bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Operational Sex Ratio and Infidelity
Authors: Kruger Daniel J.
Published: October 2022

The operational sex ratio is a powerful influence on behavior in humans and other species. Although stable on an evolutionary time scale, specific populations may have an imbalanced sex ratio. Following the economic patterns of supply and demand, the rare sex is more valuable in the reproductive market and has lower mating competition and greater selectivity for partners. Because men and women have somewhat divergent reproductive strategies, imbalances in the sex ratio have differential effects. Men leverage their market scarcity for greater sexual access while avoiding long-term relationship commitments. Lower sex ratios, where men are less numerous, are associated with more promiscuous mating strategies, higher rates of infidelity, and low relationship stability. Women can leverage their market scarcity in high sex ratio populations to secure commitment from partners, marry at earlier ages, and obtain greater resource investment; however, women’s ability to pursue infidelity or multiple relationships is typically constrained by cultural practices regulating female sexuality. High sex ratios are associated with greater emphasis on traditional sex roles and norms that both protect and constrain women. Harsh penalties, including death, are possible consequences of women violating cultural norms in such societies. In part due to rates of infidelity, biased sex ratios create important implications for social conditions and public health.
It’s Not You, It’s Us
Authors: Hackathorn Jana , Ashdown Brien K.
Published: October 2022

Infidelity is often defined as perceived as a violation of relationship exclusivity rules, and many view infidelities as immoral. Thus, one can imagine the importance of understanding why up to a fifth of research samples report cheating in their current relationships. There is considerable literature regarding what factors predict infidelity. Although individual characteristics associated with infidelity do exist, relationship-based variables tend to be the most consistent and robust factors. This chapter will discuss various theories and research findings that suggested different relationship-based factors and frameworks with which to consider and predict why some people engage in infidelity. This chapter reviews some major ideas and research through the lens of the investment model of commitment (i.e., satisfaction, investment, quality of alternatives, commitment), as well as other relationship-based variables (e.g., opportunities and boredom, relationship type and length) that have received empirical support. Finally, the chapter ends with a nod to future directions in this area, and a notion of what researchers should expect from the literature in the future.
Performing Whiteness through the First-Generation American Immigrant Experience from Viennese Nights to Pitch Perfect
Authors: Everett William A.
Published: October 2022

Hollywood has a legacy rooted in whiteness. This was highlighted at the 87th Academy Awards in 2015, which ignited the #OscarsSoWhite controversy after all twenty of the actors nominated in the lead and supporting actor categories were white. The connected ideas of whiteness and becoming white characterize the experiences of first-generation immigrants to the United States in Hollywood musicals ranging from the genre’s early years to the series of Pitch Perfect films that appeared between 2012 and 2017. This essay will investigate ways in which the Hollywood musical depicts first-generation immigrants to the United States and how music infuses plot lines in terms of the protagonists’ professions or avocations. In each of the films discussed, at least one immigrant protagonist is a musician. This device allows for diegetic performances of musical numbers, which attends to the film medium’s need to explain why people might sing and dance.
P. T. Barnum Reinvented for the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Leve James
Published: October 2022

There are two P. T. Barnums. One is the bigger-than-life nineteenth-century American showman created and propagated by American popular culture. The other Barnum, the son of a Connecticut merchant who became a successful businessman by accurately sensing and satisfying the public’s insatiable appetite for human wonderment, figures large in disability studies. The 2017 blockbuster movie musical The Greatest Showman adopts neither version of Barnum, but it does expose how incompatible they are. This chapter examines how the film presents Barnum in a hyperbolically positive light and gives a grossly distorted account of who he was. It claims to celebrate diversity as represented by Barnum’s American Museum, but it expunges from Barnum’s biography most of the “freaks” (physically anomalous people) whom Barnum exhibited and minimalizes the few that do appear. The troupe of performers in The Greatest Showman includes only a few of the real-life “freaks” whom Barnum employed and inserts several newly invented characters who feel marginalized—not due to any bodily deviance but for reasons apparently tied to sexuality, race, or class. This chapter argues that in its effort to celebrate diversity as generally represented in popular culture, The Greatest Showman reinforces discriminatory practices against people with physical disability.
When Fred Lost Ginger
Authors: Block Geoffrey
Published: October 2022

After Follow the Fleet in 1936, the fifth successive hit film since their sensational debut in Flying Down to Rio in 1933, Fred Astaire (1899–1987) instigated a five-film contract in which his partner, Ginger Rogers (1911–1995), could appear in no more than three of these films without his consent. The sole film without Ginger encompassed in the contract, A Damsel in Distress, was released on November 19, 1937. A Damsel in Distress earned an unenviable distinction, becoming the first Astaire film to lose money. Despite considerable praise lavished on Astaire’s dancing and the fine Gershwin score, much of the literature on Damsel tends to accentuate the negative. This chapter offers a reconsideration of the film based on various archival and published sources.
Yentl, Barbra Streisand, and Music of the Mind
Authors: Laird Paul R.
Published: October 2022

In staged and film musicals, songs are usually delivered as performances. A character, for example, provides an emotional response to a question, such as a declaration of love. The resulting song enhances the answer. Yentl (1983), based on the short story “Yentl the Yeshiva Boy” by Isaac Bashevis Singer, is a musical film where the majority of the songs present the title character’s inner thoughts, explaining the motives of a female disguised as a male. Barbra Streisand produced and directed the film, co-wrote the script with Jack Rosenthal, played the title role, and sang all of the songs, an unusual concentration of responsibilities in one person. She did not intend Yentl as a musical, but had such trouble securing studio backing for the project that she found herself required to use the most famous arrow in her quiver of talents. Her friends the lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman convinced Streisand to make Yentl into a musical as a way for the character to explain and express herself. Michel Legrand, another friend, wrote the music. Streisand contributed song ideas and listened as they wrote the score, which won an Academy Award and became well known from its successful soundtrack album. Yentl is an unusual musical, made possible by the star’s fame and title character’s strong beliefs: her obsession with studying the Torah; her outrage over the treatment of women; and her love for her father, study partner Avigdor, and Hadass, the woman that Avigdor also loves.
Theatricality, Artifice, and Affective Space in the Works of Baz Luhrmann
Authors: Stilwell Robynn J.
Published: October 2022

To read criticism or scholarship about Baz Luhrmann is almost to be overwhelmed by words and phrases like “fantastical,” “excess(ive),” “lurid,” and the occasional, more restrained, “seldom subtle.” At times, the descriptions of his films suggest, if not outright state, that experiencing them is an assault on the senses, implying a closeness between audience and cinematic materials. And yet, some of Luhrmann’s most affective moments come with an expansion of physical and psychological space, a marked distancing from the audience through theatricality, artifice, and a pulling back of the image’s frame. Unlike most filmmakers who opt for close-ups and a stripping away of extraneous decoration at such moments, Luhrmann tends toward the spectacular; in context, however, this unreality can allow a revelation, even elevation of emotional truth—and paradoxically, often of intimacy. After an exploration of the “Red Curtain Trilogy Aesthetic,” this chapter examines key narrative scenes of both Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge! that demonstrate the aesthetic in action, heightening emotion through obvious artifice articulated by space and movement and a particular tendency to heighten intimacy through distance.
Revealing the Subconscious
Authors: Gardner Kara
Published: October 2022

A “dream ballet” uses ballet technique as its stylistic language, although it might incorporate other choreographic styles. Movement is its primary medium of expression, as opposed to dialogue or song. The dream ballet focuses on the subconscious feelings and motivations of a main character. Dance often serves the function of lifting the audience outside of the main film narrative into another realm. But the dream ballet does this while also facilitating the development of a character who plays an important part in the main story. An American in Paris (1951), Oklahoma! (1955), and La La Land (2016) all contain dance sequences that serve as useful case studies to examine the genre of the “dream ballet.” This lays the groundwork for in-depth analysis of the three dream ballets with a broader discussion of dance in early Hollywood musicals.
Indigenizing the Sociology of Gender
Authors: Henry Robert
Published: October 2022

This introductory chapter is intended to provide the reader with an overview of the ways that sociology has engaged in the topics of gender and sexuality, and how Indigenous sociological perspectives can broaden the Western sociological gaze. Specific attention is paid to how White heteronormative patriarchy supported colonial violence on Indigenous women, Two-Spirit peoples, as well as Indigenous men. Prior to colonization, Indigenous notions of gender and sexuality were not relegated to Western binaries of male/female. Rather, Indigenous understandings were pluralized, where fluidity of genders and sexualities were understood to be normal. The chapters in this section focus on the complexities of Indigenous genders and sexualities, how colonial violence has impacted Indigenous lifeworlds, and that it is through an Indigenous gendered and queer approach that decolonization can occur.
On the Maturation of Addams Studies
Authors: Shields Patricia M. , Hamington Maurice , Soeters Joseph
Published: October 2022

Nobel Peace Prize winner, prolific author, pioneering feminist, influential scholar in multiple disciplines, labor organizer, and community activist, Jane Addams lived a remarkable life. Yet her name remains relatively unknown. Appreciation for Addams’s intellectual legacy has grown dramatically over the past several decades, and this publication is a testament to the positive trajectory of her scholarly regard. Because readers of this volume come from different disciplines and have various levels of knowledge of Addams, this introduction provides foundational and contextual background into her life and work. Specifically, the volume editors situate Addams as influential in both scholarly disciplines and fields of practice as fleshed out by the contributors to the Oxford Handbook of Jane Addams. After a concise summary of Addams’s life and work, an overview of her intellectual place in sociology is followed by a synopsis of her place in American philosophy. Then Addams’s roles in public administration and social work are explored. The introduction concludes with a brief explanation of the organization of the volume, including its six sections and thirty-nine chapters.
Epilogue
Authors: Soeters Joseph , Shields Patricia M. , Hamington Maurice
Published: October 2022

Addams worked to make the world a better place. She dedicated herself to working toward a world where strong, vibrant, democratic communities supported everyone—particularly the neglected poor. This Epilogue explores the applicability of Addams’s life, vision, and scholarship to the complicated and divisive twenty-first-century social environment. The volume editors do this using four lenses that capture ongoing issues that resonate across generations—inequality, immigration, militarism and unstable peace, and threats to democracy. They find that contemporary academic tools, such as statistics, computer simulations, and theorizing, demonstrate how greater cooperation and cohesion among people and nations facilitates efforts to resolve the challenges facing humanity. Strong academic, rigorous evidence confirms Addams’s work and theories as a feminist pragmatist, sociologist, and social philosopher. Jane Addams relevance remains, perhaps now more than ever.
Latin America and the Idea of Peace
Authors: Scarfi Juan Pablo
Published: October 2022

Latin America has played a pioneering role in the development of international mechanisms devoted to promoting peace such as arbitration, the legal settlement of international disputes, the codification of international law, and projects for international organization in both regional and hemispheric scales from the late nineteenth century until the 1930s. Specific principles designed to safeguard the region from foreign imperial and colonial interventions, notably the Roman principle of uti possidetis juris and the US Monroe Doctrine, emerged from the aftermath of independence from Spanish rule and thus could be traced back to the early nineteenth century. This chapter explores the evolution of the idea of peace in Latin America, focusing on both ideas and practices devoted to the promotion of peace in the region, as well as the intellectual contributions of Latin American jurists, statesmen, and diplomats. It also touches on the hegemonic role of the United States in the construction of a regional tradition along with continental institutions.
Nobel Peace Laureates Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch
Authors: Whipps Judy D.
Published: October 2022

Nobel Peace Prize recipients Jane Addams (1931) and Emily Greene Balch (1946) were friends and colleagues whose peace activism grew out of their Progressive Era reform agendas. Addams, the co-founder of the Hull House settlement house, was already famous when she entered the peace movement of the early twentieth century. Balch was a professor at Wellesley before working full time in international peace activism. They helped establish the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom with Addams as its first president. Balch, as the first international secretary-treasurer, was responsible for establishing the first WILPF office in Geneva. After a brief historical overview of their peace activism, this chapter examines three foundations of their philosophical and methodological pacifism that are still pertinent today: 1) women’s participation as a necessary part of peace work, 2) internationalism that can act as a corrective to economic/cultural nationalism, and 3) relational community-building methods that acknowledge the particularities of people, place, and context.
Modern East Asia and Peace
Authors: Iguchi Gerry
Published: October 2022

This chapter examines how subjection to the cultural, political, economic, and military imperialism of the West and other factors complicated the ideal of peace in East Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Japan was doubly complex because, escaping formal imperialism, Japanese industrialized, established modern political institutions, and became imperialists themselves, preying on Korea and parts of China. In Japan, Buddhism generally cooperated with the state’s imperialism, in part because much as with the modern West, belief in the justification of Japan’s wars for peace became widespread. In both China and Japan, although we might understand Buddhist or spiritual principles to have been for peace in the abstract, favoring peace often intertwined with thinking leftist character. If East Asian leaders deployed related traditional philosophies, however, these often tended toward conservative ends such as facilitating “harmony” that would buttress national and transnational social, political, economic, and cultural hierarchies.
The Cakrasaṃvara Tantra
Authors: Gray David B.
Published: October 2022

The Cakrasaṃvara Tantra is a short but influential work in the Buddhist Yoginītantra genre and is considered the fundamental scripture (mūlatantra, “root tantra”) of what came to be one of the main practice traditions in this genre. It is a cryptic and somewhat obscure text that has a complicated textual history. It came to be seen as the basis of an important practice tradition, which ensured its continued influence until the present day. This practice tradition was initially popular in Northern India and was later transmitted to the Kathmandu Valley and Tibet, where it remains an important tradition of practice. Its practice has now spread around the world due to the Tibetan diaspora.
Democracy and Historical Political Economy
Authors: Stasavage David
Published: October 2022

The study of democracy, how it emerged, when it survives, and when it dies, is a preeminent concern for a great many scholars, as well as for the broader public. This chapter reviews three classic questions about democracy involving its deep origins, the advent of universal adult suffrage, and the varied success with sustaining modern electoral democracy. It does so by considering recent work in historical political economy and how it contributes to earlier work in political science, economics, and history. In an era where democracy faces significant challenges, it is all the more important to consider what its long history can tell us about the present. Democracy is a robust form of governance that many different human societies have practiced. Even so, democracy in an individual country can never be taken for granted, and maintaining it requires both periodic institutional creativity and continual investment so as to better connect citizens to the state.
Language
Authors: Mugglestone Lynda
Published: October 2022

This chapter provides a critical exploration of a number of aspects of received wisdom about Johnson and language, exploring Johnson’s own linguistic practice in speech and writing, whether in private writing such as letters and diaries as well as within his published works on language, including his celebrated Dictionary. Against a background of strongly normative interest in language and linguistic regulation, it examines Johnson’s interest in, and presentation of, variation, contact, and change, alongside his engagement with other languages, while also directing close attention to Johnson’s documentary and evidential processes in terms of spelling, meaning and use, and the discourses of power, reform, and authority that these reveal. Across the chapter, questions of form and correctness, the nature of literary authority, and the challenges of lexicography, not least in relation to the conflicts of usage versus correctness, are carefully examined.
War
Authors: Alliker Rabb Melinda
Published: October 2022

The concept of the evils of war weaves through Johnson’s work like a connective thread that at times appears visibly on the surface and at other times more subtly underlies the fabric of his thinking and expression. If the idea of war is pervasive, however, the actual body of the warrior is rare. Johnson avoided representation of the embattled flesh and bone of those who did the fighting and suffered its consequences. This dichotomy—confront the idea of war but avoid war-torn bodies—is central to recognizing the effect in his work of postmemory, the phenomenon through which trauma can be displaced onto later generations and can be reimagined by those who are distanced from immediate disaster by history or geography. This chapter analyzes the ways in which Johnson’s transformative abstractions of the corporeal human form are situated within narratives of human-generated violence whose pains resist direct confrontation.
Doubt
Authors: Shanafelt Carrie D.
Published: October 2022

Scholars have long disagreed about whether to categorize Samuel Johnson as a skeptic or as an anti-skeptic, as his criticism attacks religious, historical, biographical, and philosophical discourse from both sides. Johnson differentiated skepticism as an intellectual method from doubt, an experience of uncertainty; while the former could be feigned or practiced badly, the latter must be pitied and assuaged. Reading Johnson as a skeptic, an anti-skeptic, and an anti-anti-skeptic, this chapter analyzes his intellectual method as a form of Christian discernment, drawing evidence from his literary criticism, fiction, lexicography, and reported conversation regarding the philosophers George Berkeley and David Hume.
The Last Puritan in Shanghai
Authors: Johnson Kendall
Published: October 2022

In 1936, the author and journalist Emily “Mickey” Hahn (1905–1997) was living in Shanghai when she reviewed George Santayana’s The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel (1935) for the English-language monthly T’ien Hsia. Santayana’s memoir and Hahn’s review open twentieth-century American literature to the imperial legacy of the China Trade as epitomized by the nineteenth-century mercantile biography. These commercial romances aligned the financial complexity of global opium speculation with the patrilineal vector of merchant-prince family and fortune. As the Bretton Woods Agreement (1944) set post-war terms of US financial hegemony, Hahn and Santayana were strikingly out of step with the triumphalist spirit of the age. Their autobiographical writings evoke melancholic social alienation that this chapter ties to the legacy of the China Trade’s inter-imperial “financialization” as it shaped the literary contexts of opium smoking in Shanghai before the Second World War. The chapter contrasts Hahn and Santayana for the queer senses of social affect implied in their representations of opium consumption.
Constructing Whiteness
Authors: Kim Heidi
Published: October 2022

William Faulkner and Edna Ferber’s long, parallel, and prolific careers allow us to trace the evolution of their thinking about race and the color line, particularly the construction of whiteness. During the accumulation of Jim Crow laws, the Great Depression, and the post-Second World War era of legal desegregation and economic prosperity, both authors confronted the construction and the vulnerability of whiteness in terms of the legal definition of the body and family as well as the privilege and fears surrounding socioeconomic mobility. This chapter examines pairs of their best-known novels in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Despite their considerable formal differences, these works’ similarities encourage us to include popular writers such as Ferber in the literary history of writing about race and to broaden the study of Faulkner in conversation with his contemporaries.
Cultural Memory Studies and the Beloved Paradigm
Authors: Rothberg Michael
Published: October 2022

This chapter seeks to understand the work of memory performed by Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved, arguably the most canonical work of American literature in the twentieth century. Against the backdrop of Beloved’s outsized influence, the chapter approaches the novel as a lens through which to reflect on the relationship of literature to cultural memory. The emergent interdisciplinary field of memory studies offers a conceptual framework that helps explain the cultural work Morrison’s novel does as well as the reasons it has resonated so powerfully across the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Such an approach helps connect the specificity of Beloved’s intervention with broader cultural currents inside and outside the academy. The chapter argues that we should understand Morrison’s novel as a “knot of memory” that serves as both outcome and conduit for multiple historical narratives.
The Hidden Voice
Authors: Teuton Sean
Published: October 2022

Twentieth-century Native American writers at times offer a different path to history to serve readers who, through conquest, have been denied an Indigenous past. Such Native writers draw on a traditional view of knowledge, history, and time that relies more on Indigenous notions of narration and cultural memory than on Western ideas of historical fact and proof. These writers invite Indigenous readers and others to imagine a self that embodies an ancient, mythic essence to reclaim a stolen past. That embodiment, moreover, on intersection with Black and Brown peoples, complicates racial authenticity and so liberates a more complex Native speech. This chapter describes this Indigenous historiography, troubles its use, and applies it to uncover the hidden Indigenous voices in the conquest narratives of American literature. This writing and reading practice displays a contradiction that many Indigenous moderns both acknowledge and embrace.
“Jumpin’ with Symphony Sid”
Authors: Hollenbach Lisa
Published: October 2022

The transformation of the broadcasting industry from the late 1940s to the early 1960s profoundly redefined the relationship between radio and literary cultures in the United States. This interstitial period in American radio, which saw the decline of the “golden age” of network radio and the rise of format radio, and which corresponded with the civil rights era that challenged the racism and segregationism of the culture industries, generated not only new forms of radio but also new ways of listening. Tracing the influence of the legendary jazz radio deejay “Symphony Sid” Torin on Jack Kerouac, Amiri Baraka, and other writers, this chapter examines how specific practices of radio listening—such as ambient listening—that mediated the Beat reception of jazz as a source of innovation and resistance to conformism are subverted in Baraka’s early work in ways that open radical possibilities of Black reception in and against Western discourses of aurality.
Transcranial Infrared Laser Stimulation
Authors: Wang Xinlong , Gonzalez-Lima Francisco , Liu Hanli
Published: October 2022

As part of transcranial photobiomodulation, transcranial infrared laser stimulation (TILS) refers to the non-invasive delivery of 1064 nm wavelength infrared laser light to the brain to modulate energy metabolism and hemodynamics. The primary mechanism rests on the photo-oxidation of cytochrome-c-oxidase, the key mitochondrial enzyme that catalyzes oxygen utilization in animal cells. Since brain physiology is dependent on oxygenation for energy production, TILS modulates brain activity. Placebo-controlled TILS effects were demonstrated in vivo by broadband near-infrared spectroscopy and electroencephalography. We showed the ability of TILS to upregulate cerebral metabolism and hemodynamics, as well as electrophysiological activity in the human brain. TILS effects were proven safe and not caused by thermal effects. We also showed improved behavioral performance, learning, and cognition by TILS in animal models, healthy humans, and patients with psychiatric symptoms. However, several key questions should be addressed before TILS becomes an effective therapeutic tool for enhancing healthy aging and treating brain disorders.
TMS in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder
Authors: Philip Noah S. , Petrosino Nicholas J. , Brennan McKenna C.
Published: October 2022

Current research indicates that therapeutic transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a safe and likely efficacious treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While the precise or ideal parameters remain under investigation, the majority of studies to date indicate clinically meaningful effect sizes for PTSD symptom reduction, which often occur alongside other symptomatic improvements, in particular major depressive disorder. This article summarizes the current evidence for different TMS treatment parameters and novel treatment options, and offers directions for future research. Given the clinical improvements observed with TMS appear similar to other first line treatments for PTSD, this article compares TMS to current treatment options, and summarizes early evidence for combining TMS treatment with psychotherapy. Finally, this article examines our current understanding of the neurobiological basis of PTSD and explores how a neurobiological framework can guide advances to better understand TMS treatment response and design novel treatment paradigms.
Ernst-Joachim Mestmäcker
Authors: Joerges Christian
Published: October 2022

Contrary to widely shared perceptions amongst social scientists, Ordoliberalism is essentially a theory of law and society. The core concern of this school of thought is with an ordering of the economy through justiciable legal rules. This ordering is focused on the establishment of markets and the protection of undistorted competition. Economic constitutionalism comprises these ambitions. Elements of this conception were realised in the formative phase of the integration process. The Treaty of Maastricht and Economic and Monetary Union did not, however, consummate this constitutional vision. EU crisis politics have responded to financial and sovereign debt politics outside the rule of law. Instead of legalising these practices, courts should defend the integrity of law by exercising judicial restraint.
The Politics of Order and Law
Authors: Rahtz Joshua
Published: October 2022

This chapter addresses the main currents of Ordnungspolitik as developed principally by economist Walter Eucken and jurist Franz Böhm from the interwar period through to the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany. It shows that Eucken and Böhm responded to capitalist crisis by formulating a political argument about the centrality of the economic-constitutional state as the necessary framework for the regulation of capitalism. Such an economic constitution and its attendant regulative mechanisms were required, so Ordnungspolitik held, to compel and preserve the principle of competition, to protect private property rights and to limit the political pressure of interest groups, both democratic and monopolistic.
Wilhelm Röpke
Authors: Fèvre Raphaël
Published: October 2022

This chapter investigates the content and significance of The Social Crisis of Our Time by Wilhelm Röpke, and shows why this 1942 book can be regarded as a pivotal contribution within the broader context of his work. In this book, Röpke found his definitive voice, that of an economist-doctor keen to prevent the general collapse of Western civilisation. Röpke outlined a historical interpretation of the present, locating the origin of interwar collectivism in the flawed liberalism of the past century. In his view, the way out of this fatal dialectic was through a new—third—way, combining liberal interventionism with social reformism and sociological conservativism.
History of Neuropsychiatry
Authors: Nadkarni Siddhartha
Published: October 2022

The fields of neurology and psychiatry largely share the same organ of study, the brain. Historically, these two fields were always inextricably interwoven in terms of symptomatology, diagnoses, pathologies, and treatments. With the advent of psychoanalysis in the early 20th century, these two fields diverged. When they were in their infancies, psychiatry addressed questions of “mind” and neurology questions of the “brain.” But now, in the last 30 years, we have seen a recombination in perspectives on brain illnesses. This chapter sets out to delineate this arc of clinical neuroscience through the lens of history, focusing on movements, personalities, and patients.
Health innovations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: perspectives from the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Authors: Elden N M K , Mandil A M A , Hegazy A A , Nagy N , Mabry R M , Khairy W A
Published: October 2022

Background

This paper aims to document the numerous health innovations developed in response to the COVID-19 crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) using a scoping review approach.

Methods

A literature search was conducted using PubMed, the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, the Index Medicus for EMR to identify peer-reviewed articles between December 2019 and November 2020 and WHO and ministries of health websites for grey literature. Following an initial review, full-text screening identified studies reporting on health innovations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

Results

This review describes 82 health innovations reported from 20 countries across the region: 80% (n = 66) were digital and technology-based products and services including health care delivery (n = 25), public health informatics (n = 24) and prevention (n = 17); 20% (n = 16) were innovative processes including health care delivery (n = 8), educational programmes (n = 6) and community engagement (n = 2).

Conclusion

The speed with which these technologies were deployed in different contexts demonstrates their ease of adoption and manageability and thus can be considered as the most scalable. Strengthened frameworks to protect users’ privacy, documentation and evaluation of impact of innovations, and training of health care professionals are fundamental for promoting health innovations in the EMR.
LncCMRR Plays an Important Role in Cardiac Differentiation by Regulating the Purb/Flk1 Axis
Authors: Yang Yiwei , Wang Xing , Tan Yu , Xu Yanxin , Guo Xudong , Wu Yukang , Wang Wuchan , Jing Ruiqi , Zhu Fugui , Ye Dan , Zhang Qingquan , Lu Chenqi , Kang Jiuhong , Wang Guiying
Published: October 2022

As crucial epigenetic regulators, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical functions in development processes and various diseases. However, the regulatory mechanism of lncRNAs in early heart development is still limited. In this study, we identified cardiac mesoderm-related lncRNA (LncCMRR). Knockout (KO) of LncCMRR decreased the formation potential of cardiac mesoderm and cardiomyocytes during embryoid body differentiation of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. Mechanistic analyses showed that LncCMRR functionally interacted with the transcription suppressor PURB and inhibited its binding potential at the promoter region of Flk1, which safeguarded the transcription of Flk1 during cardiac mesoderm formation. We also carried out gene ontology term and signaling pathway enrichment analyses for the differentially expressed genes after KO of LncCMRR, and found significant correlation of LncCMRR with cardiac muscle contraction, dilated cardiomyopathy, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Consistently, the expression level of Flk1 at E7.75 and the thickness of myocardium at E17.5 were significantly decreased after KO of LncCMRR, and the survival rate and heart function index of LncCMRR-KO mice were also significantly decreased as compared with the wild-type group. These findings indicated that the defects in early heart development led to functional abnormalities in adulthood heart of LncCMRR-KO mice. Conclusively, our findings elucidate the main function and regulatory mechanism of LncCMRR in cardiac mesoderm formation, and provide new insights into lncRNA-mediated regulatory network of mouse ES cell differentiation.
Detection of Phytophthora, Pythium, Globisporangium, Hyaloperonospora, and Plasmopara Species in High-Throughput Sequencing Data by In Silico and In Vitro Analysis Using Microbe Finder (MiFi)
Authors: Proaño-Cuenca Fernanda , Espindola Andrés S. , Garzon Carla D.
Published: October 2022

Species identification of plant pathogenic oomycetes based on morphology is challenging because of the limited number of variable characters available. Hence, pure culture isolation followed by internal transcribed spacer sequencing is routinely conducted for diagnostic purposes. E-probe Diagnostic Nucleic acid Analysis (EDNA), a pipeline that couples high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic sequence analysis, is a detection system used to identify targets without relying on often time-consuming serological and molecular approaches. The EDNA pipeline, implemented through the Microbe Finder (MiFi), was used to design short species-specific sequences (e-probes) with sizes from 40 to 80 nucleotides and to detect plant pathogenic oomycetes in metagenomic data. To avoid false positives and increase target specificity, we removed the e-probes with sequences similar to nontarget species in NCBI's nucleotide database. The designed e-probes were tested using in silico simulated metagenomes with different target pathogen and host sequence levels. E-probes of Phytophthora nicotianae were further tested with metagenomes generated using nanopore sequencing. In silico detection with 100% sensitivity was obtained at 0.01 to 1% pathogen read abundances with the three e-probe lengths tested. MiFi also successfully identified Ph. nicotianae in the sequenced metagenomes with nanopore DNA sequencing. Thus, EDNA-MiFi could enable rapid detection (<24 h from sample collection to diagnosis) without requiring post-sequencing processing. EDNA, as implemented in the MiFi web application, is a powerful tool for detecting oomycetes from metagenomic samples. Our study shows the outstanding potential of EDNA-MiFi coupled with nanopore sequencing for plant and possible on-site pathogen diagnosis.

[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
What a Knee Should Be: A Pilot Study on the Perspectives of Highly Active Prosthetic Users
Authors: Valgeirsdóttir Vigdís Vala , Alexandersson Ásgeir , Lechler Knut , Jóhannesson Ómar I. , Kristjánsson Árni
Published: October 2022

Introduction

In recent years, microprocessor-controlled knees have become available to people with lower-limb amputation. Although they may be associated with greater economic benefits and improved clinical outcomes when compared with non-microprocessor-controlled knees, some individuals discontinue use or do not utilize all the functions they provide. Better understanding of how the relationship between human factors and prosthetic function influences peoples' experience is needed to make microprocessor-controlled knees and their functions more accessible to users.

Objectives

The aims of this study were to explore the prosthetic history of highly active individuals with transfemoral amputation and identify the factors important for prosthetic satisfaction, use, and acceptance, as well as opportunities in advanced prosthetic development.

Study Design

A qualitative study design was used.

Methods

Semistructured interviews were conducted with five highly active people with transfemoral amputation using microprocessor-controlled knees.

Results

We identified several factors important for prosthetic satisfaction, use, and acceptance: 1) feeling in control of prosthesis, 2) consistency in functions of prosthesis, 3) intuitive prosthesis, 4) feeling unrestricted by prosthesis, 5) spontaneity, 6) easy to walk and change speed, 7) quiet function, 8) easy to trigger and transition between modes, 9) individually relevant modes, 10) harmonious function with ankle, 11) shock absorption, 12) waterproof, 13) appearance, and 14) weight.

Conclusions

Fostering trust through consistent and intuitive functions that can be used during various activities is perceived as highly important for satisfaction with prosthetic devices. Furthermore, expected long-term benefits associated with advanced devices are, alone, not sufficient motivation for their use. More intuitive triggering methods coupled with active assistance are necessary to make advanced solutions and their functions more accessible and beneficial. Finally, a multitude of individual characteristics and needs influence use and acceptance, highlighting the necessity of taking human factors into account in prosthetics.

Clinical Relevance

The results shed light on opportunities in future development of prosthetic knees and importance of human factors for powered prosthetic design. They further provide insight into aspects meaningful to highly active end users, affecting prosthetic use and satisfaction.
Comparison of bilateral eardrum temperatures measured using an infrared tympanic thermometer before and after surgery in patients with chronic otitis media
Authors: Kim Yee-Hyuk
Published: October 2022

This study aimed to investigate the effect of chronic otitis media (COM) and COM surgery on infrared tympanic thermometer measurements. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 192 patients (192 surgery cases) who underwent surgery for COM and whose bilateral tympanic membrane temperature was measured with an infrared tympanic thermometer the day before surgery and at 2, 3, 4, and 6 months after surgery. Patients underwent surgery for COM in 1 ear, the other eardrum was intact. Patients who underwent tympanoplasty, simple mastoidectomy, and canal wall up mastoidectomy, surgeries performed to preserve the ear canal, were included in group A, and patients who underwent canal wall down mastoidectomy, a surgery to remove the ear canal, were included in group B. There were 115 and 77 patients in groups A and B, respectively. The mean temperature on the side with COM measured the day before surgery was 37.09°C ± 0.325°C and the mean temperature on the opposite normal side was 37.03°C ± 0.330°C (P = .000). In group A, the eardrum temperature on the surgical and contralateral side was not statistically different after surgery (P = .439). The temperature difference between both sides of the eardrums (dTemp) changed from 0.056°C before surgery to 0.014°C after surgery (P = .008). However, in group B, which canal wall down mastoidectomy was performed, the eardrum temperature of the surgical side was higher than that on the other side (P = .001). The dTemp increased up to 0.15°C after surgery (P = .000). The temperature of the eardrum was slightly increased by COM. The COM surgeries, which preserve the ear canal, brought the temperature of the eardrum close to that of the normal eardrum, and the surgery to remove the ear canal raised the temperature of the eardrum.
The influence of geometric algebra in surgical practice of sleeve gastrectomy-single center experience
Authors: Yao Gang , Aierken Amina , Li Tao , Cao Xinling , Apaer Shadika , Anweier Nuerzhatijaing , Wu Jing , Fulati Xiapukaiti , Zhang Yun-Fei , Tuerxunmaimaiti Abudushalamu , Tuxun Tuerhongjiang
Published: October 2022

Laparoscopic surgery could be considered as an art of geometric algebra. However, very little is studied in the context of bariatric surgery. The current study aims to explore the possible influence concept of geometric algebra on the surgical process in the overweight and obese patients in the setting of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG). During the study period, clinical data of subjects who underwent LSG was retrospectively analyzed. Parameters examined include body mass index (BMI), umbilical-xiphoidal interval (U-X) and umbilical-fundus (U-F) interval. In this study, LSG was performed via central view approach (C) and left view approach (L). In both groups, the body surface projection points of viewing hole (V), main and accessory operating holes (O1 and O2) and surface display of fundus (F) were connected to form a geometric figure. The accessibility of the surgical instrument into the fundus, the need for elongated instruments and related intra- and post-operative parameters were noted. The overweight and obese subjects showed a significant increased U-X and U-F interval compared to the non-obese subjects. The length of both U-X and U-F interval were correlated with the BMI. The geometric figure is quite different between L and C approach with significant increase of area of quadrangle. Significant longer O1-F, O2-F and V-F interval was calculated in C approach of patients and thus the elongated instruments were frequently required. The integration of the concept geometric algebra with the proper selection of troca may provide a better surgical experience and smooth surgical process.
Effects of Kinesio taping on calf muscle fatigue in college female athletes: A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Rana Avinash , Tyagi Deepak , Alghadir Ahmad H. , Khan Masood
Published: October 2022

Background:

Fatigue is a common phenomenon encountered by athletes in ordinary life and sports. Fatigue results in decreased muscle strength, balance, agility, and an increased risk of injury, which together results in hampered sports performance. Several studies have examined the effects of Kinesio Tape (KT) application on muscle fatigue however, contradictory findings are reported. This study aimed to examine the effects of the application of KT on calf muscle fatigability.

Methods:

A three-arm parallel pretest-post-test experimental design was used. Forty-five collegiate female athletes (mean age of 20.57 years) were randomly assigned to three groups. For the experimental group, KT with 50% tension; for the sham group, KT without any tension; and for the placebo group, rigid tape without any tension was applied. The number of heel rises (HRn) was measured before and after taping in the three groups, using Haberometer and Metronome. The tapes were applied in the Y shape to the calf muscle region.

Results:

In the experimental group: The HRn significantly increased by 18.76 % (P = .000) after applying KT. In the sham and placebo groups: There was no change in HRn before and after Taping (P > .05).

Conclusion:

Y-shaped application of KT with 50% tension over the calf muscle region is effective in reducing its fatigability.
Thoracolaparoscopic esophagectomy for esophageal cancer with a cervical or abdominal incision to extract specimen
Authors: Hu Zhi-Hao , Li Rui-Xin , Wang Jing-Tao , Wang Guo-Jun , Deng Xiu-Mei , Zhu Tian-Yu , Gao Bu-Lang , Zhang Yun-Fei
Published: October 2022

Surgery is the only curative approach for resectable esophageal cancer. This retrospective study was to investigate the immediate effect and operative complications of conventional and modified thoracolaparoscopic esophagectomy with a cervical or abdominal incision to extract specimen for the treatment of patients with esophageal cancer. Eighty-one patients were enrolled, among which 55 patients underwent conventional McKeown thoracolaparoscopic esophagectomy (conventional MTE) and 26 patients underwent modified MTE with a cerivical incision (modified MTE). The clinical, surgical, and postoperative data were analyzed. No significant (P > .05) difference was detected in the clinical data between two groups. The surgical procedure was successful in all patients (100%). The surgical time was significantly (P = .018) shorter in the conventional MTE group than in the modified MTE group (280 min vs 317 min). However, no significant (P > .05) difference was found in blood loss (200 mL vs 180 mL), intensive care unit (ICU) stay (31.3 ± 11.3 vs 25.2 ± 6.4 hours), first flatus after surgery (2.9 ± 1.9 vs 3.3 ± 1.6 days), postoperative hospital stay (12.9 ± 5.6 vs 12.6 ± 3.3 days), total number of lymph nodes dissected (27.9 ± 4.1 vs 26.7 ± 5.7), types of carcinoma, and pathological classification. No significant (P > .05) differences were detected in postoperative complications between the two groups. Assessment of postoperative pain using the visual analogue scale (VAS) score showed a significant (P < .05) difference in the VAS score at day 2 (4.81 ± 1.70 vs 3.87 ± 1.14) and day 3 (5.10 ± 0.83 vs 4.61 ± 1.12) between the conventional and modified MTE groups. The modified McKeown thoracolaparoscopic esophagectomy with only one cervical incision is more minimally invasive, more cosmetic, and less painful than the conventional approach.