bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Improving Augmented Human Intelligence to Distinguish Burkitt Lymphoma From Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Cases
Authors: Mohlman Jeffrey S , Leventhal Samuel D , Hansen Taft , Kohan Jessica , Pascucci Valerio , Salama Mohamed E
Published: January 2020

Objectives

To assess and improve the assistive role of a deep, densely connected convolutional neural network (CNN) to hematopathologists in differentiating histologic images of Burkitt lymphoma (BL) from diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Methods

A total of 10,818 images from BL (n = 34) and DLBCL (n = 36) cases were used to either train or apply different CNNs. Networks differed by number of training images and pixels of images, absence of color, pixel and staining augmentation, and depth of the network, among other parameters.

Results

Cases classified correctly were 17 of 18 (94%), nine with 100% of images correct by the best performing network showing a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis area under the curve 0.92 for both DLBCL and BL. The best performing CNN used all available training images, two random subcrops per image of 448 × 448 pixels, random H&E staining image augmentation, random horizontal flipping of images, random alteration of contrast, reduction on validation error plateau of 15 epochs, block size of six, batch size of 32, and depth of 22. Other networks and decreasing training images had poorer performance.

Conclusions

CNNs are promising augmented human intelligence tools for differentiating a subset of BL and DLBCL cases.
ABEMUS: platform-specific and data-informed detection of somatic SNVs in cfDNA
Authors: Casiraghi Nicola , Orlando Francesco , Ciani Yari , Xiang Jenny , Sboner Andrea , Elemento Olivier , Attard Gerhardt , Beltran Himisha , Demichelis Francesca , Romanel Alessandro
Published: January 2020

Motivation

The use of liquid biopsies for cancer patients enables the non-invasive tracking of treatment response and tumor dynamics through single or serial blood drawn tests. Next-generation sequencing assays allow for the simultaneous interrogation of extended sets of somatic single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA), a mixture of DNA molecules originating both from normal and tumor tissue cells. However, low circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) fractions together with sequencing background noise and potential tumor heterogeneity challenge the ability to confidently call SNVs.

Results

We present a computational methodology, called Adaptive Base Error Model in Ultra-deep Sequencing data (ABEMUS), which combines platform-specific genetic knowledge and empirical signal to readily detect and quantify somatic SNVs in cfDNA. We tested the capability of our method to analyze data generated using different platforms with distinct sequencing error properties and we compared ABEMUS performances with other popular SNV callers on both synthetic and real cancer patients sequencing data. Results show that ABEMUS performs better in most of the tested conditions proving its reliability in calling low variant allele frequencies somatic SNVs in low ctDNA levels plasma samples.

Availability and implementation

ABEMUS is cross-platform and can be installed as R package. The source code is maintained on Github at http://github.com/cibiobcg/abemus, and it is also available at CRAN official R repository.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
NCAM2 Regulates Dendritic and Axonal Differentiation through the Cytoskeletal Proteins MAP2 and 14-3-3
Authors: Parcerisas Antoni , Pujadas Lluís , Ortega-Gascó Alba , Perelló-Amorós Bartomeu , Viais Ricardo , Hino Keiko , Figueiro-Silva Joana , La Torre Anna , Trullás Ramón , Simó Sergi , Lüders Jens , Soriano Eduardo
Published: January 2020

Neural cell adhesion molecule 2 (NCAM2) is involved in the development and plasticity of the olfactory system. Genetic data have implicated the NCAM2 gene in neurodevelopmental disorders including Down syndrome and autism, although its role in cortical development is unknown. Here, we show that while overexpression of NCAM2 in hippocampal neurons leads to minor alterations, its downregulation severely compromises dendritic architecture, leading to an aberrant phenotype including shorter dendritic trees, retraction of dendrites, and emergence of numerous somatic neurites. Further, our data reveal alterations in the axonal tree and deficits in neuronal polarization. In vivo studies confirm the phenotype and reveal an unexpected role for NCAM2 in cortical migration. Proteomic and cell biology experiments show that NCAM2 molecules exert their functions through a protein complex with the cytoskeletal-associated proteins MAP2 and 14-3-3γ and ζ. We provide evidence that NCAM2 depletion results in destabilization of the microtubular network and reduced MAP2 signal. Our results demonstrate a role for NCAM2 in dendritic formation and maintenance, and in neural polarization and migration, through interaction of NCAM2 with microtubule-associated proteins.
Correlation Between Immunoglobulin Dose Administered and Plasma Neutralization of Streptococcal Superantigens in Patients With Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infections
Authors: Bergsten Helena , Madsen Martin Bruun , Bergey Francois , Hyldegaard Ole , Skrede Steinar , Arnell Per , Oppegaard Oddvar , Itzek Andreas , Perner Anders , Svensson Mattias , Norrby-Teglund Anna ,   INFECT Study Group, Nekludov Michael , Kjellberg Anders , Bruun Trond , Nedrebø Torbjørn , Skutlaberg Dag Harald , Babbar Anshu , RosÃ©n Anders , Martins dos Santos Vitor A P , Nekludov Michael , Kjellberg Anders , Bruun Trond , Nedrebø Torbjørn , Skutlaberg Dag Harald , Babbar Anshu , RosÃ©n Anders , Martins dos Santos Vitor A P
Published: January 2020

Analyses of plasma collected pre- and postadministration of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) from patients with group A Streptococcus necrotizing soft tissue infections demonstrated a negative correlation between IVIG dose and toxin-triggered T-cell proliferation (r = −.67, P < .0001). One 25-g IVIG dose was sufficient to yield plasma-neutralizing activity against streptococcal superantigens.

Clinical Trials Registration. NCT 01790698 and NCT02111161.
The Asylum Hump: Why Country Income Level Predicts New Asylum Seekers, But Not New Refugees
Authors: Ruhe Constantin , Martin-Shields Charles , Groß Lisa Maria
Published: January 2020

Refugee response has become an important topic in economic-development policy, but the majority of macro-level analyses do not find an association between country income level and refugee numbers. We argue that the apparent lack of association stems from using the United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ count of refugees as the dependent variable in these analyses. Refugee counts reflect processes that take place in countries of arrival. In contrast, the decision to seek asylum may be more closely linked to conditions, including income, in countries of origin. Drawing on the ‘migration-hump’ concept from economic migration, we model counts of refugees and asylum seekers from conflict-affected countries for the same time period and find that differences in the level of gross domestic product (GDP) predict new asylum applications but not new refugee numbers. We outline reasons for this statistical finding, and discuss theoretical and practical consequences for our understanding of the relationship between country income and asylum-seeking.
Photometric, kinematic, and variability study in the young open cluster NGC 1960
Authors: Joshi Y C , Maurya J , John A A , Panchal A , Joshi S , Kumar B
Published: January 2020

We present a comprehensive photometric analysis of a young open cluster NGC 1960 (= M36) along with the long-term variability study of this cluster. Based on the kinematic data of Gaia DR2, the membership probabilities of 3871 stars are ascertained in the cluster field among which 262 stars are found to be cluster members. Considering the kinematic and trigonometric measurements of the cluster members, we estimate a mean cluster parallax of 0.86 ± 0.05 mas and mean proper motions of μRA = −0.143 ± 0.008 mas yr−1 and μDec. = −3.395 ± 0.008 mas yr−1. We obtain basic parameters of the cluster such as E(B − V) = 0.24 ± 0.02 mag, log(Age/yr) = 7.44 ± 0.02, and d = 1.17 ± 0.06 kpc. The mass function slope in the cluster for the stars in the mass range of 0.72–7.32 M⊙ is found to be γ = −1.26 ± 0.19. We find that mass segregation is still taking place in the cluster which is yet to be dynamically relaxed. This work also presents first high-precision variability survey in the central 13 arcmin × 13 arcmin region of the cluster. The V-band photometric data accumulated on 43 nights over a period of more than 3 yr reveals 76 variable stars among which 72 are periodic variables. Among them, 59 are short period (P < 1 d) and 13 are long period (P > 1 d). The variable stars have V magnitudes ranging between 9.1 to 19.4 mag and periods between 41 min and 10.74 d. On the basis of their locations in the H–R diagram, periods, and characteristic light curves, 20 periodic variables belong to the cluster are classified as 2 δ-Scuti, 3 γ-Dor, 2 slowly pulsating B stars, 5 rotational variables, 2 non-pulsating B stars, and 6 as miscellaneous variables.
Direct parameter inference from global EoR signal with Bayesian statistics
Authors: Gu Junhua , Wang Jingying
Published: January 2020

In the observation of sky-averaged $\mathrm{H\, \small{I}}$ signal from Epoch of Reionization (EoR), model parameter inference can be a computation-intensive work, which makes it hard to perform a direct one-stage model parameter inference by using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling method in Bayesian framework. Instead, a two-stage inference is usually used, i.e. the parameters of some characteristic points on the EoR spectrum model are first estimated, which are then used as the input to estimate physical model parameters further. However, some previous works had noticed that this kind of method could bias results, and it could be meaningful to answer the question of whether it is feasible to perform direct one-stage MCMC sampling and obtain unbiased physical model parameter estimations. In this work, we studied this problem and confirmed the feasibility. We find that unbiased estimations to physical model parameters can be obtained with a one-stage direct MCMC sampling method. We also study the influence of some factors that should be considered in practical observations to model parameter inference. We find that a very tiny amplifier gain calibration error (10−5 relative error) with complex spectral structures can significantly bias the parameter estimation; the frequency-dependent antenna beam and geographical position can also influence the results, so that should be carefully handled.
Cosmological signatures of dark sector physics: the evolution of haloes and spin alignment
Authors: Jibrail Absem W , Elahi Pascal J , Lewis Geraint F
Published: January 2020

The standard cosmological paradigm currently lacks a detailed account of physics in the dark sector, the dark matter and energy that dominate cosmic evolution. In this paper, we consider the distinguishing factors between three alternative models – warm dark matter, quintessence, and coupled dark matter–energy – and lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) through numerical simulations of cosmological structure formation. Key halo statistics – halo spin/velocity alignment between large-scale structure and neighbouring haloes, halo formation time, and migration – were compared across cosmologies within the redshift range 0 ≤ z ≤ 2.98. We found the alignment of halo motion and spin to large-scale structures and neighbouring haloes to be similar in all cosmologies for a range of redshifts. The search was extended to low-density regions, avoiding non-linear disturbances of halo spins, yet very similar alignment trends were found between cosmologies, which are difficult to characterize and use as a probe of cosmology. We found that haloes in quintessence cosmologies form earlier than their ΛCDM counterparts. Relating this to the fact that such haloes originate in high-density regions, such findings could hold clues to distinguishing factors for the quintessence cosmology from the standard model. However, in general, halo statistics are not an accurate probe of the dark sector physics.
Gliomas display distinct sex-based differential methylation patterns based on molecular subtype
Authors: Johansen Mette L , Stetson L C , Vadmal Vachan , Waite Kristin , Berens Michael E , Connor James R , Lathia Justin , Rubin Joshua B , Barnholtz-Sloan Jill S
Published: January 2020

Background

Gliomas are the most common type of primary brain tumor and one of many cancers where males are diagnosed with greater frequency than females. However, little is known about the sex-based molecular differences in glioblastomas (GBMs) or lower grade glioma (non-GBM) subtypes. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism involved in regulating gene transcription. In glioma and other cancers, hypermethylation of specific gene promoters downregulates transcription and may have a profound effect on patient outcome. The purpose of this study was to determine if sex-based methylation differences exist in different glioma subtypes.

Methods

Molecular and clinical data from glioma patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas and grouped according to tumor grade and molecular subtype (IDH1/2 mutation and 1p/19q chromosomal deletion). Sex-specific differentially methylated probes (DMPs) were identified in each subtype and further analyzed to determine if they were part of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) or associated with differentially methylated DNA transcription regulatory binding motifs.

Results

Analysis of methylation data in 4 glioma subtypes revealed unique sets of both sex-specific DMPs and DMRs in each subtype. Motif analysis based on DMP position also identified distinct sex-based sets of DNA-binding motifs that varied according to glioma subtype. Downstream targets of 2 of the GBM-specific transcription binding sites, NFAT5 and KLF6, showed differential gene expression consistent with increased methylation mediating downregulation.

Conclusion

DNA methylation differences between males and females in 4 glioma molecular subtypes suggest an important, sex-specific role for DNA methylation in epigenetic regulation of gliomagenesis.
Predictors of radiation necrosis in long-term survivors after Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases
Authors: Siddiqui Zaid A , Squires Bryan S , Johnson Matt D , Baschnagel Andrew M , Chen Peter Y , Krauss Daniel J , Olson Ricky E , Meyer Kurt D , Grills Inga S
Published: January 2020

Background

The long-term risk of necrosis after radiosurgery for brain metastases is uncertain. We aimed to investigate incidence and predictors of radiation necrosis for individuals with more than 1 year of survival after radiosurgery for brain metastases.

Methods

Patients who had a diagnosis of brain metastases treated between December 2006 and December 2014, who had at least 1 year of survival after first radiosurgery were retrospectively reviewed. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier estimator, and the incidence of radiation necrosis was estimated with death or surgical resection as competing risks. Patient and treatment factors associated with radiation necrosis were also analyzed.

Results

A total of 198 patients with 732 lesions were analyzed. Thirty-four lesions required salvage radiosurgery and 10 required salvage surgical resection. Median follow-up was 24 months. The estimated median survival for this population was 25.4 months. The estimated per-lesion incidence of radiation necrosis at 4 years was 6.8%. Medical or surgical therapy was required for 60% of necrosis events. Tumor volume and male sex were significant factors associated with radiation necrosis. The per-lesions incidence of necrosis for patients undergoing repeat radiosurgery was 33.3% at 4 years.

Conclusions

In this large series of patients undergoing radiosurgery for brain metastases, patients continued to be at risk for radiation necrosis throughout their first 4 years of survival. Repeat radiosurgery of recurrent lesions greatly exacerbates the risk of radiation necrosis, whereas treatment of larger target volumes increases the risk modestly.
Comparative genomics reveal shared genomic changes in syngnathid fishes and signatures of genetic convergence with placental mammals
Authors: Zhang Yan-Hong , Ravi Vydianathan , Qin Geng , Dai He , Zhang Hui-Xian , Han Feng-Ming , Wang Xin , Liu Yu-Hong , Yin Jian-Ping , Huang Liang-Min , Venkatesh Byrappa , Lin Qiang
Published: January 2020

Syngnathids (seahorses, pipefishes and seadragons) exhibit an array of morphological innovations including loss of pelvic fins, a toothless tubular mouth and male pregnancy. They comprise two subfamilies: Syngnathinae and Nerophinae. Genomes of three Syngnathinae members have been analyzed previously. In this study, we have sequenced the genome of a Nerophinae member, the Manado pipefish (Microphis manadensis), which has a semi-enclosed brood pouch. Comparative genomic analysis revealed that the molecular evolutionary rate of the four syngnathids is higher than that of other teleosts. The loss of all but one P/Q-rich SCPP gene in the syngnathids suggests a role for the lost genes in dentin and enameloid formation in teleosts. Genome-wide comparison identified a set of 118 genes with parallel identical amino acid substitutions in syngnathids and placental mammals. Association of some of these genes with placental and embryonic development in mammals suggests a role for them in syngnathid pregnancy.
Religious Speech and Silence about Sexuality
Authors: Daly Thompson Katrina , Anatoli (Ivanova) Olga
Published: January 2020

This chapter explores the theme of silence about sexuality within religious communities. The discussion focuses not only on sexuality as religious taboo that necessitates silence but also on innovative ways to talk about sex while containing the taboo through uses of humor, indirect speech, vagueness, and euphemism. The authors argue that research can benefit from a closer examination of how discourse about sexuality within a religious context is often double-voiced, especially among those whose sexual practices and identifications are censored by religious dogma. The chapter explores this tension in the existing literature and then uses linguistic data to illustrate how people can use speech and silence to circumvent and transgress religious and linguistic taboos.
From Eternity to Here
Authors: Stolzenberg Nomi M.
Published: January 2020

The discourse of religious accommodation has stopped making sense and the reason it has stopped making sense is because our terminology is inherited from a tradition of political theological discourse that has been forgotten: the theology of divine accommodation. This chapter reconstructs the content of that tradition of political theology in broad strokes, arguing that the birthplace of secularism and the birthplace of liberalism both lie here. Once we recognize that, a number of doctrinal and conceptual puzzles can be solved, including how to define religion, whether to characterize secular humanism as a religion, and how broadly to construe the right to religious accommodation. It also solves the intellectual history puzzle of how Christianity came to be “terrestrialized,” paving the way for the evolution of liberal political thought. Contra the received wisdom that political theology and liberalism are intellectual and political antagonists, locating the origins of liberalism and secularism in the tradition of divine accommodation reveals conservative political theology and liberal political theory to be one and the same. It further reveals the centrality of law to the humanist tradition and the centrality of humanism to law.
Trauma, Memory, and the Law
Authors: Spaulding Norman W.
Published: January 2020

For much of the twentieth century, the connections between trauma, memory, and law have traditionally been represented as redemptive. Naming traumatic experience by recovering the memory of victims, typically privileging their first-person testimony, has been critical to the work of seeing justice done. Across the disciplines of history, psychoanalysis, law, psychology, and critical theory, a vast literature seeks to connect the testimony of traumatic memory in a metaphysically immediate way to justice and truth. In many of these accounts memory work itself—remembering, testifying—is the work of justice, just as in psychoanalysis, recovering traumatic experience, reducing it to first-person narrative, is the cure. But the valence of the trauma/memory/law circuit is complex. Law is, after all, frequently a principal source of traumatic experience, operating repressively, causing revictimization, refusing to recognize the claims of the injured, and, more ominously, providing the state opportunities for biopolitical and emergency intervention. This chapter provides a brief history of the entanglement of trauma, memory, and the law, emphasizing its links to the development of the field of psychoanalysis and to deeply gendered, physicalist assumptions about harm. The chapter also synthesizes an emerging critical literature and suggests that criticism (methodological, political, conceptual, and normative) reflects fundamentally unresolved questions about the meaning of traumatic experience—questions that both reflect and obscure profound anxieties about the challenges traumatic experience poses to assumptions about the nature of modern life. If there is a practice of justice equal to the problem of traumatic experience, it has not yet been named.
Book History
Authors: Manuwald Henrike
Published: January 2020

Book history, understood broadly as the analysis of written communication, interacts with legal studies in two main areas: first, legal rules frame the production and dissemination of books or written documents (in many cultures); second, books and written documents can act as meaningful objects within the legal sphere. This chapter focuses on the second area and shows by way of examples how taking the materiality of the book as a starting point can help to uncover cultural structures linked to the law. The chapter demonstrates the potential of this approach by focusing on a period in which books with legal contents radically changed their function: the Middle Ages in Europe, with their shift from writing down customs in the vernacular as a means of preservation to actual law books used as works of reference. As can be shown, the design of legal manuscripts played an important role in this process of codification. But not only law books are elements of the legal sphere: the chapter also outlines the function of books in legal rituals with religious implications as well as the merging of “law” and “literature” in some medieval manuscripts. Finally, the chapter draws attention to the opportunities book history offers for research into intercultural relations and into the change of legal culture in the digital age.
Police Records
Authors: Vatulescu Cristina
Published: January 2020

This chapter approaches police records as a genre that gains from being considered in its relationships with other genres of writing. In particular, we will follow its long-standing relationship to detective fiction, the novel, and biography. Going further, the chapter emphasizes the intermedia character of police records not just in our time but also throughout their existence, indeed from their very origins. This approach opens to a more inclusive media history of police files. We will start with an analysis of the seminal late nineteenth-century French manuals prescribing the writing of a police file, the famous Bertillon-method manuals. We will then track their influence following their adoption nationally and internationally, with particular attention to the politics of their adoption in the colonies. We will also touch briefly on the relationship of early policing to other disciplines, such as anthropology and statistics, before moving to a closer look at its intersections with photography and literature.
Emblems
Authors: Hayaert Valérie
Published: January 2020

The early modern tradition of the emblem book offers a fertile ground to uncover the renewal of legal ethics during the Renaissance. Andrea Alciato was first and foremost a lawyer, and juridical themes abound in his Emblematum libellus. Later emblematists forged visible figures of norm and law, which stage and enact the rites and harmony of a living legal visual tradition. Inserted into the body of law reference texts or used as ingenious mnemonic devices, emblems played a role in the ars memorativa deployed by legal educators. In the case of Johannes Buno, visual images were designed especially to help fix the order of titles in the Digest and their contents. Emblems and symbolic places would serve as topical frameworks, headings for the reference texts, and notable visual commonplaces to highlight important issues. The emblematic quality of memory images was valuable for the jurist, who could reconstruct an entire legal text, speech, or case. The importance of emblems in transmitting law and the imaginary representation of legality was key to building a professional ethos in the humanist respublica jurisconsultorum. Emblem books provided shared judicial values, norms of conduct, and signs of office. The early history of legal emblems requires being attentive to the profound multivalence of their form and structure: their prolixity of applications and the variegated ways in which images and texts illuminate each other and provide numerous examples of making, seeing, and saying judicial ethics.
Maxims
Authors: Davis Donald R.
Published: January 2020

This chapter examines the history and use of maxims in legal traditions from several areas of the world. A comparison of legal maxims in Roman, Hindu, Jewish, and Islamic law shows that maxims function both as a basic tools for legal interpretation and as distillations of substantive legal principles applicable to many cases. Maxims are characterized by their unquestionable character, even though it is often easy to demonstrate contradictions between them. As a result, legal maxims seem linked to the recurrent desire for law to have a moral foundation. Although maxims have lost their purchase in most contemporary jurisprudence and legal practice, categories such as “canons of construction,” “legal principles,” and “super precedents” all show similarities to the brief and limited collections of maxims in older legal traditions. The search for core ideas underlying the law thus continues under different names.
Mapping Law and Performance
Authors: Peters Julie Stone
Published: January 2020

In the past decade or so, there has been a substantial body of work in law and humanities in which “performance” serves as a key word, an umbrella term for a highly diverse set of inquiries: the examination of trials as theater, courtroom testimony, improvisatory judicial interpretation, embodied cognition, “acoustic jurisprudence,” adversarial agonism, physiognomic credibility, video representation, symbolic “speech,” police encounters, terrorism, the production of legal identities, and more. This chapter explores the meaning of “performance” in such studies, and recounts the author’s attempts to map the terrain: to identify the separate kinds of inquiry that make up the study of law and performance; to offer a taxonomic overview of the whole. It describes the challenges the author encountered in attempting to do so, and what these reveal of the issues facing the study of law and performance. The last section reflects on some of the risks of interdisciplinary study generally, and the potential benefits that might accrue to law and performance if it resists becoming a “field” and remains, instead, a contingent conjunction.
Postcolonial Legal Studies
Authors: Mawani Renisa
Published: January 2020

The emergence of postcolonial studies as a distinct field of inquiry has commonly been attributed to the work of Edward W. Said, particularly his groundbreaking book, Orientalism. Since the early 1980s, Said’s insights have had a significant influence in the humanities, reshaping the fields of comparative literature, English, history, and anthropology. However, his arguments and interventions have held comparably less force in law and legal studies. Forty years after the publication of Orientalism, this chapter reconsiders to what extent Said’s work—and postcolonial studies more generally—has influenced themes, debates, and directions in law and legal studies. To do so, this chapter borrows Said’s three-part edifice—“The Scope of Orientalism”; “Orientalist Structures and Restructures”; and “Orientalism Now”—as a mode of organizing and as a method of reading the scholarship that falls under the sign of postcolonial legal studies and as a way to consider directions for further study.
Racial Ambiguity Blues
Authors: Rich Camille Gear
Published: January 2020

This chapter explores contemporary accounts of racialization, arguing that Americans are currently experiencing a period of “racial ambiguity blues.” The chapter explains that contemporary racial politics have been powerfully shaped by the emergence of a group of racially ambiguous characters offering controversial racial claims. The controversies triggered by these stories of racial ambiguity lay bare the fact that there currently are competing rules for determining an individual’s race in American society and no single model or account of racialization controls. The chapter briefly lays out the three contemporary racialization models: “so-called” biological race, physical race, and performative race. It then identifies the material and political implications of each racialization model. After noting the challenges the competing racialization models pose for sociology, the chapter highlights ways aspects of the various racialization models can be integrated, offering as an example the author’s account of “elective race.” Additionally, the chapter points to the ways in which analytic approaches from the humanities can help social science scholars craft new analyses that better account for racial ambiguity and racial fluidity. The chapter closes by identifying four new challenges on the horizon for all scholars of racialization across field.
Humanism as a Religious Orientation?
Authors: Hart William
Published: January 2020

Atheism, humanism, and naturalism are three expressions of nontheism. They are “ideal types,” abstractions from the empirical messiness of the phenomena they describe. These types represent three levels of complexity and depth. Humanism sublates atheism, that is, transforms and lifts it higher. In turn, naturalism sublates (aufheben) humanism. At its best, naturalism assumes a pragmatic form. After an arguing for a serial relationship of increasing sophistication and intensification among atheism, humanism, and naturalism, the chapter culminates with an overview of George Santayana’s pragmatic religious naturalism. The thesis of the chapter is that Santayana provides the most sophisticated and capacious account of anti-supernaturalism and nontheism as a religious orientation.
A Mighty Step: Critical Systemic Interpretation of the Learning Organization
Authors: Flood Robert Louis , Finnestrand Hanne
Published: January 2020

The systems idea is at the heart of the Learning Organization (LO). This chapter revisits the LO in the light of a revised understanding of the systems idea. It introduces the basic premises of three fundamentally different theories about the systems idea. It briefly reviews Senge’s work and the LO literature with these three theories in mind. It interprets the LO in terms of the most defensible of the three theories: Critical Systemic Thinking. It considers critical systemic practice as an alternative “Fifth Discipline Fieldbook”. This “mighty step” involves a paradigm shift and redefining relationships between: employees and management, management and consultants; and organizations, the wider human society, and the living planet.
Pegasus or Clever White Horse? In Pursuit of Real Learning Organizations
Authors: Field Laurie
Published: January 2020

This chapter reports on a search for real learning organizations. After reviewing ninety articles from the last decade that refer prominently to learning organizations, it identifies and closely scrutinizes eight potentially credible accounts. However, all eight accounts are found wanting, most commonly because of the inadequacy of the criteria used and/or because of the absence of trustworthy evidence. This leads to the conclusion that learning organizations are best treated as a Pegasus-like ideal rather than as something that really exists. Nevertheless, given the likelihood that claims about particular organizations being “learning organizations” will continue to be made, the chapter suggests ways that investigators can support such claims with more trustworthy evidence.
Measurement of the Learning Organization Construct: A Critical Perspective and Future Directions for Research
Authors: Goh Swee Chua
Published: January 2020

This chapter explores and reviews the development of survey research instruments to measure the learning organization construct. Some examples of such measures are presented and discussed to illustrate the approach used by researchers to establish the reliability and construct validity of these instruments. The contribution in the use of such measures to empirical research in linking the learning organization to outcomes such as organizational performance is also reviewed. A critical perspective is provided as to some of the potential issues for research in the use and further development of such survey instruments. Lastly, some suggested future research directions are proposed on how, using such measures, the field can advance our knowledge of the learning organization through more novel research methods and approaches.
The Potential to Nurture Small Businesses to Learning Organization Form
Authors: Wyer Peter , Bowman Shaun
Published: January 2020

In-depth consideration of the distinctiveness of small businesses vis-à-vis large companies and their often idiosyncratic approaches to learning reveals real potential for the nurturing of growth-seeking small enterprises to learning organization form. Highlighting that small enterprises are not “little big businesses,” the authors make explicit how understanding of their far-reaching qualitative as well as quantitative features and characteristics is key to effecting their sustained development. Through synthesis of perspective on distinctiveness, best practice small business learning insight, and wider thinking within the entrepreneurial small business learning literature the chapter demonstrates how many small enterprises do possess an embryonic infrastructure of an effective “business learning organization.” The authors produce a tentative conceptualization of the small business as learning organization for use as guiding frame of reference to facilitate the fostering of growth-seeking owner managed micro and small enterprises toward such organizational form.
Lattice gauge theory for the Haldane conjecture and central-branch Wilson fermion
Authors: Misumi Tatsuhiro , Tanizaki Yuya
Published: January 2020

We develop a $(1+1)$D lattice $U(1)$ gauge theory in order to define the two-flavor massless Schwinger model, and discuss its connection with the Haldane conjecture. We propose to use the central-branch Wilson fermion, which is defined by relating the mass, $m$, and the Wilson parameter, $r$, by $m+2r=0$. This setup gives two massless Dirac fermions in the continuum limit, and it turns out that no fine-tuning of $m$ is required because the extra $U(1)$ symmetry at the central branch, $U(1)_{\overline{V}}$, prohibits additive mass renormalization. Moreover, we show that the Dirac determinant is positive semi-definite and this formulation is free from the sign problem, so a Monte Carlo simulation of the path integral is possible. By identifying the symmetry at low energy, we show that this lattice model has a mixed ’t Hooft anomaly between $U(1)_{\overline{V}}$, lattice translation, and lattice rotation. We discuss its relation to the anomaly of half-integer anti-ferromagnetic spin chains, so our lattice gauge theory is suitable for numerical simulation of the Haldane conjecture. Furthermore, it gives a new and strict understanding on the parity-broken phase (Aoki phase) of the $2$D Wilson fermion.
Potential Indirect Mechanisms of Cognitive Enhancement After Long-Term Resistance Training in Older Adults
Authors: Macaulay Timothy R , Fisher Beth E , Schroeder E Todd
Published: January 2020

The prevalence of dementia and other age-associated cognitive disorders is steadily increasing worldwide. With no cure after diagnosis, successful treatment likely requires maximum adherence to preventative countermeasures. Many potential risk factors are modifiable through exercise. Specifically, mounting evidence suggests that long-term resistance training (RT) can help maintain cognitive abilities with aging and have additional benefits to overall brain health. Physical therapists are uniquely positioned to administer such clinical interventions designed to slow disease progression. However, a neuroscientific foundation for these benefits must be established to justify the integration of RT for brain health into practice. The mechanisms of cognitive decline are commonly linked to fundamental processes of aging. Even healthy older adults experience decreases in physical capacity, vascular function, brain structure and function, glucose regulation, inflammation, mood, and sleep quality. Yet, clinical trials involving RT in older adults have consistently demonstrated improvements in each of these systems with concomitant enhancement of cognitive performance. Beneficial adaptations may indirectly or directly mediate benefits to brain function, and understanding this relationship can help us develop optimal intervention strategies for the aging population.
Fluopyram Suppresses Population Densities of Heterodera glycines in Field and Greenhouse Studies in Michigan
Authors: Roth M. G. , Jacobs J. L. , Napieralski S. , Byrne A. M. , Stouffer-Hopkins A. , Warner F. , Chilvers M. I.
Published: January 2020

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines Ichinohe, causes significant damage to soybean production annually. Fluopyram is a fungicide commonly used in soybean seed treatments intended to control soilborne fungal pathogens; however, recent studies have also suggested inhibitory effects on SCN. We examined the effects of a fluopyram seed treatment, ILeVO, on SCN reproduction, sudden death syndrome (SDS) development, and yield in a 3-year field study. Overall, fluopyram had a significant effect on yield (P = 0.046) and end-of-season SCN eggs and second-stage juveniles (Pf, P = 0.033) but no significant effect on SCN reproduction (Rf) or SDS disease index (P > 0.05). Post hoc tests indicated that fluopyram increased yield and suppressed SCN quantities. However, Rf was consistently greater than 1 whether or not the seed was treated with fluopyram, indicating that SCN populations were still increasing in the presence of fluopyram. A follow-up greenhouse study indicated that fluopyram reduced SCN relative to nontreated controls, as observed in the field, but only reduced SCN DNA within roots of a susceptible cultivar. These results indicate that fluopyram can suppress SCN quantities relative to nontreated seed but may not successfully reduce nematode populations without the use of additional management strategies.
The therapeutic versatility of antihistamines
Authors: Shirley David W. , Sterrett James , Haga Neal , Durham Catherine
Published: January 2020

Antihistamines are common and readily available medications for primary care patients and those seeking over-the-counter treatments. This article provides an overview of available antihistamines, their mechanisms of action, safety concerns in specific populations, and their therapeutic uses in several common conditions.
Value-Based Health Care in Undergraduate Medical Education
Authors: Holtzman Jessica N. , Deshpande Bhushan R. , Stuart Jessica C. , Feeley Thomas W. , Witkowski Mary , Hundert Edward M. , Kasper Jennifer
Published: January 2020

Problem

Value-based health care (VBHC) is an innovative framework for redesigning care delivery to achieve better outcomes for patients and reduce cost; however, providing students with the skills to understand and engage with these topics is a challenge to medical educators.

Approach

Here, the authors present a novel, VBHC curriculum integrated into a required course for post-core clerkship students—launched in 2018 at Harvard Medical School and taught in conjunction with Harvard Business School faculty—that highlights key principles of VBHC most relevant to undergraduate medical education. The course integrates VBHC with related health disciplines, including health policy, ethics, epidemiology, and social medicine, using a case-based method. Students practice active decision making while learning key concepts to address value in clinical practice.

Outcomes

Since the course’s inception in March 2018, 95 students (87%) completed the standardized course evaluation; the majority said VBHC content and pedagogical style (i.e., case-based learning) enhanced their learning. Students’ critiques focused on too little integration with other disciplines (e.g., social medicine, ethics), the physical space, and inadequate time for debates about potential tensions between VBHC and other course disciplines.

Next Steps

The authors believe that by exposing medical students to the principles of VBHC, students will fulfill the expectations of graduating physicians by excelling as critical thinkers, collaborative team members, and judicious care providers throughout their residency, clinical practice, and beyond. Future VBHC curricula expansions may include elective coursework, intensive seminar series, and formal dual degrees.
One-year mortality rate after hip fracture in the western region of Saudi Arabia: A retrospective cohort study
Authors: Al-Hebshi Amro , Hegaze Adel , Mustafa Hesham N. , Tash Bayan , Sawan Dana , Al-Faris Khalid
Published: January 2020

Background:

The mortality rate of elderly patients who sustain a hip fracture is high compared to the general population. Identifying risk factors can help predict patients at risk of hip fracture to reduce the mortality rate. No studies have shown the mortality rate of patients with hip fractures in the western region of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the risk factors associated with the mortality of patients with hip fractures admitted to the King Abdulaziz Hospital and compare the results with other studies.

Methods:

The mortality rate (within 1 yr or less) in 177 patients over the age of 60 yr who were admitted to the university hospital between July, 2007, and September, 2012, with hip fractures was retrospectively studied. The patients were assessed with regard to gender, age, type of hip fracture, and type of surgical intervention.

Results:

The overall mortality rate 1 yr after hip fracture was 12.43%, and the mean age was 77.77 yr old. The risk factors most associated with mortality were as follows: advanced age (71 to 80 and 81 to 90 yr old), male, peritrochanteric (extracapsular) fracture, and operative fixation with dynamic hip screw.

Conclusions:

The mortality rate of patients with hip fractures within 1 yr has a high-risk potential, especially for male patients over 71 yr of age with peritrochanteric (extracapsular) fractures. Surgical treatment with dynamic hip screw also was shown to be a risk factor between the different treatment options.

Level of Evidence:

Level IV.
Variability in opioid prescribing following fracture fixation: A retrospective cohort analysis
Authors: Fithian Andrew , Nathan Karthik , Campbell Sean T. , Finlay Andrea , Bishop Julius , Gardner Michael J.
Published: January 2020

Background:

We quantified variability in opioid prescriptions for orthopaedic trauma patients at an academic level 1 trauma center and examined patient, prescriber, and injury factors associated with prescription practices.

Methods:

Patients with malleolar, diaphyseal tibia, plateau, proximal femur, and forearm fractures at a level 1 trauma center were identified retrospectively. The number of opioid pills prescribed at discharge, demographics, and prescriber (MD vs. APP) data were collected. Statistical analysis was done to compare opioid prescription with injury location, patient, and prescriber data. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to examine factors associated with opioid prescribing.

Results:

One hundred and one patients were included in the study. Discharge prescriptions had a mean of 60 oxycodone 5 mg pill equivalents (OEQ) for all patients, with a standard deviation of 33 pill equivalents and a coefficient of variation of 56%. Older patients received fewer opioids compared to younger patients (P=0.008). Patients treated for tibial plateau fractures received more opioids compared to other fractures types (76 vs. 60 pill equivalents, P=0.03). In the multivariate analysis, older age was associated with lower prescribing, whereas a tibial plateau fracture was associated with higher prescribing. Physicians were more likely to prescribe low numbers of narcotics (<10th percentile) compared to advance practice practitioners (APPs) (P=0.04).

Conclusions:

There was high variability in opioid prescribing practices after fracture fixation. Patients with plateau fractures received more opioids, while older patients received fewer. Physicians were less likely to overprescribe than APPs. This highlights opportunities for a postoperative pain protocol to minimize overprescription of opioids.

Level of Evidence:

Level IV.
A prospective assessment of adequacy of orthopaedic emergency medicine consultations: The experience at an academic level I trauma center
Authors: Kusnezov Nicholas , VanTienderen Richard J. , Prabhakar Gautham , Dunn John C. , Rensing Nicholas , Eisenstein Emmanuel D. , Abdelgawad Amr A.
Published: January 2020

Background:

This study sought to determine the diagnostic accuracy, consultation appropriateness, and effectiveness of management of orthopaedic conditions in an emergency setting.

Methods:

A prospective, blinded analysis of all orthopaedic consults by emergency medicine providers at our institutional level I trauma center was conducted between May 1, 2016 and Jun 30, 2016. Providers were blinded to eliminate Hawthorne effect bias. Direct orthopaedic transfers and general surgery trauma consults were excluded. The accuracy of the initial diagnosis, effectiveness of management by the emergency medicine physician, and ultimately, consult appropriateness were evaluated.

Results:

The emergency department received 239 consecutive consults over the 2-month period. Of these 38.5% (92/239) were inaccurate due to nonspecific consults (14.6%; 35/239), incomplete information with missed injuries (12.6%; 30/239), grossly incorrect diagnosis (11.3%; 27/239), or use of incorrect terminology (5.9%; 14/239). Inaccurate diagnoses led to a significant change in orthopaedic management in 73.9% (68/239) of patients. Of the open injuries, 30.8% (4/13) were incorrectly called “closed.” Antibiotics were not initiated prior to orthopaedic consultation for open fractures in 61.5% (8/13) of patients. Initial work-up was incomplete in 25.5% (61/239), affecting management in 44.3% (27/61) of cases; 56.9% (136/239) of consults required acute orthopaedic intervention in the emergency department setting.

Conclusions:

In this study a significant number of patients presenting to a level one trauma center referred for orthopaedic consultation by emergency medicine providers were initially misdiagnosed and suboptimally managed. This may have a significant impact on patient morbidity and mortality. Orthopaedic consultants must be vigilant and apply due diligence to ensure that emergency patients receive proper and thorough evaluation and treatment.

Level of Evidence:

Level IV.