bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Taking Flight
Authors: Donahue Jennifer
Published: January 2021

Caribbean women have long utilized the medium of fiction to break the pervasive silence surrounding abuse and exploitation. Contemporary works by authors such as Tiphanie Yanique and Nicole Dennis-Benn illustrate the deep-rooted consequences of trauma based on gender, sexuality, and race, and trace the steps that women take to find safer ground from oppression. Taking Flight takes a closer look at the immigrant experience in contemporary Caribbean women’s writing and considers the effects of restrictive social mores. In the texts examined in Taking Flight, culturally sanctioned violence impacts the ability of female characters to be at home in their bodies or in the spaces they inhabit. The works draw attention to the historic racialization and sexualization of Black women’s bodies and continue the legacy of narrating Black women’s long-standing contestation of systems of oppression. Arguing that there is a clear link between trauma, shame, and migration, with trauma serving as a precursor to the protagonists’ emigration, the work focuses on how female bodies are policed, how moral, racial, and sexual codes are linked, and how the enforcement of social norms can function as a form of trauma. Taking Flight positions flight as a powerful counter to disempowerment and considers how flight, whether through dissociation or migration, operates as a form of resistance.
Divided Allegiances and Alternative Histories
Authors: Donahue Jennifer
Published: January 2021

The second chapter examines psychological transnationalism in novels by Michelle Cliff and Margaret Cezair-Thompson. As the works illustrate, psychological exile is an essential part of the migratory experience; growing up with divided allegiances, each cognizant of their difference at every turn, the protagonists, Jean and Clare, are primed for flight. The authors highlight the effects of personal violence and advance alternative histories that have been lost in contemporary Jamaica. In Abeng and The True History of Paradise, migration is provoked by circumstances that render the homeland unsafe or unbearable; violence and interpersonal conflict operate as precursors to the female characters’ immigration. Together, the works query the degree to which one can fully “depart” one’s homeland.
Redefining Beauty
Authors: Donahue Jennifer
Published: January 2021

The fourth chapter turns to works by Pauline Melville and Elizabeth Nunez to explore how breast cancer and anorexia nervosa offer physical and emotional renewal for the protagonists. In The Migration of Ghosts, Boundaries, and Anna-In-Between, Melville and Nunez use their characters to question body-image ideals. The works attest to the life-altering impact of disease. The protagonists’ illnesses, rooted in their dis-ease with their bodies, their relationships, and their privilege, highlight the emotional side effects that can accompany physical maladies. In Melville and Nunez’s works, illness functions as the force of inertia that propels temporary migration and the protagonists’ intensely introspective experiences. Together, the texts afford a closer look at the relationship between disease, migration, and familial reconnection.
Consuming the Caribbean
Authors: Donahue Jennifer
Published: January 2021

The fifth chapter analyzes how Tiphanie Yanique’s Land of Love and Drowning and Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Here Comes the Sun critique the surveillance of women’s bodies. In highlighting the multigenerational impact of incest, sex work, and commercial land development, the authors foreground resistance to exploitative practices. Their works explore the interplay of structural inequalities, foreground the emotional and economic impact of exploitative practices, and question who benefits from the commoditization of land and women’s bodies. Here Comes the Sun and Land of Love and Drowning undercut the paradise myth through critical representations of tourism, sex tourism, and land development in Jamaica and the Virgin Islands. The novels call attention to the relationship between power, economics, and the surveillance of sexuality. The authors use the protagonists’ moves away from home, their respective quests for affirmation, to position home as a site of individual and collective trauma.
Epilogue
Authors: Donahue Jennifer
Published: January 2021

In Homemaking, Fiona Barnes and Catherine Wiley assert that “women write in order to negotiate the tensions between definitions of home as a material space and home as an ideal place” (xix). As the works discussed illustrate, the writing and rewriting of home is often a journey in itself, a way of making sense of personal and inherited histories. For the characters, home is steeped with contradiction and can be a site of great tension. In many of the texts, home operates as a place of oppression as well as subversion. The realities of the characters’ lives counter a view of home as a place of freedom and security, and it is the act of flight that underscores the connection between trauma, migration, and social norms. The characters’ embodied and ideological transgressions in response to social convention render them exiles in or outside their homelands. As a result, the characters embrace change and pursue adaptive solutions to preserve selfhood in the face of violence, illness, and exclusion. These forces propel the characters’ migration, but trauma and shame do not define the narratives; rather, the protagonists’ navigation of trauma, oftentimes through dissociation and flight, foregrounds the emotional work that underlies and often precedes emigration. The authors position the characters’ homelands as spaces of individual and collective trauma and situate migration as the force that facilitates the protagonists’ homecoming. The works showcase women responding to challenges to safety with moves toward autonomy and self-determination....
Children's Books on the Big Screen
Authors: Meeusen Meghann
Published: January 2021

Adaptation studies scholars suggest that no matter how interesting it may be to pick apart a film’s consistency with and departure from its source, these approaches can be limiting because books and movies operate as two very different mediums. Children’s Books on the Big Screen moves away from this approach by tracing a pattern across films for young viewers to highlight a consistent trend: when films are adapted from children’s and YA books, concepts like self/other, male/female, and adult/child become more strongly contrasted and more diametrically opposed in the film version. Children’s Books on the Big Screen describes this as binary polarization, suggesting that more stark opposition between concepts leads to shifts in the messages that texts send, particularly when it comes to representations of gender, race, and childhood.
After introducing why critics need a new way of thinking about children’s adapted texts, Children’s Books on the Big Screen uses middle-grade fantasy adaptations to consider the reason for binary polarization and looks at the ideological results of polarized binaries in adolescent films and movies adapted from picturebooks. The text also explores movies adapted from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to dig into instances when multiple films are adapted from a single source and ends with pragmatic classroom application, suggesting teachers might utilize this theory to help students think critically about movies created by the Walt Disney corporation. Drawing from numerous popular contemporary examples, Children’s Books on the Big Screen posits a theory that can begin to explain what happens—and what is at stake—when children’s and young adult books are made into movies.
Choosing a Theme and Sticking to It
Authors: Meeusen Meghann
Published: January 2021

Chapter two describes an important cause for binary polarization: children’s films often focalize around a single theme from the source text and make it a driving element of the adaptation, amplifying the weight and intensity of that theme. First, this chapter explores binaries in Henry Selick’s adaption of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline to claim that instead of distorting some of Gaiman’s themes, Selick makes them stronger, leading to a widening of independent/dependent, real/other, and adult/child binaries. The chapter next highlights how the movie adaptation of The Tale of Despereaux amplifies a set of overlapping binary systems, and then uses the film version of How to Train Your Dragon to illustrate how thematic amplification is culturally bound and historically situated. Overall, the chapter suggests that when film adaptors select a theme of the novel and use it as a cornerstone in the adaptation, the result is binary polarization.
Female Saviors in Adolescent Film Adaptations
Authors: Meeusen Meghann
Published: January 2021

Chapter three identifies a key ideological ramification of polarized binaries, suggesting that a widened divide between concepts of male and female consistently shifts depictions of female characters to position them as the emotional and spiritual saviors of their male counterparts. The chapter draws on Mike Cadden’s analysis of single and double-voiced discourse and Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze to explore Warm Bodies, The 5th Wave, The Hunger Games, Paper Towns, and The Spectacular Now and explains how a greater emphasis on romantic elements in the film leads to constructions of male and female defined as more starkly different. The chapter posits three reasons that polarization of binaries leads to ideologies surrounding the female savior, concluding that shifts in point of view, attempts at female empowerment, and traps of the male gaze and Manic Pixie Dream Girl produce a film that is far more single-voiced than its textual predecessor.
Audience and Aetonormativity in Picturebook to Film Adaptations
Authors: Meeusen Meghann
Published: January 2021

Chapter four suggests that the polarization of adult/child binaries in picturebook adaptations consistently highlights adult roles and presence within the story more than in the source, often foregrounding adult characters and featuring adults learning lessons from children. The chapter uses The Lorax and Jumanji to reveal how dual audience works differently in picturebooks and film, highlighting how these films seem to overturn adult/child binaries, placing children in increased power positions for a time, but eventually reestablish aetonormative power structures. The chapter ends by examining Spike Jonze’s controversial adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, a film that emphasizes a common ideology that results from binary polarization in picturebook adaptation, wherein adults are portrayed as feeling powerless despite their seeming position of power.
Reminiscences of an Active Life
Authors: Lynch John Roy , Franklin John Hope
Published: January 2021

Born into slavery on a Louisiana plantation, John Roy Lynch (1847–1939) became an adult during the Reconstruction Era and lived a public-spirited life for over three decades. His political career began in 1869 with his appointment as justice of the peace. Within the year, he was elected to the Mississippi legislature and was later elected Speaker of the House. At age twenty-five, Lynch became the first African American from Mississippi to be elected to the United States Congress. He led the fight to secure passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1875. In 1884, he was elected temporary chairman of the Eighth Republican National Convention and was the first black American to deliver the keynote address. This, his autobiography, reflects Lynch's thoughtful and nuanced understanding of the past and of his own experience. The book, written when he was ninety, challenges a number of traditional arguments about Reconstruction. In his experience, African Americans in the South competed on an equal basis with whites; the state governments were responsive to the needs of the people; and race was not always a decisive factor in the politics of Reconstruction. The book provides rich material for the study of American politics and race relations during Reconstruction. Lynch's childhood reflections reveal new dimensions to our understanding of black experience during slavery and beyond. An introduction puts Lynch's public and private lives in the context of his times and provides an overview of how Reminiscences of an Active Life came to be written.
Into Bondage Again
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter examines how Catherine White and her children were bought by Alfred V. Davis. Catherine accepted the situation with calmness and resignation, and she considered herself fortunate in being at the mercy of such a just, fair, and humane man as she had every reason to believe Davis to be. To the everlasting credit of Davis, he lived up to, and faithfully carried out, every pledge and promise he made. The chapter then considers slave marriages. The fact must not be overlooked that, under the municipal or local law, or lex loci, there could be no such thing as a legal marriage between two persons of the colored or African race or between a white and colored person. Such unions were recognized and accepted as common-law marriages, although under the common law a marriage is a civil contract entered into between two persons capable of making contracts. Under the municipal law, colored people could not legally become parties to a valid contract, marriage contracts not excepted, because in law they were not persons capable of making contracts.
1869: State Elections and Reorganization
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter explores how 1869 was an important year in the political history of the state of Mississippi. The new constitution which was rejected in 1868 was to be resubmitted to a popular vote in November. At the same time, state officers, members of the legislature, congressmen, and district and county officers were to be elected. Since the objectionable clauses in the constitution were to be submitted to a separate vote and since it was understood that both parties would favor their rejection, there was no serious opposition to the ratification of the constitution as thus amended. But a hard and stubborn fight was to be made for control of state government.
1872: Election to Congress
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter shows how 1872 was an important year in the political history of the state and nation. It was the year of the presidential and congressional elections. This was the first national election that Mississippi was to take part in since the readmission of the state into the Union. Immediately upon John Roy Lynch's return to the state, the contest for the Republican nomination for Congress in the Sixth District was opened. His friends had decided that this was the time for him to go to Congress. After a warm and exciting campaign, extending over a period of about one month, the primaries in the different voting precincts were held which resulted in a sweeping victory for the Lynch ticket, which enabled that faction to send a solid delegation to the congressional district convention. This made Lynch the nominee of the party for Congress in that district, without further serious opposition. The district convention was held at Brookhaven in August. Lynch reached the constitutional age of eligibility in September and was elected in November of the same year.
Visit to Saint Louis
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter reflects on John Roy Lynch's visit to Saint Louis, Missouri. In 1873, a movement was put on foot to have the national capital moved from Washington, D.C., to Saint Louis. With this in view, a convention was held at Saint Louis in the summer of that year to which the congressmen-elect from the South and West were cordially invited. Lynch decided to accept the invitation but found out after he arrived there that he had made a mistake in doing so. His stay there did not favorably impress him with the idea that Saint Louis was a desirable place for the national capital. He left, therefore, with his mind made up that if a proposition for that purpose should be brought before Congress while he was a member of that body, his vote would be cast in the negative. Other members must have been impressed the same way, since the proposition was never brought before Congress for action.
1873: Mississippi Senatorial Elections
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter recounts how 1873 was a year in which an important election was to be held in Mississippi. State, district, and county officers and members of the legislature were to be elected. The legislature to be elected that year would elect the successor of Senator Ames as United States senator. Senator Ames was a candidate to succeed himself. For some unaccountable reason there had been a falling out between Senator Alcorn and himself, for which reason Senator Alcorn decided to use his influence to prevent the reelection of Senator Ames. This meant that there would be a bitter factional fight in the party because both senators were popular with the rank and file of the party. The fact was soon developed, however, that the people favored the return of Senator Ames to the Senate. This did not necessarily mean opposition or unfriendliness to Senator Alcorn. It simply meant that both were to be treated fairly and justly and that each was to stand upon his own record and merits regardless of their personal differences.
Governors Alcorn and Ames
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter focuses on governors James L. Alcorn and Adelbert Ames. The administrations of governors Alcorn and Ames, the two Republican governors, products of Reconstruction, both having been elected chiefly by the votes of colored men, were among the best with which the state of Mississippi was ever blessed, the generally accepted impression to the contrary notwithstanding. Alcorn was elected in 1869 to serve a term of four years. Ames was elected to the succeeding term in 1873. Alcorn was one of the old citizens of the state and was therefore thoroughly identified with its business, industrial, and social interests. He had been one of the large and wealthy land and slave owners and therefore belonged to that small but select and influential class known as Southern aristocrats. He had taken an active and prominent part in public matters since his early manhood.
The Colored Vote: The South
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter discusses the colored vote in the South, presenting the reason for the sanguinary revolution which resulted in the overthrow of the Republican state government in the state of Mississippi in 1875. What was true of Mississippi at that time was largely true of the other reconstructed states where similar results subsequently followed. When the War of the Rebellion came to an end, it was believed by some and apprehended by others that serious and radical changes in the previous order of things would necessarily follow. But when what was known as the Johnson plan of reconstruction was disclosed, it was soon made plain that if that plan should be accepted by the country no material change would follow, for the reason, chiefly, that the abolition of slavery would have been only in name. It was the rejection of the Johnson plan of reconstruction that upset these plans and destroyed these calculations. The Johnson plan was not only rejected, but what was known as the congressional plan of reconstruction, by which suffrage was conferred upon the colored men in all the states that were to be reconstructed, was accepted by the people of the North as the permanent policy of the government and thus made the basis of reconstruction and readmission of those states into the Union.
1875: Conversation with the President
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter focuses on John Roy Lynch's conversation with President Ulysses S. Grant in November of 1875. The president had recently issued a Civil Service order which some of the federal officeholders evidently misunderstood. Postmaster Purcell of Summit, an important town in Lynch's district, was one of that number. He was supposed to be Republican, having been appointed as such. But he not only refused to take any part in the campaign of 1875, he also declined to contribute a dollar to meet the legitimate expenses of the same. The President's Civil Service order was his excuse. According to his construction of that order, federal officeholders must not only take no part in political or party campaigns but they must make no contributions for political purposes. After paying his respects to the president, Lynch brought this case to his attention, informing the president that he very much desired to have Postmaster Purcell removed and a good Republican appointed in his stead.
1880: The Battle for Reelection
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter describes how John Roy Lynch decided to measure arms with General James R. Chalmers in 1880 for representative in Congress from the Sixth, or “shoestring,” District. The fact was soon made plain to Lynch, however, that he had on his hands the fight of his life, not only for the election but for the nomination. There were three candidates for the nomination besides himself: Judge E. Jeffords of Issaquena County, General W. F. Fitzgerald of Warren County, and Lynch's personal friend, Captain Thomas W. Hunt of Jefferson County. Captain Hunt was the man that placed Lynch's name in nomination for Congress in 1876. Chiefly through Lynch's efforts and influence, Hunt had been made United States marshal for the southern judicial district of the state, with headquarters at Jackson, the state capital.
The Vicksburg Postmastership
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter explores the appointment of J. W. Bourne as postmaster of Vicksburg. The appointment was to be made immediately after the adjournment of the national convention, which no doubt would have been done if Secretary John Sherman had been nominated for the presidency. But since General James A. Garfield, who was a Sherman man, had been nominated, James Hill thought that the political obligations he had incurred in the interest of Secretary Sherman could be paid just the same. Consequently, he went to Washington upon the adjournment of the national convention to have his friend Bourne appointed postmaster at Vicksburg. The term of the postmaster there had expired.
The Cleveland Years: Interracial Marriages
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter examines how, in selecting his first cabinet, Grover Cleveland did L. Q. C. Lamar and the state of Mississippi the honor of making him secretary of the interior. Upon the occasion of John Roy Lynch's first visit to Washington after the inauguration of Cleveland, which was early in the administration, he called on Secretary Lamar to tender him his congratulations. He then asked the secretary to retain a number of young colored men, whose appointment was secured by Lynch when he was a member of Congress, in their positions. The secretary replied positively and asked Lynch to provide a list their names. The chapter then considers the conversation between Lynch and the secretary regarding interracial marriages.
Republican Factionalism and the Problem of Disenfranchisement
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter explains that it was during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison that another effort was made to secure the enactment by Congress of the necessary legislation for the effective enforcement of the war amendments to the national Constitution—a federal elections bill. But the fact was soon developed that there were too many Republicans, in and out of Congress, who lacked the courage of their convictions to secure favorable action. In fact, there were three classes of white men at the South who claimed to be Republicans who used their influence to defeat that contemplated legislation. The white men at the South who acted with the Republican party at that time were divided into four classes or groups. Ultimately, the defeat or abandonment of the Lodge Federal Elections Bill was equivalent to a declaration that no further attempts would be made to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the war amendments to the national Constitution. Southern Democrats were not slow in taking advantage of the knowledge of that fact.
Contest for Mississippi Delegates
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter addresses the contest for Mississippi delegates. Shortly after John Roy Lynch finished his tour of the state in the interest of Major William McKinley's candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, the fight for delegates to the state and national convention commenced in earnest. James Hill had made it known to his friends and supporters that B. K. Bruce and Lynch should both be eliminated from the future politics of the state; consequently, neither should be elected a delegate to the national convention. It was not long, therefore, before the fact was made plain to Lynch that he had before him a very bitter fight. The first thought that occurred to him was that Hill was not loyal to McKinley, but that he was doing with McKinley as he had done with Benjamin Harrison in 1892—claiming to be for McKinley while working at the same time to secure a delegation favorable to some other candidate and receiving assistance from that quarter.
Fighting the Hill Organization
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter describes the fight against the Hill organization. Two sets of delegates having been elected to the national convention, the fight for recognition was then to be made before the national committee. In this fight, John Roy Lynch's friends were also placed at a disadvantage for two reasons: first, because James Hill was a member of that committee which placed him in the position of being one of judges to pass upon the merits of his own case. Second, because the fact was afterwards developed that the recognition of his delegation was one of the conditions of his deal or agreement with M. A. Hanna. Since the Hanna machine controlled the national committee, the recognition of the Hill delegation was, of course, expected to be the result of the contest.
McKinley Appointments: Army Paymaster Lynch
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter studies John Roy Lynch's appointment as major and Additional Paymaster of Volunteers. President William McKinley stated that the appointment was a temporary one which would last only a few months probably. He had been informed that Commissioner Ross was anxious for his friend Davis, the Collector of Taxes, to remain in office a few months longer. This, he said, would enable him to grant Mr. Ross his request without doing injustice to Lynch. In addition to this, he was ambitious to have a colored man a paymaster in the United States Army. He desired, therefore, as a personal favor to him that Lynch accept the appointment. When the Spanish–American War is ended, which he thought would be soon, the collectorship of taxes would again be taken up and the change made if conditions at that time should render it necessary.
Keeping in Politics
Authors: Lynch John Roy
Published: January 2021

This chapter recounts that although John Roy Lynch had been appointed a major and Paymaster of Volunteers, since the position was known to be a temporary one, he felt that it was not only his privilege but his duty to continue to take an active part in politics. Having secured a greater degree of official recognition for his friends than appeared to be possible during the early days of the McKinley administration, the outlook for the future was not only encouraging but more satisfactory than at any time since the beginning of the factional fight in the state of Mississippi. Having been denied a seat in the national convention of 1896, to which he knew he was justly entitled, Lynch began at an early date to lay his plans for the national convention of 1900. Lynch was determined to be elected a delegate to that convention from the state at large, which would probably be the last national convention he would aspire to be a member of. The first step in that direction was to bring about such an adjustment of factional differences in the party as would prevent a double or contesting delegation.
The reverse Kakeya problem
Authors: Bae Sang Won , Cabello Sergio , Cheong Otfried , Choi Yoonsung , Stehn Fabian , Yoon Sang Duk
Published: January 2021

We prove a generalization of Pál's conjecture from 1921: if a convex shape P can be placed in any orientation inside a convex shape Q in the plane, then P can also be turned continuously through 360° inside Q. We also prove a lower bound of Ω(m n
2) on the number of combinatorially distinct maximal placements of a convex m-gon P in a convex n-gon Q. This matches the upper bound proven by Agarwal et al.
Aristotle on Attention
Authors: Fiecconi Elena Cagnoli
Published: January 2021

I argue that a study of theNicomachean Ethicsand of theParva Naturaliashows that Aristotle had a notion of attention. This notion captures the common aspects of apparently different phenomena like perceiving something vividly, being distracted by a loud sound or by a musical piece, focusing on a geometrical problem. For Aristotle, these phenomena involve a specific selectivity that is the outcome of the competition between different cognitive stimuli. This selectivity is attention. I argue that Aristotle studied the common aspects of the physiological processes at the basis of attention and its connection with pleasure. His notion can explain perceptual attention and intellectual attention as voluntary or involuntary phenomena. In addition, it sheds light on how attention and enjoyment can enhance our cognitive activities.
Public Confidence in the Judiciary and the Police – Does Respondents Internalize Montesquieu’s Ideas?
Authors: Jonski Kamil
Published: January 2021

Due to its unique role in the separation of powers framework, judiciary is typically among the first targets of illiberal take-overs. The popular perception of the judicial system – translating into its legitimacy – might prove to be its ultimate safeguard or primary source of vulnerability. This paper employs cross-country survey data to uncover to what extent the idea of separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive is embedded in public perception. It analyses the data on trust in the judiciary (or the legal system) the Police and the national government. Assuming that separation of powers is well embedded in the public opinion, one could expect that courts and the police would be assessed separately (i.e., not highly correlated confidence levels). Moreover, it is reasonable to expect that confidence in the police and in the government – Montesquieu executive branch – would be higher than between the police and the judiciary. On the contrary, if respondents assessed institutional performance within functional clusters, courts and the police would be assessed jointly (i.e., highly correlated confidence levels). Evidence form WVS and European Social Survey suggests, that the latter is the case. Interestingly, the finding holds in both democratic and non-democratic systems, indicating serious vulnerability for liberal (constitutional democracy) design.
Bio-algorithms for the modeling and simulation of cancer cells and the immune response
Authors: Idrees Muhammad , Sohail Ayesha
Published: January 2021

There have been significant developments in clinical, experimental, and theoretical approaches to understand the biomechanics of tumor cells and immune cells. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are regarded as a major antitumor mechanism of immune cells. Mathematical modeling of tumor growth is an important and useful tool to observe and understand clinical phenomena analytically. This work develops a novel two-variable mathematical model to describe the interaction of tumor cells and CTLs. The designed model is providing an integrated framework to investigate the complexity of tumor progression and answer clinical questions that cannot always be reached with experimental tools. The parameters of the model are estimated from experimental study and stability analysis of the model is performed through nullclines. A global sensitivity analysis is also performed to check the uncertainty of the parameters. The results of numerical simulations of the model support the importance of the CTLs and demonstrate that CTLs can eliminate small tumors. The proposed model provides efficacious information to study and demonstrate the complex dynamics of breast cancer.
Does mid-regional pro-adrenomedullin (MR-proADM) improve the sequential organ failure assessment-score (SOFA score) for mortality-prediction in patients with acute infections? Results of a prospective observational study
Authors: Haag Ellen , Gregoriano Claudia , Molitor Alexandra , Kloter Milena , Kutz Alexander , Mueller Beat , Schuetz Philipp
Published: January 2021

Objectives

Risk stratification in patients with infection is usually based on the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment-Score (SOFA score). Our aim was to investigate whether the vasoactive peptide mid-regional pro-adrenomedullin (MR-proADM) improves the predictive value of the SOFA score for 30-day mortality in patients with acute infection presenting to the emergency department (ED).

Methods

This secondary analysis of the prospective observational TRIAGE study included 657 patients with infection. The SOFA score, MR-proADM, and traditional inflammation markers were all measured at time of admission. Associations of admission parameters and 30-day mortality were investigated by measures of logistic regression, discrimination analyses, net reclassification index (NRI), and integrated discrimination index (IDI).

Results

MR-proADM values were higher in non-survivors compared with survivors (4.5±3.5 nmol/L vs. 1.7 ± 1.8 nmol/L) with an adjusted odds ratio of 26.6 (95% CI 3.92 to 180.61, p=0.001) per 1 nmol/L increase in admission MR-proADM levels and an area under the receiver operator curve (AUC) of 0.86. While the SOFA score alone revealed an AUC of 0.81, adding MR-proADM further improved discrimination (AUC 0.87) and classification within predefined risk categories (NRI 0.075, p-value <0.05). An admission MR-proADM threshold of 1.75 nmol/L provided the best prognostic accuracy for 30-day mortality; with a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 75%, and a negative predictive value of 98%.

Conclusions

MR-proADM improved the mortality risk stratification in patients with infection presenting to the ED beyond SOFA score alone and may further improve initial therapeutic site-of-care decisions.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01768494. Registered January 15, 2013.
Evaluation of four commercial, fully automated SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests suggests a revision of the Siemens SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay
Authors: Irsara Christian , Egger Alexander E. , Prokop Wolfgang , Nairz Manfred , Loacker Lorin , Sahanic Sabina , Pizzini Alex , Sonnweber Thomas , Mayer Wolfgang , Schennach Harald , Loeffler-Ragg Judith , Bellmann-Weiler Rosa , Tancevski Ivan , Weiss Günter , Anliker Markus , Griesmacher Andrea , Hoermann Gregor
Published: January 2021

Objectives

Serological tests detect antibodies against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the ongoing coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. Independent external clinical validation of performance characteristics is of paramount importance.

Methods

Four fully automated assays, Roche Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2, Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG, Siemens SARS-CoV-2 total (COV2T) and SARS-CoV-2 IgG (COV2G) were evaluated using 350 pre-pandemic samples and 700 samples from 245 COVID-19 patients (158 hospitalized, 87 outpatients).

Results

All tests showed very high diagnostic specificity. Sensitivities in samples collected at least 14 days after disease onset were slightly lower than manufacturers’ claims for Roche (93.0%), Abbott (90.8%), and Siemens COV2T (90.3%), and distinctly lower for Siemens COV2G (78.8%). Concordantly negative results were enriched for immunocompromised patients. ROC curve analyses suggest a lowering of the cut-off index for the Siemens COV2G assay. Finally, the combination of two anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody assays is feasible when considering borderline reactive results.

Conclusions

Thorough on-site evaluation of commercially available serologic tests for detection of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 remains imperative for laboratories. The potentially impaired sensitivity of the Siemens COV2G necessitates a switch to the company’s newly filed SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay for follow-up studies. A combination of tests could be considered in clinical practice.
Early Industrial Roots of Green Chemistry
Authors: Murphy Mark A.
Published: January 2021

Many literature articles, conventional histories, and narratives about the origins of “Green Chemistry” describe it as being a result of concepts and actions at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and/or research in Academia during the 1990s and later. But many examples of increasingly environmentally friendly real-world chemical processes were invented, developed, and commercialized in the oil refining, commodity chemical, and consumer product industries in many countries decades before the 1990s. The earliest efforts evolved and accelerated into many environmentally-oriented and commercialized industrial examples of “Pollution Prevention” during the 1970s and 1980s. The “Green Chemistry” terminology and “Principles” adopted by the EPA and Academia in the 1990s evolved from and re-named the mostly industrial “Pollution Prevention” approaches and inventions.
Reliability and Efficiency of DWR-Type A Posteriori Error Estimates with Smart Sensitivity Weight Recovering
Authors: Endtmayer Bernhard , Langer Ulrich , Wick Thomas
Published: January 2021

We derive efficient and reliable goal-oriented error estimations,
and devise adaptive mesh procedures for the finite element method
that are based on the localization of a posteriori estimates.
In our previous work [B. Endtmayer, U. Langer and T. Wick, Two-side a posteriori error estimates for the dual-weighted residual method, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 42 2020, 1, A371–A394], we showed efficiency and reliability for
error estimators based on enriched finite element spaces. However, the solution of problems on an enriched finite element space is expensive.
In the literature, it is well known that one can use some higher-order interpolation to overcome this bottleneck.
Using a saturation assumption, we extend the proofs of efficiency and reliability to such higher-order interpolations.
The results can be used to create a new family of algorithms,
where one of them is tested on three numerical examples
(Poisson problem, p-Laplace equation, Navier–Stokes benchmark),
and is compared to our previous algorithm.
Modeling COVID-19 in Cape Verde Islands - An application of SIR model
Authors: da Silva Adilson
Published: January 2021

The rapid and surprised emergence of COVID-19, having infected three million and killed two hundred thousand people worldwide in less than five months, has led many experts to focus on simulating its propagation dynamics in order to have an estimated outlook for the not too distante future and so supporting the local and national governments in making decisions. In this paper, we apply the SIR model to simulating the propagation dynamics of COVID-19 on the Cape Verde Islands. It will be done firstly for Santiago and Boavista Islands, and then for Cape Verde in general. The choice of Santiago rests on the fact that it is the largest island, with more than 50% of the Population of the country, whereas Boavista was chosen because it is the island where the first case of COVID-19 in Cape Verde was diagnosed. Observations made after the date of the simulations were carried out corroborate our projections.
Chinese terminology studies
Authors: Yin Jian
Published: January 2021

A single but collective, multifaceted, and multidimensional theory of terminology relies on the contributions of scholars in different ways and in different languages. Local terminology practice and exploration back-feed the general theory and jointly contribute to the completion of a comprehensive theoretical framework. This paper analyzes the application of terminology as the driving force of the discipline, which includes standardized application, domain-specific communicative application, and cross-cultural/cross-lingual application. Specifically, the characteristics of terminology translation practice in China are introduced, with terminology translation conducted as a practice of knowledge dissemination and discourse contribution bound by and affecting Chinese language. Then, several characteristics of Chinese terminology studies are introduced. It is pointed out that Chinese terminology studies, based on the answering of the local terminology problems in China, have universal value for the construction of terminology as a whole discipline.
Clinical assessment of the Roche SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test
Authors: Salvagno Gian Luca , Gianfilippi Gianluca , Bragantini Damiano , Henry Brandon M. , Lippi Giuseppe
Published: January 2021

Objectives

Novel point-of-care antigen assays present a promising opportunity for rapid screening of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. The purpose of this study was the clinical assessment of the new Roche SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test.

Methods

The clinical performance of Roche SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test was evaluated vs. a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) laboratory-based assay (Seegene AllplexTM2019-nCoV) in nasopharyngeal swabs collected from a series of consecutive patients referred for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics to the Pederzoli Hospital (Peschiera del Garda, Verona, Italy) over a 2-week period.

Results

The final study population consisted of 321 consecutive patients (mean age, 46 years and IQR, 32–56 years; 181 women, 56.4%), with 149/321 (46.4%) positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA via the Seegene AllplexTM2019-nCoV Assay, and 109/321 (34.0%) positive with Roche SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test, respectively. The overall accuracy of Roche SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test compared to molecular testing was 86.9%, with 72.5% sensitivity and 99.4% specificity. Progressive decline in performance was observed as cycle threshold (Ct) values of different SARS-CoV-2 gene targets increased. The sensitivity was found to range between 97–100% in clinical samples with Ct values <25, between 50–81% in those with Ct values between 25 and <30, but low as 12–18% in samples with Ct values between 30 and <37.

Conclusions

The clinical performance of Roche SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test is excellent in nasopharyngeal swabs with Ct values <25, which makes it a reliable screening test in patients with high viral load. However, mass community screening would require the use of more sensitive techniques.
Sampling from networks: respondent-driven sampling
Authors: Yauck Mamadou , Moodie Erica E.M. , Apelian Herak , Peet Marc-Messier , Lambert Gilles , Grace Daniel , Lachowsky Nathan J. , Hart Trevor A. , Cox Joseph
Published: January 2021

Objectives

Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) is a variant of link-tracing, a sampling technique for surveying hard-to-reach communities that takes advantage of community members' social networks to reach potential participants. While the RDS sampling mechanism and associated methods of adjusting for the sampling at the analysis stage are well-documented in the statistical sciences literature, methodological focus has largely been restricted to estimation of population means and proportions, while giving little to no consideration to the estimation of population network parameters. As a network-based sampling method, RDS is faced with the fundamental problem of sampling from population networks where features such as homophily (the tendency for individuals with similar traits to share social ties) and differential activity (the ratio of the average number of connections by attribute) are sensitive to the choice of a sampling method.

Methods

Many simple approaches exist to generate simulated RDS data, with specific levels of network features (mainly homophily and differential activity), where the focus is on estimating means and proportions (Gile 2011; Gile et al. 2015; Spiller et al. 2018). However, recent findings on the inconsistency of estimators of network features such as homophily in partially observed networks (Crawford et al. 2017; Shalizi and Rinaldo 2013) raise the question of whether those target features can be recovered using the observed RDS data alone – as recovering information about these features is critical if we wish to condition upon them. In this paper, we conduct a simulation study to assess the accuracy of existing RDS simulation methods, in terms of their abilities to generate RDS samples with the desired levels of two network parameters: homophily and differential activity.

Results

The results show that (1) homophily cannot be consistently estimated from simulated RDS samples and (2) differential activity estimators are more precise when groups, defined by traits, are equally active and equally represented in the population. We use this approach to mimic features of the Engage Study, an RDS sample of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Montréal, Canada.

Conclusions

In this paper, we highlight that it is possible, in some cases, to simulate population networks by mimicking the characteristics of real-world RDS data while retaining accuracy and precision for target network features in the samples.
The Impact of Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) Advances on Small Business Lending by Community Banks—2010–2016
Authors: Brewer Elijah , Jackson William E. , Mondschean Thomas S.
Published: January 2021

In this paper, we examine the relationship between small business loan growth and growth in core deposits and Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) advances from 2010 to 2016. Controlling for other effects, we find that the relationships between small business loan growth is positively and significantly related to both FHLB advance growth and core deposit growth, with the coefficient on advance growth being significantly larger than the coefficient on core deposits over the entire sample period. We also tested whether this relationship changed after 2014:3 reflecting the Federal Reserve’s relaxation of the regulatory burden on smaller banks. We find that the relationship between loan growth and core deposit growth became more positive after the change, but the relationship between loan growth and FHLB advance growth did not. As a result, we could no longer reject the hypothesis that the coefficient on core deposit growth was equal to the coefficient on FHLB advance growth after 2014:3. This provides some empirical support that the regulatory changes in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (DFA) influenced small business lending by strengthening the impact of the growth in core deposits on the growth of small business lending, complementing the work of Bordo and Duca (2018) that changes in DFA had some unintended negative consequences for lending to small businesses. It also suggests that lowering the regulatory burden faced by community banks (which have a larger proportion of core deposits to total assets than non-community banks) could improve the incentive to increase small business lending. It also implies that FHLB advances remain an important funding tool at the margin to give commercial banking organizations greater liquidity and flexibility in funding their balance sheets.