bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Protecting Chinese Investment Under the Investor–state Dispute Settlement Regime
Authors: Wilson Claire
Published: April 2019

The case of Ping An v Kingdom of Belgium is a significant addition to investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) jurisprudence. It concerns the first mainland Chinese company to file a claim with the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and is the first known ICSID case involving the Kingdom of Belgium as a respondent. The dispute emanated from actions that were taken during the 2008 global financial crisis—therefore it is of considerable public importance. The level of protection available to Chinese investments where China has entered into successive treaties is one of the main issues to be explored in this chapter. The commentary also analyses the facts surrounding the Ping An claim and considers how the award rendered by the tribunal could affect future claims.
Authenticity and Play
Authors: Egan David
Published: April 2019

Heidegger’s account of authenticity emphasizes receptivity and responsiveness and these qualities receive even more pronounced emphasis in Wittgenstein’s appreciation of the importance of play. Wittgenstein’s investigations of language-games and scenes of teaching and learning highlight the dynamic evolution of communication and action. His account of action styles us not as agents but as players—musical or theatrical improvisation serves as a model for Wittgensteinian authenticity. The chapter also responds to the concern voiced by Rush Rhees that Wittgenstein’s emphasis on games opens the door to sophistry and it draws out the importance of the grammatical middle voice in Heidegger’s treatment of receptivity and responsiveness.
Shelleyan Reimaginings and Influence
Authors: O'Neill Michael
Published: April 2019

Through close readings, Shelleyan Reimaginings and Influence: New Relations seeks to bring out the imaginative and formal brilliance of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s writing as it explores his involvement in processes of dialogue and influence. Shelley is among the major Romantic poetic exponents and theorists of influence because of his passionately intelligent commitment to the onward dissemination of ideas and feelings and to the unpredictable ways in which poets position themselves and are culturally positioned between past and future. The book has a tripartite structure. The first three chapters seek to illuminate his response to representative texts, figures, and themes that constitute the triple pillars of his cultural inheritance: the classical world (Plato); Renaissance poetry (Spenser and Milton); and Christianity—in particular, the concept of deity and the Bible. The second and major section of the book, from Chapters 4 to 12, explores Shelley’s relations and affinities with, as well as differences from, his immediate predecessors and contemporaries: Hazlitt and Lamb; Wordsworth; Coleridge; Southey; Byron; Keats (including the influence of Dante on Shelley’s elegy for his fellow Romantic); and the great painter J. M. W. Turner, with whom he is often linked. The third section considers Shelley’s reception by later nineteenth-century writers, figures influenced by and responding to Shelley: the figures chosen are Beddoes, Hemans, Landon, Tennyson, and Swinburne. A Coda discusses the body of critical work on Shelley produced by A. C. Bradley, a figure who stands at the threshold of twentieth-century thinking about Shelley.
‘The Gleam of Those Words’
Authors: O'Neill Michael
Published: April 2019

Chapter 6 traces Shelley’s intertextual relationship with Coleridge. It points to the historical record of letters, notes, and journals in which each poet wrote his opinion of the other. For Coleridge’s part, he regretted not meeting Shelley when he had the chance, and thought he could have mentored the younger poet, whom he identifies as a man of great poetic power, in need of guidance, particularly with respect to his misguided atheism. The chapter explores the ways in which Shelley both learns from and turns away from Coleridge. It traces Shelley’s echoes of Coleridge and notes that the younger poet often acknowledges, through his poetry, shared ground with his ideological opponent. In particular, the two poets share a remarkable capacity for duality. The notion of hope and its relationship to poetic power is a recurring theme in Shelley’s poetry. Coleridge’s consideration of hope, and his understanding of how difficult it is to sustain hope, draws sympathy from Shelley and provides much ground for the younger poet’s responsiveness to Coleridge’s work. But, for Shelley, great differences abide between their approaches to poetry, thought, and the imagination. Some of Shelley’s most insightful responses to Coleridge lie in his ability to reconsider Coleridge’s expressions of religious experience as well as his account of the power of language.
Gaps and Challenges of Migration Policy Advice
Authors: Zimmermann Klaus F.
Published: April 2019

The gap between scientific insights and societal perceptions of international migration is large. It stems, at least in part, from the complexity of the matter and the fears raised by the unknown. This chapter reflects upon these issues against the background of post-World War II migration and migration policy in Germany. It argues that providing robust evidence is not enough for a policy adviser to succeed. Patience, persistent argumentation, and the propagation of successful migrant role models seem to be of key importance to influencing public debates and policy-making on migration and integration. A ‘jobs approach’ that integrates both migrants and refugees early into the labour force could make a difference. Germany, while stumbling slowly on its path, has still a chance to find a proper balance between observing humanitarian migration and following economic needs.
Naturalism in Aristotle’s Politics
Authors: Berryman Sylvia
Published: April 2019

The use of substantive appeals to human nature to justify slavery and the subordination of women, as well as to argue for the polis as the ideal form of political organization, are prominent features of Book One of Aristotle’s Politics. These appeals seem like evidence for an Archimedean ethical naturalism. I argue against this conclusion, however, on the grounds that the Politics is an early work, and does not exhibit a notion of nature that could be investigated from a value-neutral or descriptive point of view. The notion of phusis found in the Politics is out of step with that of the biological work, adhering closer to the sophistic nomos–phusis distinction, i.e. a stand-in for the notion that certain practices are legitimate and not arbitrary impositions. The chapter concludes that Politics Book One does not support the case for Archimedean naturalism.
The Case against a Naturalist Reading
Authors: Berryman Sylvia
Published: April 2019

Several features of the ethical works actively militate against an Archimedean naturalist reading, including the non-instrumental value placed on the virtues, the non-deductive nature of practical reasoning and the absence of a blueprint for living well. This chapter reaffirms the consensus that Aristotle’s account of practical reasoning is not restricted to means-end reasoning, against a recent critique, and suggest that the contemporary particularist reading of Aristotle may be overstated if it is taken to suggest that all considerations may change valency. Having set aside the reading of Aristotle as an Archimedean naturalist, the chapter turns to the reconstruction of his positive account of the sources of normativity.
“See Benezet’s Account of Africa Throughout”
Authors: Moore Sean D.
Published: April 2019

Olaudah Equiano is arguably the founder of the slave narrative, in his case one in which he explores his capture in Africa as a boy, his different masters, his conversion to evangelical Protestantism, his entrepreneurship, and his service in the navy—all requisites to being considered fully “British” at the time. This chapter explores his footnote in his Interesting Narrative acknowledging how Philadelphia Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet’s anthropology of West Africa informed his story, and how Benezet—who had never been to Africa—relied on the slavery-funded Library Company of Philadelphia, for books of travels to Africa for that anthropology. In doing so, it provides archival evidence of how Philadelphians exchanged their grain and other products for slaves and Caribbean slave plantation products. It also provides the first ever analysis of the library’s 1794–1812 circulation receipt book, showing the circulation of all the genres encapsulated in both men’s accounts.
Patients as partners and communities as carers—renewable energy
Authors: Britnell Mark
Published: April 2019

In this chapter, Mark Britnell looks at patient influence over healthcare. He analyses how healthcare providers and systems are beginning to understand the potential of helping patients to play a more active role in their own care. However, he argues that making this a reality requires overhauling the nature of the relationship between patients and staff and reskilling of both the staff and the patients. To be truly transformative, enabling patients to be partners in their own care means rethinking every step of the healthcare process, from how research is conducted to how services are designed, the offer made to patients, how decisions are taken, and how outcomes are judged. The alignment between what patients want and what is provided is often poor.
The United Kingdom—the age of austerity
Authors: Britnell Mark
Published: April 2019

In the United Kingdom, the NHS is considered the proudest achievement of modern society and continues to enjoy satisfaction ratings higher than the Royal Family. The NHS and the quality of healthcare is inextricably linked to the British national consciousness and character. Yet the United Kingdom is going through tectonic challenges and changes as we face Brexit and find our new place in the world order. Naturally, this affects the NHS and the people who work for it. While we have four similar yet distinct health systems across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the rest of this chapter concentrates solely on the English NHS. In this very current chapter, Mark Britnell illustrates the problems that the British healthcare system faces as a result of Brexit. He also looks at the NHS in relation to national identity, economic growth, and quality of care.
Spain
Authors: Moreno Luis , Colino César , Hombrado Angustias
Published: April 2019

This chapter examines Spain’s successful constitutional transition through the gradual accommodation of territories. It first explains the context that paved the way for Spain’s peaceful transition to democracy during the period 1975–79, from the Civil War of 1936–39 and the dictatorial rule of General Franco to the mobilization of opposition around left-right cleavages and several territorially based nationalist movements, the moment of constitutional transition between 1977 and 1979, and the approval of a democratic Constitution in December 1978. The chapter then describes the period of constitutional engagement from 1978 to 1983 as well as the outcomes of the 1978 Constitution, particularly with regard to its creation and institutional accommodation of seventeen regions and nationalities or “autonomous communities,” elections and decentralization that sought to address regional demands for more autonomy, and devolution. It concludes with an analysis of lessons that can be drawn from Spain’s transition from authoritarianism to democracy.
The Subtle Lives of Descriptive Names
Authors: Dickie Imogen
Published: April 2019

This paper develops a radical alternative to standard accounts of descriptive names. A ‘descriptive name’ is a singular term introduced by a stipulation of form ┌Let α refer to the Ψ┐. It is shown that—contrary to standard views—the reference-fixing mechanism for a descriptive name is not satisfactional. §1 argues for a background view of reference-fixing for ordinary language singular terms. §2 shows how this view generates a non-satisfactional account of reference-fixing for descriptive names. §3 explores the implications of the discussion in §§1–2 for the possibility of descriptively mediated singular thought. §4 argues for a new account of what speaker and hearer are committed to when the speaker makes and the hearer accepts a ┌Let α refer to the Ψ┐ stipulation.
Frege’s Begriffsschrift Theory of Identity Vindicated
Authors: Pardey Ulrich , Wehmeier Kai F.
Published: April 2019

In the Begriffsschrift, Frege held that identity is a relation between names, to wit, the relation of co-reference. The verdict of Frege scholarship on this conception of identity has not been favorable, to say the least; indeed, commentators including Alonzo Church, Michael Dummett, and Richard Heck have claimed that it is incompatible with ordinary first-order quantification. We show that these commentators are mistaken. The Begriffsschrift conception of identity is perfectly consistent with ordinary quantification over objects, and moreover generates the same consequence relation between sentences as does standard first-order logic with identity.
Towards Less Flexibility
Authors: Rosati Eleonora
Published: April 2019

This chapter maps a trend that, with increasing clarity, has been emerging at the level of case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union: on the one hand, the harmonizing force of EU copyright law—especially as interpreted by the Court—is greater than what individual EU Member States’ practices have suggested; on the other hand, and as a result of this, the freedom left to the various national legislatures (and courts) in areas harmonized by EU legislation is more limited than what has been believed to be the case in the past. A discussion and application of the emerging doctrine of EU preemption is provided in relation to selected areas (economic rights and exceptions and limitations).
Enforcement of Copyright
Authors: Rosati Eleonora
Published: April 2019

This chapter considers enforcement, showing how the legislative framework alone has limited relevance. What has been key to the creation an EU enforcement framework has been—instead—the role of the Court, which is particularly visible in respect of injunctions against intermediaries, costs and damages, and certain private international law aspects (applicable law and, more significantly, jurisdiction). The analysis focuses, first, on CJEU case law in relation to Article 8(3) of the InfoSoc Directive, and extracts a number of key standards for intermediary injunctions (including blocking and filtering, and general monitoring obligations) under EU law. Then, attention shifts to the technical aspects of copyright enforcement initiatives, notably costs and damages. Finally, the chapter considers online copyright infringement cases, with a special emphasis on determination of applicable law and jurisdictions in cases with an international dimension. Again, reliance on certain of the standards discussed in Chapter 2 has been decisive in shaping the resulting framework.
Remembrance of the Risen Jesus
Authors: Levering Matthew
Published: April 2019

Why did the risen Jesus risk the communication of the truth of his Resurrection to the Church’s historical memory? The chapter examines this question by exploring scriptural and liturgical remembering. With regard to scriptural remembering, it draws especially upon the work of Richard Bauckham, who argues that the Gospels are based upon eyewitness testimony. The second mode of historical memory that connects later believers with Jesus and his disciples/apostles consists in liturgical remembrance. The chapter explores this remembrance by focusing upon what biblical scholars have to say about Luke 22:19’s reference to liturgical remembrance, in light of theological reflection upon the unity of word and sacrament. Here again, the passing of the generations need not produce a separation of later believers from the disciples’ communion with the risen Jesus. Through liturgical remembrance, which includes proclamation of Scripture, later believers share intimately in the disciples’ communion with the risen Jesus.
The Strangeness of Jesus’ Resurrection
Authors: Levering Matthew
Published: April 2019

The strangeness of the New Testament testimony to Jesus’ Resurrection has led people to seek alternative explanations for this testimony than the explanation offered by the New Testament. This chapter first discusses contemporary ways of explaining away the New Testament’s claim that Jesus concretely manifested himself in his risen flesh to his disciples. Second, the chapter examines the intrinsic strangeness of the New Testament claim that Jesus’ corpse was raised from the dead to glorified life. Third, the chapter engages Thomas Aquinas’s theology of the Resurrection of Jesus. Aquinas rejects any spiritualizing of the raising of Jesus’ corpse to glorified life. His discussion draws upon John of Damascus’s On the Orthodox Faith as an important patristic witness to the bodiliness of the Resurrection of Jesus. Damascene is aware of Gnostic and Muslim perspectives that spiritualized Jesus’ death and Resurrection, and the chapter briefly surveys a number of these perspectives.
Introduction
Authors: Levering Matthew
Published: April 2019

The Introduction explains the basic outline of the book’s threefold argument for the credibility of Jesus’ Resurrection: historical evidence derived from the New Testament witness, the strangeness of the claim, and the revelation of supreme love in a manner that shows the unity of the Scriptures. Second, it explores “participatory” knowledge and the limits of historiography. Jesus is best learned about from within the Church. Third, the Introduction responds to Troeltsch’s influential claim that historical inquiry can only involve “normal” happenings; anything else belongs to the realm of “faith.” Fourth, the Introduction presents the plan of the book. Fifth, it reviews various reasons why scholars think that the enterprise of arguing for the reasonableness of Jesus’ Resurrection is an unnecessary or doomed enterprise. Sixth, it concludes by treating theological apologetics and human reason. Two exemplars are highlighted: Richard Swinburne and Gerald O’Collins.
Introduction
Authors: Stark Johanna
Published: April 2019

During recent decades, mobility of people and capital has increased dramatically, for reasons both political and technological. Common markets, open borders, air traffic, and the Internet have made it faster and less expensive to change places—and jurisdictions. As a result, law itself has increasingly become a good that is subject to the market mechanism. Not only is it easier to move; people are also given more and more opportunities to choose which legal rules shall apply to their company, their contract, their marriage, or their insolvency proceedings. States grant these opportunities, and they respond to them by competing with their legal products and services against other suppliers for the favour of demanders. This chapter introduces the term ‘regulatory competition’ and lays out the contours of the book as a whole as well as the contents of its individual chapters.
The Women of the Administration
Authors: Perry Elisabeth Israels
Published: April 2019

Many of the city’s women civic and political activists supported La Guardia during his many electoral campaigns. The women he appointed to his administration brought into his government the feminist and social justice ideals they had been espousing since the suffrage and progressive reform movements: an end to sex discrimination, an expansion of measures to benefit human welfare, and the achievement of pay equity and more career opportunities for women. They believed that they would carry out the mayor’s modernizing agendas as well as, if not better than, the men he had appointed as commissioners. This chapter highlights five women who made singular contributions to the success of the La Guardia administration: Rebecca Rankin, Eunice Hunton Carter, Jane Bolin, Elinore Herrick, and Anna Rosenberg.
Contemptuous Punishment
Authors: Hoskins Zachary
Published: April 2019

This chapter defends a constraint on punishment that is grounded in considerations of offender reform. It contends that punishment is unjustifiably contemptuous, and thus fails to treat offenders with respect as moral persons, if it tends to undermine the prospects of their reform. Restrictions on offenders’ access to basic goods such as housing, welfare, and in some cases employment tend to undermine offenders’ prospects for reform: first, such restrictions can undermine offenders’ motivation to engage in moral reflection and reassessment of their behavior; second, the bans tend to hinder their opportunities to make changes in their lives, to take the necessary steps to avoid repeating the bad choices they made in the past. Such restrictions reflect, and convey, contempt for offenders, and thus are inappropriate as modes of punishment.
Narratology
Authors: Liveley Genevieve
Published: April 2019

This book explores the extraordinary contribution that classical poetics has made to twentieth- and twenty-first-century theories of narrative. Its aim is not to argue that modern narratologies simply present ‘old wine in new wineskins’, but to identify the diachronic affinities shared between ancient and modern stories about storytelling, recognizing that modern narratologists bring particular expertise to bear upon ancient literary theory and offer valuable insights into the interpretation of some notoriously difficult texts. By interrogating ancient and modern narratologies through the mutually imbricating dynamics of their reception it aims to arrive at a better understanding of both. Each chapter selects a key moment in the history of narratology on which to focus, zooming in from an overview of significant phases to look at core theories and texts—from the Russian formalists, Chicago school neo-Aristotelians, through the prestructuralists, structuralists, and poststructuralists, to the latest unnatural and antimimetic narratologists. The reception history that thus unfolds offers some remarkable plot twists. It unmasks Plato as an unreliable narrator and theorist, and offers a rare glimpse of Aristotle putting narrative theory into practice in the role of storyteller in his work On Poets. In Horace’s Ars Poetica and in the works of ancient scholia critics and commentators it locates a rhetorically conceived poetics and a sophisticated reader-response-based narratology evincing a keen interest in audience affect and cognition—and anticipating the cognitive turn in narratology’s mot recent postclassical phase.
Ancient narrative theory after Aristotle—Horace
Authors: Liveley Genevieve
Published: April 2019

This chapter argues that there is little evidence to show that Aristotle’s Poetics was influential to any significant degree in antiquity. Modern theorists and critics who insist upon seeing an Aristotelian influence on the proto-narratological precepts found in Horace’s Ars poetica have therefore produced somewhat skewed readings of the Ars poetica. This chapter focuses instead upon the distinctively Roman and rhetorical character of Horace’s ideas on narrative, and examines the marked affinities between Plato’s Socrates and Horace’s own narratological persona on the subjects of poetry and storytelling. It argues that Horace may even be the first literary critic formally to condense Plato’s (Socrates’) proto-narratological precepts into a narrower distinction between showing and telling.
Russian formalism
Authors: Liveley Genevieve
Published: April 2019

This chapter examines the reception of Aristotle’s Poetics by the Russian formalists (with case studies focusing on Shklovsky, Petrovsky, Tomashevsky, and Propp). It demonstrates that these Russian ‘neo-Aristotelians’ adopt and adapt their key narratological priorities and principles from the Poetics, especially their theories concerning fabula and syuzhet, the primacy of plot, of form synthesizing raw story content, and the importance of the experience and affect of narrative as it is cognitively processed by an audience. Aristotle’s Poetics is made strange in each new iteration of its reading and reception by the Russian ‘neo-Aristotelians’, with each (r)evolution itself configuring a self-conscious reaction of some kind to a contemporary theorist, no less than to Aristotle himself.
Neo-Aristotelianism
Authors: Liveley Genevieve
Published: April 2019

This chapter argues that the rhetorically conceived poetics of narrative developed by the Chicago school neo-Aristotelians helps to demonstrate that Aristotle’s Poetics was, in several respects, always already a rhetorically oriented theory. Its concern with purposively shaping plots in order to realize a particular audience experience and affect shows an interest not only in ‘making form’ but in ‘making readers’, and an awareness of narratives not only as structures but as communicative acts. Ultimately, however, it is not Aristotle’s theory—either of poetics or rhetoric—that marks this neo-Aristotelian reception as such. It is, instead, Aristotle’s inductive, a posteriori methodology that stands out as the most valuable thing bequeathed and inherited across successive generations of Neo-Aristotelians.
Prestructuralism
Authors: Liveley Genevieve
Published: April 2019

This chapter demonstrates that prestructuralist ideas about the form and function of key narratological phenomena such as plot, action, and character, mimesis and diegesis, showing and telling, not only make a significant contribution to the early twentieth-century (re)naissance of narrative theory in Europe and the US but also play a decisive role in the modern reception of ancient narrative theory. It argues that although James and Lubbock evince only broad Aristotelian affinities, their precepts help to establish an environment in which Aristotelian and Platonic (Socratic) theories find a ready and receptive audience. In similar ways, Forster, Friedman, and Stanzel open up a channel of communication between the ancient and modern worlds of narratology. What is more, their allusions to and appropriations of the classics help to shed new light on to some of the more controversial and complex aspects of both the Republic and Poetics.
Structuralism
Authors: Liveley Genevieve
Published: April 2019

This chapter explores the complex dynamics of appropriation and reception at work in and across the structuralist narratologies of Barthes, Todorov, Genette, and Bal. In its early phases, ancient theories and theorists are annexed (and altered) so as to provide an authoritative genealogy for the new structuralist science of narratology. Barthes looks for patronage from Aristotle, and Genette also assumes an inherited authority of this narratological ancestor. Genette even restages and re-interrogates the famous Homeric scene that Plato’s Socrates took as his foundational exemplum in the Republic, overturning the Platonic/Socratic and Aristotelian typologies of mimesis and diegesis. However, as structuralist narratology grows in stature and gathers its own authority, eventually taking on ‘classical’ status in its own right, we see a corresponding distance grow up between ancient and modern approaches, culminating in Genette’s revisionist disavowal of Plato’s diegesis, and Bal’s attempt to recast Aristotle as a structuralist semiotician.
Postclassicism
Authors: Liveley Genevieve
Published: April 2019

This chapter argues that in the postclassical cognitive turn and the latest developments in natural and unnatural narratology pioneered by Fludernik, Herman, Richardson, Alber, and others, we are witnessing an important re-interrogation of the basic terms and frames of narratology’s earliest discussions. Developing the poststructuralists’ concerns with context, postclassical narratology is keenly interested in the part that readers and real-world experiences have to play in the co-poetic functioning of narrative and its narrativity—reconsidering the psychological and emotional iteractions between stories and audiences, and returning to the ancient debate between Plato’s Socrates and Aristotle regarding the status of narrative as mimesis.
Pain and Functional Outcomes After Sacroiliac Joint Injection with Anesthetic and Corticosteroid at Six Months, Stratified by Anesthetic Response and Physical Exam Maneuvers
Authors: Schneider Byron J , Ehsanian Reza , Huynh Lisa , Levin Josh , Zheng Patricia , Kennedy David J
Published: April 2019

Objective

To evaluate sacroiliac joint (SIJ) injection outcomes with local anesthetic and corticosteroid.

Design

Prospective cohort.

Setting

Single academic medical center.

Methods

Thirty-four patients referred for SIJ injection with a clinical diagnosis of SIJ pain underwent injections with 1:1 mixture of 2% lidocaine and triamcinolone 40 mg/mL. Pain provocation physical exam (PE) maneuvers were recorded immediately before and after injection. Outcome measures at two to four weeks and six months included pain numeric rating scale (NRS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI).

Results

For the analysis of outcomes by the overall group (not stratified by PE and/or anesthetic block), a 58.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = +/-16.5%) ≥2 NRS reduction, a 32.4% (95% CI = +/-15.7%) ≥50% NRS reduction, and a 38.2% (95% CI = +/-16.3%) ≥30% ODI reduction were observed at two to four weeks, with similar improvements at six months. Outcomes stratified based on pre-injection PE did not reveal significant differences at either time point. The stratification based on the presence of 100% postinjection anesthetic response demonstrated a significant difference at two to four weeks for ≥50% NRS improvement. The true positive/true negative group (TP/TN) stratification demonstrated a significant difference for ≥50% NRS improvement at two to four weeks, whereas six-month outcomes for TP/TN demonstrated significant differences for ≥50% NRS and ≥30% ODI improvement. An increased injection response was observed with stratification of patients more likely to have true SIJ pain (i.e., TP), with TP/TN stratification demonstrating a 75% (95% CI = +/-30.0%) ≥2 NRS improvement and a 62.5% (95% CI = +/-33.5%) improvement of ≥50% NRS and ≥30% ODI for the TP group at two to four weeks, with similar results at six months.

Conclusions

SIJ steroid injection based on referral clinical diagnosis is unlikely to demonstrate true injection efficacy, and more specific selection criteria are warranted.
Investigating the Feasibility of a Modified Quantitative Sensory Testing Approach to Profile Sensory Function and Predict Pain Outcomes Following Intrathecal Baclofen Implant Surgery in Cerebral Palsy
Authors: Barney Chantel C , Merbler Alyssa M , Simone Donald A , Walk David , Symons Frank J
Published: April 2019

Objectives

Intrathecal baclofen (ITB) pumps used to manage spasticity in children with cerebral palsy (CP) also improve pain outcomes for some but not all patients. The purpose of this clinical feasibility study was to explore whether a quantitative sensory testing approach could a) be modified and used to subgroup individuals into sensory profiles and b) test whether the profiles were related to postimplant pain outcomes (i.e., pain responsive or pain persistent).

Subjects

A purposeful clinical sample of nine children with CP (mean age = 12.5 years, male = 56%) and complex communication needs participated.

Methods

A prospective within-subject design was used to measure proxy-reported pain before and after ITB implant. Pain response status was determined by proxy-reported pain intensity change (>50% change in maximum rated intensity). A modified quantitative sensory testing (mQST) procedure was used to assess behavioral responsivity to an array of calibrated sensory (tactile/acute nociceptive) stimuli before surgery.

Results

Seven individuals with presurgical pain had mQST differentiated sensory profiles in relation to ITB pain outcomes and relative to the two individuals with no pain. Presurgically, the ITB pain responsive subgroup (N = 3, maximum rated pain intensity decreased >50% after ITB implant) showed increased behavioral reactivity to an acute nociceptive stimulus and cold stimulus, whereas the ITB pain persistent subgroup (N = 4) showed reduced behavioral reactivity to cold and repeated von Frey stimulation relative to the no pain individuals.

Conclusion

Implications for patient selection criteria and stratification to presurgically identify individuals with CP “at risk” for persistent postprocedure pain are discussed.
Snail1-dependent cancer-associated fibroblasts induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition in lung cancer cells via exosomes
Authors: You J , Li M , Cao L M , Gu Q H , Deng P B , Tan Y , Hu C P
Published: April 2019

Background

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an essential component of metastasis. Our previous study demonstrated that cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) induce EMT in lung cancer cells. In recent years, many studies have demonstrated that CAFs induce metastasis and drug resistance in cancer cells via exosomes.

Aim

We sought to discover the mechanism underlying how CAFs induce EMT in lung cancer cells, unveiling the role of exosomes in lung cancer progression.

Design

We cultured lung cancer cell (i) with control medium, normal fibroblasts (NFs) or CAFs; (ii) with SNAI1-transfected or NC (negative control)-transfected CAFs; (iii) with exosomes extracted from NF- or CAF-conditioned medium; (iv) with exosomes released by SNAI1 or NC-transfected CAFs; (v) with CAF-conditioned medium or exosome-depleted CAF-conditioned medium.

Methods

qRT-PCR was conducted to examine the expression of CDH1 (gene of E-cadherin) and VIM (gene of Vimentin), western blotting was conducted to examine E-cadherin and vimentin levels in lung cancer cells.

Results

Exosomes released by CAFs-promoted EMT in lung cancer cells. Interestingly, SNAI1 levels in exosomes secreted from CAFs were correlated with SNAI1 expression in CAFs. Furthermore, the level of SNAI1 in exosomes was crucial for inducing EMT in lung cancer cells. Finally, treatment of CAFs with GW4869, an inhibitor of exosome release, noticeably inhibited their EMT-inducing effect on recipient epithelial cells.

Conclusions

The molecular mechanism underlying how CAFs induce EMT in cancer cells may be that CAFs deliver SNAI1 to recipient cancer cells via exosomes.
LOSS OF TLD SIGNAL DUE TO HIGH TEMPERATURE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
Authors: Villanueva Andrew , Goddard Braden
Published: April 2019

While it is known that temperatures above 100°C have an effect on the reported dose of a TLD, it is less widely known what the susceptibility is to temperatures below 100°C, temperatures humans could reasonably expect to be exposed to. With the expanding nuclear industry in climates with more extreme temperatures, (e.g. United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia) the effect on a TLD if left on a dashboard of a car need to be evaluated. This research experimentally determined the extent of this thermal susceptibility by testing a range of high temperatures, 40°C – 90°C. The experimental results found that there is a statistically significant reduction in TLD-100H (natLiF:Mg,Cu,P) light output for TLDs there were exposed to temperatures as low as 40°C for 8 hour durations and 50°C for 2 hour durations. There is statistical difference in TLD-100H light output for elevated temperature durations of 8 hours compared to 24 hours.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Black–White child poverty gap in the United States
Authors: Parolin Zachary
Published: April 2019

Black children in the USA are more than twice as likely as white children to live in poverty. While past research has primarily attributed this phenomenon to the family structure of black children, this article investigates how state-level heterogeneity in social assistance programs contributes to the black–white child poverty gap. I find that racial inequities in states’ administration of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program contributed to the impoverishment of approximately 256 000 black children per year from 2012–2014. State-year panel data demonstrates that states with larger percentages of black residents are less likely to prioritize the ‘provision of cash assistance’, but more likely to allocate funds toward the ‘discouragement of lone motherhood’. Neutralizing inequities in states’ TANF spending priorities would reduce the black–white child poverty gap by up to 15%—comparable to the reduction effect of moving all children in single-mother households to two-parent households.
Obstructive sleep apnea, nighttime arousals, and leukocyte telomere length: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis
Authors: Carroll Judith E , Irwin Michael R , Seeman Teresa E , Diez-Roux Ana V , Prather Aric A , Olmstead Richard , Epel Elissa , Lin Jue , Redline Susan
Published: April 2019

Study Objectives

Sleep disturbances and sleep apnea are associated with increased vulnerability to age-related disease, altering molecular pathways affecting biological aging. Telomere length captures one component of biological aging. We evaluated whether objectively assessed sleep and sleep apnea relate to leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

Methods

Men and women aged 44–84 years (n = 672) from the MESA Stress and MESA Sleep studies underwent polysomnography and 7 day actigraphy (at Exam 5) and assessment of LTL (at baseline [Exam 1] and about 10 years later [Exam 5]).

Results

General linear models adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, BMI, physical activity, and smoking found that severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA; apnea–hypopnea index > 30) was cross-sectionally associated with shorter LTL (p = 0.007). Modest associations of shorter LTL with less rapid eye movement sleep, more stage 1 sleep, wake after sleep onset >30 min, and long sleep duration were found, but these effects were diminished after adjusting for lifestyle and OSA. Exploratory analyses found that higher arousal index at Exam 5 was associated with greater LTL decline over the prior 10 years (p = 0.004).

Conclusions

OSA was associated with shorter LTL. Individuals with high-arousal frequency had greater leukocyte telomere attrition over the prior decade. These findings suggest that sleep apnea and sleep fragmentation are associated with accelerated biological aging.
Homozygous NMNAT2 mutation in sisters with polyneuropathy and erythromelalgia
Authors: Huppke Peter , Wegener Eike , Gilley Jonathan , Angeletti Carlo , Kurth Ingo , Drenth Joost P.H. , Stadelmann Christine , Barrantes-Freer Alonso , Brück Wolfgang , Thiele Holger , Nürnberg Peter , Gärtner Jutta , Orsomando Giuseppe , Coleman Michael P.
Published: April 2019

We identified a homozygous missense mutation in the gene encoding NAD synthesizing enzyme NMNAT2 in two siblings with childhood onset polyneuropathy with erythromelalgia. No additional homozygotes for this rare allele, which leads to amino acid substitution T94M, were present among the unaffected relatives tested or in the 60,000 exomes of the ExAC database. For axons to survive, axonal NMNAT2 activity has to be maintained above a threshold level but the T94M mutation confers a partial loss of function both in the ability of NMNAT2 to support axon survival and in its enzymatic properties. Electrophysiological tests and histological analysis of sural nerve biopsies in the patients were consistent with loss of distal sensory and motor axons. Thus, it is likely that NMNAT2 mutation causes this pain and axon loss phenotype making this the first disorder associated with mutation of a key regulator of Wallerian-like axon degeneration in humans. This supports indications from numerous animal studies that the Wallerian degeneration pathway is important in human disease and raises important questions about which other human phenotypes could be linked to this gene.
Sparse Project VCF: efficient encoding of population genotype matrices
Authors: Lin Michael F. , Bai Xiaodong , Salerno William J. , Reid Jeffrey G.
Published: April 2019

Variant Call Format (VCF), the prevailing representation for germline genotypes in population sequencing, suffers rapid size growth as larger cohorts are sequenced and more rare variants are discovered. We present Sparse Project VCF (spVCF), an evolution of VCF with judicious entropy reduction and run-length encoding, delivering >10X size reduction for modern studies with practically minimal information loss. spVCF interoperates with VCF efficiently, including tabix-based random access.

Availability and Implementation

Freely available at github.com/mlin/spVCF

Contact

dna@mlin.net
A conceptual scale model of mobile drilling robot
Authors: Li Dongmin , Zhao Yuanzhi , Zhu Shiming , Luan Hengxuan
Published: April 2019

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a conceptual scale model of mobile drilling robot according to the actual drilling rig and working conditions to improve the safety and automation of drilling in tunnel construction and coal mining applications.

Design/methodology/approach

A couple of pinion and rack serves as the support mechanism driven by a motor with low rotation speed at high power, and these components are assembled in the center of the robot to tightly fasten the whole body together. The drilling rod and the sleeve are connected through a hole with screw thread so that the rod feeds and rotates simultaneously along with the sleeve. The robot model is automatically controlled by a single-chip microcomputer, and the anti-disturbance circuit is designed as well. A five-step rule obstacle avoidance method is proposed to ensure safe and reliable movement.

Findings

The results of simulation experiments on drilling operation do indicate that the mechanism and control method are feasible and effective.

Research limitations/implications

The robot is nearly complete but indeed remains only an experimental machine.

Originality/value

The design of the mechanism structure for the conceptual robot is novelty. The method of five-step rule obstacle avoidance can improve reliability of obstacle avoidance according to the experimental results, which can meet the requirements of complex working conditions underground coal mine.
Energy saving with using of elliptic pillows in turbulent flow of two-phase water-silver nanofluid in a spiral heat exchanger
Authors: Khodabandeh Erfan , Toghraie Davood , Chamkha A. , Mashayekhi Ramin , Akbari Omidali , Rozati Seyed Alireza
Published: April 2019

Purpose

Increasing heat transfer rate in spiral heat exchangers is possible by using conventional methods such as increasing number of fluid passes and counter flowing. In addition, newer ideas such as using pillows as baffles in the path of cold and hot fluids and using nanofluids can increase heat transfer rate. The purpose of this study is to simulate turbulent flow and heat transfer of two-phase water-silver nanofluid with 0-6 Vol.% nanoparticle concentration in a 180° path of spiral heat exchanger with elliptic pillows.

Design/methodology/approach

In this simulation, the finite volume method and two-phase mixture model are used. The walls are subjected to constant heat flux of q″ = 150,000 Wm−2. The inlet fluid enters curves path of spiral heat exchanger with uniform temperature Tin = 300 K. After flowing past the pillows and traversing the curved route, the working fluid exchanges heat with hot walls and then exits from the section. In this study, the effect of radiation is disregarded because of low temperature range. Also, temperature jump and velocity slipping are disregarded. The effects of thermophoresis and turbulent diffusion on nanofluid heat transfer are disregarded. By using finite volume method and two-phase mixture model, simulations are performed.

Findings

The results show that the flow and heat transfer characteristics are dependent on the height of pillows, nanoparticle concentration and Reynolds number. Increasing Reynolds number, nanoparticle concentration and pillow height causes an increase in Nusselt number, pressure drop and pumping power.

Originality/value

Turbulent flow and heat transfer of two-phase water-silver nanofluid of 0-6 per cent volume fraction in a 180° path of spiral heat exchanger with elliptic pillows is simulated.
“Please give me an invoice”: VAT evasion and the Portuguese tax lottery
Authors: Wilks Daniela C. , Cruz José , Sousa Pedro
Published: April 2019

Purpose

The Portuguese tax authority implemented a lottery to encourage citizens to request invoices as a strategy to fight value-added tax (VAT) evasion. As the law does not require citizens to request sales invoices with the consumers’ tax number, doing so is a form of voluntary cooperation in tracking down tax evaders. The purpose of this paper is to understand why ordinary citizens decide to join forces with tax authorities in the fight against VAT evasion by requesting invoices with their tax identification number.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical study was conducted to explore the underlying motivation for Portuguese consumers to request sales invoices with their personal tax identification. The study combines quantitative and qualitative data.

Findings

The results from this study show that rewarding citizens is clearly a factor to be considered in any policy to maximize citizens’ cooperation in tracking down tax evaders. They indicate that fiscal benefits have a stronger effect on the request of invoices than the lottery and that it is necessary to promote good governance and justice.

Practical implications

Findings should be used to inform a cost-effective public policy that takes into account citizens’ concerns and combine deterrent measures and rewards in the form of tax benefits, rather than tax lotteries.

Originality/value

This paper provides new insights into VAT lotteries, which seem to be increasingly favored by policy makers but are an area under-researched. By recommending a course of action to maximize citizens’ cooperation in tracking down tax evaders, the paper provides useful practical implications and is a contribution for the study of VAT evasion policies.
The experiences of perpetrators of filicide participating in treatment within a prison therapeutic community
Authors: Jacobs Laura , Shuker Richard
Published: April 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the treatment experiences of adult male perpetrators of filicide within prison therapeutic communities (TCs).

Design/methodology/approach

Participants took part in semi-structured interviews in order to capture their treatment experiences. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Findings

Five superordinate themes (therapeutic process; acceptance; insight; relationships; and barriers) and ten subordinate themes were identified. All themes were pertinent to understanding the participants’ experiences of TC treatment. The discussion provides reflections about the findings, contrasts them to psychological literature, along with suggestions for clinical practice and future research.

Originality/value

This research addressed a dearth of published literature within the area of male filicide and available treatment interventions.
Individuals’ religiosity and emotional coping in response to disasters
Authors: Lim Jungkyu Rhys , Liu Brooke Fisher , Egnoto Michael , Roberts Holly A.
Published: April 2019

Providing information to help individuals cope physically and psychologically with a disaster is critical in crisis communication. However, how individuals cope is relatively understudied. In particular, researchers have examined how people emotionally cope during different types of crises, but not in a natural disaster context and not religiosity. Yet, religiosity can be important during disasters, given that about 89% of adults in the United States believe in God (Pew Research Center, 2014). Through ten focus groups (N = 77) and a survey (N = 1,484), this study examines how residents of the Southeast United States cope in response to tornadoes. Findings indicate that participants experience anxiety and fear during a tornado, but fear and hope trigger physical action taking (e.g., sheltering in place or collecting supplies). Prayer during a tornado does not significantly predict action taking. Religiosity significantly predicts physical action taking.