bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Decreased expression of cytokeratin 15 and tropoelastin in men with androgenetic alopecia and its relationship with increased expression of p15/p16
Authors: Ortega Miguel , Álvarez-Rocha María , Asúnsolo Ángel , Romero Beatriz , Coca Santiago , Álvarez-Mon Melchor , Buján Julia , García-Honduvilla Natalio
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) or male pattern baldness is a polygenic disease with a high prevalence in the Caucasian population, with psychosocial implications. However, the molecular mechanisms involved are unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the possible changes in protein expression of cytokeratin 15 (CK15), tropoelastin (TE) and cellular senescence markers (p15/p16) in AGA patients.

Material and methods

An observational, analytical and prospective cohort study was performed in 57 men with AGA (42.31 ±3.01 years). Two tissue biopsies were taken: the control area (C) and the alopecia area (A). Cell viability was assessed using scalp explants from the patients, maintaining explants long term (90 days). Protein expression analysis was performed by immunohistochemistry by detecting antigen-antibody reactions (avidin-biotin complex).

Results

he results showed a significantly higher percentage of dead cells in area A (17.00 ±1.09% C vs. 28.50 ±1.41% A, *p < 0.05). The area affected by alopecia showed significantly lower CK15 and TE protein expression in hair follicles, sebaceous glands and epidermis (*p < 0.05). Expression of the senescence marker p15/p16 was significantly higher in hair follicles, hair bulbs and the epidermis (*p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The results suggest that patients with AGA suffer tissue damage that affects different components of hair follicle stem cells as well as the extracellular matrix itself.
Diagnostic potential of ultrasonography and computed tomography in differentiating cervical lymph node metastasis of thyroid cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Chen Yong-Hui , Zhang Ying-Qiang
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT) are the most common diagnostic modalities of cervical lymph node metastasis of thyroid cancer, but few studies have been conducted to compare their diagnostic accuracy, with inconclusive results.

Material and methods

Multiple databases including PubMed, Springer, EMBASE, Ovid, and the Cochrane Library were searched with the keywords “thyroid cancer OR thyroid carcinomas”, “cervical lymph nodes”, “metastatic OR metastasis”, and “ultrasonography OR ultrasound OR CT OR computed tomography” in June 2018. Full-text articles comparing diagnostic accuracy of US and CT were reviewed. Meta-analyses were conducted to estimate sensitivity and specificity. The forest plots of sensitivity and specificity and summary receiver operating characteristic curves (SROC) are also presented in this article.

Results

Finally, 8 of 1785 studies which eventually met the inclusion criteria were selected in this study. The mean sensitivities and specificities of CT in whole and central cervical areas were 0.65, 0.56 and 0.89, 0.83, respectively, while for US, the sensitivities and specificities were 0.58, 0.39 and 0.89, 0.91, respectively. The area under the curve (AUCs) observed of CT and US in whole, central and lateral cervical areas were 0.79 vs. 0.79, and 0.76 vs. 0.67. Because only a few articles were included in this study, publication bias was not assessed.

Conclusions

The diagnostic accuracy of US and CT was comparable. The specificity of these two methods was much higher than the sensitivity.
3-Acetyl-11-keto-β-boswellic acid inhibits cancer cell invasion and induces apoptosis in breast cancer cells by abrogating the EGFR-mediated PI3K/Akt pathway
Authors: Zhang Ruishan , Xu Hong , Li Xiang , Liu Zhuangkai , Wang Yuying , Zhao Zhao
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Recent evidence has demonstrated the anticancer potential of 3-acetyl-11-keto-β-boswellic acid (AKBA). The current study was performed to evaluate the anti-invasive and antimotility effect of AKBA against breast cancer (BC) cells.

Material and methods

The antiproliferative assay was used to evaluate cell viability. Wound healing assay and Transwell invasion assay were used for migration and invasion respectively. Annexin V FITC assay and microscopy were used to quantify and detect apoptosis. Zymography and immunoblotting analysis were used for gelatinase activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and protein expression of signaling proteins involved in apoptosis, tumor cell invasion and motility of BC cells.

Results

AKBA exhibits significant inhibition of cell proliferation and suppresses BC cell motility. Mechanistically, AKBA suppresses migration and invasion, and attenuates MMP-2 and MMP-9 activity, which plays a key role in metastasis. Furthermore, a dose-dependent manner of AKBA promotes significant induction of apoptosis. Moreover, we observed that a higher concentration of AKBA reduces phosphorylation of EGFR, PI3K, and Akt with a subsequent decrease in MMP-9 and MMP-2 expression, and an increase in TIMP1 and E-cadherin expression. However, pre-treatment with EGF in BC cells restores significant cell motility and invasion even in the presence of AKBA, indicating that inhibition of cell migration by AKBA is operated by the EGFR/PI3K/Akt axis. Additionally, AKBA showed a significant inhibitory and strong synergistic effect on EGFR-mediated PI3K/Akt signaling associated proteins when compared with the known inhibitors gefitinib and erlotinib.

Conclusions

AKBA exhibits potential antiproliferative effects by inducing apoptosis and suppresses tumor cell motility and invasion, which is mediated by the EGFR/PI3K/Akt axis in BC cells.
Efficacy of goal-directed fluid therapy monitored by pulse-pressure variation using a continuous noninvasive arterial pressure monitoring system (the CNAPTM system) during parathyroidectomy in patients with end-stage renal failure – a randomised trial
Authors: Song Jie , Liu Xiaofen , Jiang Weiwei , Wang Jiayou , Li Yun , Chen Hong , Zhang Ye
Published: May 2020

Introduction

There are no well-recognised guidelines for intraoperative fluid management in patients with end-stage renal failure (ESRF). Goal-directed fluid therapy (GDFT) is a concept of perioperative fluid management that improves patients’ prognosis. In this study, we assessed a GDFT protocol with monitoring of pulse pressure variation (PPV) in patients with ESRF undergoing parathyroidectomy.

Material and methods

A total of 102 patients who underwent elective parathyroidectomy were randomised into a control group (restrictive group, n = 51), managed with a restricted fluid regimen, or a PPV group (GDFT group, n = 51), given a normal saline infusion, and they were monitored for changes in PPV. If PPV reached > 13%, 250 ml of normal saline was administered over 15 min. Ephedrine was given to keep the mean arterial pressure > 65 mm Hg. Haemodynamic variables in the perioperative period were recorded. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of postoperative hypotension.

Results

The occurrence of postoperative hypotension (0 vs. 11.67%, p = 0.027) and complications (35.3% vs. 54.9%, p = 0.047) in the GDFT group was lower than in the restrictive group. The volume of saline infused during the operation was 364 (219–408) ml and 50 (50–50) ml, respectively (p = 0.001). Ephedrine was given to 16/51 (29.4%) patients of the GDFT group and 27/51 (52.9%) patients of the restrictive group (p = 0.027).

Conclusions

The use of GDFT with dynamic PPV monitoring in patients with ESRF undergoing parathyroidectomy could potentially be used to guide the administration of infused fluids, with the possibility of reducing the occurrence of postoperative hypotension.
Personality and anxiety disorders: examination of revised reinforcement sensitivity theory in clinical generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder
Authors: Afshari Behrooz
Published: May 2020

Background

Personality has been implicated in the development and continuation of mental disorders. One major advance in the personality field came with the reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST). The study of personality can help explicate the pathology of anxiety disorders. To this end, the present study compared the profile of the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory (r-RST) of personality in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety dis-order (SAD), and panic disorder (PD).

Participants and procedure

Seventy-eight GAD patients, 76 SAD patients, 72 PD patients, and 85 healthy individuals participated in the present study. All participants were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders (SCID-I), Beck Depression Inventory, Jackson-5 Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire, Panic and Agoraphobia Scale, and Social Phobia Inventory. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Research Deputy of Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Participants were given information about the study and provided informed consent in writing.

Results

Data were analyzed by chi-square, independent t-test, analysis of variance, and multivariate analysis of vari-ance. All patients were higher on Flight than the control group. Also, all patients and healthy controls differed in the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory.

Conclusions

The more nuanced knowledge from the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory may be helpful in the diagno-sis, etiology, and psychotherapy of anxiety disorders.
Daily functioning, verbal fluency and emotional functioning of patients with Parkinson’s disease treated pharmacologically and with deep brain stimulation
Authors: Wąs Carla , Obuchowska Aleksandra
Published: May 2020

Background

The population aging phenomenon of western societies results in an increase in the number of neurodegener-ative diagnoses. We aimed to examine the differences in daily emotional and cognitive functioning between patients with Parkinson disease treated with different methods and healthy adults of similar age.

Participants and procedure

The participants (N = 52) were patients with Parkinson disease (n = 26) and healthy adults (n = 26) forming the control group. Daily, cognitive and emotional functioning were assessed with IADL, BDI II, COWAT and MMSE.

Results

Significant differences (t(50) = 2.89, p = .006) in the daily functioning between clinical and control groups were found. The average scores evaluating the daily function of the patients treated pharmaceutically and surgically differed significantly (t(49) = 3.01, p = .004).

Conclusions

The study provides confirmation of the differences in the daily functioning of the patients, taking into account varied treatment. Undoubtedly, further research on this topic with a larger number of participants is required.
Impact of task-oriented training on balance in spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsied children
Authors: Heneidy Walaa E. , Eltalawy Hoda A. , Kassem Hala I. , Zaky Naglaa A.
Published: May 2020

Introduction

A large majority of hemiplegic cerebral palsy children demonstrate poor balance, which leads to poor gait and impaired reaching movements as the maintenance of stability is critical to all movements. Various approaches and strategies are used to improve balance; task-oriented training is one of them. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of task-oriented training on balance in spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsied children.

Methods

Overall, 30 spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy children who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were randomly allocated into 2 equal groups (control and study group). The control group received a selected therapeutic exercise program for 90 min. The study group received the same program for 60 min and task-oriented training for 30 min. The total treatment provided for both groups was 90 min/day, 3 days/week for 4 successive months. Baseline and post-treatment assessment of each child with regard to overall, anteroposterior, and mediolateral stability indices was performed by using the Biodex Balance System.

Results

Children in both groups showed significant improvements in post-treatment mean values of all measured variables when compared with the pre-treatment mean values (p < 0.05). Significant improvement was observed in favour of the study group when comparing the post-treatment mean values of both groups.

Conclusions

Task-oriented training is a useful tool that can be applied in improving balance in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.
Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound for healing supracondylar fracture
Authors: Elsebahy Sara Y. , Olama Khaled A. , Elsayed Mohamed M.
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Supracondylar fracture is the most common fracture in paediatrics. The present study aimed to detect the effectiveness of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) on bone healing in supracondylar humeral fracture in children.

Methods

A randomized controlled study was performed. It involved 30 children suffering from supracondylar fracture, aged 5–8 years, fulfilling inclusion criteria. They were randomly allocated in 2 groups: the control group received medical treatment only and the study group underwent similar medical treatment plus LIPUS (Osteotron III ITO device), program 4, at the frequency of 3 MHz by 160 mW/cm2 with 20% duty cycle, at the fracture site for 20 minutes daily. Standard anteroposterior and lateral radiographs of the elbow, usually sufficient to characterize the fracture, were repeated each week until complete healing was achieved.

Results

There was a significant difference between the groups as revealed by the unpaired t-test. The mean value for the onset of callus was 15.86 ± 0.74 days in the control group and 8.4 ± 1.35 days in the study group, with t = 18.74 and p = 0.0001. The mean value of complete healing time was 34.33 ± 1.39 days for the control group and 21.2 ± 3.09 days for the study group, with t = 14.96 and p = 0.0001.

Conclusions

It can be concluded that LIPUS can be used effectively in promoting the healing process in patients with supracondylar fractures.
Effects of balance and plyometric training on balance control among individuals with functional ankle instability
Authors: Surakhamhaeng Aileen , Bovonsunthonchai Sunee , Vachalathiti Roongtiwa
Published: May 2020

Introduction

This study aimed to compare the effects of balance and plyometric training on balance control among individuals with functional ankle instability (FAI).

Methods

Overall, 20 individuals with FAI, classified in balance (n = 10) and plyometric (n = 10) training groups, participated in the study. Testing variables included standard deviations and ranges of centre of pressure in mediolateral (ML-COPsd/ML-COPr) and anteroposterior (AP-COPsd/AP-COPr) directions during single-legged stance with eyes open and closed, times to stabilization of ground reaction force in mediolateral (ML-TTS) and anteroposterior (AP-TTS) directions during step-down, and reach distances in anterior, posteromedial, and posterolateral directions from the modified Star Excursion Balance Test.

Results

When comparing between the groups, the plyometric training group exhibited a significant reduction of ML-COPsd with eyes open after 6 weeks of training (p = 0.004) and shorter ML-TTS and AP-TTS after 4 weeks (p = 0.009 and p = 0.007) and 6 weeks (p = 0.011 and p = 0.029) of training. For within-group comparison, the plyometric training group showed significant improvements (p < 0.05) in all testing variables, whereas the balance training group presented improvement only in the reach distances.

Conclusions

Plyometric training provided benefits in both static and dynamic balances for individuals with FAI.
The effect of short-term neuromuscular electrical stimulation on pain, physical performance, kinesiophobia, and quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis
Authors: Arslan Saniye Aydoğan , Demirgüç Arzu , Kocaman Ayşe Abit , Keskin Esra Dilek
Published: May 2020

Introduction

To examine the effects of short-term neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) on pain, physical performance, and kinesiophobia in individuals with knee osteoarthritis.

Methods

The study involved 38 individuals (21 in treatment group, 17 in control group) diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis. The participants were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. Physical performance tests, pain assessment, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia, and Nottingham Health Profile were applied. Both groups received a combined physiotherapy program for 2 weeks, 5 sessions a week. NMES and combined physiotherapy were implemented in the treatment group.

Results

Statistically significant differences were detected between the pre- and post-treatment scores of the individuals with regard to the obtained parameter values (Visual Analogue Scale, physical performance tests, WOMAC, kinesiophobia, and health quality) in both groups (p < 0.05). However, no statistically significant differences were observed in the between-group pre- and post-treatment changes of the mentioned parameters (p > 0.05).

Conclusions

The study results show that 10-session NMES application in patients with knee osteoarthritis did not provide additional benefits on pain, physical performance, kinesiophobia, or quality of life. Therefore, the results should be considered when planning the treatment program. Also, we believe that clinical studies comparing long- and short-term NMES applications in addition to physiotherapy programs are needed to achieve accurate results as the present outcomes refer to short-term NMES application.
Serum chemerin and visfatin levels and their ratio as possible diagnostic parameters of rheumatoid arthritis
Authors: Ali Dunia , Al-Fadhel Suhaer , Al-Ghuraibawi Nibras , Al-Hakeim Hussein
Published: May 2020

Objectives

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the synovium and articular cartilage that initiates joint damage. Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with a change in many inflammatory biomarkers. The present study aims to examine the diagnostic ability of inflammatory adipocytokines (chemerin and visfatin) and their ratio for RA disease.

Material and methods

The study recruited 60 RA patients and 30 healthy controls. Serum visfatin and chemerin were measured using the ELISA technique. Some related parameters including body mass index (BMI), lipid profile components, C-reactive protein (CRP), and uric acid levels were also determined and correlated with the level of these adipokines.

Results

Serum chemerin, visfatin, CRP, and uric acid (UA) levels were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in RA patients than those of the control group. The multivariate general linear model (GLM) analysis showed that 70.7% of the change in the level of measured parameters can be explained by the presence of RA disease (partial η2 = 0.707, p < 0.001). To explore which parameter was affected by the diagnosis, the results of tests between subjects showed that all biomarkers were affected significantly by the diagnosis and the greater effects were on CRP (partial η2 = 0.480, p < 0.001) followed by chemerin (partial η2 = 0.295, p < 0.001), while visfatin showed partial η2 = 0.079 only. Chemerin showed the highest sensitivity (88.1%) and specificity (75.9%) for diagnosis of RA at cut-off concentration = 187.88 ng/ml as compared with other parameters.

Conclusions

Chemerin and visfatin levels are affected by RA disease when adjusted for other cofounders. The present results suggest that serum chemerin can be used as an inflammatory marker of RA patients as it has good sensitivity and specificity.
Changing pattern of clinical manifestations of Behçet’s disease in Tunisia: comparison between two decades
Authors: Ksiaa Imen , Kechida Melek , Abroug Nesrine , Bchir Sabri , Attia Sonia , Khochtali Sana , Khairallah Moncef
Published: May 2020

Objectives

To investigate the changes over time in extraocular and ocular manifestations of Behçet’s disease (BD) in Tunisian patients.

Material and methods

Retrospective study of 246 patients divided into two groups: group 1 (147 patients examined from 1995 to 2005) and group 2 (99 patients examined from 2006 to 2017).

Results

Active or scarred genital ulcers observed by physician at presentation were significantly less frequent in group 2 (47.2% vs. 29.6%; p = 0.007), as were articular involvement (50.3% vs. 34.7%; p = 0.016) and erythema nodosum (18.4% vs. 8.1%; p = 0.024). One hundred-seven patients (43.5%) developed ocular manifestations during the 23-year study period. Intermediate uveitis was significantly more frequent in group 2 than in group 1 (11.7% vs. 28.4%; p = 0.003), and posterior uveitis less frequent in group 2 than in group 1 (34.2% vs. 19.7%; p = 0.016). Patients from group 2 were more likely to have macular edema (19.8% vs. 45.6%; p = 0.001). However, better visual prognosis, with a lower rate of legal blindness, was noted in group 2.

Conclusions

Changes over time included a decrease in the rate of articular involvement and cutaneous involvement. There was an increase in the rate of intermediate uveitis and a decrease in the rate of posterior uveitis over time. Despite an increase in the rate of macular edema, there was an improvement in visual prognosis, with less legal blindness over time.
Osteosarcopenia in rheumatoid arthritis treated with glucocorticosteroids – essence, significance, consequences
Authors: Radkowski Marcin , Sławiński Piotr , Targowski Tomasz
Published: May 2020

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common rheumatic diseases, associated with cooccurrence of serious side effects. This study discusses the problems associated with chronic RA, well-known as osteoporosis, but also recently recognized as sarcopenia. Relationships between sarcopenia and rheumatic diseases are not yet fully understood. Co-occurrence of osteoporosis and sarcopenia, referred to as osteosarcopenia, is becoming increasingly important. The overlap of the effects of RA and osteosarcopenia and the adverse effects of glucocorticosteroids leads to progressive impairment of the musculoskeletal system, increasing the risk of falls, fractures, institutionalization and death, and it is a source of dramatic socioeconomic burden on society. Very limited options for effective treatment of developed osteosarcopenia, as well as the severity of complications caused by it, advocates for the need of broad education and raising public awareness, especially among health care workers, in order to implement the prevention of osteosarcopenia as early as possible.
An update on joint-specific outcome measures in total hip replacement
Authors: Pulik Łukasz , Romaniuk Krzysztof , Jaśkiewicz Kaja , Wojtyński Paweł , Łęgosz Paweł , Małdyk Paweł
Published: May 2020

This is the latest review of joint-specific tools used to evaluate patients undergoing total hip replacement (THR) surgery, which is an effective treatment for end-stage osteoarthritis. Due to the large number and multitude of scales and their variants used, a critical assessment of the available tools is necessary. In the article, we briefly describe six different clinical tools: the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, the Hip Disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, the Harris Hip Score, the Oxford Hip Score, the Mayo Hip Score, and the Rheumatoid and Arthritis Outcome Score. We present the advantages and constraints of the different outcome measures, providing a helpful resource of information for clinical trials and for everyday routine evaluation.
EULAR PARE: Knowledge Transfer Programme
Authors: Moskalewicz Bożena , Grygielska Jolanta
Published: May 2020

The question, how patient participation in projects works in everyday practice, was a main goal of the EULAR Knowledge Transfer Programme in which Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands participated in the period between June to October 2019. Four Polish representatives had the occasion to learn about the practice of patient partner inclusion in the therapeutic process, in medical education programs and in scientific research.
An interesting approach is to explain the practice of patient involvement to researchers with a guideline for researchers.
In Sweden, patient research partners (PRPs) have been educated to participate in research projects since 2008. In total 60 PRPs have been educated. The PRPs participate in activities to identifying research gaps that are important and relevant to “end users”, persons with rheumatic disorders.
Authors firmly believe that the time has come to learn a lesson from The Netherlands and Sweden.
Introduction When the Levees Rose
Authors: Vidal Cécile
Published: May 2020

The introduction presents the book’s argument according to which it is more accurate to view eighteenth-century New Orleans as a Caribbean port city than as a North American one, as its late foundation, its position within the French Empire, and its connections with Saint-Domingue explain why the interplay of slavery and race profoundly shaped its society from the outset. It situates the book vis-à-vis Louisiana and Atlantic historiographies on urban slavery, slave societies, and racial formation, arguing that historians need to move away from a comparative history of racial slavery in the Western Hemisphere that contrasts the Caribbean and North America as two distinctive models. Finally, the introduction discusses how the book draws on two methodological approaches in order to analyze how racial formation unfolded under the influence of global, regional, and local circumstances: it practices a situated Atlantic history and develops a microhistory of race within the urban center.
A Port City of the French Empire and the Greater Caribbean
Authors: Vidal Cécile
Published: May 2020

This chapter argues that racial formation did not take place in French New Orleans in isolation from the rest of the Atlantic world and that imperial rather than trans-imperial relationships were the most influential in shaping the way the local society developed. Within the imperial framework, connections between the colony and the metropole were increasingly replaced by intercolonial exchanges. Saint-Domingue, in particular, was a model to be emulated. What gave New Orleans its Caribbean character was, not its participation in smuggling, but racial slavery.
Lash of the Tongue, Lash of the Whip
Authors: Vidal Cécile
Published: May 2020

This chapter looks simultaneously at the evolution of the language of race and at the racialization of both the judicial and military systems to analyze how racial categories were formed, inhabited, and transformed over time in French New Orleans. The representations of the social order that fueled the language of race both informed and were shaped not only by a discriminatory and violent royal justice that increasingly targeted slaves as the main offenders but also by the exclusion of free blacks from and then by their segregation within permanent militia units. When the Spanish took over the colony, they found a society in which race was more firmly embedded than at the beginning of the French period while fostering more tensions and contradictions.
From Louisiana to Saint-Domingue and from Saint-Domingue to Louisiana
Authors: Vidal Cécile
Published: May 2020

The conclusion explains how this book, by reconsidering the interplay of slavery and race in French New Orleans under the influence of Saint-Domingue, has proposed an alternative way of understanding how an urban slave society operated and what it meant for a slave society to become racialized. It has also tried to better fulfill the promises of Atlantic history. Like other kinds of transnational history, Atlantic studies were conceived of as a way to move away from the primacy of the present-day nation state as a unit of analysis and from the tendency toward exceptionalism inherent to national history, but this historiographical field has not yet succeeded in fully escaping from a North-American-centric perspective. At stake is the recovery of the place the Caribbean occupied within the early Atlantic world as well as the development of a comparative and connected history of racial formation as a sociopolitical process in the Americas.
A Delicious Country
Authors: Huler Scott
Published: May 2020

In 1700, a young man named John Lawson left London and landed in Charleston, South Carolina, hoping to make a name for himself. For reasons unknown, he soon undertook a two-month journey through the still-mysterious Carolina backcountry. His travels yielded A New Voyage to Carolina in 1709, one of the most significant early American travel narratives, rich with observations about the region's environment and Indigenous people. Lawson later helped found North Carolina's first two cities, Bath and New Bern; became the colonial surveyor general; contributed specimens to what is now the British Museum; and was killed as the first casualty of the Tuscarora War. Yet despite his great contributions and remarkable history, Lawson is little remembered, even in the Carolinas he documented.In 2014, Scott Huler made a surprising decision: to leave home and family for his own journey by foot and canoe, faithfully retracing Lawson's route through the Carolinas. This is the chronicle of that unlikely voyage, revealing what it's like to rediscover your own home. Combining a traveler's curiosity, a naturalist's keen observation, and a writer's wit, Huler draws our attention to people and places we might pass regularly but never really see. What he finds are surprising parallels between Lawson's time and our own, with the locals and their world poised along a knife-edge of change between a past they can't forget and a future they can’t quite envision.
Conclusion
Authors: Brown Candy Gunther
Published: May 2020

The conclusion reconceptualizes secularization in terms of transparency and voluntarism and recommends best practices that respect cultural and religious diversity. The conclusion argues for an opt-in model of informed consent in which students and teachers may actively decide whether to opt into voluntary programs based on adequate information. Opt-in programs are offered during noninstructional hours (before or after school or during lunch) to minimize barriers to opting out, and cultivate transparency about strengths and limitations of scientific support, challenging, adverse, and/or religious effects, contraindications, and alternatives. Subtracting religious language and adding scientific framing may not go far enough to avoid religious endorsement or coercion. Paradoxically, the secular framing of yoga and mindfulness practices widens their platform to influence religious beliefs and values. Secularization may be construed not as subtraction and addition but as radically rebuilding from foundations that make explicit and interrogate—thereby enhancing agency to act without being controlled by—assumptions about self and world. Transparency counters the taken-for-grantedness that imbues assumptions about self and world with much of their power. Identifying, questioning, and choosing whether to accept, reject, or modify beliefs and practices protects against unduly coercive power of the state and subtle coercion of unthinking decisions.
The Americas in the Twentieth-Century World
Authors: Tutino John
Published: May 2020

Sets six new world cities—Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montreal, Los Angeles, and Houston—in the context of their nations and a changing global economy. Details how distinct cities faced changing possibilities and limits on production, employment, and resources for urban infrastructure while populations soared everywhere. Concentrations of wealth and power came everywhere, too, while new marginalities led to informal and often illegal economic activities, along with violence that at times led to carceral regimes. Popular mobilizations often brought real gains—yet rarely transformed trajectories toward concentration and often served to stabilize enduring inequities.
Prologue
Authors: Balto Simon
Published: May 2020

The book’s prologue briefly sketches the colonization of Indigenous land that led to Chicago’s founding and rapid urbanization, and then focuses on two important phenomena within that larger story: the origins of policing in the city and the Great Migration of Black Americans that produced the city’s famed “Black Metropolis.” It shows how the Chicago Police Department’s origins lay not in some vague interest in public safety, but rather in controlling labor radicalism and the behavior of European immigrants. It also documents how the promise of Chicago for migrating Black Southerners was often quite different than the reality that they found within the city.
You Can’t Shoot All of Us
Authors: Balto Simon
Published: May 2020

The book’s second chapter covers the decade of the Great Depression and the World War II years. One of its principal focuses is the rise of Chicago’s infamous Democratic machine, which emerged as the dominant force in Chicago machine politics after years of back-and-forth tussling with its Republican counterpart. Democratic leaders beginning in 1931 used the police force as a bludgeon against the Black community to try to force it to vote Democratic, and utilized it in other ways to control Black Chicago politically. This was seen most acutely within the context of the rising tide of political radicalism that shaped Black Chicago during this time, especially the labors of the Communist Party and, later, organizations with the Popular Front as they challenged Depression-era austerity and battled with the police as austerity’s frequent enforcers (as in the case of evictions). To check such radicalism, Democratic politicians unleashed the infamous Red Squad, which cracked down viciously on political dissidents, often violently and illegally, setting important precedents. The decade also saw the expansion of a practice known as “stop and seizure,” an antecedent to the infamous practice of “stop and frisk.”
In a Pure Muslim Land
Authors: Fuchs Simon Wolfgang
Published: May 2020

Centering Pakistan in a story of transnational Islam stretching from South Asia to the Middle East, Simon Wolfgang Fuchs offers the first in-depth ethnographic history of the intellectual production of Shi‘is and their religious competitors in this “Land of the Pure.” The notion of Pakistan as the pinnacle of modern global Muslim aspiration forms a crucial component of this story. It has empowered Shi'is, who form about twenty percent of the country's population, to advance alternative conceptions of their religious hierarchy while claiming the support of towering grand ayatollahs in Iran and Iraq. Fuchs shows how popular Pakistani preachers and scholars have boldly tapped into the esoteric potential of Shi'ism, occupying a creative and at times disruptive role as brokers, translators, and self-confident pioneers of contemporary Islamic thought. They have indigenized the Iranian Revolution and formulated their own ideas for fulfilling the original promise of Pakistan. Challenging typical views of Pakistan as a mere Shi'i backwater, Fuchs argues that its complex religious landscape represents how a local, South Asian Islam may open up space for new intellectual contributions to global Islam. Yet religious ideology has also turned Pakistan into a deadly battlefield: sectarian groups since the 1980s have been bent on excluding Shi'is as harmful to their own vision of an exemplary Islamic state.
Alternative Centers of Shiʿi Islam
Authors: Fuchs Simon Wolfgang
Published: May 2020

The introduction discusses the fundamental transformations of Shi‘i thought and conceptions of religious authority that occurred in tandem with the expansion of Shi‘i religious education in colonial India and Pakistan throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. In particular, this section introduces the reader to the three key analytical lenses of the book, namely the evolving nature of sectarianism, the salience of transnational connections, and the creative potential of local religious authority when engaging with the Shi‘i scholarly tradition. The introduction adopts a model of “impetus” and “response” to elucidate the travel of ideas between the Middle East and South Asia, while also paying attention to their translation from Arabic and Persian into Urdu.
South Asia, the Middle East, and Muslim Transnationalism
Authors: Fuchs Simon Wolfgang
Published: May 2020

The conclusion revisits the extent to which Pakistani Shi‘is have been increasingly drawn into the circuits of the Shi‘i international in the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. It argues that both Sunni and Shi‘i scholars have not been satisfied with merely being relegated to peripheral positions. Rather, Pakistani Muslim thinkers have been actively carving out spaces of influence for themselves. They continue to insist on the historical intellectual contributions of the Indian subcontinent and at times even claim hermeneutical hegemony for the region. The conclusion also takes a comparative look at India, where Shi‘i intellectual life was significantly less disrupted than in Pakistan. The conclusion calls for a new research paradigm that would take seriously the importance of bidirectional flows of thought between South Asia and the Middle East. Such a novel perspective has the potential to fundamentally reshape existing understandings of present-day phenomena such as Islamism.
The Invention of the Favela
Authors: Valladares Licia do Prado
Published: May 2020

For the first time available in English, Licia do Prado Valladares’s classic anthropological study of Brazil’s vast, densely populated urban living environments reveals how the idea of the favela became an internationally established—and even attractive and exotic—representation of poverty. The study traces how the term “favela” emerged as an analytic category beginning in the mid-1960s, showing how it became the object of immense popular debate and sustained social science research. But the concept of the favela so favored by social scientists is not, Valladares argues, a straightforward reflection of its social reality, and it often obscures more than it reveals. The established representation of favelas undercuts more complex, accurate, and historicized explanations of Brazilian development. It marks and perpetuates favelas as zones of exception rather than as integral to Brazil’s modernization over the past century. And it has had important repercussions for the direction of research and policy affecting the lives of millions of Brazilians. Valladares’s foundational book will be welcomed by all who seek to understand Brazil’s evolution into the twenty-first century.
Genesis of the Rio Favela
Authors: Valladares Licia do Prado
Published: May 2020

This chapter explains the rise and history of the Favela, or as the book likes to refer to it, the “Favelization Process.” While it is said that Favela were in some ways the first of their kind, the book points out that there were other versions, such as tenements. The book gives examples of different favela communities, including el Morro de Favella, a historical place authorities pursued in cleaning up. Mattos Pimenta was one of the many hygienists working towards getting rid of favelas in the nation. The chapter continues to speak of Alfred Agache a man who unlike Pimenta saw the favela situation as what it truly was: a side effect of poverty, not some sickness that needed to be cleaned up. Finally, the chapter ends on census data and considers the difficulty on]f being able to verify how many people live in the favelas.
Conclusion
Authors: Valladares Licia do Prado
Published: May 2020

Chapter 4 concludes by pointing out the current way favelas are now seen, thanks to the three dogmas introduced in the previous chapter. Researchers through their census have seen that, contrary to popular belief, there are high levels of heterogeneity in the favela communities. Favelas do not just house one type of person but a diverse group. Yet, favelas continue to be categorized as for “the poor” by International NGOs and governments. Social Tourism is also spoken of in the concluding chapter. Favelas such as the Rocinha give paid tours to tourists, but they also aim to show the favelas’ good aspects in order to eliminate their negative connotation.
The Coarse and Dry Study of the Law
Authors: Broadwater Jeff
Published: May 2020

The first chapter examines the early lives and education of Jefferson and Madison. Jefferson attended the College of William and Mary and studied law under George Wythe. He was also influenced by the writings of John Locke, Obidiah Hulme, Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Shaftesbury, Francis Hutcheson, and Lord Kames, and developed an essentially optimistic view of human nature. Madison studied under the Presbyterian theologian John Witherspoon at what is today Princeton University. Madison early on became a strong believer in freedom of religion. Meanwhile, Jefferson was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and produced his first important public paper, A Summary View of the Rights of British America. A Summary View challenged the authority of Parliament in Britain’s American colonies and marked Jefferson’s emergence as a major political figure.
All the World Is Becoming Commercial
Authors: Broadwater Jeff
Published: May 2020

In this chapter, Jefferson succeeded Madison in Congress and later accepted a diplomatic assignment in Europe. Meanwhile, Madison returned to the Virginia assembly. Both men were frustrated by the ineffectiveness of Congress under the Articles of Confederation. They were able to negotiate Virginia’s cession of its western lands to the central government, and Congress passed an amended version of Jefferson’s Ordinance of 1784, but they were unable to secure American navigation rights on the Mississippi River. Despite Congress’s financial plight, the states rejected efforts to adopt an impost amendment empowering Congress to tax imports. Jefferson and Madison were also frustrated by British restrictions on American commerce and Congress’s inability to promote U.S. trade. Jefferson abandoned his belief that commercial treaties could be used to strengthen the Union, but the prosperity of Americans, compared to the poverty he had seen in Europe, lessened his interest in constitutional reform.
Confusion … Must Stifle All Enterprize
Authors: Broadwater Jeff
Published: May 2020

As a member of the Virginia assembly, Madison enjoyed considerable success in continuing the process of legal reform Jefferson had begun during the American Revolution, although his efforts to address Congress’s fiscal woes proved unavailing. Defeat of the general assessment bill in Virginia and passage of Jefferson’s Bill for Religious Freedom illustrated to Madison how a multitude of factions, in this case religious denominations, could be exploited to protect liberty. Meanwhile, Jefferson and Madison continued to wrestle with the issue of constitutional reform at the state level, and Jefferson’s ideal of a republic of yeomen farmers, as set forth in his Notes on the State of Virginia, predisposed him to support a central government strong enough to support American trade abroad and American expansion westward. Otherwise, his expectations for Congress were modest. Both men expressed opposition to slavery, but they could do little more than secure adoption of state laws ending the African slave trade and permitting private manumissions.
Opposition Enough to Do Good
Authors: Broadwater Jeff
Published: May 2020

In the winter of 1787-1788, Madison was surprised by opposition to the ratification of the Constitution from Anti-Federalists who complained that the Constitution threatened the rights of the states and of individuals by conferring too much power on the central government. Even Jefferson had mixed emotions about the document. His reservations included concerns about the president’s eligibility for reelection and about the absence of a bill of rights. Jefferson proposed that nine states ratify the Constitution--the minimum number needed for it to take effect--and that four states withhold their approval in order to create pressure for amendments. Many of Madison’s twenty-nine Federalist essays addressed issues raised by Jefferson, and they reassured Jefferson on several points. Nevertheless, in order to win ratification of the Constitution in Virginia, its Federalist proponents had to agree to support amendments after the new government began operating, a compromise that Jefferson, who continued to support the addition of a bill of rights, could accept.
Let Us Secure What We Can
Authors: Broadwater Jeff
Published: May 2020

This chapter focuses primarily on Madison’s role in the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Madison had initially opposed a bill of rights as unnecessary, unenforceable, and likely to disrupt the ratification process. He also argued that some rights would inevitably be omitted, thus creating a presumption that they were not protected. Jefferson strongly disagreed, telling Madison they ought to “secure what we can,” and providing him with a mechanism to enforce a bill of rights: judicial review. Jefferson seemed confident that the courts would refuse to enforce laws that clearly infringed on rights protected by the Constitution. Under pressure from Jefferson and from Virginia’s Baptists, who wanted a guarantee of religious freedom, Madison agreed, in a spirited congressional race against Anti-Federalist James Monroe, to support the adoption of a bill of rights if elected. Madison won the race and, ironically, almost single-handedly pushed a set of amendments, which became the Bill of Rights, through Congress. Madison emerged as an outspoken champion of additional safeguards for civil liberties after the Constitution was ratified in large part because he believed a bill of rights could be used to reconcile moderate Anti-Federalists to the new government.
Afterword
Authors: Broadwater Jeff
Published: May 2020

The afterword deals briefly with constitutional issues Jefferson and Madison faced after the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were adopted. These included questions involving the need for Senate approval of the removal of an executive official whose appointment required Senate confirmation; Congress’s authority to charter a national bank, enact a protective tariff, or subsidize internal improvements; the allocation between Congress and the president of power over foreign policy; the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Acts; and the president's authority to execute the Louisiana Purchase. The afterword concludes that during the ratification debate, Madison had represented the Constitution as creating a government of limited and carefully enumerated powers, and that he generally honored those representations. Madison, however, advocated states’ rights less aggressively and less consistently than did Jefferson, and unlike Jefferson, was willing to defer to the Supreme Court in resolving conflicts between state and national authority. In fact, after Jeffeson died in 1826, Madison spent much of the rest of his life combating the nullification theory espoused by John C. Calhoun, who claimed a state could lawfully nullity a federal statute.