bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Problem of Income Inequality
Authors: Smithers Andrew
Published: May 2019

Living standards change in line with GDP per head only if the distribution of incomes is unchanged. If incomes become less equally distributed the living standards of most people will fall even if GDP per head is stable. The Gini Coefficient is the most widely used indicator designed to measure the distribution of income. UK inequality, on this measure, has risen since 1977, stabilized since 1987, and fallen in recent years. In the US there has been a long-term increase in income inequality. Unless this US trend for increased income inequality halts, it is quite likely that even if GDP per head rises in the US, the living standard of the average voter will fall. The recent data suggest that changes in income inequality pose less of a threat to living standards in the UK then they do to those in the US.
Investment and the Stock of Capital
Authors: Smithers Andrew
Published: May 2019

Investment in intangibles does not increase the volume of the capital stock nor is it designed to do so. The aim is to increase the efficiency of tangible investment. The volume of the capital stock must therefore be represented by tangible capital; intangible assets such as those that arise from investment in research and development and other forms of intellectual products must be excluded. A large tax credit in the US for R&D was introduced in 1981. Before that private sector spending on IP averaged 12 per cent of total investment and has since risen to over 30 per cent. Over the same period TFP, as measured by either the consensus model or mine, has deteriorated, investment in R&D is either ineffective or mismeasured. Measuring the volume of capital exclusively in terms of tangible assets thus has the additional advantage of excluding data of dubious accuracy.
Misinformation Adds to the Risks for the Economy
Authors: Smithers Andrew
Published: May 2019

The damage done by misinformation needs to be contained. Companies should publish their domestic and worldwide output. This should reduce the misstatement and thus volatility of published profits. US profits are habitually overstated, and this does relatively little harm, but periods of excessive overstatement lead to the risks in credit markets being under-appreciated and markets overpriced. Overstated RoEs encourage high hurdle rates, which reduces investment. The complacency about debt and asset prices is less prevalent today than it was before the financial crisis to which it made a major contribution. But restricting debt and asset prices is more difficult when there is bad information about asset values and credit risks. Misstated profits also contribute to asset bubbles and consequently to the magnitude of cyclical swings in the economy. Modern corporate accounting has contributed to this profit volatility.
What is Populism?
Authors: Pappas Takis S.
Published: May 2019

Chapter 1 begins with a concise overview of the ways earlier scholars have examined populism during consecutive waves of research on the topic, and goes on to expose common conceptual and methodological errors—such as obscuring the genus, overemphasizing essentialism while overlooking ontology, concept stretching, the incertitude about negative poles, and the difficulties with concept operationalization—before setting out to elaborate a truly minimal definition that can sufficiently account for the comparative study of modern populism. The chapter ends with a presentation of the book’s overall framework of analysis, which condenses the main methodological tools—such as indicators, variables, and concept properties—to be used later on during theory-building.
The Demographics of Disaffiliation
Authors: Bullivant Stephen
Published: May 2019

This chapter shows what light the quantitative sociology of religion can shed on Catholic disaffiliation. Drawing on recent data from high-quality survey programmes—the British Social Attitudes (BSA) and the General Social Survey (GSS)—it presents a detailed portrait of Catholic disaffiliates in Britain and America across a broad range of demographic indicators (region, age, sex, birth year, birth cohort, race, immigrant status). Illuminating comparisons are also drawn to the retention, disaffiliation, and conversion rates in other major British and American denominations (Lutheran, Anglican/Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian). Among other important findings, these analyses provide a great deal of evidence for regarding the post-war Baby Boomers as a watershed generation with regard to the following decades’ steady declines in Catholic practice and identity.
The Morning After
Authors: Bullivant Stephen
Published: May 2019

In the wake of the ‘Catholic sixties’, the 1970s and 1980s were a period of uncertainty and crisis. Alongside other worrying trends—falling numbers of converts’ vocations, the departure of large numbers of clergy and religious, existential crises for many religious orders and other Catholic institutions—Mass attendance began falling and falling. As Paul VI put it in 1972, ‘It was believed that after the Council would come a sunny day in the history of the Church. Instead, a day of clouds, storms, gloom, searching, and uncertainty has arrived.’ Using new data, this chapter quantifies the declines in practice and affiliation among British and American Catholics. It also examines the related trends of ‘religious switching’ in the USA—fuelled by the advent of Evangelical megachurches from the mid-1970s onwards—and the mainstreaming of nonreligiosity in Britain.
Petrarchan Transformations
Authors: Burrow Colin
Published: May 2019

This chapter explores how Petrarch responded to earlier arguments about imitatio, and how that relates to his unfinished epic Africa. It begins by showing how the metaphors used to describe imitation in the rhetorical tradition were deployed in the self-representations of humanist scholars who rediscovered a complete text of Quintilian. Petrarch’s own richly metaphorical discussions of imitatio are then connected with his concerns about verbal appropriation, and it is argued that Petrarch’s self-representations as a heroic rediscoverer of lost texts should not be taken at face value. He was adept at borrowing from late antique sources—Macrobius in particular—and at occluding those debts. His incomplete epic poem Africa shows how he sought to imitate without borrowing phrases longer than two words from an earlier work. Petrarch’s concerns about plagiarism led him to ‘imitate’ texts which were known about but lost, such as Ennius’s Annales. Imitating such texts—termed here ‘the lost imitand’—was a powerful means of establishing a distinction between imitation and textual appropriation, since a text which was lost could be reimagined, but it could not be plagiarized.
Ben Jonson
Authors: Burrow Colin
Published: May 2019

This chapter shows that Ben Jonson’s practice in imitating classical poetry was far more deeply indebted to the kinds of ‘formal’ imitation described in Chapter 6 than Jonson himself would have wished to admit. The epigrams of Martial in particular were not in a simple sense ‘sources’ of material for Jonson’s poetry: rather he sought to imitate the rhetorical figurations and manner of Martial and other authors. The chapter argues Jonson’s own (highly derivative) remarks on imitation in the Discoveries should not be simply taken as guides to his practice. It argues for strong affinities between Jonson’s work as a translator and his practice as an imitator. As both an imitator and as a translator Jonson responded not just to the vocabulary and sense of his originals but also to what Cicero in De Optimo Genere Oratorum had termed their ‘figura’, or rhetorical shape. The chapter concludes by showing how Jonson’s mode of ‘formal’ imitation enabled him to create a style which subsequent imitators—both of his works and of classical poetry—could imitate, and how Thomas Randolph, Robert Herrick, and others imitated Jonson’s style and practice.
Preliminaries
Authors: Booij Geert
Published: May 2019

This chapter introduces a number of core concepts for morphology: the nature of morphological generalizations, paradigmatic word formation, productivity, the nature of the lexicon and lexicalization. It also specifies the sources of information on the morphology of Dutch, and gives a survey of the rest of the book.
The inflectional system
Authors: Booij Geert
Published: May 2019

This chapter provides a survey of the inflection of nouns, adjectives, and verbs in Dutch. Productive nominal inflection is restricted to making plural forms of nouns. In addition, there are remnants of case marking that function as markers of specific constructions. Adjectives are only inflected in pre-nominal position, in which gender also plays a role. Verbs are inflected according to two systems: weak verbs by means of suffixation, strong verbs by means of stem change (mainly vowel alternations or Ablaut). Some tense forms are periphrastic in nature. This chapter introduces the distinction between inherent and contextual inflection, and shows that inherent inflection may feed word formation. Thus use of inflectional forms is subject to syntactic restrictions, and its use is also pragmatically determined.
Derivation
Authors: Booij Geert
Published: May 2019

Dutch complex words are formed by means of suffixation, prefixation, and conversion (change of category without morphological marking). The productivity of a word formation process is subject to various types of restriction, partially having to do with the layer of the lexicon (native or non-native). There are also word formation patterns that are unproductive. The grammar has to specify them nevertheless because these patterns still have a motivating function and reduce the arbitrariness of form-meaning correspondences. Special forms of word coining are blending, clipping, and the formation of acronyms.
Separable complex verbs
Authors: Booij Geert
Published: May 2019

Separable complex verbs (SCVs) are a subtype of multi-word expressions: phrasal predicates with a verbal head, and particles, adjectives, or nouns as non-heads. They behave as lexical units, but cannot be analysed as verbal compounds. They are analysed as verb phrases with a non-projecting complement, and they can also behave as syntactic compounds, with syntactic incorporation of the preverb. The subtype of SCVs with a Noun as complement is called quasi-incorporation. Nominalizations of separable complex verbs are nominals compounds consisting of a preverb and a deverbal nominalization. This implies a systematic paradigmatic relationship between phrasal constructions (SCVs) and morphological constructions (the corresponding nominalization compounds).
Implementation of the Principles of Good Governance on the National Level in the EU
Authors: Addink Henk
Published: May 2019

The implementation of good governance in the EU member states was investigated (by interpretation and application), considering the different functions of government bodies. Good governance as a pivotal public value in each of the member states has fundamental roots in the different phases of European history. In these phases we find aspects of the rule of law, democracy, and the institutional state developing and becoming natural dimensions of good governance, a common public value for European states. The outcome was that good governance norms developed in the member states sometimes in a general, abstract way, such as the concept of the rule of law, the notion of democracy, and the classical framework of constitutional institutions. There is, however, a tendency to specify these general dimensions of the good governance concept through principles, in some countries more than others. A principles-based development of policies in the member states was discovered, which is the key to good governance in these states. In different legal forms—constitutions, laws, policy papers, case law, and reports of ombudsmen and audit institutions—are the six specific aspects of the theoretical framework pertaining to Europe. These principles have been developed as legal principles by the (four) powers in the states of Europe, both as norms for the administration, as well as rights for citizens.
Amodalism
Authors: Shieh Sanford
Published: May 2019

This chapter provides the first part of a specification of Frege’s grounds for holding that modal distinctions are not features of logical structure. If necessity and possibility are genuine properties, then they are properties of judgeable contents or thoughts, and, the possession of any of these properties is determined by the truth and falsity of a content or thought in actual and non-actual circumstances. But truth and falsity are absolute: thoughts and judgments are true or false, period; they are not true or false at a time, or at a place, or in a circumstance. Frege’s position I call amodalism, and it implies that necessity and possibility are not genuine properties of judgeable contents or thoughts.
The Truth in Modalism
Authors: Shieh Sanford
Published: May 2019

This chapter takes up two further issues about Frege’s attitude towards modality. First, Frege doesn’t simply reject the relativization of truth. He gives amodalist explanations of linguistic phenomena that seem to show that truth is relative to time, and of talk of truth in various circumstances. Second, Frege’s truth-absolutism is not incompatible with two analyses of modality prominent in the history of philosophy: in terms of a priori knowledge and in terms of analytic truth. But Frege construes apriority and analyticity in logical terms. Thus, ultimately, Frege’s view is that if there are any modal distinctions, they amount to nothing more than logical distinctions. An interesting consequence of Frege’s accounts of apriority, analyticity, and modality is that they allow not only for synthetic a priori truths, but also necessary a posteriori and contingent a priori truths.
The Continuing Banishment of Modality
Authors: Shieh Sanford
Published: May 2019

This chapter concerns a development of Russell’s view of modality. It occurs in “Necessity and Possibility,” in which Russell formulates a new argument against modality. The argument begins with a survey of intuitions about modality. Russell proceeds to make these intuitions more precise, in terms of notions of logic. The resulting accounts, however, provide evidence that we have no coherent single intuitive conception of necessity and possibility. Hence nothing would be lost to logic and philosophy if we simply replaced modal concepts with one or the other of the accounts of modal intuitions in logical terms. This new argument enables Russell to retain his anti-modal position after he rejects Moore-Russell propositions. The chapter concludes by showing Russell’s continuing adherence to the rejection of modality.
Scientific Ontology and Speculative Ontology
Authors: Humphreys Paul
Published: May 2019

A contrast is drawn between two approaches to ontology: scientific ontology, which is constrained by scientific knowledge, and speculative ontology, which is not. Three primary arguments are provided against speculative ontology: its factual falsity, its appeal to intuitions as a source of knowledge, and its lack of attention to scale variance. The need to formulate criteria judging the appropriateness of philosophical idealizations is suggested and reasons are given not to take scientists’ ontological positions as a guide to the correct ontology either for a given theory or more generally.
Conclusion
Authors: Sriraman Tarangini
Published: May 2019

The conclusion of the book argues that state conventions of issuing identification documents and administering poor subjects by absorbing popular knowledge practices did not manifest themselves abruptly or evenly. The very terms and connotations of people demanding certain genres, making and re-making identification documents cannot be read independently of the historical and socio-spatial contexts in which relations between the state and its subjects unfolded. Where the Indian state has drawn out its welfare capacities through popular mobilizations by collectives such as workers’ unions, refugee associations, and slum residents, a unique reliance on a number-based ecosystem threatens to undo the reciprocities and dynamics of governing the poor. We may then be in clamorous need of paper-based infrastructures and potentialities of engendering evidentiary knowledge of the welfare subject where they allow for such innovations.
Urban Areas and Colonies
Authors: Guerrieri Pilar Maria
Published: May 2019

This chapter analyses local transformations and adaptations on the more restricted scale of single colonies. The colonies, through which the megalopolis grew, especially after Independence, are part British and part American in heritage, with local reinterpretations and certain Japanese influences. The study discusses how these colonies were established in the first place by the British in the nineteenth century and were home to the rich upper class or aristocratic English, who wished to move out of Shahjahanabad. Later on, towards the end of the colonial era, Indians and lower level government employees lived in neighbourhoods such as Jangpura, Karol Bagh and Lodi Colony. Finally, after independence, colonies became the main way of building the megalopolis. An interesting aspect in post- Independence colonies such as Malviya Nagar is that residence and industrial plots are kept within the same colony, becoming bulwarks to the concept of zoning imported by the Americans.
Insights into the Cities of India, Cultural Exchanges, and Identities
Authors: Guerrieri Pilar Maria
Published: May 2019

This chapter suggests and in many ways provides a method and a point of view with which also other cities could be analysed. It shows the possibility of analysing similar problems in other colonized countries and of how important it is to keep the focal point on cultural exchanges when seeing how traditions developed and where the identity of a place can be found. This method of analysing cities through cultural exchanges can, not only be applied in other parts of the world, but also touches a very important issue present nowadays, which is the process of globalization, which in turn raises the questions: How much are local cultures able to resist? Why does one country resist more than the other? How are different traditions created? To what degree are foreign imported models valid? And how important is it to find them directly in loco?
Introduction
Authors: Singh Anushka
Published: May 2019

On 1 February 2017 at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, mob violence erupted on campus with 1,500 protesters demanding the cancellation of a public lecture by Milo Yiannopoulos, a British author notorious for his alleged racist and anti-Islamic views.1 Consequently, the event was cancelled triggering a chain of reactions on the desirability and limits of freedom of expression within American democracy. The Left-leaning intellectuals and politicians were accused of allowing the mob violence to become a riot on campus defending it in the name of protest against racism, fascism, and social injustice. In defending the rights of the protesters to not allow ‘illiberal’ or hate speech on campus, however, many claimed that the message conveyed was that only liberals had the right to free speech....
Sedition and the Judicial Discourse in Postcolonial India
Authors: Singh Anushka
Published: May 2019

It traces the discourse on freedom of expression in postcolonial idea, the security imperatives of the state, the political history of the law of sedition post-Independence and its journey within the courts. Through this, an attempt at conceptualizing public order, security of state and other grounds along which the act of sedition is penalized, is made. This chapter begins with debates on sedition within the Constituent Assembly and systematically takes these debates to the higher courts in India employing legal hermeneutics to read into the judgements and deduce a theory of sedition coming from the judiciary. The chapter treats the judicial pronouncements as contributing to the study of sedition as a speech act to identify what emerges as the crime of sedition within the legal-juridical regime in India.
Administrative System
Authors: Mathur Kuldeep
Published: May 2019

This chapter highlights the characteristics of the inherited colonial administration and how the mythology of a caring and responsive administration was created and perpetuated in independent India. The members of the civil service who held key positions in the erstwhile colonial administration were hailed as ‘guardians’ with corresponding behavioural attributes. Successive civil service has held those qualities worth emulating. Soon, demands for a new kind of ‘developmentalist’ administrator were raised without any effort to change the administrative system structurally.
Western Influence
Authors: Mathur Kuldeep
Published: May 2019

This chapter recounts how international assistance and aid for development also came with package of reform measures for administration. During the early years, it came with the developmentist administration delineating professionalism and technical competence to implement development programmes. The concept lost its appeal as little impact on performance took place. Neoliberalism then became the accepted creed, and privatizing public management and outsourcing became the buzzwords for attracting international investment. Public administration was opened up to the ‘virtues’ of the private sector and its managerial institutions and practices. Many of these ideas began to be propagated in the broad term of ‘governance’.
Public‒Private Partnership (PPP) as an Administrative Institution
Authors: Mathur Kuldeep
Published: May 2019

While Chapter 8 discussed policy partnership, the discussion in this chapter examines public–private partnerships as administrative agencies with new institutional forms. It highlights the fact that such institutional forms exist in multiple designs since there are diverse modalities for establishing them. The government provides institutional and financial support to promote them. Civil servants are encouraged to look for opportune partnerships and become facilitators in their formation. Even though little evaluation of the performance of these partnerships has been undertaken seriously, the governments have been vigorously pursuing their proliferation in all sectors.
Gujarat and Long-Distance Trade in the Indian Ocean Region before the Sixteenth Century
Authors: Beaujard Philippe
Published: May 2019

Northwestern India, and particularly Gujarat, played a crucial role in the history of the ancient world by building connections with various Indian Ocean regions. These included the Persian Gulf, southern Arabia, the Red Sea, and the Horn of Africa on one side, and southern India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia on the other. Gujarat benefited from its agricultural potential and acted as a hub for various areas. This explains both its own success and the constant efforts by regional powers to control it. This chapter attempts to demonstrate the ways in which Gujarat proved able to assert its power and gradually become a major actor in exchanges in and around the Indian Ocean: exchanges that have connections to religious networks and places.
Normative Externalism
Authors: Weatherson Brian
Published: May 2019

Normative Externalism argues that it is not important that people live up to their own principles. What matters, in both ethics and epistemology, is that they live up to the correct principles: that they do the right thing, and that they believe rationally. This stance, that what matters are the correct principles, not one’s own principles, has implications across ethics and epistemology. In ethics, it undermines the ideas that moral uncertainty should be treated just like factual uncertainty, that moral ignorance frequently excuses moral wrongdoing, and that hypocrisy is a vice. In epistemology, it suggests we need new treatments of higher-order evidence, and of peer disagreement, and of circular reasoning, and the book suggests new approaches to each of these problems. Although the debates in ethics and in epistemology are often conducted separately, putting them in one place helps bring out themes common to both. One is that the view that one should live up to one’s own principles starts to look less attractive when you look at people with terrible principles, or at cases when doing so would lead to riskier or more aggressive action than the correct principles. Another is that asking people to live up to their principles leads to regresses in cases where it is hard to know how to live up to one’s principles.
Introduction
Authors: Weatherson Brian
Published: May 2019

This chapter introduces the distinction between normative internalism and normative externalism, and introduces the kinds of arguments that will appear throughout the book. The main worked example in the chapter concerns uncertainty about the correct rule for decision-making. It is shown that trying to find a rule for decision-making that is sensitive to one’s uncertainty about what the right rule for decision-making is will lead to vicious regresses. The chapter also discusses historical and contemporary views that have anticipated or motivated the views put forward in Normative Externalism, and discusses why the term ‘externalism’ is being applied to yet another philosophical view.
Level-Crossing Principles
Authors: Weatherson Brian
Published: May 2019

This chapter introduces normative externalism about epistemology. It takes what is central to normative externalism to be the denial of level-crossing principles. A level-crossing principle says there is a necessary connection between the propriety of a belief (in some sense of propriety), and the propriety of believing that very belief to be proper. The main theme of this part is outlined: level-crossing principles are inconsistent with evidentialism, and it is level-crossing principles, not evidentialism, that should be abandoned. The chapter also discusses the relationship between state-level evaluations, like the rationality of a belief, and agent-level evaluations, like the wisdom of a believer. And it briefly discusses the role of evidence in mathematics, and how the kind of evidentialism I favor extends to mathematical belief.
Epilogue
Authors: Weatherson Brian
Published: May 2019

The big theme of the book, that living up to one’s own principles is not intrinsically important, is reviewed. The book ends with a discussion of how the picture of ethics and epistemology we’re left with compares to other ‘tragic’ philosophical views.
Hell as a Problem of Evil in Medieval Women Mystics
Authors: West Clark
Published: May 2019

In the thirteenth century, it was unusual to regard the doctrine of hell as generating a problem of evil that needs to be solved. For most scholastic theologians it was, rather, a large part of the effort to create a theodicy for evil. Nevertheless, there were dissenters. In this Reflection, I consider the resignatio ad infernum tradition—most powerfully articulated by a number of women mystics writing in the vernacular—in which love of God, love of neighbor, and a willingness to be damned in solidarity with reprobates were simultaneously upheld. I also consider some later iterations of similar ideas in Dostoevsky and Camus.
Evil and Late Medieval Thought
Authors: Davies Brian
Published: May 2019

This chapter briefly explains how medieval thinkers understand the notions of “good” (bonum) and “evil” (malum). It then explains how Thomas Aquinas thinks of good and evil in general. It notes how he distinguishes between goodness and badness in things. It also notes how he tries to relate goodness and badness in the world to God, considered as totally good. In doing so it explains how it is that Aquinas, like other medieval theologians, is never concerned to turn to the existence of evil while trying to explain how God can be morally exonerated for permitting it. It also explains what Aquinas takes to be the causal connection between instances of evil and God.
Feminine Evil and Witchcraft
Authors: Pinnock Sarah K.
Published: May 2019

The brief Reflection looks at the history of witches in both early modern Europe and the New World. Thousands of women were condemned as witting or unwitting sources of physical and metaphysical evil. Witches were blamed for a variety of misfortunes including illness, crop failure, and the deaths of babies or mothers during childbirth. Evils committed by witches were objects of lurid fascination attributed to demonic forces, documented by monks, priests, and church authorities. Eroticized accusations reflected profound misogyny and suspicion toward those who did not conform to the patriarchal norms of church and society. Many of these witches were put to death in horrible ways, thereby adding rather than subtracting from the evils in the world.
What Happened to Evil?
Authors: Neiman Susan
Published: May 2019

This chapter explores the reasons why the problem of evil was ignored in twentieth-century mainstream philosophy. It first examines the belief that the problem of evil is a religious problem and argues to the contrary that while the problem of evil is one of the major impulses behind the development of religion, religion is not the source of the problem of evil. It then argues that the problem of evil is the driving force behind most of modern philosophy. Special focus is given to nineteenth-century philosophy, which was often largely ignored in the analytic tradition precisely because it was so focused not only on understanding but also solving the problem of evil. While sometimes expressed in secular form as a claim about progress in history, the problem of evil plays a central role in the work of Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, and Nietzsche, each of whose work is briefly explored with reference to that role.
The Banality of Evil
Authors: Geddes Jennifer L.
Published: May 2019

In her description of Eichmann as an exemplar of the banality of evil, Hannah Arendt was describing a new kind of perpetrator—not new in the sense of being the first of his kind but new to our usual taxonomy of evildoers. Arendt writes, “Eichmann was not Iago and not Macbeth.” Into our catalogue of violent sociopaths, sadistic murderers, evil geniuses, and subhuman fiends, we now had to insert something that was less extreme, less recognizable as evil, and thus, perhaps, more disturbing: the bureaucrat who murders without any recognizable evil intentions or feelings of hatred.
A Return to Mental Health and the Police—New Learning from Innovation
Authors: Dawson Paul , Hobson Zoe
Published: May 2019

Mental health is a core facet of policing demand, something that shows no indication of change—officers are often the first port of call and consequently can play an important role within enabling subsequent interventions. Historically, there has been a documented disjoin between the police and an effective mental ill-health response, evidenced by a number of high profile cases and reviews (i.e. Bradley or the Adebowale review). Such reviews set out a strong marker of where the police were in terms of understanding and responding to mental health. A number of years have passed since these reviews and a variety of innovations have been developed as a response. This article offers a reflection upon two such innovations (London Street Triage and Mental Health Awareness and Safeguarding Training Training both of which were implemented in London and supported by evaluation.
NATIONAL DIAGNOSTIC REFERENCE LEVELS AND ACHIEVABLE DOSES FOR 13 ADULT CT PROTOCOLS AND A PAEDIATRIC HEAD CT PROTOCOL: NATIONAL SURVEY OF KOREAN HOSPITALS
Authors: Kim Jung Su , Lee Sang Kyung , Kim Sun-Ki , Yoo Seung-Min , Kim Jung Min , Yoon Sang-Wook
Published: May 2019

To develop a second set of diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) and achievable doses (ADs) for 13 adult computed tomography (CT) protocols and a paediatric head CT protocol in Korea. A survey of 13,625 CT examinations was performed based on 13 adult CT protocols and a paediatric non-contrast brain CT protocol using 369 CT systems, with patients grouped according to age. Most CT protocols in this survey had DRLs similar to those reported in other countries. However, chest and abdomen-pelvic CT had lower DRLs than those reported in the first Korean national survey and those from other countries. Paediatric non-contrast brain CT in each age group, with the exception of the 11–15-year age group, had lower DRLs than those reported in other countries. The DRLs presented here are similar to (or lower than for some protocols) those reported in the first Korean national survey and those from other countries.
Discrimination, Coping, and Social Exclusion among African Immigrants in the United States: A Moderation Analysis
Authors: Saasa Sherinah K
Published: May 2019

This cross-sectional study examined coping strategies as moderators of the relationship between perceived discrimination and social exclusion among African immigrants in the United States (N = 409). Moderation models using path analyses were conducted to examine the moderating effects of three coping strategies (active coping, use of instrumental support, and religious coping) on the relationship between discrimination and four dimensions of social exclusion: (1) material deprivation, (2) limited access to basic social rights, (3) limited social participation, and (4) insufficient cultural integration. Increases in perceived discrimination were associated with increased social exclusion on all four dimensions. Increased use of active coping was found to weaken the positive relationship between perceived discrimination and material deprivation and between discrimination and limited social participation. Use of instrumental support also buffered the negative effects of discrimination on limited social participation. Recommendations for practice and future research are presented.
Development of a decision-making checklist tool to support technology selection in digital health research
Authors: Nebeker Camille , Bartlett Ellis Rebecca J , Torous John
Published: May 2019

Digital technologies offer researchers new approaches to test personalized and adaptive health interventions tailored to an individual. Yet, research leveraging technologies to capture personal health data involve technical and ethical consideration during the study design phase. No guidance exists to facilitate responsible digital technology selection for research purposes. A stakeholder-engaged and iterative approach was used to develop, test, and refine a checklist designed to aid researchers in selecting technologies for their research. First, stakeholders (n = 7) discussed and informed key decision-making domains to guide app/device selection derived from the American Psychiatric Association’s framework that included safety, evidence, usability, and interoperability. We added “ethical principles” to the APA’s hierarchical model and created a checklist that was used by a small group of behavioral scientists (n = 7). Findings revealed the “ethical principles” domains of respect, beneficence, and justice cut across each decision-making domains and the checklist questions/prompts were revised accordingly and can be found at thecore.ucsd.edu. The refined checklist contains four decision-making domains with prompts/questions and ethical principles embedded within the domains of privacy, risk/benefit, data management, and access/evidence. This checklist is the first step in leading the narrative of decision-making when selecting digital health technologies for research. Given the dynamic and rapidly evolving nature of digital health technology use in research, this tool will need to be further evaluated for usefulness in technology selection.
Bisphenol A Promotes the Invasive and Metastatic Potential of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ and Protumorigenic Polarization of Macrophages
Authors: Kim Hyelim , Kim Hoe Suk , Piao Yin Ji , Moon Woo Kyung
Published: May 2019

Increased cancer risk and immune disorders linked with exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors like bisphenol A (BPA) have been steadily reported. Nevertheless, the impacts of BPA on the breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) progression and macrophage polarization remain to be elucidated. Here, we analyzed the differentially expressed genes in BPA-exposed DCIS cells and explored BPA effects on DCIS progression and macrophage polarization in vitro and in vivo. Two hundred and ninety-one genes were differentially expressed in 10−8 M BPA-exposed DCIS cells, in which the gene ontology terms of biological processes associated with negative regulation of cell death, cell adhesion, and immune response was enriched. 10−8 M BPA promoted the proliferation and migration of DCIS cells and the migration of macrophages, and upregulated the expression of M1 (NOS2) or M2 markers (Arg-1 and CD206) in macrophages. In coculture system, the migratory capacity of both cells and the expression levels of NOS2, Arg-1, and CD206 in macrophages were significantly enhanced upon 10−8 M BPA. In a DCIS xenograft model, oral exposure to an environmentally human-relevant low dose of 2.5 µg/l BPA for 70 days via drinking water led to an approximately 2-fold promotion in the primary tumor growth rate and a significant enhancement of lymph node metastasis along with increased protumorigenic CD206+ M2 polarization of macrophages. These results demonstrate that BPA acts as an accelerator to promote DCIS progression to invasive breast cancer by affecting DCIS cell proliferation and migration as well macrophage polarization toward a protumorigenic phenotype.
Influenza passaging annotations: what they tell us and why we should listen
Authors: DuPai Cory D , McWhite Claire D , Smith Catherine B , Garten Rebecca , Maurer-Stroh Sebastian , Wilke Claus O
Published: May 2019

Influenza databases now contain over 100,000 worldwide sequence records for strains influenza A(H3N2) and A(H1N1). Although these data facilitate global research efforts and vaccine development practices, they also represent a stumbling block for researchers because of their confusing and heterogeneous annotation. Unclear passaging annotations are particularly concerning given the recent work highlighting the presence and risk of false adaptation signals introduced by cell passaging of viral isolates. With this in mind, we aim to provide a concise outline of why viruses are passaged, a clear overview of passaging annotation nomenclature currently in use, and suggestions for a standardized nomenclature going forward. Our hope is that this summary will empower researchers and clinicians alike to more easily understand a virus sample’s passage history when analyzing influenza sequences.
Police, Waterworks, and the Construction of the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1924–1954
Authors: Alvarez C J
Published: May 2019

This article examines four major building projects on the U.S.-Mexico border: the straightening of the Rio Grande around El Paso–Ciudad Juárez, the assemblage of the first large-scale border fence, the fabrication of early Border Patrol watchtowers, and the construction of Falcon Dam. These were the first major efforts to transform the international divide through the built environment. By putting these seemingly dissimilar initiatives into conversation with one another, we can better understand the connections between the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the little-known International Boundary and Water Commission; rethink how the political and social construction of the border was achieved through literal, physical construction; and generate new ways of linking border and environmental history.
The Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory and Screening Tool Based on Psychometric Reevaluation of the Hearing Handicap Inventories for the Elderly and Adults
Authors: Cassarly Christy , Matthews Lois J. , Simpson Annie N. , Dubno Judy R.
Published: May 2019

Objectives:

The present study evaluates the items of the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly and Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults (HHIE/A) using Mokken scale analysis (MSA), a type of nonparametric item response theory, and develops updated tools with optimal psychometric properties.

Design:

In a longitudinal study of age-related hearing loss, 1447 adults completed the HHIE/A and audiometric testing at baseline. Discriminant validity of the emotional consequences and social/situational effects subscales of the HHIE/A was assessed, and nonparametric item response theory was used to explore dimensionality of the items of the HHIE/A and to refine the scales.

Results:

The HHIE/A items form strong unidimensional scales measuring self-perceived hearing handicap, but with a lack of discriminant validity of the two distinct subscales. Two revised scales, the 18-item Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory and the 10-item Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory—Screening, were developed from the common items of the original HHIE/A that met the assumptions of MSA. The items on both of the revised scales can be ordered in terms of increasing difficulty.

Conclusions:

The results of the present study suggest that the newly developed Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory and Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory—Screening are strong unidimensional, clinically informative measures of self-perceived hearing handicap that can be used for adults of all ages. The real-data example also demonstrates that MSA is a valuable alternative to classical psychometric analysis.
Factors Predictive of Blocking Screw Placement in Retrograde Nailing of Distal Femur Fractures
Authors: Schumaier Adam P. , Southam Brendan R. , Avilucea Frank R. , Finnan Ryan P. , Wyrick John D. , Archdeacon Michael T. , Le Theodore T.
Published: May 2019

Objectives:

(1) Identify factors that predict blocking screw placement in the treatment of a distal femur fracture with retrograde nail fixation and (2) determine whether acceptable alignment and stability were achieved in fractures that received blocking screws.

Design:

Retrospective Comparative Study.

Setting:

Level I Trauma Center.

Patients/Participants:

Between 2011 and 2017, we identified 84 patients with distal third femur fractures treated with a retrograde femoral nail. Data were analyzed according to those who did (BLOCK, n = 30) and did not (NO BLOCK, n = 54) receive blocking screws. Patients in both groups were treated by orthopaedic trauma surgeons; postoperative weight-bearing radiographs were obtained of every patient.

Intervention:

Fixation using a retrograde femoral nail with or without blocking screws. Blocking screws were placed at the discretion of the treating surgeon to reduce malaligned fractures or improve stability.

Main Outcome Measurements:

(1) Demographics, radiographic apparent bone gap (RABG), space available for the nail (SAFN), and distal segment length [as a ratio of bicondylar width (BCW)]; and (2) post-operative alignment and stability (change in alignment over time).

Results:

Patients treated with blocking screws had a higher body mass index (BMI) (BLOCK: 29.0, NO BLOCK 25.7, P = 0.03). In addition, the BLOCK group had larger RABGs (BLOCK: 8.2 mm, NO BLOCK: 3.6 mm, P = 0.02), more SAFN (BLOCK: 51.4 mm, NO BLOCK: 39.8 mm, P = 0.02), and shorter distal segments (BLOCK: 1.7 × BCW, NO BLOCK: 2.0 × BCW, P = 0.01). In a multivariable logistic regression, the combination of these factors was significantly predictive of blocking screw placement with a large effect size (R2 = 0.36, P < 0.01). A distal segment length ≤ ×2 BCW was 77% sensitive for blocking screw placement, and a BMI ≥25 kg/m2 was 70% sensitive. Negative predictive values for blocking screw placement were distal segment length > ×2 BCW (79%), BMI <25 kg/m2 (77%), RABG <4 mm (76%), and SAFN <50 mm (71%). Patients that received blocking screws had acceptable postoperative alignment and stability, similar to fractures that did not receive blocking screws (P > 0.05).

Conclusions:

This retrospective study of distal femur fractures treated with retrograde nails identified several factors that can be used to predict when blocking screw placement may be useful for increasing stability and maintaining alignment in distal third femur fractures treated with retrograde IM nails. Patients treated with blocking screws had a higher BMI, greater cortical bone loss, more SAFN, and shorter distal segments. There was no difference in postoperative alignment or stability between the 2 groups.

Level of Evidence:

Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Role of Histopathology in the Diagnosis of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: A Case–Control Study in Sri Lanka
Authors: Thilakarathne Iresha K. , Ratnayake Palitha , Vithanage Anoma , Sugathadasa Dammika P.
Published: May 2019

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) displays a spectrum of manifestations clinically and histologically. Then, it becomes a diagnostic challenge and must discern from the other clinical and histological mimics, especially when the Leishman-Donovan bodies are inattentive. In this study, we compared the distinguishing histomorphological characteristics of CL against the other skin diseases with similar clinical and histological features. Skin biopsies of 181 patients, which suspect CL clinically, are evaluated histologically. Pertaining to the first case–control comparison, which performed between skin lesions of CL with or without discernible organisms and the other granulomatous dermatitis, highlighted that the ill-formed coalescent granulomata (OR = 14.83) and diffuse dense dermal plasma cell infiltrate (OR = 74.25) are significantly associated with the skin lesions of CL. The second case–control analysis was between CL without discernible organisms and the other granulomatous dermatitis, and identified a significant association in the presence of ill-formed coalescent granulomata (OR = 16.94) and diffuse dense (>50/HPF) dermal plasma cell infiltrate (OR = 74.5) in the skin lesions of CL. Pertaining to epidermal changes, acanthosis (OR = 2.38), spongiosis (OR = 9.13), and the presence of ulceration (OR = 20.26) are among the major concerns in CL. In conclusion, in the presence of clinical suspicion, dermal granulomata in ill-formed coalescent morphology with high plasma cell density in a diffuse arrangement are positive factors for the diagnosis of CL, especially when the discernible Leishmania amastigotes are absent. Resource utilization such as polymerase chain reaction and other ancillary techniques during the diagnosis of CL can be minimized by using a range of histopathological features and special attention should be focused on this in the future.
Effects of 8 weeks of moderate-intensity resistance training on muscle changes in postmenopausal women with different angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphisms of interest
Authors: He Lingxiao , Zhang Xinming , Lv Yuanyuan , Gu Boya , Zhao Li
Published: May 2019

Objective:

The aim of the study was to explore the association between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism and muscle adaptations to moderate-intensity resistance training in postmenopausal women.

Methods:

Forty healthy postmenopausal Chinese women (aged 53-66 years) were recruited and grouped by ACE I/D polymorphism (the homozygous deletion genotype [DD], n = 12; the I allele carriers [II/ID], n = 28). All participants performed an 8-week full-body resistance training program at moderate intensity with 15-repetition maximum. Upper- and lower-limb muscle mass, grip and back strength, anatomical cross-sectional area of the rectus femoris (ACSARF), isokinetic knee extension strength (MVCKE) and knee flexion strength were measured before and after training.

Results:

Our results showed significant genotype × time interaction in ACSARF and MVCKE (P = 0.007 and P = 0.03, respectively) with the DD group having greater changes in corresponding parameters than the I-allele carriers (P = 0.012 and P = 0.018, respectively). Multivariate linear regression results showed that the ACE DD genotype was positively related to the grip strength adaptation (r = 0.48, P = 0.05).

Conclusions:

This study improves our understanding of the association between the ACE I/D polymorphism and muscular responses to moderate intensity resistance training among postmenopausal women and revealed that the DD genotype has predominant adaptations in grip strength, rectus femoris size, and knee extensor strength.