bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Singular pole and enhanced sensitivity of PT-symmetric layered structure with resonators
Authors: Ma Rong-kun , Xia Jing , Fang Yun-tuan
Published: November 2018

In order to achieve enhanced transmittance of parity-time (PT)-symmetric system, we design a layered PT-symmetric structure including resonators. We use the scatter matrix method to study the optical properties of the designed structure under the modulation of resonators. The structure system takes on a singular pole effect, i.e., the huge reflectance and transmittance occur at a special wavelength and period number. The field distribution reveals that the singular pole results from the coupling resonance of single cavity and the whole structure. Because of the coupling resonance, the total gain in layer A is much larger than the total loss in layer C. The reflectance and transmittance at the singular pole take on a high sensitivity on the refraction index of the resonators.
The impact of the reinforcement percentage on the stress-strain state of the bending steel fiber reinforced concrete elements
Authors: Andriichuk Oleksandr , Babich Volodymyr , Yasyuk Ivan , Uzhehov Serhii
Published: November 2018

The use of concrete with traditional reinforcement pose the problem of finding ways to increase the crack resistance, impact strength, frost resistance and other characteristics, which in turn depend on the strength properties of the material. One of the solution is the use of dispersion reinforced concrete steel fiber concrete (with short steel fibers of 30-50mm). The combination of rigid fibers with significant strength reserves and the concrete could increase the crack resistance of the matrix and other strength characteristics. The paper presents the results of theoretical studies of the reinforcement percentage effect on the stress-strain state of the rectangular cross-section elements of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) in bending from at repeated loads with levels of application η = 0.5 and η = 0.7 . It is found that the limit deformations of the SFRC cross-section in bending is recommended to calculate using a polynomial function, which gives the greatest convergence between the true values and approximations in comparison with the logarithmic and exponential functions.
Estimation of the composition of the forced and free vibrations of the casing of the steel rope roof of Ukraine Cinema & Concert Hall located in Kharkov over the area of main line tunnel of working metropolitan railway
Authors: Shmukler Valeriy , Zhylyakov Valeriy , Shapovalov Oleksandr
Published: November 2018

The paper discusses issues related to the dynamic parameters of the metro train influence on the building construction of Ukraine Cinema & Concert Hall complicated in terms of construction located in Kharkiv City. The hall roof is of peculiar complexity made in the shape of hyperbolic paraboloid hung to the cable roof system and supported by the inclining reinforced concrete arches. Using the equipment by DIAMEX 2000 LLC we have measured vertical and horizontal forced vibrations in the most relevant points of the casing. Natural vibrations were defined by creating dynamic impact of the falling load weighing 10 kg from a height og 2 m. The vibration parameter measurement was carried out by means of Ahat-M vibration analyzer. As a result we have obtained amplitude-frequency characteristics of the forced vibrations caused by metro train movements. The frequency of base and obertones is within 30-50 Hz. At the same time, vibration amplitudes is up 200-350 pm. Specific range of vibrations leads to the occurrence of the for framing roof framing (concrete and steel strand guy ropes), noise penetrating into the hall significantly worsens operating characteristics for the spectators. A special calculation of guy rope element taking into account fatigue factors has been made.
Increase of fire resistance of coating wood with adding mineral fillers
Authors: Tsapko Yuriy , Kyrycyok Volodymyr , Tsapko Aleksii , Bondarenko Olga , Guzii Sergii
Published: November 2018

The article covers all the stages of the process of fire protection: as the separation of gases, heat transfer, the swelling of the coating, which is formed during by the action of fire. To determine the fire protection efficiency in the coatings developed, studies have been carried out on determining the combustibility of wood in terms of mass loss and increase in the temperature of flue gases, and it has been established that mass loss of coated wood does not exceed 3% and the temperature does not exceed 160°C. The results of the determination of the protection efficiency for the system have shown that under the influence of the high-temperature flame of burning of the material and the loss of the mass of the coating is reduced due to the formation of high-temperature compounds, while the time to reach the limiting temperature increases. Studies on determining the quality of fire protection wood treatment by coating showed that the rate of cooking for a rough sample of wood was more than 2 mm/min, for fire-proof samples - did not exceed 0.5 mm/min, which makes it possible to conclude that it is advisable to use them.
Optimization of the truss beam. Verification of the calculation results
Authors: Vatulia Glib , Komagorova Sophia , Pavliuchenkov Mykhailo
Published: November 2018

The article presents a comparison of results of optimized calculation of a truss beam which was chosen as a combined construction. The results of calculation of a beam are compared using the method based on the properties of spacer systems and the calculation of the construction designed in LIRA software complex. The article is dedicated to verification of adequacy of the results of theoretical calculations of construction optimization. Values of longitudinal forces and bending moments appearing in a truss beam are chosen as convergence criteria. Two variants of construction loading are considered: a truss beam exposed to constant load only and a truss beam exposed to constant and temporary load. In the case under consideration, the minimum value (weight) of construction is an optimality criteria, variable parameters include beam panel length and camber height of a trussing rod. As a result, the construction will be considered optimal, if bearing and maximal (between the pillars) bending moments are equal in it. The result of verification of the obtained data is the value of error.
Study of influence of the alkaline component on the physico-mechanical properties of the low clinker and clinkerless waterproof compositions
Authors: Savchuk Yuliya , Plugin Andrii , Lyuty Vitalii , Pluhin Oleksii , Borziak Olga
Published: November 2018

The influence of the alkaline component on the physico-mechanical properties and the structure of the clinkerless waterproof composition on the basis of Kryvyi Rih blast furnace slag and an alkaline component – sodium hydroxide – have been investigated. High and very high correlation between the compressive strength f of the composition and the alkali – sodium hydroxide – strength A/S has been established. The dependence f on A/S has an extreme wave-like pattern with maxima at A/S = 1.5% and 15-20%, which is explained by the formation of one and two series of hydration products between slag particles similarly to Portland cement-based compositions. It has been established that the hydration products of the composition are predominantly gel-like one, such as hydrosilicate gel and zeolite-like sodium calcium hydroalumosilicates; fewer crystalline hydration products include prismatic and needle-like crystals of complex salts of aluminate phases. The pore size in the composition structure mostly does not exceed 2 microns, although single pores up to 10 microns in size also occur.
Finite element method simulations of various cases of crash tests with N2/W4/A steel road barrier
Authors: Burzyński Stanisław , Chróścielewski Jacek , Pachocki Łukasz
Published: November 2018

The subject of this study is performance of N2/W4/A steel road safety barrier investigated in numerical simulations. System was checked under several types of initial conditions, which were assumed basing on the TB11 and TB32 normative crash tests. The main goal of present study is to investigate the relationship between initial conditions (angle and velocity) of the impact and the severity indices (associated to the vehicle occupant) during the collision. Obtained performance parameters and impact severity indexes may be considered reasonable. Results of the simulations facilitates the deep insight into vehicle crash mechanics phenomena.
Numerical simulation of the influence of the selected factors on the performance of a concrete road barrier H2/W5/B
Authors: Pachocki Łukasz , Wilde Krzysztof
Published: November 2018

This paper discuss the influence of selected factors on the performance of a concrete road barrier H2/W5/B. Modelling techniques of a concrete road safety system were briefly discussed. Comparison to the full scale crash test results has been shown. The concrete road safety barrier has been investigated for evaluation of the overall damage after collision under various initial conditions. The failure assessment criterion has been proposed and it was derived from a qualitative comparison of the numerical results with the full scale crash test data. Impact severity indexes have been calculated and discussed.
Bike-sharing as a possibility to support Vision Zero
Authors: Turoń Katarzyna , Sierpiński Grzegorz
Published: November 2018

Cyclists as unprotected road users are one of the most vulnerable groups of travelers. In order to improve their safety, various activities are carried out. Interested results are presented in Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) report - Report 12-54: Bike-sharing and Bicycle Safety from 2016. It points out that there are no fatalities among users of city bike sharing systems in the United States. Due to the growing interest in systems in Poland, authors focused on the analysis of aspects related to the safety of their use. The paper presents factors that affect the road traffic safety of bike-sharing users. Authors referred to international practices used in cities bike-sharing systems and presented bike-sharing systems as an opportunity to support the implementation of Vision Zero.
Identification of safety hazards and their sources in tram transport
Authors: Szmagliński Jacek , Grulkowski Sławomir , Birr Krystian
Published: November 2018

Both in Poland and in most countries of the European Union, the tram infrastructure is extensively expanding. Contemporary low-floor trams are constructed according to different technical assumptions than typical railway vehicles or high floor trams. In Poland such vehicles rides often on lines designed according to standards developed to the classical vehicles. At the same time, the intensity of road traffic and the number of people using cycling are increasing in cities, which causes into a greater number of dangerous situations at the contact points between various modes of transport. The scope of this article is the analysis of safety hazards in tram transportation and indication of methods for their reduction. It will be a specific analysis of the risk occurring in tram transport. The article presents a division and description of factors that pose a safety hazard to tram traffic. Threats were divided due to the reason for its occuring and due to its effects. The reasons were divided into Human Factor – Vehicle – Road – Traffic - Surroundings. Based on the analysis conducted on the tram network in Gdańsk and on the used rolling stock, the main safety hazards of tram traffic were identified.
Efficient spin injection into graphene through trilayer hBN tunnel barriers
Authors: Leutenantsmeyer Johannes Christian , Ingla-Aynés Josep , Gurram Mallikarjuna , van Wees Bart J.
Published: November 2018

We characterize the spin injection into bilayer graphene fully encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) including a trilayer (3L) hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) tunnel barrier. As a function of the DC bias, the differential spin injection polarization is found to rise to −60% at −250 mV DC bias voltage. We measure a DC spin polarization of ∼50%, 30% higher compared to 2L-hBN. The large polarization is confirmed by local, two terminal spin transport measurements up to room temperature. We observe comparable differential spin injection efficiencies from Co/2L-hBN and Co/3L-hBN into graphene and conclude that the possible exchange interaction between cobalt and graphene is likely not the origin of the bias dependence. Furthermore, our results show that local gating arising from the applied DC bias is not responsible for the DC bias dependence. Carrier density dependent measurements of the spin injection efficiency are discussed, where we find no significant modulation of the differential spin injection polarization. We also address the bias dependence of the injection of in-plane and out-of-plane spins and conclude that the spin injection polarization is isotropic and does not depend on the applied bias.
Microscopic nature of the asymmetric hysteresis in the insulator-metal transition of VO2 revealed by spectroscopic ellipsometry
Authors: Voloshenko Ievgen , Kuhl Florian , Gompf Bruno , Polity Angelika , Schnoering Gabriel , Berrier Audrey , Dressel Martin
Published: November 2018

Systematic spectroscopic ellipsometry investigations have been performed in order to elucidate the asymmetric insulator-to-metal transition in thin VO2 films. The comprehensive analysis of the obtained macroscopic optical response yields a hysteretic behavior, and in particular its asymmetry, when performed in the framework of an anisotropic effective medium approximation taking into account the volume fraction of the metal inclusions as well as their shape. We reveal the microscopic details of the percolation transition, namely that the shape of the metal inclusions goes through several plateaus, as seen in the evolution of the shape factor on both sides of the transition region and resulting in different critical volume fractions at the transition for the heating and cooling cycles.
Note: Complementary approach for radiation dosimetry with Ag+-activated phosphate glass
Authors: Kodaira Satoshi , Yanagida Yuka , Koguchi Yasuhiro , Kawashima Hajime , Kitamura Hisashi , Kurano Mieko , Ogura Koichi
Published: November 2018

Silver ion-activated phosphate glass (Ag+-glass) has a good potential for application to radiation dosimetry in various radiation fields due to its multifunctional properties as a detector. The Ag+-glass provides three independent signals of radiophotoluminescence, optical absorption, and nuclear track. The combination of these signals allows the dynamic range of the measured dose (10 μGy–10 kGy) and linear energy transfer (<10 keV/μm and >1 MeV/μm) to be widened.
Protein phosphatases in the regulation of mitosis
Authors: Nilsson Jakob
Published: November 2018

The accurate segregation of genetic material to daughter cells during mitosis depends on the precise coordination and regulation of hundreds of proteins by dynamic phosphorylation. Mitotic kinases are major regulators of protein function, but equally important are protein phosphatases that balance their actions, their coordinated activity being essential for accurate chromosome segregation. Phosphoprotein phosphatases (PPPs) that dephosphorylate phosphoserine and phosphothreonine residues are increasingly understood as essential regulators of mitosis. In contrast to kinases, the lack of a pronounced peptide-binding cleft on the catalytic subunit of PPPs suggests that these enzymes are unlikely to be specific. However, recent exciting insights into how mitotic PPPs recognize specific substrates have revealed that they are as specific as kinases. Furthermore, the activities of PPPs are tightly controlled at many levels to ensure that they are active only at the proper time and place. Here, I will discuss substrate selection and regulation of mitotic PPPs focusing mainly on animal cells and explore how these actions control mitosis, as well as important unanswered questions.
Spontaneous transitions of actin-bound tropomyosin toward blocked and closed states
Authors: Kiani Farooq A. , Lehman William , Fischer Stefan , Rynkiewicz Michael J.
Published: November 2018

After muscle contraction, myosin cross-bridge heads detach from thin actin filaments during relaxation. Structural and kinetic data of cross-bridge–thin filament interactions have shown that tropomyosin’s position on F-actin is biased toward the blocked or closed states when myosin detaches. It is not clear if structural linkages between tropomyosin and myosin cross-bridge heads, or tropomyosin and Ca2+-free troponin, drive the process or whether tropomyosin movement is energetically independent of myosin and troponin influence. Here we provide in silico data about tropomyosin dynamics on troponin/myosin-free F-actin indicating that tropomyosin moves from the open state toward blocked- or closed-state positions on actin. To follow transitions inherent to tropomyosin itself on F-actin, we performed MD simulations initiated from the blocked-, open-, and intermediate-state models and followed tropomyosin over the surface of F-actin in the absence of myosin and troponin. These MD simulations maintain tropomyosin in a cable-like conformation, including the tropomyosin overlap domain, while allowing tropomyosin to retain most of its motional freedom. Tropomyosin shows considerable azimuthal movement away from the open state toward the surrounds of a more energetically favorable blocked B-state position over F-actin. In contrast, little movement away from the B-state location is observed. Our results are consistent with previous predictions based on electrostatic interaction energy landscapes determined by rigid-body translocation of tropomyosin. They support the view that in the absence of myosin, i.e., when myosin cross-bridges detach from actin, the blocked- or closed-state positions of tropomyosin are energetically favored, while the open state is not.
Rich, Adrienne
Authors: Keyes Claire
Published: November 2018

Adrienne Rich has earned a place in American literature as the leading feminist poet of the 20th century. Most critics agree that she has accomplished what no woman writer has done before: to speak—in poetry—with a public voice. Although some aspects of her verse might be considered in the confessional mode, she demands that her poetry be more than a personal expression. As a result of her prose as well as her verse, she has developed a wide, international readership. A feminist trailblazer at a time when one was needed, Rich moves beyond feminism to speak her poetic truth and unabashedly allies that truth with politics. In forging her identity as poet, public intellectual, nurturer of other women, and advocate for causes, she challenges women to seek a larger, more equitable world for themselves and others.
Lardner, Ring
Authors: Hirt Jen
Published: November 2018

Ring Lardner was a sharp-witted American humorist who had an amazing ear for malapropisms, idioms, and the lively vernacular of early 20th-century Chicago and later the East Coast. Originally a sports writer for baseball, Lardner branched out to short stories in 1914, when he wrote serial fiction for the Saturday Evening Post. This job lead to him honing the authorial control that lead to him creating three original and beloved fictional characters. They were the baseball player Jack Keefe (who appeared in the Saturday Evening Post stories); later, an unnamed but sarcastic husband; and years later, Fred Gross, an inept detective. His unique, first-person stories held an air of authenticity and daring. Readers loved his work for the style and subjects that transcended the stodgy halls of refined literature, and yet intellectuals mined them for the brilliant irony and cultural criticism. Lardner developed a reputation as a complex writer whose column, nonetheless, was read weekly by the mainstream, not just the experts. Additionally, critics saw immediate value in how Lardner let himself be fascinated by the social microcosm of baseball (with minor leaguers maneuvering to rise in the ranks); he saw in it a parallel to class struggles in America. When he later became an actual Long Island neighbor of American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, he sought to capture in literature the decadence of the American lifestyle. His later work was fiercely critical of shallow attitudes, social climbing, and the tendency for business interests to undermine culture. By 1929, Lardner's rough lifestyle and utter disenchantment with America—as well as a tuberculosis diagnosis—took a toll on his creative output. He had been a binge drinker since his days as Fitzgerald's socialite neighbor. His drinking was fueled by his deep vein of disgust for his own society. His wildly comedic and witty writing belied his own weaknesses, including succumbing to the stress of being financially responsible for his family. Monetary success eventually came in 1930, when he coauthored a musical, “June Moon.” It was fleeting, however; the next years saw him produce a weekly radio column and rehash the Jack Keefe adventures in a 1933 redux of fictional baseball letters, titled Lose with a Smile. He died that year, of a heart attack, on September 25. He was forty-eight years old.
American Nature Writing
Authors: Elder John
Published: November 2018

Nature has, like love, been an essential topic for authors in every language and every literary form. The first thing to acknowledge about the term nature writing is that it conventionally refers to a distinctive category of nonfiction, not to the entire spectrum of literature about the natural world. The present survey is further restricted to American nature writing, though the genre has also developed in many other countries. The American lineage of nature writing has been especially influenced by the work of Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), who combined journal-based descriptions of the New England landscape and knowledgeable appreciation of science with lyrical prose, receptiveness to nature’s human and transcendent meanings, and a highly personal voice.

Thoreau’s own orientation to solitude, wildness, and the music of nature has also been complemented, however, and in some cases forcefully challenged, by subsequent writers focusing on urban landscapes; environmental justice; the impact of gender, class, and race on our visions of nature; environmental justice; food and agriculture; and material culture. Many literary scholars also now prefer to consider nature writing under the multi-genre and international rubric of “environmental literature.” Nevertheless, this particular form remains a vital model for integrating imaginative literature with close observation of natural phenomena. Today’s writers continue to find, with Thoreau, that books “with earth adhering to their roots” may blossom in the human spirit, revitalizing individual lives even as they also address the urgent environmental and cultural challenges we now confront.
Wilson, Edmund
Authors: Knox Melissa
Published: November 2018

Edmund Wilson defined and interpreted Modernism, exploring and using theoretical material from Freud and Marx. Revolution, Americana, literature, sexuality, art, dance, and detective novels all fell under his penetrating, skeptical, and judgmental eye. He lived to write, his most recent biographer, Lewis M. Dabney, declaring that in the case of Edmund Wilson, “biography is literary history.”
Teacher Education and Whiteness and Whiteness in Teacher Education in the United States
Authors: Matias Cheryl E. , Nishi Naomi W. , Sarcedo Geneva L.
Published: November 2018

A litany of literature exists on teacher preparation programs, known as teacher education, and whiteness, which is the historical, systematic, and structural processes that maintain the race-based superiority of white people over people of color. The theoretical frameworks of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) are used to explore whiteness and teacher education separately; whiteness within teacher education; the impact of teacher education and whiteness on white educators, educators of Color, and their students; and cautions and recommendations for teacher education and whiteness.

Although teacher education and whiteness are situated within the current US sociopolitical context, the historical colonial contexts of other countries may find parallel examples of whiteness. Within this context, the historical purposes behind teacher education and the need for quality teachers in an increasingly diverse student population are identified using transdisciplinary approaches in CRT and CWS to define and describe operations of whiteness in teacher education. Particularly, race education scholars entertain the psychoanalytic, philosophical, and sociological ruminations of race, racism, and white supremacy in society and education to understand more fully how whiteness operates within teacher education. For example, an analysis of psychological attachments found in racial identities, particularly between whiteness and Blackness, helps to fully comprehend racial dynamics between teachers, who are overwhelmingly racially identified as white, and students, who are predominantly racially identified as of Color.

Whiteness in teacher education, left intact, ultimately affects K-12 schooling and students, particularly students of Color, in ways that recycle institutionalized white supremacy in schooling practices. Acknowledging how reinforcing hegemonic whiteness in teacher education ultimately reifies institutional white supremacy in education altogether; implications and cautions as well as recommendations are offered to debunk the hegemonic whiteness that inoculates teacher education.

Note: To symbolically reverse the racial hierarchy in our research, the authors opt to use lowercase lettering for white and whiteness, and to capitalize “people of Color” to recognize it as a proper noun along with Black and Brown.
Alliances and War
Authors: Weitsman Patricia A.
Published: November 2018

Military alliances predate even the state system as a form of international cooperation, and they take on many forms. The motivations of states seeking to join, the commitment levels formalized in the alliance agreement, and degrees of institutionalization all take different forms in the literature, but these scholarly perspectives can be boiled down to a few approaches: the realist, the rationalist and formalist, the liberal or institutionalist, and finally, the constructivist arguments on alliance identities. Moreover, a common thread among the literature on military alliances is an understanding that alliances provide a wide range of services to their members, and contain more than one motivation for forming and maintaining the alliances. Given that the motivations for forming alliances are varied, especially during different threat environments, it is important to ask what the consequences are. In this vein, scholars consider two primary issues: if these alliances can fulfill their intended missions, and if there are unintended consequences which may arise and lead to undesirable results. A related issue to the study of what motivates alliances is in how well they perform in terms of cohesion. Cohesion is, roughly speaking, the capacity of an alliance to effectively carry out its goals. Finally, there are the coalitions—ad hoc multinational understandings that are forged to undertake a specific mission, and dissolve once that mission is complete. They are not wholly analytically distinct from wartime alliances, although the latter may have a greater degree of institutionalization and may predate a specific wartime operation.
Militarization, Women, and Men: Gendered Militarizations
Authors: Svedberg Erika
Published: November 2018

Militarization is commonly thought of as a process that fundamentally changes society and all types of relations in it: the formal and institutional as well as the informal and the intimate. At its most extreme, militarization results in the disappearance of civil, civilianized space, leaving the civilians with no choice but to live in symbiosis with the military and its war-making. In a militarized society, women, men and children are typically affected differently.

Since the mid-1980s, there has been a steady flow of feminist literature specifically exploring questions on gender and militarization in various disciplines, including international relations (IR), as well as men and masculinity. To uncover the ways that militarization and gender are related, several different angles need to be employed. Indeed, contemporary feminist debates show that it is not ever clear what gender actually is, or how it should be best used in a consistent way in analyses of power relations. So how can gender be thought about? As a “freestanding” social construct or as embodied? Is the gender order of male dominance and female adjustment the actual machinery that drives militarization and war? When militarization is introduced, what happens to the gendered embodiments of men and women? How are men’s and women’s bodies marked in the processes of militarization? In other words, how does militarization work to organize and categorize the bodies differently? The process of gendered militarization is often discussed using the conceptual binary of protector–protected. In short, gender is the order that imprints the masculine as “Protector” and the feminine as “Protected,” which helps to make society more easily militarized.
Consociationalism, Power Sharing, and Politics at the Center
Authors: Wolff Stefan
Published: November 2018

For more than four decades, advocates of consociationalism and their opponents have been engaged in a debate over about how to design institutions to achieve sustainable peace in divided societies. In general, existing theories acknowledge the importance and usefulness of institutional design in conflict resolution, but offer rather different prescriptions as to the most appropriate models to achieve stable conflict settlements. Three such theories are of particular significance: power sharing in the form of its liberal consociational variant, centripetalism, and power dividing. Consociationalism, centripetalism, and power dividing offer a range of distinct prescriptions on how to ensure that differences of identity do not translate into violence. They often go beyond “politics at the center” and also provide arguments on territorial dimensions of ethnic conflict settlement. Practitioners of conflict resolution recognize the need to combine a range of different mechanisms, giving rise to an emerging practice of conflict settlement known as “complex power sharing.” None of the three theories of conflict resolution fully captures this current practice of complex power sharing, even as liberal consociationalism appears to be the most open to incorporation of elements of centripetalism and power dividing. A theory of complex power sharing would need to explain why there is empirical support for a greater mix of institutions than existing theories recommend.
Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Survival
Authors: Day Priscilla A.
Published: November 2018

Indigenous people across the globe are struggling for the cultural survival of their families and communities. This article provides an overview of indigenous people across the world and some of the many challenges they face to keep their cultures alive and strong. Indigenous peoples live throughout the world and share many common characteristics, which are described in detail in the article. Historical and contemporary challenges affecting cultural survival are provided, including accounts of the history of colonization and some of its lasting impacts on indigenous people and their cultures. Bolivia is highlighted as a country that has embraced the “living well” concept. The article closes by encouraging people to learn about and become allies with indigenous people because, ultimately, we are all impacted by the same threats.
Roles of Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex and Anterior Cingulate in Subjective Valuation of Prospective Effort
Authors: Hogan Patrick S , Galaro Joseph K , Chib Vikram S
Published: November 2018

The perceived effort level of an action shapes everyday decisions. Despite the importance of these perceptions for decision-making, the behavioral and neural representations of the subjective cost of effort are not well understood. While a number of studies have implicated anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in decisions about effort/reward trade-offs, none have experimentally isolated effort valuation from reward and choice difficulty, a function that is commonly ascribed to this region. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to monitor brain activity while human participants engaged in uncertain choices for prospective physical effort. Our task was designed to examine effort-based decision-making in the absence of reward and separated from choice difficulty—allowing us to investigate the brain’s role in effort valuation, independent of these other factors. Participants exhibited subjectivity in their decision-making, displaying increased sensitivity to changes in subjective effort as objective effort levels increased. Analysis of blood-oxygenation-level dependent activity revealed that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) encoded the subjective valuation of prospective effort, and ACC activity was best described by choice difficulty. These results provide insight into the processes responsible for decision-making regarding effort, partly dissociating the roles of vmPFC and ACC in prospective valuation of effort and choice difficulty.
High Prevalence of Active and Latent Tuberculosis in Children and Adolescents in Tibetan Schools in India: The Zero TB Kids Initiative in Tibetan Refugee Children
Authors: Dorjee Kunchok , Topgyal Sonam , Dorjee Chungdak , Tsundue Tenzin , Namdol Tenzin , Tsewang Tenzin , Nangsel Tenzin , Lhadon Dekyi , Choetso Tsering , Dawa Tenzin , Phentok Tenzin , DeLuca Andrea N , Tsering Lobsang , Phunkyi Dawa , Sadutshang Tsetan D , J Bonomo Elizabeth , Paster Zorba , Chaisson Richard E
Published: November 2018

Background

Tuberculosis (TB) prevalence is high among Tibetan refugees in India, with almost half of cases occurring in congregate facilities, including schools. A comprehensive program of TB case finding and treatment of TB infection (TBI) was undertaken in schools for Tibetan refugee children.

Methods

Schoolchildren and staff in Tibetan schools in Himachal Pradesh, India, were screened for TB with an algorithm using symptoms, chest radiography, molecular diagnostics, and tuberculin skin testing. Individuals with active TB were treated and those with TBI were offered isoniazid-rifampicin preventive therapy for 3 months.

Results

From April 2017 to March 2018, we screened 5391 schoolchildren (median age, 13 years) and 786 staff in 11 Tibetan schools. Forty-six TB cases, including 1 with multidrug resistance, were found in schoolchildren, for a prevalence of 853 per 100 000. Extensively drug-resistant TB was diagnosed in 1 staff member. The majority of cases (66%) were subclinical. TBI was detected in 930 of 5234 (18%) schoolchildren and 334 of 634 (53%) staff who completed testing. Children in boarding schools had a higher prevalence of TBI than children in day schools (915/5020 [18%] vs 15/371 [4%]; P < .01). Preventive therapy was provided to 799 of 888 (90%) schoolchildren and 101 of 332 (30%) staff with TBI; 857 (95%) people successfully completed therapy.

Conclusions

TB prevalence is extremely high among Tibetan schoolchildren. Effective active case finding and a high uptake and completion of preventive therapy for children were achieved. With leadership and community mobilization, TB control is implementable on a population level.
Competing for hours: unstable work schedules and underemployment among hourly workers in Canada
Authors: McCrate Elaine , Lambert Susan J , Henly Julia R
Published: November 2018

This paper investigates the relationship between schedule instability and underemployment among hourly employees. The value to employers of specific hours of work often varies over short intervals, motivating variable scheduling and incomplete contracts that do not specify hours or availability. When employers offer variable weekly total hours, competition for scarce hours motivates employees to be available for work over a broader range of times. Workers may consequently be rewarded with more hours, but they garner fewer hours than their counterparts with stable hours. Cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey demonstrates that underemployment is significantly more likely among hourly workers on unstable schedules. Longitudinal analysis indicates that even among the initially underemployed, who are strongly motivated to increase their availability, switching into an unstable schedule results in significantly fewer hours, providing evidence of employer-driven constraints on hours. There is no evidence of compensating differentials for unstable schedules.
Repatriation Taxes and Foreign Cash Holdings: The Impact of Anticipated Tax Reform
Authors: De Simone Lisa , Piotroski Joseph D , Tomy Rimmy E
Published: November 2018

We examine whether an anticipated reduction in future repatriation taxes affects the amount of cash U.S. multinationals hold overseas. We find that the expected benefits of a repatriation tax reduction are positively associated with accelerated accumulations of global cash holdings once Congress proposed legislation. Additional tests examining domestic and foreign corporations, voluntary disclosures of foreign cash, and corporate payout behavior support our conclusion that observed increases in excess global cash are driven by changes in foreign cash. We also document that U.S. multinationals accumulating excess cash engage in complementary organizational and financial reporting activities designed to maximize expected tax benefits.

Received December 7, 2017; editorial decision August 18, 2018 by Editor Andrew Karolyi.
Anakinra for the treatment of acute gout flares: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, active-comparator, non-inferiority trial
Authors: Janssen Carly A , Oude Voshaar Martijn A H , Vonkeman Harald E , Jansen Tim L Th. A , Janssen Matthijs , Kok Marc R , Radovits Bea , van Durme Caroline , Baan Hetty , van de Laar Mart A F J
Published: November 2018

Objectives

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of anakinra in treating acute gout flares in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, active comparator, non-inferiority (NI) trial.

Methods

Patients with a crystal-proven acute gout flare were randomized (1: 1) to treatment with anakinra or treatment as usual (free choice: either colchicine, naproxen or prednisone). The primary end point was the change in pain between baseline and the averaged pain score on days 2–4 measured on a five-point rating scale. NI of anakinra would be established if the upper bound of the 95% CI of the numeric difference in changed pain scores between treatment groups did not exceed the NI limit of 0.4 in favour of treatment as usual, in the per-protocol (PP) and intention-to-treat (ITT) populations, assessed in an analysis of covariance model. Secondary outcomes included safety assessments, improvement in pain, swelling, tenderness and treatment response after 5 days, assessed using linear mixed models and binary logistic regression models.

Results

Forty-three patients received anakinra and 45 treatment as usual. Anakinra was non-inferior (mean difference; 95% CI) to treatment as usual in both the PP (–0.13; –0.44, 0.18) and ITT (–0.18; –0.44, 0.08) populations. No unexpected or uncommon (serious) adverse events were observed in either treatment arm. Analyses of secondary outcomes showed that patients in both groups reported similar significant reductions in their gout symptoms.

Conclusion

Efficacy of anakinra was shown to be non-inferior to treatment as usual for the treatment of acute gout flares, suggesting that anakinra is an effective treatment alternative for acute gout flares.

Trial registration

Het Nederlands Trial Register, www.trialregister.nl, NTR5234
Why the long face? Static allometry in the sexually dimorphic phenotypes of Neotropical electric fishes
Authors: Evans Kory M , Bernt Maxwell J , Kolmann Matthew A , Ford Kassandra L , Albert James S
Published: November 2018

The evolution of sexually dimorphic traits is thought to have marked effects on underlying patterns of static allometry. These traits can negatively affect organismal survivability by creating trade-offs between trait size and performance. Here we use three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to study the static allometry of two species of sexually dimorphic electric fishes (Apteronotus rostratus and Compsaraia samueli) in which mature males grow elongate jaws used in agonistic male–male interactions. We also estimate jaw-closing performance between the sexes of both species to track changes in kinematic transmission associated with the development of sexual weaponry. We find significantly different patterns of static allometry between the sexes of both species, with males exhibiting more positive allometric slopes relative to females. We also find a negative relationship between skull shape and mandibular kinematic transmission in C. samueli, suggesting a trade-off where males with longer faces exhibit lower mechanical advantages, suggesting weaker jaw leverage. In contrast, males and females of A. rostratus exhibit no difference between sexes in mechanical advantage associated with facial elongation.
Swimming Against the Tide: Challenges in Pursuing Health Equity Today
Authors: Braveman Paula A.
Published: November 2018

The term “health equity” has moved from obscurity to the mainstream, creating new possibilities for those who aspire to a world in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be healthy. One can now talk explicitly about health equity. The newfound acceptance, however, carries a risk: loss of meaning. Recognizing the need for a common understanding of the core concepts, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has promoted a definition that prioritizes being sufficiently concrete to guide action. Lack of conceptual clarity is, unfortunately, not the only challenge in pursuing health equity. Another challenge is the lack of respect for fundamental ethical and human rights principles—cornerstones of health equity—displayed almost daily by those in positions of power, including the president; this lack of commitment to fundamental values has an insidiously toxic effect because many people assume that presidential views must be legitimate. Yet another challenge is lack of imagination. Pursuing health equity inevitably requires swimming against the tide of prevailing forces that exclude, marginalize, or otherwise disadvantage groups of people based on their skin color, wealth, gender, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or other characteristics tightly linked with social advantage. To persist in swimming against the tide, the end goal and the reason for pursuing it must be very strong and very clear. Academic medicine can play an important role as a powerful force in setting norms and shaping the values and attitudes of medical students, attending physicians, and research faculty.
Poor Sleep Quality in Patients With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis at the Time of Diagnosis
Authors: Diaz-Abad Montserrat , Buczyner Jennifer R. , Venza Brigit R. , Scharf Steven M. , Kwan Justin Y. , Lubinski Brooke , Russell James W.
Published: November 2018

Objectives:

Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have poor sleep quality, but little is known about which factors affect sleep at time of diagnosis.

Methods:

Patients with newly diagnosed ALS were administered the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory–Revised, and ALS Functional Rating Scale and were compared with controls.

Results:

Forty-three patients, age 63.8 ± 11.5 years, ALS Functional Rating Scale 30.7 ± 5.0. Poor sleep quality was frequent: 27 (63%) patients had PSQI >5 compared with 16 (37%) controls (P = 0.031); with higher PSQI (7.1 ± 4.1 vs. 4.7 ± 2.8, P = 0.003). PSQI correlated with Beck Depression Inventory–Revised (r = 0.344, P = 0.024) and inability to turn in bed (r = −0.335, P = 0.033).

Conclusions:

Patients with newly diagnosed ALS have poor sleep quality, which is associated with depression and difficulty turning in bed. Longitudinal studies to examine the evolution of sleep quality and the effectiveness of individualized interventions are needed in patients with ALS.
The Case–Crossover Design for Drug–Drug Interactions
Authors: Bykov Katsiaryna , Mittleman Murray A. , Glynn Robert J. , Schneeweiss Sebastian , Gagne Joshua J.
Published: November 2018

Background:

The case–crossover design may be useful for evaluating the clinical impact of drug–drug interactions in electronic healthcare data; however, experience with the design in this context is limited.

Methods:

Using US healthcare claims data (1994–2013), we evaluated two examples of interacting drugs with prior evidence of harm: (1) cytochrome P450 (CYP)3A4-metabolized statins + clarithromycin or erythromycin and rhabdomyolysis; and (2) clopidogrel + fluoxetine or fluvoxamine and ischemic events. We conducted case–crossover analyses with (1) a three-parameter model with a product term and a six-parameter saturated model that distinguished initiation order of the two drugs; and (2) with or without active comparators.

Results:

In the statin example, the three-parameter model produced estimates consistent with prior evidence with the active comparator (product term odds ratio [OR] = 2.05, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00, 4.23) and without (OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.04, 3.81). In the clopidogrel example, this model produced results opposite of expectation (OR = 0.78, 95% = 0.68, 0.89), but closer to what was observed in prior studies when active comparator was used (OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.90, 1.19). The saturated model revealed heterogeneity of estimates across strata and considerable confounding; strata with concordant clopidogrel exposure likely produced the least biased estimates.

Conclusion:

The three-parameter model assumes a common drug–drug interaction effect, whereas the saturated model is useful for identifying potential effect heterogeneity or differential confounding across strata. Restriction to certain strata or use of an active comparator may be necessary in the presence of within-person confounding.