bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conserved transcriptomic profiles underpin monogamy across vertebrates
Authors: Young Rebecca L. , Ferkin Michael H. , Ockendon-Powell Nina F. , Orr Veronica N. , Phelps Steven M. , Pogány Ákos , Richards-Zawacki Corinne L. , Summers Kyle , Székely Tamás , Trainor Brian C. , Urrutia Araxi O. , Zachar Gergely , O’Connell Lauren A. , Hofmann Hans A.
Published: January 2019

Social monogamy, typically characterized by the formation of a pair bond, increased territorial defense, and often biparental care, has independently evolved multiple times in animals. Despite the independent evolutionary origins of monogamous mating systems, several homologous brain regions and neuropeptides and their receptors have been shown to play a conserved role in regulating social affiliation and parental care, but little is known about the neuromolecular mechanisms underlying monogamy on a genomic scale. Here, we compare neural transcriptomes of reproductive males in monogamous and nonmonogamous species pairs of
Peromyscus
mice,
Microtus
voles, parid songbirds, dendrobatid frogs, and
Xenotilapia
species of cichlid fishes. We find that, while evolutionary divergence time between species or clades did not explain gene expression similarity, characteristics of the mating system correlated with neural gene expression patterns, and neural gene expression varied concordantly across vertebrates when species transition to monogamy. Our study provides evidence of a universal transcriptomic mechanism underlying the evolution of monogamy in vertebrates.
Direct observation of crystallization and melting with colloids
Authors: Hwang Hyerim , Weitz David A. , Spaepen Frans
Published: January 2019

Significance

This paper reports on colloid experiments that provide a unique 3D experimental view at the particle level of the fundamental mechanism by which liquids crystallize and crystals melt. Since these mechanisms cannot be observed directly in atomic systems, the colloids serve as models to identify, for example, the equivalent of the often-invoked collision-limited growth of pure crystals. Other observations include the measurement of equal mobilities for growth and melting and the mobility of the body-centered cubic interface being greater than that of the face-centered cubic one.
Signatures of selection in the human antibody repertoire: Selective sweeps, competing subclones, and neutral drift
Authors: Horns Felix , Vollmers Christopher , Dekker Cornelia L. , Quake Stephen R.
Published: January 2019

Antibodies are created and refined by somatic evolution in B cell populations, which endows the human immune system with the ability to recognize and eliminate diverse pathogens. However, the evolutionary processes that sculpt antibody repertoires remain poorly understood. Here, using an unbiased repertoire-scale approach, we show that the population genetic signatures of evolution are evident in human B cell lineages and reveal how antibodies evolve somatically. We measured the dynamics and genetic diversity of B cell responses in five adults longitudinally before and after influenza vaccination using high-throughput antibody repertoire sequencing. We identified vaccine-responsive B cell lineages that carry signatures of selective sweeps driven by positive selection, and discovered that they often display evidence for selective sweeps favoring multiple subclones. We also found persistent B cell lineages that exhibit stable population dynamics and carry signatures of neutral drift. By exploiting the relationship between B cell fitness and antibody binding affinity, we demonstrate the potential for using phylogenetic approaches to identify antibodies with high binding affinity. This quantitative characterization reveals that antibody repertoires are shaped by an unexpectedly broad spectrum of evolutionary processes and shows how signatures of evolutionary history can be harnessed for antibody discovery and engineering.
Near-continuously synthesized leading strands in
Escherichia coli
are broken by ribonucleotide excision
Authors: Cronan Glen E. , Kouzminova Elena A. , Kuzminov Andrei
Published: January 2019

Significance

The antiparallel orientation of strands in a DNA duplex and unidirectional polarity of DNA polymerases necessitate that replication forks operate semidiscontinuously. That is, the strand replicated codirectionally to replication-fork movement, termed the “leading” strand, is synthesized continuously, while the oppositely oriented “lagging” strand is synthesized in short “Okazaki” fragments, later joined by ligase. Semidiscontinuous replication is observed in vitro, even in reactions lacking ligase. However, in vivo, in ligase (
lig
) mutants, nascent DNA from both strands is found only in small pieces. Here, we report the continuous synthesis of leading strands in
lig
mutant
Escherichia coli
lacking all DNA excision-repair activities and, using an improved sucrose-gradient system, identify misincorporated ribonucleotides as the major driver of leading-strand fragmentation.
Chemically induced vesiculation as a platform for studying TMEM16F activity
Authors: Han Tina W. , Ye Wenlei , Bethel Neville P. , Zubia Mario , Kim Andrew , Li Kathy H. , Burlingame Alma L. , Grabe Michael , Jan Yuh Nung , Jan Lily Y.
Published: January 2019

Significance

Extracellular vesicles, which are released from cells via budding of the cell membrane and may carry bioactive cargo such as RNAs and proteins, can elicit biological activity in other cells in a short-range or long-range manner. Extracellular vesicles that depend on TMEM16F activity for their formation play important roles in blood coagulation, mineral deposition during bone development, and protection of the joint in inflammatory arthritis. This study employs a newly developed kinetic assay to investigate the TMEM16F protein functions that are involved in extracellular vesicle formation, such as TMEM16F-dependent calcium influx and TMEM16F-dependent phospholipid scrambling.
Teaching content through Dutch as a second language
Authors: Hajer Maaike
Published: January 2019

Within the Netherlands, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in foreign language teaching can be considered a sibling of ‘Language Oriented Content Teaching’ (LOCT), a pedagogy in mainstream classes with second language learners of Dutch, where Dutch is used as language of instruction. This article characterizes two decades of research on LOCT through Dutch in multilingual schools and discusses its relevance for CLIL development. A distinctive feature is the discourse coalition between subject and language researchers, teacher educators, curriculum development staff and others. Their cooperation furthered the identification of disciplinary literacies and subject specific language pedagogies which can be seen as a renewed conceptualization of content obligatory language (Snow, Met, & Genesee, 1989). LOCT work in the Dutch context shows how content obligatory language that is relevant and feasible can be identified and included in content teachers’ pedagogies, findings that might be useful for the further development of CLIL.
Proper name retrieval in cognitive decline
Authors: Montemurro Sonia , Mondini Sara , Nucci Massimo , Semenza Carlo
Published: January 2019

This study explores the retrieval of proper names and the sensitivity of this lexical category to the modulatory
effect of cognitive reserve in an aging population. Thirty-two elderly patients, undergoing their first neuropsychological
evaluation were matched for age and education to thirty-two healthy controls. All participants were administered the Montreal
Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to measure their global cognitive performance, the Famous Face Naming test to assess proper name
retrieval, and the Cognitive Reserve Index (CRI) questionnaire to obtain an index of cognitive reserve. The two groups had
comparable CRI total scores, but patients’ performance was worse in both MoCA and Famous Face naming test, compared to healthy
controls. Results showed that cognitive reserve predicted global cognitive performance (i.e., MoCA score) in the patients, but not
in the healthy participants. Naming proper names was independent from cognitive reserve. This might be due to their lexical
nature, which lies in a poor semantic connection between proper names and their bearers.
Noncompetitive antagonists induce cooperative AMPA receptor channel gating
Authors: Shi Edward Y. , Yuan Christine L. , Sipple Matthew T. , Srinivasan Jayasri , Ptak Christopher P. , Oswald Robert E. , Nowak Linda M.
Published: January 2019

Glutamate is released from presynaptic nerve terminals in the central nervous system (CNS) and spreads excitation by binding to and activating postsynaptic iGluRs. Of the potential glutamate targets, tetrameric AMPA receptors mediate fast, transient CNS signaling. Each of the four AMPA subunits in the receptor channel complex is capable of binding glutamate at its ligand-binding domains and transmitting the energy of activation to the pore domain. Homotetrameric AMPA receptor channels open in a stepwise manner, consistent with independent activation of individual subunits, and they exhibit complex kinetic behavior that manifests as temporal shifts between four different conductance levels. Here, we investigate how two AMPA receptor-selective noncompetitive antagonists, GYKI-52466 and GYKI-53655, disrupt the intrinsic step-like gating patterns of maximally activated homotetrameric GluA3 receptors using single-channel recordings from cell-attached patches. Interactions of these 2,3-benzodiazepines with residues in the boundary between the extracellular linkers and transmembrane helical domains reorganize the gating behavior of channels. Low concentrations of modulators stabilize open and closed states to different degrees and coordinate the activation of subunits so that channels open directly from closed to higher conductance levels. Using kinetic and structural models, we provide insight into how the altered gating patterns might arise from molecular contacts within the extracellular linker-channel boundary. Our results suggest that this region may be a tunable locus for AMPA receptor channel gating.
Predicting the Impact of Typhoid Conjugate Vaccines on Antimicrobial Resistance
Authors: Kaufhold Samantha , Yaesoubi Reza , Pitzer Virginia E
Published: January 2019

Background

Empiric prescribing of antimicrobials in typhoid-endemic settings has increased selective pressure on the development of antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi. The introduction of typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs) in these settings may relieve this selective pressure, thereby reducing resistant infections and improving health outcomes.

Methods

A deterministic transmission dynamic model was developed to simulate the impact of TCVs on the number and proportion of antimicrobial-resistant typhoid infections and chronic carriers. One-way sensitivity analyses were performed to ascertain particularly impactful model parameters influencing the proportion of antimicrobial-resistant infections and the proportion of cases averted over 10 years.

Results

The model simulations suggested that increasing vaccination coverage would decrease the total number of antimicrobial-resistant typhoid infections but not affect the proportion of cases that were antimicrobial resistant. In the base-case scenario with 80% vaccination coverage, 35% of all typhoid infections were antimicrobial resistant, and 44% of the total cases were averted over 10 years by vaccination. Vaccination also decreased both the total number and proportion of chronic carriers of antimicrobial-resistant infections. The prevalence of chronic carriers, recovery rates from infection, and relative fitness of resistant strains were identified as crucially important parameters.

Conclusions

Model predictions for the proportion of antimicrobial resistant infections and number of cases averted depended strongly on the relative fitness of the resistant strain(s), prevalence of chronic carriers, and rates of recovery without treatment. Further elucidation of these parameter values in real-world typhoid-endemic settings will improve model predictions and assist in targeting future vaccination campaigns and treatment strategies.
Community Engagement Before Initiation of Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine Trial in Schools in Two Urban Townships in Blantyre, Malawi: Experience and Lessons
Authors: Meiring James E , Sambakunsi Rodrick , Moyo Elvis , Misiri Theresa , Mwakiseghile Felistas , Patel Pratiksha , Patel Priyanka , Ndaferankhande John , Laurens Matthew , Gooding Kate , Gordon Melita A
Published: January 2019

Background

To determine the efficacy of a new typhoid conjugate vaccine in an endemic setting in sub-Saharan Africa, the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium is conducting a phase-3 randomized controlled trial in Blantyre, Malawi. This article describes community and stakeholder engagement activities before and during the trial, challenges, and lessons learned.

Methods

In October 2017, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust (MLW) organized a wide range of community engagement activities, including meetings with Ministry of Health and Education officials at the district and facility level, local community leadership, and parent teacher association groups. We engaged media outlets to include local and international television, radio, and print media. Community members were informed directly through a study jingle played via loudspeaker from a van and by community-based activities.

To review engagement activity effectiveness: The MLW team met to discuss progress and challenges; and a focus group discussion (FGD), consisting of trial staff, sought feedback from the community on each engagement modality.

Results

The school-based vaccine campaign increased community participation exceeding recruitment targets to date (on average, >200 children/day).

Conclusions

The FGD concluded that the van and local activities improved awareness and turnout for the trial, but prior engagement with local government and community leadership is an essential mechanism to provide details of the study, answer questions, communicate the value of the study, and address safety concerns. Effective community engagement is essential in a large intervention trial. Multiple channels of communication are required to reach the community and deliver information needed for participation and provide opportunity for dialogue with the trial team.
The Role of Amniocentesis in the Diagnosis of Congenital Zika Syndrome
Authors: Pereira Jose Paulo , Maykin Melanie M , Vasconcelos Zilton , Avvad-Portari Elyzabeth , Zin Andrea A , Tsui Irena , Brasil Patricia , Nielsen-Saines Karin , Moreira Maria E , Gaw Stephanie L
Published: January 2019

There are limited data on amniocentesis as a diagnostic tool for congenital Zika syndrome. Here we report on a prospective cohort of 16 women with suspected Zika virus infection in a highly endemic area, and discuss the role of amniocentesis in the prenatal diagnosis of fetal Zika infection.
Bicuspid aortic valve behaviour in elite athletes
Authors: Boraita Araceli , Morales-Acuna Francisco , Marina-Breysse Manuel , Heras María-Eugenia , Canda Alicia , Fuentes María-Eugenia , Chacón Antonio , Diaz-Gonzalez Leonel , Rabadan Manuel , Parra Laca Begoña , Pérez de Isla Leopoldo , Tuñón José
Published: January 2019

Aims

To determine the prevalence and characteristics of bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) among elite athletes and to analyse the effect of long-term exercise training on their aortas.

Methods and results

Consecutive BAV and tricuspid aortic valve (TAV) elite athletes from a population of 5136 athletes evaluated at the Sports Medicine Center of the Spanish National Sports Council were identified using echocardiography. A total of 41 BAV elite athletes were matched with 41 TAV elite athletes, and 41 BAV non-athletic patients from three Spanish tertiary hospitals. Sixteen BAV elite athletes who had undergone at least two cardiac evaluations separated by more than 3 years were selected to assess their clinical course. The prevalence of BAV in elite athletes was 0.8%. The proximal ascending aorta was larger for both BAV groups in comparison to TAV athletes (P = 0.001). No differences in aortic diameters were found between BAV athletes and BAV non-athletes. In BAV elite athletes, the annual growth rates for aortic annulus, sinuses of Valsalva, sinotubular junction, and proximal ascending aorta were 0.04 ± 0.24, 0.11 ± 0.59, 0.14 ± 0.38, and 0.21 ± 0.44 mm/year, respectively. Aortic regurgitation was the only functional abnormality, but no significant progression was found.

Conclusion

High-intensity training and sports competition may not aggravate BAV condition during elite athletes’ careers. BAV elite athletes with mild-to-moderately dilated aortas may engage in high dynamic cardiovascular exercise without adverse consequences, although an echocardiographic follow-up is recommended.
Efficacy of chest computed tomography prediction of the pathological TNM stage of thymic epithelial tumours†
Authors: White Darin B , Hora Megan J , Jenkins Sarah M , Marks Randolph S , Garces Yolanda I , Cassivi Stephen D , Roden Anja C
Published: January 2019

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of chest computed tomography (CT) to predict the pathological stage of thymic epithelial tumours (TET) using the recently introduced tumour, node and metastasis (TNM) staging with comparison to the modified Masaoka staging.

METHODS

Preoperative chest CT examinations in cases of resected TET with sampled lymph nodes (2006–2016) were retrospectively reviewed by 2 thoracic radiologists and radiologically (r) staged using both staging systems. A thoracic pathologist reviewed all cases for the pathological (p) stage. Concordance between r-staging and p-staging was assessed by % agreement and unweighted kappa statistics. Associations between r-stage and p-stage with outcomes were assessed using the Cox proportional hazards regression.

RESULTS

Sixty patients with TET were included (47 thymomas, 12 thymic carcinomas and 1 atypical carcinoid tumour). Sixteen patients (26.7%) had received neoadjuvant therapy. Fifty-four patients (90.0%) had complete resection. The overall agreement between the r-stage and p-stage was 66.7% (κ = 0.46) for TNM staging and 46.7% (κ = 0.30) for modified Masaoka staging. Agreement between r-assessment and p-assessment of the T, N and M components of the TNM stage was 61.7% (κ = 0.28), 86.7% (κ = 0.48) and 98.3% (κ = 0.88), respectively. CT overstaged 12 patients (20.0%) for TNM staging and 12 patients (20.0%) for modified Masaoka staging and understaged 8 (13.3%) and 20 (33.3%) patients for TNM staging modified Masaoka staging, respectively. The r-TNM staging accuracy was lower for patients with neoadjuvant therapy (50.0% with vs 72.7% without). During a median follow-up of 2.6 years (range 0.1–10.5 years), 12 patients had metastases and/or recurrence; 11 patients died (4 of disease). The r-TNM stage and modified Masaoka stage were associated with overall survival and progression-free survival (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Preoperative chest CT is able to accurately predict p-TNM stage in two-thirds of surgically resected TET, with an agreement between radiological staging and pathological staging superior to the modified Masaoka staging.
Mid-life social participation and physical performance at age 60–64: evidence from the 1946 British Birth Cohort Study
Authors: Vusirikala A , Ben-Shlomo Y , Kuh D , Stafford M , Cooper R , Morgan G S
Published: January 2019

Background

Previous studies linking social activity and disability have been limited by focussing on self-reported physical performance in older adults (>65). We examined whether social participation in mid-life is associated with objective and subjective measures of physical performance in older age.

Methods

Participants of the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development reported their involvement in social activities at ages 43 and 60–64 years; frequency of such involvement was classified into thirds. Physical performance was measured at age 60–64 using: grip strength; standing balance; chair rises; timed get-up-and-go; self-reported physical function from the Short Form-36. Multivariable regression was used to examine longitudinal associations between social participation and each physical performance measure. We also investigated whether change in social participation between 43 and 60–64 was associated with each outcome.

Results

In fully adjusted models, higher frequency of social participation at 43 was associated with faster chair rise (1.42 repetitions/min, 95% CI 0.45–2.39) and timed get-up-and-go speed (2.47 cm/s, 95% CI 0.27–4.67) and lower likelihood of self-report limitations (OR of low physical function 0.67, 95% CI 0.50–0.91) at 60–64 compared with low frequency. Better performance in objectively measured outcomes was observed only if higher social participation persisted over time whereas lower odds of self-reported limitations were found in all groups when compared to those with persistently low participation (ORs 0.43–0.56, all P≤0.02).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that associations between higher levels of social participation in mid-life and better physical performance exist only if this social participation persists through to older age.
Intra-corporeal delta-shaped anastomosis in laparoscopic right hemicolectomy for right colon cancer: a safe and effective technique
Authors: Su Hao , Jin Wei-Sen , Wang Peng , Bao Mandula , Wang Xue-Wei , Liu Qian , Wang Xi-Shan , Zhou Zhi-Xiang , Zhou Hai-Tao
Published: January 2019

Background and objective

Intra-corporeal delta-shaped anastomosis (IDA) is an important development in laparoscopic digestive-tract reconstruction. We applied it in laparoscopic right hemicolectomy for right colon cancer and compared the short-term outcomes between the patients treated with IDA and conventional extracorporeal anastomosis (EA).

Methods

Between 1 January 2016 and 1 October 2017, 36 and 50 patients who underwent IDA and EA, respectively, were included. Data on clinicopathological characteristics, surgical outcomes, post-operative recovery and complications were collected and compared between the two groups.

Results

Surgical outcomes and clinicopathological characteristics were similar between the two groups except the length of incision, which was significantly shorter in the IDA group than in the EA group (4.6 ± 0.6 vs 5.6 ± 0.7 cm, P < 0.001). The time to ground activities, fluid diet intake and post-operative hospitalization did not differ between the groups; however, the time to first flatus was significantly shorter in the IDA group than in the EA group (2.8 ± 0.5 vs 3.2 ± 0.8 days, P = 0.004). The post-operative visual analogue scale for pain was lower in the IDA group than in the EA group on post-operative Day 1 (4.0 ± 0.7 vs 4.5 ± 1.0, P = 0.002) and post-operative Day 3 (2.7 ± 0.6 vs 3.4 ± 0.6, P < 0.001). The surgical complication rates were 8.3 and 16.0% in the IDA and EA groups (P = 0.470), respectively. No complications such as anastomotic bleeding, stenosis and leakage occurred in any patient.

Conclusions

IDA is safe and feasible and shows more satisfactory short-term outcomes than EA.
Social Media Bytes: Daily Associations Between Social Media Use and Everyday Memory Failures Across the Adult Life Span
Authors: Sharifian Neika , Zahodne Laura B
Published: January 2019

Objectives

The prevalence of social media use in daily life is increasing; however, little is known about its cognitive costs and/or benefits. Social media use may help to offload memory to an external resource as well as to facilitate social relations, which could bolster or hinder everyday memory. Further, the relationship between social media use and memory may be moderated by age such that associations—whether positive or negative—could be exacerbated among older adults due to age-related declines.

Methods

Using an 8-day daily diary study from the Midlife in the United States Refresher cohort (n = 782, 25–75 years), multilevel models examined the impact of daily social media use, age, and their interaction on same-day and next-day memory failures.

Results

The concurrent model revealed that on days when social media use was high, individuals reported more memory failures. The lagged model further revealed that higher previous-day social media use was associated with more memory failures on the subsequent day, controlling for previous-day memory failures. These effects were not moderated by age. Post hoc analyses revealed no evidence of reverse-causation as previous-day memory failures did not predict next-day social media use.

Conclusions

Although past research has consistently shown that social engagement is a protective resource for memory, social media use may be a risk factor for memory failures for adults of any age. These findings highlight the growing importance of understanding the implications of social media use.
Physical activity of UK adults with chronic disease: cross-sectional analysis of accelerometer-measured physical activity in 96 706 UK Biobank participants
Authors: Barker Joseph , Smith Byrne Karl , Doherty Aiden , Foster Charlie , Rahimi Kazem , Ramakrishnan Rema , Woodward Mark , Dwyer Terence
Published: January 2019

Background

Physical inactivity is associated with an increased risk of major chronic diseases, although uncertainty exists about which chronic diseases, themselves, might contribute to physical inactivity. The objective of this study was to compare the physical activity of those with chronic diseases to healthy individuals using an objective measure of physical activity.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of data from 96 706 participants aged 40 years or older from the UK Biobank prospective cohort study (2006–10). Diagnoses were identified through ICD 9 and 10 coding within hospital admission records and a cancer registry linked to UK Biobank participants. We extracted summary physical activity information from participants who wore a wrist-worn triaxial accelerometer for 7 days. Statistical analyses included computation of adjusted geometric means and means using general linear models.

Results

Participants with chronic disease undertook 9% or 61 minutes (95% confidence interval: 57.8–64.8) less moderate activity and 11% or 3 minutes (95% confidence interval: 2.7–3.3) less vigorous activity per week than individuals without chronic disease. Participants in every chronic-disease subgroup undertook less physical activity than those without chronic disease. Sixty-seven diagnoses within these subgroups were associated with lower moderate activity.

Conclusions

The cross-sectional association of physical activity with chronic disease is broad. Given the substantial health benefits of being physically active, clinicians and policymakers should be aware that their patients with any chronic disease are at greater health risk from other diseases than anticipated because of their physical inactivity.
Assessing the role of women’s autonomy and acceptability of intimate-partner violence in maternal health-care utilization in 63 low- and middle-income countries
Authors: Sripad Pooja , Warren Charlotte E , Hindin Michelle J , Karra Mahesh
Published: January 2019

Background

Our study investigates the associations between women’s autonomy and attitudes toward the acceptability of intimate-partner violence against women (IPVAW) and maternal health-care utilization outcomes.

Methods

We combine data from 113 Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2003 and 2016, which give us a pooled sample of 765 169 mothers and 777 352 births from 63 countries. We generate composite scores of women’s autonomy (six-point scale with reference: no contribution) and acceptability of IPVAW (five-point scale with reference: no acceptance) and assess the associations between these measures and women’s use of antenatal care services and facility delivery in pooled and unique country samples.

Results

A change in a woman’s autonomy score from ‘no contribution to any decision-making domain’ (a composite autonomy score of 0) to ‘contribution to all decision-making domains’ (a score of 6) is associated with a 31.2% increase in her odds of delivering in a facility and a 42.4% increase in her odds of receiving at least eight antenatal care visits over the course of her pregnancy. In contrast, a change in a woman’s attitude towards acceptability of IPVAW from ‘IPVAW is not acceptable under any scenario’ (a score of 0) to ‘IPVAW is acceptable in all scenarios’ (a score of 5) is associated with an 8.9% decrease in her odds of delivering in a facility and a 20.3% decrease in her odds of receiving eight antenatal care visits.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that strong and significant associations exist between autonomy, acceptability of IPVAW and utilization of maternal health-care services.
Genetic Gene Expression Changes during Environmental Adaptations Tend to Reverse Plastic Changes Even after the Correction for Statistical Nonindependence
Authors: Ho Wei-Chin , Zhang Jianzhi
Published: January 2019

Organismal adaptations to new environments often begin with plastic phenotypic changes followed by genetic phenotypic changes, but the relationship between the two types of changes is controversial. Contrary to the view that plastic changes serve as steppingstones to genetic adaptations, recent transcriptome studies reported that genetic gene expression changes more often reverse than reinforce plastic expression changes in experimental evolution. However, it was pointed out that this trend could be an artifact of the statistical nonindependence between the estimates of plastic and genetic phenotypic changes, because both estimates rely on the phenotypic measure at the plastic stage. Using computer simulation, we show that indeed the nonindependence can cause an apparent excess of expression reversion relative to reinforcement. We propose a parametric bootstrap method and show by simulation that it removes the bias almost entirely. Analyzing transcriptome data from a total of 34 parallel lines in 5 experimental evolution studies of Escherichia coli, yeast, and guppies that are amenable to our method confirms that genetic expression changes tend to reverse plastic changes. Thus, at least for gene expression traits, phenotypic plasticity does not generally facilitate genetic adaptation. Several other comparisons of statistically nonindependent estimates are commonly performed in evolutionary genomics such as that between cis- and trans-effects of mutations on gene expression and that between transcriptional and translational effects on gene expression. It is important to validate previous results from such comparisons, and our proposed statistical analyses can be useful for this purpose.
Aging Populations and Public Health Ethics
Authors: Shepherd Lois
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines three primary public health goals relating to elderly populations: promoting healthy aging (including aging in place), reducing health inequities, and extending life spans. It then considers the ways in which programs or policies to advance population-wide goals are challenged to meet ethical responsibilities to protect older adults from harm, respect their autonomy and dignity, and treat them fairly or justly when resources are limited. Lastly, by looking at a difficult situation commonly faced in hospitals—the discharge of an elderly patient who may not be able to safely return home—the chapter introduces questions about the relationship between public health ethics, clinical ethics, and social justice, and about the future role of public health as a field of inquiry and action.
Distinctive Challenges of Public Health Ethics
Authors: Faden Ruth R. , Shebaya Sirine , Siegel Andrew W.
Published: January 2019

Public health is (1) a collective good, (2) primarily focused on prevention, (3) often reliant on government action for its promotion, and (4) intrinsically outcome-oriented. These characteristics of public health give rise to a number of ethical issues, such as the balancing of future health gains against current ones, the justification for the state’s use of coercive powers to advance health, and the moral foundation of public health. There are also some broader conceptual and moral challenges that bear on how such public health ethics issues are addressed. One challenge concerns the scope of public health: Whose health does public health seek to protect and promote? Another challenge concerns the boundaries of public health: How broadly or narrowly should we understand what public health entails? This chapter offers an overview of these distinctive challenges of public health ethics.
Validity, Reliability, and Fairness in Music Testing
Authors: Wesolowski Brian , Wind Stephanie
Published: January 2019

This chapter presents and discusses validity, reliability, and fairness within the framework of measurement and evaluation, and contextualizes it in the field of music education. A test can be described as the collection and interpretation of data representing a particular musical behavior using a systematic and uniform procedure. As such, a test in music can encompass the evaluation of any number of musical behaviors and the collection of data using any number of techniques. With any test, the collection of data needs to be valid, reliable, and fair in order to ensure quality and provide defensibility of the assessment. More specifically, test users need to ensure that a test measures what it purports to measure (i.e., validity); be confident that students with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities will receive similar scores across repeated administrations (i.e., reliability); and certify that the test is accessible and appropriate for all students (i.e., fairness). Historical, theoretical, and applied perspectives of validity, reliability, and fairness are discussed.
The Assessment of Adult Music Learning in the United States
Authors: Lane Jeremy
Published: January 2019

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a foundational perspective on assessment as it relates to adult music learners. The discussion includes a brief overview of the recent growth of adult musicianship as whole, followed by analysis of adults as music learners, the contexts in which their engagement occurs, and the process used in the instruction of adults, including key differences between these settings and those found in much of public school music education. The discussion continues with the proposal of self-regulated learning as a foundational model for assessment practices with adult musicians, and the chapter concludes with suggestions for future avenues for research and investigation.
Fashioning the Baroque Male
Authors: Hollander Martha
Published: January 2019

What did it mean to be a man in Baroque Europe? The answer was crucial for men aspiring to success, whether in everyday society or in the rarefied culture of the court. While the concept of manliness was defined by clothing and articulated in conduct books, it was most clearly demonstrated in portraits. Portraits involved not just likenesses but the carefully arranged iconography of clothes and accessories, how they were worn, and their associations. The masculine ideal shifted perpetually from looseness to restraint, from sensitivity to strength, from meditation to sociability. A survey of portraits over a 150-year period reveals how the civil servants of Europe, equipped with their knowledge of fashion and behavior and sustained by the skills of artists, achieved a complex, dignified version of the public masculine self.
Stress in Depression
Authors: Vrshek-Schallhorn Suzanne , Ditcheva Maria , Corneau Gail
Published: January 2019

That life stress precipitates depression is one of the most replicated findings in psychiatric research, but prior to Brown and Harris’s seminal contributions, insufficiently rigorous methods led to underestimates of the effects of stress and threatened the field. This chapter provides a methodological and historical overview, followed by a review of evidence that recent stress predicts depression across the life span. It also examines demographic vulnerability factors and research on early adversity and depression, closing with future directions. Two themes manifest throughout. First, stress assessment that uses investigator-rated severity, accounts for severity, establishes temporal precedence, and isolates the few months prior to depression onset remains critical to progress. Second, identifying the most potent forms of stress for depression is a key question that will facilitate both preventive/intervention efforts and more powerful tests in mechanistic research. Although evidence points to interpersonal forms of stress, few studies provide the necessary direct tests.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Treatment of Emotion Dysregulation
Authors: Chapman Alexander L. , Hope Nora H.
Published: January 2019

Developed to treat highly suicidal patients and often associated with the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has evolved into a transdiagnostic treatment addressing emotion dysregulation. DBT is an emotion-focused, comprehensive cognitive-behavioral treatment including individual therapy, group skills training, between-session skills coaching (phone coaching), and a therapist consultation team. Several elements of DBT address emotion dysregulation directly or indirectly, including emotion regulation skills, distress tolerance strategies to dampen physiological arousal and curb impulses to engage in problematic behaviors, and individual therapy interventions to reduce emotion dysregulation. Growing evidence suggests that DBT may address behavioral, cognitive, physiological, and neurobiological aspects of emotion dysregulation. Future directions should include increasing multimethod research on the effects of DBT on emotion dysregulation, streamlining treatment, making DBT more efficient and targeted, and conceptualizing DBT’s place within the spectrum of other emotion-focused transdiagnostic treatments.
Pregnant Embodiment and Field Research
Authors: Randles Jennifer
Published: January 2019

Feminist scholars have long argued for embodied reflexivity that involves accounting for how embodiment shapes qualitative field research as an intersubjective process. This chapter draws on ethnographic research with sixty-four low-income men of color who participated in a US government-funded fatherhood program conducted when the author was visibly pregnant with her first child. It analyzes pregnant embodiment as a strategy for facilitating rapport and credibility with socially dissimilar respondents and contributes to an epistemology of embodiment that attends to how researchers’ bodily states and experiences are sources of both data and analysis in field research. It concludes with insights generated from the project about how attention to embodiment is a valuable and illuminating reflexive space from which to better understand and empathize with respondents.
Persian
Authors: Toosarvandani Maziar
Published: January 2019

There are elliptical constructions in Persian whose properties diverge from their better-studied counterparts in other languages. A type of verb phrase ellipsis removes the non-verbal element and internal arguments of a complex predicate; it can also strand a simple verb that has undergone head movement to a low verbal functional projection. The language does not have obligatory wh-movement, so sluicing is derived instead through a movement operation that is driven from information structure. Gapping, stripping, and fragment answers may arise from the same movement operation, as gapping and stripping allow for their antecedent to be embedded, and stripping and fragment answers are insensitive to island constraints. Persian also has right-node raising and noun phrase ellipsis, though their properties are relatively less understood.
The Biographic Tradition
Authors: Cook Brad L.
Published: January 2019

Chapter 23 examines the biographic tradition on Demosthenes, focusing on the content of the surviving Lives of Demosthenes. It also cites examples to characterize the perspectives and distinctive features of these biographic texts from the fragments of Demosthenes’ day to the time of Photius and the Suda. The writing of Demosthenes’ Life begins with Demosthenes and his contemporaries. To find the earliest surviving biography of Demosthenes, allowing for a flexible definition of biography, a good start is to consider the summary justification of Ctesiphon’s proposed decree to crown Demosthenes in 336. The article discusses a number of works dealing with Demosthenes’ Life, including Plutarch’s Demosthenes, Lucian’s Encomium of Demosthenes, the pseudo-Plutarchan Demosthenes, Libanius’ Life of Demosthenes, Zosimus’ Life of Demosthenes, and the anonymous Life of Demosthenes.
Afterlife (Antiquity and Byzantine Era)
Authors: Canfora Luciano
Published: January 2019

Chapter 33 focuses on Demosthenes’ reception in antiquity and during the Byzantine Era. In particular, it examines the character and value of the 15 ‘demegoriai’ that survive from Demosthenes’ Assembly speeches, first by discussing the peculiarly Demosthenic phenomenon of a first version written already in a highly elaborated form. Demosthenes was perhaps influenced here by Isocrates’ important innovation, the written speech that presented itself as if it had been delivered; this practice is also documented in Demosthenes’ circle by the On Halonnesus of his associate Hegesippus. These innovative practices became the object of attention for the generation of critics immediately following Demosthenes. The article considers the reception of Demosthenes by looking at the works of Theopompus of Chios, Anaximenes of Lampsacus, Timaeus, Aesion, Hermippus, Demochares, Callimachus, Polybius, Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Didymus of Alexandria, Hermogenes of Tarsus, Plutarch, Lucian of Samosata, Aelius Aristides, Libanius, Zosimus, and Photius.
Neural Mechanisms of Expertise
Authors: Ullén Fredrik , de Manzano Örjan , Mosing Miriam A.
Published: January 2019

This chapter summarizes key findings from the literature on neuroanatomical and functional correlates of expertise, concluding that expertise is related to macroanatomical properties of domain-relevant brain regions and ultrastructural properties of both the gray and the white matter. The consequence of these neural adaptations is a capacity for vastly more efficient performance of domain-specific tasks. In functional terms, this depends on multiple mechanisms that are situated at different levels of neural processing. These mechanisms include automation and alterations in functional connectivity, as well as specializations within memory systems and sensorimotor systems that optimize the processing of information that is relevant for the particular domain of expertise. Finally, the chapter discusses the neural mechanisms of expertise from the perspective of new models that emphasize a multifactorial perspective and take into account both genetic and environmental influences on expertise and its acquisition.
Phenomenological Psychopathology and Psychiatric Classification
Authors: Fernandez Anthony Vincent
Published: January 2019

This chapter provides an overview of phenomenological approaches to psychiatric classification. The aim is to encourage and facilitate philosophical debate over the best ways to classify psychiatric disorders. First, the chapter articulates phenomenological critiques of the dominant approach to classification and diagnosis—that is, the operational approach employed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Second, it describes the type or typification approach to psychiatric classification, which is distinguished into three different versions: ideal types, essential types, and prototypes. It is argued that despite their occasional conflation in the contemporary literature, there are important differences among these approaches. Third, the chapter outlines a new phenomenological-dimensional approach. It shows how this approach, which starts from basic dimensions of human existence, allows us to investigate the full range of psychopathological conditions without accepting the validity of current diagnostic categories.
Online Romantic Relationships
Authors: Lloyd Joanne , Attrill-Smith Alison , Fullwood Chris
Published: January 2019

This chapter provides an overview of the variety of ways in which online romantic relationships are conducted. It discusses how existing relationships are played out in online spaces, with particular attention to the increasingly popular activity of seeking new relationships through online dating. It covers the wide array of dating sites and apps available and summarizes the available information about who uses them, how and when they use them, and why. Positive aspects of online relationships, such as convenience as well as control over the way individuals are able to present themselves, are discussed, along with more negative aspects, including the potential for “catfishing” and harmful online behaviors after a relationship breakup.
Personality and Internet Use: The Case of Introversion and Extroversion
Authors: Amichai-Hamburger Yair , Etgar Shir
Published: January 2019

This chapter seeks to enhance our understanding of the interaction between personality and behavior on the Internet, with a focus on the personality theory of extroversion–introversion. The chapter opens with a discussion of the unique features of the Internet that create an exceptional psychological environment: anonymity, control over physical appearance, high degree of control over the interaction, high accessibility, finding similar others, equality, and fun. Together they create feelings of protection and empowerment for their users. The chapter continues with an analysis of how personality affects online behavior through the prism of research carried out in the area of introversion–extroversion and online behavior. It assesses both anonymous and identified environments. The chapter concludes with an exploration of new directions of research based on the unique features of the Internet
The Art of the Catacombs
Authors: Bisconti Fabrizio
Published: January 2019

The art of the catacombs was born in Rome between the second and third centuries and is manifested especially in the pictorial decorations of the cubicula and other hypogeal environments. The extremely simplified artistic typology echoes the Second Pompeian style through the use of red and green lines that run across the walls and the faces of the monuments. Initially this grid contained neutral figures selected from the pagan repertoire; later those images were replaced by Christian scenes inspired by biblical and salvific imagery. The art of the catacombs also includes funerary sculpture, particularly sarcophagi, and the so-called minor arts, such as gilded glass, ivory dolls, and mosaic tesserae. The catacombal decorations ended at the beginning of the fifth century, when funerary use ceased in these subterranean cemeteries.
Archaeology of Early Christianity in Egypt
Authors: Brooks Hedstrom Darlene L.
Published: January 2019

This chapter discusses the evolution of scholarly interest in Christian antiquities in Egypt after 1900. The archaeology of early Christianity developed much later than the field of Egyptology and initially focused only upon the clearing of monumental churches. Growing interest in Byzantine art and archaeology in the mid-1920s fostered greater support for excavations of expressly Christian settlements, which were primarily monastic communities. The wealth of archaeological evidence preserved in Egypt’s arid climate, such as documentary evidence (ostraca and papyri), textiles, manuscripts, and small finds such as items made of leather, reeds, ivory, and wood, helped foster a greater appreciation for Egypt’s history after the age of the pharaohs.