bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Iconography of the belly: eighteenth-century satirical prints
Authors: Stentz Barbara
Published: January 2019

This chapter analyses metaphorical and formal aspects of satirical representations of bodily functions related to digestion and evacuation (indigestions, winds, belches, enemas, etc.) and their political overtones in graphic satire. Beyond the burlesque tradition, a large belly that attracts the eye can be evocative of the social and political tensions of the time. A traditional sign of opulence, power and wealth, the oversized belly signals the opposition and unbalanced relations between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless. In England, caricatures often portrayed greedy, potbellied physicians, while in France the revolutionary caricaturists used the belly as the symbol of the degeneration and of the moral and physical slackening of some of their adversaries. This iconography from the early times of the revolution shows a reversal after a while, as protruding bellies became unacceptable and depreciated and had to be corrected by radical treatments.
Visceral visions: art, pedagogy and politics in Revolutionary France
Authors: Johnson Dorothy
Published: January 2019

In late eighteenth-century France, at the seeming height of neoclassicism in the arts with its goal of idealized form al’antica in the depiction of the human figure, an intensified fascination with the visual experience of viscera emerged.  Picturing viscera became increasingly common in visual culture.  These developments occurred during a period of intense political and cultural upheaval and concomitant violence and bloodshed in France. Graphic anatomical plates, prints, and caricatures as well as wax models of viscera cast from the body parts of corpses, were used for pedagogical instruction as were écorché figures, either sculpted or cast from cadavers. Paintings were made that engaged the subject of death and disembowelment. We also see the actual participation in dissection by artists as well as anatomists. Artists, anatomists, and amateurs (sometimes working in concert) produced compelling images of what lies beneath the skin for a variety of purposes and functions.
The saints of the entrails and the bowels of the earth
Authors: Gélis Jacques
Published: January 2019

This article explores the texts and visual representations of the ‘saints of the bowels’ in order to establish an anthropological classification of aching bellies in early-modern France. A web of symbols is found in the materiality of the viscera. Thus, this article argues that representations of the belly as cave-like mirrors some images of the bowels of the earth. The “Saints of the Entrails”, St Erasmus and St Mammes, and Saint Elmo, all of whom were eviscerated during their martyrdom, represented many popular beliefs of rural communities who conflated images of the soil and images of the belly.
Prologue
Authors: Rennie Kriston R.
Published: January 2019

Let me begin this book with a story. There is a twelfth-century collection, known as the Monumenta Vizeliacensia (Ms. 227 Bibliothèque Municipale Auxerre), which contains a particularly memorable and colourful manuscript initial (fol. 22r). Simply described, it shows Count Gerard of Roussilon and his wife, Bertha – proud founders in 858–9 of the Burgundian monasteries of Vézelay and Pothières (see book cover image). At face value, this image recalls a pious act of lay patronage. On the one hand, it commemorates the count and his wife for their donations and endowments, venerating their political and spiritual role in shaping monastic identity and culture. Representing an idealised model of localised governance anchored in the gesture and memory of foundation, it symbolises a harmonious relationship between secular rulers and the religious life. But on the other hand, this image also leaves a lot unsaid....
‘Victory of the papacy’?
Authors: Rennie Kriston R.
Published: January 2019

Monastic exemption was a product of political negotiation and re-negotiation. More than just a passive outcome of individual circumstance, monastic freedom and protection were objectives reached with direct and effective papal support and intervention. These specific rights and liberties were achievable in no small measure because of Rome’s increasing role in challenging unwanted episcopal and lay domination. Although initiated by monks in Christian provinces like France – and supported regionally by Frankish bishops, kings, and magnates – exemptions became increasingly mobilised as powerful social, political, and legal mechanisms of medieval papal governance. This concluding chapter questions this so-called ‘victory of the papacy’, asking whether this is still the most accurate and lasting impression.
Epilogue
Authors: Rennie Kriston R.
Published: January 2019

The practice of monastic exemption changed forever in the late eleventh century. Most modern studies on the subject, in fact, begin their accounts with the pontificate of Urban II (1088–99). Paul Fabre is largely responsible for this enduring chronology and interpretive paradigm. He argued for the papacy’s intervention in a monastery’s spiritual affairs, which in turn marked a reversal of fortunes for the diocesan bishop, where previously he had maintained a foothold through the power of ordination. There is some truth to this claim, even if – as this book has demonstrated – the papacy’s involvement was a constant in monastic life and governance since the late sixth century. This landmark shift in monastic exemption practice nevertheless offers a fitting conclusion to this book. It signals a changing institutional and ideological character that provided a good constitutional model to twelfth-and thirteenth-century popes and canonists. The result was a decidedly more permanent dimension to monastic exemption, which served to define the papacy’s authority over secular and ecclesiastical authorities and the latter’s position within monastic communities. In this respect, exemptions from the late eleventh century came to be used as legislative expressions of the papacy’s proprietary rights – ties of dependency and promises of apostolic protection, whose special relationship provided monasteries with a profitable legal position....
Negotiating medical welfare
Authors: King Steven
Published: January 2019

This chapter foregrounds the concept of pauper agency. Using the largest corpus of letters by or about the poor ever assembled, it argues that sickness was the core business of the Old Poor Law by the early nineteenth century. Rather than paupers being simply subject to the whim and treatment of the parish, the chapter argues that they had considerable agency. Despite problems of moral hazard and the idea that sickness could be faked, paupers and officials agreed that ill health and its treatment was an area of acceptable contestation.
Treating the sick poor: a quantitative overview
Authors: King Steven
Published: January 2019

This chapter provides a quantitative overview of the scale and complexion of medical welfare for the period 1750-1834. It focuses on the records of 117 parishes across seven English counties, specially chosen to reflect the socio-economic distribution of English communities at the time. Investigating change over time, variation between different areas and between different community types, the essential finding of the chapter is that there was a concerted upward shift in the scale of medical welfare spending by the mid-1810s.
The medical economy of makeshifts
Authors: King Steven
Published: January 2019

This chapter tries to situate parochial medical welfare within the wider medical economy of makeshifts. It argues that paupers engaged in a three strand set of responses to illness in addition to their negotiation of parochial relief. Sometimes they explored medical avenues (for instance charitable treatment by doctors) which shadowed the response of parishes; sometimes they explored avenues which complemented parochial activity; and sometimes (for instance through self-dosing and self-help clubs) they explored avenues which substituted for parochial spending. The chapter concludes that the medical welfare traceable in Old Poor Law records was a small subset of that garnered by the poor.
Introduction
Authors: Docherty Thomas
Published: January 2019

Julien Benda argued in 1946, reprising his 1927 Treason of the Intellectuals, that the intellectual’s primary responsibility was to abstract thought, removing the intellectual from political engagement or ‘passion’. By contrast, Edward Said, essentially extending the thought of Jaspers on the Idea of the University argued that the intellectual’s commitments are absolutely central to her or his identity. In exploring these positions and setting them in their respective historical contexts, this Introduction outlines the ways in which the intellectual has a responsibility towards politics, and exposes the way in which the contemporary university institution conspires to limit the effects of this. The university, today, has a commitment to a specific ideology of market fundamentalism; and the Introduction shows how this rests in prejudice. It thus reveals the fundamental basis on which a contemporary treason of the intellectuals rests, and argues for a rehabilitation of the proper task of the intellectual and of the university.
The exceptional and the ordinary
Authors: Docherty Thomas
Published: January 2019

The contemporary institution fails to understand the real meaning of ‘mass higher education’. A mass higher education should address the concerns of those masses of ‘ordinary people’ who, for whatever reasons, do not attend a university. Instead, the contemporary sector simply admits more individuals from lower social and economic classes. Behind this is a deep suspicion of the intellectual whose knowledge marks them out as intrinsically elitist and not ‘of the people’. An intellectual concerned about everyday life is now seen as suspicious, given the normative belief that a university education is about individual competitive self-advancement. This intellectual is now an enemy of ‘the people’, and incipiently one who might even be regarded as criminal in dissenting from conformity with social norms of neoliberalism. There is a history to this, dating from 1945; and it sets up a contest between two version of the university: one sees it as a centre of humane and liberal values, the other as the site for the production of individuals who conform to and individually benefit from neoliberal greed. The genuine exception is the intellectual who dissents; but dissent itself is now seen as potentially criminal.
Inflation, democracy, and populism
Authors: Docherty Thomas
Published: January 2019

The crisis in higher education is also simultaneously a crisis in constitutional democracies; and the two are intimately linked. The corruption of language that shapes managerialist discourse enables a corruption in the communications among citizens that are vital in any democracy. Democracy becomes recast first as an alleged ‘will of the people’, but a will whose semantic content is prone to political manipulation. In turn this opens the way to a validation of demagogic populism that masquerades as democracy when it is in fact the very thing that undermines democracy. When the University sector becomes complicit with this – as it is in our times – then it engages in a fundamental betrayal of the actual people in the society it claims to serve. Populism thrives on the celebration of anti-intellectual ignorance and the contempt for expertise, preferring instead the supposedly more ‘natural’ claims of instinctive faith over reason. Lurking within this is a form of class warfare that treats real and actual working class life as contemptible.
Gambling with the electorate
Authors: Allen Nicholas
Published: January 2019

This chapter charts the story of the Conservatives in government between 2015 and 2017. It examines why David Cameron called a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, why Theresa May succeeded him as prime minister, and why May decided to call a snap election in the spring of 2017. It locates these decisions against deep and bitter divisions within the Conservative party over the issue of EU membership, and further examines the broader record of the Conservatives in government. Above all, it seeks to explain how both prime ministers both came to gamble their fortunes on the electorate – and lose.
The Liberal Democrats
Authors: Curtice John
Published: January 2019

This chapter tells the story of the Liberal Democrats between 2015 and 2017. It begins by describing the party’s disastrous performance in the 2015 general election and their dramatic loss of support from participating in the 2010 coalition government. It examines how the party under its new leader, Tim Farron, sought to capitalise on the 2016 Brexit referendum by making it a platform on which to win over those who had voted Remain. It explains why the party’s strategy failed and why, despite gaining a small number of MPs, the party saw a further decline in its vote share.
The rise and fall of UKIP, 2010–17
Authors: Whiteley Paul , Goodwin Matthew , Clarke Harold D.
Published: January 2019

This chapter describes the rise and fall of the United Kingdom Independence Party. Even though the party never simultaneously had more than two MPs in the House of Commons, it exerted an enormous influence on the direction of British politics, and its rise was an important factor in David Cameron’s decision to call the Brexit referendum. This chapter explains where UKIP drew its support and examines the importance of economic factors, as well as concerns about European integration and immigration. It also considers the challenges facing the party in the wake of the 2017 election and its future prospects.
Why the Conservatives lost their majority – but still won
Authors: Bartle John
Published: January 2019

This chapter answers the key question of why the Conservatives lost their majority at the 2017 general election but remained in power under Theresa May. If first describes the election outcome before explaining why a leftwards moving ‘policy mood’ and the government’s record made the Tories more vulnerable than their initial poll lead suggested. It further explains how, in the context of a two-horse race, Labour’s positive campaign contrasted especially favourably with the Conservatives’ own lacklustre efforts. Finally, the electoral system channelled the distribution of votes into a hung parliament in which the Tories fell just short of an overall majority.
A coalition of chaos
Authors: Campbell Rosie
Published: January 2019

This chapter takes stock of the post-election landscape. It describes how the Conservatives and Prime Minister Theresa May emerged from the 2017 general election as a minority government and negotiated a confidence-and-supply arrangement with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). It considers how the government might be affected by the twin challenges of austerity and Brexit, as well as the other major parties. It finishes by examining the electoral instability in the party system and the possible implications going forward.
High culture and tall chimneys
Authors: Moore James
Published: January 2019

During the nineteenth century industrial Lancashire became a leading national and international art centre. In 1857 Manchester hosted the international Art Treasures Exhibition at Old Trafford, arguably the single most important art exhibition every held. By the end of the century almost every major Lancashire town possessed an art gallery, while Lancashire art schools and artists were recognised nationally and internationally. This book examines the reasons for the remarkable rise of visual art in Lancashire and its relationship to the rise of the commercial and professional classes who supported it. Lancashire is rarely seen by outsiders as a major cultural centre but the creation of a network of art institutions facilitated a vibrant cultural life and shaped the civic identity of its people. The modern industrial towns of Lancashire often looked to the cultural history of other great civilisations to understand the rapidly changing world around them. Roscoe’s Liverpool of the late eighteenth century emulated Medici’s Florence, Fairbairn’s Manchester looked to Rome, while a century later Preston built an art gallery as a tribute to Periclean Athens. Yet the art institutions and movements of the county were also distinctively modern. Many embraced the British fashions of the time, while some looked to new art movements abroad. Art institutions also became a cultural battleground for alternative visions of the future, from those that embraced modern mass production technologies and ‘commercial art’ to those that feared technology and capitalism would destroy artistic creativity and corrode standards of excellence.
Introduction: art in the first industrial society
Authors: Moore James
Published: January 2019

The book opens with a discussion of the rapid economic and social changes that overtook the region in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and, in particular, the consequences for urban cultural life. The changes produced important debates about the importance of culture, and particularly the visual arts, in a modern, civil society. The promotion of the visual arts became an important part of the civic humanist agenda and consequently they became central to the identity of the new industrial, commercial and professional classes.
Lorenzo in Liverpool: William Roscoe, civic myths and the institutionalisation of urban culture
Authors: Moore James
Published: January 2019

The impact of William Roscoe’s circle in Liverpool is re-examined and, in particular, his particular interpretation of the ‘Florentine model’ which continued to be so influential in the city in the early nineteenth century. The chapter explores the various manifestations of this cultural legacy and, in particular, the development of key art institutions and associations. While these were important in promoting Liverpool as a centre of high culture, they also limited the cultural perspective of Liverpool’s merchant class and created an essentially elitist view about the purpose of cultural capital assembly.
An ‘ornament to the town’? The Royal Manchester Institution and early public art patronage in Manchester
Authors: Moore James
Published: January 2019

The rapid rise of Manchester as Liverpool’s commercial rival produced an industrial and commercial elite determined to forge a community based on cultural achievement as well as economic endeavour. This chapter explores the cultural plans to reshape Manchester and the role of the Royal Manchester Institution in providing a focal point for the leading figures in the Manchester art world. In doing so it explores how art was used to position Manchester as a major British city and an alternative source of patronage and power to both Liverpool and London. Public exhibitions may not have been commercially successful but they offered a challenge to the dominance of the Royal Academy and a platform for a new generation of emerging northern artists.
A ‘solid foundation’? Art schools and art education
Authors: Moore James
Published: January 2019

Despite the success of municipal art galleries in some quarters, the prevailing Liberal economic ideology of much of industrial Lancashire remained suspicious of state intervention in the arts. Many feared it would become economically costly and threaten local civic independence. However Royal Commissions that exposed the lack of artistic skills among industrial textile workers meant that attitudes gradually changed. Liberal Manchester became one of the first state-supported art schools. This chapter explores how local communities fought to shape art education and the successes and failure of local art education. Although aimed at the industrial worker, the art school remained a sphere in which bourgeois values and middle class students predominated, much to the chagrin of local critics.
The art of philanthropy? The formation and development of the Walker Art Gallery
Authors: Moore James
Published: January 2019

The opening of Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery provided the city with one of the country’s most modern art galleries, complementing the impressive neoclassical architecture that had emerged around the famous St. George’s Hall. Yet a gallery aimed at promoting popular art education was decidedly unpopular with many of Liverpool’s population. The partisan nature of the gift by well-known brewer and Conservative A.B. Walker was flavoured with corruption and revealed the difficulties that municipal art institutions faced when accepting financial support from controversial local donors. It also revealed that although municipalisation promised a more democratic age, financial limitations on local authorities meant that elite influence in the local art world remained strong.
A problem of scale and leadership? Manchester’s municipal ambitions and the ‘failure’ of public spirit
Authors: Moore James
Published: January 2019

The 1870s and 1880s saw the Manchester art world arguably reach its cultural zenith. The rise of the proto-Impressionist ‘Manchester school’, the municipalisation of the Royal Manchester Institution building and the plans for a new city gallery produced an art community and institutional infrastructure second to nowhere in England, except London. However such progress concealed a growing disagreement about the purpose of municipal art institutions. As attendance at exhibitions fell, critics questioned the ability of large galleries to engage the public and called for more community-based art initiatives. The crisis point was reached when proposals for a new city art gallery in Piccadilly Square fell foul of Conservative and Labour opposition. At a time of economic slump, had art become an expensive luxury?
Introduction
Authors: Morgan Alison
Published: January 2019

This chapter begins by outlining the events leading up to the Peterloo Massacre on 16th August 1819 and its immediate aftermath with a particular focus on the response in the radical and loyalist press. By combining eye-witness accounts with contemporaneous reporting, the significance of Peterloo at the time can clearly be recognised. This chapter then focuses on the radical press, both in the 1790s, including Thomas Spence’s Pigs’ Meat and the 1810s, including the Manchester Observer, Medusa, Wooler’s Black Dwarf, Hunt’s Examiner and Carlile’s Republican,
The Cap of Liberty, The Theological and Political Comet and The Briton, in which many of the ballads and songs were printed. Finally, this introduction discusses the place of the broadside ballad in vernacular culture from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century and the appropriation of it by antiquarians in the eighteenth century.
‘Rise Britons, rise now from your slumber’: the revolutionary call to arms
Authors: Morgan Alison
Published: January 2019

This section begins by briefly examining the historical provenance of the poetic trope of awakening and its significance within radical culture prior to Peterloo, as well as those poems and songs written in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, thereby highlighting the intertextual dialogue between the poems which is illustrated not only by an ideological unity but also by the commonality of motifs, forms, styles and even tunes. Shelley’s Masque of Anarchy provides a well-known example of this trope and is used in the introduction to this section as an illustration of how radical poems and songs in the Romantic period utilised revolutionary discourse dating back to the sixteenth century. The section comprises ten poems which are exhortatory ballads or apostrophes. At times of national crisis, poets have called on their readers to ‘arise’ and awaken’, often drawing on those past events to prove that, if England could get rid of two kings, it could certainly get rid of a third.
‘Ye English warriors’: radical nationalism and the true patriot
Authors: Morgan Alison
Published: January 2019

Radicalism and nationalism would appear to be unlikely bedfellows, given that they tend to be placed on opposite ends of the political spectrum; yet this section demonstrates how many of the radical poems and songs written after Peterloo are underpinned by a radical English nationalism with poets making clear distinction between the un-English characteristics of a tyrannical state and monarchy and the true English patriot fighting for lost freedoms. Although the ideology of nationalism emerged in the revolutionary fervour of the late eighteenth century, this section establishes the nature of English radical nationalism and how the championing of English national identity has resonances with the republicanism of the English Revolution and late seventeenth century, the heroes and martyrs of which, particularly John Hampden, Algernon Sidney and William Russell, were a regular presence in the radical press. Key to English national identity is the myth of the Norman yoke and the yearning for the restoration of lost rights, references to which permeate the eleven poems in this section.
‘Your memorials shall survive the grave’: elegy and remembrance
Authors: Morgan Alison
Published: January 2019

The sixteen ballads and songs within this section fall into two camps: elegy and remembrance. Whilst a central feature of elegiac poetry is the way in which it remembers or memorialises the dead, the dead a poem which is one of remembrance is not necessarily an elegy. Several of the songs herein use the date of Peterloo as a temporal marker – with an eye both on the contemporaneous reader or audience and the future reader. Included in this section are broadside ballads by Michael Wilson and elegies by Samuel Bamford and Peter Pindar. These songs display a self-awareness in their significance in marking the moment for posterity and in their attempts to reach an audience beyond Manchester and ensure that the public knew what had happened on 16th August as well as preserving the event in English vernacular culture. It is also a quest for ownership of the narrative of the day; the speed with which so many of these songs were written and published not only suggests the ferocity of emotions surrounding events but also the need to exert some control over the way in which they were represented.
‘Freeman stand, or freeman die’: liberty and slavery
Authors: Morgan Alison
Published: January 2019

The words ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’ feature in forty-three poems in this collection, indicative of the centrality of this theme to the radical discourse of the day. In an era of almost unprecedented repression and the curtailment of rights, working people wished to rid themselves of their chains and reclaim their lost liberties, as a way of asserting English nationalism in the face of a ‘foreign’ monarchy. The twelve poems and songs in this section celebrate both the forthcoming return of liberty, presented as a goddess, and Henry Hunt as liberty’s human representative. The restoration of liberty as an end to slavery is a common trope within English radical discourse and poems often depict the radical patriot endeavouring to rescue his country from an imposed and unnatural tyranny and return it to its true state of liberty; however, this trope predates the era of revolution when such rhetoric was common currency and this section explores the prevalence of the theme of liberty in the mid-eighteenth century and the subsequent influence of William Collins and Thomas Gray on the poems in this collection. The introduction also seeks to explain the lack of references to the transatlantic slave trade in these poems at a time when the issue of rights was at the fore. It includes poems written by Samuel Bamford and the Spencean Robert Wedderburn.
Bridging large-scale neuronal recordings and large-scale network models using dimensionality reduction
Authors: Williamson Ryan C , Doiron Brent , Smith Matt A , Yu Byron M
Published: January 2019

A long-standing goal in neuroscience has been to bring together neuronal recordings and neural network modeling to understand brain function. Neuronal recordings can inform the development of network models, and network models can in turn provide predictions for subsequent experiments. Traditionally, neuronal recordings and network models have been related using single-neuron and pairwise spike train statistics. We review here recent studies that have begun to relate neuronal recordings and network models based on the multi-dimensional structure of neuronal population activity, as identified using dimensionality reduction. This approach has been used to study working memory, decision making, motor control, and more. Dimensionality reduction has provided common ground for incisive comparisons and tight interplay between neuronal recordings and network models.
Requirements for RNA polymerase II preinitiation complex formation in vivo
Authors: Petrenko Natalia , Jin Yi , Dong Liguo , Wong Koon Ho , Struhl Kevin
Published: January 2019

Transcription by RNA polymerase II requires assembly of a preinitiation complex (PIC) composed of general transcription factors (GTFs) bound at the promoter. In vitro, some GTFs are essential for transcription, whereas others are not required under certain conditions. PICs are stable in the absence of nucleotide triphosphates, and subsets of GTFs can form partial PICs. By depleting individual GTFs in yeast cells, we show that all GTFs are essential for TBP binding and transcription, suggesting that partial PICs do not exist at appreciable levels in vivo. Depletion of FACT, a histone chaperone that travels with elongating Pol II, strongly reduces PIC formation and transcription. In contrast, TBP-associated factors (TAFs) contribute to transcription of most genes, but TAF-independent transcription occurs at substantial levels, preferentially at promoters containing TATA elements. PICs are absent in cells deprived of uracil, and presumably UTP, suggesting that transcriptionally inactive PICs are removed from promoters in vivo.
Prognostic values of GMPS, PR, CD40, and p21 in ovarian cancer
Authors: Wang Ping , Zhang Zengli , Ma Yujie , Lu Jun , Zhao Hu , Wang Shuiliang , Tan Jianming , Li Bingyan
Published: January 2019

Early detection and prediction of prognosis and treatment responses are all the keys in improving survival of ovarian cancer patients. This study profiled an ovarian cancer progression model to identify prognostic biomarkers for ovarian cancer patients. Mouse ovarian surface epithelial cells (MOSECs) can undergo spontaneous malignant transformation in vitro cell culture. These were used as a model of ovarian cancer progression for alterations in gene expression and signaling detected using the Illumina HiSeq2000 Next-Generation Sequencing platform and bioinformatical analyses. The differential expression of four selected genes was identified using the gene expression profiling interaction analysis (http://gepia.cancer-pku.cn/) and then associated with survival in ovarian cancer patients using the Cancer Genome Atlas dataset and the online Kaplan–Meier Plotter (http://www.kmplot.com) data. The data showed 263 aberrantly expressed genes, including 182 up-regulated and 81 down-regulated genes between the early and late stages of tumor progression in MOSECs. The bioinformatic data revealed four genes (i.e., guanosine 5′-monophosphate synthase (GMPS), progesterone receptor (PR), CD40, and p21 (cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A)) to play an important role in ovarian cancer progression. Furthermore, the Cancer Genome Atlas dataset validated the differential expression of these four genes, which were associated with prognosis in ovarian cancer patients. In conclusion, this study profiled differentially expressed genes using the ovarian cancer progression model and identified four (i.e., GMPS, PR, CD40, and p21) as prognostic markers for ovarian cancer patients. Future studies of prospective patients could further verify the clinical usefulness of this four-gene signature.
Effects of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis infection on egg production and the immune response of the laying duck Anas platyrhynchos
Authors: Zhang Yu , Chen Yang , Gu Tiantian , Xu Qi , Zhu Guoqiang , Chen Guohong
Published: January 2019

Persistent colonization of the avian reproductive tract by Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (SE) negatively affects egg production and contaminates the egg. The immune function of the ovary and oviduct is essential for protection from infection and for the production of wholesome eggs. However, the immune response of laying ducks during SE infection is not well-understood. In this study, ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) were infected with SE and were systematically monitored for fecal shedding during a 13-week period. We also assessed bacterial distribution in the reproductive tract and classified infected ducks as resistant or susceptible based on the presence of tissue lesions and on SE isolation from fecal samples. We found that infected animals had persistent, but intermittent, bacterial shedding that resulted in the induction of carrier ducks. Laying rate and egg quality were also decreased after SE infection (P < 0.05). SE readily colonized the stroma, small follicle, isthmus, and vagina in the reproductive tracts of susceptible ducks. Immunoglobulin (IgA, IgG, IgM) levels were higher in susceptible ducks compared with resistant birds (P < 0.05); T-lymphocyte subpopulations (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+) displayed the opposite trend. qRT-PCR analysis was used to examine expression profiles of immune response genes in the reproductive tract of infected ducks. The analysis revealed that immune genes, including toll-like receptors (TLR2, TLR4-5, TLR15, TLR21), NOD-like receptors (NOD1, NLRX1, NLRP12), avian β-defensins (AvβD4-5, AvβD7, AvβD12), cytokines (IL-6, IL-1β, IFN-γ), and MyD88 were markedly upregulated in the reproductive tracts of SE-infected ducks (all P < 0.05); TLR3, TLR7, NLRC3, NLRC5, and TNF-α were significantly downregulated. These results revealed that SE infection promoted lower egg production and quality, and altered the expression of TLRs, NLRs, AvβDs, and cytokine family genes. These findings provide a basis for further investigation of the physiological and immune mechanisms of SE infection in laying ducks.
Effects of ventilation openings in industrial safety helmets on evaporative heat dissipation
Authors: Ueno Satoru , Sawada Shin-ichi
Published: January 2019

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the effects of ventilation openings in commercial industrial safety helmets (ISHs) on evaporative heat dissipation.

Methods

Seven models of commercial ISH were examined quantitatively by a sweating thermal head manikin (SHM) with six separate zones. To simulate summer outdoor conditions, the measurements were done in a climate chamber, with the room temperature and relative humidity set at 34.0°C and 50%, respectively. The shell temperature of SHM was set at 34.0°C. Wind was blown from the front or left side at 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 m/s. The necessary heat flux to keep the manikin skin temperature at 34.0°C was counted as evaporative heat dissipation in each zone.

Results

Openings at the front and back, and openings between the body and brim of the helmet played a significant role in increasing the heat flux in Forehead zone, but in all zones as a total, the effects were not significant. Heat flux for ISH with openings on both the right and left sides was not significantly different from that without openings.

Conclusions

Our study utilizing SHM showed that ventilation openings on both the right and left sides or front and back sides of commercial ISHs were not significantly effective in increasing total evaporative heat dissipation under an equivalent temperature of ambience and manikin shell. Further improvements on ISH are needed to increase evaporative heat dissipation.
Customized double‐shell immobilization device combined with VMAT radiation treatment of basosquamous cell carcinoma of the scalp
Authors: Mail Noor , Al‐Ghamdi Suliman M. , Chantel Carelse , Sedhu Farid , Rana Atique , Saoudi Abdelhamid
Published: January 2019

Malignancies with a superficial involvement of the scalp/skull present technical challenges for radiation‐treatment‐planning, such as achieving skin coverage with the prescribed dose and with the desirable conformity, homogeneity, and lower brain dose. We report a radiotherapy treatment technique for a patient diagnosed with diffuse basosquamous cell carcinoma of the scalp and adjacent skull‐bone. This study presents the plan's quality parameters, patient's dosimetry, and patient's outcome. The patient was treated using volume‐modulated‐arc therapy (VMAT) and a double‐shell‐bolus full‐head device (DSBFD) designed for patient immobilization and better skin coverage. A VMAT plan was generated using an Eclipse treatment‐planning system for a prescribed dose of 60 Gy in 30 fractions. The treatment plan was analyzed to determine the conformity index (CI), the homogeneity index (HI), the target‐coverage, and the dose to the organs‐at‐risk (OARs). Skin‐doses were measured using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimeters. Clinical follow‐up was performed by the radiation oncologist during and after the course of radiotherapy. With regard to planning target volume (PTV) coverage, the V95 was 99%. The measured and calculated dose to the skin was in the range 100–108% of the prescribed dose. The mean brain‐PTV dose was 711 cGy. The CI and HI were 1.09 and 1.08, respectively. The mean positioning accuracy for the patient over the course of treatment was within 2 mm. The measured accumulated skin dose and planning dose was agreed within 2%. Clinical examination of the patient 6 months after radiotherapy showed good response to the treatment and a 90% reduction in scarring. The DSBFD technique combined with RapidArc treatment was useful in terms of the target dose distribution and coverage. Daily patient alignment was found very precise, reproducible and less time‐consuming.
American College of Rheumatology Provisional Criteria for Clinically Relevant Improvement in Children and Adolescents With Childhood‐Onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Authors: Brunner Hermine I. , Holland Michael J. , Beresford Michael W. , Ardoin Stacy P. , Appenzeller Simone , Silva Clovis A. , Flores Francisco , Goilav Beatrice , Avar Aydin Pinar Ozge , Wenderfer Scott E. , Levy Deborah M. , Ravelli Angelo , Khubchandani Raju , Avcin Tadej , Klein‐Gitelman Marisa S. , Ruperto Nicolino , Feldman Brian M. , Ying Jun ,   the Paediatric Rheumatology International Trial Organisation and Pediatric Rheumatology Collaborative Study Group
Published: January 2019

Objective

To develop a Childhood Lupus Improvement Index (CHILI) as a tool to measure response to therapy in childhood‐onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE), with a focus on clinically relevant improvement (CRIcSLE).

Methods

Pediatric nephrology and rheumatology subspecialists (n = 213) experienced incSLEmanagement were invited to defineCRIcSLEand rate a total of 433 unique patient profiles for the presence/absence ofCRIcSLE. Patient profiles included the followingcSLEcore response variables (CRVs): global assessment of patient well‐being (patient‐global), physician assessment ofcSLEactivity (MD‐global), disease activity index score (here, we used the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index), urine protein‐to‐creatinine ratio, and Child Health Questionnaire physical summary score. Percentage and absolute changes in thesecSLE‐CRVs (baseline versus follow‐up) were considered in order to develop candidate algorithms and validate their performance (sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC]; range 0–1).

Results

During an international consensus conference, unanimous agreement on a definition ofCRIcSLEwas achieved;cSLEexperts (n = 13) concurred (100%) that the preferredCHILIalgorithm considers absolute changes in thecSLE‐CRVs. After transformation to a range of 0–100, aCHILIscore of ≥54 had outstanding accuracy for identifyingCRIcSLE(AUC0.93, sensitivity 81.1%, and specificity 84.2%).CHILIscores also reflect minor, moderate, and major improvement for values exceeding 15, 68, and 92, respectively (allAUC≥0.92, sensitivity ≥93.1%, and specificity ≥73.4%).

Conclusion

TheCHILIis a new, seemingly highly accurate index for measuringCRIincSLEover time. This index is useful to categorize the degree of response to therapy in children and adolescents withcSLE.
Association Between Symptom Duration and Patient‐Reported Outcomes Before and After Hip Replacement Surgery
Authors: Lau Yiu‐Shing , Harrison Mark , Sutton Matt
Published: January 2019

Objective

Patients experience discomfort and compromised quality of life while waiting for hip replacement. Symptom duration may affect quality of life attained following surgery. We undertook this study to investigate the impact of symptom duration on patient‐reported postsurgical outcomes from hip replacement surgery.

Methods

National observational data collected before and after hip replacement surgery in England between 2009 and 2016 were used to investigate determinants of symptom duration prior to surgery and the relationship between symptom duration and presurgical and postsurgical patient‐reported outcomes. Multivariable linear regression models were used to estimate associations between patient‐reported outcomes and symptom duration, controlling for a range of covariates.

Results

The sample included 209,192 patients; most (69%) experienced symptoms for 1–5 years. A few patients (14%) experienced symptoms for <1 year, for longer than 5 years (6–10 years [11%]), or for >10 years (5%). Symptom duration decreased overall over the studied time period and was shorter among patients who were male, older, and from areas of lesser deprivation. Patients with a symptom duration <1 year had better postsurgical pain and function outcomes (Oxford Hip Score [OHS] 0.875 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.777, 0.973]) than those with 1–5 years symptom duration in an adjusted model. Conversely, those with symptom duration >5 years had increasingly poorer postsurgical outcomes (OHS –0.730 [95% CI –0.847, –0.613] for those with disease duration 6–10 years and OHS –1.112 [95% CI –1.278, –0.946] for those with disease duration >10 years).

Conclusion

Symptom duration prior to hip replacement has become more standardized in England over time. However, increasing duration remains a significant predictor of poorer outcomes after surgery.
Tunable Volatility of Ge2Sb2Te5 in Integrated Photonics
Authors: Youngblood Nathan , Ríos Carlos , Gemo Emanuele , Feldmann Johannes , Cheng Zengguang , Baldycheva Anna , Pernice Wolfram HP , Wright C. David , Bhaskaran Harish
Published: January 2019

The operation of a single class of optical materials in both a volatile and nonvolatile manner is becoming increasingly important in many applications. This is particularly true in the newly emerging field of photonic neuromorphic computing, where it is desirable to have both volatile (short‐term transient) and nonvolatile (long‐term static) memory operation, for instance, to mimic the behavior of biological neurons and synapses. The search for such materials thus far have focused on phase change materials where typically two different types are required for the two different operational regimes. In this paper, a tunable volatile/nonvolatile response is demonstrated in a photonic phase‐change memory cell based on the commonly employed nonvolatile material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST). A time‐dependent, multiphysics simulation framework is developed to corroborate the experimental results, allowing us to spatially resolve the recrystallization dynamics within the memory cell. It is then demonstrated that this unique approach to photonic memory enables both data storage with tunable volatility and detection of coincident events between two pulse trains on an integrated chip. Finally, improved efficiency and all‐optical routing with controlled volatility are demonstrated in a ring resonator. These crucial results show that volatility is intrinsically tunable in normally nonvolatile GST which can be used in both regimes interchangeably.
Performance Optimization of Parallel‐Like Ternary Organic Solar Cells through Simultaneous Improvement in Charge Generation and Transport
Authors: Hadmojo Wisnu Tantyo , Wibowo Febrian Tri Adhi , Lee Wooseop , Jang Hye‐Kyung , Kim Yeongsik , Sinaga Septy , Park Minsuk , Ju Sang‐Yong , Ryu Du Yeol , Jung In Hwan , Jang Sung‐Yeon
Published: January 2019

Ternary organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices with multiple light‐absorbing active materials have emerged as an efficient strategy for realizing further improvements in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) without building complex multijunction structures. However, the third component often acts as recombination centers and, hence, the optimization of ternary blend morphology poses a major challenge to improving the PCE of these devices. In this work, the performance of OPVs is enhanced through the morphological modification of nonfullerene acceptor (NFA)‐containing binary active layers. This modification is achieved by incorporating fullerenes into the layers. The uniformly dispersed fullerenes are sufficiently continuous and successfully mediate the ordering of NFA without charge or energy transfer. Owing to the simultaneous improvement in the charge generation and extraction, the PCE (12.1%) of these parallel‐linked ternary devices is considerably higher than those of the corresponding binary devices (9.95% and 7.78%). Moreover, the additional energy loss of the ternary device is minimized, compared with that of the NFA‐based binary device, due to the judicious control of the effective donor:acceptor composition of the ternary blends.
Bio‐Inspired, Self‐Toughening Polymers Enabled by Plasticizer‐Releasing Microcapsules
Authors: Meesorn Worarin , Calvino Céline , Natterodt Jens C. , Zoppe Justin O. , Weder Christoph
Published: January 2019

A new concept for the design of self‐toughening thermoplastic polymers is presented. The approach involves the incorporation of plasticizer‐filled microcapsules (MCs) in an intrinsically rigid and brittle matrix polymer. The intriguing adaptability that this simple tactic enables is demonstrated with composites composed of a poly(lactic acid) (PLA) matrix and 5–20% w/w poly(urea‐formaldehyde) (PUF) MCs that contained hexyl acetate as plasticizer. At low strain (<1.5%), the glassy PLA/MC composites remain rigid, although the intact MCs reduce the Young's modulus and tensile strength by up to 50%. While the neat PLA shows brittle failure at a strain of around 2.5%, the composites yield in this regime, because the MCs rupture and release their plasticizing cargo. This effect leads up to 25‐fold increase of the elongation at break and 20‐fold increase of the toughness vis‐à‐vis the neat PLA, while the impact on modulus and ultimate stress is much smaller. Ballistic impact tests show that the self‐toughening mechanism also works at much higher strain rates than applied in tensile tests and the operating mechanism is corroborated through systematic thermomechanical studies that involved dynamic mechanical testing and thermal analysis.