bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction
Authors: Carter Laura
Published: August 2021

The introduction proposes the key argument that the twentieth century was Britain’s educational century. It discusses how the democratization of historical knowledge in Britain between 1918 and 1979 occurred as a process of negotiation between policymakers, elites, and educationists on the one hand, and ordinary people on the other. The concept of the ‘history of everyday life’ is introduced and defined. The introduction then discusses the important role of women in the making of popular social history, and its relationship to classed, gendered, racial, imperial, and national categories. The ‘history of everyday life’ is briefly discussed in relation to other ‘origin stories’ of British social history, especially the new academic social history of the 1960s and the importance of the ‘everyday’ in mid-century social science. Finally, the introduction discusses the book’s methodological approach and provides an overview of each of the chapters.
Conclusion
Authors: Carter Laura
Published: August 2021

The conclusion first summarises the book’s argument about the rise and fall of the ‘history of everyday life’ in British culture between 1918 and 1979. It then considers some educational connections between ‘history from below’ and the ‘history of everyday life’, suggesting that as universities became sites of mass education in the late twentieth-century, academic social history could more easily adopt the language of everyday life. Finally, the conclusion explores synergies between the ‘history of everyday life’ and feminist women’s histories of the 1970s and 1980s, re-asserting the centrality of women to the production and consumption of popular social history in twentieth-century Britain. An important legacy of the mid-century ‘history of everyday life’ is found in campaigns to bring women’s history into schools in London during the 1980s.
Introduction
Authors: Aliverti Ana
Published: August 2021

The Introduction presents the main arguments advanced in the book, details the methodology used, and describes the structure followed. As an institutional ethnography of inland migration policing, the book examines the growing emphasis on borders in policing, and describes the range of challenges, dilemmas, and contradictions that the task of maintaining order and exercising state power in an interconnected and polarized world animate. State power, as wielded by the officers I observed, defies the Weberian rational paradigm of bureaucracy and unsettles conventional models, built on rigid rules and constrained discretion, since to a large extent it relies on non-rational, magic-like elements to solve policing problems in an increasingly complex world. The random, confusing, and informal nature of power in this domain also pervades questions of access and negotiations to research its institutions, and ultimately shaped the fate of this study. In attending to and making sense of these border paradoxes, I rely on an eclectic theoretical scaffold drawing from a wide range of sociological and anthropological accounts of the police and the state in diverse settings, including the bourgeoning policing literature on postcolonial societies in the global South, and place emphasis on the global and historical continuities and connections in the police’s institutional practices and cultural norms.
The Plastic Police: Professional Identity, Authority, and Legitimacy
Authors: Aliverti Ana
Published: August 2021

This chapter explores the history and professional culture of the operational arm of the immigration department, the Immigration Compliance and Enforcement teams (ICE). It examines this vernacular agency called upon to manage and control global mobility, and its ambivalent relationship with the police, attending to matters of authority and legitimacy, professional presentation and politics, morality and identity. It argues that while the police are recurrently referred as a comparator, the composition, institutional rules and practices, and the nature of the work of ICE set them apart. The chapter relies on first-hand accounts of long-term front-line officers to reconstruct and chart institutional changes to immigration enforcement in the UK. Their accounts offer insights into the mysterious world of immigration enforcement, its genesis, short turbulent history, and its fast-changing contours through the lens of those tasked with its making. The second part of the chapter explores what it is like to be an immigration officer: who are these people? Why have they chosen this career path? What are their aspirations and frustrations? What are their worldviews? How do they perceive themselves vis-à-vis their police colleagues? And what is it like to work in a highly controversial and sensitive area of public policy? Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to understand immigration enforcement, and its employees, through their own words and worlds.
The Moral Worlds of Migration Policing
Authors: Aliverti Ana
Published: August 2021

This chapter focuses on the moral worlds of migration policing. It reflects on the moral categories officers mobilize to understand the people they deal with, the moral meaning they attach to their actions, as well as to their job, and the range of emotional reactions that they express -including the moral pains involved in doing border work. The moral economy of immigration work is dominated by distinct and often conflicting logics and rationales (the bureaucratic, the punitive, and the compassionate), and underpinned by a political economy of immigration controls which simultaneously moralize and normalize immigration lawbreaking. In exploring how officers on the ground navigate and give content to this moral economy, we grasp the complex, ambivalent, and polyvalent sentiments mobilized in the policing of migration, and the distinct moral dilemmas that these officers encounter in their daily work. In the quest to produce a ‘bordered order’ (Aas 2013), they appreciate not only the arbitrariness of border control (and its inadequacy to confront the profound global disparities underpinning status illegality), but also its capricious operation, which does not deliver on the promises of getting rid of criminals, and letting in ‘good’ migrants. They convey the emotionally and morally draining nature of border controls and its human costs on both sides of state coercion, which exercise can equally brutalize and humanize those bestowing it. In conciliating the conflicting demands for care and order, empathy and suspicion, these officers often felt unable to achieve either.
The Distant Shore: Discretion and the Extent of Judicial Jurisdiction
Authors: Walker Janet
Published: August 2021

This essay addresses the role that judges play in shaping the grounds for the exercise of jurisdiction. It considers how courts, in particular in England and Wales and in Canada, have moulded the gateways for exercising jurisdiction in cross-border cases, with a particular focus on the approach in ‘holiday tort’ cases such as Brownlie v Four Seasons (UKSC) and Club Resorts v Van Breda (Can SC). It argues that most of the gateways should be treated as legal standards and exercised on a presumptive basis subject to the courts’ discretion to decline to do so in particular cases, but some gateways have the inherent potential to be exorbitant and so should be exercised only on a discretionary basis.
Taming Anti-suit Injunctions
Authors: Dickinson Andrew
Published: August 2021

This essay casts a critical gaze at the willingness of courts in the common law world, and elsewhere, to grant injunctions to restrain proceedings before courts of other legal systems (so called ‘anti-suit injunctions’). It scrutinises the legal basis for the granting of such relief by the courts of England and Wales, and seeks to build upon that foundation by identifying reasons for and against the granting of anti-suit injunctions and ascribing limits to the courts’ power to do so.
Putting the Principle of Severability in the Dock: An Analysis in the Context of Choice of Law for Arbitration and Jurisdiction Agreements
Authors: Takahashi Koji
Published: August 2021

This essay proposes a principled approach to determining the governing law of arbitration agreements and jurisdiction agreements. Acknowledging the usefulness of the principle of severability in the sphere of substantive law, the author opposes the extension of the principle to the sphere of choice of law analysis to treat such agreements as a distinct contract severed from the matrix contract. The author, however, accepts that such agreements are, like any other terms in the same matrix contract, subject to the choice of law technique for splitting up terms within a single contract known as dépeçage, while suggesting that the possibility of involuntary dépeçage should be circumscribed. It is noted that splitting up terms within a contract by means of dépeçage is not the same as treating a term as a distinct contract in terms of choice of law methodology. This essay also examines English cases and seeks to reconcile the proposed approach with the text of existing instruments.
Choice of Law in the Shifting Sands of Securities Trading
Authors: Ooi Maisie
Published: August 2021

In this essay, the author examines how the conflict of laws has approached the task of determining the law applicable to issues relating to securities, and whether that approach is suitable for determining the law applicable to the proprietary aspects of securities created or traded through the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT), including cryptosecurities, and other new forms of securities holding and trading.
Remedies and the Conflict of Laws
Authors: Rushworth Adam
Published: August 2021

This essay seeks to outline the theoretical basis underpinning the approach to remedies in the conflict of laws in light of the application of the rules contained within the Rome I and Rome II Regulations. It examines issues that have arisen in practice, in particular in cases before the courts of England and Wales, including with respect to matters of evidence, damages and interest, interim remedies and declaratory relief.
The Problem of a Courtly Literature
Authors: Werlin Julianne
Published: August 2021

This chapter analyses the seventeenth-century shift from aristocratic forms of literary evaluation to the book market as a key source of prestige—from a courtly to a commercial model of literary judgment and value. Setting the literature of the Caroline court within larger debates about the monarchy’s authority over an increasingly powerful commercial sector, it argues that English courtly culture crystalized in response to the challenges to royal authority posed by market growth and autonomy. It thus returns to a Marxist interpretation of the causes of the English Revolution, while using recent research on the book market, print censorship, and coterie literary circulation to draw new connections between socioeconomic change and literary history.
Mixed Agreements
Authors: Wouters Jan , Hoffmeister Frank , Baere Geert De , Ramopoulos Thomas
Published: August 2021

This chapter provides an overview of the development of the phenomenon of mixed agreements. It explains the legal and political reasons for the emergence and perseverance of mixed agreements. The chapter also analyses the legal limits to the use of mixed agreements, and discusses salient legal issues that arise with regard to their signature, conclusion, implementation, and interpretation. The above are introduced in the context of specific bilateral and multilateral mixed agreements. References and excerpts from the latest jurisprudential developments in this area feature prominently in the chapter.
The EU in other International Organizations
Authors: Wouters Jan , Hoffmeister Frank , Baere Geert De , Ramopoulos Thomas
Published: August 2021

This chapter presents the rules under EU law and international law that enable the EU to participate in the work of other international organizations. It explains the process of the EU becoming and acting as a full member in an international body composed of States, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) or the World Trade Organization (WTO). When full membership is legally not possible, the EU is often granted the status of an observer. In this regard, the chapter presents pertinent examples from the UN and its specialized organizations. It puts particular emphasis on recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) case law, including Germany v Council (‘OTIF I’), where the Court underlined that the presentation of common EU positions is necessary in international organizations, even if the EU is not a full member thereof and has not legislated in the entire field of action covered by that organization.
External Environmental Policy
Authors: Wouters Jan , Hoffmeister Frank , Baere Geert De , Ramopoulos Thomas
Published: August 2021

This chapter recalls how the EU started to become engaged in the international protection of the environment. It explains in detail the ECJ case law on the choice of legal basis under EU law when an international agreement contains both aspects of commercial policy and environmental protection. It also analyses the internal struggle between the EU institutions on how to conduct international environmental negotiations. The chapter includes a case study about the EU’s role in combating climate change and underlines the important contribution of the EU in the operation of numerous international environmental conventions.
Introduction to R
Authors: Touchon Justin C.
Published: August 2021

The Introductory chapter gets readers started in R, teaching them how to work in both a script window and the console, create objects, and execute basic functions. The chapter dives right in to learning the basic coding of R! In addition, we discuss important topics such as writing literate and well-annotated code and organizing your data in an appropriate manner before you even import it to R.
Before You Begin (aka Thoughts on Proper Data Analysis)
Authors: Touchon Justin C.
Published: August 2021

Chapter 2 is perhaps the most important in the whole book, in that it is a discussion of essential principles of experimental design and data analysis that are universal to every field in the life sciences. The merits of different experimental designs are discussed as well as best practices for data analysis.
More Linear Models in R!
Authors: Touchon Justin C.
Published: August 2021

Chapter 6 continues exploring the world of statistics that are covered within the linear model, namely two-way and three-way ANOVA, linear regression and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). In each type of model, a detailed description of how to interpret the summary output is undertaken, including understanding how to interpret and plot interactions. Conducting post-hoc analyses and using the predict() function are also covered. The chapter ends by reinforcing earlier plotting skills in ggplot2 by walking through an example of making a professional looking figure with multiple non-linear regression curves and confidence intervals.
Writing Loops and Functions in R
Authors: Touchon Justin C.
Published: August 2021

Learning how to write your own functions can seem like a daunting task, but Chapter 10 demystifies this process and teaches readers how to think about when and why this is an important thing to do. Beginning with simple functions and progressing to complex data simulations, writing functions is useful skill that will greatly expand the horizons of even relatively beginner R users.
Final Thoughts
Authors: Touchon Justin C.
Published: August 2021

The final chapter briefly summarizes the major teaching points of the book and re-emphasizes the most salient take home points.
The Riddle of Vagueness
Authors: Wright Crispin
Published: August 2021

This anthology includes fourteen of Crispin Wrights’s highly influential essays on the phenomenon of vagueness in natural language, collectively representing almost half a century of cutting-edge systematic research. Key issues addressed include whether or under what assumptions vague expressions’ apparent tolerance of marginal changes in things to which they apply indicates that they are governed by inconsistent semantic rules, the varieties of Sorites paradox and the roots of the plausibility of their respective major premises, what it is for something to be a borderline case of a vague expression, whether vagueness should be viewed as fundamentally a semantic or an epistemic phenomenon, whether there is ‘higher-order’ vagueness, and what should be the appropriate logic for vague statements. The essays reprinted here jointly document the development of a distinctively original treatment of the philosophy and logic of vagueness, broadly analogous to the intuitionistic philosophy and logic for pure mathematics. Richard Kimberly Heck contributes an extended introductory essay, providing both an insightful critical overview of the development of the distinctive elements of Wright’s thought about vagueness, and indeed an invaluable advanced introduction to the topic.
Introduction
Authors: Heck Richard Kimberly
Published: August 2021

Crispin Wright’s work on vagueness has been extremely influential. This piece provides an overview of his contributions and the ways his views have changed over the forty-plus years he has been writing about the topic. Heck argues that Wright’s discussion of the Tachometer paradox provides us with the resources to disarm the Sorites paradox. Sadly, that still leaves us remarkably far from any positive account of the semantics of vague concepts. In his most recent work, Wright has pursued an ‘intuitionistic’ account of vagueness whose virtues and vices are described.
Vagueness-Related Partial Belief and the Constitution of Borderline Cases
Authors: Wright Crispin
Published: August 2021

This chapter, specially written for a Philosophy and Phenomenological Research book symposium on the Stephen Schiffer’s The Things We Mean, is focused on Schiffer’s proposal there concerning the most central and important question about vagueness: namely, what, specifically, something’s being a borderline case of a vague expression consists in. Schiffer argues for a new kind of approach, according to which vagueness is constitutively a psychological phenomenon, grounded in a supposedly distinctive propositional attitude taken by practitioners of vague discourse: vagueness-related partial belief (VPB), contrasting in ways Schiffer details with standard partial belief (SPB). Two principal problems are raised for this proposal. First, on Schiffer’s account, VPB looks to be characteristic of a wider range of kinds of indeterminacy besides the targeted soritical vagueness. Second, there is an awkward dilemma arising over whether or why a thinker could not, as a matter of psychological contingency, adopt a VPB towards a precise proposition.
Intuitionism and the Sorites Paradox
Authors: Wright Crispin
Published: August 2021

This chapter revisits and further develops all the principle themes and concepts of the preceding chapters. Epistemicism about vagueness postulates a realm of distinctions drawn by basic vague concepts that transcend our capacity to know them. Its treatment of their subject matter is thus broadly comparable to the Platonist philosophy of mathematics. An intuitionist philosophy of vagueness, as do many philosophies of the semantics and metaphysics of vague expressions, finds this idea merely superstitious and rejects it. The vagueness-intuitionist, however, credits the epistemicist with a crucial insight: that vagueness is indeed a cognitive, rather than a semantic, phenomenon—something that is not a consequence of some kind of indeterminacy, or open-endedness in the semantics of vague expressions but rather resides in our brute inability to bring, for example, yellow and orange right up against one another, so to speak, so as to mark a sharp and stable boundary. A solution to the Sorites paradox is developed that is consonant with this basic idea but, by motivating a background logic that observes (broadly) intuitionistic restrictions on the proof theory for negation, allows us to treat the paradoxical reasoning as a simple reductio of its major premise, without the unwelcome implication, sustained by classical logic, of sharp cut-offs.
Appendix to Chapter 14
Authors: Wright Crispin
Published: August 2021

In the Forced March Sorites, there is no deductive path to a formal contradiction. Rather, a hapless subject is required to return a verdict in point of F-ness about each successive element in a soritical series for F. Competence requires the appropriate verdicts concerning the clear cases at the poles. Hence, since the verdicts required at the poles are different, the subject must at some point give some kind of differential responses to an adjacent pair of elements between which—for so the series is constructed—she can discern no relevant difference. Since it is a form of incompetence to purport to discriminate cases between which one discerns no relevant difference, it appears to follow that consistently competent use of F throughout the series is metaphysically impossible. It is argued that the intuitionist conception of vagueness provides the means to explain nicely why a differential response need not implicate discrimination.
Hormonal and environmental signaling pathways target membrane water transport
Authors: Maurel Christophe , Tournaire-Roux Colette , Verdoucq Lionel , Santoni Véronique
Published: August 2021

Plant water transport and its molecular components including aquaporins are responsive, across diverse time scales, to an extremely wide array of environmental and hormonal signals. These include water deficit and abscisic acid (ABA) but also more recently identified stimuli such as peptide hormones or bacterial elicitors. The present review makes an inventory of corresponding signalling pathways. It identifies some main principles, such as the central signalling role of ROS, with a dual function of aquaporins in water and hydrogen peroxide transport, the importance of aquaporin phosphorylation that is targeted by multiple classes of protein kinases, and the emerging role of lipid signalling. More studies including systems biology approaches are now needed to comprehend how plant water transport can be adjusted in response to combined stresses.
Changing patterns of sickness absence among healthcare workers in England during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Edge Rhiannon , van der Plaat Diana A , Parsons Vaughan , Coggon David , van Tongeren Martie , Muiry Rupert , Madan Ira , Cullinan Paul
Published: August 2021

Background

Patterns of sickness absence shed useful light on disease occurrence and illness-related behaviours in working populations.

Methods

We analysed prospectively collected, pseudonymized data on 959 356 employees who were continuously employed by National Health Service trusts in England from 1 January 2019 to 31 July 2020, comparing the frequency of new sickness absence in 2020 with that at corresponding times in 2019.

Results

After exclusion of episodes directly related to COVID-19, the overall incidence of sickness absence during the initial 10 weeks of the pandemic (March–May 2020) was more than 20% lower than in corresponding weeks of 2019. Trends for specific categories of illness varied substantially, with a fall by 24% for cancer, but an increase for mental illness. A doubling of new absences for pregnancy-related disorders during May–July of 2020 was limited to women with earlier COVID-19 sickness absence.

Conclusions

Various factors will have contributed to the large and divergent changes that were observed. The findings reinforce concerns regarding delays in diagnosis and treatment of cancers and support a need to plan for a large backlog of treatment for many other diseases. Further research should explore the rise in absence for pregnancy-related disorders among women with earlier COVID-19 sickness absence.
Magnetic resonance imaging for non-invasive clinical evaluation of normal and regenerated cartilage
Authors: Xu Xian , Gao Jingming , Liu Shuyun , Chen Liang , Chen Min , Yu Xiaoye , Ma Ning , Zhang Jun , Chen Xiaobin , Zhong Lisen , Yu Lin , Xu Liming , Guo Quanyi , Ding Jiandong
Published: August 2021

With the development of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, it is much desired to establish bioimaging techniques to monitor the real-time regeneration efficacy in vivo in a non-invasive way. Herein, we tried magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate knee cartilage regeneration after implanting a biomaterial scaffold seeded with chondrocytes, namely, matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation (MACI). After summary of the T2 mapping and the T1-related delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI imaging of cartilage (dGEMRIC) in vitro and in vivo in the literature, these two MRI techniques were tried clinically. In this study, 18 patients were followed up for 1 year. It was found that there was a significant difference between the regeneration site and the neighboring normal site (control), and the difference gradually diminished with regeneration time up to 1 year according to both the quantitative T1 and T2 MRI methods. We further established the correlation between the quantitative evaluation of MRI and the clinical Lysholm scores for the first time. Hence, the MRI technique was confirmed to be a feasible semi-quantitative yet non-invasive way to evaluate the in vivo regeneration of knee articular cartilage.
Going Bankrupt in China
Authors: Li Bo , Ponticelli Jacopo
Published: August 2021

Using a new case-level dataset, we document a set of stylized facts on bankruptcy in China and study how the staggered introduction of specialized courts across Chinese cities affected insolvency resolution and the local economy. For identification, we compare bankruptcy cases handled by specialized versus traditional civil courts within the same city and filed in the same year. We find that specialized courts decrease case duration by 36% relative to traditional civil courts. We provide evidence consistent with court specialization increasing efficiency via selection of better trained judges and higher judicial independence from local politicians. We document that cities introducing specialized courts experience a relative reallocation of employment out of zombie firms-intensive sectors, as well as faster firm entry and a larger increase in average capital productivity.
Adaptation of in vitro methodologies to estimate the intestinal digestion of lipids in ruminants
Authors: Vinyard James R , Sarmikasoglou Efstathios , Bennett Sarah L , Arce-Cordero Jose A , Aines Glen , Estes Kari , Faciola Antonio P
Published: August 2021

The objective of this study was to adapt existing in vitro methodologies to determine the extent of intestinal digestion of corn oil (CO), canola oil (CA), and beef tallow (BT) via manipulation of incubation length and concentrations of lipase, bile, and calcium within a buffer solution. Unless otherwise stated, 0.5 g of each lipid source were incubated separately and in triplicate, with triplicate batch culture runs for each treatment in 40 mL of 0.5 M KH2PO4 (pH = 7.6) for 24 h with pancreatin (8 g/L), bovine bile (2.5 g/L), and CaCl2 (10 mM). Individually, concentrations of pancreatin, bile, and CaCl2, as well as incubation length were tested. To examine the use of this assay to estimate in vitro total tract digestion, a KH2PO4 solution with concentrated amounts to reach the same final concentrations of pancreatin, bile, and Ca were used as the third step in a three-step total tract digestibility procedure. Free glycerol and free fatty acid (FFA) concentrations were measured using colorimetric assays as indicators of digestion. Data wereanalyzed as a completely randomized block design (block = run), using the Glimmix procedure of SAS. For each lipid source, free glycerol increased with increasing pancreatin; however, FFA was lowest at 0 g/L pancreatin but was similar at 6, 8, and 10 g/L. Both glycerol and FFA were greater for 2.5 and 5 g/L of bile than for 0 g/L for each lipid source. Calcium concentration did not affect glycerol or FFA for either CO or CA; however, glycerol and FFA for BT were greater when calcium was included at 5 and 10 mM than at 0 mM. For all fat sources, free glycerol and FFA increased after 1 h until 12 h, but did not increase from 12 to 24 h. When a concentrated mixture was used following fermentation and acidification steps, digestibility using FFA concentration increased as compared to just adding buffer; however, free glycerol concentration was indeterminable. Thus, free glycerol and FFA can be used as indicators of lipid digestion when a lipid source is incubated for at least 12 h in a buffer solution containing 8 g/L pancreatin, 2.5 g/L bile, and 5 mM Ca when only estimating in vitro intestinal digestion; however, when utilizing this assay in a three-step in vitro total tract digestibility procedure, only FFA can be used.
Specialization in a Nitrogen-Fixing Symbiosis: Proteome Differences Between Sinorhizobium medicae Bacteria and Bacteroids
Authors: Yurgel Svetlana N. , Qu Yi , Rice Jennifer T. , Ajeethan Nivethika , Zink Erika M. , Brown Joseph M. , Purvine Sam , Lipton Mary S. , Kahn Michael L.
Published: August 2021

Using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), we analyzed the proteome of Sinorhizobium medicae WSM419 growing as free-living cells and in symbiosis with Medicago truncatula. In all, 3,215 proteins were identified, over half of the open reading frames predicted from the genomic sequence. The abundance of 1,361 proteins displayed strong lifestyle bias. In total, 1,131 proteins had similar levels in bacteroids and free-living cells, and the low levels of 723 proteins prevented statistically significant assignments. Nitrogenase subunits comprised approximately 12% of quantified bacteroid proteins. Other major bacteroid proteins included symbiosis-specific cytochromes and FixABCX, which transfer electrons to nitrogenase. Bacteroids had normal levels of proteins involved in amino acid biosynthesis, glycolysis or gluconeogenesis, and the pentose phosphate pathway; however, several amino acid degradation pathways were repressed. This suggests that bacteroids maintain a relatively independent anabolic metabolism. Tricarboxylic acid cycle proteins were highly expressed in bacteroids and no other catabolic pathway emerged as an obvious candidate to supply energy and reductant to nitrogen fixation. Bacterial stress response proteins were induced in bacteroids. Many WSM419 proteins that are not encoded in S. meliloti Rm1021 were detected, and understanding the functions of these proteins might clarify why S. medicae WSM419 forms a more effective symbiosis with M. truncatula than S. meliloti Rm1021.

[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
Degradation of endothelial glycocalyx in Tanzanian children with falciparum malaria
Authors: Bush Margaret A. , Florence Salvatore M. , Yeo Tsin W. , Kalingonji Ayam R. , Chen Youwei , Granger Donald L. , Rubach Matthew P. , Anstey Nicholas M. , Mwaikambo Esther D. , Weinberg Joe Brice
Published: August 2021

A layer of glycocalyx covers the vascular endothelium serving important protective and homeostatic functions. The objective of this study was to determine if breakdown of the endothelial glycocalyx (eGC) occurs during malaria infection in children. Measures of eGC integrity, endothelial activation, and microvascular reactivity were prospectively evaluated in 146 children: 44 with moderately severe malaria (MSM), 42 with severe malaria (SM), and 60 healthy controls (HC). Biochemical measures of eGC integrity included plasma syndecan‐1 and total urinary glycosaminoglycans (GAG). Side‐stream dark field imaging was used to quantitatively assess integrity of eGC. Plasma angiopoietin‐2 (Ang‐2) was measured as a marker of endothelial activation and also as a possible mediator of eGC breakdown. Our results show that urinary GAG, syndecan‐1, and Ang‐2 were elevated in patients with MSM and SM compared with HC. Syndecan‐1 and GAG levels correlated significantly with each other and with plasma Ang‐2. The eGC breakdown products also inversely correlated significantly with hemoglobin and platelet count. In the MSM group, imaging results provided further evidence for eGC degradation. Although not correlated with markers of eGC degradation, vascular function (assessed by non‐invasive near infrared spectroscopy [NIRS]) demonstrated reduced microvascular reactivity, particularly affecting the SM group. Our findings provide further evidence for breakdown of eGC in falciparum malaria that may contribute to endothelial activation and adhesion of parasitized red blood cells, with reduced nitric oxide formation, and vascular dysfunction.
Overexpression of ASMT likely enhances the resistance of transgenic sheep to brucellosis by influencing immune‐related signaling pathways and gut microbiota
Authors: Li Guangdong , Lv Dongying , Yao Yujun , Wu Hao , Wang Jing , Deng Shoulong , Song Yukun , Guan Shengyu , Wang Likai , Ma Wenkui , Yang Hai , Yan Laiqing , Zhang Jinlong , Ji Pengyun , Zhang Lu , Lian Zhengxing , Liu Guoshi
Published: August 2021

Melatonin is a pleiotropic molecule with a variety of biological functions, which include its immunoregulatory action in mammals. Brucellosis is a worldwide endemic zoonotic disease caused by the Brucella, which not only causes huge economic losses for the livestock industry but also impacts human health. To target this problem, in current study, two marker‐free transgenic sheep overexpressing melatonin synthetic enzyme ASMT (acetylserotonin O‐methyltransferase) gene were generated and these melatonin enrich transgenic sheep were challenged by Brucella infection. The results showed that the serum melatonin concentration was significantly higher in transgenic sheep than that of wild type (726.92 ± 70.6074 vs 263.10 ± 34.60 pg/mL, P < .05). Brucella challenge test showed that two thirds (4/6) of the wild‐type sheep had brucellosis, while none of the transgenic sheep were infected. Whole‐blood RNA‐seq results showed that differential expression genes (DEGs) were significantly enriched in natural killer cell‐mediated cytotoxicity, phagosome, antigen processing, and presentation signaling pathways in overexpression sheep. The DEGs of toll‐like receptors (TLRs) and NOD‐like receptors (NLRs) families were verified by qPCR and it showed that TLR1, TLR2, TLR7, CD14, NAIP, and CXCL8 expression levels in overexpression sheep were significantly higher and NLRP1, NLRP3, and TNF expression levels were significantly lower than those of wild type. The rectal feces were subjected to 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing, and the microbial functional analysis showed that the transgenic sheep had significantly lower abundance of microbial genes related to infectious diseases compared to the wild type, indicating overexpression animals are likely more resistant to infectious diseases than wild type. Furthermore, exogenous melatonin treatment relieved brucellosis inflammation by upregulating anti‐inflammatory cytokines IL‐4 and downregulating pro‐inflammatory IL‐2, IL‐6, and IFN‐γ. Our preliminary results provide an informative reference for the study of the relationship between melatonin and brucellosis.
CE: Acute Ischemic Stroke
Authors: Washington Heather H. , Glaser Kimberly R. , Ifejika Nneka Lotea
Published: August 2021

Stroke, the most common form of cerebrovascular disease, is a leading cause of death and disability throughout the world. There have been no significant advances in the development of effective therapeutics for hemorrhagic stroke, and for ischemic stroke highly effective, evidence-based therapies such as alteplase and mechanical thrombectomy are widely underutilized. Improving outcomes for patients experiencing ischemic stroke requires faster recognition and appropriate intervention within the treatment window (the first 24 hours after symptom onset). This article discusses the pathophysiology underlying the various types of ischemic stroke; the risk factors for ischemic stroke; stroke presentation; and the evidence-based treatments, nursing assessments, and monitoring protocols that are critical to patient recovery.
An introduction to equity, diversity, and inclusion
Authors: Sanchez Michelle
Published: August 2021

These topics are crucial for nurses to understand and integrate into their practice.
Nursing shortage
Authors: Perkins Amanda
Published: August 2021

You've heard about the nursing shortage, but what does it really mean for your practice and your patients?
Immune checkpoints and the multiple faces of B cells in systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Stefanski Ana-Luisa , Dörner Thomas
Published: August 2021

Purpose of review

B-lymphocytes are crucial in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), including autoantibody production, antigen presentation, co-stimulation, and cytokine secretion. Co-stimulatory and co-inhibitory molecules control interactions between B and T cells during an inflammatory response, which is essential for an appropriate host protection and maintenance of self-tolerance. Here, we review recent findings about checkpoint molecules and SLE B cells including their potential therapeutic implications and experiences from clinical trials.

Recent findings

Most prominent checkpoint molecules involved in pathologic B and T cell interaction in SLE are CD40/CD40L and inducible co-stimulator/ICOSL, both also intimately involved in the formation of germinal centers and ectopic lymphoid tissue. Dysregulations of inhibitory checkpoint molecules, like programmed death-1/programmed death-ligand 1 and B- and T-lymphocyte attenuator have been suggested to impair B cell functions in SLE recently.

Accumulating evidence indicates that dampening immune responses by either blocking co-activating signals or enhancing co-inhibitory signals in different cell types is a promising approach to treat autoimmune diseases to better control active disease but may also allow resolution of chronic autoimmunity.
Postmortem Evidence of Brain Inflammatory Markers and Injury in Septic Patients: A Systematic Review
Authors: Barichello Tatiana , Generoso Jaqueline S. , Dominguini Diogo , Córneo Emily , Giridharan Vijayasree V. , Sahrapour Taha A. , Simões Lutiana R. , Rosa Maria Inês da , Petronilho Fabricia , Ritter Cristiane , Sharshar Tarek , Dal-Pizzol Felipe
Published: August 2021

OBJECTIVES:

Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a host’s unregulated immune response to eliminate the infection. After hospitalization, sepsis survivors often suffer from long-term impairments in memory, attention, verbal fluency, and executive functioning. To understand the effects of sepsis and the exacerbated peripheral inflammatory response in the brain, we asked the question: What are the findings and inflammatory markers in the brains of deceased sepsis patients? To answer this question, we conducted this systematic review by the recommendations of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

DATA SOURCES:

Relevant studies were identified by searching the PubMed/National Library of Medicine, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Bibliographical Index in Spanish in Health Sciences, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, and Web of Science databases for peer-reviewed journal articles published on April 05, 2021.

STUDY SELECTION:

A total of 3,745 articles were included in the primary screening; after omitting duplicate articles, animal models, and reviews, 2,896 articles were selected for the study. These studies were selected based on the title and abstract, and 2,772 articles were still omitted based on the exclusion criteria.

DATA EXTRACTION:

The complete texts of the remaining 124 articles were obtained and thoroughly evaluated for the final screening, and 104 articles were included.

DATA SYNTHESIS:

The postmortem brain had edema, abscess, hemorrhagic and ischemic injuries, infarction, hypoxia, atrophy, hypoplasia, neuronal loss, axonal injuries, demyelination, and necrosis.

CONCLUSIONS:

The mechanisms by which sepsis induces brain dysfunction are likely to include vascular and neuronal lesions, followed by the activation of glial cells and the presence of peripheral immune cells in the brain.
The obstetric patient in the Covid pandemic: anaesthesia and perioperative care
Authors: Khan Ayub , Patrick Adam , Patil Vinod , Nnochiri Akobundu , Wijayatilake Sanjay
Published: August 2021

Purpose of review

: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on pregnant women, maternity services and healthcare workers. We review recent literature on the course of COVID-19 infection in pregnancy, and recommendations for treatment and service provision.

Recent findings

It has been increasingly recognised that pregnant women are at higher risk of severe disease associated with COVID-19 infection. Early critical care input is crucial to guide respiratory support and techniques such as prone positioning, with a low threshold for intubation in critical illness. Timing of delivery remains a highly individualised decision. Following the RECOVERY trial, the use of a course of steroids in cases of severe COVID-19 infection has been widely adopted, and emerging guidance recommends vaccination in pregnant women.

Rapidly emerging evidence has helped guide clinicians to identify those patients most at risk of severe disease in COVID-19 and implement early interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality.
Obstetric venous thromboembolism prophylaxis, risk factors and outcomes
Authors: Friedman Alexander M.
Published: August 2021

Purpose of review

Risk factors for obstetric venous thromboembolism (VTE), a leading cause of maternal mortality in the United States, are increasing on a population basis. This review provides the obstetrician with an update of current issues related to obstetric VTE risk, prophylaxis, outcomes, anaesthesia considerations and future research opportunities.

Recent findings

Obstetric VTE affects approximately 1 per 1000 pregnancies and accounts consistently for 9–10% of maternal deaths in the United States. In industrialized countries, risk factors for VTE, including overweight/obesity, caesarean delivery and obstetrical complications such postpartum haemorrhage and infection continue to increase. VTE prophylaxis is central to reducing maternal mortality. However, recommendations for prophylaxis from leadership societies vary widely. In the UK, maternal mortality risk from VTE has decreased significantly in the setting of broader heparin prophylaxis. In the United States where mechanical VTE prophylaxis is used more commonly, mortality risk has remained constant.

Obstetric VTE is a leading cause of maternal mortality in the United States. The incidence of risk factors for obstetric VTE continues to increase. Currently, recommendations for obstetric VTE prophylaxis vary substantially. Opportunities for research in this area exist to optimize prophylaxis and improve maternal outcomes.
Overview of the Pediatric Endoscopy Quality Improvement Network Quality Standards and Indicators for Pediatric Endoscopy
Authors: Walsh Catharine M. , Lightdale Jenifer R. , Mack David R. , Amil‐Dias Jorge , Bontems Patrick , Brill Herbert , Croft Nicholas M. , Fishman Douglas S. , Furlano Raoul I. , Gillett Peter M. , Hojsak Iva , Homan Matjaž , Huynh Hien Q. , Jacobson Kevan , Leibowitz Ian H. , Lerner Diana G. , Liu Quin Y. , Mamula Petar , Narula Priya , Oliva Salvatore , Riley Matthew R. , Rosh Joel R. , Tavares Marta , Utterson Elizabeth C. , Ambartsumyan Lusine , Otley Anthony R. , Kramer Robert E. , Connan Veronik , McCreath Graham A. , Thomson Mike A. ,   PEnQuIN Working Group
Published: August 2021

Introduction:

Pediatric‐specific quality standards for endoscopy are needed to define best practices, while measurement of associated indicators is critical to guide quality improvement. The international Pediatric Endoscopy Quality Improvement Network (PEnQuIN) working group was assembled to develop and define quality standards and indicators for pediatric gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures through a rigorous guideline consensus process.

Methods:

The Appraisal of Guidelines for REsearch and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument guided PEnQuIN members, recruited from 31 centers of various practice types representing 11 countries, in generating and refining proposed quality standards and indicators. Consensus was sought via an iterative online Delphi process, and finalized at an in‐person conference. Quality of evidence and strength of recommendations were rated according to the GRADE (Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) approach.

Results:

Forty‐nine quality standards and 47 indicators reached consensus, encompassing pediatric endoscopy facilities, procedures, endoscopists, and the patient experience. The evidence base for PEnQuIN standards and indicators was largely adult‐based and observational, and downgraded for indirectness, imprecision, and study limitations to “very low” quality, resulting in “conditional” recommendations for most standards (45/49).

Conclusions:

The PEnQuIN guideline development process establishes international agreement on clinically meaningful metrics that can be used to promote safety and quality in endoscopic care for children. Through PEnQuIN, pediatric endoscopists and endoscopy services now have a framework for auditing, providing feedback, and ultimately, benchmarking performance. Expansion of evidence and prospective validation of PEnQuIN standards and indicators as predictors of clinically relevant outcomes and high‐quality pediatric endoscopic care is now a research priority.
Pediatric Endoscopy Quality Improvement Network Quality Standards and Indicators for Pediatric Endoscopic Procedures
Authors: Lightdale Jenifer R. , Walsh Catharine M. , Oliva Salvatore , Jacobson Kevan , Huynh Hien Q. , Homan Matjaž , Hojsak Iva , Gillett Peter M. , Furlano Raoul I. , Fishman Douglas S. , Croft Nicholas M. , Brill Herbert , Bontems Patrick , Amil‐Dias Jorge , Utterson Elizabeth C. , Tavares Marta , Rosh Joel R. , Riley Matthew R. , Narula Priya , Mamula Petar , Mack David R. , Liu Quin Y. , Lerner Diana G. , Leibowitz Ian H. , Otley Anthony R. , Kramer Robert E. , Ambartsumyan Lusine , Connan Veronik , McCreath Graham A. , Thomson Mike A. ,   PEnQuIN Working Group
Published: August 2021

Introduction:

High‐quality pediatric gastrointestinal procedures are performed when clinically indicated and defined by their successful performance by skilled providers in a safe, comfortable, child‐oriented, and expeditious manner. The process of pediatric endoscopy begins when a plan to perform the procedure is first made and ends when all appropriate patient follow‐up has occurred. Procedure‐related standards and indicators developed to date for endoscopy in adults emphasize cancer screening and are thus unsuitable for pediatric medicine.

Methods:

With support from the North American and European Societies of Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN and ESPGHAN), an international working group of the Pediatric Endoscopy Quality Improvement Network (PEnQuIN) used the methodological strategy of the Appraisal of Guidelines for REsearch and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument to develop standards and indicators relevant for assessing the quality of endoscopic procedures. Consensus was sought via an iterative online Delphi process and finalized at an in‐person conference. The quality of evidence and strength of recommendations were rated according to the GRADE (Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) approach.

Results:

The PEnQuIN working group achieved consensus on 14 standards for pediatric endoscopic procedures, as well as 30 indicators that can be used to identify high‐quality procedures. These were subcategorized into three subdomains: Preprocedural (3 standards, 7 indicators), Intraprocedural (8 standards, 18 indicators), and Postprocedural (3 standards, 5 indicators). A minimum target for the key indicator, “rate of adequate bowel preparation,” was set at ≥80%.

Discussion:

It is recommended that all facilities and individual providers performing pediatric endoscopy worldwide initiate and engage with the procedure‐related standards and indicators developed by PEnQuIN to identify gaps in quality and drive improvement.