bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Insights from a multicenter study on adult H3 K27M-mutated glioma: Surgical resection’s limited influence on overall survival, ATRX as molecular prognosticator
Authors: Ryba Alice , Özdemir Zeynep , Nissimov Nitzan , Hönikl Lisa , Neidert Nicolas , Jakobs Martin , Kalasauskas Darius , Krigers Aleksandrs , Thomé Claudius , Freyschlag Christian F , Ringel Florian , Unterberg Andreas , Dao Trong Philip , Beck Jürgen , Heiland Dieter Henrik , Meyer Bernhard , Vajkoczy Peter , Onken Julia , Stummer Walter , Suero Molina Eric , Gempt Jens , Westphal Manfred , Schüller Ulrich , Mohme Malte
Published: March 2024

Background

H3 K27M-mutated gliomas were first described as a new grade 4 entity in the 2016 World Health Organization classification. Current studies have focused on its typical appearance in children and young adults, increasing the need to better understand the prognostic factors and impact of surgery on adults. Here, we report a multicentric study of this entity in adults.

Methods

We included molecularly confirmed H3 K27M-mutated glioma cases in patients ≥ 18 years diagnosed between 2016 and 2022. Clinical, radiological, and surgical features were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify prognostic factors.

Results

Among 70 patients with a mean age of 36.1 years, the median overall survival (OS) was 13.6 ± 14 months. Gross-total resection was achieved in 14.3% of patients, whereas 30% had a subtotal resection and 54.3% a biopsy. Tumors located in telencephalon/diencephalon/myelencephalon were associated with a poorer OS, while a location in the mesencephalon/metencephalon showed a significantly longer OS (8.7 vs. 25.0 months, P = .007). Preoperative Karnofsky-Performance Score (KPS) ≤ 80 showed a reduced OS (4.2 vs. 18 months, P = .02). Furthermore, ATRX loss, found in 25.7%, was independently associated with an increased OS (31 vs. 8.3 months, P = .0029). Notably, patients undergoing resection showed no survival benefit over biopsy (12 vs. 11 months, P = .4006).

Conclusions

The present study describes surgical features of H3 K27M-mutated glioma in adulthood in a large multicentric study. Our data reveal that ATRX status, location and KPS significantly impact OS in H3 K27M-mutated glioma. Importantly, our dataset indicates that resection does not offer a survival advantage over biopsy.
Bettina Brentano von Arnim (1785–1859)
Authors: Pollok Anne
Published: March 2024

Bettina Brentano von Arnim is one of the most fascinating writers of German Romanticism—after a late, but spectacular start of her career as an author with the biographically inspired Goethe’s Letters with a Child (1835) that boldly claims the legacy of Germany’s most admired poet, Bettina continues to explore the realm of biography (Günderode, Spring Wreath), but also widens the perspective to the pressing social questions of her time. This chapter aims to present the versatility, social conscience paired with playful innocence, and ingenuity that marks Bettina’s work and personality, with a particular focus on her redefinition of the role of a female intellectual.
Fanny Lewald (1811–1889)
Authors: Wagner Ulrike
Published: March 2024

In contrast to most of her critics, this chapter argues that Lewald’s ambivalent view on female emancipation is a vital ingredient rather than a shortcoming of her writing. This chapter discusses her statements on female independence along with narratives and arguments of key philosophical debates of the Enlightenment. The chapter examines the resonance of religious controversies involving Spinoza, Lessing, and Mendelssohn in her work, and investigates how Kant’s response to the question “What is Enlightenment?” formed her life and thinking. In dialogue with leading voices of her time, she stakes out her own position, first and foremost focused on pragmatic social changes as vehicles for an open-ended process of self-emancipation. Women, she claims, need access to formal education and the labor market to gain control over their lives. In laying out her plans, she is less concerned with how woman ought to be and more concerned with the circumstances that allow her to become.
Folk Tales in Greece
Authors: Kaliambou Maria
Published: March 2024

This chapter discusses the long tradition of folk tales in Greece as they developed from antiquity through modern times. It begins with the debate about the Greek term for folk tale, paramýthi, which indicates the close relationship of folk tales to myths. It continues in a discussion of the scholarly interest in Greek folk tales initiated by western European collectors in the nineteenth century and followed by Greek scholars. The chapter talks about the variety of sources the Greek folk tale draws upon, such as the long history of Greek oral and written traditions and elements from intercultural exchanges with southeast and western European, Turkish, and other cultures. The chapter analyzes basic characteristics of Greek folk tales related to narrative style, content, and performance and refers to the appreciation of the genre in popular culture and children’s literature.
A Spectral Methodology of the Cultural and the Physical
Authors: Alessandrini Patricia , Rutherford-Johnson Timothy
Published: March 2024

This chapter discusses the Computer-Assisted Composition (CAC) processes employed in recent compositions by Patricia Alessandrini—including the kinetic installation Adagio sans quatuor and scored works such as Ada’s Song for instruments, electronics, and robotics systems—and the aesthetic motivations for their use. The main interrelated themes that are touched upon are the avoidance of stylistic categorization; a focus on the production of sound, especially in relation to performer agency; and notions of the representation and identity of a piece of music. The last of these preoccupations is shared by other composers identified as “spectral,” as are some of the techniques employed in the CAC process that is described. However, the chapter argues that the relationship between forms of representation—including the analysis-resynthesis paradigm, commonly found in spectral music—and musical works as cultural objects is a unique characteristic of Alessandrini’s work; and, furthermore, that there are aspects of the CAC process employed and their realizations by instruments, virtual instruments, and electronics that differ significantly from other spectral practices.
Irish Traditional Songs in Print and Performance
Authors: Haslett Moyra
Published: March 2024

In 1740 Laurence Whyte published in Dublin a volume of original poems which included a poetic ‘Dissertation on Italian and Irish Musick’. While the poem claims that Ireland is beset by ‘Italian fever’, it also celebrates the durability of a number of Irish traditional tunes and songs and the poem concludes with a celebration of Carolan, a musician hailed in the poem’s subtitle as ‘our late Irish Orpheus’. This chapter takes Whyte’s poem as a starting point for an interrogation of how ‘Irish song’—particularly Irish-language song—is represented in print in the eighteenth century. It traces the history of the songs named in Whyte’s ‘Dissertation’ as a way of illustrating the varied ways in which popular songs, drawn by Whyte from such varied sources as oral tradition and theatre performances, would transform themselves through different settings and contexts across the period. They suggest that song did not accept the barriers of language, political affiliation or ‘refined taste’ found elsewhere in culture and that particular songs could ‘travel’ in sometimes eccentric and surprising ways.
Orisha Religion
Authors: Houk James
Published: March 2024

This chapter tackles the history and development of the Orisha religion in Trinidad. The borrowing, incorporation, and syncretism of traits from existing religious traditions all played significant roles in the growth and development of the Orisha religion. Thus, the religion's current dynamic can be described as both nativistic and revivalistic, wherein specific manifestations of the broader conceptual category are known classically as revitalization. In Trinidad, nativism and revivalism among Orisha worshipers manifested themselves in the form of an Africanization movement whereby some worshipers attempted to reclaim the African cultural roots of the Orisha religion. The chapter considers the expectation of the Orisha religion fronting another period of stasis that will sustain the religion for many generations.
Jamaica
Authors: Reid-Salmon Delroy A.
Published: March 2024

This chapter considers the unique role religion plays in Jamaica. Religion is more than personal doctrinal beliefs and religious practices that interpret the meaning of life and embrace various elements that constitute culture. Although different traditions compose the Jamaican religion, it is one religion. The chapter clarifies that Jamaica is a microcosm of the Caribbean religion, wherein religious pluralism defines the Caribbean society. It explains that Jamaican religion is not monolithic or heterogeneous but a religion in itself with its own sources, norms, tradition, and belief system, so it is neither Christianity nor any other form of major world religion.
Roman Catholicism
Authors: Gonzalez Maldonado Michelle
Published: March 2024

This chapter provides an overview of Roman Catholicism in the Caribbean. It clarifies that the arrival of the Roman Catholic Church in the Caribbean must be contextualized in light of the Spanish Catholicism that was brought to the Americas. The conversion was intimately linked with the conquest, especially after the Spanish understood conversion as a way of dominating the indigenous population. The chapter acknowledges the powerful presence and dominance of the Roman Catholic Church today despite its many challenges. It considers the shifting religious landscape of the region while referencing the issues like clergy sex abuse and debates over the ordination of women in the region.
Belief and the Cult of San Lázaro
Authors: Penagos Elaine
Published: March 2024

This chapter looks into the beliefs and cult of San Lázaro. The confluence of beliefs in the Caribbean unveils a worldview where conceptions of the divine or sacred are not limited or encased by a single religious tradition or authority. Thus, in the Caribbean, belief refers to the interweaving of the visible and invisible realms. The chapter expounds on the complexities of belief in the Cuban and Cuban American context while referring to the cult of San Lázaro. It explains that that the cult of San Lázaro is a beliefscape, a religious landscape whose construction is predicated on notions of belief archived in the body.
Haitian Vodou
Authors: Rey Terry
Published: March 2024

This chapter looks into the origins of Haitian Vodou. It explains how Haitian Vodou emerged as a religion under some of the worst oppression in human history, transatlantic slavery, and colonialism. Despite the long history of racist, colonialist, and oppressive misrepresentations and misappropriations of Vodou, Haitian Vodou is a religion of great sophistication and astounding creativity that provides for its adherents all that one can ask of any religion. Vodou embodies the most inspirational stories in human religious history, which are African religions thriving in the Americas and the world history’s only successful national slave revolt. The chapter mentions how Vodou delivered its meaning, solace, and healing to the Caribbean nation as Haiti endured political upheaval, abject poverty, epidemics, and earthquakes.
Abakuá
Authors: Miller Ivor L.
Published: March 2024

This chapter explores Abakuá’s secret society, which had been fundamental in the formation of Cuban national identity. It explains how Abakuá lodges were necessarily created in secrecy due to being persecuted by colonial authorities before the adaptation of Abakuá to the Cuban context. Moreover, Abakuá exemplifies the concept of los cimarrones urbanos, which refers to urban underground fugitives from the cultural system of the colonizer. Abakuá tradition is an important example of established alternatives to assimilation to Western cultural norms. The chapter explains that Abakuá defended an autonomous and collective identity based upon an ancestral heritage that the dominant class persistently tried to abolish.
Palo, Las Reglas de Congo, Kongo Rule
Authors: Ochoa Todd Ramón
Published: March 2024

Palo is Cuban-Kongo praise. It is “cosmologically sovereign” and works with myriad forms of the dead to heal people’s lives. Other African-inspired praise forms, like Ocha, Espiritismo, and Ifá, enter into mutual alliance with Palo, connecting with it so as to assemble an immense horizon of healing in Cuba today. Palo nurtures relations with the dead as discreet spectral individuals, just as it draws generic versions of dead out of common matter, like the sticks and roots (palos) for which it is named. Wisdom in building kinship between the living and the dead is what Palo offers the afflicted, which it gathers in communities of mutual affirmation. Viewed from without, Palo’s energetic closeness to the dead is daunting; from within it is a thing of promise, emancipation, and beauty.
Corn
Authors: Fitting Elizabeth
Published: March 2024

Corn (or maize) is an exemplary commodity of far-reaching changes to capitalist agriculture. After briefly describing how corn traveled from Mesoamerica to Europe and Africa during the colonial period, this chapter describes several key processes through which corn became a ubiquitous, industrial “flex” crop. Drawing on agrarian political economy and food regime approaches, the chapter highlights several changes in government policies and technologies in the United States and Mexico and argues that corn played a pivotal role in the ability of capital to overcome natural barriers to accumulation and commodification found in agriculture. The chapter ends by suggesting that in addition to its pivotal role in capitalist agriculture and the emergence of a global food regime dominated by neoliberalism, corn has also been an important focus for anti-GMO activist networks that challenge the global food system.
Tobacco
Authors: Morris Melissa N.
Published: March 2024

Tobacco is perhaps the most important plant native to the Americas. Before Europeans arrived, it was an integral part of a number of Indigenous cultures. The rise of Atlantic empires made it a global commodity, yet despite its popularity, authorities initially met it with suspicion, and they sometimes banned its cultivation and consumption. Demand for it nonetheless rose, giving rise to vast plantations where enslaved Africans grew it. Beyond the Americas, peasant farmers often raised it. All cultivators came to see tobacco as a crop that required particular attention and skill to grow properly. This perception persisted into the modern era and led to widespread resistance to mechanization. The dangers of tobacco consumption became more well-known in the twentieth century, but global use still rose. For farmers in the southern United States, increased worldwide competition, combined with an end to government subsidies, led to a sharp decline in the cultivation of a crop that had long been an important part of its economy and culture.
The Islamic Agricultural Revolution
Authors: Decker Michael J.
Published: March 2024

The Islamic Agricultural Revolution hypothesis has gained wide acceptance and notoriety among scholars of the medieval world. Under this model, scholars envision conditions favored the massive transfer of botanical knowledge, plants, and associated technologies, mostly from tropical regions to the core lands of Islam throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. Since many of these crops remain globally important staples today, the continual exploration and testing of the hypothesis helps historians understand complex interrelations between the past movements of people, crops, and technologies. This work examines the role of economic change, urban development and the rise of new elites in changes of the agrarian regime of the early Islamicate world.
Agriculture, the Atlantic Plantation, and the Environment in the US South
Authors: Whayne Jeannie
Published: March 2024

This chapter explores the Atlantic plantation as it operated in a specific setting: the US South between 1607 and the Civil War. It focuses on the role of the plantation economy’s dependence on three factors: its reliance on monoculture and the resulting degradation of soils; second, the use of forests as reserve lands to be used in place of worn-out lands; and third, the necessity of a substantial labor force to cultivate and harvest the crops but also to perform various tasks associated with mitigating the soil-depletive characteristics of monoculture. While the work of enslaved people was essential to the health of the plantation complex, the forest reserves provided them with a haven from the watchful eyes of plantation masters and overseers but also a source of food secured through hunting and fishing. It also served as a lesson in geography that served them well during the Civil War when their knowledge of the landscape offered avenues to freedom. The war’s destructive force in terms of military operations led to soil erosion and damage to forests, which, together with the flight of the enslaved, revealed the vulnerability of the plantation system.
Forest Transition Theory
Authors: Bennett Brett M. , Barton Gregory A.
Published: March 2024

Forest transition theory describes a body of interdisciplinary social scientific environmental research that explores the dynamics of how forest cover has historically declined and then expanded because of population growth, urbanization, industrialization, and globalization. Forest transition describes a general process, but each specific instance had unique drivers and scholars now identify distinct pathways. Europe and the eastern United States, followed by select countries in Asia and elsewhere in the world, have seen a rebound of forest cover after centuries of loss. A forest transition should not be confused with a return to a previous ecological condition. Regenerated forests tend to have lower biodiversity than primary native forests, and recovery in one area has often been matched by loss in another part of the world, so the process is no panacea to the ongoing global environmental crisis. Still, the process has been identified in over twenty countries, and there is strong evidence to suggest that overall deforestation continues to slow, so it raises the possibility of cautious optimism for the future of some of the world’s forests. From a historians’ viewpoint, forest transition theory offers a useful tool to explain broad, global processes, but it offers less analytic value in describing any particular instance because local factors differ considerably. As such, forest transition theory remains a valuable teaching concept and starting point for historical and contemporary environmental research, but it should not be used without reference to specific examples, nor does it offer a prediction of the future.
Love Match or Compatible in Theory?
Authors: Green Tristin K. , Rich Camille Gear
Published: March 2024

In this chapter, authors Tristin Green and Camille Gear Rich explore productive marriages between Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Queer Theory in legal scholars’ work in the United States. The chapter examines the blending of CRT and Queer Theory and also pays homage to the distinct histories and contributions of the two fields. The authors sketch the contours of each discipline in an account that highlights areas of agreement and disagreement, and they flesh out specific examples of shared methodology and cross-pollination between the fields, specifically (1) interconnectedness inquiries (including intersectionality and multidimensionality), (2) performativity analysis, and (3) discursive critique. They encourage scholars and readers to seek out productive intellectual spaces that willingly explore areas of friction between CRT and Queer Theory methods when these issues surface in scholars’ work. Successful coupling does not require that parties accept every aspect of another in a union—unorthodox methodological combinations between the two disciplines will produce novel insight and bear interesting fruit. To this end, the authors urge construction of productive spaces to explore differences and frictions and to deepen understanding of the operation of social power and barriers to social equality.
English in Timor-Leste
Authors: Macalister John
Published: March 2024

Timor-Leste differs from most other countries in Southeast Asia in that English is not the primary foreign language. Reflecting the country’s colonial legacy, that place is held by Portuguese, one of two official languages; the other is the indigenous Tetun. English and Bahasa Indonesia are recognized in the Constitution as working languages. This chapter identifies the primary influence of English in Timor-Leste as being lexical. It shows that English forms a visible and dominant part of the linguistic landscape, is a language with instrumental value for Timorese, and is a resource drawn on for communicative purposes by multilingual Timorese, including in the classroom. It also recognizes that the importance attached to Portuguese for nation-building and identity construction is likely to constrain any expansion of the place of English in this complex linguistic ecology in the near future.
English in Outer Circle broadcast media and popular culture of Southeast Asia
Authors: Lee Jamie Shinhee
Published: March 2024

This chapter discusses how Englishes are used in broadcast media and popular culture in Southeast Asia’s Outer Circle. It provides an overview of earlier research addressing language issues in music, advertising, TV, and film in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. These three countries face similar linguistic challenges negotiating the power balance between endonormative and exonormative practices. Multiple languages are used in these countries including transplanted Englishes (i.e. British English and American English), nativized Englishes, and local languages; these languages not only coexist but also compete in varied domains. Standard English is valued particularly in formal domains, and localized varieties of English are evaluated somewhat negatively. Malaysian English, Philippine English, and Singaporean English are often viewed as critical in representing authentic linguistic realities in broadcast media and pop culture.
English in Southeast Asian linguistic landscapes
Authors: Rhekhalilit Kittinata , Huebner Thom
Published: March 2024

ASEAN declared English as its working language in November 2007. As a result, the language's significance and popularity have increased significantly in the region during subsequent years, to the point where it threatens to encroach on territory frequently allocated for national languages. This is particularly visible in public spaces, where it is so prevalent that it frequently goes unnoticed. This chapter will highlight the rapidly developing body of research on Southeast Asia's linguistic landscapes (LLs), with a particular emphasis on the use of English in the LLs of ASEAN's ten member countries and Timor-Leste. As we discovered, Southeast Asia is home to some of the world's most diverse ethnic groups, cultures, languages, histories, economies, and religions. English's pervasiveness is highlighted throughout, symbolically and as a lingua franca.
Introduction
Authors: Moody Andrew J.
Published: March 2024

English has entered into the language ecologies of Southeast Asia (SEA) in one of two ways: as a former colonial language in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, or the Philippines, or as a language of globalization and internationalization. Whichever is the case, English is used within complex and diverse local ecologies that have shaped the form, function, and status of English in the region. This chapter will describe the sociohistorical features of English in the regions and the range of linguistic and cultural diversity in Southeast Asia. The chapter will then describe each of the chapters that make up the volume.
The Secret Sharer
Authors: Cámpora Magdalena , Di Ció Mariana
Published: March 2024

It is difficult to think of Borges without thinking of “Borges the Reader”: his readings cover the entirety of his work, like the map of empire covers territory. Borges turned reading into a field of discussion for the theoretical, critical, and ideological issues of his day, and he systematically used reading as a writing method. The recent discovery of new materials utilized by Borges throughout his career, including books, manuscripts, notebooks, conferences, and courses, and which no longer depend on his personal editing and curating, allows scholars of Jorge Luis Borges to examine his compositional processes and thus opens promising lines of research for critics in the future.
Decolonizing the IR Classroom
Authors: Sharma Ananya
Published: March 2024

The epistemic edifices of international relations are inextricably racialized, having contributed to exclusionary modes of theorizing that have shaped the genealogy of the discipline. The epistemological, ontological, and methodological assumptions of mainstream IR coalesce to produce an inadequate understanding of world politics. By highlighting concerns regarding epistemic inequalities deeply embedded in the conventional accounts of the discipline, the chapter foregrounds itself in “reimaging” IR by drawing on the works of B. R. Ambedkar.
Integrating Intercultural Competence into International Studies
Authors: Paras Andrea
Published: March 2024

This chapter identifies the limitations of current approaches to culture in international studies, and then draws on research from intercultural studies, transformative learning theory, and international education to identify how intercultural competence pedagogies offer a more effective means of integrating intercultural learning into international studies. Intercultural competence is the ability to shift one’s cultural perspective and adapt one’s behavior to function effectively across cultural contexts. Integrating teaching and learning about intercultural competence facilitates students’ development of critical reflexivity and intercultural communication, leads to more inclusive teaching practices, and supports anti-racist efforts to decolonize classrooms and the discipline of international studies more broadly. The chapter concludes with specific recommendations for how to integrate intercultural competence pedagogies into international studies programs.
Teaching International Studies through Folklore and Fairy Tales
Authors: Starnes Kathryn
Published: March 2024

Folklore has been repeatedly deployed to contest disciplinary myths, offer emancipatory alternatives to disciplinary stories, and to radically rethink who and what counts in international studies (IS) scholarship. The (re)productionof disciplinary boundaries and norms through pedagogical practice offers significant scope for radical pedagogical reforms in IS. This chapter documents those efforts, distinguishing the contributions of different folklore genres. Whereas myths help us to explore how foundational assumptions are naturalized in IS narratives, and fables can build alternative emancipatory disciplinary stories, this chapter argues fairy tales question both the folk and the lore integral to producing a narrative of IS that fuels our pedagogical practice. Focusing on who can produce disciplinary stories and what content constitutes a legitimate story speaks to the political question of discipline constitution at the heart of all pedagogical endeavors and facilitates further engagement with epistemic justice in IS pedagogy.
Global Diversity and Distributions of Traditional Tattooing Tools
Authors: Robitaille Benoît , Deter-Wolf Aaron , Sialuk Jacobsen Maya
Published: March 2024

Tools and techniques used to permanently mark skin prior to the introduction of the electric tattooing machine have varied widely throughout the human past according to region, culture, and era. Prior studies have sought to develop general typologies of these tattooing tools based primarily on the methods through which they were applied to the skin, rather than tool morphologies. This chapter draws on a global database of ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and anthropological documentation including over 1,500 individual descriptions and images of tattooing tools and techniques to present a new overview of global patterning and variability. That information comprises the largest and most comprehensive data set on pre-electric tattooing tools published to date, and informs a new typological division of tattooing tools and techniques. Understanding the broad patterns of these variations, their geographic distribution, and how they connect to macromorphological tool categories is essential for researchers seeking to identify the artifactual evidence of tattooing practices, and may also aid in studying past intercultural relationships.
The Politics of Land in a Digital World
Authors: Fraser Alistair
Published: March 2024

This chapter asks how the politics of land is affected by the emergence of digital technologies, which infuse and penetrate all sectors of life and yield an intense, fast-paced, connected, and problematic digital life for billions of people. It focuses first on the context of the technological transformations that are shaping all aspects of society. Second, it examines the developments affecting the food system and agrarian sectors, especially the new frontiers of “precision agriculture” in global North and global South contexts. It examines the form digitalization is taking, while taking into consideration the technologies and practices in development, and the logics and rationalities underpinning them. Finally, it asks why and how digitalization matters for those engaged in resistance and struggles against dominant trends shaping the politics of land. Digital technologies shape—and have a role to play in exploring—new horizons of resistance regarding food sovereignty construction and in the development of a politics of land capable of responding to the effects of climate change in the twenty-first century.
Metaphors in the Book of Hosea
Authors: Lancaster Mason D.
Published: March 2024

Hosea is marked by some of the most diverse, tensive, unusual, memorable, and provocative metaphors in the Hebrew Bible. This chapter surveys some ways Hosea scholars have interacted with metaphor theory and the textual metaphors of the book. It provides a tour of Hosea’s metaphors by engaging with networks of metaphors, each spanning multiple chapters, and providing selected examples of how they function to subvert and supplant the Israelite perception of reality. The sexual and marital metaphors of Hosea 1–4, for instance, attempt to shame Israel’s male leadership into conformity to Yhwh’s instructions. The metaphors of Hosea 13–14, on the other hand, depict Israel’s death and resurrection using polemically appropriated imagery from Yhwh’s rivals. This undermines Israel’s need for any alternative to Yhwh (since this God can do it all), while predicating their restoration on Yhwh’s loyalty to Israel and inviting their reciprocation.
Prolegomena to the Ecological Interpretation of Hosea
Authors: Trudinger Peter
Published: March 2024

The Book of Hosea presents a people in crisis. Religious practice has gone off the rails. The agricultural system is failing. And there is worse to come, or so Hosea says! A crisis also looms large in the present—an ecological crisis. So it is tantalizing to wonder if Hosea’s words have relevance to the present current situation. This essay outlines a groundwork for such an exploration. It summarizes the many ecological images and references that occur in Hosea and then analyzes these using the methodology of the Earth Bible project. Other significant contributions to the ecological interpretation of Hosea are also outlined. The book of Hosea shows little regard for elements of the nonhuman world and often portrays them as violent. Since the majority of ecological imagery in Hosea is negative, the question is raised whether a positive ecological interpretation of Hosea is possible. This essay will orient the reader to issues associated with producing an ecological interpretation.
Hosea in Asia-Centric Interpretation
Authors: Lai Barbara M. Leung
Published: March 2024

Rooted in the rubrics of biblical interpretation and reading theories, this essay begins with a discussion on the challenge of defining what is Asia-centric and the necessity of confining the scope of the endeavor. Undertaking the examination of four interconnected contextual considerations—namely, sociocultural, literary, political, and religious-ecclesiastical—it seeks to provide an analytical depiction of the current landscape of the interpretation and reception of Hosea among Asians and Asian Americans/Canadians. Placing the discussion at the juxtaposition of the Asia-centric interpreting community and the receiving community, the essay’s focus is on the dynamics between the interpreter’s elucidation and the reader’s reception. Critical observations and proposals are made along the way. The essay ends with a proposal for future directions toward the interpretation and reception of Hosea applicable to any book in the Hebrew Bible.
The Book of Hosea and Northern/Israelian Hebrew
Authors: Pat-El Na’ama
Published: March 2024

The language of Hosea is notoriously difficult. Since the prophet Hosea is presented as a resident of the northern monarchy in the book bearing his name, some scholars have hypothesized that the linguistic peculiarities of the book are a result of a dialectal difference between northern and southern Hebrew—the latter being the standard language of the Hebrew Bible and the former being a dialectal variant, conventionally called “Israelian Hebrew.” If Hosea was composed in the monarchy of Israel, under the hypothesis that this monarchy spoke and wrote a separate dialect, we would expect the book to contain multiple features of the northern dialect. In this essay, a number of the features claimed to belong to Israelian Hebrew will be reevaluated, as well as the methodology used to identify them. It will be shown that the evidence for Israelian features in Hosea is weak and the methodology is severely flawed.
Teaching Buddhism as a Lived Religion
Authors: Foulks McGuire Beverley
Published: March 2024

This chapter proposes an intersubjective approach to teaching lived Buddhism, where students co-create knowledge and actively engage in the learning process by bringing their lived experience into conversation with those of Buddhists. It explores how we might use embodiment, materiality, emotions, aesthetics, narrative, and moral orientation as lenses to approach the study of lived Buddhism. As we make each particular aspect of religious practice salient for our students, we provide a way for them to analyze lived Buddhism without compromising the diversity and heterogeneity of those lived experiences. When we encourage our students to attend to their own bodies, sense perceptions, emotions, aesthetic sensibilities, life stories, and moral values, and we invite them to cultivate an openness and receptivity to these dimensions of Buddhist lives, we develop their ability to concentrate on the particularity of people and situations. The chapter concludes by considering ways we might use insights from lived religion to examine the structures and conditions in which our own pedagogical practices emerge.
Psychology of Authoritarianism
Authors: Gøtzsche-Astrup Oluf , Hogg Michael A.
Published: March 2024

The psychological study of authoritarianism asks why ordinary people support authoritarian regimes and authoritarian leaders. One perspective studies the individual dispositions of people attracted to authoritarian leaders. Another focuses on the social psychological factors that impel people to embrace authoritarianism. A third perspective looks at the attractiveness of defending the status quo and justifying whatever system people are under, including authoritarian ones. In this chapter, we trace the history of the psychology of authoritarianism from foundational social psychological research on the authoritarian personality to recent work on social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism. Further, we describe how a combination of political and structural factors create identity uncertainty and cause stronger support for populist strongmen, and how political science and psychology work together to inform the area. Finally, we call for developing this literature further, including deepening interdisciplinary work, drawing on perspectives from related disciplines such as international relations.
Digital Authoritarianism
Authors: Michaelsen Marcus , Ruijgrok Kris
Published: March 2024

This chapter approaches digital authoritarianism as practices that rely on digital technologies to prevent critical debate and accountability demands to powerholders by disrupting information flows and free expression. This approach shifts the focus from governments to the multitude of actors shaping digital technologies. It highlights how, in the digital age, authoritarian power is built and sustained in transnational and globalized configurations that involve state and non-state actors, and cut across regime types. The chapter synthesizes existing scholarship around four key forms of silencing and disabling access to information: (1) online censorship, (2) internet shutdowns, (3) digital surveillance, and (4) online information manipulation. Future research should disentangle the actor configurations engaged in digital authoritarian practices and investigate how these practices fit within larger repertoires of authoritarian rule. The chapter also highlights the need to focus on challenges to digital authoritarianism, such as protests and investigative research and advocacy.
Decline in Mobility and Balance in Persons With Post–COVID-19 Condition
Authors: Feldman Debbie Ehrmann , Guillemette Albert , Sanzari Juliana , Youkheang Stéphane , Mazer Barbara
Published: March 2024

Objectives

Post–COVID-19 condition (PCC) may impact mobility and balance and affect physical function. The objectives of the study were to estimate the prevalence of decline in balance and mobility in individuals with PCC; explore the association between comorbidities and sociodemographic characteristics with decline in balance and mobility; and evaluate correlations between decline in mobility and balance with change in performance of usual activities, personal care, and global health perception.

Methods

The design was a cross-sectional study of persons with a COVID-19 diagnosis that was confirmed at least 3 months before the study. Those with PCC, defined as those still troubled by symptoms, were evaluated for decline in mobility and balance and with associated clinical and demographic factors using bivariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression. Correlations between decline in mobility and balance were also examined with change in ability to perform usual activities, personal care, and global health perception.

Results

In 1031 persons with PCC, mobility deteriorated in 44.9%, and balance deteriorated in 37.1%. Older age, hospitalization, comorbidities, and obesity were associated with decline in mobility, while decline in balance was associated with older age and comorbidities. Reduced mobility was associated with changes in ability to carry out usual activities (rp = 0.6), conduct personal care (rp = 0.6), and global health status (rp = 0.5). Correlations between decline in balance and these same outcomes were 0.5, 0.5, and 0.45, respectively.

Conclusions

Almost half the participants with PCC had reduced mobility, and over a third reported deterioration in balance, with associated difficulties with daily functioning. Factors associated with greater decline help identify those most at risk.

Impact

Many people with PCC experience changes in mobility and balance, which can affect functional capacities and lead to physical therapist consultations. Further study should assess specific needs of these patients and determine effective physical therapist interventions to meet these needs.

Lay Summary

Many persons with post–COVID-19 condition (PCC) experience symptoms resulting in functional problems, such as difficulties with personal care and performing usual activities. This study focused on difficulty in mobility and problems with balance. Almost half of persons with PCC in the study had declines in getting around and over a third had declines in balance. These problems were associated with older age and having other comorbid health conditions and were linked with decline in ability to perform personal care, carry out usual activities, and perceived global health status.
Longitudinal Associations between Pain, Risk for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, and Pain Characteristics in Children After Unintentional Injury
Authors: Agoston Anna Monica , Bleacher John , Smith Alexis , Edwards Susanne , Routly Maia
Published: March 2024

Objectives:

Around 20% of children demonstrate persistent posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) after unintentional injury, with more severe pain intensity predicting concurrent and later PTSS. Examining additional pain characteristics like pain behaviors, impairment related to pain, and subjective experiences of pain might provide additional insight into the mechanisms that reinforce relationships between risk for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), PTSS, and pain.

Methods:

During hospitalization for unintentional injury, the Screening Tool for Predictors of PTSD (STEPP) was administered and highest pain score was collected. One month later, the Child PTSD Symptom Scale and PROMIS questionnaires assessed PTSS and pain characteristics respectively, including intensity, interference, behaviors, and quality.

Results:

Correlations between PTSS and PROMIS questionnaires were significant. STEPP predicted future PTSS and all PROMIS questionnaires. Highest pain score predicted future PTSS, as well as pain interference and pain behavior, and did not predict pain intensity and pain quality. When STEPP and highest pain score were combined into a single regression, STEPP and highest pain score predicted future PTSS but only STEPP continued to predict all PROMIS questionnaires.

Discussion:

PTSD risk significantly predicted PTSS and pain characteristics one month later. Highest pain score predicted future PTSS and several pain characteristics but no longer had predictive value for pain-related outcomes when combined with PTSD risk. These results indicate that risk factors for PTSD are stronger predictors than pain-related risk factors in predicting pain outcomes. Addressing PTSD risk, as well as pain intensity during hospitalization, may result in improved outcomes for children with unintentional injury.
Computed Tomography Scan versus Saline Load Test in the Detection of Traumatic Arthrotomies of the Ankle: A Cadaveric Study
Authors: Gheewala Rohan A. , Lakra Akshay , Mori Benjamin Villacres , Carroll Jeremy D. , Puleo James M. , Smith Michael P. , Mulligan Michael T.
Published: March 2024

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate the sensitivity and ability of computed tomography (CT) scan for diagnosing traumatic ankle arthrotomies compared to that of the Saline Load Test (SLT).

METHODS:

Eleven cadaveric ankles were included in the study. Prior to intervention, a CT scan was obtained to confirm the absence of intra-articular air. Arthrotomies were created at the anterolateral, posterolateral, anteromedial, and posteromedial aspects of the ankle under fluoroscopic visualization. A post-arthrotomy and post-range of motion CT scan was obtained to evaluate for the presence of intra-articular air. Each ankle then underwent a SLT with 60 mL of saline, where volumes provoking extravasation were recorded.

RESULTS:

Out of the 11 included ankles, intra-articular air was detected in all eleven ankles by CT scan. All eleven also demonstrated extravasation of saline through the arthrotomy site during SLT. Thus, the sensitivity for both CT scan and SLT for detecting ankle traumatic arthrotomy was 100%. The mean volume of saline needed for extravasation was 7.7 mL, with a range of 3 to 22 mL and a standard deviation of 5.4.

CONCLUSIONS:

Given that CT scan was equally as sensitive to the SLT, this study presents good evidence that CT scan may be used for the detection of ankle traumatic arthrotomies.
3D Printing Materials and Technologies for Orthopaedic Applications
Authors: Kelly Cambre , Adams Samuel B.
Published: March 2024

3D printing technologies have evolved tremendously over the last decade for uses in orthopaedic surgical applications, including being used to manufacture implants for spine, upper extremity, foot and ankle, oncologic, and traumatic reconstructions. Materials used for 3D-printed orthopaedic devices include metals, degradable and nondegradable polymers, and ceramic composites. There are 2 primary advantages for use of 3D printing technologies for orthopaedics: first, the ability to create complex porous lattices that allow for osseointegration and improved implant stability and second, the enablement of complex geometric designs allowing for patient-specific devices based on preoperative imaging. Given continually evolving technology, and the relatively early stage of the materials and 3D printers themselves, the possibilities for continued innovation in orthopaedics are great.
Mechanism of salidroside regulating autophagy based on network pharmacology and molecular docking
Authors: Chai Yihong , Chen Feng , Li Hongxing , Sun Xiaohong , Yang Panpan , Xi YaMing
Published: March 2024

Salidroside is a natural product of phenols with a wide range of pharmacological functions, but whether it plays a role in regulating autophagy is unclear. We systematically investigated the regulatory effect and molecular mechanism of salidroside on autophagy through network pharmacology, which provided a theoretical basis for subsequent experimental research. First, the target genes of salidroside were obtained using the Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform, and the target genes were converted into standardized gene names using the Uniprot website. At the same time, autophagy-related genes were collected from GeneCards, and preliminary handling of data to obtain intersecting genes. Then, the String website was used to construct a protein–protein interaction network, and to perform the Gene Ontology functional annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis. To observe the specific molecular mechanism by which salidroside regulates autophagy, we constructed a drug component-target genes-autophagy network. Finally, we performed molecular docking to verify the possible binding conformation between salidroside and the candidate target. By searching the database and analyzing the data, we found that 113 target genes in salidroside interact with autophagy. Salidroside regulate autophagy in relation to a number of important oncogenes and signaling pathways. Molecular docking confirmed that salidroside has high affinity with mTOR, SIRT1, and AKT1. Through network pharmacology combined with molecular docking-validated research methods, we revealed the underlying mechanism of salidroside regulation of autophagy. This study not only provides new systematic insights into the underlying mechanism of salidroside in autophagy, but also provides new ideas for network approaches for autophagy-related research.