bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Thrombolyse älterer venöser Thromben
Authors: Tilsner V.
Published: June 2018

Die Fibrinolysetherapie bei venösen Thrombosen ist eine etablierte Behandlungsmethode zur Verhütung eines postthrombotischen Syndroms. Es treten jedoch Probleme bei der Behandlung älterer, venöser Thromben auf, die einer chirurgischen Behandlung nicht zugänglich sind, aber trotzdem das Risiko eines postthrombotischen Syndroms in sich bergen. Basierend auf den Untersuchungen von Gottlob und Blümel lassen sich auch bei diesen Patienten Erfolge erzielen, die allerdings abhängig vom Alter und damit dem Grad der Thrombusorganisation sind. Die vorliegenden Untersuchungen erlauben es, die Indikation zur Lysetherapie bei älteren Venenthrombosen besser abzugrenzen.
Thrombolytische Behandlung der Lungenembolie
Authors: Schwarz F. , Zimmermann R.
Published: June 2018

Die thrombolytische Therapie ist das Mittel der Wahl zur Behandlung der massiven Lungenembolie. Bei weniger schweren Embolien ist die Thrombolyse nur bei vorbestehenden kardiopulmonalen Vorerkrankungen indiziert. In diesen Fällen ist die Thrombolysetherapie der Antikoagulation mit Heparin als überlegen zu bezeichnen. Streptokinase, Urokinase und rekombinanter Gewebe-Plasminogenaktivator (rt-PA) haben sich als effektiv erwiesen. Obwohl prospektiv vergleichende Studien fehlen, muß auf Grund jüngster Untersuchungen der Gewebe-Plasminogenaktivator als das effektivste Thrombolytikum bezeichnet werden. Die größten Erfahrungen liegen mit einer Dosierung von 10 mg rt-PA initial, gefolgt von 40 mg rt-PA/2 h sowie bei unzureichendem Behandlungserfolg von weiteren 50 mg/5 h vor. In dieser Studie verstarben von 34 Patienten mit schwerster Lungenembolie lediglich 2 (5,8%). Diese guten Erfahrungen wurden in weiteren Untersuchungen auch bei einer Reihe von Patienten mit schwerster Lungenembolie unter Beatmungsnotwendigkeit bestätigt. Möglicherweise könnte die Thrombolyse mit rt-PA auch die bessere therapeutische Alternative im Vergleich zur Pulmonalembolektomie im Stadium IV einer Lungenembolie sein.
Gardner-Diamond-Syndrom: Therapieversuch mit hochdosierten Immunglobulinen
Authors: Eifrig B. , Marx G.
Published: June 2018

Bei einer 34jährigen Patientin wurde aufgrund schmerzhaft-entzündlicher Schwellungen mit anschließender Hämatombildung die Diagnose eines Gardner-Diamond-Syndroms gestellt. Vorangegangen war ein 17jähriger Krankheitsverlauf, in dem die Erkrankung als v.-Willebrand-Syndrom fehlgedeutet wurde und die Patientin große Mengen an Gerinnungspräparaten erhalten hatte. Sie wurde dadurch mit HIV infiziert und ist jetzt manifest erkrankt. Eine Autoimmunisierung gegen das Phosphatidylserin der Erythrozytenmembran kann heute als wahrscheinliche Ursache des Gardner-Diamond-Syndroms angesehen werden. Wir fanden eine zusätzliche Thrombozytopathie, welche die sekundäre Einblutung erklären kann und möglicherweise auf einer ähnlichen Immunreaktion beruht. Durch eine Therapie mit hochdosierten intravenös verabreichten Immunglobulinen konnte die Symptomatik günstig beeinflußt und das Auftreten spontaner Krankheitserscheinungen unterdrückt werden.
Klinische Erfahrungen mit niedermolekularen Heparinen bei der primären Thromboembolieprophylaxe
Authors: Haas P. , Haas S.
Published: June 2018

Für die primäre Prophylaxe von thromboembolischen Komplikationen gelten Heparin und niedermolekulare Heparine als Mittel der Wahl, wobei im sogenannten Hochrisikobereich einmal täglich verabreichte pauschalierte Dosierungen von niedermolekularem Heparin sogar wirkungsvoller zu sein scheinen als die mehrfach täglich applizierte Low-dose-Heparinprophylaxe. Im Gegensatz zu herkömmlichem Heparin sollten aber niedermolekulare Heparine als individuelle Substanzen angesehen und nicht unter einem gemeinsamen Generikumsbegriff zusammengefaßt werden. Daraus folgt, daß für jedes Produkt der Wirksamkeits- und Verträglichkeitsnachweis separat erbracht werden muß. Durch die nur einmal täglich notwendige subkutane Injektion und die laborunabhängige Einsatzmöglichkeit hat die Prophylaxe mit niedermolekularen Heparinen auch erfolgreiche Anwendung im Rahmen der ambulanten Patientenversorgung gefunden.
Lokale Faktor-XIII-Bestimmung in der Dickdarmmukosa
Authors: Hensler C. , Gladisch R. , Heene D. L. , Dempfle C. E.
Published: June 2018

Faktor-XIII-Aktivität wurde in endoskopisch gewonnenen, homogenisierten Biopsieproben von Patienten mit Colitis ulcerosa und Morbus Crohn mittels eines Amin-Inkorporationstests bestimmt. Lösliches Dinitrophenylcadaverin (DNPC) wird von aktiviertem Faktor XIII an Casein gekoppelt, das wiederum an die Wandung von Microtiterplatten adsorbiert ist. Das gebundene DNPC wird mittels spezifischem Antikörper detektiert. Es fand sich eine Abhängigkeit der Faktor-XIII-Aktivität von der histologischen Klassifikation (nicht entzündet, leichte Entzündung, schwere Entzündung) mit deutlich niedrigeren Werten bei schwerer Entzündung. Die beschriebene Methode eignet sich zur funktioneilen Messung von Faktor XIII und anderen Proteintransglutaminasen in Gewebe- und Zellhomogenisaten und anderen trüben Probenmaterialien.
Nebenwirkungen der Substitutionstherapie
Authors: Gürtler L.
Published: June 2018

Viren können über Blut und Blutprodukte übertragen werden. Blut kann nicht, Blutprodukte können bedingt inaktiviert werden und deswegen wird immer eine Restwahrscheinlichkeit der Übertragung von Infektionserregern verbleiben. Zu den heute in Europa transfusionsrelevanten Viren gehören das Hepatitis-B- und -C-Virus und die Immunschwäche-Viren. Diese drei Viren zeichnen sich durch hohe Mortalität und Chronizität der Erkrankung aus. Bedingt transfusionsrelevante Viren sind das Zytomegalievirus und das Parvovirus B19. Wegen der geringen Prävalenz nicht relevant ist das humane T-Leukämie-Virus in Mittel- und Nordeuropa, in Südeuropa kommen relevante Prävalenzen vor. Auf andere, nicht relevante Viren wird wegen ihrer geringen Bedeutung nicht getestet.
Rekombinante Faktor-VIII-Konzentrate
Authors: Scharrer I.
Published: June 2018

Klinische Erfahrungen und Studienergebnisse an Previously Treated Patients (PTPs) und Previously Untreated Patients (PUPs) liegen mit zwei gentechnologisch hergestellten Faktor-VIII-Präparaten, Recombinate (Baxter) und Kogenate (Bayer) vor. Sowohl die Recovery als auch die Halbwertszeit entsprachen denen der Plasmapräparate. Verbrauch, Substitutionsdauer und subjektive Beurteilung durch Arzt und Patient zeigten hinsichtlich Blutungsverhütung und Blutstillung bei der Prophylaxe, der Heimselbstbehandlung und bei Operationen eine den Plasmapräparaten vergleichbare hämostatische Wirksamkeit. Auch die bisher aufgetretenen Nebenwirkungen mit rekombinanten FaktorVIII-Präparaten sind den Plasmapräparaten vergleichbar.
Doppelt virusinaktiviertes Faktor-VIII-Konzentrat
Authors: Dichtelmüller H. , Rudnick D. , Holzapfel J. , Kloft M. , Elödi S. , Zimonyi I. , Marosi A. , Kotitschke R.
Published: June 2018

FVIII SDH ist ein doppelt virusinaktiviertes Faktor-VIII-Konzentrat aus humanem Plasma mit einer spezifischen Aktivität von ca. 100 IE FVIII/mg Gesamtprotein. Die doppelte Virusinaktivierung besteht aus der Behandlung der FVIII- Lösung mit Tri-(N-Butyl-)Phosphat/Tween 80 und der Hitzebehandlung des gefriergetrockneten FVIII-Endproduktes im Endbehältnis bei 100° C für 30 Minuten. Die Validierung der Virusabreicherung und Virusinaktivierung für die Summe der einzelnen Herstellungsschritte des FVIII SDH ergaben für HIV-1 >15,7 log 10; für HCV >4,5 log 10 (nurTNBP); für BVDV >10,2 log 10 und für HAV >13,9 log 10. Hinweise auf die Entstehung von Neoantigenen durch die doppelte Virusinaktivierung des FVIII SDH wurden nicht gefunden. Die Wirksamkeit und Pharmakokinetik des doppelt virusinaktivierten FVIII SDH entspricht der des FVIII SD.

Die Hitzebehandlung des FVIII-SD-Präparates bei 100°C für 30 Minuten im Autoklaven führt zu einer zusätzlichen, effektiven Virusinaktivierung, ohne jedoch die Verträglichkeit oder Wirksamkeit des FVIII-Präparates zu verändern.
Interventionelle Therapie des akuten Myokardinfarktes
Authors: Görge G. , Spieker M. , Meyer J. , Erbel R.
Published: June 2018

Die PTCA (perkutane transluminale koronare Angioplastie) und die Thrombolysetherapie als Behandlungsmethoden des Herzinfarktes werden einander gegenübergestellt. Nach ausführlicher Erörterung morphologischer und klinischer Aspekte des Infarktes ergibt sich eine eindeutige Überlegenheit der PTCA.
Molekularbiologische Grundlagen des Faktor-X-Mangels
Authors: Watzke H. H.
Published: June 2018

Faktor X ist ein Vitamin-K-abhängiges Plasmaprotein, das eine zentrale Stellung in der Blutgerinnung einnimmt. Durch Interaktionen mit Faktor Vlla/Gewebsfaktor und Faktor IXa/FVIlia wird das Proenzym FXzum Enzym Faktor Xa aktiviert. Faktor Xa wiederum ist das wesentlichste Enzym in der Aktivierung von Prothrombin zu Thrombin. Der hereditäre Faktor-X-Mangel ist eine schwere Erkrankung, die durch eine hämorrhagische Diathese unterschiedlichen Schweregrades gekennzeichnet ist. Durch die Darstellung der Nukleotidsequenz des normalen Faktor-X- . Gens wurde die Aufschlüsselung der genetischen Defekte, die dem hereditären Faktor-X-Mangel zugrunde liegen, ermöglicht. Dies hat nicht zu einer verbesserten Gendiagnostik in den wenigen bisher beschriebenen Fällen geführt, sondern hat vor allem auch Einblicke in die Struktur-Funktions-Beziehungen des Faktor-X- Moleküls erbracht.
Die Raumstruktur des Thrombins: ein Wegweiser zu seinen vielfältigen Funktionen
Authors: Stubbs M. T. , Bode W.
Published: June 2018

Die durch Röntgenstrukturanalyse des α-Thrombins, seiner Komplexe mit Inhibitoren und Substraten sowie mehrerer Prothrombin-Fragmente gewonnene Strukturinformation gestattet es jetzt, die vielen unterschiedlichen Funktionen des Thrombins durch seine strukturellen Eigenschaften zu erklären. Das α-Thrombin hat eine ungewöhnlich tiefe und enge Activ-site-Spalte, die durch besonders große, typische Peptidschleifen ein canyonartiges Aussehen erhält. Diese Spalte trägt ganz wesentlich zu der engen Substratspezifität des Thrombins bei. Die Thrombinoberfläche läßt sich in eine ganze Reihe strukturell und funktionell unterschiedlicher Regionen einteilen. Wie am Beispiel der Fibrinogenbindung besonders gut gezeigt werden kann, ermöglicht die Nachbarschaft der aktiven Reste zu einer hydrophoben Tasche (der sog. apolaren Bindungsregion) und zu einem alkalischen Bereich (der Fibrinogen-Erkennungsregion) die Feinabstimmung der proteolytischen Aktivität. Das Thrombin benützt diese beiden Kontaktbereiche u. a. auch bei der spezifischen Erkennung und Bindung des Hirudins, eines aus dem medizinischen Egel gewonnenen Thrombin-Inhibitors, sowie des Thrombinrezeptors. Die Verstärkung der Thrombinwechselwirkung mit dem Antithrombin III durch das Heparin läßt sich durch die Verbrückung zweier Heparinbindungsstellen am Thrombin und am Antithrombin III erklären. Die nichtproteolytischen Effekte des Thrombins mit zellulären Strukturen sind dagegen vermutlich im wesentlichen auf eine der beiden die Active-site-Spalte umgebenden Peptidschleifen zurückzuführen.
Entzündungsreaktionen und Hämostase
Authors: Heimburger N.
Published: June 2018

Reize, wie sie die Hämostase aktivieren, lösen auch entzündungsspezifische Reaktionen aus. Eine Erklärung dafür liefern die vielfältigen Wechselwirkungen zwischen beiden Systemen; sie betreffen die beteiligten plasmatischen Faktoren einschließlich Regulationsproteinen, bestimmte Reaktionen und die daraus resultierenden Mediatorsubstanzen, durch die Zellen in den Ablauf einbezogen werden, die über Zytokine wiederum auf die Plasmafaktoren rückwirken können.

Eine Schaltstelle der Wechselwirkungen ist die Kontaktphase der Gerinnung, über die Hämostase, Kallikrein-Kinin- und Renin-Angiotensin-Bildung, Komplement-Reaktion und Fibrinolyse/Proteolyse kurzgeschlossen sind; bei ihrer Aktivierung entstehen plasmatische und zelluläre Mediatoren, nämlich Kinine, Angiotensin, Anaphylatoxine, PAF, Prostazykline, Prostaglandine und Thromboxan, die das Entzündungsgeschehen bestimmen, das durch Infektionen noch verstärkt wird. Als Ergebnis kommt es zur Ansammlung von Phagozyten im Entzündungsfeld, die Proteinasen und O2-Radikale abgeben, die zur Aktivierung und zum Verbrauch von Gerinnungsfaktoren und vor allem der Regulationsproteine führen. Daher kommt es im Entzündungsgebiet zu einem Übergewicht von Proteinasen. Das Risiko eines Circulus vitiosus kann häufig durch die Substitution von Proteinaseninhibitoren durchbrochen werden.
Biomechanical Strength of Scaphoid Partial Unions
Authors: Snoddy Mark , Lee Donald , Richard Marc , Desai Mihir , Brekke Adam
Published: June 2018

Background It remains unknown how much force a partially united scaphoid can sustain without refracturing. This is critical in determining when to discontinue immobilization in active individuals.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to test the biomechanical strength of simulated partially united scaphoids. We hypothesized that no difference would exist in load-to-failure or failure mechanism in scaphoids with 50% or more bone at the waist versus intact scaphoids.

Materials and Methods Forty-one cadaver scaphoids were divided into four groups, three experimental osteotomy groups (25, 50, and 75% of the scaphoid waist) and one control group. Each was subjected to a physiologic cantilever force of 80 to 120 N for 4,000 cycles, followed by load to failure. Permanent deformation during physiologic testing and stiffness, max force, work-to-failure, and failure mechanism during load to failure were recorded.

Results All scaphoids survived subfailure conditioning with no significant difference in permanent deformation. Intact scaphoids endured an average maximum load to failure of 334 versus 321, 297, and 342 N for 25, 50, and 75% groups, respectively, with no significant variance. There were no significant differences in stiffness or work to failure between intact, 25, 50, and 75% groups. One specimen from each osteotomy group failed by fracturing through the osteotomy; all others failed near the distal pole loading site.

Conclusion All groups behaved similarly under physiologic and load-to-failure testing, suggesting that inherent stability is maintained with at least 25% of the scaphoid waist intact.

Clinical Relevance The data provide valuable information regarding partial scaphoid union and supports mobilization once 25% union is achieved.
Accuracy of Pre- and Postcontrast, 3 T Indirect MR Arthrography Compared with Wrist Arthroscopy in the Diagnosis of Wrist Ligament Injuries
Authors: Besjakov J. , Björkman A. , Thomsen N.
Published: June 2018

Background Magnetic resonance (MR) is the most important imaging technique to assess intra-articular pathology of the wrist. Among various MR imaging protocols, the diagnostic performance of indirect MR arthrography needs further investigation.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic performance of pre- and postcontrast, 3 T indirect MR arthrography in the diagnosis of scapholunate intrinsic ligament (SLIL) and triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC) injuries, using wrist arthroscopy as reference standard.

Patients and Methods We retrospectively evaluated consecutive patients with suspected SLIL or TFCC injury, who had indirect MR arthrography done before arthroscopy. Images were assessed independently by two senior radiologists.

Results Arthroscopy of the 53 wrists demonstrated 16 Geissler stages II and III partial tears and 6 stage IV total SLIL ruptures. Central perforation of the TFCC was found in 24 wrists, and 12 wrists had an ulnar class 1B lesion. To detect any SLIL tear, accuracy was higher for the two observers using postcontrast indirect MR arthrography (0.77 and 0.72) than for precontrast MR imaging (0.60 and 0.60). No difference was found for total SLIL ruptures “0.85 and 0.89” versus “0.85 and 0.89.” To diagnose class 1B TFCC injuries, accuracy was higher using postcontrast indirect MR arthrography (0.85 and 0.75) than for precontrast MR imaging (0.70 and 0.72). No difference in accuracy was demonstrated for TFCC central tears “0.75 and 0.75” versus “0.70 and 0.77.”

Conclusion Postcontrast images at 3 T indirect MR arthrography, compared with precontrast images, have an improved diagnostic performance for the overall detection of SLIL injuries and as well as class 1B TFCC tears.

Level of Evidence This is a Level II, diagnostic study.
Magnetic monitoring of a small Foucault pendulum
Authors: Plewes D. B.
Published: June 2018

A three-axis magnetometer is used to measure the precession angle of a small Foucault pendulum of 65.4 cm length and period 1.623 s. The swinging brass bob (4 kg) contains a small neodymium magnet to detect and sustain its motion. A microcontroller is used to control electronics that drive the pendulum while sampling the time-dependent magnetic field from the swinging bob. These data are used to calculate the precession angle for each pendulum period. Long-term studies demonstrated a precession rate of 10.31°/h which is within 0.5% of that expected for the latitude of the experiment. Considerable short-term variation in the precession rate is observed (1.5°/h) which is correlated with the structure of the pendulum mechanics. The angle measurement noise is found to be 0.059° which enables a clear detection of the earth’s rotation with only 26.7 s of observation.
Review: Multimodal bioactive material approaches for wound healing
Authors: Mandla Serena , Davenport Huyer Locke , Radisic Milica
Published: June 2018

Wound healing is a highly complex process of tissue repair that relies on the synergistic effect of a number of different cells, cytokines, enzymes, and growth factors. A deregulation in this process can lead to the formation of a non-healing chronic ulcer. Current treatment options, such as collagen wound dressings, are unable to meet the demand set by the wound environment. Therefore, a multifaceted bioactive dressing is needed to elicit a targeted affect. Wound healing strategies seek to develop a targeted effect through the delivery of a bioactive molecule to the wound by a hydrogel or a polymeric scaffold. This review examines current biomaterial and small molecule-based approaches that seek to develop a bioactive material for targeted wound therapy and accepted wound healing models for testing material efficacy.
Southern hairy-nosed wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons) in the Gawler Ranges region of South Australia: population growth from 1988 to 2016
Authors: Swinbourne Michael , Taggart David , Swinbourne Alyce , Ostendorf Bertram
Published: June 2018

The southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) is the faunal emblem of South Australia. It is also considered to be an agricultural pest, as its burrowing activities can cause significant damage to agricultural land and infrastructure. Unfortunately, much of our knowledge of this species’ population dynamics is limited and/or out of date. The aim of this study was to estimate the distribution and abundance of southern hairy-nosed wombats in the Gawler Ranges region of South Australia, and to identify any changes since the last survey in 1988. Using a combination of satellite imagery and a ground survey conducted in May 2016, we mapped the distribution of wombat warrens in the region and counted and measured all warrens within 1000 randomly selected 1-km2 cells. We estimate the current wombat population in the Gawler Ranges to be 240095 (149051–311595), an increase from 14373 in 1988. This population growth is most likely linked to a long-term decline in the European rabbit population following the release of RHVD in the 1990s. In 2016 the IUCN upgraded the conservation status of southern hairy-nosed wombats from ‘Least Concern’ to ‘Near Threatened’. Our findings suggest that this may not have been warranted.
Grain yield stability of high-yielding barley genotypes under Egyptian conditions for enhancing resilience to climate change
Authors: Mansour Elsayed , Moustafa Ehab S. A. , El-Naggar Nehal Z. A. , Abdelsalam Asmaa , Igartua Ernesto
Published: June 2018

Identifying stable, high-yielding genotypes is essential for food security. This is particularly relevant in the current climate change scenario, which results in increasing occurrence of adverse conditions in the Mediterranean region. The objective of this study was to evaluate stability of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) grain yield, and its relationship to the duration of the growth cycle and its stability under Mediterranean conditions in Egypt. Nineteen genotypes were evaluated during three growing seasons (2013–14 to 2015–16) at two locations (Elkhatara, Ghazala) and two growing seasons (2014–15 and 2015–16) at a third location (Ras-Sudr), i.e. eight environments (location–year combinations) in total. The linear regression explained a significant 48.2% and 22.8% of GEI variation for days to heading and grain yield, respectively, and the genotypic linear slopes were highly related to the first principal component of the AMMI model. Although all genotypes were well adapted to the region, there were different GEI responses, with changes in ranking across locations. Some stable and broadly adapted genotypes were identified, as well as unstable genotypes with specific adaptations. High yields across environments were attained by very stable (G4, G5), intermediate and stable (G1, G9) and highly responsive (G18, G19) genotypes. In general, responsiveness (b values) of yield and days to heading were negatively correlated, and high yielding genotypes showed different patterns of responses of days to heading. Genotypes G1, G4, G5 and G9 seemed best adapted overall, with longer season genotypes (e.g. G18 and G19) offering prospects to explore other formats of varieties in breeding, particularly for situations of climate instability.
Evolutionary genomic dynamics of Peruvians before, during, and after the Inca Empire
Authors: Harris Daniel N. , Song Wei , Shetty Amol C. , Levano Kelly S. , Cáceres Omar , Padilla Carlos , Borda Víctor , Tarazona David , Trujillo Omar , Sanchez Cesar , Kessler Michael D. , Galarza Marco , Capristano Silvia , Montejo Harrison , Flores-Villanueva Pedro O. , Tarazona-Santos Eduardo , O’Connor Timothy D. , Guio Heinner
Published: June 2018

Significance

Through the Peruvian Genome Project we generate and analyze the genomes of 280 individuals where the majority have >90% Native American ancestry and explore questions at the interface of evolutionary genetics, history, anthropology, and medicine. This is the most extensive sampling of high-coverage Native American and mestizo whole genomes to date. We estimate an initial peopling of Peru was rapid and began by 12,000 y ago. In addition, the mestizo populations exhibit admixture between Native American groups prior to their Spanish admixture and was likely influenced by the Inca Empire and Spanish conquest. Our results address important Native American population history questions and establish a dataset beneficial to address the underrepresentation of Native American ancestry in sequencing studies.
Gene expression distribution deconvolution in single-cell RNA sequencing
Authors: Wang Jingshu , Huang Mo , Torre Eduardo , Dueck Hannah , Shaffer Sydney , Murray John , Raj Arjun , Li Mingyao , Zhang Nancy R.
Published: June 2018

Significance

We developed deconvolution of single-cell expression distribution (DESCEND), a method to recover cross-cell distribution of the true gene expression level from observed counts in single-cell RNA sequencing, allowing adjustment of known confounding cell-level factors. With the recovered distribution, DESCEND provides reliable estimates of distribution-based measurements, such as the dispersion of true gene expression and the probability that true gene expression is positive. This is important, as with better estimates of these measurements, DESCEND clarifies and improves many downstream analyses including finding differentially expressed genes, identifying cell types, and selecting differentiation markers. Another contribution is that we verified using nine public datasets a simple “Poisson-alpha” noise model for the technical noise of unique molecular identifier-based single-cell RNA-sequencing data, clarifying the current intense debate on this issue.
Molecular model of human tropoelastin and implications of associated mutations
Authors: Tarakanova Anna , Yeo Giselle C. , Baldock Clair , Weiss Anthony S. , Buehler Markus J.
Published: June 2018

Significance

Tropoelastin, the precursor molecule to elastic fibers, is a large, flexible elastic protein whose structure has been the subject of investigation and debate over several decades. Here, we present the fully atomistic structure of human tropoelastin, based on molecular dynamics simulations, and validate it with experiments. We explore the functional role of two key residues by inserting alanine substitutions and explain conformational changes and variations in hierarchical assembly. We also predict essential dynamics of the molecule by building elastin network models, to explain experimentally observed differences in assembly. Finally, we study the structural and dynamic molecular changes associated with the acquired cutis laxa disorder. The approach developed here is applicable for studying structure and function of other highly disordered proteins.
Wharton, Edith
Authors: Singley Carol J.
Published: June 2018

Edith Wharton, a literary realist and naturalist, was a prolific writer of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction whose work helped to define a major intellectual and aesthetic movement at the turn of the 20th century. As a chronicler of society’s manners and mores as well as morals, Wharton was adept at portraying male and female characters in stifling social situations, variously of their own and others' making. She was especially interested in ways that society's standards shape women's choices, and she boldly articulated characters' longings for roles that give fuller rein to the range of women's emotional and sexual needs. An avid reader of Darwinian science, philosophy, and religion, she often depicted characters trapped by environment or biology but aspiring—vaguely or inarticulately—toward elusive ideals. During her literary career, which spanned over fifty years, Wharton published twenty-five novels, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Age of Innocence (1920), eighty-eight short stories, three volumes of poetry, and numerous volumes on travel, art and architecture, interior design, and the theory of fiction, earning popular and critical acclaim. Many of her works, which are set in New England and Europe as well as New York City, have been successfully adapted for stage and film. From the 1940s until the 1970s, her reputation suffered from a persistent comparison of her work with that of Henry James and from the misperception that she was a writer only of high society—and therefore “narrow” interests. Subsequently, however, she has been uniformly hailed as one of the finest American writers.
Kees, Weldon
Authors: Gioia Dana
Published: June 2018

A singular figure in the mid-20th century American arts, Kees did significant work in poetry, fiction, painting, film, and criticism. Although neglected in the years following his death, he is now recognized as one of the most influential poets of his generation. Focusing mainly on poetry and fiction, the article outlines the author’s development from the minimalism of his early naturalist fiction to the cosmopolitan innovation of his later poetry. Full of formal originality, musical brilliance, and technical skill, Kees’s poetry is most distinctive for its dark and apocalyptic vision. The poet’s restless and varied career had its heyday in 1940s New York and came to its tragic end in 1950s San Francisco, culminating in the poet’s mysterious disappearance and presumed suicide.
Colonial Writing in North America
Authors: Gatta John
Published: June 2018

No longer viewed as mere prologue to the emergence of authentic American literature, colonial writing displays a fertile diversity of literary styles, genres, and linguistic traditions. Yet its array of expressive forms differs markedly from that which latter-day readers of short stories, novels, and plays usually expect “literature” to look like. Colonial writers, not motivated by ambition to create art for art’s sake, penned instead a multitude of sermons, treatises, chronicles, histories, letters, conversion narratives, political pronouncements, slave and captivity narratives, travel reports, and promotional tracts. Such works of creative nonfiction continue to deserve attention today—not only for what they reveal about the formative cultural mythology of the American nation but also because of the rhetorical artistry invested in compositions as varied as William Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, or Thomas Jefferson’s draft version of the Declaration of Independence. The imaginative intensity of writing by colonial New Englanders such as Jonathan Edwards, together with those symbols and modes of discourse made mythic by leading Massachusetts Puritans, have left an enduring imprint on American consciousness.

In one traditional genre of literature, that of poetry, the output of colonial New Englanders was impressively prolific. Especially noteworthy is the corpus of devotional poems left us by Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor. Taylor’s poetic meditations, unpublished until the modern era, display remarkable wit, exuberance, and artistry. And Bradstreet’s long verse-reflection titled “Contemplations” warrants recognition as the first poem to record a sustained, appreciative response to outdoor experience in British North America.

Yet even within the context of British-dominated settlements, the sensibility of colonial writing was scarcely monolithic. It reflects the expression not only of Puritan New Englanders but also of Anglicans, Pennsylvania Quakers, Deists, Southern planters, political revolutionaries, traders, explorers, and worldly adventurers. Increasingly, too, scholarship has begun to recognize that North America’s pluralistic literary heritage from this period includes writing in languages other than English, from New Spain and New France, as well as mediated transcripts of indigenous oral traditions. Moreover, in the light of present-day interest in “green” and gender-linked themes, works such as William Bartram’s nature-suffused Travels through Southern climes, or Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative of her captivity and restoration, have drawn renewed attention.
Building Asian Canadian Literary Studies
Authors: Ty Eleanor
Published: June 2018

Asian Canadian Literary Studies is a relatively new field of study which began in the mid to late 1990s. Even though literature written by Chinese, Japanese, and South Asian Canadians had been published in literary magazines and anthologies since the 1970s, the identification of a distinct body of works called “Asian Canadian literature,” as Donald Goellnicht has noted (in “A Long Labour”), began only when there was a sociopolitical movement focused on identity politics. The literature includes early experiences of Chinese in Gum San or “gold mountain”; Japanese Canadian internment during the Second World War; South Asian Canadians diasporic writing from former British colonies like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Trinidad, Guyana, Tanzania, and Kenya; feminist experimental and genre writing; and writing from the post-1975 wave of first- and 1.5-generation immigrants and refugees. Early 21st-century works have moved from mainly autoethnographic stories to those that include larger sociocultural concerns, such as poverty, domestic violence, the environment, lesbian, queer, and transgender issues, and other intersectional systems of oppression that face Asian Canadians and other marginalized groups. Genres include memoirs, films, short stories, autobiographies, realist novels, science fiction, graphic novels, poetry, plays, and historical novels.

In the past, without naming the field “Asian Canadians,” many critics have engaged with Asian Canadian literary texts. For example, articles and chapters about Joy Kogawa’s Obasan can be found in journals and books on Canadian, postcolonial, ethnic, and Asian American literature. South Asian Canadian literature also has strong links with postcolonial studies and institutions, such as the book publisher TSAR Publications, which began as the literary journal, The Toronto South Asian Review. In Canadian English usage, Asian usually refers to people from East and Southeast Asian while the term South Asian Canadian is a subgroup of Asian Canadian, according to Statistics Canada. In literary studies, it has only been in the past ten or fifteen years that the term “Asian Canadian” is used as a pan-ethnic term for all peoples who are originally from or have roots in Asia.
European Union Telecommunications Policy
Authors: Simpson Seamus
Published: June 2018

For most of the 20th century, telecommunications was a matter of national governance and thus of peripheral interest to the European Union. Then from the mid- to late-1980s, the EU began to develop an intensified policy package for the telecommunications sector. Telecommunications has now grown to become one of the most prominent and extensive policy areas addressed by the EU. But what accounts for such a remarkable Europeanization of telecommunications governance? In polar contrast to its origins, telecommunications has become a key focus in neoliberal economics and policy in effecting sectoral change. This development went hand in hand with arguments around propounding the benefits of economic globalization, which sustained a move to internationalize the organization of telecommunications to the European level along neoliberal lines. However, notwithstanding the remarkable growth of the EU governance framework for telecommunications, there are nuances in the analysis of the constant resistance to the wholesale Europeanization of telecommunications policy that provide evidence of a residual tension between national- and EU-level interests. This tension has been evident in policy proposals, decision-making, and implementation at key junctures for more since the late 1980s The policy has played key roles at different times, in particular, on the national level, involving governmental, regulatory, and commercial actors. Telecommunications thus provides a classic illustration of the balance that needs to be struck in the development of communications policies in the EU between supranational and intergovernmental interests. Now part of a converging electronic communications sector, this feature of telecommunications governance is as prominent today as it was in the very early days of EU telecommunications policy development in the mid- to late-1980s.
Sports Journalism
Authors: English Peter
Published: June 2018

Sports journalism is a popular area of contemporary media that has a long history of delivering results, analysis, and opinion to both broad and specialized audiences. Like other media, it has had to adapt consistently with technological developments and demands but continues to gain widespread coverage across print, broadcast, and digital platforms. Sports journalism has often been viewed as “the toy department,” a place of trivial pursuits instead of the chasing of hard news. As a result, its journalists are viewed as having low professionalism and status and are often accused of being controlled by sources. What these criticisms overlook is the value of this significant subfield in relation to the amount of sports content produced across media, the large numbers of journalists involved in producing the news, and its power in attracting readers and viewers. These elements combine to make sports journalism a rich area for academic scholarship. However, in comparison with its place in newsrooms, this topic has also been criticized in research and has not been treated as seriously as a space for scholarship. While there have been recent increases in scholarly work, sport has been described as an underresearched area of the journalistic field.

The field’s literature has streams dedicated to practical, instructional texts and scholarly analysis of contemporary and historical issues. Key areas of investigation involve content within the sports pages, which can involve as much as 30% of editorial material in a media publication, and work exploring the perceptions, routines, and practices of sports journalists. The role of the sports journalist has also been examined, with descriptions often focusing on a tendency to operate as cheerleaders with a home-team bias. However, the position of sports journalist also involves aspects of critical, watchdog-style coverage, including through investigative reporting. Much of the academic work involving sports journalism has been descriptive in scope, which leaves space for greater analysis through a theoretical lens. An important future topic of research is the increasing commercialization of sport, which has implications for journalists, publications, and audiences.
Support for Democracy
Authors: Mattes Robert
Published: June 2018

With the worldwide wave of democratization, scholars interested in the preservation of the new democracies dusted off old theories of regime maintenance. While commonly sharing the assumption that democracy requires democrats, researchers proceeded in different directions, depending on their image of the ideal democrat. Today, we know a great deal about who supports democracy, and why. However, the state of our knowledge is incomplete at the point where it matters the most. As might be expected in any emerging area of research, different sets of scholars based their research instruments on contrasting understandings of what it means to be a democrat, and how democrats are best identified and measured. More importantly, they proceeded from differing understandings and underspecified theories as to why democrats are important, how many are needed, and how they actually affect the level and stability of democracy. Thus, while the intuition that democracy requires democrats is strong, the actual state of the evidence is still mixed, at best.
Welfare State Research and Comparative Political Economy
Authors: Häusermann Silja
Published: June 2018

Which risks are social and which are private? How much of their GDP do states spend on social welfare? Who exactly is entitled to which benefits? Is it still possible to finance an encompassing welfare state in times of deindustrialization, technological and demographic change, and globalization? And why do the answers to these questions differ so much across countries? These and similar questions—all central to social cohesion in capitalist democracies—ensure that the analysis of welfare politics is one of the theoretically as well as methodologically most dynamic and richest research areas within comparative political economy and political science more generally. Besides outlining the comparative development and the difficulty of measuring social policy, the focus of this contribution lies in a critical review of the most important past and current theoretical debates in the field of welfare state research, as a subfield of comparative political economy. These debates include party- and power-resource-centered approaches and their critiques, institutional explanations of welfare state retrenchment and restructuring, and the importance of multidimensional distributional effects for the analysis of social policy. The article concludes with a review of three more recent debates: the importance of public opinion and individual preferences for the development of the welfare state, the interaction of social policy and the changes of party systems, and the increasing relevance of social investment policies. The political and scientific need for innovative political science research will continue for the foreseeable future: Theory building and methodological possibilities are developing quickly, and the welfare states as research subject are constantly being challenged.
Mixed Methods Research in Adult Development and Aging
Authors: Gaugler Joseph E. , Peterson Colleen M. , Mitchell Lauren L. , Finlay Jessica , Jutkowitz Eric
Published: June 2018

Mixed methods research consists of collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data within a singular study. The “methods” of mixed methods research vary, but the ultimate goal is to provide greater understanding and explanation via the integration of qualitative and quantitative data. Mixed methods studies have the potential to advance our understanding of complex phenomena over time in adult development and aging (e.g., depression following the death of a spouse), but the utility of this approach depends on its application. The authors systematically searched the literature (CINHAL, Embase, Ovid/Medline, PubMed, PsychInfo, and ProQuest) to identify longitudinal mixed methods studies focused on aging. They identified 6,351 articles published between 1994 and 2017, of which 174 met the inclusion criteria. The majority of mixed methods studies reported on the evaluation of interventions or educational programs. Non-interventional studies tended to report on experiences related to the progression of various health conditions, the needs and experiences of caregivers, and the lived experiences of older adults. About half (n = 81) of the mixed methods studies followed a sequential explanatory design where a qualitative component followed quantitative evaluation, and most of these studies achieved “integration” by comparing qualitative and quantitative data in Results sections. There was considerable heterogeneity across studies in terms of overall design (randomized trials, program evaluations, cohort studies, and case studies). As a whole, the literature suffered from key limitations, including a lack of reporting on sample selection methodology and mixed methods design characteristics. To maximize the value of mixed methods in adult development in aging research, investigators should conform to recommended guidelines (e.g., depict participant study flow and use recommended notation) and consider more sophisticated mixed methods applications to advance the state of the art.
Gender and Gang Involvement
Authors: Peterson Dana
Published: June 2018

Sex and gender are often conflated, but there are important distinctions between the two. This is true also with terms related to gender identity, including masculinities and femininities or the performance of gender. In addition, the terms gang and gang member are contested, so it is important to establish a basis for understanding these terms in order to discuss the relationships between gender and gang involvement. Historically, gang-involved young women and men were described in terms of gender extremes, with scholarship and journalistic accounts focusing on the perceived aggressive masculinity of lower class males—and the deviant sexuality of females, who were rarely seen as legitimate full-fledged members of those groups. By the 1980s and 1990s, young women were recognized in scholarship as “real” gang members, and qualitative researchers sought to provide voice to them and examine issues of gender and gender dynamics in gangs, while quantitative researchers sought to explore similarities and differences between girls and boys in gangs, often through large scale studies using self-report surveys of adolescents. Feminist criminology and burgeoning queer criminology have pushed and blurred the boundaries of gender and gang involvement, asserting the importance of taking into account multiple, intersecting identities that differentially structure the experiences of young people, and of the troubling heteronormative, heterosexist, and cisgendered assumptions that have permeated criminology. Moving away from these assumptions means accounting, for example, not only for gender but also for the multiplicative effects of race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, ability, etc.; it means considering what the presence of young women in stereotypically hypermasculine environments signifies for gender performance, moving away from assumptions of opposite sex attraction that cast females in supportive and dependent roles with males, and accounting for the experiences of gang members who identify outside gender and sexual orientation binaries. These issues provide fruitful avenues for sensitive and productive future scholarship on gender and gang involvement.
Globalization of Educational Knowledge and Research
Authors: Takayama Keita
Published: June 2018

Transnational flows of educational knowledge and research are fundamentally guided by the global geopolitics of knowledge—the historically constituted relations of power born out of the continuing legacy of modernity/coloniality. In the early nation-building stage of the 19th century, state-funded education was at the core of states’ pursuit for economic and social progress. Newly formed nation states actively sought new educational knowledge from countries considered more advanced in the global race toward modernity and industrialization. The transnational lesson drawing in education at the time was guided by the view of modernity as originating in and diffusing from the West. This created the unidirectional flow of educational influence from advanced economies of the West to the rest of the world. Central to the rise of modernity in Western state formation is the use of education as a technology of social regulations. Through the expansion of state-funded education, people were turned into the people, self-governing citizens, and then the population that was amenable to a state’s social and economic calculation and military deployment. But this development was embedded in the geopolitical context of the time, in which Western modernity was deeply entangled with its underside, coloniality in the rest of the world. Various uses of education as a social control were tested out first in colonial peripheries and then brought back to the imperial centers.

Today, the use of education for the modernist pursuit of perfecting society has been intensified through the constitution of the globalized education policy space. International organizations such as the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) act as the nodes through which transnational networks of education policy actors are formed, where the power of statistics for social and educational progress is widely shared. Both developed and developing countries are increasingly incorporated into this shared epistemological space, albeit through different channels and due to different factors. The rise of international academic testing such as OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has certainly changed the traditional pattern of education research and knowledge flows, and more lesson drawing from countries and regions outside the Anglo-European context is pursued. And yet, the challenges that PISA poses to the Eurocentric pattern of educational knowledge and research flows are curtailed by the persistence of the colonial legacy. This most clearly crystalizes in the dismissive and derogatory characterization of East Asian PISA high achievers in the recent PISA debate. Hence, the current globalization of education knowledge and research remains entangled with the active legacy of coloniality, the uneven global knowledge structure.
Teacher Education and the Global Impact of Teach For All
Authors: Crawford-Garrett Katherine , Thomas Matthew A.M.
Published: June 2018

Over the past two decades, teacher education has been increasingly conceptualized as a policy problem in response to what school reformers, policy-makers, and philanthropists have depicted as a global education crisis necessitating national and international solutions. Teach For All (TFAll), an organization that has sought to respond to global achievement disparities by recruiting elite university graduates to teach in underperforming schools has a presence in more than 45 countries and is a key player in education reform worldwide. In enacting its vision of educational change, TFAll has reshaped notions of teaching at the classroom level by positioning teachers as saviors, leaders, and social engineers; reconfigured city school systems through promoting privatization and deregulation; and contributed to the rapid neoliberalization of education internationally by fundamentally altering educational policies and discourses on a global scale.