bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular mortality and catherization activity during the lockdown in central Germany: an observational study
Authors:   for the CoVCAD –Study Group, Nef Holger M. , Elsässer Albrecht , Möllmann Helge , Abdel-Hadi Mohammed , Bauer Timm , Brück Martin , Eggebrecht Holger , Ehrlich Joachim R. , Ferrari Markus W. , Fichtlscherer Stephan , Hink Ulrich , Hölschermann Hans , Kacapor Rifat , Koeth Oliver , Korboukov Serguei , Lamparter Steffen , Laspoulas Alexander J. , Lehmann Ralf , Liebetrau Christoph , Plücker Tobias , Pons-Kühnemann Jörn , Schächinger Volker , Schieffer Bernhard , Schott Peter , Schulze Matthias , Teupe Claudius , Vasa-Nicotera Mariuca , Weber Michael , Weinbrenner Christoph , Werner Gerald , Hamm Christian W. , Dörr Oliver
Published: November 2020

Aims

During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital admissions for cardiac care have declined. However, effects on mortality are unclear. Thus, we sought to evaluate the impact of the lockdown period in central Germany on overall and cardiovascular deaths. Simultaneously we looked at catheterization activities in the same region.

Methods and results

Data from 22 of 24 public health-authorities in central Germany were aggregated during the pandemic related lockdown period and compared to the same time period in 2019. Information on the total number of deaths and causes of death, including cardiovascular mortality, were collected. Additionally, we compared rates of hospitalization (n = 5178) for chronic coronary syndrome (CCS), acute coronary syndrome (ACS), and out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in 26 hospitals in this area. Data on 5,984 deaths occurring between March 23, 2020 and April 26, 2020 were evaluated. In comparison to the reference non-pandemic period in 2019 (deaths: n = 5832), there was a non-significant increase in all-cause mortality of 2.6% [incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.03, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.99–1.06; p = 0.16]. Cardiovascular and cardiac mortality increased significantly by 7.6% (IRR 1.08, 95%-CI 1.01–1.14; p = 0.02) and by 11.8% (IRR 1.12, 95%-CI 1.05–1.19; p < 0.001), respectively. During the same period, our data revealed a drop in cardiac catherization procedures.

Conclusion

During the COVID-19-related lockdown a significant increase in cardiovascular mortality was observed in central Germany, whereas catherization activities were reduced. The mechanisms underlying both of these observations should be investigated further in order to better understand the effects of a pandemic-related lockdown and social-distancing restrictions on cardiovascular care and mortality.

Graphic abstract
From workplace to home environment: spreading of mouse allergens by laboratory animal workers
Authors: Kube Hannah , Herrera Ronald , Dietrich-Gümperlein Gisela , Schierl Rudolf , Nowak Dennis , Radon Katja , Wengenroth Laura , Gerlich Jessica
Published: November 2020

Purpose

Laboratory animal workers (LAW) working with laboratory mice are exposed to mouse allergens (MA). If MA are spread to home environments, this might increase the risk for allergies in LAW and their families. This study aimed to assess 1. whether spreading of MA from workplace to home environment takes place; 2. which factors increase spreading of MA.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study, dust samples were taken on the mattress and seating in homes of LAW (n = 105) and an unexposed comparison group (n = 13). From 89 LAW, additional dust samples were taken from their workplaces. Samples were analysed using Mus m1 ELISA kits [detection limit (DL) 0.2 ng mus m1/ml]. Sociodemographic data, personal history of allergies and cleaning habits, as well as work-related characteristics (LAW only) were assessed by questionnaire. Latent factors were assessed via factor analysis. Tobit models were fitted to analyse the latent factors’ contribution to MA spreading.

Results

MA concentration on the seating was significantly higher in home environments of LAW (median = 1.28 ng mus m1/m2) than in the comparison group (median < DL, p = 0.019). The highest workplace MA concentration was found on the floor of the scullery (median = 140,000.00 ng mus m1/m2), followed by hair-covering caps (median = 76.02 ng mus m1/m2). Cage and mouse facility cleaning tasks and infrequent changing of bed linen at home were statistically significantly associated with higher MA concentrations at home.

Conclusions

Spreading of MA from LAW’s workplace to their home environment takes place, especially among LAWs involved in cleaning tasks.
Neurosurgery and coronavirus: impact and challenges—lessons learnt from the first wave of a global pandemic
Authors: Ashkan Keyoumars , Jung Josephine , Velicu Alexandra Maria , Raslan Ahmed , Faruque Mohammed , Kulkarni Pandurang , Bleil Cristina , Hasegawa Harutomo , Kailaya-Vasan Ahilan , Maratos Eleni , Grahovac Gordan , Vergani Francesco , Zebian Bassel , Barazi Sinan , Malik Irfan , Bell David , Walsh Daniel , Bhangoo Ranjeev , Tolias Christos , Bassi Sanjeev , Selway Richard , Thomas Nick , Chandler Christopher , Gullan Richard
Published: November 2020

Introduction and objectives

The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) pandemic has had drastic effects on global healthcare with the UK amongst the countries most severely impacted. The aim of this study was to examine how COVID-19 challenged the neurosurgical delivery of care in a busy tertiary unit serving a socio-economically diverse population.

Methods

A prospective single-centre cohort study including all patients referred to the acute neurosurgical service or the subspecialty multidisciplinary teams (MDT) as well as all emergency and elective admissions during COVID-19 (18th March 2020–15th May 2020) compared to pre-COVID-19 (18th of January 2020–17th March 2020). Data on demographics, diagnosis, operation, and treatment recommendation/outcome were collected and analysed.

Results

Overall, there was a reduction in neurosurgical emergency referrals by 33.6% and operations by 55.6% during the course of COVID-19. There was a significant increase in the proportion of emergency operations performed during COVID-19 (75.2% of total,n=155) when compared to pre-COVID-19 (n= 198, 43.7% of total,p< 0.00001). In contrast to other published series, the 30-day perioperative mortality remained low (2.0%) with the majority of post-operative COVID-19-infected patients (n= 13) having underlying medical co-morbidities and/or suffering from post-operative complications.

Conclusion

The capacity to safely treat patients requiring urgent or emergency neurosurgical care was maintained at all times. Strategies adopted to enable this included proactively approaching the referrers to maintain lines of communications, incorporating modern technology to run clinics and MDTs, restructuring patient pathways/facilities, and initiating the delivery of NHS care within private sector hospitals. Through this multi-modal approach we were able to minimize service disruptions, the complications, and mortality.
The scholar’s best friend: research trends in dog cognitive and behavioral studies
Authors: Aria Massimo , Alterisio Alessandra , Scandurra Anna , Pinelli Claudia , D’Aniello Biagio
Published: November 2020

In recent decades, cognitive and behavioral knowledge in dogs seems to have developed considerably, as deduced from the published peer-reviewed articles. However, to date, the worldwide trend of scientific research on dog cognition and behavior has never been explored using a bibliometric approach, while the evaluation of scientific research has increasingly become important in recent years. In this review, we compared the publication trend of the articles in the last 34 years on dogs’ cognitive and behavioral science with those in the general category “Behavioral Science”. We found that, after 2005, there has been a sharp increase in scientific publications on dogs. Therefore, the year 2005 has been used as “starting point” to perform an in-depth bibliometric analysis of the scientific activity in dog cognitive and behavioral studies. The period between 2006 and 2018 is taken as the study period, and a backward analysis was also carried out. The data analysis was performed using “bibliometrix”, a new R-tool used for comprehensive science mapping analysis. We analyzed all information related to sources, countries, affiliations, co-occurrence network, thematic maps, collaboration network, and world map. The results scientifically support the common perception that dogs are attracting the interest of scholars much more now than before and more than the general trend in cognitive and behavioral studies. Both, the changes in research themes and new research themes, contributed to the increase in the scientific production on the cognitive and behavioral aspects of dogs. Our investigation may benefit the researchers interested in the field of cognitive and behavioral science in dogs, thus favoring future research work and promoting interdisciplinary collaborations.
A perfect storm: ploidy and preadaptation facilitate Saccharum spontaneum escape and invasion in the Republic of Panama
Authors: Saltonstall Kristin , Bonnett Graham D. , Aitken Karen S.
Published: November 2020

Polyploidy may contribute to invasive ability as it can lead to high survival and fitness during establishment and enhance the processes of adaptation to novel environments by increasing genetic diversity in invading propagules. Many grasses are polyploid and many are aggressive invaders, making them persistent problems in disturbed environments worldwide. Today, vast areas of central Panama are dominated bySaccharum spontaneum, a perennial grass that originates from Asia. While widely regarded as invasive, it is not known when or how it arrived in Panama. We explore hypotheses regarding the timing and origins of this invasion through literature review and comparisons of genetic diversity in Panama with accessions from available sugarcane germplasm collections, highlighting historical accessions that were likely brought to Panama in 1939 as part of a USDA sugarcane germplasm collection. Samples were haplotyped at two chloroplast loci and genotyped using eight microsatellite markers. All sequenced individuals from Panama belong to a single chloroplast lineage which is common worldwide and was common in the Historic germplasm collection. Although genotypic diversity was extremely high in all samples due to high ploidy, samples from Panama had reduced diversity and clustered with several accessions in the Historic collection which had the same haplotype and high ploidy levels. Our results suggest that accidental escape from the historical sugarcane germplasm collection is the likely origin of theS. spontaneuminvasion in Panama. Intraspecific hybridization among several historical accessions and pre-adaptation to local conditions may have facilitated its rapid spread and persistence. We discuss the implications of our findings for biosecurity of germplasm collections.
How will a drier climate change carbon sequestration in soils of the deciduous forests of Central Europe?
Authors: Fekete István , Berki Imre , Lajtha Kate , Trumbore Susan , Francioso Ornella , Gioacchini Paola , Montecchio Daniela , Várbíró Gábor , Béni Áron , Makádi Marianna , Demeter Ibolya , Madarász Balázs , Juhos Katalin , Kotroczó Zsolt
Published: November 2020

Global warming is accompanied by increasing water stress across much of our planet. We studied soil biological processes and changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in 30 Hungarian oak forest sites in the Carpathian Basin along a climatic gradient (mean annual temperature (MAT) 9.6–12.1 °C, mean annual precipitation (MAP) 545–725 mm) but on similar gently sloped hillsides where the parent materials are loess and weathered dust inputs dating from the end of the ice age. The purpose of this research was to understand how a drying climate, predicted for this region, might regulate long-term SOC sequestration. To examine the effects of decreasing water availability, we compared soil parameters and processes in three categories of forest that represented the moisture extremes along our gradient and that were defined using a broken-stick regression model. Soil biological activity was significantly lower in the driest (“dry”) forests, which had more than double the SOC concentration in the upper 30 cm layer (3.28 g C/100 g soil ± 0.11 SE) compared to soils of the wettest (“humid”) forests (1.32 g C/100 g soil ± 0.09 SE), despite the fact that annual surface litter production in humid forests was ~ 37% higher than in dry forests. A two-pool SOM model constrained to fit radiocarbon data indicates that turnover times for fast and slow pools are about half as long in the humid soil compared to the dry soil, and humid soils transfer C twice as efficiently from fast to slow pools. Enzyme activity and fungal biomass data also imply shorter turnover times associated with faster degradation processes in the soils of humid forests. Thermogravimetry studies suggest that more chemically recalcitrant compounds are accumulating in the soils of dry forests. Taken together, our results suggest that the predicted climate drying in this region might increase SOC storage in Central European mesic deciduous forests even as litter production decreases.
Imaging in COVID-19-related myocardial injury
Authors: Cau Riccardo , Bassareo Pier Paolo , Mannelli Lorenzo , Suri Jasjit S. , Saba Luca
Published: November 2020

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2), previously named “2019 novel coronavirus” (2019-nCoV) is an emerging disease and a major public health issue. At the moment, little is known, except that its spread is on a steady upward trend. That is the reason why it was declared pandemic since March 11th, 2020. Respiratory symptoms dominate the clinical manifestations of the virus, but in a few patients also other organs are involved, such as their heart. This review article provides an overview of the existing literature regarding imaging of heart injury during COVID-19 acute infection and follow-up.
Lessons learned and questions raised during and post-COVID-19 anthropopause period in relation to the environment and climate
Authors: Zerefos Christos S. , Solomos Stavros , Kapsomenakis John , Poupkou Anastasia , Dimitriadou Lida , Polychroni Iliana D. , Kalabokas Pavlos , Philandras Constandinos M. , Thanos Dimitris
Published: November 2020

In the first part, this work reports that during the global “anthropopause” period, that was imposed in March and April 2020 for limiting the spread of COVID-19, the concentrations of basic air pollutants over Europe were reduced by up to 70%. During May and June, the gradual lift of the stringent measures resulted in the recovery of these reductions with pollution concentrations approaching the levels before the lockdown by the end of June 2020. In the second part, this work examines the alleged correlations between the reported cases of COVID-19 and temperature, humidity and particulate matter for March and April 2020 in Europe. It was found that decreasing temperatures and relative humidity with increasing concentrations of particulate matter are correlated with an increase in the number of reported cases during these 2 months. However, when these calculations were repeated for May and June, we found a remarkable drop in the significance of the correlations which leads us to question the generally accepted inverse relation between pandemics and air temperature at least during the warmer months. Such a relationship could not be supported in our study for SARS-CoV-2 virus and the question remains open. In the third and last part of this work, we examine the question referring to the origin of pandemics. In this context we have examined the hypothesis that the observed climate warming in Siberia and the Arctic and the thawing of permafrost could result to the release of trapped in the permafrost pathogens in the atmosphere. We find that although such relations cannot be directly justified, they present a possible horrifying mechanism for the origin of viruses in the future during the developing global warming of our planet in the decades to come. Overall the findings of our study indicate that: (1) the reduction of anthropogenic emissions in Europe during the “anthropopause” period of March and April 2020 was significant, but when the lockdown measures were raised the concentrations of atmospheric pollutants quickly recovered to pre-pandemic levels and therefore any possible climatic feedbacks were negligible; (2) no robust relationship between atmospheric parameters and the spread of COVID-19 cases can be justified in the warmer part of the year and (3) more research needs to be done regarding the possible links between climate change and the release of new pathogens from thawing of permafrost areas.
Effect of Electron-Beam Radiation and Other Sterilization Techniques on Structural, Mechanical and Microbiological Properties of Thermoplastic Starch Blend
Authors: Iuliano Anna , Fabiszewska Agata , Kozik Katarzyna , Rzepna Magdalena , Ostrowska Justyna , Dębowski Maciej , Plichta Andrzej
Published: November 2020

This work investigates the potential application of various sterilization methods for microorganism inactivation on the thermoplastic starch blend surface. The influence of the e-beam and UV radiation, ethanol, isopropanol and microwave autoclave on structural and packaging properties were studied. All the applied methods were successful in the inactivation of yeast and molds, however only the e-beam radiation was able to remove the bacterial microflora. The FTIR analysis revealed no significant changes in the polymer structure, nevertheless, a deterioration of the mechanical properties of the blend was observed. The least invasive method was the UV radiation which did not affect the mechanical parameters and additionally improved the barrier properties of the tested material. Moreover, it was proved that during the e-beam radiation the chain scission and cross-linking occurred. The non-irradiated and irradiated samples were subjected to the enzymatic degradation studies performed in the presence of amylase. The results indicated that irradiation accelerated the decomposition of material, which was confirmed by the measurements of weight loss, and mass of glucose and starch released to the solution in the course of biodegradation, as well as the FTIR and thermal analysis.
How academic researchers select collaborative research projects: a choice experiment
Authors: van Rijnsoever Frank J. , Hessels Laurens K.
Published: November 2020

Although many studies have been conducted on the drivers of and barriers to research collaborations, current literature provides limited insights into the ways in which individual researchers choose to engage in different collaborative projects. Using a choice experiment, we studied the factors that drive this choice using a representative sample of 3145 researchers from Western Europe and North America who publish in English. We find that for most researchers, the expected publication of research in scientific journals deriving from a project is the most decisive factor driving their collaboration choices. Moreover, most respondents prefer to collaborate with other partners than industry. However, different factors’ influence varies across groups of researchers. These groups are characterised as going for the ‘puzzle’ (60% of the sample), the ‘ribbon’ (33%) or the ‘gold’ (8%), i.e., primarily oriented toward intellectual goals, recognition or money, respectively. This heterogeneity shows that a combination of interventions will be required for governments aiming to promote university–industry collaborations.
Globalization and populism in Europe
Authors: Bergh Andreas , Kärnä Anders
Published: November 2020

Recent micro-level studies have suggested that globalization—in particular, economic globalization and trade with China—breeds political polarization and populism. This study examines whether or not those results generalize by examining the country-level association between vote shares for European populist parties and economic globalization. Using data on vote shares for 267 right-wing and left-wing populist parties in 33 European countries during 1980–2017, and globalization data from the KOF institute, we find no evidence of a positive association between (economic or other types of) globalization and populism. EU membership is associated with a 4–6-percentage-point larger vote share for right-wing populist parties.
Lower cognitive reappraisal capacity is related to impairments in attachment and personality structure in poly-drug use: an fMRI study
Authors: Hiebler-Ragger M. , Perchtold-Stefan C. M. , Unterrainer H. F. , Fuchshuber J. , Koschutnig K. , Nausner L. , Kapfhammer H. P. , Papousek I. , Weiss E. M. , Fink A.
Published: November 2020

Insecure attachment, impaired personality structure and impaired emotion regulation figure prominently in substance use disorders. While negative emotions can trigger drug-use and relapse, cognitive reappraisal may reduce emotional strain by promoting changes in perspective. In the present study, we explored behavioral and neural correlates of cognitive reappraisal in poly-drug use disorder by testing individuals’ capability to generate cognitive reappraisals for aversive events (Reappraisal Inventiveness Test). 18 inpatients with poly-drug use disorder and 16 controls completed the Adult Attachment Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Wonderlic Personnel Test, and the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis Structure Questionnaire, as well as two versions of the Reappraisal Inventiveness Test (during fMRI and outside the lab). Compared to controls, polydrug inpatients reported impaired personality structure, attachment and emotion regulation abilities. In the Reappraisal Inventiveness Test, poly-drug inpatients were less flexible and fluent in generating reappraisals for anger-eliciting situations. Corresponding to previous brain imaging evidence, cognitive reappraisal efforts of both groups were reflected in activation of left frontal regions, particularly left superior and middle frontal gyri and left supplemental motor areas. However, no group differences in neural activation patterns emerged. This suggests that despite cognitive reappraisal impairments on a behavioral level, neural reflections of these deficits in poly-drug use disorder might be more complex.
Re-thinking the Zero Tolerance Approach to FGM/C: the Debate Around Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery
Authors: Boddy Janice
Published: November 2020

Purpose of Review

To examine the ‘zero tolerance’ policy for female genital cutting (FGM/C) in the international health community in light of the growing popularity of FGCS (female genital cosmetic surgery) worldwide.

Recent Findings

‘Traditional’ FGM/C performed in Egypt and Sudan and cosmetic labiaplasty performed in Europe, the Americas, and Antipodes by medically trained gynaecologists and plastic surgeons are based on similar aesthetic logics: labia minora that protrude beyond the labia majora are deemed ugly, masculine, and ‘abnormal’. Drawing on the burgeoning medical, social science, and humanities literature surrounding labiaplasty, the paper documents the narrowing of aesthetic standards governing ‘normal’ genital appearance and finds that, in addition to adult women, thousands of (mainly Caucasian) adolescents have undergone these operations whose long-term health consequences are unknown.

Western heteronormativity, gender binarism, ageism, and the colonial association of protruding labia minora with animality contribute to body image insecurities and fuel the labiaplasty phenomenon, despite the ethical challenge that the procedures are clearly defined by the WHO as type II (a–c) female genital mutilations.
A deep learning based wearable system for food and drink intake recognition
Authors: Ortega Anderez Dario , Lotfi Ahmad , Pourabdollah Amir
Published: November 2020

Eating difficulties and the subsequent need for eating assistance are a prevalent issue within the elderly population. Besides, a poor diet is considered a confounding factor for developing chronic diseases and functional limitations. Driven by the above issues, this paper proposes a wrist-worn tri-axial accelerometer based food and drink intake recognition system. First, an adaptive segmentation technique is employed to identify potential eating and drinking gestures from the continuous accelerometer readings. A posteriori, a study upon the use of Convolutional Neural Networks for the recognition of eating and drinking gestures is carried out. This includes the employment of three time series to image encoding frameworks, namely the signal spectrogram, the Markov Transition Field and the Gramian Angular Field, as well as the development of various multi-input multi-domain networks. The recognition of the gestures is then tackled as a 3-class classification problem (‘Eat’, ‘Drink’ and ‘Null’), where the ‘Null’ class is composed of all the irrelevant gestures included in the post-segmentation gesture set. An average per-class classification accuracy of 97.10% was achieved by the proposed system. When compared to similar work, such accurate classification performance signifies a great contribution to the field of assisted living.
The environment as seen through the life of a journal: Ambio 1972–2022
Authors: Sörlin Sverker
Published: November 2020

Emerging after World War II “the environment” as a modern concept turned in the years around 1970 into a phase of institutionalization in science, civic society, and politics. Part of this was the foundation of journals. The majority became “environmental specialist journals”, typically based in established disciplines. Some became “environmental generalist journals”, covering broad knowledge areas and often with an ambition to be policy relevant. A significant and early member of the latter category wasAmbio, founded 1972. This article presents an overview of the journal’s first 50 years, with a focus on main changes in scientific content, political context, and editorial directions. A key finding is that the journal reflects an increasing pluralization of “the environment” with concepts such as global change, climate change, Earth system science, Anthropocene, resilience, and environmental governance. Another finding is that the journal has also itself influenced developments through publishing work on new concepts and ideas.
Two New Quinazoline Derivatives from the Moss Endophytic Fungus Aspergillus sp. and Their Anti-inflammatory Activity
Authors: Wang Ning-Ning , Liu Chun-Yu , Wang Tian , Li Yue-Lan , Xu Ke , Lou Hong-Xiang
Published: November 2020

Two new quinazoline derivatives versicomides E (1) and F (2), and 10 known compounds (3–12) were isolated from the moss endophytic fungus Aspergillus sp. Their structures were determined on the basis of extensive spectroscopic data analysis and ECD calculations. Among them, the compound 7 (6-hydroxy-3-methoxyviridicatin) was first reported as a natural product. Inhibition on LPS-induced NO production in RAW 264.7 murine macrophages found that compounds 5, 7 and 8 showed significant inhibitory effects on NO production, with IC50 values of 49.85, 22.14 and 46.02 μM respectively.

Graphic Abstract
Hospitality to difference: LGBT, religious education and the Catholic school
Authors: Coll Roisín
Published: November 2020

There has been a rise in claims of LGBTI youth in schools generally across the UK with a surge in young people self-identifying. This is a ‘theme’ or ‘matter’ or ‘question’ that has been insufficiently ventilated in relation to the Catholic school. It is shrouded in inhibition, confusion, evasion or fear. Burying our heads in the sand is not helping us move forward and there is a potential political threat to the mission of Catholic schools from failing to engage. A key driver of this paper is the rapidly changing climate of opinion and activism around LGBTI experiences in schools and society. From an essentially rights based perspective, and supported by powerful equality legislation, people are campaigning vigorously through formal and informal groups for what they perceive as a redress of longstanding exclusion and discrimination. The concern in particular for LGBTI rights and recognition for under 18s has inevitably drawn schools into these national debates.  Three narratives are worthy of discussion around this theme and are inextricably linked: the legal, theological and pastoral narratives. This paper will consider these and suggest the impact that developments are having on the Catholic school sector, and in particular, the teaching of Religious education.
Investigations on PM10, PM2.5, and Their Ratio over the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Authors: Abuelgasim Abdelgadir , Farahat Ashraf
Published: November 2020

Worldwide monitoring of ambient outdoor air quality is critical for planning mitigation measures and controls for public safety. Several airborne pollutants are measured and continuously monitored by multiple government environmental agencies. Such pollutants include particulate matter (PM) levels, both PM10 and PM2.5, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, lead, and volatile organic compounds. However, scientific studies related to air pollution and the temporal variability of PM levels in the United Arab Emirates are limited. This study comprehensively analyzes the spatiotemporal variations in PM10, PM2.5, and the PM2.5/PM10 ratio over the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates during 2017–2018. The PM levels are high during April–September, peaking in July each year, likely because of intense dust and sandstorms; the same levels are low during October–March. Industrial areas have higher annual average PM10 levels (162 μg/m3) compared to urban core areas (132 μg/m3) and suburban areas (131 μg/m3). In general, the values of the PM2.5/PM10 ratio are low ranging between annual averages of 0.29 and 0.49 across the industrial, urban core, and desert/suburban areas. This is a characteristic particular to arid and semi-arid environments owing to the prevalence of high quantities of PM10 leading to a low PM2.5/PM10 ratio. In addition, this low ratio indicates that, within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, air pollution is primarily driven by natural processes related to sand particle uplift, movement, and deposition rather than by human activities.
Role of mitochondria, oxidative stress and the response to antioxidants in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: A possible approach to SARS‐CoV‐2 ‘long‐haulers’?
Authors: Wood Emily , Hall Katherine H. , Tate Warren
Published: November 2020

A significant number of SARS‐CoV‐2 (COVID‐19) pandemic patients have developed chronic symptoms lasting weeks or months which are very similar to those described for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. This study reviews the current literature and understanding of the role that mitochondria, oxidative stress and antioxidants may play in the understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment of chronic fatigue. It describes what is known about the dysfunctional pathways which can develop in mitochondria and their relationship to chronic fatigue. It also reviews what is known about oxidative stress and how this can be related to the pathophysiology of fatigue, as well as examining the potential for specific therapy directed at mitochondria for the treatment of chronic fatigue in the form of antioxidants. This study identifies areas which require urgent, further research in order to fully elucidate the clinical and therapeutic potential of these approaches.
Persian Historiography across Empires
Authors: Quinn Sholeh A.
Published: November 2020

Persian served as the primary language of historical writing over the period of the early modern Islamic empires of the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals. Historians writing under these empires read and cited each other's work, some moving from one empire to another, writing under different rival dynasties at various points in time. Emphasising the importance of looking beyond the confines of political boundaries in studying this phenomenon, Sholeh A. Quinn employs a variety of historiographical approaches to draw attention to the importance of placing these histories not only within their historical context, but also historiographical context. This first comparative study of Persian historiography from the 16th-17th centuries presents in-depth case analyses alongside a wide array of primary sources written under the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals to illustrate that Persian historiography during this era was part of an extensive universe of literary-historical writing.
Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Film
Authors: Mourenza Daniel
Published: November 2020

Walter Benjamin is today regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century. Often captured in pensive pose, his image is now that of a serious intellectual. But Benjamin was also a fan of the comedies of Adolphe Menjou, Mickey Mouse, and Charlie Chaplin. As an antidote to repressive civilization, he developed, through these figures, a theory of laughter. Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Film is the first monograph to thoroughly analyse Benjamin's film writings, contextualizing them within his oeuvre whilst also paying attention to the various films, actors, and directors that sparked his interest. The book situates all these writings with Benjamin's 'anthropological materialism', a concept that analyses the transformations of the human sensorium through technology. Through the term 'innervation', Benjamin thought of film spectatorship as an empowering reception that, through a rush of energy, would form a collective body within the audience, interpenetrating a liberated technology into the distracted spectators. Benjamin's writings on Soviet film and German cinema, Charlie Chaplin, and Mickey Mouse are analysed in relation to this posthuman constellation that Benjamin had started to dream of in the early twenties, long before he started to theorize about films.
Transformations of Identity and Society in Anglo-Saxon Essex
Authors: Mirrington Alexander D.
Published: November 2020

Transformations of Identity and Society in Anglo-Saxon Essex: A Case Study of an Early Medieval North Atlantic Community presents the results of a comprehensive archaeological study of early medieval Essex (c.AD 400–1066). This region provides an important case study for examining coastal societies of north-western Europe. Drawing on a wealth of new data, the author demonstrates the profound influence of maritime contacts on changing expressions of cultural affiliation. It is argued that this Continental orientation reflects Essex’s longterm engagement with the emergent, dynamic North Sea network. The wide chronological focus and inclusive dataset enables long-term socio-economic continuity and transformation to be revealed. These include major new insights into the construction of group identity in Essex between the 5th and 11th centuries and the identification of several previously unknown sites of exchange. The presentation also includes the first full archaeological study of Essex under ‘Viking’ rule.
Fanvids
Authors: Stevens E. Charlotte
Published: November 2020

Fanvids, or vids, are short videos created in media fandom. Made from television and film sources, they are neither television episodes nor films; they resemble music videos but are non-commercial fanworks that construct creative and critical analyses of existing media. The creators of fanvids-called vidders-are predominantly women, whose vids prompt questions about media historiography and pleasures taken from screen media. Vids remake narratives for an attentive fan audience, who watch with a deep knowledge of the source text(s), or an interest in the vid form itself. Fanvids: Television, Women, and Home Media Re-Use draws on four decades of vids, produced on videotape and digitally, to argue that the vid form's creation and reception reveals a mode of engaged spectatorship that counters academic histories of media audiences and technologies. Vids offer an answer to the prevalent questions: What happens to television after it's been aired? How and by whom is it used and shared? Is it still television?
Redefining Eclecticism in Early Modern Bolognese Painting
Authors: M. Unger Daniel
Published: November 2020

Redefining Eclecticism in Early Modern Bolognese Painting. Ideology, Practice, and Criticism focuses on the unique nature of early modern Bolognese painting that found its expression in stylistic diversity. The flourishing of different stylistic approaches in the Mannerist paintings of the previous generation evolved, at the turn the seventeenth century, in the work of the Bolognese painters into an approach best described as eclecticism, characterized by the combination of two or more styles in a single work of art. Eclectism was a major innovation and major contribution to the history of art. But it then also became a critical term that suffered much negative press. The book therefore also traces the role of ecclecticism as a concept in the evolution of criticism and scholarship about the Bolognese school of painting over 250 years, showing how the dramatically vacillating attitudes towards this concept shaped the historical view of the Bolognese painters, ultimately having a tremendous dampening impact on our understanding of seventeenth-century art.
Zootechnologies
Authors: Vehlken Sebastian
Published: November 2020

Swarming has become a fundamental cultural technique related to dynamic processes and an effective metaphor for the collaborative efforts of society. This book examines the media history of swarm research and its significance to current socio-technological processes. It shows that the hype about collective intelligence is based on a reciprocal computerization of biology and biologization of computer science: After decades of painstaking biological observations in the ocean, experiments in aquariums, and mathematical model-making, it was swarms-inspired computer simulation which provided biological researchers with enduring knowledge about animal collectives. At the same time, a turn to biological principles of self-organization made it possible to adapt to unclearly delineated sets of problems and clarify the operation of opaque systems - from logistics to architecture, or from crowd control to robot collectives. As zootechnologies, swarms offer performative, synthetic, and approximate solutions in cases where analytical approaches are doomed to fail.
Digital Image and Reality
Authors: Strutt Daniel
Published: November 2020

The media technologies that surround and suffuse our everyday life profoundly affect our relation to reality. Philosophers since Plato and Aristotle have sought to understand the complex influence of apparently simple tools of expression on our understanding and experience of the world, time, space, materiality and energy. The Digital Image and Reality takes up this crucial philosophical task for our digital era. This rich yet accessible work argues that when new visual technologies arrive to represent and simulate reality, they give rise to nothing less than a radically different sensual image of the world. Through engaging with post-cinematic content and the new digital formats in which it appears, Strutt uncovers and explores how digital image-making is integral to emergent modes of metaphysical reflection - to speculative futurism, optimistic nihilism, and ethical plasticity. Ultimately, he prompts the reader to ask whether the impact of digital image processes might go even beyond our subjective consciousness of reality, towards the synthesis of objective actuality itself.
Death and Afterlife in the Pages of Gregory of Tours
Authors: E. Jones Allen
Published: November 2020

Gregory of Tours was a bishop of late antiquity who was famously devoted to promoting the efficacy of saintly powers. In his writings, both historical and hagiographical, Gregory depicted the saints and reprobates of his age. This book analyses Gregory's writings about death and the afterlife, thereby illuminating the bishop's pastoral imperative to save souls and revealing his opinions about the fates of Merovingian royals, among many others he mentions in his voluminous text. The study provides insight into Gallic peoples living at the dawning of the Middle Ages and their hopes and fears about the otherworld. It affords an original, nuanced interpretation of Gregory's motives for penning his works, particularly the Historiae, which remained unfinished upon the author's death.
Alfonso X of Castile-León
Authors: Kennedy Kirstin
Published: November 2020

Alfonso X 'the Learned' of Castile (1252–1284) was praised in his lifetime as a king who devoted himself to discovering all worldly and divine knowledge. He commissioned chronicles and law codes and composed poems to the Virgin Mary, he gathered together Jewish scholars to translate works of Arab astrology and astronomy, and he founded a university of Latin and Arabic studies at Seville. Moreover, according to his nephew Juan Manuel, Alfonso was careful to ensure that 'he had leisure to look into things he wanted for himself'. The level of his personal involvement in this literary activity marks him out as an exceptional patron in any period. However, Alfonso's relationship with the arts also had much in common with that of other thirteenth-century European royal patrons, among them his first cousin, Louis IX of France. Like his contemporaries, he relentlessly used literary works as a vehicle to promote his royal status and advance his claim to the imperial crown. His motivation for the foundation of the university at Seville was arguably political rather than educational, and instead of promoting institutional learning during his reign, Alfonso preferred to direct the messages about his kingship in the lavish manuscripts he patronized to a restricted, courtly audience. Yet such was the interest of the works he commissioned, that those who could obtain copies did so, even if these were still incomplete drafts. Three codices traditionally held to have been copied for Alfonso in fact show how this learning reserved for the few began to filter out beyond the Learned King's immediate circle.
Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language
Authors: Facchin Andrea
Published: November 2020

Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language concentrates on the origins, developments and current directions of the discipline Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) within the Arab world and partially outside of it during the last 60 years, namely between 1958 and 2018. Considered in this volume are the most influential scholars, authors, educators and those significant works that have contributed to the development of the discipline. In addition, special attention is paid to the TAFL institutes, regarded as epicenters of TAFL activities and important meetings, that allow scholars to gather around the same table and discuss approaches, trends and methods used in the field. All of these aspects converge in one comprehensive study which is enriched by a narration of the main sociopolitical changes that have affected the Middle East in latter-day history.
Buddhist Responses to Christianity in Postwar Taiwan
Authors: Pacey Scott
Published: November 2020

After the Communist victory in China's civil war, Taiwan, then governed by the KMT (or Nationalist Party), became a focal point for both Buddhist and Christian activity in the Chinese world. Focusing on some of the most influential monastics of the time, this study considers Buddhist responses to Christianity during its subsequent period of growth on the island. Drawing on Buddhist and Christian publications, it shows that interfaith competition, and political context, are important in shaping religious identity and driving the religious engagement with modernity. Buddhist Responses to Christianity in Postwar Taiwan: Awakening the World will be of interest to historians of Buddhism, Chinese religion and Taiwanese society, and to those with an interest in interfaith dialogue more generally.
Unani Medicine in the Making
Authors: Schmidt-Stiedenroth Kira
Published: November 2020

In Unani Medicine in the Making, Kira Schmidt Stiedenroth examines the contemporary institutions and practices of Graeco-Islamic healing in India. Drawing on interviews with practitioners, clinical observations, and Urdu sources, the book focuses on Unani's multiplicity, scrutinizing apparent tensions between the understanding of Unani as a system of medicine and its multiple enactments as Islamic medicine, medical science, or alternative medicine. Ethnographic details provide vivid descriptions of the current practices of Unani in India and invite readers to rethink the idea that humoral medicine is incommensurable with modern science. Ultimately, the book also discusses the relationship of Unani with Muslim communities, examining the growing practice of Prophetic Medicine in Urban India and the increasing representation of Unani as Islamic Medicine.
German Post-Socialist Memory Culture
Authors: Bouma Amieke
Published: November 2020

After German unification, former officers of the GDR state security service united with GDR professors and cultural managers to establish the East German Committee of Associations (OKV). On the basis of encompassing oral history into this complex web of interest organizations and memory clubs, Bouma argues that these activists are driven by an epistemic nostalgia: a longing for the time when their political understanding of the world was seemingly unchallenged. Far from constituting a ‘second life of the Stasi’, the main goal of OKV associations has been to validate the personal biographies of their activists, against the now prevalent view that the GDR was a ‘state of injustice’. While the OKV quickly adapted to the new legal procedures in post-socialist Germany, their staunch defence of the GDR heritage complicates their relation to SED successor party Die Linke and other radical left parties and associations, even when they share practical goals.
Inventing Cinema
Authors: Turquety Benoît
Published: November 2020

With machines mediating most of our cultural practices, and innovations, obsolescence and revivals constantly transforming our relation with images and sounds, media feel more unstable than ever. But was there ever a ‘stable’ moment in media history? Inventing Cinema proposes to approach this question through an archaeology and epistemology of media machines. The archaeology analyses them as archives of users’ gestures, as well as of modes of perception. The epistemology reconstructs the problems that the machines’ designers and users have strived to solve, and the network of concepts they have elaborated to understand these problems. Drawing on the philosophy of technology and anthropology, Inventing Cinema argues that networks of gestures, problems, perception and concepts are inscribed in vision machines, from the camera obscura to the stereoscope, the Cinématographe, and digital cinema. The invention of cinema is ultimately seen as an ongoing process irreducible to a single moment in history.
Transoceanic Animals as Spectacle in Early Modern Spain
Authors: Beusterien John
Published: November 2020

Animal spectacles are vital to a holistic appreciation of Spanish culture. In Transoceanic Animals as Spectacle in Early Modern Spain, Beusterien christens five previously unnamed animals, each of whom was a protagonist in a spectacle: Abada, the rhinoceros; Hawa'i, the elephant; Fuleco, the armadillo; Jarama, the bull; and Maghreb, the lion. In presenting and analyzing their stories, Beusterien enriches our understanding of the role of animals in the development of commercial theater in Spain and the modern bullfight. He also contributes to growing scholarly conversations on the importance of Spain in the history of science by examining how animal spectacles had profound repercussions on the emergence of the modern zoo and natural history museum. Combining scholarly content analysis and pedagogical sagacity, the book has a broad appeal for scholars of the early modern Spanish empire, animal studies scholars, and secondary and post-secondary instructors looking for engaging exercises and information for their Spanish language, culture, and history students.