the wider literature on political parties, legislative turnover, party switching, and candidate selection. The second section proposes an ‘evolutionary’ or ‘electoral’ approach to party change and introduces ‘slate’ as a joint term for parties and electoral coalitions in an election. The chapter outlines a model of candidate list formation as an interactive process between candidates and (proto)slates that helps to define the notions of candidate entry, exit, and return. The final section of the chapter develops a baseline model of candidate change and discusses the expected impact of party size on candidate turnover.
Transforming Noise
Authors: Yeang Chen-Pang
Published: November 2023

This book examines the historical origin of the attempts to understand, control, and use noise in modern times. Today, the concept of noise is employed to characterize random fluctuations in general. Before the twentieth century, however, noise only meant disturbing sounds. In the 1900s–50s, noise underwent a conceptual transformation from unwanted sounds that needed to be domesticated into a synonym for errors and deviations in all kinds of signals and information. It is argued that this transformation proceeded in four stages. The rise of sound reproduction technologies—phonograph, telephone, and radio—in the 1900s–20s prompted engineers to tackle unwanted sounds as physical effects of media through quantitative representations and measurements. Around the same time, physicists developed a theory of Brownian motions for random fluctuations and applied it to electronic noise in thermionic tubes of telecommunication systems. These technological and scientific backgrounds led to three distinct theoretical treatments of noise in the 1920s–30s: statistical physicists’ studies of Brownian fluctuations’ temporal evolution, radio engineers’ spectral analysis of atmospheric disturbances, and mathematicians’ measure-theoretic formulation. Finally, during and after World War II, researchers working on the military projects of radar, gunfire control, and secret communications converted the interwar theoretical studies of noise into tools for statistical detection, estimation, prediction, and information transmission. In so doing, they turned noise into an informational concept. Since the grappling with noise involved multiple disciplines, its history sheds light on the interactions between physics, mathematics, mechanical technology, electrical engineering, and information and data sciences in the twentieth century.
Institutional Framework
Authors: Peers Steve
Published: November 2023

Chapter 2 examines the institutional developments in this area over time, in particular the gradual shift (pre-Maastricht Treaty, Maastricht Treaty, Treaty of Amsterdam, Treaty of Nice, Treaty of Lisbon) to more power for the EU institutions: qualified majority voting in the Council, co-decision with the European Parliament, the initiative of the Commission (and the exceptions to each of these rules), the application of EU law principles such as direct effect and supremacy, and the full jurisdiction of the CJEU on asylum and migration issues. This includes an explanation of the opt-outs which various Member States have in this field.It also examines the role of human rights and the rule of law, and external relations (including post-Brexit cooperation with the UK, and the association of some non-EU countries with Schengen) in this field generally.
Institutional Framework
Authors: Peers Steve
Published: November 2023

This chapter examines the institutional developments in this area over time, in particular the gradual shift (pre-Maastricht Treaty, Maastricht Treaty, Treaty of Amsterdam, Treaty of Nice, Treaty of Lisbon) to more power for the EU institutions: qualified majority voting in the Council, co-decision with the European Parliament, the initiative of the Commission (and the exceptions to each of these rules), the application of EU law principles, and the full jurisdiction of the CJEU (with limited exceptions) on criminal law, policing and civil cooperation issues. It also examines the role of human rights and external relations (including post-Brexit cooperation with the UK) in this field generally.
Distributional semantics and the fog of meaning
Authors: Geeraerts Dirk , Speelman Dirk , Heylen Kris , Montes Mariana , De Pascale Stefano , Franco Karlien , Lang Michael
Published: November 2023

The present chapter provides some background regarding distributional semantics and its methodological position in word meaning research. It provides an informal introduction to the token-based distributional technique and explains how the token-based distributional workflow illustrated in this monograph is a specific instantiation of a broader set of distributional approaches to lexical semantics, including collocational analysis, the behavioural profile approach, and traditional fully manual text analysis. It emphasizes that distributional approaches in lexical semantics do not exhaust the methodological options and draws attention to the problem of methodological underdetermination in semantics, as attested by the fact that the major methodological perspectives in word meaning research do not necessarily converge in their results.
Parameters and procedures for token-based distributional semantics
Authors: Geeraerts Dirk , Speelman Dirk , Heylen Kris , Montes Mariana , De Pascale Stefano , Franco Karlien , Lang Michael
Published: November 2023

Whereas Chapter 2 introduced the basic concepts behind the distributional approach to modelling lexical semantics on the level of individual occurrences in an informal way, we now discuss this procedure in technical detail. We introduce the distributional models that are used in this volume and offer an overview of the different parameters that play a role in building them. Distributional modelling indeed implies making a number of choices, from the source of the data and the unit of analysis to the definition of what counts as context and the selection of metrics and algorithms. Accordingly, the chapter focuses on the choices and options that we have included in our workflow, and that shape the models that will appear in following chapters.
Pluricentricity from a quantitative point of view
Authors: Geeraerts Dirk , Speelman Dirk , Heylen Kris , Montes Mariana , De Pascale Stefano , Franco Karlien , Lang Michael
Published: November 2023

This chapter illustrates how the distributional semantic lectometric workflow can be applied to Spanish language data in a large-scale lectometric study of the pluricentricity of Spanish. Starting with a dataset of 142 concepts, the analysis explores the distances between Spanish in Spain, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States. The lectometric workflow presented so far is enriched with a number of methodological add-ons: a multidimensional scaling analysis to visualize patterns of lectal relations, a restriction to non-uniform concepts to bring out differences more clearly, and a focus on richly modelled concepts to increase methodological stability. Also, comparing distributional models to both a disambiguated set of tokens and the full sample from which the modelled tokens were drawn serves as a way to evaluate the success of the distributional approach.
The Middle Passage Re-membered
Authors: Webster Jane
Published: November 2023

The concluding chapter opens with a discussion of recent work on the ‘ship family’: fictive kin networks forged by captives during the Middle Passage. It then uses three things—Olaudah Equiano’s account of his own captive passage, a sketch of the scarification marks on the body of an African-born soldier in the Caribbean, and a string of waist beads from the New York African Burial Ground—to explore why the African Middle Passage experience always seems to be just beyond reach of scholars of the slave trade; glimpsed, but shadowy, and found mainly in ritual contexts. This chapter also considers the growing role of bioarchaeology in identifying African-born individuals in the Americas and asks why the Middle Passage is today largely remembered through ritual.
Spin and Atomic Structure
Authors: Bertlmann Reinhold A. , Friis Nicolai
Published: November 2023

In this chapter we discuss the intrinsic angular momentum called spin. Starting from the magnetic dipole moment related to orbital angular momentum, we focus on the hydrogen atom and consider the effect of an external magnetic field, resulting in Larmor precession and Zeeman splitting. We then turn to the discovery of spin in the Stern-Gerlach experiment. After providing a mathematical description of spin-1/2 systems in terms of two-component spinors and Pauli matrices, we illustrate projective measurements for the example of spin. The relationship between the Lie groups SU(2) and SO(3) is discussed in the context of the transformation of spinors under rotations. We analyse how the presence of spin alters the description of the hydrogen atom. Discussing the addition of angular momenta and the Pauli exclusion principle leads us to the structure of electronic orbitals. Finally, we discuss the occupation of electronic energy levels in heavier nuclei
Entropy of Classical Systems
Authors: Bertlmann Reinhold A. , Friis Nicolai
Published: November 2023

In this first chapter of Part III we discuss the concept of entropy in classical systems, starting with an exposition of entropy in thermodynamics following Clausius and Boltzmann before examining entropy in the microcanonical and canonical ensembles of statistical physics, and stating Jaynes’ principle. This is contrasted with a discussion of Shannon’s entropy in classical information theory to quantify the information content of a message. We then move on to the discussion of more complicated entropic quantities such as the relative entropy, also called Kullback-Leibler divergence, as well as the joint entropy, conditional entropy, and mutual information. We explicitly prove various properties, relations between, and bounds on these quantities, including Gibbs’ inequality and the subadditivity of the joint entropy, and we illustrate the relations between these entropies in information diagrams. Finally, we consider the family of generalized entropic quantities called the Rényi entropies and Rényi divergences, and their respective hierarchies
Quantum Entropy and Correlations in Quantum Information
Authors: Bertlmann Reinhold A. , Friis Nicolai
Published: November 2023

Chapter 20 provides a discussion of entropies and entropic quantities in quantum information theory, briefly considering the generalizations of the Rényi entropy to the quantum regime, but mainly focusing on the von Neumann entropy and its properties such as concavity, the Araki-Lieb inequality, and subadditivity. We introduce the quantum relative entropy, quantum joint entropy, quantum conditional entropy, and quantum mutual information, and prove key properties and results for these quantities, including Klein’s inequality, joint convexity, additivity, and monotonicity under completely positive and trace-preserving maps of the relative entropy, as well as weak monotonicity and strong subadditivity of the von Neumann entropy. We then analyse the relation of (negative) conditional entropy and entanglement. In this context we discuss the conditional amplitude operator and the mutual amplitude operator, as well as conditional Rényi entropies and their role for entanglement detection.
Open Quantum Systems, Decoherence, Atom-Field Coupling
Authors: Bertlmann Reinhold A. , Friis Nicolai
Published: November 2023

Chapter 22 investigates the dynamics of open quantum systems that interact with their environment. We discuss the time-evolution of the joint system in terms of a time-ordered exponential of an integral over the Hamiltonian and determine a similar formulation for a Liouvillian super-operator. Based on these ideas we develop the notion of dynamical maps and apply the Born-Markov approximation to arrive at a dynamical semi-group and general Markovian master equations. We then turn to a specific example of such an equation of motion for the density operator: the Gorini-Kossakowski-Lindblad-Sudarshan (GKLS) equation which captures both dissipative dynamics and decoherence using Lindblad operators. We employ the GKLS equation to model the absorption, and spontaneous as well as stimulated emission of radiation by a two-level atom. We then discuss the Jaynes-Cummings model that describes the interaction of such an atom with a single mode of the electromagnetic field in a cavity
Gendering Parliamentary Diplomacy: The case of EU27-UK Relations
Authors: Miller Cherry
Published: November 2023

Parliamentary diplomacy (PD) is a contemporary feature of modern parliamentarism but remains, thus far, underexplored from a gender lens. PD incorporates the relationships that parliamentarians or parliaments as institutions have with other parliaments, parliamentarians, and nonstate actors to foster peace, democracy, understanding, dialogue, legitimacy, and scrutiny of governments. Parliaments are spaces of parliamentary and international negotiation and communication, practiced through rules, practices, and symbols. This article draws on a single case study of the European Parliament (EP) and of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) gendered PD, at the time of Brexit—a period when international agreements and relationships were shaped and how gendered PD was culturally legitimized. It is based on a unique qualitative dataset of 140 interviews and ethnographic research (2018–2020) generated at the time of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom’s MEPs from the EP. Based on this analysis, it further considers what a feminist PD might look like.
Detection of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria by Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing
Authors: Xiao Lanlan , Zhao Shuai , Wang Hongjuan , Yu Liang , Guo Jing , Wu Xinyi , Xu Xiaowei
Published: November 2023

The purpose of this study was to assess the value of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) for the diagnosis of diseases caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). In this study, we retrospectively reviewed the cases of NTM infections diagnosed between January 2019 and December 2020 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, using both mycobacterial culture and mNGS methods (12 positive cases). Compared with the positive detection rate of the culture method (n = 5, 41.7%), the positive detection rate was 100% (n = 12) by mNGS analysis (P < 0.001). We found that the mNGS method not only improved the detection rate of NTM, but also reduced the detection turnaround time (the time required for the entire detection to be completed) to 1 day (P < 0.001). In addition, we found that the majority of patients affected by NTM pulmonary disease presented mixed infections, with bacterial-bacterial (n = 8, 66.7%) and bacterial-viral (n = 2, 16.7%) combinations being most commonly observed in our study. The outcomes of our study highlight the potential of the mNGS method for the rapid diagnosis of NTM pulmonary disease.
The Association of Emotional Support, HIV Stigma, and Home Environment With Disclosure Efficacy and Perceived Disclosure Outcomes in Young People Living With HIV in Zambia: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Masa Rainier , Zimba Mathias , Zimba Gilbert , Zulu Graham , Zulu Joseph , Operario Don
Published: November 2023

This study examined the association of various forms of social support, attitudes toward living at home, and HIV stigma experiences with HIV self-disclosure efficacy and perceived negative disclosure outcomes. We analyzed cross-sectional data from 120 young people with HIV (YPWH) aged 18–21 years receiving outpatient care in Eastern Province, Zambia. Perceived negative disclosure outcomes and disclosure self-efficacy were measured using an adapted version of the Adolescent HIV Disclosure Cognitions and Affect Scale. Explanatory variables included parental or caregiver support, emotional support, instrumental support, HIV stigma experiences, and attitudes toward living at home. Findings suggest that YPWH's confidence in their ability to self-disclose their HIV status and their assessment of negative outcomes associated with HIV disclosure are influenced by emotional support, experiences of HIV stigma, and the quality of the home environment.
Force-adjustable parallel-occlusion grasper
Authors: Khan Hamza , Coleman Stuart , Cuschieri Alfred
Published: November 2023

Background:

During laparoscopic surgery, the operating surgeon grasps sections of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), including delicate structures, with long (270 mm) 5 mm diameter graspers. These grasping instruments increase the risk of iatrogenic damage due to crushing of the grasped tissue. This risk is increased significantly by diseases such as bacterial peritonitis and inflammatory bowel disease and reduced but not abolished by using parallel-closing laparoscopic instruments. This study describes the design and laboratory testing of fully developed and tested smart graspers capable of reducing the grasping force used for inflamed tissues and hollow viscera.

Materials and Methods:

In an ISO 13485-certified mechanical laboratory and CAD machine workshop, we have designed, developed, and evaluated a smart gasper capable of exerting a pre-selected uniform grasping force on the GIT and other structures/ tissues, through a mechanism incorporated in the handle of the instrument. This enables the control and graded reduction of the grasping force by the incorporation of a compression spring. We named the new instrument the force-adjustable parallel-occlusion grasper (FA-POG) because, in addition to applying a uniform force on the grasped bowel/tissue, it also enables the surgeon to select the force before grasping, depending on its physical condition and pathological state.

Results:

FA-POG differs from traditional pinch-occlusion grasper in two respects: it exerts a uniform force on the grasped tissue/bowel and enables the operating surgeon to select and apply a predetermined uniform grasping force, ranging from 1 to 5 N, depending on the pathological condition of the bowel/structure. The ISO 13485 certified and fully developed prototype has been subjected to various grasping in-vitro tests using freshly harvested porcine small bowel segments obtained from a local abattoir, using Instron tensiometry.

Conclusions:

We designed and α/β tested a parallel occlusion gasper that enables the operating surgeon to select the force before grasping. This grasper design consists of end-effectors jaws with a 4-bar linkage mechanism for wide, uniform parallel-occlusion force, surpassing traditional scissor-type laparoscopic graspers. It incorporates a force-level controller knob, based on a spring-loaded mechanism, enabling surgeon-preselected grip force to prevent excessive grasping. We validated the design experimentally using porcine small-bowel segments, optimizing teeth for maximum grip friction to minimize slippage.
Surgery versus radiotherapy for limited-stage small cell esophageal carcinoma: a multicenter, retrospective, cohort study in China (ChiSCEC)
Authors: Zhu Jie , Wang Yi , Sun Hongfu , Zhang Yaowen , Zhang Wencheng , Shen Wenbin , Yang Ning , Tan Bingxu , Su Xiujun , Li Lei , Dong Wei , Ma Jie , Zhang Jian , Zhao Lina , Sun Daqing , Yang Pei , Peng Lin , Li Baosheng , Huang Wei , Wang Qifeng , Liao Zhongxing
Published: November 2023

Background:

There is no standard management for small cell esophageal carcinoma (SCEC). The purpose of this multicenter, retrospective study (ChiSCER) was to investigate the treatment, outcomes, and risk factors impacting on survival endpoints in patients with limited-stage SCEC (LS-SCEC).

Materials and Methods:

Consecutive patients with LS-SCEC from 14 institutions between 2000 to 2020 in China were enrolled. Survival curves were constructed using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models and propensity score matching (PSM) analysis were adopted in prognostic analysis. Results were reported as hazard ratio (HR), 95% confidence interval (CI), and P value. Statistical significance was set as P value<0.05 in a two-tailed test.

Results:

Among 458 LS-SCEC patients, the median age was 63 (interquartile range [IQR], 57-68) years, 318 (69%) were males. Eighty-four (18%), 167 (36%), and 207 (45%) patients received chemotherapy (CT) alone, CT plus definitive radiotherapy (CT+RT), and CT plus radical surgery (CT+S), respectively. With a median follow-up time of 58.7 (95% CI, 48.9-68.6) months, the median OS and 3-year OS rate for all patients 24.3 (95% CI, 21.6-27) months and 37.3% (95% CI, 32.8%-42.5%), respectively. Multivariate analysis indicated that treatment modes, Karnofsky performance status (KPS), TNM stage, and CT cycle were independent prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) (P<0.05). Compared with CT alone, patients treated with CT+RT (HR, 0.57, 95% CI, 0.41-0.8, P=0.001) or CT+S (HR, 0.59, 95% CI, 0.42-0.82, P=0.002) had an improved OS, with no significant survival differences between CT+S and CT+RT groups after multivariate and PSM analyses (P>0.05). Subgroup analysis indicated that compared with CT+RT, patients with tumor location at lower 1/3 (HR, 0.59, 95% CI, 0.37-0.93, P=0.03) or tumor length>5 cm (HR 0.52, 95% CI, 0.3-0.9, P=0.02) could obtain significant OS benefit from CT+S. Patients with tumor location at middle 1/3 (HR 1.55, 95% CI, 1.03-2.36, P=0.04) or tumor length≤5 cm (HR 1.49, 95% CI, 1.02-2.17, P=0.04) favored CT+RT. Distant metastasis accounted for 73.7% of all treatment failures after multidisciplinary treatments.

Conclusion:

Surgery and RT were equally effective local therapies for patients with LS-SCEC. The personalized decision of local therapy should be made after comprehensive considerations on tumor location, length, comorbidities, and organ preservation.
Inpatient Outcomes of Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia in Those With Aortic Stenosis
Authors: Aldiabat Mohammad , Kilani Yassine , Alahmad Majd , Alhuneafat Laith , Aljabiri Yazan , Horoub Ali , Alabdallah Khaled , Alrahamneh Hebah , Manvar Amar
Published: November 2023

Goals:

To investigate the outcomes of hospitalized patients with gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) in the setting of aortic stenosis (AS).

Background:

Although AS is associated with gastrointestinal arteriovenous malformations, its association with GAVE, a rare cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, remains unknown.

Study:

The National Inpatient Sample database from the years 2016 to 2019 was searched for patients admitted with a diagnosis of GAVE, with and without a history of AS. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the risk of mortality and in-hospital complications in the GAVE/AS group compared with the GAVE-only group.

Results:

Patients with AS had a 2-fold increase in the risk of GAVE [odds ratio (OR): 2.08, P < 0.001], with no statistically significant difference in inpatient mortality between the study groups (OR: 1.36, P = 0.268). Patients with GAVE-AS had a higher risk of hypovolemic shock (OR: 2.00, P = 0.001) and acute coronary syndromes (OR: 2.25, P < 0.001) with no difference in risk of cardiogenic shock (P = 0.695), acute kidney injury (P = 0.550), blood transfusion (P = 0.270), sepsis (P = 0.598), respiratory failure (P = 0.200), or in-hospital cardiac arrest (P = 0.638). The cost of care in patients with GAVE-AS was increased by a mean of $4729 (P = 0.022), with no increase in length of stay (P = 0.320) when compared with patients with GAVE-only.

Conclusions:

Patients with AS have a 2-fold increase in the risk of development of GAVE. Patients with AS admitted for GAVE-related bleeding are at higher rates of hypovolemic shock, acute coronary syndrome, and higher resource utilization when compared with admitted patients with GAVE without AS.
Pigmented villonodular synovitis/giant cell tumor in the knee
Authors: Chipman Danielle E. , Perkins Crystal A. , Lijesen Emilie , Green Daniel W.
Published: November 2023

Purpose of review

Pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) is a rare diagnosis in pediatric patients and commonly presents with symptoms of swelling and pain. Early diagnosis is important to prevent secondary degeneration into the subchondral bone. This review will analyze the etiology, clinical signs/symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and recent literature on PVNS in the pediatric population.

Recent findings

Many theories of PVNS etiology have been described in the literature; however, an inflammatory response has been most widely accepted. PVNS can occur in any joint, but most commonly in the knee. The most common treatment for PVNS is synovectomy, and long-term follow-up is necessary to detect disease persistence or recurrence.

Although uncommon, PVNS does occur in the pediatric population and this diagnosis should be included in the differential of atraumatic joint swelling and pain.
Cardiac evaluation of the liver transplant candidate
Authors: Possick Stephen , Khungar Vandana , Deshpande Ranjit
Published: November 2023

Purpose of review

This review aims to summarize recent changes in the cardiac evaluation of adult liver transplant candidates. Over the last several years, there have been significant advances in the use of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) with and without fractional flow reserve (FFR) and increasingly widespread availability of coronary calcium scoring for risk stratification for obstructive coronary artery disease. This has led to novel strategies for risk stratification in cirrhotic patients being considered for liver transplant and an updated American Heart Association (AHA) position paper on the evaluation of liver and kidney transplant candidates. The diagnosis of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy has been refined. These new diagnostic criteria require that specific echocardiographic parameters are evaluated in all patients. The definition of pulmonary hypertension on echocardiography has been altered and no longer utilizes right atrium (RA) pressure estimates based on inferior vena cava (IVC) size and collapse. This provides more volume neutral estimates of pulmonary pressure.

Recent findings

Although CCTA has outstanding negative predictive value, false positive results are not uncommon and often lead to further testing. Revised diagnostic criteria for cirrhotic cardiomyopathy improve risk stratification for peri-operative volume overload and outcomes. Refined pulmonary hypertension criteria provide improved guidance for right heart catheterization (RHC) and referral to subspecialists. There are emerging data regarding the safety and efficacy of TAVR for severe aortic stenosis in cirrhotic patients.

Increased utilization of noninvasive testing, including CCTA and/or coronary calcium scoring, can improve the negative predictive value of testing for obstructive coronary artery disease and potentially reduce reliance on coronary angiography. Application of the 2020 criteria for cirrhotic cardiomyopathy will improve systolic and diastolic function assessment and subsequent perioperative risk stratification. The use of global strain scores is emphasized, as it provides important information beyond ejection fraction and diastolic parameters. A standardized one-parameter echo cut-off for elevated pulmonary pressures simplifies both evaluation and follow-up. Innovative transcutaneous techniques for valvular stenosis and regurgitation offer new options for patients at prohibitive surgical risk.
Big Data in Health Care
Authors: Calcote Margaret J. , Mann Joshua R. , Adcock Kim G. , Duckworth Savannah , Donald Matthew C.
Published: November 2023

Background:

The widespread adoption of the electronic health record (EHR) has resulted in vast repositories of EHR big data that are being used to identify patterns and correlations that translate into data-informed health care decision making.

Problem:

Health care professionals need the skills necessary to navigate a digitized, data-rich health care environment as big data plays an increasingly integral role in health care.

Approach:

Faculty incorporated the concept of big data in an asynchronous online course allowing an interprofessional mix of students to analyze EHR big data on over a million patients.

Outcomes:

Students conducted a descriptive analysis of cohorts of patients with selected diagnoses and presented their findings.

Conclusions:

Students collaborated with an interprofessional team to analyze EHR big data on selected variables. The teams used data visualization tools to describe an assigned diagnosis patient population.
Association of Diabetes Mellitus in Pregnancy and Perinatal Depression
Authors: Björvang Richelle D. , Liakea Iliana , Carpentsier Beatrice , Kozinszky Zoltan , Skalkidou Alkistis , Fransson Emma
Published: November 2023

Objective

Diabetes is frequently linked with depression, and both conditions are common complications during pregnancy. However, research findings exploring the relationship between diabetes mellitus in pregnancy (DMP) and perinatal depression (PND) have been inconsistent. Thus, this study seeks to examine the association between DMP and PND in a prospective population-based cohort.

Methods

Women aged 18 to 48 years (n = 4459) were identified from the Biology, Affect, Stress, Imaging and Cognition study. The diagnosis of DMP was based on International Classification of Diseases code O24 from medical records and was classified as pregestational, gestational, or unspecified diabetes. PND was assessed using psychometric instruments, clinical interviews, and/or register data and categorized into antepartum or postpartum depression. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to study the associations of DMP with antepartum and postpartum depression. The association between DMP and continuous depression scores, antepartum and postpartum, was investigated with multivariable linear regressions.

Results

Of 4459 pregnancies, 949 women had antepartum depression (21.2%) and 1123 had postpartum depression (25%). DMP had a prevalence of 1.2%. Women with DMP had twofold higher odds for postpartum depression compared with women without DMP. Although no association was observed between DMP and antepartum depression, DMP was associated with higher antepartum depression scores.

Conclusions

Our study shows an association between DMP and PND, which might be considered a risk factor when screening for high-risk groups.
Comparative analysis of mitochondrion-related organelles in anaerobic amoebozoans
Authors: Záhonová Kristína , Füssy Zoltán , Stairs Courtney W. , Leger Michelle M. , Tachezy Jan , Čepička Ivan , Roger Andrew J. , Hampl Vladimír
Published: November 2023

Archamoebae comprises free-living or endobiotic amoebiform protists that inhabit anaerobic or microaerophilic environments and possess mitochondrion-related organelles (MROs) adapted to function anaerobically. We compared in silico reconstructed MRO proteomes of eight species (six genera) and found that the common ancestor of Archamoebae possessed very few typical components of the protein translocation machinery, electron transport chain and tricarboxylic acid cycle. On the other hand, it contained a sulphate activation pathway and bacterial iron–sulphur (Fe-S) assembly system of MIS-type. The metabolic capacity of the MROs, however, varies markedly within this clade. The glycine cleavage system is widely conserved among Archamoebae, except in Entamoeba, probably owing to its role in catabolic function or one-carbon metabolism. MRO-based pyruvate metabolism was dispensed within subgroups Entamoebidae and Rhizomastixidae, whereas sulphate activation could have been lost in isolated cases of Rhizomastix libera, Mastigamoeba abducta and Endolimax sp. The MIS (Fe-S) assembly system was duplicated in the common ancestor of Mastigamoebidae and Pelomyxidae, and one of the copies took over Fe-S assembly in their MRO. In Entamoebidae and Rhizomastixidae, we hypothesize that Fe-S cluster assembly in both compartments may be facilitated by dual localization of the single system. We could not find evidence for changes in metabolic functions of the MRO in response to changes in habitat; it appears that such environmental drivers do not strongly affect MRO reduction in this group of eukaryotes.
SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody treatment followed by vaccination shifts human memory B cell epitope recognition suggesting antibody feedback
Authors: Coelho Camila H. , Bloom Nathaniel , Ramirez Sydney I. , Parikh Urvi M. , Heaps Amy , Sieg Scott F. , Greninger Alex , Ritz Justin , Moser Carlee , Eron Joseph J. , Currier Judith S. , Klekotka Paul , Wohl David A. , Daar Eric S. , Li Jonathan , Hughes Michael D. , Chew Kara W. , Smith Davey M. , Crotty Shane ,   the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines–2/A5401 (ACTIV-2/A5401) Study Team
Published: November 2023

Therapeutic anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been extensively studied in humans, but the impact on immune memory of mAb treatment during an ongoing immune response has remained unclear. Here, we evaluated the effect of infusion of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain (RBD) mAb bamlanivimab on memory B cells (MBCs) in SARS-CoV-2–infected individuals. Bamlanivimab treatment skewed the repertoire of memory B cells targeting Spike towards non-RBD epitopes. Furthermore, the relative affinity of RBD memory B cells was weaker in mAb-treated individuals compared to placebo-treated individuals over time. Subsequently, after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, memory B cell differences persisted and mapped to a specific defect in recognition of the class II RBD site, the same RBD epitope recognized by bamlanivimab. These findings indicate a substantial role of antibody feedback in regulating human memory B cell responses, both to infection and vaccination. These data indicate that mAb administration can promote alterations in the epitopes recognized by the B cell repertoire, and the single administration of mAb can continue to determine the fate of B cells in response to additional antigen exposures months later.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT

Evaluating the therapeutic use of monoclonal antibodies during SARS-CoV-2 infection requires a comprehensive understanding of their impact on B cell responses at the cellular level and how these responses are shaped after vaccination. We report for the first time the effect of bamlanivimab on SARS-CoV-2 specific human memory B cells of COVID-19 infected humans receiving, or not, mRNA immunization.