bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Drug Resistance in a High Tuberculosis Incidence Area from the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region
Authors: Mansoori Noormohamad , Douraghi Masoumeh , Rajabloo Ali Akbar , Taziki Masoomeh , Yaseri Mehdi , Vaziri Farzam
Published: November 2017

Purpose: The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in Golestan province of Iran has been ranked 10th among countries of World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region. The province is residence of ethnically heterogeneous groups. However, there are limited data on Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug resistance in this province. The main aim of this study was to determine the resistance profile of M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) isolates to first-line anti-TB drugs. Methods: The clinical specimens were collected from 11807 cases diagnosed during this study. MTBC isolates were tested for susceptibility to first-line anti-TB drugs. Results: A total of 176 new cases were diagnosed as culture positive for MTBC. There was one case that had multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolate and 18 (10.2%) had isolates that were resistant to at least one drug (any drug resistant). Resistance to streptomycin and isoniazid was noted in 15 (8.5%) and 5 isolates (2.8%), respectively. Also, a statistically significant association was observed between age groups and any drug resistance pattern (p = 0.022): 1-24 years vs. 25-45 years (p = 0.033), 25-45 years vs. >65 years (p = 0.010), 46-65 years vs. >65 years (p = 0.050). One third of any drug resistant isolates were obtained from TB patients of Persian ethnic group. Conclusion: Despite the high incidence of TB, the rate of MDR-TB in Golestan province was similar to those reported by WHO for Iranian new cases from other regions. One-tenth of the studied isolates showed any drug resistance pattern. This rate of any drug resistance implies the possibility of initial resistance of MTBC isolates circulating in this region.
Long-Term Health Consequences of Movement Restrictions for Palestinians, 1987–2011
Authors: McNeely Clea A. , Barber Brian K. , Giacaman Rita , Belli Robert F. , Daher Mahmoud
Published: November 2017

Objectives. To estimate the long-term association between Israeli-imposed restrictions on travel for medical care in the occupied Palestinian territory and health status in adulthood.

Methods. Using event history calendar methods, we collected annual data from 1987 to 2011 from a representative sample of 1778 Palestinians aged 32 to 43 years and analyzed the subsample of whomever had a serious medical condition and needed to travel for medical care (n = 246; contributing 1163 person-years). We used ordered logistic regression with person-year data to test the association between movement restrictions from 1987 to 2011 and health status in 2011.

Results. Two thirds (65%; n = 161) of participants reported travel restrictions, and 38% (n = 92) reported ever being barred from travel for medical care. Compared with study participants who experienced no travel restrictions in a year (n = 559 person-years), those who were barred from travel in that same year (n = 122 person-years) reported worse self-rated health (57% vs 22% reported bad or very bad self-rated health; P < .05) and greater limits on daily functioning caused by physical health (41% vs 16% reported regular limits; P < .05).

Conclusions. Being barred from travel for medical care was associated with poor health as long as 25 years later.
Sexual Assertiveness Skills and Sexual Decision-Making in Adolescent Girls: Randomized Controlled Trial of an Online Program
Authors: Widman Laura , Golin Carol E. , Kamke Kristyn , Burnette Jeni L. , Prinstein Mitchell J.
Published: November 2017

Objectives. To evaluate the efficacy of an interactive, Web-based sexual health program (Health Education and Relationship Training [HEART]) for developing sexual assertiveness skills and enhancing sexual decision-making in adolescent girls.

Methods. Participants were 222 tenth-grade girls (mean age = 15.2; 38% White, 29% Hispanic, 25% Black) in the Southeastern United States who were randomized in fall 2015 to the HEART intervention or an attention-matched control. We assessed participants at pretest, immediate posttest, and 4-month follow-up.

Results. Both groups had similar demographic and sexual behavior characteristics at pretest. At immediate posttest, girls who completed the HEART program demonstrated better sexual assertiveness skills measured with a behavioral task, higher self-reported assertiveness, intentions to communicate about sexual health, knowledge regarding HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), safer sex norms and attitudes, and condom self-efficacy compared with the control condition. At 4-month follow-up, group differences remained in knowledge regarding HIV and other STDs, condom attitudes, and condom self-efficacy.

Conclusions. This brief online sexual health program can improve short-term outcomes among adolescent girls and offers an exciting new option in the growing array of digital health interventions available to youths.

Trial Registration Number. NCT02579135.
The Nazi Physicians as Leaders in Eugenics and “Euthanasia”: Lessons for Today
Authors: Grodin Michael A. , Miller Erin L. , Kelly Johnathan I.
Published: November 2017

This article, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Doctors’ Trial at Nuremberg, reflects on the Nazi eugenics and “euthanasia” programs and their relevance for today. The Nazi doctors used eugenic ideals to justify sterilizations, child and adult “euthanasia,” and, ultimately, genocide.

Contemporary euthanasia has experienced a progression from voluntary to nonvoluntary and from passive to active killing. Modern eugenics has included both positive and negative selective activities.

The 70th anniversary of the Doctors’ Trial at Nuremberg provides an important opportunity to reflect on the implications of the Nazi eugenics and “euthanasia” programs for contemporary health law, bioethics, and human rights. In this article, we will examine the role that health practitioners played in the promotion and implementation of State-sponsored eugenics and “euthanasia” in Nazi Germany, followed by an exploration of contemporary parallels and debates in modern bioethics.1
Evaluation of the Environmental Scoring System in Multiple Child Asthma Intervention Programs in Boston, Massachusetts
Authors: Dong Zhao , Nath Anjali , Guo Jing , Bhaumik Urmi , Chin May Y. , Dong Sherry , Marshall Erica , Murphy Johnna S. , Sandel Megan T. , Sommer Susan J. , Ursprung W. W. Sanouri , Woods Elizabeth R. , Reid Margaret , Adamkiewicz Gary
Published: November 2017

Objectives. To test the applicability of the Environmental Scoring System, a quick and simple approach for quantitatively measuring environmental triggers collected during home visits, and to evaluate its contribution to improving asthma outcomes among various child asthma programs.

Methods. We pooled and analyzed data from multiple child asthma programs in the Greater Boston Area, Massachusetts, collected in 2011 to 2016, to examine the association of environmental scores (ES) with measures of asthma outcomes and compare the results across programs.

Results. Our analysis showed that demographics were important contributors to variability in asthma outcomes and total ES, and largely explained the differences among programs at baseline. Among all programs in general, we found that asthma outcomes were significantly improved and total ES significantly reduced over visits, with the total Asthma Control Test score negatively associated with total ES.

Conclusions. Our study demonstrated that the Environmental Scoring System is a useful tool for measuring home asthma triggers and can be applied regardless of program and survey designs, and that demographics of the target population may influence the improvement in asthma outcomes.
Increasing Prescription Opioid and Heroin Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1999–2014: An Age–Period–Cohort Analysis
Authors: Huang Xiwen , Keyes Katherine M. , Li Guohua
Published: November 2017

Objectives. To assess cohort effects in prescription opioid and heroin overdose mortality in the United States.

Methods. Using the National Center for Health Statistics’ multiple-cause-of-death file for 1999 to 2014, we performed an age–period–cohort analysis of drug overdose mortality in the United States.

Results. Compared with those born in 1977 and 1978, individuals born between 1947 and 1964 experienced excess risks of prescription opioid overdose death (e.g., for the 1955–1956 birth cohort, rate ratio [RR] = 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09, 1.48) and of heroin overdose death (e.g., for the 1953–1954 birth cohort, RR = 1.32; 95% CI = 1.11, 1.57). Those born between 1979 and 1992 also experienced an increased risk of heroin overdose death (e.g., for the 1989–1990 birth cohort, RR = 1.23; 95% CI = 1.01, 1.50). The cohort effects were consistent between sexes.

Conclusions. Individuals born between 1947 and 1964 and between 1979 and 1992 are particularly afflicted by the opioid epidemic. Intervention programs are needed to reduce the excess overdose mortality in these specific demographic groups.
An Integrated Modeling Work Flow With Hydraulic Fracturing, Reservoir Simulation, and Uncertainty Analysis for Unconventional-Reservoir Development
Authors: Liang Baosheng , Khan Shahzad , Puspita Sinchia Dewi
Published: November 2017

It is important to determine several key parameters, such as well spacing, completions design, landing strategy, and pad sequence, for a successful full-field development of the unconventional reservoir that involves multiple wells and pads in a given area of interest. Those parameters are normally considered individually through small and simple models. In this paper, focusing on developing the whole area effectively, we provided a systematic work flow to handle such challenges together: We first recommended a top-down concept that better represents actual field development and illustrates the importance of the 3D Earth model for the unconventional reservoir; we then proposed an integrated modeling that is an iterative loop consisting of the 3D Earth model, hydraulic-fracture modeling, reservoir simulation, and uncertainty analysis.

It is uncommon to build a 3D Earth model for the unconventional reservoir mainly because of the lack of data and software capability. In this paper, we provided a cost-effective approach for the first time on the basis of a large amount of existing vertical wells, newly drilled horizontal wells, and all the data available. A 3D Earth model using information from approximately 1,100 vertical wells from the Midland Basin was presented. Such a model has a high resolution conditioned by high well density, and has an advantage of capturing heterogeneities and interactions more than a simplified model created either from one well or low-resolution seismic interpretation. The model was fed into hydraulic-fracture modeling with the consideration of natural-fracture network and stress shadow, followed by reservoir simulation. The in-house uncertainty-analysis package that functions by experimental-design philosophy is linked to the Earth model, hydraulic-fracture modeling, and reservoir simulation. For the first time, the impacts of all the parameters together were evaluated through the final production performance. In our example, we considered completions design, discrete-fracture-network (DFN) characterization and generation, unpropped hydraulic-fracture properties, fracture compaction, and matrix permeability. The result indicated that DFN characterization is the most important parameter affecting production performance.

We applied our model and work flow to field development. Well spacing and pad sequence were studied in this paper as two examples. We demonstrated that it is important to properly consider complex interactions among multiple clusters, stages, and wells to evaluate the impacts on well spacing, completions, and development sequence.
Exploring links between water quality and E. coli O157:H7 survival potential in well waters from a rural area of southern Changchun City, China
Authors: Ding Meiyue , Li Jiahang , Liu Xiaodan , Li Huiru , Zhang Rui , Ma Jincai
Published: November 2017

Waterborne infectious disease outbreak associated with well water contamination is a worldwide public health issue, especially for rural areas in developing countries. In the current study, we characterized 20 well water samples collected from a rural area of southern Changchun city, China, and investigated the survival potential of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in those water samples. The results showed that nitrate and ammonia concentrations in some well water samples exceed the corresponding China drinking water standards, indicating potential contamination by local agricultural farms. Our results also revealed that the average survival time (ttd) of E. coli O157:H7 in all well water samples was 30.09 days, with shortest and longest ttd being 17.95 and 58.10 days, respectively. The ttds were significantly correlated with pH and the ratio of total nitrogen to total phosphorus. In addition, it was found that the shape parameter (p) and first decimal reduction parameter (δ) were negatively (P < 0.05) and positively (P < 0.05) correlated to ttd, respectively. Our study showed that E. coli O157:H7 could survive up to two months in well water, suggesting that this pathogen could constitute a great public health risk.
Pesticide removal through wastewater and advanced treatment: full-scale sampling and bench-scale testing
Authors: Kenny J. D. , Webber B. D. , Howe E. W. , Holden R. B.
Published: November 2017

Dieldrin and DDx removal through wastewater treatment, ozonation, and microfiltration was assessed for a water reuse project for groundwater replenishment in Monterey, California, USA. Full-scale sampling was conducted at the wastewater treatment plant, and physical wastewater treatment processes, ozonation, and microfiltration were tested at the bench scale. Removals observed through wastewater treatment, ozonation, and microfiltration were 84%, 44% to 63%, and 97% to 98%, respectively, for dieldrin, and 93%, 36% to 48%, and 92% to 94% for DDx. These were sufficient to meet California Ocean Plan water quality objectives after wastewater treatment alone. Levels in the secondary effluent, ahead of ozonation, microfiltration, reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation in the advanced water purification facility, met drinking water standards. Removal of dieldrin and DDx through wastewater treatment occurred by physical treatment processes; removal through the full-scale wastewater treatment plant, which included biological and physical treatment processes, matched removal through the physical bench-scale wastewater treatment processes. Dieldrin and DDx removal correlated with removal of volatile suspended solids, suggesting that volatile suspended solids could be used as an indicator for pesticide removal through wastewater treatment. Dieldrin and DDx concentrations were highest in the solids contact process, where biomass is accumulated for carbon removal.
The implementation of collaborative-based guided discovery reviewed from students’ analytical thinking skills and social skills
Authors: Nugroho Anwari Adi
Published: November 2017

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of collaborative based Guided Discovery in empowering critical thinking skills and social skills of students in High Plant Systematics Course. It was a quasi-experimental study with One Group Pretest-Posttest Design using one class as an experiment (pretest and posttest). The subjects of the study were 26 students of the fourth semester of Department of Biology Education, Universitas Bangun Nusantara Sukoharjo Academic Year 2015/2016. Data collection techniques were done with tests to measure analytical thinking skills and observation to measure social skills. Data analysis of the result of analytical thinking skills was quantitative descriptive using paired sample t-test, while the result of social skill observation was qualitative descriptive. Paired sample t-test resulted in a significant difference of pretest and posttest value of analytical thinking skill. The result of social skill score was nine students with very good category and seventeen students with a good category. The conclusion of the study was that collaborative based Guided Discovery effectively empowers the student’s analytical thinking and social skills.
Developing of module challenge based learning in environmental material to empower the critical thinking ability
Authors: Nawawi Sulton
Published: November 2017

This research aimed to compile a product development, knowing the feasibility and knowing the effectiveness of challenge-based learning (CBL) modules in an environmental material to empower the critical thinking ability. The research was a research & development model of Borg & Gall. Validation the product was done by material expert, expert of development and design module, expert of device and evaluation of learning , a linguist and practitioner of learning of Biology. Subject of the research was a student of grade X MIA Islamic State Senior High School Karanganyar. This research results are: (1) module in the form of product module for teachers and students CBL based on environmental material was developed based on CBL syntax and indicators of Fascione’s critical thinking that visualized in the objective, material, activities , and evaluation items; (2) appropriateness of module for teachers and student based on CBL environment material according to the validation results of qualified as good until very good; (3) Modules based CBL environmental material is effective to improve the ability of student critical thinking.
Applications of Space Technologies to Global Health: Scoping Review (Preprint)
Authors: Dietrich Damien , Dekova Ralitza , Davy Stephan , Fahrni Guillaume , Geissbühler Antoine
Published: November 2017

BACKGROUND

Space technology has an impact on many domains of activity on earth, including in the field of global health. With the recent adoption of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals that highlight the need for strengthening partnerships in different domains, it is useful to better characterize the relationship between space technology and global health.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to identify the applications of space technologies to global health, the key stakeholders in the field, as well as gaps and challenges.

METHODS

We used a scoping review methodology, including a literature review and the involvement of stakeholders, via a brief self-administered, open-response questionnaire. A distinct search on several search engines was conducted for each of the four key technological domains that were previously identified by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs’ Expert Group on Space and Global Health (Domain A: remote sensing; Domain B: global navigation satellite systems; Domain C: satellite communication; and Domain D: human space flight). Themes in which space technologies are of benefit to global health were extracted. Key stakeholders, as well as gaps, challenges, and perspectives were identified.

RESULTS

A total of 222 sources were included for Domain A, 82 sources for Domain B, 144 sources for Domain C, and 31 sources for Domain D. A total of 3 questionnaires out of 16 sent were answered. Global navigation satellite systems and geographic information systems are used for the study and forecasting of communicable and noncommunicable diseases; satellite communication and global navigation satellite systems for disaster response; satellite communication for telemedicine and tele-education; and global navigation satellite systems for autonomy improvement, access to health care, as well as for safe and efficient transportation. Various health research and technologies developed for inhabited space flights have been adapted for terrestrial use.

CONCLUSIONS

Although numerous examples of space technology applications to global health exist, improved awareness, training, and collaboration of the research community is needed.
Using Digital Health Technologies to Understand the Association Between Movement Behaviors and Interstitial Glucose: Exploratory Analysis (Preprint)
Authors: Kingsnorth Andrew P , Whelan Maxine E , Sanders James P , Sherar Lauren B , Esliger Dale W
Published: November 2017

BACKGROUND

Acute reductions in postprandial glucose excursions because of movement behaviors have been demonstrated in experimental studies but less so in free-living settings.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to explore the nature of the acute stimulus-response model between accelerometer-assessed physical activity, sedentary time, and glucose variability over 13 days in nondiabetic adults.

METHODS

This study measured physical activity, sedentary time, and interstitial glucose continuously over 13 days in 29 participants (mean age in years: 44.9 [SD 9.1]; female: 59%, 17/29; white: 90%, 26/29; mean body mass index: 25.3 [SD 4.1]) as part of the Sensing Interstitial Glucose to Nudge Active Lifestyles (SIGNAL) research program. Daily minutes spent sedentary, in light activity, and moderate to vigorous physical activity were associated with daily mean glucose, SD of glucose, and mean amplitude of glycemic excursions (MAGE) using generalized estimating equations.

RESULTS

After adjustment for covariates, sedentary time in minutes was positively associated with a higher daily mean glucose (mmol/L; beta=0.0007; 95% CI 0.00030-0.00103; P<.001), SD of glucose (mmol/L; beta=0.0006; 95% CI 0.00037-0.00081; P<.001), and MAGE (mmol/L; beta=0.002; 95% CI 0.00131-0.00273; P<.001) for those of a lower fitness. Additionally, light activity was inversely associated with mean glucose (mmol/L; beta=−0.0004; 95% CI −0.00078 to −0.00006; P=.02), SD of glucose (mmol/L; beta=−0.0006; 95% CI −0.00085 to −0.00039; P<.001), and MAGE (mmol/L; beta=−0.002; 95% CI −0.00285 to −0.00146; P<.001) for those of a lower fitness. Moderate to vigorous physical activity was only inversely associated with mean glucose (mmol/L; beta=−0.002; 95% CI −0.00250 to −0.00058; P=.002).

CONCLUSIONS

Evidence of an acute stimulus-response model was observed between sedentary time, physical activity, and glucose variability in low fitness individuals, with sedentary time and light activity conferring the most consistent changes in glucose variability. Further work is required to investigate the coupling of movement behaviors and glucose responses in larger samples and whether providing these rich data sources as feedback could induce lifestyle behavior change.
Aspectos biológicos e comportamentais de Sapajus libidinosus: Revisão
Authors: Carreiro Artur , Salles Ana Yasha Ferreira de La , Medeiros Gildenor Xavier , Muniz José Augusto Pereira Carneiro , Menezes Danilo José Ayres de
Published: November 2017

The black striped capuchin monkey of the species Sapajus libidinosus are known as the most robust and intelligent monkeys of the New World, and of the neotropical species, it is the one that presents greater geographical distribution. Due to this and also because of the easy handling and the ease of reproduction in captivity, the genus has been used in several researches, given its phylogenetic proximity to the human species, serving as a biological model in experiments applied to this species, with a wide variety of Biomedical research. It is a species considered almost threatened in Brazil according to ICMBio (2012-2014) evaluation criteria and the study of animal behavior emerges as a means of scientific research that has provided important contributions besides the study of human behavior, neurosciences, environment and animal welfare, also With the preservation of species. Considering the relevance of behavioral research and animal biology within the scientific community, this study aims to review the literature on the species Sapajus libidinosus, emphasizing, within the theme, its taxonomy, geographic distribution and population, general characteristics and adaptations, social life, food and reproduction.
Fully turbulent discrete adjoint solver for non-ideal compressible flow applications
Authors: Vitale Salvatore , Albring Tim A. , Pini Matteo , Gauger Nicolas R. , Colonna Piero
Published: November 2017

Non-Ideal Compressible Fluid-Dynamics (NICFD) has recently been established as a sector of fluid mechanics dealing with the flows of dense vapors, supercritical fluids, and two-phase fluids, whose properties significantly depart from those of the ideal gas. The flow through an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbine is an exemplary application, as stators often operate in the supersonic and transonic regime, and are affected by NICFD effects. Other applications are turbomachinery using supercritical CO2 as working fluid or other fluids typical of the oil and gas industry, and components of air conditioning and refrigeration systems. Due to the comparably lower level of experience in the design of this fluid machinery, and the lack of experimental information on NICFD flows, the design of the main components of these processes (i.e., turbomachinery and nozzles) may benefit from adjoint-based automated fluid-dynamic shape optimization. Hence, this work is related to the development and testing of a fully-turbulent adjoint method capable of treating NICFD flows. The method was implemented within the SU2 open-source software infrastructure. The adjoint solver was obtained by linearizing the discretized flow equations and the fluid thermodynamic models by means of advanced Automatic Differentiation (AD) techniques. The new adjoint solver was tested on exemplary turbomachinery cases. Results demonstrate the method effectiveness in improving simulated fluid-dynamic performance, and underline the importance of accurately modeling non-ideal thermodynamic and viscous effects when optimizing internal flows influenced by NICFD phenomena.
Theory and Econometrics
Authors: Hansen Lars Peter , Sargent Thomas J.
Published: November 2017

This chapter sets out the book's focus, namely constructing and applying competitive equilibria for a class of linear-quadratic-Gaussian dynamic economies with complete markets. Here, an economy will consist of a list of matrices that describe people's household technologies, their preferences over consumption services, their production technologies, and their information sets. Competitive equilibrium allocations and prices satisfy some equations that are easy to write down and solve. These competitive equilibrium outcomes have representations that are convenient to represent and estimate econometrically. The chapter then discusses the construction of a class of economies, the computer programs used, followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters.
Linear Stochastic Difference Equations
Authors: Hansen Lars Peter , Sargent Thomas J.
Published: November 2017

This chapter describes the vector first-order linear stochastic difference equation. It is first used to represent information flowing to economic agents, then again to represent competitive equilibria. The vector first-order linear stochastic difference equation is associated with a tidy theory of prediction and a host of procedures for econometric application. Ease of analysis has prompted the adoption of economic specifications that cause competitive equilibria to have representations as vector first-order linear stochastic difference equations. Because it expresses next period's vector of state variables as a linear function of this period's state vector and a vector of random disturbances, a vector first-order vector stochastic difference equation is recursive. Disturbances that form a “martingale difference sequence” are basic building blocks used to construct time series. Martingale difference sequences are easy to forecast, a fact that delivers convenient recursive formulas for optimal predictions of time series.
Gorman Heterogeneous Households
Authors: Hansen Lars Peter , Sargent Thomas J.
Published: November 2017

This chapter describes methods for computing equilibria of economies with consumers who have heterogeneous preferences and endowments. It adopts simplifications that facilitate coping with heterogeneity. In the present chapter, consumers differ only with respect to their endowments and the processes {bt} that disturb their preferences. It assumes that consumers have a common information set that includes observations on past values of the economy-wide capital stocks and the common exogenous state variables that drive each of the individual preference shock processes and the technology shock process {dt}. Preferences of individual consumers can be aggregated by summing both preference shocks and initial endowments across consumers, thereby forming a representative consumer. All aggregate aspects of a competitive equilibrium can be computed by forming the representative consumer and proceeding as in Chapter 7. The chapter shows how to calculate individual allocations by using the demand functions described in Chapter 9.3.
Complete Markets Aggregation
Authors: Hansen Lars Peter , Sargent Thomas J.
Published: November 2017

This chapter outlines a setting with heterogeneity among households' preferences of a kind that violates the conditions for Gorman aggregation. Households' Engel curves are still affine, but dispersion of their slopes prevents Gorman aggregation. However, there is another sense in which there is a representative household whose preferences are a peculiar kind of average over the preferences of different types of households. The chapter shows how to compute and interpret this preference ordering over economy-wide aggregate consumption. This complete markets aggregate preference ordering cannot be computed until one knows the distribution of wealth evaluated at equilibrium prices, so it is less useful than the one produced by Gorman aggregation.
Holy Dogs, Hecuba’s Bark
Authors: Dayan Colin
Published: November 2017

This introductory chapter explains that when ghosts come before the law, they are sometimes treated as if real insofar as they have legal effect. Indeed, for legal purposes—in cases of undue influence, defamation, or fraud—spectral emanations may become proof, just like any facts. On this bewitched ground, the fantastic and the commonplace intermingle. In the case of wills, especially, even when the law does not acknowledge the unique gifts of spiritualists, it sometimes admits as valid the communications of the dead. In numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century appellate cases, especially, courts sustained the wills of those advised by mediums channeling the wishes of deceased loved ones into the minds of believers. The chapter also looks at the story of Hecuba. Changed into a dog, at once mystified and historicized, ghostly and corporeal, Hecuba shows the interstices of human and animal, person and god, living and dead.
Everything But a Gun to Their Heads
Authors: Hahamovitch Cindy
Published: November 2017

This chapter describes the second phase in the history of guestworker programs. The mobilization for World War II led once again to rising wages and thus to the rekindling of interest in temporary foreign workers. Outlasting the war by more than thirty years, this phase involved far more nations and migrants, and far greater state involvement in labor supply schemes. During the Great Depression, nation-states expelled foreign workers in the name of taking care of their own; during World War II, they invited them back, beginning a new and much larger trend toward admitting foreign workers on a temporary basis. The chapter focuses in particular on the story of Bahamian laborers during this period, as a tomato farmer and self-appointed diplomat named Luther L. Chandler began the efforts toward a new immigration policy that would give growers in the East access to Bahamian workers.
“Stir it Up”
Authors: Hahamovitch Cindy
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the experiences of the Jamaican guestworkers who came to the United States during World War II. These guestworkers were an unusually worldly, educated, and articulate group of farmworkers. Determined to be treated as the equals of whites, they boldly defied growers' expectations that they would be cheap, tractable, and submissive. They responded decisively to affronts to their dignity and violations of their contracts. They were British war workers and volunteers, and for a few months at least they were treated as such by U.S. officials and the liaison officers assigned to enforce the terms of their contracts. Those few months were the pinnacle of the U.S. guestworker programs; it would be downhill from there.
John Bull Meets Jim Crow
Authors: Hahamovitch Cindy
Published: November 2017

This chapter looks at the Jamaican guestworkers' transfer to Clewiston, Florida, where their status sank from exotic British war workers to “alien negro laborers,” and neither their British citizenship nor U.S. officials could protect them from the perils of farm labor relations in the southern countryside. In Florida, guestworkers' foreignness provided employers with a new and effective weapon in the arsenal of labor discipline: workers who protested their treatment now faced detention, repatriation, and blacklisting. In this new era of transnational labor, the threat of deportation became the new whip. No longer were Jamaicans told to expect “a friendly English-speaking people,” with habits and customs “somewhat different” from their own. In Florida, they were warned to adapt to the dictates of “the Jim Crow Creed.”
The Worst Job in the World
Authors: Hahamovitch Cindy
Published: November 2017

This chapter explores the reasons for the mass strikes among the guestworkers laboring in Florida's cane fields during the 1960s. It argues that these strikes were caused by a confluence of two seemingly unrelated events: the Cuban Revolution and Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. Like the collision of two weather systems, these transformations—a revolution and a reform program—brought unintended but devastating changes to working conditions in Florida's fields. What had been a hard but coveted opportunity for poor black men from the Caribbean became, as Johnson's Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz put it only somewhat hyperbolically, “the worst job in the world.”
Conclusion
Authors: Hahamovitch Cindy
Published: November 2017

This concluding chapter considers the possibilities for change and improvement over current iterations of guestworker programs in the United States. If the history of guestworkers in the country demonstrates anything, this chapter argues, it is that guestworker programs are not an alternative to illegal immigration. Rather, the two systems of recruiting foreign labor have always existed in symbiosis. But can such an oppressive situation be reformed? The chapter turns to a few solutions; such as the adoption of the European guestworker programs of the 1950s and 1960s, collective bargaining and advocacy work, government intervention and worker vigilance, and finally and most importantly, immigration reform.
Introduction
Authors: Jenkins Jeffery A. , Stewart Charles
Published: November 2017

This book investigates the history of organizational politics in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1789 to the present. It argues that the history of how speakership elections developed was driven by a desire to establish an organizational cartel in the House. It examines the centrality of the party caucus for the organization of the House, and more specifically how the majority party came to own the chief House officers, especially the Speaker. It also discusses two themes about Congress and its role in the American political system: the construction of mass political parties in the early nineteenth century and the role that political parties play in guiding the agenda of Congress today. This chapter provides an overview of the data and methods used by the book as well as the chapters that follow.
Partisan Tumult on the Floor: The Speakership Elections of 1849 and 1855–1856
Authors: Jenkins Jeffery A. , Stewart Charles
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the speakership elections of 1849 and 1855–1856, the most chaotic instances of officer selection in the history of the House of Representatives. It considers how the Second Party System weakened and eventually collapsed as the slavery issue overwhelmed the interregional partisanship that had been in place for two decades. It also discusses the emergence of new political parties, such as the Free-Soil Party, the American Party, and the Republican Party, that created new avenues for coalitional organization. In particular, it looks at the rise of the Republican Party as the primary opposition party to the Democrats. Finally, it describes how the rising popularity of the new parties in congressional elections affected politicians in both the Whig Party and the Democratic Party.
Conclusion
Authors: Jenkins Jeffery A. , Stewart Charles
Published: November 2017

This chapter summarizes the key points raised by the book, with particular emphasis on questions of organizational control, party-building, and party strength in Congress. It begins with a discussion of the role that the party caucus has played in hastening a consistent House organization by the majority party. It then considers the organizational cartel's relationship with the procedural cartel and the applicability of the organizational cartel mechanism in other legislatures, including the U.S. Senate, American state legislatures, and parliaments around the world. The chapter also examines Martin van Buren's legacy, focusing on his role in developing the organizational capacity of the Democratic Party and his efforts in building the American party system, before concluding with some final thoughts on political parties and congressional organization.
Heart Beats
Authors: Robson Catherine
Published: November 2017

Many people in Great Britain and the United States can recall elderly relatives who remembered long stretches of verse learned at school decades earlier, yet most of us were never required to recite in class. This is the first book to examine how poetry recitation came to assume a central place in past curricular programs, and to investigate when and why the once-mandatory exercise declined. Telling the story of a lost pedagogical practice and its wide-ranging effects on two sides of the Atlantic, the book explores how recitation altered the ordinary people who committed poems to heart, and changed the worlds in which they lived. The book begins by investigating recitation's progress within British and American public educational systems over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and weighs the factors that influenced which poems were most frequently assigned. It then scrutinizes the recitational fortunes of three short works that were once classroom classics: Felicia Hemans's Casabianca, Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, and Charles Wolfe's Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna. To conclude, the book considers W. E. Henley's Invictus and Rudyard Kipling's If –, asking why the idea of the memorized poem arouses such different responses in the United States and Great Britain today. Focusing on vital connections between poems, individuals, and their communities, the book is an important study of the history and power of memorized poetry.
The Memorized Poem in British and American Public Education
Authors: Robson Catherine
Published: November 2017

This chapter investigates recitation's progress within the mass educational systems that developed in Great Britain and the United States over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Thus, this historical survey begins by scrutinizing the experiences of partial populations of individuals at relatively elite levels of society. First, it considers the utility of verse and memorization for very early learners, examining the service role played by poetry and poetic devices in the extended period during which rudimentary education in English was understood primarily as a necessary tool to unlock the Bible and Christian scriptures. It then proceeds to the era in which certain kinds of schools began to assign the memorization and recitation of vernacular literary and oratorical extracts as a task for their advanced readers. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of the factors that affected the constitution of juvenile recitation canons over the years.
Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
Authors: Robson Catherine
Published: November 2017

This chapter addresses some of the later psychological dimensions inherent within adolescents' and adults' internalization of a poem. It sets Thomas Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” within a very specific institutional and emotional history, directing attention to the mingled pain and pleasure that can exist within the possession of a cultural object. This chapter considers how the highest-achieving elementary-school pupils might have felt when they read and recited a work that dubs the poor both unlettered and mute. Further, it speculates about the ability of the memorized poem to stay within those individuals for the remainder of their days, and to act as a constant reminder of the educational and social processes that moved them out of one class and into another—an elevation the eighteenth-century poem deems impossible.
Afterword
Authors: Robson Catherine
Published: November 2017

This concluding chapter focuses upon two works that were written during recitation's heyday and that currently hold preeminent status both as, and among, memorized poems in popular culture on both sides of the Atlantic. Positioning W. E. Henley's “Invictus” (1888) as an American national favorite and Rudyard Kipling's “If –” (1910) as a British poem of poems, the chapter conducts a consciously allegorical reading to orchestrate a return to the topic raised in the introduction. The memory of mass juvenile recitation arouses very different feelings in the United States and Great Britain. To close the book, the chapter considers in what ways this might be connected to how individuals in these two countries regard not only their nation's educational past, but also their relationships with poetry, with society, and with themselves.
Determinantal Inequalities for TN Matrices
Authors: Fallat Shaun M. , Johnson Charles R.
Published: November 2017

This chapter begins an investigation into the possible relationships among the principal minors of TN matrices. An important goal is to examine all the inequalities among the principal minors of TN matrices. More generally, this chapter also studies families of determinantal inequalities that hold for all TN matrices. The intention here is to employ certain ideas pertinent to theory of TN matrices to derive a description with respect to positive semidefinite matrices. One notable difference between the class of TN matrices and the positive semidefinite matrices is that TN matrices are not in general closed under the simultaneous permutation of rows and columns, while positive semidefinite matrices are closed under such an operation.
Icehouse Earth
Authors: Tyrrell Toby
Published: November 2017

This chapter compares the life that evolution produced during the past cold and warm climates of long duration. The dominant climatic state of the last several million years has been ice ages. James Lovelock has argued that these are a more favorable state for life on Earth than the present interglacials. This does not, however, sit well with various observations. During ice ages: (i) there was less land free of ice; (ii) much of the most productive parts of the ocean, the shelf seas, were turned into dry land by lower sea level; and (iii) the total mass of carbon locked up in vegetation and soils was only about half as much as today. Not only were ice ages unfortunate episodes for life on Earth, but also, conversely, the Earth during the Cretaceous was possibly even more congenial than it is today, although the evidence is not conclusive on this point.
A Stable or an Unstable World?
Authors: Tyrrell Toby
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the claim of Earth's stability by looking at data pertaining to past variability of the Earth environment. The Gaia hypothesis proposes that life has had a hand on the tiller of Earth climate, ensuring stable equable climates throughout Earth history. The chapter argues differently. The data do not point to a constant environment, or to a cozy and hospitable one. In addition to the overall trend toward ever-icier climates over the last 100 million years, there is also compelling evidence that the tiller has on other occasions allowed climate to drift into dangerous states threatening to completely extinguish all life on Earth.
Seeking Fundamentals: The Colorado Coal Strike, 1913–1914
Authors: Muncy Robyn
Published: November 2017

This chapter details events in Josephine Roche's life from 1913 to 1914. After a restorative break in the Rockies, Roche returned to Denver and faced hard decisions about what to pursue next. Her goal was to figure out what work was most “fundamental” to achieving social justice. Roche wanted to hit injustice where it would hurt most, but she was not yet sure where the tender spot lay. As she began probing for that spot in fall 1913, coal miners in Colorado provided guidance. They opened what turned out to be the country's “deadliest labor war,” a conflict that eventually confirmed what Roche's experience as Inspector of Amusements had begun to reveal: progressive public policies could not, by themselves, achieve justice. Some additional element was required to make good on them, and the strike told Roche that the element was an aroused and organized citizenry, especially in the form of independent labor unions. By 1914, Roche had layered onto her social science progressivism the commitments of a labor progressive, who believed the self-organization of workers as crucial to achieving social justice as progressive public policies.
Democratic Denials and Dissent at the Miners’ Welfare Fund, 1957–1963
Authors: Muncy Robyn
Published: November 2017

This chapter details events in Josephine Roche's life from 1957 to 1963. During the late 1950s, two trends marked Roche's work at the miners' Welfare Fund. First, she reemerged into public life, having gained confidence that her latest creation was no longer at risk from hostile coal operators, anti-communist crusaders, or recalcitrant doctors. Second, her commitment to democracy eroded. By 1960, Roche had built an effective bureaucracy committed to improving health care among miners and to preserving their union. But, unlike bureaucracies Roche had assembled before, this one became frozen in its priorities and deaf to the preferences of those it claimed to serve. This attenuation of democratic commitment was one of the principal reasons that, despite the survivals of progressivism in her work at the fund, Roche could no longer be considered a progressive. Ironically, however, the lack of democracy within the fund generated such anger in the coalfields that it helped to spark the final eruption of progressive reform in twentieth-century America during the 1960s.
Challenged and Redeemed by the New Progressivism, 1960–1972
Authors: Muncy Robyn
Published: November 2017

This chapter details events in Josephine Roche's life from 1960 to 1972. Once the miners' hospitals were safely preserved, Roche had reason to think the future looked bright. Coal production was picking up. The U.S. presidency was occupied by New Dealer Lyndon B. Johnson. The struggle for racial justice was winning landmark legislation that promised to end many forms of racial discrimination, and young people were taking to the streets, mouthing some of the same values that Roche's generation had extolled: equality, democracy, curbs on corporate power. A new mass movement on behalf of women's advancement was in the offing as well, making the 1960s all the more like the moment of Roche's introduction to progressive reform. Pushed by these social movements and the president, Congress was in the midst of a major expansion of federal responsibility for social and economic welfare that in some particulars built directly on the New Deal. Progressivism was again in full swing.