bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin in Children with Sydenham's Chorea Accompanying Valvular Regurgitation
Authors: Deveci Köksal , Guven Ahmet , Alaygut Demet , Oflaz Mehmet
Published: July 2018

Background Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is a nonsuppurative complications of Group A β-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) infection due to a delayed immune response. Sydenham's chorea (SC) is an important neurological manifestation of ARF, and heart involvement is seen in a large proportion of patients with SC. The immune system has a crucial role in initiating and spreading inflammation, which causes tissue damage in ARF.

Aim The purpose of this study was to investigate urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) as a biomarker for kidney injury in children with rheumatic chorea accompanying valvular involvement.

Materials and Methods Twenty-eight consecutive children with SC accompanying evidence of valvular involvement, and 30 nonrheumatic, age- and sex-matched healthy children were included in the study. Cardiac evaluations were performed, and urinary NGAL, micro-total protein and creatinine levels were measured in all participants.

Results Age, gender, weight, and height were similar in the patients and controls. Twenty-three patients had isolated mitral regurgitation, and five patients had mitral and aortic regurgitation. While there was no statistically significant difference between the urine creatinine and micro-total protein levels in patients and controls, the patient group demonstrated a significantly higher mean urine NGAL level (18.01 ± 7.9 vs. 3.22 ± 1.4, p = 0.002) and mean urine NGAL/creatinine ratio (2.80 ± 1.9 vs. 0.33 ± 0.1, p = 0.008). However, there were no correlations between severity of chorea and urinary NGAL or urinary NGAL/creatinine ratio, there were significant positive correlations between severity of valvular regurgitation and urinary NGAL (r = 0.751, p < 0.001) and urinary NGAL/creatinine ratio (r = 0.694, p < 0.001).

Conclusion The present study revealed that urinary NGAL level and urinary NGAL/creatinine ratio were higher in patients with SC accompanying valvular involvement. The results obtained from this study suggest that ARF may cause subclinical renal injury in patients with intense and prolonged cellular immune response leading to chorea and carditis.
State space reconstruction of spatially extended systems and of time delayed systems from the time series of a scalar variable
Authors: Quintero-Quiroz C. , Torrent M. C. , Masoller C.
Published: July 2018

The space-time representation of high-dimensional dynamical systems that have a well defined characteristic time scale has proven to be very useful to deepen the understanding of such systems and to uncover hidden features in their output signals. By using the space-time representation many analogies between one-dimensional spatially extended systems (1D SESs) and time delayed systems (TDSs) have been found, including similar pattern formation and propagation of localized structures. An open question is whether such analogies are limited to the space-time representation, or it is also possible to recover similar evolutions in a low-dimensional pseudo-space. To address this issue, we analyze a 1D SES (a bistable reaction-diffusion system), a scalar TDS (a bistable system with delayed feedback), and a non-scalar TDS (a model of two delay-coupled lasers). In these three examples, we show that we can reconstruct the dynamics in a three-dimensional phase space, where the evolution is governed by the same polynomial potential. We also discuss the limitations of the analogy between 1D SESs and TDSs.
Note: Design and resonant condition measurement of the mushroom-shaped Al test cavity for critical magnetic field evaluation of superconducting thin-film sample
Authors: Oikawa Hiroki , Higashiguchi Takeshi , Hayano Hitoshi
Published: July 2018

We designed a mushroom-shaped Al test cavity for measurement of the critical magnetic field at a radio frequency microwave with a frequency of 5.2 GHz. The characteristics of the Al test cavity are characterized toward the evaluation of the superconducting multilayer thin films under high-power radio frequency microwaves at cryogenic temperatures by the Nb-based cavity. We evaluated a target resonant frequency, the separations of neighboring modes, and the electromagnetic field distribution of the target mode. The calculated frequency change was in good agreement with that obtained experimentally.
Peripheral olfactory structures and maturity-related crypt receptor neuron kinetics in the olfactory epithelium of carp Cyprinus carpio (L.): implications for carnal vulnerability and pest management
Authors: Adair B. J. , Purser G. J. , Patil J. G.
Published: July 2018

Carnal vulnerability is a powerful yet underutilised tool in integrated pest management. The lack of species-specific knowledge of underpinning sexual drivers and mechanisms for their detection has precluded efficient exploitation of the vulnerability. As a step in understanding how mature common carp Cyprinus carpio communicate and attract conspecifics, the present study undertook anatomical and histological examinations of the olfactory system, tracing changes in crypt receptor neurons (CRNs) within the olfactory rosette in relation to gonadal development, as proxy. Quantification of the density and relative position of CRNs in the lamellae revealed that their density increases significantly with sexual maturity in both males and females (P<0.001). In contrast, the CRNs were concentrated in the basal and surface layers of the epithelium (P<0.001) in females and males respectively, suggesting a sex-specific deployment and mobilisation of CRNs with the onset of maturity. This suggests that the mature males are likely equipped to detect and respond to pheromones more rapidly than females, triggering courtship behaviours such as mate pursuit that are generally associated with mature males. This maturity-driven CRN proliferation and mobilisation reveals a susceptibility, particularly of male C. carpio, to carnal lure and capture that could be exploited in pest management programs.
Giant and explosive plasmonic bubbles by delayed nucleation
Authors: Wang Yuliang , Zaytsev Mikhail E. , Lajoinie Guillaume , The Hai Le , Eijkel Jan C. T. , van den Berg Albert , Versluis Michel , Weckhuysen Bert M. , Zhang Xuehua , Zandvliet Harold J. W. , Lohse Detlef
Published: July 2018

Significance

Plasmonic microbubbles are at the center of numerous applications, including micromanipulation/nanomanipulation, biomedical diagnosis and therapy, and solar energy harvesting. Controlling the dynamics of these microbubbles is key to successfully exploiting their potential in the growing number of applications. Literature has vastly overlooked the nucleation and early microsecond dynamics by which these microbubbles arise. It is of utmost importance to understand this early phase, as it displays the most violent dynamics and is the precursor and origin of all subsequent dynamics, on which the many applications rely.
Human Serum With High Neutralizing Antibody Titers Against Both Zika and Dengue Virus Shows Delayed In Vitro Antibody-Dependent Enhancement of Dengue Virus Infection
Authors: Valiant William G , Lalani Tahaniyat , Yun Heather C , Kunz Anjali , Burgess Timothy H , Mattapallil Joseph J
Published: July 2018

Zika virus infection in a dengue virus–naïve subject was associated with the induction of high levels of cross-reactive binding antibodies. These responses were, however, largely non-neutralizing and displayed a capacity to enhance dengue infection in vitro at significantly low dilution (1:10). In contrast, a subject who had high levels of neutralizing antibodies against both dengue and Zika viruses enhanced infection at a dilution of 1:10 000. These results suggest that high levels of dengue cross-neutralizing antibodies could potentially prevent the enhancement of dengue infection in Zika virus–convalescent individuals.
Social History of Medicine and Disability History
Authors: Kudlick Catherine
Published: July 2018

Disability history and social history of medicine are two subfields that share many common topics and sources but that approach them very differently. For medical historians, disability takes center stage as a problem that requires fixing, and the “victims” are primarily patients. For disability historians, disability suggests not just the person or practitioner, but also a unique understanding of all the elements, including politics, economics, and culture, that shape relationships for the disabled. Following a brief history of each subfield, two examples are presented—responses to epidemics and the idea of cure—to discuss how scholars can be in more productive conversation. As is demonstrated here, disability is not just a topic to be studied, but rather a tool of analysis. While the distinctive roots and purposes of the two subfields ensure that they will always be fundamentally incompatible, they can, and should, engage in productive conversation.
Race, Work, and Disability in Progressive Era United States
Authors: Lawrie Paul
Published: July 2018

Throughout U.S. history, the production of difference, whether along racial or disability lines, has been inextricably tied to the imperatives of labor economy. From the plantations of the antebellum era through the assembly lines and trenches of early-twentieth-century America, ideologies of race and disability have delineated which peoples could do which kinds of work. The ideologies and identities of race, work, and the “fit” ’ or “unfit” body informed Progressive Era labor economies. Here the processes of racializing or disabling certain bodies are charted from turn-of-the-century actuarial science, which monetized blacks as a degenerate, dying race, through the standardized physical and mental testing and rehabilitation methods developed by the U.S. army during World War I. Efforts to quantify, poke, prod, or mend black bodies reshaped contemporary understandings of labor, race, the state, and the working body.
Material Culture, Technology, and the Body in Disability History
Authors: Ott Katherine
Published: July 2018

Disability is created, measured, and supported through material culture. Technology, a kind of material culture, has an especially close relationship with disability in that it both supports daily activities and is often a primary element in defining who is of worth or qualifies as human. Some of the unique and complicated ways in which disability and material culture interact and intersect are presented here, highlighting such things as sensory and nonverbal information, material expression of inclusion and accessibility, definitions of technology, the prevalence of do-it-yourself solutions, and ideologies of assistance and independence. Also discussed is the use of two broad functions of technology, objects of activity and objects of worth, as an entry point into critical disability studies analysis.
Energy Poverty and Climate Change
Authors: Pereira Marcio Giannini , da Silva Neilton Fidelis , Freitas Marcos A.V.
Published: July 2018

Energy is essential to human survival. Supplying energy to all citizens is a requirement for social well-being and for a country’s economic development. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the differences in the availability of electricity around the world, mainly in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa, from a perspective of access as a human right. In this context, the concept of energy poverty and its nexus to climate changes will be discussed, considering the human dimension and equity. Moreover, this chapter presents metrics and new metrics (energy/climate changes), emphasizing the need to promote a program focused on access to electric power and to expand other basic services in developing countries.
Energy, Climate Change, and Global Governance
Authors: Vogler John
Published: July 2018

This chapter considers the relevance of international cooperation to the governance of global energy and climate issues and the restricted way in whichthese issues are framed. It provides an analysis of the development of the international climate change regime from the negotiation of the UNFCCC to the implementation of its Kyoto Protocol and the search for a new but very different agreement, achieved at Paris in late 2015. The Paris outcome reflected the intersection of national economic interests and seismic structural changes in the global political economy that vastly altered the distribution of emissions in the context of the increasing competitiveness of renewables. Meeting demands for climate justice with a new emphasis on development funding and adaptation was critical to the achievement of an agreement. As ever, what might seem to be functional and technical negotiations were permeated by international politics and assertions of national sovereignty, recognition, and prestige.
Agenda Setting and Bounded Rationality
Authors: Jones Bryan D. , McGee Zachary A.
Published: July 2018

This chapter reviews the existing scholarship on agenda setting, focusing on two aspects of human choice. The first aspect centers on behavioral analyses of choice, especially cognitive limits to rationality (e.g., limits to the human attention span, the process of satisficing, and the use of heuristics), directed at understanding how individuals prioritize action. The second aspect focuses on organizational choice, with an emphasis on the impacts of information processing, search processes, and organizational structure. The chapter examines linkages between micro and macro processes, showing how studies of organizations and broader political systems based on a model of comprehensive rationality fail. Focusing on behavioral foundations allows for a more accurate and holistic explanation of issue prioritization (agenda setting) in complex organizations based on behavioral models of choice. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future directions of research.
Music in Body and Imagination
Authors: Evans H. M.
Published: July 2018

Music is widely thought to have therapeutic possibilities. The predominant attempts to understand music-as-therapy focus on “how it works.”. This readily leads to reductionist accounts that appear to leave out an understanding of musical experience—and of the metaphysics of music—that takes seriously the imagination and the will as well as the body. One way to approach this is through considering another side of musical experience—its sometimes intrusive, disruptive appearances (including musical hallucinosis), and the connections that these reveal between imagined sound, the sensations of bodily movement, restlessness, and anxiety. This approach can lead to an alternative, more “existential,” view of music-as-therapy whereby musical experience, operating through the imagination, recalls the sense of “premorbid states”—offering both consolation and reassurance. The account may have relevance to a wider understanding of musical experience beyond the therapeutic context.
Music, Bacchus, and Freedom
Authors: Law Hedy
Published: July 2018

Nietzsche points out in The Birth of Tragedy (1872, rev. 1886) that modern Dionysiac music began with Beethoven’s symphonic music and matured in Wagner’s music drama. Yet his account fails to explain a convention of Bacchus in pre-nineteenth-century music. This chapter provides a corrective by explaining the relationships among music, Bacchus, and freedom in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French music. With the use of Euripides’s Bacchae, the section “Bacchus and Pentheus” in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Nietzsche’s essay “The Dionysian World View,” this article relates the themes of musical deviance and political defiance, liberation and destruction, and orgy and regeneration to the ideas of positive and negative freedoms as well as freedom of action and freedom of motion. This article thus contextualizes d’Alembert’s De la liberté de la musique of 1759 by arguing that representations of Bacchus enable music and the body to construct freedom as an embodied concept.
Virtuosities of Deafness and Blindness
Authors: Honisch Stefan Sunandan
Published: July 2018

This chapter explores the convergence of disability and virtuosity in competitive music performance. Two case studies of the pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii performing Beethoven’s Apassionata and Hammerklavier sonatas in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition illustrate how the virtuosic body renders both normal and disabled bodies as other within the competitive arena. The critical and popular reception of these performances by Tsujii made much of their staging of a musical encounter between a blind pianist and a deaf composer; Tsujii himself, on the other hand, has publicly declared a more complex relationship to Beethoven as a fellow disabled musician. Exploring blindness and deafness as forms of virtuosity, this chapter shows how musical representations of virtuosity in performance exist in unfixed, dynamic, and even unsettling relationships to normal and disabled senses, bodies, and minds.
Emotion Dysregulation and Childhood Trauma
Authors: Kerig Patricia K.
Published: July 2018

This chapter describes theoretical models and empirical research devoted to understanding the aftermath of childhood trauma exposure and discusses the value of considering posttraumatic stress from an emotion dysregulation perspective. After describing definitional controversies in the field related to both trauma and posttraumatic stress, this chapter summarizes research on the effects of chronic, prolonged, and repeated traumatic experiences in childhood, such as maltreatment, with particular attention to its potential to compromise development of adaptive emotion regulation capacities. The role of emotion dysregulation in leading theoretical models of posttraumatic stress is presented, as well as empirical research testing the hypothesis that emotion dysregulation represents an underlying developmental mechanism through which childhood trauma affects functioning over the lifespan. Future directions include a need for clarification in conceptualization and measurement, further developmental processes to be considered, and opportunities for translational work to inform intervention efforts.
The Middle Heidegger’s Phenomenological Metaphysics
Authors: Crowell Steven
Published: July 2018

This chapter considers Heidegger’s attempt to construct a phenomenological metaphysics between the years 1927 and 1934. It begins with some reflections on the relation between transcendental phenomenology and metaphysics in order to clarify Heidegger’s definition of metaphysics as “metontology” in contrast to then-current philosophical anthropology. Reflection on the concept of world, at issue in both, shows the stress fractures in Heidegger’s understanding of metaphysics. The chapter considers Heidegger’s Leibnizian way of negotiating these fractures in his reflection on the animal, which provides the basis for his understanding of the Volk, which, the chapter argues, is the target toward which his attempt at a phenomenological metaphysics aims. The collapse of Heidegger’s intervention in German politics and the collapse of his metaphysical project are thus intimately related.
Sartre’s Transcendental Phenomenology
Authors: Webber Jonathan
Published: July 2018

The first phase of Sartre’s philosophical publications displays an apparent ambivalence toward Husserl’s transcendental turn. Sartre accepts both major aspects of that turn, the phenomenological reduction and the use of transcendental argumentation. Yet his rejection of the transcendental ego that Husserl derives from this transcendental turn overlooks an obvious transcendental argument in favor of it. His books on emotion and imagination, moreover, make only very brief comments about the transcendental constitution of the world of experience. In each case, these appear at the end of the book and can seem to contradict the book’s central analysis. The problem underlying these features of his works of phenomenological psychology is clarified and resolved, however, when Sartre articulates his own transcendental phenomenology and ontology in Being and Nothingness a decade after he first encountered the work of Husserl. This resolution raises a new problem that animates the next phase of his philosophy.
Ideal Verificationism and Perceptual Faith
Authors: Hopp Walter
Published: July 2018

Husserl maintains that there is an essential relationship between consciousness and being. Understanding the details of that relationship is one of the principal tasks of Husserl’s phenomenology. A. D. Smith characterizes Husserl’s position as “ideal verificationism,” according to which “There is nothing, no possible entity, that is not in principle experienceable”—and, therefore, knowable on the basis of experience. This chapter presents Husserl’s principal argument for ideal verificationism. More specifically, it discusses Husserl’s views on the relationships among truth and being, truth and evidence, and evidence and consciousness. The chapter then discusses Husserl’s view that it is at least ideally possible that any object could be intuited adequately or completely. It then turns to Merleau-Ponty’s argument against that view. Finally, the chapter examines Merleau-Ponty’s account of perception and perceptual faith, and argues that a version of Husserl’s ideal verificationism is compatible with Merleau-Ponty’s position.
Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty on the World of Experience
Authors: Jacobs Hanne
Published: July 2018

This chapter focuses on a number of respects in which Husserl’s, Heidegger’s, and Merleau-Ponty’s accounts of the world differ, despite other significant commonalities. Specifically, it discusses how both Heidegger’s and Merleau-Ponty’s accounts of our experience of the world challenge Husserl’s assertion of the possibility of a worldless consciousness; how Heidegger’s discussion of the world entails a rejection of Husserl’s claim that the world is at bottom nature; and how Merleau-Ponty puts pressure on Husserl’s account of the necessary structure of the world. In concluding, and as a propaedeutic to adjudicating these disputes, this chapter aims to show why Husserl makes these contested claims. Specifically, it suggests that it is Husserl’s phenomenological conception of reason and his commitment to (this conception of) reason that motivate him to make the claims about our experience and world with which the later phenomenologists take issue.
Kant, Neo-Kantianism, and Phenomenology
Authors: Luft Sebastian
Published: July 2018

This chapter offers a reassessment of the relationship between Kant, the Kantian tradition, and phenomenology, here focusing mainly on Husserl and Heidegger. Part of this reassessment concerns those philosophers who, during the lives of Husserl and Heidegger, sought to defend an updated version of Kant’s philosophy, the neo-Kantians. The chapter shows where the phenomenologists were able to benefit from some of the insights on the part of Kant and the neo-Kantians, but also clearly points to the differences. The aim of this chapter is to offer a fair evaluation of the relation of the main phenomenologists to Kant and to what was at the time the most powerful philosophical movement in Europe.
Phenomenology and Descriptive Psychology
Authors: Fisette Denis
Published: July 2018

This chapter is about Husserl’s early phenomenology. It is divided into five parts. The first part is about the young Husserl’s years of study and his encounter with Brentano in Vienna and with Carl Stumpf in Halle. The second and third parts are meant to succinctly describe Husserl’s original contribution to Brentano’s philosophical program prior to the publication of his Logical Investigations in 1900–1. In the fourth part, the chapter examines Husserl’s criticism of Brentano’s criteria in his Psychology for delineating the two classes of phenomena and Husserl’s arguments for the delineation of his phenomenology in the first edition of his Hauptwerk. It concludes on a Stumpfian note about Husserl’s reasons, shortly after the publication of his Logical Investigations, to sharply dissociate phenomenology from descriptive psychology.
A Psychological Overview of Gaming Disorder
Authors: Kuss Daria J. , Pontes Halley , Király Orsi , Demetrovics Zsolt
Published: July 2018

Over the last decade, the availability of different online games has increased rapidly, which coincides with the expeditious development of the gaming industry. Given that online games such as Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) appeal to a broad audience who will spend large amounts of time engaging with these games, it is unsurprising that small numbers of highly engaged gamers may develop problems as a consequence of their excessive gaming patterns, including gaming disorder (GD). A unified assessment approach to GD is needed as substantial differences related to classification within the context of assessment can further generate confusion and render inconclusive information on the prevalence rates, clinical course, treatment, and biomarkers implicated with GD. Several scholars have called for unification in the assessment of GD following the publication of the nine IGD criteria by the APA. This chapter addresses these issues.
Henri de Lubac
Authors: Flynn Gabriel
Published: July 2018

This chapter provides an interpretative framework for understanding de Lubac’s ecclesiology. It first reconstructs key elements in his vision of the church within his overarching view of a ‘total’ ecclesiology. De Lubac’s vision of ‘totality’ provides a hermeneutical key to interpret his thought on the church and is considered in the context of his contribution to the renewed theology of the ‘mystical body’, the fruits of which have been garnered since Vatican II under the appellation ‘communion ecclesiology’. The second major section expounds de Lubac’s profoundly Eucharistic ecclesiology and shows how it provides a spiritual and social vision for the contemporary world.
Joseph Ratzinger
Authors: Dieter Theodor
Published: July 2018

Ratzinger’s ecclesiology is a Eucharistic ecclesiology: the church is the people of God existing from the sacramental Body of Christ and thus becoming the ecclesial Body of Christ. Therefore the church is communio: the communion at the table with Christ and among the believers, and also a communion of local churches (communio ecclesiarum) that is the basis for the collegiality of the bishops. The spiritual and institutional dimensions of the Body of Christ are mutually interwoven. In every particular church the universal church is present; its representation and the point of reference in doctrinal matters for all is the pope. The church serves the presence of the Word of God in the world in such a way that the Word as it is witnessed to in Holy Scripture is communicated to all by authorized witnesses. Witness (content) and witnesses are inseparable, as succession and tradition are mutually interrelated as form and content.
Astrology
Authors: Cooper Glen M.
Published: July 2018

In its original Babylonian and Egyptian contexts, astrology was the interpretation of celestial signs and omens sent by the gods as warnings to rulers and the elite. Roman fondness for Stoicism fertilized the growth of astrology in the Greco-Roman world, which developed into a natural science, fully integrated with the prevailing cosmology. Astrology became popularized, and anyone who could afford some level of the service knew basic features of his natal chart. The chapter explains the various forms and purposes of judicial or divinatory astrology: “mundane” (heavenly effects on regions), “genethlialogical” (heavenly effects on a life from its birth or conception), “horary” (heavenly effects on the present moment), and “catarchic” (heavenly effects on the future). The chapter also provides an historical sketch of classical astrology, from Babylonian origins through the major surviving handbooks, and an elaborated ancient example of a natal chart (of the emperor Hadrian), its methods, and interpretation.
Mesopotamian Beginnings for Greek Science?
Authors: Scurlock JoAnn
Published: July 2018

This chapter studies the influential tradition of Mesopotamian medicine. Two distinct kinds of medical experts collaborated to diagnose and to treat illness, the āšipu and the asû, who are respectively analogous to the Greek iatros and pharmakopōlēs. Assyrian herbals are organized by medical effect, much like Dioscorides’ herbal. The Diagnostic and Predictive Series, standardized by ca 1050 bce, provides evaluations of illnesses from head to toe, plus evaluations by category such as fever, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics. Mesopotamian medicine was very familiar with contagion. The attribution of diseases to gods, ghosts, or demons was simply the āšipu’s way of subdividing broad categories of disease, much as we aggregate symptoms.
Pharmacology in the Early Roman Empire
Authors: Scarborough John
Published: July 2018

The chapter examines the pharmaceutical work of Dioscorides. The many texts of Hellenistic pharmacy, mostly lost, lie in the immediate background of Dioscorides’ work, and those connections are delineated here, showing links to Andromachus, Arius, Iuba, Sextius Niger, and Theophrastus. The ecumenical Roman Empire provided a wide array of medical stuffs that Dioscorides classifies by type of effect, for use by compounding pharmacists. Pharmacology melds with medical dietetics: Dioscorides exploited Arabian resins, Egyptian books providing recipes, the valued silphion of Cyrene, poisons by Mithradates, and the book of the North African king Iuba publicizing his new discovery of euphorbion. Dioscorides exploits not only plants but also parts of various animals. Disocorides is careful with the powerful analgesic drugs then available, henbane, mandrake, and opium. His fifth book covers mineral medicines and wine additives.
Ptolemy
Authors: Evans James C.
Published: July 2018

The chapter surveys the work of Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), who wrote on astronomy, cosmology, astrology, geography, optics and harmonics and who placed several fields of study into forms that remained definitive until the Renaissance. His astronomical Syntaxis (or Almagest) gave theories of the motions of the sun, moon, and planets that were highly successful in representing the angular motions of the bodies, although his lunar theory exaggerated the variation in distance. The cosmological consequences of this world view were developed in a separate work, the Planetary Hypotheses. Of the surviving ancient treatises on astrology, Ptolemy’s is the most rationalized and orderly and attempts to justify this art in terms of philosophy. His geographical work provides instructions for projecting a world map and an extensive gazetteer of sites. In both his astronomy and his harmonics Ptolemy built and described a suite of instruments. His book on optics includes experiments aimed at determining a law of refraction.
Byzantine Alchemy, or the Era of Systematization
Authors: Viano Cristina
Published: July 2018

The chapter shows how the texts of early Byzantine alchemy transformed the alchemical tradition. This period is characterized by a generation of “commentators” tied to the Neoplatonic milieu. Their writings, designed primarily to clarify the ideas of the previous generations, represent the most advanced stage of ancient alchemical theory. In the fifth century, authors external to alchemy explicitly speak of alchemy as a contemporary practice to produce gold from other metals. Around the seventh century, the corpus of alchemical texts began to be assembled as an anthology of extracts. The object of the research was agents of transformations of matter. The cause of the transformation is an active principle that acts by dissolution: “divine water” (or sulfur water), mercury, “chrysocolla” (gold solder), or raw sulfur. Mercury is at once the dyeing agent and the prime metallic matter, understood as the common substrate of the transformations and the principle of liquidity.
Byzantine Medical Encyclopedias and Education
Authors: Slaveva-Griffin Svetla
Published: July 2018

The contribution of the Byzantine medical encyclopedists (ca 370 ce–ca 650 ce) to the preservation of medical knowledge still awaits its full scholarly assessment. This chapter highlights the achievements of Oribasius of Pergamum, Aëtius of Amida, Alexander of Tralleis, and Paul of Aegina. In the shadow of Galen’s legacy, these writers preserve, organize, and explicate the diverse body of medical knowledge, available to them. Relying on Galen but also on medical writers from the sixth century bce onwards, Oribasius composes his Compilations as a comprehensive source of medical authority. Aëtius produces a collection of 16 books covering the full medical spectrum from pharmacology to diagnostics to pathology. To it, Alexander adds a collection of 12 books, entitled Therapeutics, with corollary treatises On Fevers and On Intestinal Worms. Paul compiles the Epitome of Medicine, featuring all medical branches.
Astral Sciences of Ancient Mesopotamia
Authors: Rochberg Francesca
Published: July 2018

The chapter explores Mesopotamian astrology and astronomy, which were not distinct as pseudo-science is from science, and were together a major part of cuneiform intellectual culture. The writings consist of scholarly compendia, observational records, and predictive ephemerides, mostly produced after ca700 bce, at the court in Assyria, and later, in the major temples of Babylonian cities. Heavenly phenomena (astral, planetary, and lunar) were objects of study both as signs of future events and as phenomena in their own right. The systematic study and recording of astral phenomena as signs began in the Old Babylonian period (2000–1600 bce), and continued well after the conquest by Alexander. Babylonian astronomy used mathematical models (based on numerical sequences) to calculate periodic phenomena. The astral sciences, including celestial and natal divination, that is, omens and horoscopes, were parts of a scholarly discipline sustained over two millennia by cuneiform scribes in both Assyria and Babylonia.
Hellenistic Mathematics
Authors: Acerbi Fabio
Published: July 2018

The article analyses the forms and texts of Hellenistic mathematics. Three stylistic codes were employed in these texts, each related to a specific mathematical content: the demonstrative, the procedural, and the algorithmic code. Greek mathematical works, such as those by Apollonius of Perge, were not diffused through official channels, and instead were usually sent to some addressee, and were frequently preceded by a prefatory epistle, so each “edition” was actually a single copy, to be diffused by the recipient to relevant people. The prefatory letters of Archimedes’ works show that he regularly circulated lists of open problems and conjectures, and then their solutions. Mathematical texts were canonical, and elicited a variety of activities, especially the writing of commentaries, perhaps first by Heron of Alexandria. Late antique authors, such as Diophantus, Pappus, and Serenus, transform this canon.
Mechanics and Pneumatics in the Classical World
Authors: Rihll Tracey
Published: July 2018

The chapter surveys what we know of the ancient disciplines of mechanics (the movements of masses) and pneumatics (the movements of “pneuma,” or “breath,” meaning air or steam, including water or other liquids). Mechanics possessed two aspects: a theoretical-mathematical, and a practical-functional. Didactic mechanical literature is partly understood by reading; comprehension requires it be performed. Machines were made or described for various purposes, and archaeological finds are fragmentary, so conclusions must be tentative. The medical machines described in several texts were intended for use. If no piece of an ancient lathe survives, the lathe-marks on objects prove its use. Complex machines such as the Antikythera device and musical organs powered by water pressure were built; texts survive describing the water-organ. Philon of Byzantium and Heron both supplied instructions for the manufacture of amusing and practical devices, including water pumps.
Science for Happiness
Authors: Gordon Pam
Published: July 2018

The chapter investigates the evolving doctrines of Epicureanism in the Roman period. Reverence for Epicurus and close adherence to his teachings were essential aspects of Epicurean identity throughout the history of the school. But despite their desire to be faithful, later Epicureans made their own contributions as they recontextualized Hellenistic philosophy, responded to later developments and current controversies, or presented Epicureanism in new genres. In addition to surveying the later Epicurean sources, this chapter outlines aspects of Epicurean scientific theory that first emerge between the first century bce and the second or third century ce. The authors explored are Lucretius, Philodemus, Diogenes of Oenoanda, and Diogenes Laërtius. The doctrines highlighted include: the healing balm of philosophy, the atomic basis of human psychology, the nature of scientific inference as induction, the visual size of the sun, and the swerve.
Late Encyclopedic Approaches to Knowledge in Latin Literature
Authors: Paniagua David
Published: July 2018

The chapter considers works of late Latin literature that offer an array of facts or data; works resulting from the author’s attempts to provide a coherent, comprehensive and organized exposition of human knowledge, and therefore conceived from an encyclopedic standpoint. These works display one or the other of two approaches to knowledge. One is a complete approach to the knowledge of nature, such as Lucretius’ poem On the nature of things, or Pliny’s Natural History: these works attempt to provide a description of the physical world. The other approach provides an articulated educational project by means of the exposition of the liberal arts: the triuium (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic) and the quadriuium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music).
Pythagoras and Plato
Authors: Gregory Andrew
Published: July 2018

The chapter studies the natural philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato, carefully delineating similarities and contrasts. The sources on Pythagoras are all much later than his life, and often unreliable or hagiographical; whereas for Plato we have a large corpus of his own writings—which nevertheless are not simple to interpret. Plato and Aristotle regard Pythagoras as primarily a religious figure, not a mathematician or natural philosopher. A sharp distinction between Pythagoras as religious figure and Pythagoras as natural philosopher and mathematician may not be the best interpretation. Plato’s cosmology constructs a highly ordered cosmos, in which mathematical forms (circles, regular solids, and simple ratios) play a decisive role. Several thinkers influenced by the work of Pythagoras or Plato are also treated: Archytas, Eudoxus, and Philolaus.
Incorporating Innovative Simulation Activities Into Campus Lab to Enhance Skill Competence and Critical Thinking of Second-Semester Associate Degree Nursing Students
Authors: Andrew Lesley A. , Baxter Patricia M.
Published: July 2018

Decreasing access to clinical sites, inconsistency in student learning experiences, and lack of faculty have compelled nursing schools to incorporate more simulation into their curricula. Professional organizations, regulating bodies, and schools of nursing support its use. The Nursing 2 Challenge simulation activity was designed to give second-semester nursing students an opportunity to improve skill competence and critical thinking utilizing a systematic, preplanned station rotation format in the safe setting of the nursing campus lab. Each station required the students to apply clinical decision-making and nursing skills to complete interventions aligned with course objectives.
Social Marketing Campaigns as a Teaching Strategy for Health Promotion
Authors: Unterseher Lindsey
Published: July 2018

Current nursing students are more technologically adept than past generations; they are accustomed to using technology in their everyday life. Proficiency in technology is a major asset, and as such, nursing education should provide for opportunities with technology that will support future practice. This article reports on a group project effectively used to capitalize on this skill while encouraging active engagement in learning about health promotion. Student groups created a social marketing campaign consisting of a summary of their campaign, one infogram, and one 30-second video focused on a topic area from Healthy People 2020.
An Innovative Approach to Onboarding and Supporting Adjunct Faculty in Nursing
Authors: Kemery Dana C. , Serembus Joanne Farley
Published: July 2018

In recent years, online graduate nursing programs throughout the United States have seen unprecedented growth that has resulted in a greater need for adjunct faculty who can adequately teach in an online format. Frequently, adjunct faculty are not prepared to teach online as they are not offered the necessary continued support in their roles. Through the development of an onboarding program, barriers for teaching online were eliminated. The program is supported by a faculty learning community and continuous professional development workshops. These resources support adjunct faculty at various stages of their professional development and allow for collaborative exchange.
Association Between Attempted External Cephalic Version and Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality
Authors: Son Moeun , Roy Archana , Grobman William A. , Miller Emily S.
Published: July 2018

OBJECTIVE:

To examine whether, with fetal malpresentation at term, perinatal morbidity and mortality differ between women who undergo an external cephalic version (ECV) attempt and those who do not and are expectantly managed.

METHODS:

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of women with nonanomalous singleton gestations in nonvertex presentation delivering at a tertiary care institution from 2006 to 2016. Women undergoing an ECV attempt at 37 weeks of gestation or greater were compared with those with nonvertex fetuses who did not undergo an ECV attempt and delivered at 37 weeks of gestation or greater. The primary outcome was a composite of perinatal morbidity and mortality including stillbirth, neonatal death within 72 hours, Apgar score less than 5 at 5 minutes, umbilical artery pH less than 7.0, base deficit 12 mmol/L or greater, or neonatal therapeutic hypothermia. Secondary outcomes were neonatal intensive care unit admission and neonatal anemia (hemoglobin value less than 13.5 g/dL). Bivariable and multivariable analyses were performed.

RESULTS:

Of the 4,117 women meeting eligibility criteria, 1,263 (30.7%) attempted ECV; 509 (40.3%) of these attempts resulted in successful versions. In bivariable analyses, women who underwent attempted ECV were more likely to be non-Hispanic white and multiparous and had lower mean body mass indexes. The composite perinatal morbidity and mortality outcome did not differ significantly between women who did and did not undergo attempted ECV (2.9% vs 2.5%, P=.46). The frequencies of neonatal intensive care unit admission (3.6% vs 3.3%, P=.53) and neonatal anemia (1.6% vs 1.2%, P=.36) were also similar. There continued to be no association between ECV attempt and composite perinatal morbidity and mortality outcome after adjustment for potential confounders (adjusted odds ratio 1.02, 95% CI 0.66–1.60).

CONCLUSION:

Compared with expectant management, an ECV attempt at term is not associated with increased perinatal morbidity or mortality.
Female Sexual Dysfunction and the Placebo Effect
Authors: Weinberger James M. , Houman Justin , Caron Ashley T. , Patel Devin N. , Baskin Avi S. , Ackerman A. Lenore , Eilber Karyn S. , Anger Jennifer T.
Published: July 2018

OBJECTIVE:

To quantify the placebo effect of various pharmacologic modalities including neuromodulators, hormonal agents, and onabotulinum toxin A for female sexual dysfunction.

DATA SOURCES:

Using Meta-analyses Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines, we conducted a systematic review of PubMed, EMBASE, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the Cochrane Review databases.

METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION:

Eleven search terms, “female sexual dysfunction” “treatment” in combination with “hypoactive sexual desire,” “arousal disorder,” “sexual pain disorder,” “genitourinary syndrome of menopause,” “orgasmic disorder,” “vulvovaginal atrophy,” “vaginismus,” “vaginal atrophy,” “vulvodynia,” and “vestibulitis,” were used. Studies were included if their design was randomized, included a placebo arm, and used the Female Sexual Function Index as an outcome measure.

TABULATION, INTEGRATION, AND RESULTS:

The placebo effect on the Female Sexual Function Index was compared with each respective study's treatment effect using inverse-variance weighting in a random-effects analysis model. Six hundred five relevant articles were retrieved. Twenty-four randomized controlled trials included a placebo arm. Of these, eight studies used the Female Sexual Function Index. Across these studies, 1,723 women with clinical pretreatment female sexual dysfunction received placebo. Two thousand two hundred thirty-six women were in the treatment arm of the respective studies and received various pharmacologic interventions including flibanserin, bupropion, onabotulinum toxin A, intravaginal prasterone, intranasal oxytocin, ospemifene, and bremelanotide. Women receiving placebo improved 3.62 (95% CI 3.29–3.94) on the Female Sexual Function Index. The treatment arm had a corresponding increase of 5.35 (95% CI 4.13–6.57).

CONCLUSION:

This meta-analysis of Level I evidence demonstrates that 67.7% of the treatment effect for female sexual dysfunction is accounted for by placebo. Our findings suggest that the current treatments for female sexual dysfunction are, overall, minimally superior to placebo, which emphasizes the ongoing need for more efficacious treatment for female sexual dysfunction.
Institutional Protocols for Vaginal Preparation With Antiseptic Solution and Surgical Site Infection Rate in Women Undergoing Cesarean Delivery During Labor
Authors: La Rosa Mauricio , Jauk Victoria , Saade George , Boggess Kim , Longo Sherri , Clark Erin A. S. , Esplin Sean , Cleary Kirsten , Wapner Ronald , Letson Kellett , Owens Michelle Y. , Blackwell Sean , Szychowski Jeff M. , Andrews William W. , Tita Alan T. ,   for the Cesarean Section Optimal Antibiotic Prophylaxis Trial Consortium
Published: July 2018

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate the association of institutional protocols for vaginal preparation with antiseptic solution and the surgical site infection rate in women undergoing cesarean delivery during labor.

METHODS:

This is a secondary analysis of a multicenter randomized controlled trial of adjunctive azithromycin prophylaxis for cesarean delivery performed in laboring patients with viable pregnancies. The primary outcome for this analysis was the rate of superficial or deep surgical site infection within 6 weeks postpartum, as per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria. Maternal secondary outcomes included a composite of endometritis, wound infection or other infections, postoperative maternal fever, length of hospital stay, and the rates of hospital readmission, unexpected office visits, and emergency department visits.

RESULTS:

A total of 523 women delivered in institutions with vaginal antisepsis policies before cesarean delivery and 1,490 delivered in institutions without such policies. There was no difference in superficial and deep surgical site infection rates between women with and without vaginal preparation (5.5% vs 4.1%; odds ratio [OR] 1.38, 95% CI 0.87–2.17), even after adjusting for possible confounders (adjusted OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.43–1.73). The lack of significant benefit was noted in all other maternal secondary outcomes.

CONCLUSION:

Institutional policies for vaginal preparation before cesarean delivery were not associated with lower rates of surgical site infection in women undergoing cesarean delivery during labor.
What Is New in Maternal Immunization?
Authors: Jamieson Denise J.
Published: July 2018

This month we focus on current research in maternal immunization. Dr. Jamieson discusses four recent publications, which are concluded with a “bottom line” that is a take-home message. A completed reference for each can be found in Box 1 on this page along with direct links to abstracts.