bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
First record of Drosophila suzukii in the areas of the Republic of Cyprus not under the effective control of the government of the Republic of Cyprus
Authors: Özbek Çatal B. , Helvaci M. , Çalışkan Keçe A. F. , Ulusoy M. R.
Published: May 2018

In this paper, the authors report the first record of Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in the areas of the Republic of Cyprus not under the effective control of the government of the Republic of Cyprus. This pest was found in September 2016 on Prunus armeniaca L. in Morfou and identification of the pest was carried out by the first author.
First record of Xylotrechus chinensis (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) in Greece and in the EPPO region
Authors: Leivadara E. , Leivadaras I. , Vontas I. , Trichas A. , Simoglou K. , Roditakis E. , Avtzis D. N.
Published: May 2018

Xylotrechus chinensis belongs to the entomofauna of China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan. Prior to this paper it has been intercepted twice outside its native range, once in Philadelphia (USA) and once in Germany (Europe). In spring 2017, it was detected for the first time in Greece, in Heraklion city (Island of Crete) infesting the trunk of trees of Morus species planted near the harbour of the city. It can thus be hypothesized that X. chinensis was transported from its native range with commodities that are handled in the harbour. Eradication efforts are being taken in order to prevent its further spread, which could threaten several other tree species because X. chinensis attacks a wide range of hosts. This is the first record of this pest from the EPPO region.
Characterisation of a putative glutamate 5‐kinase from Leishmania donovani
Authors: Sienkiewicz Natasha , Ong Han B. , Fairlamb Alan H.
Published: May 2018

Previous metabolic studies have demonstrated that leishmania parasites are able to synthesise proline from glutamic acid and threonine from aspartic acid. The first committed step in both biosynthetic pathways involves an amino acid kinase, either a glutamate 5‐kinase (G5K; EC2.7.2.11) or an aspartokinase (EC2.7.2.4). Bioinformatic analysis of multiple leishmania genomes identifies a single amino acid‐kinase gene (LdBPK 262740.1) variously annotated as either a putative glutamate or aspartate kinase. To establish the catalytic function of this Leishmania donovani gene product, we have determined the physical and kinetic properties of the recombinant enzyme purified from Escherichia coli. The findings indicate that the enzyme is a bona fide G5K with no activity as an aspartokinase. Tetrameric G5K displays kinetic behaviour similar to its bacterial orthologues and is allosterically regulated by proline, the end product of the pathway. The structure‐activity relationships of proline analogues as inhibitors are broadly similar to the bacterial enzyme. However, unlike G5K from E. coli, leishmania G5K lacks a C‐terminal PUA (pseudouridine synthase and archaeosine transglycosylase) domain and does not undergo higher oligomerisation in the presence of proline. Gene replacement studies are suggestive, but not conclusive that G5K is essential.

Enzymes

Glutamate 5‐kinase (EC2.7.2.11); aspartokinase (EC2.7.2.4).
Flexibility of pigment cell behavior permits the robustness of skin pattern formation
Authors: Sawada Risa , Aramaki Toshihiro , Kondo Shigeru
Published: May 2018

The striped pigmentation pattern of zebrafish is determined by the interaction between pigment cells with different colors. Recent studies show the behaviors of pigment cells are substantially different according to the environment. Interestingly, the resulting patterns are almost identical, suggesting a robustness of the patterning mechanism. To know how this robustness originates, we investigated the behavior of melanophores in various environments including different developmental stages, different body positions, and different genetic backgrounds. Normally, when embryonic melanophores are excluded from the yellow stripe region in the body trunk, two different cellular behaviors are observed. Melanophores migrate to join the black stripe or disappear (die) in the position. In environments where melanophore migration was restricted, we observed that most melanophores disappeared in their position, resulting in the complete exclusion of melanophores from the yellow stripe. In environments where melanophore cell death was restricted, most melanophores migrated to join the black stripes, also resulting in complete exclusion. When both migration and cell death were restricted, melanophores remained alive in the yellow stripes. These results show that migration and cell death complement each other to achieve the exclusion of melanophores. This flexibility may be the basis of the mechanistic robustness of skin pattern formation.
Densification behavior of flash sintered boron suboxide
Authors: Yu Jian H. , McWilliams Brandon A. , Parker Thomas C.
Published: May 2018

A study to quantify the flash sintering kinetics of boron suboxide (B6O) under various electric field strengths and cut‐off amperages is presented. B6O is conventionally sintered at a prolonged temperature above 1800°C, near its thermal decomposition temperature, with an overpressure >3 atm. By applying a direct current (DC) electric field across a green powder compact, B6O can be sintered at 1000°C at atmospheric pressure. During the flash sintering process, an intensive radiation was emitted (electroluminescence), which is distinct from the thermal radiation (thermoluminescence) that is expected in conventional sintering. It was observed that the degree of sintering of the large B6O specimen was heterogeneous due to apparent localization of electrically conducting paths. The material near the surface was sintered, but the core of the specimen was not. It was found that the flash event occurred at a critical temperature, which was obtained by combining external heating via ambient furnace conditions and internal Joule heating. The progressive densification behaviors of the B6O are also presented.
Development of a lead‐free copper co‐fired BNT‐based piezoceramic sintered at low temperature
Authors: Yesner Gregory , Safari Ahmad
Published: May 2018

Compatibility of Bi‐based piezoelectric ceramic and copper electrodes is demonstrated by co‐firing 0.88Bi1/2Na1/2TiO3–0.08Bi1/2K1/2TiO3–0.04BaTiO3 (BNKBT88) with copper. A combination of Bi2O3, CuO, ZnO, Li2CO3, and B2O3 are used as additives to reduce firing temperature to 900°C with minimal effect on the electromechanical properties compared to sintering at 1150°C without additives. Co‐firing with copper electrodes requires controlled oxygen sintering at low temperature. The atmosphere is controlled using carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas to maintain an oxygen partial pressure of 6.1 × 10−8 atm, which is necessary for the coexistence of Cu metal and Bi2O3. The thermodynamic activity of bismuth oxide in BNKBT88 is calculated to be 0.38. BNKBT88 ceramics were successfully co‐fired with internal as well as surface Cu metal electrodes. The copper co‐fired ceramics were successfully polarized and the dielectric and piezoelectric properties are evaluated.
Mucosal melanoma: clinical and genetic profile
Authors: Caius Silviu S. , Stefania A.
Published: May 2018

Linked article: This article is commentary on by E. Cinotti et al., pp. e397–e398 in this issue. To view this article visit https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.15082
Differential outcome subgroups in children with autism spectrum disorder attending early intervention
Authors: Paynter J. , Trembath D. , Lane A.
Published: May 2018

Background

The finding of positive outcomes at the group level for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who complete comprehensive early intervention programmes often masks considerable individual variability. We therefore aimed to identify subgroups of children based on their response to intervention and to compare outcome variables between groups at two points in time.

Method

We used model‐based cluster analysis to explore response to intervention using a longitudinal design for 210 children with ASD who had completed an early intervention programme. Children were assessed on entry at time 1 and again at time 2, which was after 12 months or when they exited the programme (whichever came first) using measures of ASD symptoms (Social Communication Questionnaire), cognition (Mullen Scales of Early Learning) and adaptive behaviour (Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales‐II).

Results

A two‐cluster solution was identified, including a high change group who improved consistently more than the low change group across measures, and showed significantly fewer autism symptoms, higher non‐verbal and verbal cognition and adaptive behaviour composite scores at time 1.

Conclusions

The findings indicated that children's response to early intervention is not uniform but instead included subgroups characterised by patterns of high and low change. Further research is needed to identify clinically relevant mediators of differential response group membership.
Money Creation: Tax or Public Liquidity?
Authors: REICHLIN PIETRO
Published: May 2018

I revisit the example of non‐neutral anticipated monetary expansions used in Lucas (1995) Nobel Prize Lecture, within a broader definition of monetary policy tools, such as paying a nominal return on money or using open market operations, to show that money expansions increase output by reallocating consumption across heterogenous individuals and time periods. This result survives with noninterest‐bearing cash when the latter does not generate relevant distortions.
Frailty risk in hospitalised older adults with and without diabetes mellitus
Authors: Lekan Deborah A. , McCoy Thomas P.
Published: May 2018

Background

Research indicates that diabetes mellitus (DM) may be a risk factor for frailty and individuals with DM are more likely to be frail than individuals without DM; however, there is limited research in hospitalised older adults.

Objectives

To determine the extent of frailty in hospitalised older adults with and without DM using a 16‐item Frailty Risk Score (FRS) and assess the role of frailty in predicting 30‐day rehospitalisation, discharge to an institution and in‐hospital mortality.

Methods

The study was a retrospective, cohort, correlational design and secondary analysis of a data set consisting of electronic health record data. The sample was older adults hospitalised on medicine units. Logistic regression was performed for 30‐day rehospitalisation and discharge location. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyse time to in‐hospital death and weighted using propensity scores.

Results

Of 278 hospitalised older adults, 49% had DM, and the mean FRS was not significantly different by DM status (9.6 vs. 9.1, p = 0.07). For 30‐day rehospitalisation, increased FRS was associated with significantly increased odds of rehospitalisation (AOR = 1.24, 95% CI [1.01, 1.51], p = 0.04). Although 81% were admitted from home, 57% were discharged home and 43% to an institution. An increased FRS was associated with increased odds of discharge to an institution (AOR = 1.48, 95% CI [1.26, 1.74], p < 0.001). The FRS was not significantly associated with increased risk of in‐hospital death (p = 0.17), but DM was associated with a 484% increase in the instantaneous risk of death (AHR = 5.84, 95% CI [1.71, 19.9], p = 0.005).

Conclusion

Diabetes mellitus and frailty were highly prevalent; the mean FRS was not significantly different by DM status. Although increased frailty was significantly associated with rehospitalisation and discharge to an institution, only DM was significantly associated with in‐hospital mortality.

Relevance to clinical practice

Frailty assessment may augment clinical assessment and facilitate tailoring care and determining optimal outcomes in patients with and without DM.
Stomach herniation prior to nonreassuring fetal status in a case of fetal gastroschisis
Authors: Kojima Yuki , Ozawa Katsusuke , Sugibayashi Rika , Wada Seiji , Sago Haruhiko
Published: May 2018

The neonatal prognosis in gastroschisis is generally good; however, intrauterine fetal death (IUFD) and nonreassuring fetal status (NRFS) sometimes occur in fetal cases of gastroschisis. Previously, we reported stomach herniation as a possible risk factor for IUFD or NRFS in fetuses with gastroschisis. We report a case of fetal gastroschisis showing stomach herniation and increased velocity of the umbilical venous (UV) flow the day before NRFS by electronic fetal monitoring (EFM). A 27‐year‐old pregnant woman was followed up from 16 weeks’ gestation due to fetal gastroschisis. At 33 + 1 weeks’ gestation, EFM displayed a reassuring fetal state, while the ultrasound examination revealed fetal stomach herniation and an increased flow velocity of the UV in the abdomen. One day later, EFM displayed NRFS, and the patient underwent emergency caesarean section. This case showed stomach herniation preceding the occurrence of NRFS. Stomach herniation may be a predictor of NRFS in fetuses with gastroschisis.
Reserve Management and Audit Committee Characteristics: Evidence from U.S. Property–Liability Insurance Companies
Authors: Hsu Wen‐Yen , Huang Yenyu (Rebecca) , Lai Gene
Published: May 2018

We examine the relation between reserve management and a set of audit committee characteristics of property–liability insurers, using reserve errors as a proxy for reserve management. We find that insurers with three audit committee characteristics have more conservative loss reserve estimations: larger audit committee size and more members with accounting expertise, and more audit committee meetings. Our results also find that three recommendations of the 1999 Blue Ribbon Committee can make corporate audit committees more effective: a minimum audit committee size, a minimum level of accounting expertise, and a minimum number of audit committee meetings. These results were obtained when we controlled for board of director characteristics, firm‐specific characteristics, and Sarbanes–Oxley. Some board composition variables (e.g., director ownership) also have an impact on reserve management during our study period. The evidence overall suggests that the audit committee and some board characteristics have an impact on reserve management (earnings management) even in a regulated environment such as the insurance industry.
Physiological changes in the adenosine deaminase activity, antioxidant and inflammatory parameters in pregnant cows and at post‐partum
Authors: Fávero Juscivete Fátima , Da Silva Aleksandro S. , Bottari Nathieli B. , Schetinger Maria Rosa C. , Morsch Vera Maria M. , Baldissera Matheus D. , Stefani Lenita M. , Machado Gustavo
Published: May 2018

The aim of this study was to evaluate the behaviour of adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity, as well as its participation in the immunomodulation of pregnant cows. Thus, sixteen cows were divided into two groups (A and B): the group A was composed by cows not pregnant (n = 8), while the group B was composed by pregnant cows (n = 8). Serum levels of interleukin‐10 (IL‐10), IL‐6, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and C‐reactive protein (CRP), as well as ADA and glutathione S‐transferase (GST) activities, were measured on five sampling times (3, 5, 7 and 8 months of gestation, and soon after calving). Serum ADA activity was similar throughout the experiment in the cows belonging to the group A, but its activity increased during the experiment in cows from the group B, that is it was lower in the third and fifth months of pregnancy, and higher on months 7, 8 and after calving when compared to the group A. TNF‐α and IL‐6 serum levels were lower in pregnant cows compared to non‐pregnant animals; however, they significantly increased after calving. Serum levels of IL‐10 increased after 8 months of gestation, but it reduced after calving when compared to the group A, while CRP increased on month 8 of gestation and after calving compared to the group A. Pregnant cows showed lower serum ROS levels on months 3, 5 and 7 of gestation, and higher levels at the post‐partum. Serum GST activity was higher on month 5 of gestation in pregnant cows, but it was lower on months 7, 8 and in the post‐partum compared to the group A. Based on these evidence, we concluded that ADA activity and the others mediators or inflammatory modulators have important role in the maintenance of cow′s gestation due to their immunomodulatory effects.
Colorimetric protein determination in microalgae (Chlorophyta): association of milling and SDS treatment for total protein extraction
Authors: Mota Maria Fernanda S. , Souza Marcella F. , Bon Elba P. S. , Rodrigues Marcoaurelio A. , Freitas Suely Pereira
Published: May 2018

The use of colorimetric methods for protein quantification in microalgae is hindered by their elevated amounts of membrane‐embedded intracellular proteins. In this work, the protein content of three species of microalgae was determined by the Lowry method after the cells were dried, ball‐milled, and treated with the detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Results demonstrated that the association of milling and SDS treatment resulted in a 3‐ to 7‐fold increase in protein quantification. Milling promoted microalgal disaggregation and cell wall disruption enabling access of the SDS detergent to the microalgal intracellular membrane proteins and their efficient solubilization and quantification.
Starting small: long‐term consequences in a managed large‐mammal population
Authors: le Roex N. , Paxton M. , Adendorff J. , Ferreira S. , O'Riain M. J.
Published: May 2018

Small populations are vulnerable to founder effects, stochastic demographic events and inbreeding depression. These factors raise the extinction probability of small populations, and thus effective management plans for endangered species have become essential. The black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) survived a historic global population crash and is currently facing renewed threat through poaching, population fragmentation and isolation. South Africa is home to approximately 36% of the world's remaining black rhinos; however, this population is fragmented across parks and reserves, and many of these small populations remain geographically and genetically isolated. The historic population crash, subsequent fragmentation and relentless poaching pressure together threaten the viability of the black rhino population within South Africa. This study employed a practical, non‐invasive sampling protocol and genetic analyses to assess the growth and performance of a small founder population in a fenced reserve. We used these data and recorded life‐history data to compare the population growth and vital rates between the first and second 10‐year periods since founding. We report a decrease in population growth rate and male survival in the second 10‐year period (0.06; 0.89) compared to the first (0.09; 0.97). Genetic diversity (HEXP = 0.405) was low when compared to larger black rhino populations, and average pairwise relatedness was high (0.193). These results suggest that negative genetic consequences and the beginning of density‐dependant growth regulation may be present in this population. This highlights the importance of establishing an evaluation framework for the assessment of small populations of long‐lived mammals in order to inform metapopulation management.
Quantiferon‐Cytomegalovirus assay: A potentially useful tool in the evaluation of CMV‐specific CD8+ T‐cell reconstitution in pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients
Authors: Paouri Bilio , Soldatou Alexandra , Petrakou Eftihia , Theodosaki Maria , Tsentidis Charalampos , Kaisari Katerina , Oikonomopoulou Christina , Matsas Minos , Goussetis Eugenios
Published: May 2018

Pediatric HSCT recipients are at high risk for CMV reactivation due to their immature immune system and therapy following transplantation. Reconstitution of CMV‐specific T‐cell immunity is associated with control and protection against CMV. The clinical utility of monitoring CMV‐specific CMI to predict CMV viremia in pediatric HSCT patients using the Quantiferon‐CMV (QIAGEN®) test was investigated prospectively. Thirty‐seven pediatric allogeneic HSCT recipients were enrolled from 3/2010‐6/2012. CMV viremia was detected via weekly real‐time PCR. The Quantiferon‐CMV test was conducted pretransplant, early after transplantation, 30, 90, 180, 270, and 360 days post‐transplantation. The incidence of CMV viremia was 51% (19/37) with half of the episodes within ≤30 days post‐transplant. Fifteen patients showed CMV‐specific immunity (average of 82 days). The cumulative incidence of CMV reactivation in patients who developed CMV‐specific immunity was lower than those who did not (15% vs 53%; P = .023). The ROC statistical analysis showed that the AUC was 0.725 in predicting viremia, for Quantiferon‐CMV test. In this cohort, the Quantiferon‐CMV assay was a valuable method for identifying pediatric HSCT patients at high risk for CMV viremia, suggesting potential clinical utility to individualize patient's management post‐transplant.
Complement Factor H as a potential atherogenic marker in chronic Chagas’ disease
Authors: Lidani K. C. F. , Sandri T. L. , Andrade F. A. , Bavia L. , Nisihara R. , Messias‐Reason I. J.
Published: May 2018

We aimed to investigate the association between plasma levels of complement Factor H (FH) with cardiac involvement, inflammatory and cardiometabolic parameters in patients with chronic Chagas’ disease (CD). FH plasmatic levels were determined in 80 chronic CD patients. Glycaemic index, lipidogram (high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol HDL‐C, low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol LDL‐C, triglycerides and total cholesterol) and Ultrasensitive C‐Reactive Protein (uCRP) values were obtained from medical records. Height, weight, body mass index (BMI) blood pressure and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were obtained from echocardiography examinations. Comparisons between chronic CD clinical forms were performed using Mann‐Whitney test and correlation Spearman’s test. FH levels were correlated positively with triglycerides (P = .001, r = .39), LDL‐C (P = .009, r = .3), cholesterol (P = .02, r = .28), uCRP (P = .029, r = .31) and BMI (P = .008, r = .34); and negatively with HDL‐C (P = .03, r = −.25) levels. Dyslipidemic patients showed higher FH levels compared to normolipidemic, although no difference for FH levels was observed between chronic CD clinical forms. Alternative pathway of complement may be a link between immune response and metabolic disorders, with important immunoregulatory role in chronic CD.
Training in transplant infectious diseases: A survey of infectious diseases and transplant infectious diseases fellows in the United States and Canada
Authors: Tan Susanna K. , Theodoropoulos Nicole , La Hoz Ricardo M. , Mossad Sherif B. , Kotton Camille N. , Danziger‐Isakov Lara A. , Kumar Deepali , Huprikar Shirish ,   On behalf of the American Society of Transplantation, Infectious Diseases Community of Practice
Published: May 2018

Background

Infectious diseases (ID) specialists with experience in managing infections in transplant recipients and other immunocompromised hosts are increasingly needed as these fields expand.

Methods

To evaluate experiences and identify trainee‐described needs in transplant infectious diseases (TID) training, the American Society of Transplantation, Infectious Diseases Community of Practice (AST IDCOP) surveyed ID fellows across the United States and TID fellows in the United States and Canada and received responses from 203 ID fellows and 13 TID fellows.

Results

Among ID fellows, the amount of TID training during ID fellowship was rated between less than ideal and adequate. Reasons cited included limited frequency of didactic activities and limited exposure to transplant patients during training. In particular, ID fellows at low‐volume transplantation centers expressed interest in more TID training time, away training opportunities, and specific TID didactics. Educational resources of high interest among trainees were case‐based interactive websites, mobile phone applications with TID guidelines, and a centralized collection of relevant articles. Pediatric ID fellows reported lower satisfaction scores with TID training, while TID fellows were overall satisfied or more than satisfied with their training experience.

Conclusion

Findings from this survey will inform local and national TID educational initiatives.
Risk factors associated with Clostridium difficile infection in kidney transplant recipients
Authors: Spinner M.L. , Stephany B.R. , Cerrato P.M. , Lam S.W. , Neuner E.A. , Patel K.S.
Published: May 2018

Background

Solid organ transplant recipients are especially vulnerable to Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) due to cumulative risk factors including increased exposure to healthcare settings, persistent immunosuppression, and higher rates of antimicrobial exposure. We aimed to identify risk factors associated with CDI development in kidney transplant recipients including implications of immunosuppressive therapies and acid‐suppressing agents.

Methods

This was a single‐center, non‐interventional, retrospective case‐control study of adult subjects between June 1, 2009 and June 30, 2013. During this time, 728 patients underwent kidney transplantation. Overall, 22 developed CDI (cases) and were matched 1:3 with 66 controls. Cases and controls were also matched for induction agent, kidney allograft type (living or deceased), and time from transplant to CDI result (±60 days).

Results

The majority of subjects received a deceased donor kidney (77.3%) and basiliximab induction therapy (86.4%). The overall CDI incidence was 3%. Factors independently associated with CDI were average tacrolimus trough (AOR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.00‐1.56, P = .048) and antibiotic exposure for urinary tract infections (UTI) (AOR = 4.17, 95% CI = 1.12‐15.54, P = .034). Proton pump inhibitor use was not associated with CDI (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.29‐2.29, P = .691).

Conclusion

Maintaining a clinically appropriate tacrolimus trough and judicious antibiotic use and selection for UTI treatment could potentially reduce CDI in the kidney transplant population.
Breakthrough Candida guilliermondii (Meyerozyma guilliermondii) fungemia after cord blood transplantation for extranodal NK‐cell lymphoma with azole prophylaxis
Authors: Nakazawa Hideyuki , Nishina Sayaka , Senoo Yasushi , Sakai Hitoshi , Ito Toshiro , Kikuchi Ken , Ishida Fumihiro
Published: May 2018

Fluconazole (FLCZ) is an azole antifungal agent and it has shown excellent clinical activities in suppressing fungemia with Candida albicans after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Increased administration of prophylactic FLCZ seems to have given rise to the relatively higher incidence of more resistant Candida non‐albicans infection. We present a case with a rare breakthrough fungemia with C. guilliermondii after cord blood transplantation for Extranodal NK cell Lymphoma, nasal type (ENKL), during antifungal prophylaxis with FLCZ. High level of caution is needed for the breakthrough, especially after long‐term azole administration.
Does the urinary tract infection caused by carbapenem‐resistant Gram‐negative bacilli impact the outcome of kidney transplant recipients?
Authors: Freire Maristela Pinheiro , Mendes Clara V. , Piovesan Affonso C. , de Paula Flavio Jota , Spadão Fernanda , Nahas Willian C. , David‐Neto Elias , Pierrotti Ligia Camera
Published: May 2018

The incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI) after kidney transplantation (KT) caused by multidrug‐resistant (MDR) bacteria is growing. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of UTI caused by carbapenem‐resistant Gram‐negative bacteria (CR‐GNB) in the survival of graft and recipients following KT. This was a retrospective cohort study involving patients who underwent KT between 2013 and 2016. Patients were followed since the day of the KT until loss of graft, death or end of the follow‐up period (31th December 2016). The outcomes measured were UTI by MDR following KT and graft and patient survival. Analyses were performed using Cox regression; for the graft and patient survival analysis, we used a propensity score for UTI by CR‐GNB to matching a control group. UTI was diagnosed in 178 (23.9%) of 781 patients, who developed 352 UTI episodes. 44.6% of the UTI cases were caused by MDR bacteria. Identified risk factors for UTI by MDR bacteria were DM, urologic disease as the cause of end‐stage renal failure, insertion of ureteral stent, carbapenem use, and delayed graft function (DGF). Risk factors for death during the follow‐up period were female gender, patients over 60 years old at the time of KT, DM, body mass index over 31.8, UTI caused by CR‐GNB. In conclusion, UTIs caused by CR‐GNB have great impact on patients’ survival after KT.
Hepatitis C genotype change after transplantation utilizing hepatitis C positive donor organs
Authors: Adekunle R. , Jonchhe S. , Ravichandran B. , Wilson E. , Husson J.
Published: May 2018

A shortage in organs for transplantation has led to the increased use of hepatitis C (HCV) infected donor organs for solid organ transplant recipients infected with HCV. However, the donor HCV genotype is not routinely checked or known prior to transplant. Here, we report 4 cases of genotype conversion after transplantation in patients receiving HCV infected donor organs. This change in genotype may potentially impact HCV progression as well as treatment choice for these patients.
Participatory Action Research in Higher Education Training
Authors: Serpa Sandro , Ferreira Carlos Miguel , Santos Ana Isabel , Teixeira Ricardo
Published: May 2018

By fostering a direct engagement of those involved in solving problems or needs in a context of real situations, participatory action research (PAR) offers great potentialities for the academic training of future and even current professionals. However, there is a weak implementation of PAR as a pedagogical training strategy in higher education. Hence, this paper seeks to be a contribution to answering the following question: What potentialities and challenges can arise from the implementation of PAR in higher education? To this end, the following elements are addressed: what PAR consists of, and the contributions it can offer for higher education training, concluding with the presentation of some challenges and difficulties that seem to emerge from the use of PAR at the institutional, students and teachers’ levels, and which may help understanding its little use.
Impure Thoughts
Authors: Keel Terence
Published: May 2018

Chapter 1 examines the thought of the eighteenth-century ethnologist Johann F. Blumenbach, whose 1775 work On the Natural Variety of Mankind is often represented as precipitating the secular turn in the modern study of race. The chapter offers an alternative account of the intellectual ancestry alive in Blumenbach’s racial theories by recovering the Christian sources of his thinking. Political and philosophical anti-Judaism prevalent in late eighteenth-century Germany, the transformation of the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther into a pioneer of German national identity, and the anti-Jewish writings of Johann David Michaelis in the emergent field of biblical geography at Göttingen University were all crucial political, religious, and intellectual influences during the time Blumenbach developed his racial theories. Drawing on the notion that the epistemological origins of racial science are fundamentally mongrel, this chapter argues that Blumenbach’s racial theories were not an expression of pure, untainted, secular rationality.
Superseding Christian Truth
Authors: Keel Terence
Published: May 2018

Chapter 2 analyzes scientific criticism leveled against the theory of common human descent beginning in the 1830s. It focuses on the thought of Josiah C. Nott, a southern physician, early epidemiologist, and major figure of the so-called American School of Ethnology. Nott claimed that humanity’s common origin, or monogenesis, was an unscientific belief and a mere carryover from when natural historians were indebted to Christian ideas about nature and human life. Thus, he attempted to establish an account of the history of human racial groups that moved beyond the constraints of the narrative recorded by Moses in the Bible. Despite these secular aspirations Nott ultimately failed to offer an account of race that stood independent of Christian thought. The case of American polygenism illustrates the degree to which modern racial science is indebted to a religious intellectual history it has attempted to deny and supersede.
Noah’s Mongrel Children
Authors: Keel Terence
Published: May 2018

Chapter 4 examines how concepts about racial ancestry and the ontological uniqueness of human life from Christian intellectual history have historically informed scientific research on the Neanderthal. These Christian forms are at play in the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome and the unanticipated discovery that mating occurred between this hominid group and modern humans around forty thousand years ago. Geneticists claim that evidence of this encounter is found almost exclusively in the genomes of Europeans and Asians. This chapter also shows how scientists in both the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries deployed notions of distinct continental groups and fixed racial traits to draw conclusions about human-Neanderthal relatedness. In both centuries, concepts and reasoning strategies implicitly divinize nature while also framing human ancestry into three original groups that represent the reoccupation of the story of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, into contemporary algorithmic representations of human genetic ancestry.
Getting There
Authors: Osborne Evan
Published: May 2018

Almost as long there has been a human species, we have formed societies based on the principle of political regulation. There is a small cadre of leaders often assumed to have the right to order the lives of other members of society, supported by a current monopoly of armaments. While not universal, this pattern has been the norm since the agricultural revolution. In particular, it is argued that the idea of continuous social improvement was hardly known in ancient civilizations. Only in the late Renaissance did a pattern of thought evolve that indicated that it is better to see the pattern and outcomes of human social systems as progressing, with such systems capable under certain circumstances of regulating themselves to better effect than outsiders could hope to regulate them.
What’s Going On?
Authors: Alexandra Christina Countess of Frederiksborg , Fort Timothy L.
Published: May 2018

This chapter provides a foundation for 4 forces that are here to stay for business: (1) coercive power pressures (legal regulation and public opinion); (2) the need for profitability and the reality of global economic forces; (3) enduring ethical values and more conventional values that change according to time and culture; and (4) the constancy of change. These forces exist at a geopolitical and macro-economic level and they also exist at organizational levels. Based on this framing, values such as sincerity and integrity accompany power and economics. Though their relevance can temporarily be minimized, eventually, they reassert themselves, which has happened in 21st century business. The chapter also provides a conceptual, occasionally philosophical, background on the relationship and differentiation among notions such as authenticity, sincerity, integrity, trust, and leadership.
Twelve Ways to Lead with the Sincerity Edge
Authors: Alexandra Christina Countess of Frederiksborg , Fort Timothy L.
Published: May 2018

This chapter concludes by drawing together the insights from the examples provided and the frameworks articulated, to offer 12 ways to create strong, ethical, values-driven leadership for 21st century businesses. In short, it serves as a capstone summary for the recommendations developed throughout the book.
Social Welfare, Paternalism, and the Making of German Buenos Aires
Authors: Bryce Benjamin
Published: May 2018

This chapter argues that affluent immigrants used various social welfare institutions to shape the meaning of citizenship in Buenos Aires. Through German-language social welfare organizations, thousands of immigrants and second-generation bilinguals gave form to a vision of a German community in Buenos Aires. The community leaders who offered job placement, health care, and other services to workers promoted idealized notions of male breadwinners who supported their families, of productive and healthy workers, and of respectable female laborers. All of these community actions, however, were also civic actions, and the ideas of obligation to working-class immigrants were also ideas about rights and duties for members of Buenos Aires society. At stake for wealthy speakers of German was their social, gender, and class power, both within their own community and in Argentine society.
Children, Language, and the Rise of a Pluralist Society
Authors: Bryce Benjamin
Published: May 2018

This chapter argues that immigrant teachers and their pupils broadened the definition of citizenship in Argentina. Those who ran these schools and the parents who sent their children to them clearly believed that pluralism and Argentine belonging could coexist. Parents and teachers wanted children and young adults to grow up with an advanced proficiency in German, alongside Spanish, and with knowledge about both central Europe and Argentina. Through their actions and ideas, the children and adults involved with German-Spanish bilingual schools took an active interest in the future. Although they had various opinions about the educational project of the adults involved, Argentine-born children of German heritage grew up in contact not only with the German language and German culture but also with the Spanish language and Argentine civic education.
The Language of Citizenship
Authors: Bryce Benjamin
Published: May 2018

Drawing from Argentine governmental and German-language sources, this chapter argues that bilingual schools pushed for a pluralist definition of citizenship and, in so doing, undermined many of the assimilationist goals expressed by a small group of Argentine elites. This approach contributes to a broader discussion of education and state authority in Argentina by highlighting how state officials attempted to confront cultural pluralism and how immigrants embraced and modified these efforts. Through a series of policies, the National Council of Education ensured that bilingual schools taught the Spanish language and a number of Argentine subjects that would equip children with civic knowledge for Argentine society. Yet that same system of regulation allowed immigrant educators to teach children a second language and other topics related to their parents’ countries of origins.
Transatlantic Religion and the Boundaries of Community
Authors: Bryce Benjamin
Published: May 2018

This chapter argues that denominational identities influenced how German-speaking Lutherans and Catholics in Argentina understood the boundaries of community and their sense of belonging in Argentine society. It charts the efforts of Lutheran and Catholic organizations in Germany to promote German-language religion in Buenos Aires and the Río de la Plata region, and it examines how these transatlantic ties helped shape some of the core German-language institutions of Argentina. German speakers maintained relations with various religious organizations in Imperial and Weimar Germany, but they drew selectively on this support to foster both religious and linguistic pluralism in Argentina. Ultimately, support from Germany came with few strings attached, and it gave German-speaking Lutherans and Catholics access to German-speaking pastors and priests, as well as extra financial resources.
Primitivism and Negritude
Authors: Etherington Ben
Published: May 2018

Chapter 3 considers a range of manifestoes and essays that articulate the primitivist project. Anchoring the discussion with Ernst Bloch’s conception of objective and subjective “nonsynchronicity,” it goes on to look at the ways in which artists appealed to the remnants of “primitive” societies when forming anticapitalist aesthetic programs that aimed to revive the possibility of primitive experience. It is argued that this program appealed above all to the colonized “conscripts” of capitalist modernity, something clearly in evidence in the early manifestoes and theorizations of “négritude.” Across the board, it is found that the primitivist project was conceptualized in terms of an idealized immediacy that could be reached only by breaking through the mediations of a totalized capitalism. Artists and writers discussed include Carl Einstein, T. E. Lawrence, Aimé Césaire, Suzanne Césaire, René Ménil, and Alain Locke.
D. H. Lawrence’s Narrative Primitivism
Authors: Etherington Ben
Published: May 2018

Chapter 6 presents a detailed consideration of the style and narrative structure of D. H. Lawrence’s major primitivist work, Women in Love. It begins with Wyndham Lewis’s attack on Lawrence’s primitivism in Paleface, a book that undertakes an ironic defense of white supremacism, before considering how Women in Love pursues its own kind of “blancitude.” Finding that Lawrence’s prose “techniques of immediacy” are not sufficient in themselves to bring about primitivism’s end, it traces the narrative logic that pushes Lawrence’s characters to seek spaces beyond the perimeter of imperial civilization. The chapter closes with a discussion of Lawrence’s attempt to narrate a primitivist insurrection in his late work The Plumed Serpent.
Introduction
Authors: White Joshua M.
Published: May 2018

In September 1614, Ali bin Yusuf of Jerba lodged a lawsuit against a Venetian merchant named Nicolo in the court of Galata, a suburb of Istanbul. Ali accused Nicolo of having murdered his son, Süleyman, a ship captain, and five of his son’s shipmates in a piratical attack eight years earlier. Ali’s claims before the court, and his difficulty substantiating them—for the Venetian pirate had murdered the Ottoman crew to eliminate witnesses (one escaped, but two were required)—frame the fundamental questions the book addresses, first and foremost: who, what, or when is a pirate? The introduction also provides the historical context, surprisingly absent from most studies of Mediterranean piracy, essential to understanding why the period between 1570 and 1720 was one of pervasive piracy.
Ottoman Pirates, Ottoman Victims
Authors: White Joshua M.
Published: May 2018

This chapter chronicles the rise of Ottoman-on-Ottoman maritime violence in the post-1570 period, accounting for its endurance and examining its internal social and political significance for the Ottoman state and its implications for our understanding of Ottoman power and center-periphery relations. Introducing the Ottoman pirate “life cycle,” it explores the connections between “local” and “long-distance” manifestations of piracy and the slippery distinctions between pirate and corsair, positing that Ottoman subjects were the prey that sustained all pirates in the Ottoman Mediterranean and enabled them to expand their operations. Because the Ottoman central administration relied heavily on naval irregulars to safeguard the coasts and provide intelligence on enemy movements, it was forced to balance the demands of law and justice with its security needs and the limits of its political and military capacity.
Piracy and Treaty Law
Authors: White Joshua M.
Published: May 2018

Piracy was an early and constant subject of negotiation between the Ottomans and their treaty partners, who developed a legal and diplomatic framework prohibiting piracy and establishing the procedures for redress when attacks did occur. Focusing primarily on Ottoman-Venetian relations, this chapter parses the form and content of their treaties (ahdname), examines how their antipiracy provisions were understood, and traces their development from the late fifteenth century to the early seventeenth century, by which point treaties with similar antipiracy clauses had been extended to France (1569), England (1580), and the Netherlands (1612). The antipiracy articles of these treaties were regularly expanded and modified to address new challenges, including how to deal with and defend against the proliferation of uncontrollable nonstate actors, but developments around the turn of the seventeenth century threatened to bring down the entire order on which the treaty regime was founded.
Piracy in Ottoman Islamic Jurisprudence
Authors: White Joshua M.
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the legal opinions (Arabic: fatwa, Turkish: fetva) issued by the chief Islamic legal authorities of the empire (şeyhülislam) concerning maritime violence and explores the implications of their rulings for judges and litigants throughout the empire and for the corsairs based on its margins. Drawing on research in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century fetva collections, the chapter establishes the kinds of legal questions that piracy and captivity posed for the Ottomans and how they were answered as the intensity, frequency, and focus of Mediterranean piracy mutated in sometimes alarming ways. Showing how secular, interstate, and Islamic law were harmonized through fetvas, the chapter lays the groundwork for the subsequent analysis of the convergence of theory and practice in Ottoman courts.
Conclusion
Authors: White Joshua M.
Published: May 2018

The conclusion recapitulates the book’s key arguments, fast-forwarding to the mid-eighteenth century to test the assertion that the Ottoman Mediterranean was a legal space, defined in large part by the challenge of piracy. Recounting an incident from the 1740s, in which Cretan seamen traveled to Tripoli to acquire licenses to attack Venice—with which Tripoli then considered itself at war—it reflects on the path by which Tripoli and the rest of North Africa came to be excluded from the Ottoman Mediterranean legal space, such that neither administrators in Istanbul nor sailors in Candia considered Tripoli truly “Ottoman.” It then reconsiders the connections between legal corsairing/privateering and illegal piracy, and the complex roles religion and subjecthood played in fixing the line between them.
Theory and Methodology
Authors: Rüland Jürgen
Published: May 2018

The chapter develops an essentially constructivist theoretical framework that strongly draws from Amitav Acharya’s theory of “constitutive localization.” It nuances Acharya’s theory to make its outward-in perspective compatible with a bottom-up analysis of ideational discourses. Acharya conceptualizes recipients of external normative challenges less as passive norm-takers than as agents that actively reconstruct foreign norms to make them congruent with their own local norms. Constitutive localization thus transcends strongly Western-centric, modernization theory-driven approaches to norm diffusion and helps to add Southern perspectives to IR and regionalism studies. The second part of the chapter details the study’s methodology, including case selection, selection of foreign policy stakeholder groups, and research techniques. The latter are largely qualitative and interpretive and rely strongly on discourse analysis of newspaper articles, other written materials, public speeches, and expert interviews.
The Indonesian Government and the ASEAN Charter
Authors: Rüland Jürgen
Published: May 2018

The Indonesian government was the most significant actor in the ASEAN Charter debate and the relevance of regionalism for Indonesia’s foreign policy. It negotiated the Charter with the other ASEAN governments and strongly influenced the domestic debate on ASEAN and Indonesia’s role in it. The chapter outlines changes in Indonesian foreign policymaking, which became a multistakeholder process after the demise of President Suharto’s authoritarian New Order regime in May 1998. Applying Acharya’s localization theory, it examines how leading government exponents—the president, the foreign minister, and high-ranking diplomats—framed, grafted, and pruned European concepts of regional integration. The chapter shows that although the Indonesian government was the most vocal among ASEAN members in propagating EU-style reforms, it localized core reformist concepts such as democracy and human rights with extant local ideas such as organicism, soft law, leadership ambitions, ancient welfare and security conceptions, and the ASEAN Way.