bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Temporal Effects of Sleeve Gastrectomy on Glucose-Insulin Homeostasis and Incretin Hormone Response at 1 and 6 Months
Authors: Prior S. L. , Churm R. , Min T. , Dunseath G. J. , Barry J. D. , Stephens J. W.
Published: February 2020

Background

Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for morbid obesity and glycaemic dysfunction.

Objectives

The aim of the work was to examine both the static and dynamic changes of glucose-insulin homeostasis and incretin hormone response following sleeve gastrectomy (SG) in a sample of 55 participants preoperatively and 1 month and 6 months postoperatively. The focus was on a sample of patients with impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Setting

Morriston Hospital, UK.

Methods

Prospective study comprising of 55 participants with impaired glucose homeostasis and T2D undergoing SG (mean body mass index [BMI] 50.4 kg/m2, mean glycated haemoglobin [A1C] 7.4%). Serial measurements of glucose, insulin, C-peptide, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic hormone (GIP) were performed during oral glucose tolerance testing preoperatively and 1 and 6 months postoperatively. Areas under the curve (AUC) were examined at 30, 60, and 120 min.

Results

We observed significant improvements in measures of obesity, as well as static and dynamic measures of glucose, insulin, C-peptide and HOMA. Furthermore, significant increases in GLP-1 response as early as 6 months postoperatively were also seen.

Conclusions

To our knowledge, no study has examined the detailed dynamic changes in glucose and insulin homeostasis in this number of participants undergoing SG in relation to incretin hormones GIP and GLP-1. This current study supports the role of SG for the treatment of obesity-related glucose dysregulation.
A “Silent Revolution”: school reforms and Italy’s educational gender gap in the Liberal Age (1861–1921)
Authors: Cappelli Gabriele , Vasta Michelangelo
Published: February 2020

This paper explores the evolution of the human capital gender gap in Liberal Italy (1871–1921). First, we show that Italy lagged some 50 years behind more advanced countries like France, Prussia and the UK, and that the regional divide in gendered literacy was unparalleled in the rest of Europe. Next, we test whether the shift to primary-school centralization in 1911 (the Daneo-Credaro Reform) brought about a decisive improvement in female literacy. We rely on a brand new, cross-sectional micro (municipal)-dataset of literacy rates in 1911 and 1921, as well as their potential determinants around 1911. Such data, combined with propensity score matching to improve identification, show that primary-school centralization increased the average annual growth of female literacy by 0.78 percentage points. Thus, even though the Reform did not aim at girls specifically, it brought about the unintended consequences of more rapid human capital accumulation for women and—ceteris paribus—a reduced educational gender gap. We briefly discuss why this “Silent Revolution” likely had important implications for Italy’s economic history.
Numeracy and migrant students: a case study of secondary level mathematics education in Norway
Authors: Nortvedt Guri A. , Wiese Eline
Published: February 2020

Previous research has shown that adults from migrant backgrounds often have lower numeracy competence than do their majority counterparts, even though many were educated in their host country. Leaving secondary education with lower levels of numeracy competence than majority students potentially makes migrant students vulnerable as adults, as the lack of numeracy competence can negatively impact their opportunities to participate in work-life and society, in addition to affecting their everyday lives. Thus, it is vitally important to understand how mathematics education at the compulsory level can offer migrant students opportunities to develop numeracy competence. This paper presents a case study of four Norwegian lower secondary mathematics teachers. These teachers were asked to reflect on their classroom practices and on how they adapt teaching and assessment situations to migrant students. Our findings show that the teachers valued diversity in their classrooms and that their teaching was student-centred, focused on assessment for learning and problem-solving practices. These are potential building blocks for culturally responsive teaching. However, the teachers mainly focused on language issues, while cultural aspects of classroom participation and mathematical activity were neglected. This paper argues that such views may potentially hinder the provision of equal opportunities for all students to become numerate and, therefore, may contribute to maintaining migrant students—and the migrant adults they will become—as a vulnerable group.
Die Alternative für Deutschland
Authors: Schroeder Wolfgang , Weßels Bernhard
Published: February 2020

Die AfD hat es binnen kurzer Zeit geschafft, in alle deutsche Landesparlamente einzuziehen sowie als Bundestags-Novizin die größte Oppositionsfraktion zu stellen. Gleichwohl bleibt sie mit ihren inneren Dynamiken, den Wandlungs- und Transformationsprozessen sowie der heterogenen Koalition von bewegungs- und parlamentsorientierten Kräften ein rätselhaftes Phänomen. Vor diesem Hintergrund beleuchtet der Beitrag die Entwicklung der Partei, ihr programmatisches und parlamentarisches Profil sowie die Abgrenzung und Bezugnahme auf rechtsextreme Akteur_innen.
Design of a direct-detection wind and aerosol lidar for mars orbit
Authors: Cremons Daniel R. , Abshire James B. , Sun Xiaoli , Allan Graham , Riris Haris , Smith Michael D. , Guzewich Scott , Yu Anthony , Hovis Floyd
Published: February 2020

The present knowledge of the Mars atmosphere is greatly limited by a lack of global measurements of winds and aerosols. Hence, measurements of height-resolved wind and aerosol profiles are a priority for new Mars orbiting missions. We have designed a direct-detection lidar (MARLI) to provide global measurements of dust, winds and water ice profiles from Mars orbit. From a 400-km polar orbit, the instrument is designed to provide wind and backscatter measurements with a vertical resolution of 2 km and with resolution of 2° in latitude along track. The instrument uses a single-frequency, seeded Nd:YAG laser that emits 4 mJ pulses at 1064 nm at a 250 Hz pulse rate. The receiver utilizes a 50-cm diameter telescope and a double-edge Fabry-Pérot etalon as a frequency discriminator to measure the Doppler shift of the aerosol-backscatter profiles. The receiver also includes a polarization-sensitive channel to detect the cross-polarized backscatter profiles from water ice. The receiver uses a sensitive 4 × 4 pixel HgCdTe avalanche photodiode array as a detector for all signals. Here we describe the measurement concept, instrument design, and calculate its performance for several cases of Mars atmospheric conditions. The calculations show that under a range of atmospheric conditions MARLI is capable of measuring wind speed profiles with random error of 2–4 m/s within the first three scale heights, enabling vertically resolved mapping of transport processes in this important region of the atmosphere.
Computational fluid dynamics simulation of Hyperloop pod predicting laminar–turbulent transition
Authors: Nick Nathalie , Sato Yohei
Published: February 2020

Three-dimensional compressible flow simulations were conducted to develop a Hyperloop pod. The novelty is the usage of Gamma transition model, in which the transition from laminar to turbulent flow can be predicted. First, a mesh dependency study was undertaken, showing second-order convergence with respect to the mesh refinement. Second, an aerodynamic analysis for two designs, short and optimized, was conducted with the traveling speed 125 m/s at the system pressure 0.15 bar. The concept of the short model was to delay the transition to decrease the frictional drag; meanwhile that of the optimized design was to minimize the pressure drag by decreasing the frontal area and introduce the transition more toward the front of the pod. The computed results show that the transition of the short model occurred more on the rear side due to the pod shape, which resulted in 8% smaller frictional drag coefficient than that for the optimized model. The pressure drag for the optimized design was 24% smaller than that for the short design, half of which is due to the decrease in the frontal area, and the other half is due to the smoothed rear-end shape. The total drag for the optimized model was 14% smaller than that for the short model. Finally, the influence of the system pressure was investigated. As the system pressure and the Reynolds number increase, the frictional drag coefficient increases, and the transition point moves toward the front, which are the typical phenomena observed in the transition regime.
Does Confucianism promote cooperation and integration in East Asia?
Authors: Nawrot Katarzyna Anna
Published: February 2020

This paper examines the commonality of culture in East Asia and its relationship with economic cooperation and the integration of the region, and shows how Confucian ethics and philosophy have played a significant role in the economic growth and development of the various countries there. It finds, however, that there is still insufficient recognition of Confucian and Asian values as the potential mainstay of a regional identity on which economic integration can be built and enhanced. The earliest catalysts of cooperation and integration in East Asia were political and security threats. Later, functional integration was accomplished through globalization and market forces. Yet the institutionalization of the processes is inevitable and necessary if cooperation and integration are to be deepened and strengthened. This can be achieved by building a regional identity. Thus, cultural community based on Confucianism can serve as a pillar of regional common identity and values as a necessary condition to consolidate and integrate East Asian countries into a single economic community.
Engineering Leaf-Like UiO-66-SO3H Membranes for Selective Transport of Cations
Authors: Xu Tingting , Shehzad Muhammad Aamir , Wang Xin , Wu Bin , Ge Liang , Xu Tongwen
Published: February 2020

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with angstrom-sized pores are promising functional nanomaterials for the fabrication of cation permselective membranes (MOF-CPMs). However, only a few research reports show successful preparation of the MOF-CPMs with good cation separation performance due to several inherent problems in MOFs, such as arduous self-assembly, poor water resistance, and tedious fabrication strategies. Besides, low cation permeation flux due to the absence of the cation permeation assisting functionalities in MOFs is another big issue, which limits their widespread use in membrane technology. Therefore, it is necessary to fabricate functional MOF-CPMs using simplistic strategies to improve cation permeation. In this context, we report a facile in situ smart growth strategy to successfully produce ultrathin (< 600 nm) and leaf-like UiO-66-SO3H membranes at the surface of anodic alumina oxide. The physicochemical characterizations confirm that sulfonated angstrom-sized ion transport channels exist in the as-prepared UiO-66-SO3H membranes, which accelerate the cation permeation (~ 3× faster than non-functionalized UiO-66 membrane) and achieve a high ion selectivity (Na+/Mg2+ > 140). The outstanding cation separation performance validates the importance of introducing sulfonic acid groups in MOF-CPMs.
N-Graphene Nanowalls via Plasma Nitrogen Incorporation and Substitution: The Experimental Evidence
Authors: M. Santhosh Neelakandan , Filipič Gregor , Kovacevic Eva , Jagodar Andrea , Berndt Johannes , Strunskus Thomas , Kondo Hiroki , Hori Masaru , Tatarova Elena , Cvelbar Uroš
Published: February 2020

Incorporating nitrogen (N) atom in graphene is considered a key technique for tuning its electrical properties. However, this is still a great challenge, and it is unclear how to build N-graphene with desired nitrogen configurations. There is a lack of experimental evidence to explain the influence and mechanism of structural defects for nitrogen incorporation into graphene compared to the derived DFT theories. Herein, this gap is bridged through a systematic study of different nitrogen-containing gaseous plasma post-treatments on graphene nanowalls (CNWs) to produce N-CNWs with incorporated and substituted nitrogen. The structural and morphological analyses describe a remarkable difference in the plasma–surface interaction, nitrogen concentration and nitrogen incorporation mechanism in CNWs by using different nitrogen-containing plasma. Electrical conductivity measurements revealed that the conductivity of the N-graphene is strongly influenced by the position and concentration of C–N bonding configurations. These findings open up a new pathway for the synthesis of N-graphene using plasma post-treatment to control the concentration and configuration of incorporated nitrogen for application-specific properties.
Assessment of structure and selected mechanical properties of braze welded joints of copper-lined steel tubes
Authors: Mirski Zbigniew , Wojdat Tomasz , Hejna Jan
Published: February 2020

In the paper, results of a research on braze welded joints of copper-lined 10CrMo9-10 (10H2M) steel tubes made by CMT arc braze welding are presented. As a filler metal, silicon bronze was applied. Results of metallographic examinations with the use of light microscopy, electron scanning microscopy and X-ray microanalysis are presented. Mechanical properties of the joints were assessed on the grounds of static tensile test, technological bending test, as well as hardness measurements. Quality of the obtained joints was good. No cracks were observed in the brazed joints and the obtained mechanical properties were satisfactory.
When Are Pay Gaps Good or Bad for Firm Performance? Evidence from China
Authors: Luo Jin-hui , Xiang Yuangao , Zhu Ruichao
Published: February 2020

There is still an ongoing debate regarding the firm performance implications of pay gaps between top executives and subordinate employees. This study integrates relative deprivation theory and tournament theory to investigate the potential nonlinear effects of pay gaps. We expect that at low levels of pay inequality, increased inequality hurts firm productivity, while at higher levels of pay inequality, increased inequality helps firm productivity. Our study of Chinese firms confirms that pay gaps have an approximately U-shaped relationship with firm performance. This nonlinear relationship is weaker in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than in non-SOEs, suggesting that state ownership is an important moderator in the association. Overall, this study explains previous mixed findings regarding consequences of pay gaps with meaningful implications for policymakers and entrepreneurs in China and other economies with similar cultural and institutional backgrounds.
Multiethnic Parastates and Nation-Building: The Case of the Transnistrian Imagined Community
Authors: Marandici Ion
Published: February 2020

This article explores nation-building processes in the Transnistrian imagined community. While some scholars describe Transnistria’s nation-building strategy as a civic, multicultural project, the analysis of recent demographic and educational data corroborated with the close examination of local media content and official discourses—all point to the emergence of a distinct political culture marked by the increasing use of the Russian language in the public sphere, and the politicization of the Moldovan identity. Discourses about ethnic and national identity in the region have evolved as the Transnistrian elites reimagine the political community as part of theRusskii Mir.These circumstances suggest that, in the long run, the breakaway region might function as the southeastern frontline of Russian irredentism with the elites of the Pridnestrovska͡ia Moldavska͡ia Respublika continuing to call on the Russian Federation to annex the parastate instead of seeking a peaceful reintegration into Moldova.
The Trump Effect: An Experimental Investigation of the Emboldening Effect of Racially Inflammatory Elite Communication
Authors: Newman Benjamin , Merolla Jennifer L. , Shah Sono , Lemi Danielle Casarez , Collingwood Loren , Ramakrishnan S. Karthick
Published: February 2020

This article explores the effect of explicitly racial and inflammatory speech by political elites on mass citizens in a societal context where equality norms are widespread and generally heeded yet a subset of citizens nonetheless possesses deeply ingrained racial prejudices. The authors argue that such speech should have an ‘emboldening effect’ among the prejudiced, particularly where it is not clearly and strongly condemned by other elite political actors. To test this argument, the study focuses on the case of the Trump campaign for president in the United States, and utilizes a survey experiment embedded within an online panel study. The results demonstrate that in the absence of prejudiced elite speech, prejudiced citizens constrain the expression of their prejudice. However, in the presence of prejudiced elite speech – particularly when it is tacitly condoned by other elites – the study finds that the prejudiced are emboldened to both express and act upon their prejudices.
Let the Children Come: The Religion of the Protestant Child in Early America
Authors: Brooks Holifield E.
Published: February 2020

In 1844, the Congregationalist minister Enoch Pond in Bangor, Maine, reminded his fellow clergy that they had been commissioned not only to feed the sheep of their flocks but also to nurture the lambs. Under no circumstances, he cautioned, would a good minister neglect the children, for both Christian parents and their pastors felt “the deepest anxiety” that the children of American parishes would not “receive that wise government, that faithful discipline, that Christian instruction and restraint, which, by the blessing of God, shall result in their speedy conversion, and bring them early and truly into the fold of Christ.” He called for pastors to pray for the children, to convene meetings of praying parents, to pay attention to children during pastoral visits, to impart special instruction to children from the pulpit, to visit their schools, to institute Sunday schools, to teach children the Bible, and to offer catechetical instruction. The devoted pastor would acquaint himself with children, “enter into their feelings, and interest himself in their affairs; and thus engage their affections, and win their confidence.“

Christian clergy in America had long heeded such admonitions. Seventeenth-century Puritan ministers made serious, if sporadic, efforts to teach the catechism, often invited groups of children into their homes for instruction, contended over the implications of the baptismal covenant, and urged parents to teach their offspring religious truths and Christian practices. Eighteenth-century Anglican clergy made similar efforts to instruct children, and their revivalist counter-parts in New England and the Middle Colonies encouraged the conversion of children at younger than customary ages. Jonathan Edwards devoted careful attention to his four-year-old convert Phebe Bartlet, who followed in the path of her converted eleven-year-old brother by announcing, after anguished prayers and cries for mercy, that “the kingdom of God had come” to her.
Hilary and the Homoiousians: Using New Categories to Map the Trinitarian Controversy
Authors: Weedman Mark
Published: February 2020

Hilary of Poitiers and Basil of Ancyra were unlikely companions. The former was a Latin bishop from a backwater part of Gaul who had only recently become immersed in the Trinitarian controversy. The latter was a leading figure in the East, schooled in classical Greek theology and a veteran in the ongoing struggle over the nature of God. It is also true that their political fortunes diverged significantly. Though both Hilary and Basil's parties “lost” at the Synod of Constantinople in 360, Basil thereafter slipped into obscurity while Hilary's pro-Nicenes would eventually secure political and theological victory in 381. This pairing is so unlikely, in fact, that scholars have long been reluctant to acknowledge the depth of Hilary's relationship with Basil. Among other issues, such a relationship creates a number of historiographical problems by challenging the traditional mapping of the various theological and political alignments of the mid-fourth century. In the traditional version, Hilary is commonly portrayed as the “Athanasius of the West,” who, in the late 350s, emerged as the leading supporter of the pro-Nicenes in the West. Basil, on the other hand, is regarded as a “semi-Arian,” who rejected the Nicene doctrine that the Son was homoousios to the Father, preferring instead to call the Son “like according to substance” (homoios kat’ ousian).
Ritual Time in British Plantation Colonies, 1650-1780
Authors: Beasley Nicholas M.
Published: February 2020

Four thousand miles of ocean divided the plantation colonies of the first British Empire from the English metropole, a great physical distance that was augmented by the cultural divergence that divided those slave societies from England. Colonists in Barbados, Jamaica, and South Carolina thus made the re-creation of English ritual ways central to their ordering of the colonial experience. In particular, the preservation of the English liturgical year and its ritual enactment offered opportunities to connect colonial experience to metropolitan ideal. Confronted with seasons and crops that did not square meteorologically with English experience, colonists sought the comfort of maintaining English calendrical norms as much as possible. Within parish boundaries, colonists built churches in which the parish community could gather for the carefully scheduled, well-ordered worship of the English national church. The English Sabbath was central to the passage of time in weekly units, a day set apart for the church's liturgy, rest from labor, and social gatherings. The great and minor festivals of the Christian year and the daily office offered similar opportunities for Christian teaching and social fellowship, just as the celebration of state holidays connected these distant outposts of the empire to the Protestant national narrative that held an increasingly British people together. These ways of ordering time lent meaning to days that otherwise slipped by amid the routines of agricultural, commercial, and domestic life.
The Middle Belt Movement and the formation of Christian Consciousness in Colonial Northern Nigeria
Authors: Barnes Andrew E.
Published: February 2020

This article looks at the connection between a political movement and the evolution of Christian consciousness. It seeks to answer a series of questions not often asked, in hopes of demonstrating that these questions deserve more attention than they have generated in the past. Historians and mission scholars rightly expend a good deal of effort studying the transition in mission-established churches from European to indigenous control. Missions did more than establish churches, however. They established local Christian cultures. Yet while there is some understanding of what indigenous peoples sought to do when they assumed direction of churches founded by missionaries, there is very little idea of what indigenous peoples have sought to do when they take over local Christian cultures. But, if it is the case that, as Lamin Sanneh has argued, Christianity “stimulated the vernacular,” then the local Christian cultures built upon the vernacular, perhaps more so than the churches missions founded, are the true legacy of the missionary enterprise.
Pompeian hiatuses: new stratigraphic data highlight pauses in the course of the ad 79 eruption at Pompeii
Authors: Scarpati Claudio , Perrotta Annamaria , Martellone Alberta , Osanna Massimo
Published: February 2020

A new stratigraphic survey of the pyroclastic deposits blanketing Pompeii ruins shows departures from prior reconstruction of the events that occurred inside the town during the two main phases (pumice fallout and pyroclastic density currents) of the ad 79 Vesuvius eruption. We document the depth and distribution of subaerial erosion surfaces in the upper part of the pyroclastic sequence, formed during two short-lived breaks occurring in the course of the second phase of the eruption. These pauses could explain why 50% of the victims were found in the streets during the pyroclastic density currents phase.
A desolate landscape? Mobility and interaction in the chora of Klazomenai during the Early Iron Age
Authors: Koparal Elif , Vaessen Rik
Published: February 2020

Over the past two decades or so, excavations at Klazomenai have unearthed a wealth of information about the Early Iron Age, showing it to have been a thriving settlement at this time. Accordingly, it is intriguing that systematic surveys in the chora of Klazomenai have turned up very few sites that can be dated to this period. In this contribution, we discuss the implications of this discrepancy between the excavation data and the survey data in terms of the relationship between the settlement and its surrounding countryside. We argue that the lack of identified sites in the chora does not mean a lack of movement or that Klazomenai was an isolated spot in an otherwise desolate landscape. Furthermore, we discuss briefly how the developments that took place during the Early Iron Age ultimately led to the emergence of the polis at the beginning of the Archaic period. Our principal aim is to highlight the importance of the survey data, not only in terms of exploring the web of relations in which Klazomenai was tangled during the Early Iron Age, but also for highlighting in more detail the diversities that existed in ancient Ionia
Integrating host plant phylogeny, plant traits, intraspecific competition and repeated measures using a phylogenetic mixed model of field behaviour by polyphagous herbivores, the leaf-cutting ants
Authors: Weerathunga Manasee , Mikheyev Alexander S.
Published: February 2020

Herbivores use a wide range of factors to choose their host, including their own physiological states, physical characteristics of plants and the degree of competition. Field observations of herbivores in their native habitats provide a means for simultaneously estimating the relative importance of these factors, but statistical analysis of all these factors may be challenging. Here we used a 7-week dataset of leaf-cutting ant (Atta cephalotes) foraging in a diverse Neotropical arboretum containing 193 tree species (822 trees) to examine the relative role of tree phylogeny, territoriality and tree functional characteristics using a phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) model. We observed that 54 tree species (117 trees) were foraged by the ants. This pattern was not random, but reflected known features of leaf-cutting ant foraging behaviour, such as a preference for larger trees and the decreased likelihood of foraging at the periphery of a colony’s territory. However, random effects such as tree phylogeny, the identity of individual trees and colony-specific effects explained most of the variation in foraging data. A significant phylogenetic effect on foraging likelihood (λ = 0.28), together with repeated measures of foraging on the same tree species, allowed estimation of relative palatability for each plant species. PGLS models can be flexibly scaled to include other covariates for even more complex investigation of foraging behaviour, and the link function can be modified to include the amount of plants foraged. As a result, PGLS can be used as a flexible framework for the study of LCA foraging.
Down the Slant towards the Eye: Hopkins and Ecological Perception
Authors: Williams Daniel
Published: February 2020

This essay reads Gerard Manley Hopkins's poetry for its “ecological perception”: a perceptual modality involving the dynamic interaction between human bodies and environmental givens or potentialities. Linking Hopkins's syncretic ideas about perception to the psychologist J. J. Gibson's account of our sensitivity to environmental “affordances,” the essay assesses three scales of ecological perception in Hopkins (arboreal, atmospheric, apocalyptic) and stresses the particular relevance of the intermediate (atmospheric) scale for our experience of environmental crisis. In “The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe,” Hopkins recognizes the “teleconnections” bridging global systems and specific sites without remaining rooted to the local or bioregional (arboreal) or rushing to a vantage beyond planetary confines (apocalyptic).
Breathing Free: Environmental Violence and the Plantation Ecology in Hannah Crafts'sThe Bondwoman's Narrative
Authors: Waples Emily
Published: February 2020

This essay presents an ecocritical analysis of Hannah Crafts's The Bondwoman's Narrative, the 1850s manuscript novel by a formerly-enslaved African American woman that was recovered by Henry Louis Gates in 2001. Examining Crafts's extensive engagement with Charles Dickens's Bleak House, it argues that Crafts's fictionalized narrative of enslavement and self-emancipation re-imagines a Victorian politics of environmental health as a critique of environmental racism. Showing how Crafts presents the material ecology of the plantation South as a site and vector of violence, it reads The Bondwoman's Narrative as resisting nineteenth-century scientific discourses of racialized immunity that sought to legitimize the systemic neglect of enslaved people in the antebellum United States.
Conrad's Carbon Imaginary: Oil, Imperialism, and the Victorian Petro-Archive
Authors: Tondre Michael
Published: February 2020

This article traces the rise of modern oil culture to interlocking innovations in British fiction, political economy, natural science, and colonial capitalism. It advances a method called “transitive reading” to understand those innovations and to show how writers first conceived of oil in relation to established energy inputs such as coal. The article then reads Joseph Conrad's late masterpiece, Victory (1915), as an ambivalent artifact of the British petro-imagination. In representing the “liquidation” of overseas coal capitalism, Victory articulates a desire for freedom from carbon power, while nevertheless binding that desire to a world where petroleum or “liquid coal” was becoming increasingly constitutive of the self.
The NIH Toolbox: Overview of Development for Use with Hispanic Populations
Authors: Gershon Richard C. , Fox Rina S. , Manly Jennifer J. , Mungas Dan M. , Nowinski Cindy J. , Roney Ellen M. , Slotkin Jerry
Published: February 2020

Objective:

Hispanics/Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing minority population in the United States. To facilitate appropriate outcome assessment of this expanding population, the NIH Toolbox for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function® (NIH Toolbox®) was developed with particular attention paid to the cultural and linguistic needs of English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanics/Latinos.

Methods:

A Cultural Working Group ensured that all included measures were appropriate for use with Hispanics/Latinos in both English and Spanish. In addition, a Spanish Language Working Group assessed all English-language NIH Toolbox measures for translatability.

Results:

Measures were translated following the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) translation methodology for instances where language interpretation could impact scores, or a modified version thereof for more simplified translations. The Spanish versions of the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery language measures (i.e., Picture Vocabulary Test, Oral Reading Recognition Test) were developed independently of their English counterparts.

Conclusions:

The Spanish-language version of the NIH Toolbox provides a much-needed set of tools that can be selected as appropriate to complement existing protocols being conducted with the growing Hispanic/Latino population in the United States.
Performance Validity Testing in Justice-Involved Adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Authors: Mullally Katelyn , McLachlan Kaitlyn , MacKillop Emily , Pei Jacqueline
Published: February 2020

Objectives:

A number of commonly used performance validity tests (PVTs) may be prone to high failure rates when used for individuals with severe neurocognitive deficits. This study investigated the validity of 10 PVT scores in justice-involved adults with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), a neurodevelopmental disability stemming from prenatal alcohol exposure and linked with severe neurocognitive deficits.

Method:

The sample comprised 80 justice-involved adults (ages 19–40) including 25 with confirmed or possible FASD and 55 where FASD was ruled out. Ten PVT scores were calculated, derived from Word Memory Test, Genuine Memory Impairment Profile, Advanced Clinical Solutions (Word Choice), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (Reliable Digit Span and age-corrected scaled scores (ACSS) from Digit Span, Coding, Symbol Search, Coding – Symbol Search, Vocabulary – Digit Span), and the Wechsler Memory Scale – Fourth Edition (Logical Memory II Recognition).

Results:

Participants with diagnosed/possible FASD were more likely to failanysingle PVT, and failed a greater number of PVTs overall, compared to those without FASD. They were also more likely to fail based on Word Memory Test, Digit Span ACSS, Coding ACSS, Symbol Search ACSS, and Logical Memory II Recognition, compared to controls (35–76%). Across both groups, substantially more participants with IQ <70 failed two or more PVTs (90%), compared to those with an IQ ≥70 (44%).

Conclusions:

Results highlight the need for additional research examining the use of PVTs in justice-involved populations with FASD.
Indirection and the Rhetoric of Tyranny: Carl Schmitt's The Tyranny of Values 1960–1967
Authors: Zeitlin Samuel Garrett
Published: February 2020

This article situates Carl Schmitt's The Tyranny of Values (1960/1967/1979) within the context of Schmitt's 1940s and 1950s op-ed campaign for full amnesty for Nazi war criminals as well as the context of the Veit Harlan trials and the 1958 Lüth judgment of the German Constitutional Court. The article further examines the revisions to Schmitt's 1967 version of the text in the light of Karl Löwith's criticisms of Schmitt in an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 1964. The article argues that The Tyranny of Values is a work of post-Second World War Nazi apologetics, in which Nazi racial theory can be seen being put to polemical ends in the 1960s and 1970s. The article concludes with broader reflections on the relation of Schmitt's The Tyranny of Values to Nazi discourse in the aftermath of the Second World War and the history of Nazism post-1945.
What Good Can Political Science Do? From Pluralism to Partnerships
Authors: Smith Rogers M.
Published: February 2020

At a time when authoritarian regimes are on the rise around the world, higher education in general and political science in particular are facing declining support and sharper political pressures in many places. Political scientists have long promised that their discipline can add to knowledge about politics and educate citizens. However, doubts have grown about whether our increasingly pluralistic discipline collectively generates useful knowledge and communicates it effectively in teaching and in broader public communications. Political scientists need to do more to place their particular studies within big pictures of how politics and the world work, and to synthesize their results. They must focus more on the politics of identity formation that has generated resurgent nationalisms and deep social divisions. They must strengthen their understanding and their community contributions through civically engaged research. They must also place greater emphasis on improving teaching. In these ways, modern scholars can show there is much good that political science can do.
A Discussion of Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen’s Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics
Authors: Gillespie Andra
Published: February 2020

If the election of Donald Trump has proven anything indisputably, it is that the notion of America as a “postracial” society in the aftermath of the Obama presidency is a canard. Yet how should we understand the specific pattern of race’s persistent salience in US politics? In Deep Roots, Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen argue that it is the long legacy of chattel slavery that continues to shape politics in the US South in distinctive fashion. Comparing regions that were once marked by slavery with those that were not, the authors develop the concept of “behavioral path dependence” to describe the production and reproduction of a political culture marked by intergenerational racial prejudice. They argue that this legacy continues to shape US politics today in a fashion that is both understandable and predictable with the tools of empirical political science. We asked several scholars with expertise on politics and race, US political development, and political behavior to address this controversial argument.
Response of sweetpotato to diquat applied pretransplanting
Authors: Meyers Stephen L. , Jennings Katherine M. , Miller Donnie K. , Shankle Mark W.
Published: February 2020

Field trials were conducted in North Carolina in 2017 and Louisiana and Mississippi in 2018 to determine the effect of pretransplanting applications of diquat on sweetpotato crop tolerance, yield, and storage root quality. In North Carolina treatments consisted of two rates of diquat (560 or 1,120 g ai ha−1) alone or mixed with 107 g ai ha−1 flumioxazin and applied 1 d before transplanting (DBP), sequential applications of diquat (560 or 1,120 g ha−1) 1 and 17 DBP, 107 g ha−1 flumioxazin alone, and a nontreated check. In Louisiana and Mississippi treatments consisted of diquat (560 or 1,120 g ha−1) applied 1 DBP either alone or followed by (fb) rehipping rows or 107 g ha−1 flumioxazin immediately prior to transplanting. Additional treatments included 546 g ha−1 paraquat applied 1 DBP and a nontreated check. In North Carolina injury was ≤3% for all treatments through 23 d after transplanting (DAP), and no injury was observed after 23 DAP. Visual sweetpotato stunting pooled across the Mississippi and Louisiana trials ranged from 1% to 14%, 0% to 6%, and 0% to 3% at 2, 4, and 6 wk after planting (WAP), respectively, and no crop injury was observed after 6 WAP. Diquat applied 1 DBP and not fb rehipping resulted in greater crop injury (12%) than comparable treatments that were rehipped (2%). In North Carolina single and sequential diquat applications resulted in reduced No. 1 sweetpotato yield (24,230 and 24,280 kg ha−1, respectively) compared with the nontreated check, but No. 1 yield when diquat plus flumioxazin (26,330 kg ha−1) was used was similar to that of the nontreated check. No. 1 yield did not differ by treatment in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Association between calcitriol and paricalcitol with oxidative stress	in patients with hemodialysis
Authors: Yeter Hasan Haci , Korucu Berfu , Bali Elif Burcu , Derici Ulver
Published: February 2020

Abstract. Background: The pathophysiological basis of chronic kidney disease and its complications, including cardiovascular disease, are associated with chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. We investigated the effects of active vitamin D (calcitriol) and synthetic vitamin D analog (paricalcitol) on oxidative stress in hemodialysis patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study was composed of 83 patients with a minimum hemodialysis vintage of one year. Patients with a history of any infection, malignancy, and chronic inflammatory disease were excluded. Oxidative markers (total oxidant and antioxidant status) and inflammation markers (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6) were analyzed. Results: A total of 47% (39/83) patients were using active or analog vitamin D. Total antioxidant status was significantly higher in patients with using active or analog vitamin D than those who did not use (p = 0.006). Whereas, total oxidant status and oxidative stress index were significantly higher in patients with not using vitamin D when compared with the patients who were using vitamin D preparation (p = 0.005 and p = 0.004, respectively). On the other hand, total antioxidant status, total oxidant status, and oxidative stress index were similar between patients who used active vitamin D or vitamin D analog (p = 0.6; p = 0.4 and p = 0.7, respectively). Conclusion: The use of active or selective vitamin D analog in these patients decreases total oxidant status and increases total antioxidant status. Also, paricalcitol is as effective as calcitriol in decreasing total oxidant status and increasing total antioxidant status in patients with chronic kidney disease.
Phosphorylation independent eIF4E translational reprogramming of selective mRNAs determines tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer
Authors: Gong Chun , Tsoi Ho , Mok Ka Chun , Cheung Jenny , Man Ellen P. S. , Fujino Kazunari , Wong Ashely , Lam Eric W. F. , Khoo Ui-Soon
Published: February 2020

Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) selectively promotes translation of mRNAs with atypically long and structured 5′-UTRs and has been implicated in drug resistance. Through genome-wide transcriptome and translatome analysis we revealed eIF4E overexpression could promote cellular activities mediated by ERα and FOXM1 signalling pathways. Whilst eIF4E overexpression could enhance the translation of both ERα and FOXM1, it also led to enhanced transcription of FOXM1. Polysome fractionation experiments confirmed eIF4E could modulate the translation of ERα and FOXM1 mRNA. The enhancement of FOXM1 transcription was contingent upon the presence of ERα, and it was the high levels of FOXM1 that conferred Tamoxifen resistance. Furthermore, tamoxifen resistance was conferred by phosphorylation independent eIF4E overexpression. Immunohistochemistry on 134 estrogen receptor (ER+) primary breast cancer samples confirmed that high eIF4E expression was significantly associated with increased ERα and FOXM1, and significantly associated with tamoxifen resistance. Our study uncovers a novel mechanism whereby phosphorylation independent eIF4E translational reprogramming in governing the protein synthesis of ERα and FOXM1 contributes to anti-estrogen insensitivity in ER+ breast cancer. In eIF4E overexpressing breast cancer, the increased ERα protein expression in turn enhances FOXM1 transcription, which together with its increased translation regulated by eIF4E, contributes to tamoxifen resistance. Coupled with eIF4E translational regulation, our study highlights an important mechanism conferring tamoxifen resistance via both ERα dependent and independent pathways.
CFIm25-regulated lncRNA acv3UTR promotes gastric tumorigenesis via miR-590-5p/YAP1 axis
Authors: Liu Kai , Wang Ben-Jun , Han WeiWei , Chi Chun-Hua , Gu Chao , Wang Yu , Fu Xiaohai , Huang Wei , Liu Zhiguo , Song Xilin
Published: February 2020

Accumulating evidences indicate that 3ʹUTR of the coding gene can act as crucial regulators in gastric cancer (GC). However, the detailed mechanisms and responsive targets are not well established. Here, we found thatacvr1bgene 3ʹUTR (acv3UTR) was elevated in GC tissue, the expression of which was significantly correlated with advanced pTNM-stage and poor outcome in clinical patients. Forced expression ofacv3UTR promoted GC cells growth in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, our results suggested thatacv3UTR functioned as an oncogenic competing endogenous RNA via sponging miR-590-5p and enhancing YAP1 level. Tumor suppressor miR-590-5p was a molecular module inacv3UTR regulatory axis, the forced expression of which led to impairing of oncogenic potential ofacv3UTR. The positive correlation ofacv3UTR and YAP1 expression, and the negative correlation ofacv3UTR and miR-590-5p expression, were verified in GC patients. Moreover, CFIm25 was identified as a key regulator contributing toacv3UTR aberrant expression in GC binding to UGUA-264 motif. Overall, our finding defines a mechanism for understanding the potential role ofacv3UTR transcription in GC tumorigenesis, and indicates a correlation between 3ʹUTRtrans-regulatory effect and GC development.
Genetic variation and evolutionary history of a mycorrhizal fungus regulate the currency of exchange in symbiosis with the food security crop cassava
Authors: Savary Romain , Dupuis Cindy , Masclaux Frédéric G , Mateus Ivan D , Rojas Edward C , Sanders Ian R
Published: February 2020

Most land plants form symbioses with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Diversity of AMF increases plant community productivity and plant diversity. For decades, it was known that plants trade carbohydrates for phosphate with their fungal symbionts. However, recent studies show that plant-derived lipids probably represent the most essential currency of exchange. Understanding the regulation of plant genes involved in the currency of exchange is crucial to understanding stability of this mutualism. Plants encounter many different AMF genotypes that vary greatly in the benefit they confer to plants. Yet the role that fungal genetic variation plays in the regulation of this currency has not received much attention. We used a high-resolution phylogeny of one AMF species (Rhizophagus irregularis) to show that fungal genetic variation drives the regulation of the plant fatty acid pathway in cassava (Manihot esculenta); a pathway regulating one of the essential currencies of trade in the symbiosis. The regulation of this pathway was explained by clearly defined patterns of fungal genome-wide variation representing the precise fungal evolutionary history. This represents the first demonstrated link between the genetics of AMF and reprogramming of an essential plant pathway regulating the currency of exchange in the symbiosis. The transcription factor RAM1 was also revealed as the dominant gene in the fatty acid plant gene co-expression network. Our study highlights the crucial role of variation in fungal genomes in the trade of resources in this important symbiosis and also opens the door to discovering characteristics of AMF genomes responsible for interactions between AMF and cassava that will lead to optimal cassava growth.
Phylogenomic analysis of novel Diaforarchaea is consistent with sulfite but not sulfate reduction in volcanic environments on early Earth
Authors: Colman Daniel R , Lindsay Melody R , Amenabar Maximiliano J , Fernandes-Martins Maria C , Roden Eric R , Boyd Eric S
Published: February 2020

The origin(s) of dissimilatory sulfate and/or (bi)sulfite reducing organisms (SRO) remains enigmatic despite their importance in global carbon and sulfur cycling since at least 3.4 Ga. Here, we describe novel, deep-branching archaeal SRO populations distantly related to other Diaforarchaea from two moderately acidic thermal springs. Dissimilatory (bi)sulfite reductase homologs, DsrABC, encoded in metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) from spring sediments comprise one of the earliest evolving Dsr lineages. DsrA homologs were expressed in situ under moderately acidic conditions. MAGs lacked genes encoding proteins that activate sulfate prior to (bi)sulfite reduction. This is consistent with sulfide production in enrichment cultures provided sulfite but not sulfate. We suggest input of volcanic sulfur dioxide to anoxic spring-water yields (bi)sulfite and moderately acidic conditions that favor its stability and bioavailability. The presence of similar volcanic springs at the time SRO are thought to have originated (>3.4 Ga) may have supplied (bi)sulfite that supported ancestral SRO. These observations coincide with the lack of inferred SO42− reduction capacity in nearly all organisms with early-branching DsrAB and which are near universally found in hydrothermal environments.