bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
High-mass X-ray binaries in nearby metal-poor galaxies: on the contribution to nebular He ii emission
Authors: Senchyna Peter , Stark Daniel P , Mirocha Jordan , Reines Amy E , Charlot Stéphane , Jones Tucker , Mulchaey John S
Published: February 2020

Despite significant progress both observationally and theoretically, the origin of high-ionization nebular He ii emission in galaxies dominated by stellar photoionization remains unclear. Accretion-powered radiation from high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) is still one of the leading proposed explanations for the missing He+-ionizing photons, but this scenario has yet to be conclusively tested. In this paper, we present nebular line predictions from a grid of photoionization models with input spectral energy distributions containing the joint contribution of both stellar atmospheres and a multicolour disc model for HMXBs. This grid demonstrates that HMXBs are inefficient producers of the photons necessary to power He ii, and can only boost this line substantially in galaxies with HMXB populations large enough to power X-ray luminosities of 1042 erg s−1 per unit star formation rate (SFR). To test this, we assemble a sample of 11 low-redshift star-forming galaxies with high-quality constraints on both X-ray emission from Chandra and He ii emission from deep optical spectra, including new observations with the MMT. These data reveal that the HMXB populations of these nearby systems are insufficient to account for the observed He ii strengths, with typical X-ray luminosities or upper limits thereon of only 1040–1041 erg s−1 per SFR. This indicates that HMXBs are not the dominant source of He+ ionization in these metal-poor star-forming galaxies. We suggest that the solution may instead reside in revisions to stellar wind predictions, softer X-ray sources, or very hot products of binary evolution at low metallicity.
Intensity interferometry of P Cygni in the H α emission line: towards distance calibration of LBV supergiant stars
Authors: Rivet J-P , Siciak A , de Almeida E S G , Vakili F , Domiciano de Souza A , Fouché M , Lai O , Vernet D , Kaiser R , Guerin W
Published: February 2020

We present intensity interferometry of the luminous blue variable P Cyg in the light of its H α emission performed with 1 m-class telescopes. We compare the measured visibility points to synthesized interferometric data based on the CMFGEN physical modelling of a high-resolution spectrum of P Cyg recorded almost simultaneously with our interferometry data. Tuning the stellar parameters of P Cyg and its H α linear diameter, we estimate the distance of P Cyg as 1.56 ± 0.25 kpc, which is compatible within 1σ with 1.36 ± 0.24 kpc reported by the Gaia DR2 catalogue of parallaxes recently published. Both the values are significantly smaller than the canonic value of 1.80 ± 0.10 kpc usually adopted in literature. Our method used to calibrate the distance of P Cyg can apply to very massive and luminous stars both in our Galaxy and neighbouring galaxies, and can improve the so-called wind momentum–luminosity relation that potentially applies to calibrate cosmological candles in the local Universe.
Are fast radio bursts made by neutron stars?
Authors: Katz J I
Published: February 2020

Popular models of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs; and perhaps of all FRBs) involve neutron stars because of their high rotational or magnetostatic energy densities. These models take one of two forms: giant but rare pulsar-like pulses like those of rotating radio transients, and outbursts like those of soft gamma repeaters. Here I collate the evidence, recently strengthened, against these models, including the absence of Galactic micro-FRBs, and attribute the 16 d periodicity of FRB 180916.J0158+65 to the precession of a jet produced by a massive black hole’s accretion disc.
Relative Efficiencies of Simple and Complex Substitution Models in Estimating Divergence Times in Phylogenomics
Authors: Tao Qiqing , Barba-Montoya Jose , Huuki Louise A , Durnan Mary Kathleen , Kumar Sudhir
Published: February 2020

The conventional wisdom in molecular evolution is to apply parameter-rich models of nucleotide and amino acid substitutions for estimating divergence times. However, the actual extent of the difference between time estimates produced by highly complex models compared with those from simple models is yet to be quantified for contemporary data sets that frequently contain sequences from many species and genes. In a reanalysis of many large multispecies alignments from diverse groups of taxa, we found that the use of the simplest models can produce divergence time estimates and credibility intervals similar to those obtained from the complex models applied in the original studies. This result is surprising because the use of simple models underestimates sequence divergence for all the data sets analyzed. We found three fundamental reasons for the observed robustness of time estimates to model complexity in many practical data sets. First, the estimates of branch lengths and node-to-tip distances under the simplest model show an approximately linear relationship with those produced by using the most complex models applied on data sets with many sequences. Second, relaxed clock methods automatically adjust rates on branches that experience considerable underestimation of sequence divergences, resulting in time estimates that are similar to those from complex models. And, third, the inclusion of even a few good calibrations in an analysis can reduce the difference in time estimates from simple and complex models. The robustness of time estimates to model complexity in these empirical data analyses is encouraging, because all phylogenomics studies use statistical models that are oversimplified descriptions of actual evolutionary substitution processes.
Locally acting transcription factors regulate p53-dependent cis-regulatory element activity
Authors: Catizone Allison N , Uzunbas Gizem Karsli , Celadova Petra , Kuang Sylvia , Bose Daniel , Sammons Morgan A
Published: February 2020

The master tumor suppressor p53 controls transcription of a wide-ranging gene network involved in apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, DNA damage repair, and senescence. Recent studies revealed pervasive binding of p53 to cis-regulatory elements (CREs), which are non-coding segments of DNA that spatially and temporally control transcription through the combinatorial binding of local transcription factors. Although the role of p53 as a strong trans-activator of gene expression is well known, the co-regulatory factors and local sequences acting at p53-bound CREs are comparatively understudied. We designed and executed a massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) to investigate the effect of transcription factor binding motifs and local sequence context on p53-bound CRE activity. Our data indicate that p53-bound CREs are both positively and negatively affected by alterations in local sequence context and changes to co-regulatory TF motifs. Our data suggest p53 has the flexibility to cooperate with a variety of transcription factors in order to regulate CRE activity. By utilizing different sets of co-factors across CREs, we hypothesize that global p53 activity is guarded against loss of any one regulatory partner, allowing for dynamic and redundant control of p53-mediated transcription.
Mutation signatures specific to DNA alkylating agents in yeast and cancers
Authors: Saini Natalie , Sterling Joan F , Sakofsky Cynthia J , Giacobone Camille K , Klimczak Leszek J , Burkholder Adam B , Malc Ewa P , Mieczkowski Piotr A , Gordenin Dmitry A
Published: February 2020

Alkylation is one of the most ubiquitous forms of DNA lesions. However, the motif preferences and substrates for the activity of the major types of alkylating agents defined by their nucleophilic substitution reactions (SN1 and SN2) are still unclear. Utilizing yeast strains engineered for large-scale production of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), we probed the substrate specificity, mutation spectra and signatures associated with DNA alkylating agents. We determined that SN1-type agents preferably mutagenize double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), and the mutation signature characteristic of the activity of SN1-type agents was conserved across yeast, mice and human cancers. Conversely, SN2-type agents preferably mutagenize ssDNA in yeast. Moreover, the spectra and signatures derived from yeast were detectable in lung cancers, head and neck cancers and tumors from patients exposed to SN2-type alkylating chemicals. The estimates of mutation loads associated with the SN2-type alkylation signature were higher in lung tumors from smokers than never-smokers, pointing toward the mutagenic activity of the SN2-type alkylating carcinogens in cigarettes. In summary, our analysis of mutations in yeast strains treated with alkylating agents, as well as in whole-exome and whole-genome-sequenced tumors identified signatures highly specific to alkylation mutagenesis and indicate the pervasive nature of alkylation-induced mutagenesis in cancers.
Theater in the 20th Century
Authors: McCormick Stacie
Published: February 2020

Black theater in the 20th century comprises a wide array of dramatic productions by black Americans growing out of the legacies of minstrel-era performance of the 19th century. As a result, black theater has largely been driven by the desire to present depictions of black life that were not overdetermined by the white gaze. A dynamic corpus of literary, dramatic, and expressive art, black theater of the 20th century has been foundational to the development of black theater as it is known today. This period was also concerned with questions central to black theater such as: What should black plays be about? Where should black theaters be located? Who can write a black play? What is a black play? Various theater companies, playwrights, and artistic movements have forged responses to such questions with each deepening the textures of black theater. In a significant and early articulation of what black theater should be, W.E.B. Du Bois, writing in the July 1926 issue of The Crisis, established the governing mantra for the Harlem-based theater company the Krigwa Players and black theater more broadly. He states that it should be should be “About us by us . . . for us . . . [and] near us.” Voices such as Alain Locke and Theophilus Lewis would deepen these conversations with their own perspectives on the purpose of black theater with Locke advocating for a lessened emphasis on social issues and Lewis expressing the need to appeal to working-class black Americans whose support for black theater was unwavering. Moreover, theater companies; artistic and social movements; and the work of playwrights such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin, August Wilson, George C. Wolfe, Adrienne Kennedy, and Suzan-Lori Parks would go on to develop a critical body of work that makes up black theater of the 20th century. Black theater of the 20th century is intrinsically tied to black performance histories of storytelling, improvisation, “signifyin’,” humor, and masking. This dramatic work has contributed greatly to the project of self-authorship and expression that sits at the heart of black literature. This entry traverses the many contours of 20th-century black theater moving from broader explorations of anthologies and theater histories to close analyses of playwrights and finally to emergent thematic examinations that signal future directions for the study of 20th-century black theater.
Tribal child welfare practice in the United States
Authors: Byers Lisa , Pettigrew Dallas
Published: February 2020

Tribal child welfare in what is now the United States encompasses hundreds of tribal nations engaged in a government-to-government relationship with the United States. Please note that tribal, native, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Native American are used interchangeably. Each tribe has distinct languages and customs. Within this diversity the factors that bind tribal nations to make a discussion of tribal child welfare meaningful are communal childrearing, colonization, trauma, contemporary disparities, sovereign status, and detrimental federal policies. Communal cultures provide children with multiple caregivers that assure the youngest are cared for daily. This web of relations combined with high levels of respect for children within the life cycle guarded against abuse and neglect prior to colonization. The establishment of the United States, and federal-level assimilation policies created immense trauma and cultural disruption for tribal nations and child welfare. Government-funded boarding schools and the practice of placing tribal children in non-native homes are two specific assimilation practices that explicitly targeted children. The ability of tribal nations to protect their children and maintain their cultures has been strengthened by a federal law designed to give tribal nation’s a stake in child welfare proceedings. Many tribes now have their own child welfare programs, courts, and other services. State compliance with the law is an ongoing issue. Increased collaboration, respect for the sovereign status of tribes, and evaluation with clear implications for noncompliance needs to ensue are necessary to fully empower tribal child welfare. In addition, truth and reconciliation related to the separation of children from family and culture based on past federal policy practices is necessary to foster communal and generational healing for American Indian and Alaska Native peoples.
Medieval Latin Commentaries on Classical Myth
Authors: Gerber Amanda
Published: February 2020

As the abundance of extant medieval commentaries attests, classical mythology presented several conundrums for medieval audiences. The historical distance between the writers of classical myths and their medieval readers prompted numerous scholars to reframe and even rewrite their sources to ameliorate challenges ranging from complicated classical Latin syntax to theological conflicts between pagan polytheism and Christian monotheism. Despite its polytheism, classical mythology became a source for manifold medieval erudition, beginning with the grammatical studies that introduced students to Latin literacy. Scholars and writers since the beginning of the Christian Middle Ages turned to these myths to gain mastery over Latin, history, natural science, and even ethics. To study these subjects, medieval scholars produced collections of scholastic notes, or commentaries, primarily in Latin. The medieval commentary tradition began in classical antiquity itself. Soon after Virgil wrote his Aeneid, scholars started developing commentaries that prompted audiences both to study and to imitate his works. The Middle Ages inherited some of these commentaries, such as the influential commentaries by Servius on Virgil, which then influenced commentaries on other classical writers of myths, such as Ovid and Statius. The modern study of these diverse medieval materials has recently benefited from the increased availability of digital manuscripts, critical editions, and a few translations, all of which have facilitated more cross-commentary analyses than used to be possible. However, the wide range of interpretive approaches and formats as well as the irregularities of medieval scholastic transmission mean that much more work remains to be done on how medieval audiences accessed classical mythology. This article combines older foundational studies with more recent contributions to represent how modern criticism, like the commentaries it studies, takes many forms.
Histories and Historiographies of the Atlantic World
Authors: Delahaye Agnes
Published: February 2020

Broadly defined, histories of the Atlantic world are works of historical research on the circulation of bodies, commodities, and ideas around and across the many regions of the Atlantic Basin from the late 15th century until the middle of the 19th century. Atlantic history, under which these histories may be grouped, has emerged as a full-fledged unit of historical research through a series of historiographic debates and innovations at the end of the last century, when historians questioned the assumptions and the limits of the imperial and national paradigms of their predecessors. Atlantic history therefore defines a historical method intent on revealing the profound interconnectedness between Africa, the Americas, and Europe, beyond the traditional frameworks of the nation-state and the empire, to uncover the changes undergone by people, places, and environments since exchanges began between these vast areas. Atlantic histories are transnational, comparative, and often interdisciplinary, engaging many fields in pursuit of their enquiries. The complexity and the diversity of these disciplines and their respective, interlocking historiographies are attested by the number and variety of bibliographies on Atlantic subjects in this online collection. This bibliography, in turn, builds a genealogy of Atlantic history and organizes its evolution in broad thematic categories, to offer the reader a selection of resources, individual essays, monographs, and collaborative publications directly and explicitly addressing the relevance of Atlantic methods and perspectives and the historical significance of European expansion since the beginnings of transatlantic shipping. We begin with an overview of the founding debates of the wide and dynamic field of Atlantic history and a selection of textbooks, resources, and journals, illustrating and referencing the vast quantity of transnational and comparative research it has generated. The second part of this bibliography proposes a series of broad categories under which this extensive scholarship may be gathered, with references illustrating the practices and the issues raised by the specialists in each field and each period: first, the issue of encounter in the Age of discovery and then the circulation of people and the formation of slave and migrant societies in and around the Atlantic Basin until the middle of the 19th century, followed by the circulation of commodities and the formation of merchant and trading networks that accompanied transatlantic trade and development. This bibliography ends on the circulations of ideas and cultures over the same period and points to the importance of postcolonial and imperial historiographies in recent social, cultural and material histories of the Atlantic world.
Red Atlantic
Authors: Rindfleisch Bryan
Published: February 2020

The Red Atlantic is a concept by scholars in Native American history and Native American and Indigenous studies (NAIS) to address one of the perennial issues facing the study of the Atlantic world: the exclusion of the Indigenous Peoples of North America. In many years of existence, Atlantic world studies has focused on the movement of peoples (immigrants, slaves), goods (trade, food, diseases, etc.), and empires across the Atlantic Ocean, but rarely do such works engage with how Indigenous Americans contributed to, negotiated, and at times dictated transatlantic movements and connections. Instead, Indigenous Americans remain obstacles of empire, faceless suppliers of transatlantic goods like deerskins, peripheral figures who occupied the fringes of the Atlantic world, or proverbial boogeymen to transatlantic migrants (i.e., invaders) who settled in North America. However, as scholars of the Red Atlantic have articulated, our understandings of the Atlantic world—whether about merchant networks in New England and the West Indies or Spanish missions in Mesoamerica and Florida—are limited and altogether incomplete if Indigenous Peoples are relegated to the margins of the Atlantic world. In fact, there is much that scholars can learn from the Red Atlantic. For instance, groups like the Wabanaki were maritime people, like their European and African counterparts, as their everyday lives and cultures revolved around interactions with the Atlantic Ocean, such as enfolding European merchant networks into their own economies or turning to piracy to combat imperial expansion in their territories. Meanwhile, scholars of the Red Atlantic have brought to life the Indian slave trade in 17th- and 18th-century New France, between French and Algonquian peoples who carved out a traffic in human beings that connected Canada to France, the West Indies, and Africa, before the wholesale importation of African peoples. Indigenous American languages and local knowledge also shaped how European natural scientists came to understand foreign places, flora, and fauna, as Europeans proved dependent on Native knowledge systems to gain a better understanding of the world around them. In so many instances like these, the Red Atlantic demonstrates how to broaden interpretations of the Atlantic world paradigm and how to provide a more inclusive, holistic understanding of history. What follows is a sample of some of the most important works that have spurred or contributed to the Red Atlantic and concludes with those that have most recently nuanced, complicated, or redirected Atlantic world studies.
Women's Property Rights, Asset Ownership, and Wealth in Latin America
Authors: Deere Carmen Diana
Published: February 2020

In the 1970s and 1980s, feminist historians began focusing attention on a much-neglected topic in social and economic history and the history of the family in Latin America—women’s property rights and their evolution. Single women and widows have always had almost the same property rights as men; up until the last quarter of the 20th century, it was married women’s property rights that differed from men’s, largely to women’s disadvantage. The extent of this disadvantage has been widely debated, with much of the literature demonstrating that married women had considerable economic agency, certainly a role not strictly confined to the private sphere. The first part of this essay focuses on women’s property rights, how the legal frameworks differed in colonial Spanish and Portuguese America, and the extent to which these may have varied in practice across the Spanish Empire. This variation becomes more visible as the different countries enacted their own civil codes in the 19th century, and then embarked on a process of reform toward legal gender equality in the 20th century. The emergence of the interdisciplinary field of women/gender in development in the 1970s and 1980s also drew social scientists from across disciplines to the study of gender inequality in the ownership of assets and wealth. Much of this literature focuses on specific assets, such as land or businesses or financial assets, and on how gender inequality in their ownership might condition other outcomes for women. This focus on women’s economic empowerment became more explicit in the 1990s with the development of household bargaining power models, which drew attention to how women’s access to resources, such as assets or income, conditioned their agency or role in household decision-making, and in turn, their capabilities. Hence, in the second part of this essay we turn to the literature—both quantitative and qualitative, historical and contemporary—on women’s ownership of specific assets, their relative wealth, and why it matters.
Childhood in Japan
Authors: Williams Kristin
Published: February 2020

This bibliography will introduce major sources on Japanese childhood studies, with an emphasis on sources in English. For the purposes of the current project, childhood will primarily mean the stage of life from birth to adolescence but will also depend on historical and cultural treatments of people as mature or immature, dependent or independent within Japanese society. This bibliography generally omits contemporary pediatric medical studies, studies of language acquisition in childhood, and studies of the impact of motherhood on women’s careers. However, it is worth noting that much research has been done in those areas for postwar and contemporary Japan and may be found across the major journals and citation databases for the sciences and social sciences. Historical treatments of related topics have been included in some cases because there is less research available on childhood and its place within Japanese society in earlier eras. Translations of primary sources for childhood in historical eras have been included where they are substantial, closely related to childhood, and accompanied by commentary and analysis. For the Meiji period and later, there are so many first-hand observations and memoirs that these could not be included. Secondary sources for these eras include some overviews of their primary sources, which may be helpful. Studies of childhood in China before the modern era may be relevant to traditional ideas about childhood in Japan and to early educational texts for Japanese children. For such topics, see the separate Oxford Bibliographies article Children’s Culture and Social Studies.
Forverts/Forward
Authors: Rojanski Rachel
Published: February 2020

Forverts (the Jewish Daily Forward or The Forward) was a Yiddish-language newspaper based in New York City that appeared as a daily for eighty-six years. It was the largest and most influential Jewish newspaper in the world, the most widely read socialist daily in the United States, and the foreign language newspaper with the largest distribution in the United States. Launched on 22 April 1897, Forverts was founded by a group of Yiddish-speaking members of the Socialist Labor Party (SLP). Abraham Cahan (b. 1860–d. 1951) was appointed its first editor. He left after a few months but returned in 1902 to lead the paper for some forty-eight years, until his death. Although Forverts was a Socialist paper, its readership encompassed the broad masses of eastern European Jewish immigrants in early-20th-century America, regardless of their political orientation. As many scholars have argued, Forverts played an important role in the Americanization of its readers, providing them with useful information about their new country and helping them integrate into American life. But it was an immigrant paper in a much deeper sense, too. By adapting ideological ideas and cultural trends from eastern Europe to the American reality, Forverts became instrumental in developing a new kind of secular Jewish identity. Its editorial policy was to preserve a socialist and nonreligious tone, to use simple Yiddish, to publish a range of articles—some more serious, others light—and to serve as a platform for both high-quality and popular literature (shund). As a result, Forverts contributed a great deal to the development of Yiddish literature, and many great Yiddish writers, including Isaac Bashevis Singer, published in its pages. The paper’s advice column—“a bintl brief” (a bundle of letters)—was especially popular. It regularly printed readers’ questions about important aspects of everyday life together with the editor’s responses reflecting his views on Jewish society and family life in America. No less important was the women’s page, which encouraged women to participate in the job market alongside their family roles. On the political front, Forverts supported the labor movement, participated in Jewish political debates during World War I, and fought immigration restrictions. In its early days, the paper featured anti-Zionist views, though this changed after the Balfour Declaration (1917) and Cahan’s trip to Palestine (1925). Demographic changes following immigration restrictions in the 1920s caused a gradual decline in its distribution. The paper continued as a daily until 1983, when it became a weekly. In 1990 an English-language weekly joined the Yiddish newspaper. Since early 2019, both the Yiddish and the English editions are entirely digital.
Posterior Column Osteotomy of the Lumbar Spine: 2-Dimensional Operative Video
Authors: Duan Ping Guo , Mehra Ratnesh N , Wang Minghao , Chou Dean
Published: February 2020

The posterior column osteotomy (PCO) is a tool for correction in spinal deformity. It allows for the induction of lordosis and coronal plane correction. It can be performed at multiple levels to loosen and mobilize the spine. Although the PCO does not provide as much correction as a 3-column osteotomy, it can be done in less operative time and with less morbidity. Performing a PCO involves the resection of posterior bony elements, including entire facet complexes, the ligamentum flavum, and at least part of the lamina. The ligamentum flavum laterally is also resected, and the exiting nerve roots are skeletonized bilaterally. Compression of the osteotomy can cause foraminal stenosis, and it is important to ensure that the exiting nerve roots are adequately decompressed to avoid potential postoperative radiculopathy. The authors present an illustration of the technique with saw bones, a clinical case describing the use of PCOs, and an intraoperative video of a PCO performed at L5-S1.

The patient consented to the surgical procedure and video/image recording for possible publication purposes prior to the operation being performed.
Kadanoff-Baym Approach to Entropy Production in O(N) Theory with Next-to-Leading Order Self-Energy
Authors: Nishiyama Akihiro , Ohnishi Akira
Published: February 2020

We investigate entropy production in the O(N) scalar theory using the Kadanoff-Baym equation. We show that one of the candidate expressions of the kinetic entropy satisfies the H-theorem in the first order of the gradient expansion with the next-to-leading-order self-energy of the 1/N expansion in the symmetric phase, and that entropy production occurs as the Green's function evolves with nonzero collision term contributions. Entropy production stops at local thermal equilibrium where the collision term contribution vanishes and the maximal entropy state is realized. We numerically examine these features of entropy production in thermalization processes in 1+1 dimensions for a couple of homogeneous cases, where the thermalization can proceed only with the off-shell effects. We find that the entropy production rate γ is larger for smaller N and is found to follow γ ∝ (1/N)ν where δ ≳ 2 at strong coupling measured in the unit of bare mass (m), ⋋= 40 m2.
The positive association between employment and self-reported mental health in the USA: a robust application of marginalized zero-inflated negative binomial regression (MZINB)
Authors: Eric Chinaeke , Melanie Gwynn , Yuan Hong , Jiajia Zhang , Bankole Olatosi
Published: February 2020

Background

Few studies have assessed the impact of employment on mental health among chronically ill patients. This study investigated the association between employment and self-reported mental unhealthy days among US adults.

Methods

For this cross-sectional cohort study, we pooled 2011–2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey data. We examined the association between employment and mental health in nine self-reported chronic conditions using marginalized zero-inflated negative binomial regression (MZINB). All analyses were conducted using SAS statistical software 9.4.

Results

Respondents (weighted n = 245 319 917) were mostly white (77.16%), aged 18–64 (78.31%) and employed (57.08%). Approximately 10% of respondents reported one chronic condition. Expected relative risk of mental unhealthy days was highest for employed respondents living with arthritis (RR = 1.70, 95% CI = [1.66, 1.74]), COPD (RR = 1.45, 95% CI = [1.41, 1.49]) and stroke (RR = 1.31, 95% CI = [1.25, 1.36]) compared to unemployed respondents. Employed males had 25% lower risk of self-reported mental unhealthy days compared to females.

Conclusions

Results show the interactive effects of employment on self-reported mental health. Employment may significantly impact on self-reported mental health among patients suffering from chronic conditions than those without chronic conditions.
Identification of the urine and serum metabolomics signature of gout
Authors: Huang Yefei , Xiao Min , Ou Jiayong , Lv Qing , Wei Qiujing , Chen Zena , Wu Jialing , Tu Liudan , Jiang Yutong , Zhang Xi , Qi Jun , Qiu Minli , Cao Shuangyan , Gu Jieruo
Published: February 2020

Objective

Gout is the most common inflammatory arthritis and the worldwide incidence is increasing. By revealing the metabolic alterations in serum and urine of gout patients, the first aim of our study was to discover novel molecular biomarkers allowing for early diagnosis. We also aimed to investigate the underlying pathogenic pathways.

Methods

Serum and urine samples from gout patients (n = 30) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 30) were analysed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) to screen the differential metabolites and construct a diagnostic model. Next, the model was verified and optimized in the second validation cohort (n = 100). The pathways were illustrated to understand the underlying pathogenesis of gout.

Results

In general, serum metabolomics demonstrated a clearer distinction than urine metabolomics. In the discovery cohort, 40 differential serum metabolites were identified that could distinguish gout patients from healthy controls. Among them, eight serum metabolites were verified in the validation cohort. Through regression analysis, the final model consisted of three serum metabolites—pyroglutamic acid, 2-methylbutyryl carnitine and Phe-Phe—that presented optimal diagnostic power. The three proposed metabolites produced an area under the curve of 0.956 (95% CI 0.911, 1.000). Additionally, the proposed metabolic pathways were primarily involved in purine metabolism, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) metabolism, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, synthesis and degradation of ketone bodies, bile secretion and arachidonic acid metabolism.

Conclusion

The metabolomics signatures could serve as an efficient tool for early diagnosis and provide novel insights into the pathogenesis of gout.
Privilege in the Delivery Room? Race, Class, and the Realization of Natural Birth Preferences, 2002–2013
Authors: Johnson Katherine M , Simon Richard M
Published: February 2020

We expand prior research on the sociology of birth by testing race and class effects on women’s capacity to realize their childbirth preferences in hospital settings. Drawing on data from the U.S. Listening to Mothers survey, we use Poisson regression and logistic regression to examine the extent to which women’s preferences are associated with actual experiences of medical intervention during perinatal care. We find that 1) less privileged women were significantly less likely to have certain interventions and had fewer interventions overall; but 2) less privileged women with natural birth preferences were significantly more likely to have certain medical interventions, compared to their race/class privileged counterparts. Thus, less privileged women simultaneously receive less and more childbirth interventions—both of which appear to be out of sync with their birthing preferences. Our results support previous research which has found race and social class inequities in medical treatment, which we interpret here as “privilege in the delivery room.”
Transportation robot battery power forecasting based on bidirectional deep-learning method
Authors: Thurow Kerstin , Chen Chao , Junginger Steffen , Stoll Norbert , Liu Hui
Published: February 2020

This paper proposes a data-driven hybrid model for forecasting the battery power voltage of transportation robots by combining a wavelet method and a bidirectional deep-learning technique. In the proposed model, the on-board battery power data is measured and transmitted. A WPD (wavelet packet decomposition) algorithm is employed to decompose the original collected non-stationary series into several relatively more stable subseries. For each subseries, a deep learning–based predictor – bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) – is constructed to forecast the battery power voltage from one step to three steps ahead. Two experiments verify the effectiveness and generalization ability of the proposed hybrid forecasting model, which shows the highest forecasting accuracy. The obtained forecasting results can be used to decide whether the robot can complete the given task or needs to be recharged, providing effective support for the safe use of transportation robots.
Neutralizing Complement C5a Protects Mice with Pneumococcal Pulmonary Sepsis
Authors: Müller-Redetzky Holger , Kellermann Ute , Wienhold Sandra-Maria , Gutbier Birgitt , Lienau Jasmin , Hellwig Katharina , Reppe Katrin , Letsiou Eleftheria , Tschernig Thomas , Scholz Markus , Ahnert Peter , Maasch Christian , Hoehlig Kai , Klussmann Sven , Vater Axel , Firsching Theresa C. , Hoppe Judith , Suttorp Norbert , Witzenrath Martin
Published: February 2020

Background

Community-acquired pneumonia and associated sepsis cause high mortality despite antibiotic treatment. Uncontrolled inflammatory host responses contribute to the unfavorable outcome by driving lung and extrapulmonary organ failure. The complement fragment C5a holds significant proinflammatory functions and is associated with tissue damage in various inflammatory conditions. The authors hypothesized that C5a concentrations are increased in pneumonia and C5a neutralization promotes barrier stabilization in the lung and is protective in pneumococcal pulmonary sepsis.

Methods

The authors investigated regulation of C5a in pneumonia in a prospective patient cohort and in experimental pneumonia. Two complementary models of murine pneumococcal pneumonia were applied. Female mice were treated with NOX-D19, a C5a-neutralizing l-RNA-aptamer. Lung, liver, and kidney injury and the inflammatory response were assessed by measuring pulmonary permeability (primary outcome), pulmonary and blood leukocytes, cytokine concentrations in lung and blood, and bacterial load in lung, spleen, and blood, and performing histologic analyses of tissue damage, apoptosis, and fibrin deposition (n = 5 to 13).

Results

In hospitalized patients with pneumonia (n = 395), higher serum C5a concentrations were observed compared to healthy subjects (n = 24; 6.3 nmol/l [3.9 to 10.0] vs. 4.5 nmol/l [3.8 to 6.6], median [25 to 75% interquartile range]; difference: 1.4 [95% CI, 0.1 to 2.9]; P = 0.029). Neutralization of C5a in mice resulted in lower pulmonary permeability in pneumococcal pneumonia (1.38 ± 0.89 vs. 3.29 ± 2.34, mean ± SD; difference: 1.90 [95% CI, 0.15 to 3.66]; P = 0.035; n = 10 or 11) or combined severe pneumonia and mechanical ventilation (2.56 ± 1.17 vs. 7.31 ± 5.22; difference: 4.76 [95% CI, 1.22 to 8.30]; P = 0.011; n = 9 or 10). Further, C5a neutralization led to lower blood granulocyte colony-stimulating factor concentrations and protected against sepsis-associated liver injury.

Conclusions

Systemic C5a is elevated in pneumonia patients. Neutralizing C5a protected against lung and liver injury in pneumococcal pneumonia in mice. Early neutralization of C5a might be a promising adjunctive treatment strategy to improve outcome in community-acquired pneumonia.

Editor’s Perspective

What We Already Know about This Topic

What This Article Tells Us That Is New
Beyond antibiotics for pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial disease
Authors: Waterer Grant
Published: February 2020

Purpose of review

Pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial disease (NTM) remains a significant clinical challenge with suboptimal therapy. This review focuses on recent understandings around the pathogenesis of NTM disease and nonantibiotic therapeutic approaches that are being pursued.

Recent findings

The absence of animal models that truly replicate human disease remains a major problem for NTM research with most findings coming from tuberculosis or tuberculosis-like studies. Recent research reiterates the known key roles of interferon gamma (IFNγ), tumor necrosis factor, interleukin-12 and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulation factor (GM-CSF) in immunity to NTM. Autoantibodies to some of these factors may be important. Recent nonantibiotic research has focused on either boosting the immune response to NTM (e.g. with IFNγ or GM-CSF) or using other compounds to kill these pathogens (e.g. inhaled NO, gallium, etc.).

Our poor understanding of the immune deficit leading to NTM disease continues to hinder the development of highly effective therapies. New approaches are promising but need significant validation before being considered viable therapeutic options.
Comparison of Quality of Life Before and After Septoplasty With Short Form-36
Authors: Erdivanli Ozlem Celebi , Coskun Zerrin Ozergin , Ozgur Abdulkadir , Ogurlu Mahmut , Demirci Munir , Dursun Engin
Published: February 2020

The authors aimed to evaluate quality of life after septal surgery with Short Form-36 survey, and the effectiveness of the survey. Nasal symptoms (nasal obstruction, facial pain, catarrh), and general quality of life (using the Turkish version of the Short Form-36 questionnaire) were assessed preoperatively and at 1st and 6th postoperative months. Acoustic rhinometry and rhinomanometry were assessed preoperatively and at 6th postoperative month. Data from 78 patients were analyzed. This prospective clinical study was conducted on patients complaining of nasal obstruction with nasal septal deviation. Seventy-eight patients were included in the study. Fourty-two patients (53.8%) were male and 36 patients (46.2%) were female. At 1st postoperative month, nasal obstruction, facial pain and catarrh scores significantly improved in all, 46, 18 patients, respectively (P < 0.0001). At 6th postoperative month, scores nonsignificantly worsened by 1 point in 12, 6, 12 patients, respectively. Nasal volume significantly increased and total resistance significantly decreased at 6th month (P < 0.0001). Compared to preoperative values, all items except social function and bodily pain significantly increased at 1st postoperative month. Compared to values at 1st postoperative month, only bodily pain score decreased at 6th postoperative month. One patient presented with septal perforation. Septoplasty is a well-established technique to reduce nasal obstruction and improve quality of life. SF-36 may be used as a reliable measure of changes in quality of life after septal surgery.
Xenon produces rapid antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like effects in lipopolysaccharide-induced depression mice model
Authors: Shao Juan , Meng Li , Yang Zhenbang , Yu Panpan , Song Li , Gao Yuan , Gong Miao , Meng Cuili , Shi Haishui
Published: February 2020

Onset delay of current antidepressants is always the most significant limitation for the treatment of depression. More attention has been given to the glutamate acid system for developing fast-onset antidepressants. Xenon, acting as a well-known N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors antagonist, has been widely used clinically as anesthetics and was reported to exert antidepressant-like effects in rats under normal condition. The robust and rapid-acting antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like activities of xenon through the use of depression rodent model are still elusive. By using lipopolysaccharide-induced depression mice models, the present study aimed to evaluate the fast-acting antidepressant-like effects of xenon pretreatment. Behavioral tests, mainly including open-field test, novelty-suppressed feeding test, sucrose preference test, tail suspension test, and forced swimming test, were conducted respectively. Our results showed that both xenon gas and xenon-rich saline pretreatment intraperitoneally produced significant antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like activities in mice under normal condition. Further, xenon gas pretreatment (intraperitoneally) rapidly blocked lipopolysaccharide-induced depression- and anxiety-like behaviors of mice. These findings provide direct evidence that xenon could produce fast-onset antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like activities, which highlights the possibility to develop xenon as a promising fast-acting drug for treatment of depression, anxiety, and even other stress-related diseases.
Chicken cognin interactome and the memory of filial imprinting
Authors: Chitadze Lela , Margvelani Giorgi , Meparishvili Maia , Tsverava Lia , Mikautadze Ekaterine , Kikvidze Marine , Lagani Vincenzo , McCabe Brian J. , Solomonia Revaz
Published: February 2020

Visual imprinting is a learning process whereby young animals come to prefer a visual stimulus after exposure to it (training). The intermediate medial mesopallium in the domestic chick forebrain is critical for visual imprinting and contributes to molecular regulation of memory formation. Criteria used to infer that a change following training is learning-related have been formulated and published. Cognin (protein disulphide isomerase) is one of several identified plasma membrane and mitochondrial proteins that are upregulated in a learning-related way 24 hours after training. Since virtually nothing is known about the cognin interactome, we have used immunoaffinity chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify proteins that interact with cognin in the cytoplasmic and plasma membrane-mitochondrial fractions. As the learning-related upregulation of cognin has been shown to occur in the plasma membrane-mitochondrial fraction and not in the cytoplasmic fraction, we studied the effect of training on three cognin-interacting partners in the plasma membrane-mitochondrial fraction: the b5 subunit of mitochondrial ATP synthase and the alpha-2 and alpha-3 subunits of sodium-potassium ATPase. Learning-related upregulation was found in the left intermediate medial mesopallium 24 hours after training for the b5 subunit of mitochondrial ATP synthase and the alpha-2 subunit of sodium-potassium ATPase. The hemispheric asymmetry revealed here is consistent with the predominance of many other learning-related effects in the left intermediate medial mesopallium. The alpha-2 subunit of sodium-potassium ATPase is mainly expressed in astrocytes, supporting a role for these glial cells in memory.
Reactivity, fate and functional roles of dissolved organic matter in anoxic inland waters
Authors: Lau Maximilian P. , del Giorgio Paul
Published: February 2020

The transit of organic matter (OM) through the aquatic compartment of its global cycle has been intensively studied, traditionally with a focus on the processing and degradation of its dissolved fraction (dissolved organic matter, DOM). Because this is so intimately related to oxidation, the notion tenaciously persists that where oxygen is absent, DOM turnover is markedly slowed. In this Opinion Piece, we outline how diverse processes shape, transform and degrade DOM also in anoxic aquatic environments, and we focus here on inland waters as a particular case study. A suite of biogeochemical DOM functions that have received comparatively little attention may only be expressed in anoxic conditions and may result in enhanced biogeochemical roles of these deoxygenated habitats on a network scale.
Chronic water restriction triggers sex-specific oxidative stress and telomere shortening in lizards
Authors: Dupoué Andréaz , Angelier Frédéric , Ribout Cécile , Meylan Sandrine , Rozen-Rechels David , Decencière Beatriz , Agostini Simon , Le Galliard Jean-François
Published: February 2020

Animals use a variety of strategies to avoid acute dehydration and death. Yet, how chronic exposure to sub-lethal dehydration may entail physiological and fitness costs remains elusive. In this study, we experimentally tested if water restriction causes increased oxidative stress (OS) and telomere length (TL) shortening, two well-described mediators of environment–fitness relationships. We exposed 100 yearling female and male common lizards (
Zootoca vivipara
) either to a 51-day period of water restriction or to water ad libitum, followed by 45 days in common garden outdoor conditions. We measured the kinetic changes in OS and TL and found that water-restricted males had enhanced antioxidant defences and decreased oxidative damage at day 36, whereas females did not immediately respond. A month and a half after water restriction, both sexes experienced a drop in antioxidant capacity but only males exhibited significant TL shortening. In the following 3 years, we found that lizards with longer initial TL and those who maintained stronger antioxidant defences experienced higher longevity, irrespective of sex and water restriction. Together, these results unravelled sex-specific responses to water restriction, with potential applications in better understanding the physiological costs of increasing summer droughts as a result of global climate change.