bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A collaborative approach to improve the assessment of physical health in adult consumers with schizophrenia in Queensland mental health services
Authors: Plever Sally , McCarthy Irene , Anzolin Melissa , Emmerson Brett , Khatun Mohsina
Published: October 2015

Objective:

The objective of this study was to apply a quality improvement collaborative to increase the number of physical health assessments conducted with consumers diagnosed with schizophrenia in adult community mental health services across Queensland.

Method:

Sixteen adult mental health service organisations voluntarily took part in the statewide collaborative initiative to increase the number of physical health assessments completed on persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorders managed through the community mental health service.

Results:

Improvement in the physical health assessment clinical indicator was demonstrated across the state over a 3-year period with an increase in the number of physical health assessments recorded from 12% to 58%.

Conclusions:

Significant improvements were made over a 3-year period by all mental health services involved in the collaborative, supporting the application of a quality improvement methodology to drive change across mental health services.
Ritualistic Rape in Sociological Perspective
Authors: Michalski Joseph H.
Published: October 2015

The current article examines rape as a form of sexual violence, drawing upon comparative research to describe and then proffer a tentative explanation of one specific type, referred to as ritualistic rape. Several cross-cultural examples and selected national data are referenced to examine three different forms of ritualistic rape: forced marriages or abductions, ritual defloration, and wife-lending. The evidence indicates that such “normative” or socially condoned rapes appear quite commonly in one form or another in nearly every society. The last section offers a general theory of ritualistic rape rooted in D. Black’s pure sociology perspective by identifying the confluence of several underlying structural features that purport to explain the conditions under which ritualistic rapes tend to thrive.
Expression of semaphorin 3A, semaphorin 7A and their receptors in multiple sclerosis lesions
Authors: Costa C , Martínez-Sáez E , Gutiérrez-Franco A , Eixarch H , Castro Z , Ortega-Aznar A , Ramón y Cajal S , Montalban X , Espejo C
Published: October 2015

Background:

Studies in multiple sclerosis (MS) and in experimental models point to a critical role of semaphorin (sema)3A and sema7A in MS pathogenesis.

Objective:

The objective of this paper is to characterise the expression of sema3A, sema7A, and their receptors in MS lesions.

Methods:

We included 44 demyelinating lesions from MS patients, 12 lesions with acute cerebral infarct, 11 lesions with progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy and 10 non-neurological control patients. MS lesions were classified according to inflammatory activity and all samples were immunostained for sema3A, sema7A, neuropilin 1 (Np-1), α1-integrin, and β1-integrin.

Results:

In MS-damaged white matter sema3A and Np-1 were both detected in microglia/macrophages, whereas reactive astrocytes expressed only sema3A. Otherwise, sema7A, α1-integrin and β1-integrin were observed in reactive astrocytes, and microglia/macrophages only expressed β1-integrin. The expression of sema3A, sema7A and their receptors is more relevant in MS than in other demyelinating diseases. Sema3A and sema7A expression correlated with the inflammatory activity of the MS lesions, suggesting their involvement in the immunological process that takes place in MS.

Conclusions:

The expression pattern of sema3A, sema7A and their receptors in MS lesions suggests that both molecules contribute to create a negative environment for tissue regeneration, influencing the ability to regenerate the damaged tissue.
No evidence of disease activity in multiple sclerosis: Implications on cognition and brain atrophy
Authors: Damasceno Alfredo , Damasceno Benito Pereira , Cendes Fernando
Published: October 2015

Background:

The concept of no evidence of disease activity (NEDA) has emerged as an important outcome measure for multiple sclerosis (MS). However, it is not known if maintaining NEDA has a positive impact on cognition or brain atrophy.

Objective:

To evaluate NEDA status after two years, addressing its implications on cognition and brain atrophy.

Methods:

Forty-two relapsing–remitting MS patients and 30 controls underwent MRI (3T) and cognitive evaluation (BRB-N). Forty patients performed additional evaluations, after 12 and 24 months. NEDA was defined as the absence of clinical (relapses/disability progression) and MRI activity (new T2/gadolinium-enhancing lesions). Repeated measures and multivariate analyses were performed to assess the contribution of NEDA criteria to GM atrophy.

Results:

After two years, 30.8% of the cohort had NEDA. From these, 58.3% still had worsening in ⩾2 cognitive domains. Patients with MRI activity had more cortical thinning and slightly more thalamus volume decrease. Absence of new/enlarging T2 lesions was the only predictor of cortical thinning, subcortical GM and thalamic atrophy rates.

Conclusions:

NEDA status was achieved in a small proportion of our cohort, and did not preclude cognitive deterioration. Absence of MRI activity and especially of new/enlarging T2 lesions was associated with less cortical and subcortical GM atrophy.
Monthly oral methylprednisolone pulse treatment in progressive multiple sclerosis
Authors: Ratzer Rikke , Iversen Pernille , Börnsen Lars , Dyrby Tim B , Romme Christensen Jeppe , Ammitzbøll Cecilie , Madsen Camilla Gøbel , Garde Ellen , Lyksborg Mark , Andersen Birgit , Hyldstrup Lars , Sørensen Per Soelberg , Siebner Hartwig R , Sellebjerg Finn
Published: October 2015

Background:

There is a large unmet need for treatments for patients with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). Phase 2 studies with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker outcomes may be well suited for the initial evaluation of efficacious treatments.

Objective:

To evaluate the effect of monthly oral methylprednisolone pulse treatment on intrathecal inflammation in progressive MS.

Methods:

In this open-label phase 2A study, 15 primary progressive and 15 secondary progressive MS patients received oral methylprednisolone pulse treatment for 60 weeks. Primary outcome was changes in CSF concentrations of osteopontin. Secondary outcomes were other CSF biomarkers of inflammation, axonal damage and demyelination; clinical scores; magnetic resonance imaging measures of disease activity, magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); motor evoked potentials; and bone density scans.

Results:

We found no change in the CSF concentration of osteopontin, but we observed significant improvement in clinical scores, MTR, DTI and some secondary CSF outcome measures. Adverse events were well-known side effects to methylprednisolone.

Conclusion:

Monthly methylprednisolone pulse treatment was safe, but had no effect on the primary outcome. However, improvements in secondary clinical and MRI outcome measures suggest that this treatment regimen may have a beneficial effect in progressive MS.
Regional cortical thinning in multiple sclerosis and its relation with cognitive impairment: A multicenter study
Authors: Tillema JM , Hulst HE , Rocca MA , Vrenken H , Steenwijk MD , Damjanovic D , Enzinger C , Ropele S , Tedeschi G , Gallo A , Ciccarelli O , Rovira A , Montalban X , de Stefano N , Stromillo ML , Filippi M , Barkhof F ,   on behalf of the MAGNIMS Study Group
Published: October 2015

Objectives:

The objectives of this paper are to compare in a multicenter setting patterns of regional cortical thickness in patients with relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and cognitive impairment (CI) and those cognitively preserved (CP), and explore the relationship between cortical thinning and cognitive performance.

Methods:

T1-weighted isotropic brain scans were collected at 3T from seven European centers in 60 RRMS patients and 65 healthy controls (HCs). Patients underwent clinical and neuropsychological examinations. Cortical thickness (CTh) measures were calculated using FreeSurfer (failing in four) and both lobar and vertex-based general linear model (GLM) analyses were compared between study groups.

Results:

Twenty (36%) MS patients were classified as CI. Mean global CTh was smaller in RRMS patients compared to HCs (left 2.43 vs. 2.53 mm, right 2.44 vs. 2.54 mm, p < 0.001). Multivariate GLM regional analysis showed significantly more temporal thinning in CI compared to CP patients. Verbal memory scores correlated to regional cortical thinning in the insula whereas visual memory scores correlated to parietal thinning.

Conclusions:

This multicenter study showed mild global cortical thinning in RRMS. The extent of thinning is less pronounced than previously reported. Only subtle regional differences between CI and CP patients were observed, some of which related to specific cognitive domains.
How Mindfulness Training May Help to Reduce Vulnerability for Recurrent Depression
Authors: Barnhofer Thorsten , Huntenburg Julia M. , Lifshitz Michael , Wild Jennifer , Antonova Elena , Margulies Daniel S.
Published: October 2015

This review investigates how recent neuroimaging findings on vulnerability for depression and the mechanisms of mindfulness may serve to inform and enhance the understanding that is guiding the use of mindfulness training in the prevention and treatment of recurrent and chronic depression. In particular, we review evidence suggesting that alterations in default-mode-network activity and connectivity represent a fundamental deficit underlying cognitive vulnerability for depression and explore the ways in which mindfulness meditation may reverse such alterations. Furthermore, we discuss findings from studies that have investigated the effects of mindfulness on emotion-regulatory capacities. These findings suggest mindful emotion regulation has a characteristic neural signature that is particularly conducive to therapeutic learning. We conclude that training in mindfulness has unique strengths for addressing neural mechanisms associated with cognitive vulnerabilities for recurrent and chronic depression and propose future lines of research to more effectively harness this potential.
Genome-wide surveillance of mismatched alleles for graft-versus-host disease in stem cell transplantation
Authors: Sato-Otsubo Aiko , Nannya Yasuhito , Kashiwase Koichi , Onizuka Makoto , Azuma Fumihiro , Akatsuka Yoshiki , Ogino Yasuko , Satake Masahiro , Sanada Masashi , Chiba Shigeru , Saji Hiroh , Inoko Hidetoshi , Kennedy Giulia C. , Yamamoto Ken , Morishima Satoko , Morishima Yasuo , Kodera Yoshihisa , Sasazuki Takehiko , Ogawa Seishi
Published: October 2015

Key Points

GWAS can identify allele mismatch associated with aGVHD development. Three novel candidate loci for minor histocompatibility antigens significantly associate with aGVHD.
Chemical Modification of Lipase for Rational Enhancement of Enantioselectivity
Authors: Ema Tadashi , Inoue Hiroki
Published: October 2015

Chemical modifications of the I287C mutant of a Burkholderia cepacia lipase afforded various I287C-X conjugates, among which I287C-PAA bearing an N-phenylacetamide (PAA) moiety showed excellent enantioselectivity and catalytic activity for secondary alcohols. Site-directed chemical modifications are powerful tools to control enantioselective biocatalysis.
Combinatorial properties of generalized M-matrices
Authors: Saha Manideepa , Bandopadhyay Sriparna
Published: October 2015

An M_â¨-matrix has the form A = sI â B with s â¥ Ï(B) and B^k is entrywise nonnegative for all sufficiently large integers k. In this paper, the existence of a preferred basis for a singular M_â¨- matrix A = sI â B with index(B) â¤ 1 is proven. Some equivalent conditions for the equality of the height and level characteristics of A are studied. The well structured property of the reduced graph of A is discussed. Also the possibility of the existence of preferred basis for another generalization of M-matrices, known as GM-matrices, is studied.
Invertible and regular completions of operator matrices
Authors: Cvetkovic-Ilic Dragana
Published: October 2015

In this paper, for given operators A â B(X) and B â B(Y), the set of all C â B(Y,X) such that the operator matrix M_C = \left[ \begin{array}{cc} A & C \\ O & B \end{array} \right] is injective, invertible, left invertible and right invertible, is described. Answers to some open questions are given. Also, in the case when A and B are relatively regular operators, the set of all C â B(Y,X) such that M_C is regular is described. In addition, a necessary and a sufficient conditions are given for MC to be regular with the inner inverse of a certain given form.
Effective results on the Waring problem for finite simple groups
Authors: Guralnick Robert M. , Tiep Pham Huu
Published: October 2015

Let $G$ be a finite quasisimple group of Lie type. We show that there are regular semisimple elements $x, y\in G$, $x$ of prime order, and $|y|$ is divisible by at most two primes, such that $x^G\cdot y^G\supseteq G\setminus Z(G)$. In fact in all but four cases, $y$ can be chosen to be of square-free order. Using this result, we prove an effective version of a previous result of Larsen, Shalev, and Tiep by showing that, given any integer $m\geq 1$, if the order of a finite simple group $S$ is at least $m^{8m^2}$, then every element in $S$ is a product of two $m$th powers. Furthermore, the verbal width of $x^m$ on any finite simple group $S$ is at most $80m\sqrt{2\log_2 m}+56$. We also show that, given any two non-trivial words $w_1$, $w_2$, if $G$ is a finite quasisimple group of large enough order, then $w_1(G)w_2(G) \supseteq G\setminus Z(G)$.
The Nameless
Authors: Bond Julian
Published: October 2015

[Photograph of Julian Bond by Richard Avedon] “Most of those who made the movement weren’t the famous; they were the faceless. They weren’t the noted; they were the nameless—the marchers with tired feet, the protestors beaten back by billy clubs and fire hoses, the unknown women and men who risked job and home and life.” —Julian Bond, 1940–2015
The Promise of Title IX: Sexual Violence and the Law
Authors: Brodsky Alexandra , Deutsch Elizabeth
Published: October 2015

Ask any student organizing against campus rape what question he or she most often hears, and the answer will likely be: why are schools handling these cases at all? The clear legal answer is Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, which requires most schools to take active steps toward eliminating discrimination on the basis of sex, including preventing and responding to sexual harassment, so that students can continue to learn. What is truly puzzling then, is not the question itself, but the persistence with which it’s asked.
The Anarchist Spirit
Authors: Sitrin Marina
Published: October 2015

There is not much of a global anarchist movement today. At the same time, since the 1990s, many popular movements around the world have been animated by something that I would call an anarchist spirit—a way of organizing and relating that opposes hierarchy and embraces direct democracy. This is a spirit that we should applaud and help to flourish. Although they may not define themselves as ideologically anarchist or even always be aware of the connection, these new movements nonetheless have much in common with ideas developed by historical anarchists like Emma Goldman, Murray Bookchin, and the libertarian left in Spain during the 1930s.
A Mind of One’s Own
Authors: Ratner-Rosenhagen Jennifer
Published: October 2015

David Brooks is ever on the move—stepping, climbing, and ambling—toward wisdom. In a spring 2014 New York Times editorial, he maintained that the “stairway to wisdom” did not snake through big data, but rather through the precious singularity of the soul. He instructed that the “highest rung on the ladder of understanding” could be reached by the cultivated self, not grasped through crowd-sourced speculations. And now, in his best-selling The Road to Character, he is encouraging us to reboot our moral selves. He suggests that we become Adam II, the new and improved first man of history. We can do this by seeking a life of “eulogy virtues” (the moral traits that people will praise us for after we’re dead) rather than “résumé virtues” (the monetizable talents we bring to our work lives).
The Case Against Free College
Authors: Bruenig Matt
Published: October 2015

Those clamoring for free college make normative claims about the nature of a just and good society. As currently argued, however, these claims are largely uncompelling. Without a dramatic overhaul of how we understand student benefits, making college more or entirely free would most likely boost the wealth of college attendees without securing any important egalitarian gains.
Marxism for Tomorrow
Authors: Brown Wendy
Published: October 2015

An intelligent left today can neither live within nor without Marx’s thought. As former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis reminds us, Marxism today is most useful when it is “erratic,” irreverent, non-doctrinaire. This means that effective political challenges to contemporary capitalism, not to mention other orders of injustice or peril (from racism to climate change), must revise, resist, and supplement Marx.
Labor Needs New Ideas
Authors: Yeselson Rich
Published: October 2015

Labor needs ideas, so it should incubate them in theory and practice. It needs (notwithstanding arguments to the contrary) the support of sympathetic state actors, so it must leverage both local and the federal government to its advantage. It needs to pay much closer attention to its existing membership, and galvanize those members to defend themselves and to increase their ranks. And it needs a continuing presence within the one domestic sector of the globalized economy that can enable it to exert immense pressure on economic and political elites—transportation. Let us consider these suggestions in turn.
Generation Debt
Authors: Konczal Mike
Published: October 2015

Achieving debt-free public higher education is an important goal for society as a whole and the left in particular. Education is a human right, and anyone who is willing and able should be able to attend an institution of higher education irrespective of their ability to pay for it. Public disinvestment in education needs to be challenged, because changing the very nature of higher education and exacerbating inequality even further is more than a budgetary matter.
In Praise of Amateur Politics
Authors: Marcus David
Published: October 2015

Left intellectuals often like to lament that there once was socialism in America—that between 1901 and the end of the First World War, a small ingathering of urban reformers, trade unionists, and German immigrants banded together to create an American counterpart to European social democracy. The apex of this movement was 1912. That year, the Socialist Party controlled seventy-nine mayoralties, published a weekly newspaper that had a national readership of over 750,000, and ran a presidential candidate who won nearly a million votes in a contested four-way race. Such was the pride and envy of European socialists that even the ever-dour August Bebel proclaimed that, at this rate, “Americans will be the first to usher in a Socialist Republic.”
The Spectacle of Poverty: Marivaux’s Beggars and Chance in Enlightenment Paris
Authors: Yamashita Masano
Published: October 2015

This article reconsiders Marivaux’s neglected status as an Enlightenment social thinker by examining Marivaux’s representations of poverty and capital in L’indigent philosophe and Le paysan parvenu . I argue that the erratic dimension of economics in Regency Paris is negotiated via the classical trope of Fortuna, as Marivaux attempts to find an appropriate idiom for addressing the new material realities of modern Paris. In a newly destabilized world of signs, I argue that Marivaux deploys poverty and theatricality as central tools for the modern self’s self-fashioning, as it negotiates its exit from the social strictures of the Ancien Régime .
Transforming Paris into an Industrial Capital: Competing Discourses (1750–1820)
Authors: Roux Thomas Le
Published: October 2015

From Rousseau to Hugo, Paris became an industrial city. This transformation took place in the midst of an industrialization that threw into question the relationship between citizens and their environment. The development of hazardous activities was a challenge for the Ancien Régime society, and this led to a transformation in law and in the representation of Paris. A complex process gave factories the possibility of establishing themselves in towns. As part of the new approach of modern manufacturing, Paris became the laboratory for testing the legitimacy of pollution, ushering in an alliance between the state, science, and industry, in an entirely new kind of political project for a new and modern capital.
How to Have Style in an Emergency: Huckleberry Finn and the Ethics of Fictionality
Authors: Parra Jamie
Published: October 2015

Cutting against the grain of historicist and identitarian readings of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , this essay focuses on the novel’s preoccupation with seeing and not seeing—its dramatizations of how subjects perceive, or fail to perceive, objects and bodies. Instead of reading the novel as a study of moral development that traces Huck’s growing appreciation for Jim’s humanity, I argue that Huckleberry Finn stages crises of representation, calling attention to the novel’s own inability to fully render objects, in particular, Jim’s body. I consider the strategies Twain provides the reader for animating or vivifying Jim as a character—and, more importantly, what Twain withholds from the reader in this respect—showing how the novel disrupts the smooth functioning of characterization, frustrating the reader’s longing to know Jim, to fully saturate his imaginary body and imbue him with the fullness of interiority. In this way, Twain draws attention to the ethical challenge of regarding persons out of perceptual reach and denaturalizes the notion that a literary character is a mimesis of a person. Ultimately, I reassess Huckleberry Finn’s representation of enslavement, showing how the novel calls into question the category of normative personhood and its centrality to ethical thought.
“Shit Got Cray Cray #MYBAD”: An Examination of the Image-Repair Discourse of Richie Incognito During the Miami Dolphins’ Bullying Scandal
Authors: Schmittel Annelie , Hull Kevin
Published: October 2015

This study examines the image-repair discourse of Richie Incognito throughout the events surrounding the Miami Dolphins’ bullying scandal during the 2013–2014 nfl season. Incognito embarked on a journey to salvage his image by utilizing both the social-media platform Twitter and through his exclusive one-on-one television interview with Fox Sports 1. For this study, Incognito’s tweets ( n = 350) sent during the time frame of the crisis and his comments during the nationally televised interview were examined through mixed-methods content analysis using Benoit’s image repair theory as a theoretical framework. Results suggest that Incognito used competing image-repair strategies on Twitter and traditional media platforms. Via Twitter, Incognito predominantly used strategies of victimization, stonewalling, and attacking the accuser, along with a new category: exposing critics. On traditional media, he used shifting blame, good intentions, and bolstering.
As Venus Turns: A Feminist Soap Opera Analysis of Venus Vs.
Authors: Lavelle Katherine L.
Published: October 2015

Abstract:
Grand Slam tennis tournaments historically have paid less to female champions as compared to their male counterparts. In the early 21st century a group of female players and advocates led a campaign for Wimbledon to equalize its pay. One of its leaders, Venus Williams, is one of the most successful American tennis players of the last 20 years but was one of the few black players on the Grand Slam circuit. The Nine for IX film Venus Vs. chronicles the equal prize money campaign as well as Williams’s biography. By using feminist narrative criticism, this essay argues that the film, by focusing on the Wimbledon campaign, ignored issues of race and sexism within tennis.
Introduction: What Is Lyric Philosophy?
Authors: Heiti Warren
Published: October 2015

What is lyric philosophy? The clearest response to that question is the book-length investigation by Canadian philosopher and poet Jan Zwicky. If philosophy can be defined as thinking in love with clarity, then lyric philosophy might be roughly understood as such thinking in which clarity assumes the form of resonance. Among her paradigmatic lyric philosophers, Zwicky includes (inter alia) the aphorists Herakleitos and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Lyric is distinguished by its deep structure, which is polydimensional and integrative. Epistemically, this structure responds to the gestural root of meaning, which is ineffably manifest in the physical world.
We Know It in Our Bones: Reading a Thirty-Five-Acre Plot in Rural Virginia with Three Poems by Charles Wright
Authors: Alford Lucy
Published: October 2015

This meditative essay considers what it might mean to “read” text and terrain comparatively, attending to the nuances of poetic and environmental form that shape experience. I explore this notion through a sensorial reading of a thirty-five-acre plot of land in rural Virginia, alongside three poems by American poet Charles Wright, “Sitting Outside at the End of Autumn,” “Lines After Rereading T. S. Eliot,” and “Reading Lao Tzu Again in the New Year.” Examining place in dialogue with poem, I explore how physical and formal elements in both terrains can produce parallel aesthetic, bodily, and emotional effects and resonances.
Rewriting the Death of the Author: Rancièrian Reflections
Authors: Watkin Christopher
Published: October 2015

For decades now, critics of the “death of the author” thesis have worked themselves up about a paradox that supposedly undermines Barthes’s and Foucault’s treatment of the theme: these French theorists cannot banish the authorial voice from their own writing. Taking a lead from Jacques Rancière, this article tells a different story of the death of the author, one that makes better sense of this supposed case of double standards and that uses Nietzsche’s ideas on authorship to show that Barthes and Foucault are doing something much more powerful and interesting than simply contradicting themselves.
Taxidermy
Authors: Kolosova Vladislava
Published: October 2015

The Summer 2015 issue of Ploughshares , guest-edited by Lauren Groff. Ploughshares , a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different and personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. Acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Lauren Groff ( The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds ) guest-edits this all-fiction issue. As Groff writes in her introduction, “I am searching for work that is written with blood or bile or choler, not necessarily sweat alone.” Featuring narratives that range from a woman falling in love with a dead man (“In the Flesh, We Shone” by Alex Shakar) to the effect a traveling circus has on an entire town (“The Miracle Years of Little Fork” by Rebecca Makkai), these stories explore humanity through the bizarre and unexpected. This issue includes new work from Lydia Davis, Daniel Peña, Helen Oyeyemi, Fiona Maazel, and more. The Summer 2015 issue also features Thomas Pruiksma’s Plan B essay about his first love of magic, a look at the prolific author Peter De Vries, and an interview with Nick Arvin, the Alice Hoffman Prize Winner.
The Blueblack Cold
Authors: Ball Jesse
Published: October 2015

The Summer 2015 issue of Ploughshares , guest-edited by Lauren Groff. Ploughshares , a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different and personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. Acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Lauren Groff ( The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds ) guest-edits this all-fiction issue. As Groff writes in her introduction, “I am searching for work that is written with blood or bile or choler, not necessarily sweat alone.” Featuring narratives that range from a woman falling in love with a dead man (“In the Flesh, We Shone” by Alex Shakar) to the effect a traveling circus has on an entire town (“The Miracle Years of Little Fork” by Rebecca Makkai), these stories explore humanity through the bizarre and unexpected. This issue includes new work from Lydia Davis, Daniel Peña, Helen Oyeyemi, Fiona Maazel, and more. The Summer 2015 issue also features Thomas Pruiksma’s Plan B essay about his first love of magic, a look at the prolific author Peter De Vries, and an interview with Nick Arvin, the Alice Hoffman Prize Winner.
Algorithmic Problem Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships
Authors: Wang Xuan Juliana
Published: October 2015

The Summer 2015 issue of Ploughshares , guest-edited by Lauren Groff. Ploughshares , a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different and personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. Acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Lauren Groff ( The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds ) guest-edits this all-fiction issue. As Groff writes in her introduction, “I am searching for work that is written with blood or bile or choler, not necessarily sweat alone.” Featuring narratives that range from a woman falling in love with a dead man (“In the Flesh, We Shone” by Alex Shakar) to the effect a traveling circus has on an entire town (“The Miracle Years of Little Fork” by Rebecca Makkai), these stories explore humanity through the bizarre and unexpected. This issue includes new work from Lydia Davis, Daniel Peña, Helen Oyeyemi, Fiona Maazel, and more. The Summer 2015 issue also features Thomas Pruiksma’s Plan B essay about his first love of magic, a look at the prolific author Peter De Vries, and an interview with Nick Arvin, the Alice Hoffman Prize Winner.
Unhappy Christmas Tree
Authors: Davis Lydia
Published: October 2015

The Summer 2015 issue of Ploughshares , guest-edited by Lauren Groff. Ploughshares , a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different and personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. Acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Lauren Groff ( The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds ) guest-edits this all-fiction issue. As Groff writes in her introduction, “I am searching for work that is written with blood or bile or choler, not necessarily sweat alone.” Featuring narratives that range from a woman falling in love with a dead man (“In the Flesh, We Shone” by Alex Shakar) to the effect a traveling circus has on an entire town (“The Miracle Years of Little Fork” by Rebecca Makkai), these stories explore humanity through the bizarre and unexpected. This issue includes new work from Lydia Davis, Daniel Peña, Helen Oyeyemi, Fiona Maazel, and more. The Summer 2015 issue also features Thomas Pruiksma’s Plan B essay about his first love of magic, a look at the prolific author Peter De Vries, and an interview with Nick Arvin, the Alice Hoffman Prize Winner.
Safe Home
Authors: Peña Daniel
Published: October 2015

The Summer 2015 issue of Ploughshares , guest-edited by Lauren Groff. Ploughshares , a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different and personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. Acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Lauren Groff ( The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds ) guest-edits this all-fiction issue. As Groff writes in her introduction, “I am searching for work that is written with blood or bile or choler, not necessarily sweat alone.” Featuring narratives that range from a woman falling in love with a dead man (“In the Flesh, We Shone” by Alex Shakar) to the effect a traveling circus has on an entire town (“The Miracle Years of Little Fork” by Rebecca Makkai), these stories explore humanity through the bizarre and unexpected. This issue includes new work from Lydia Davis, Daniel Peña, Helen Oyeyemi, Fiona Maazel, and more. The Summer 2015 issue also features Thomas Pruiksma’s Plan B essay about his first love of magic, a look at the prolific author Peter De Vries, and an interview with Nick Arvin, the Alice Hoffman Prize Winner.
Genre: “Distant Reading” and the Goals of Periodicals Research
Authors: Liddle Dallas
Published: October 2015

The Victorian marketplace for periodical articles was largely structured by genre, which made working knowledge of genre conventions essential for both editors and writers. Because an understanding of genre is generally tacit rather than declarative, however, acquiring this knowledge presented challenges to contributors and would-be contributors—challenges that persist in a different form today. How can modern periodicals scholars reconstruct patterns and conventions of a discourse that even most of the original practitioners could not have explained? A “distant reading” case study on the newspaper leading article shows how quantitative tools may complement traditional research methods to illuminate the nature and development of historical genre forms.
The ambiguous voices of Possum
Authors: Have Iben
Published: October 2015

A categorization of the levels of the soundtrack will provide the foundation for analytical notions on how the soundtrack of Possum challenges the recipient by operating in a field between diegetic and non-diegetic, realistic and supernatural, and human and animal sounds.
The postcolonial Possum: A passed parcel
Authors: Allen Brenda M.
Published: October 2015

Brad McGann studied in Australia, where the possum is protected, but at home in Aotearoa New Zealand the animal is a threat to native species. In Possum, the autistic child Kid arouses similarly conflicting emotions in her close-knit family providing a metaphor for the changes wrought by and on settlers.
FourÄ±er coeffÄ±cÄ±ents of a class of ETA quotÄ±ents of weÄ±ght 20 wÄ±th level 12
Authors: Kendirli BarÄ±ÅŸ
Published: October 2015

Williams and later Yao, Xia and Jin discovered explicit formulas for the coefficients of the Fourier series expansions of a class of eta quotients. Williams expressed all coefficients of 126 eta quotients in terms of Ïƒ(n),Ïƒ((n/2)),Ïƒ((n/3)) and Ïƒ((n/6)) and Yao, Xia and Jin, following the method of proof of Williams, expressed only even coefficients of 104 eta quotients in terms of Ïƒâ‚ƒ(n),Ïƒâ‚ƒ((n/2)),Ïƒâ‚ƒ((n/3)) and Ïƒâ‚ƒ((n/6)).Here, we will express the even Fourier coefficients of 570 eta quotients in terms of Ïƒâ‚â‚‰(n),Ïƒâ‚â‚‰((n/2)),Ïƒâ‚â‚‰((n/3)),Ïƒâ‚â‚‰((n/4)),Ïƒâ‚â‚‰((n/6)) and Ïƒâ‚â‚‰((n/(12))).
Retención escolar y educación de calidad: logros y desafíos pendientes en una escuela secundaria argentina
Authors: Rosli Natalia , Carlino Paula , Roni Carolina
Published: October 2015

El acceso a la educación secundaria se ha universalizado en Argentina y en otros países latinoamericanos. La inclusión educativa exige no solo promover la asistencia a clases sino también ofrecer una educación de calidad. Este artículo describe de qué modos una escuela secundaria argentina que recibe población de bajos recursos socioeconómicos enfrenta ambos desafíos. Por un lado, examina cómo se propició la permanencia escolar y, por otro lado, analiza las intervenciones didácticas que realizaron tres profesores de las ciencias sociales para favorecer la apropiación de contenidos disciplinares mediante el uso de la lectura y la escritura en sus materias. Por medio de observaciones de 39 clases, entrevistas a director, docentes y alumnos, y relevamiento documental, identificamos, por una parte, estrategias institucionales y vinculares acordadas e implementadas, que los actores reconocieron como alentadoras de la asistencia a clase: el equipo docente asumió un compromiso con un proyecto pedagógico inclusivo, se sintió parte de un trabajo colectivo, construyó un vínculo afectivo con los alumnos y manifestó confianza en su aprendizaje. Por otra parte, hallamos que la lectura y la escritura pasaron desapercibidas como potenciales herramientas de enseñanza y aprendizaje de contenidos disciplinares dado que los profesores apuntaron a dejar claros los conceptos pero no a ayudar a desarrollar estas prácticas situadamente. Estos resultados muestran que la institución logró con  claros esfuerzos la retención, promoción y egreso de los estudiantes; empero el ofrecimiento de oportunidades de mejores aprendizajes mediante la comprensión y producción de textos disciplinares, resta como cuestión que ameritaría ser discutida y trabajada por el equipo docente. El valor de este estudio de caso reside en mostrar la necesidad de profundizar la inclusión educativa a través de reformular las propuestas de enseñanza de contenidos disciplinares mediados por la lectura y la escritura, para volverlas más formativas y habilitantes.
Práctica cotidiana escolar, reflexión docente y posicionamiento en política pública. Análisis de intercambios en asambleas semanales
Authors: Heras Ana Inés
Published: October 2015

Analizo en este escrito los posicionamientos en cuanto a la política pública que los trabajadores de un Centro de educación primaria construyen en función de su proyecto educativo. Para ello tomo un aspecto que fue documentado recurrentemente en mis registros etnográficos: la forma en que reflexionan y debaten sobre su propuesta pedagógica en relación con la política de Estado que la contiene. De esta manera, las asambleas del Centro Educativo podrían considerarse como una suerte de laboratorio de diseño y evaluación continua de medidas de política pública. Tomaré como unidad de análisis a las interacciones que tienen lugar en las asambleas semanales del Centro. Estas interacciones insertas en la cotidianeidad escolar comportan trazos y marcas cuyo análisis e interpretación lleva a considerar aspectos que rebasan la política educativa. De esta manera, sostendré que los educadores mantienen una triple perspectiva cuando realizan su trabajo: su rol pedagógico en el Centro, su rol de trabajadores de la educación y su capacidad como ciudadanos para transformar la sociedad en que viven.
Cooperative learning and embodied accountability: an ethnographic analysis of classroom participation in an English school
Authors: Luna Figueroa Laura
Published: October 2015

Based on a school ethnography carried out in an English primary school in the last years of New Labour Government,  this paper examines the processes and dynamics involved in the introduction of a cooperative learning method as part of the Success for All Literacy Program, which was being implemented in the school for the first time. It discusses the difficulties and resistances showed by children’s interactions and teachers’ declarations during the development of the program as the sign of competing agendas within the school and within the educational policy as well. They also manifest the deep penetration of a model of participation and learning that suits the neoliberal educational policy embraced by the British governments since the Education Reform Act in 1988 up to the present time.  The establishment of a culture of performativity and accountability is revealed in children’s behavior during cooperative tasks as they tend to work in a competition rather than in a cooperation scheme and perceive their peers more as threats to their individual performance than as a support in their learning process. On the other side, teachers struggle to rely on a method more process-oriented than product-oriented as they feel that, with no individual and written tasks, they are not able to give account of children’s progress and therefore, of their work as teachers.  The paper shows that a conception of learning (as private achievement), of person (as individual) and of classroom participation (as competition) are at play within the accountability educational system.
Los hacedores de la EIB: un acercamiento a las políticas lingüístico-educativas relativas a la educación indígena desde las aulas bilingües del Chaco.
Authors: Unamuno Virginia
Published: October 2015

Sobre la base de un estudio etnográfico multisituado en la Provincia de Chaco, este artículo examina la forma en que desde diferentes discursos, posiciones y prácticas se construyen los sentidos de la Educación Intercultural Bilingüe (EIB) y se hace política en relación con las lenguas. Según argumentaré, la vaguedad en el tratamiento normativo de la EIB deja en manos de las escuelas la definición cotidiana de aspectos cruciales de la misma: sus objetivos, sus destinatarios y los roles docentes. Sin embargo, las decisiones de los directivos y las prácticas de los docentes bilingüe no siempre significan  la EIB en un mismo sentido.  Entre la normativa, las decisiones de los directivos, las prácticas y los posicionamientos docentes, se define un terreno complejo en el cual la EIB se erige como un objeto político en disputa, en el cual parece estar en juego no sólo significar el “bilingüismo” y la “interculturalidad”, sino también la EIB en tanto que “educación para indígenas”, “educación con indígenas” o bien como “educación indígena”. En este terreno, la lucha de los docentes indígenas de la provincia del Chaco por una gestión comunitaria e indígena de las escuelas se presenta como una posibilidad de concretar colectiva y autónomamente un modelo educativo intercultural y bilingüe que las políticas lingüísticas gubernamentales no parecen poder efectivizar.
Entrevistas comunitarias, la recuperación del conocimiento comunitario desde la escuela. El caso de las Secundarias Comunitarias Indígenas, Oaxaca, México
Authors: Briseño Julieta
Published: October 2015

Las entrevistas de los jóvenes a la gente mayor son parte de la cotidianidad del modelo pedagógico de las Secundarias Comunitarias Indígenas de Oaxaca (México). En mi estudio etnográfico realizado en la secundaria situada en Santa María Tiltepec, Oaxaca, observé que estas entrevistas por un lado permiten el tránsito de ciertos saberes comunitarios hacia el trabajo en las aulas y por otro, generan prácticas escolares fuera de ellas, dando lugar a novedosas maneras de enseñar y aprender. El artículo analiza en el material visual como registro etnográfico facetas de la interacción en el momento de las entrevistas. En las fotografías se pueden apreciar las actitudes, miradas, posturas, gestos y situaciones de los participantes de dichas entrevistas (portadores de conocimiento y estudiantes). El análisis espera aportar evidencias de la recuperación del conocimiento comunitario como base para la construcción del conocimiento escolar y además aportar a la discusión sobre la pertinencia del modelo de educación intercultural bilingüe (EIB) en México dirigido a los pueblos originarios.
Complex Neurological Phenotype in Mutant Mice LackingTsc2in Excitatory Neurons of the Developing Forebrain
Authors: Crowell Beth , Hwa Lee Gum , Nikolaeva Ina , Dal Pozzo Valentina , D’Arcangelo Gabriella
Published: October 2015

Mutations in theTSC1andTSC2genes cause tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), a genetic disease often associated with epilepsy, intellectual disability, and autism, and characterized by the presence of anatomical malformations in the brain as well as tumors in other organs. The TSC1 and TSC2 proteins form a complex that inhibits mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling. Previous animal studies demonstrated that Tsc1 or Tsc2 loss of function in the developing brain affects the intrinsic development of neural progenitor cells, neurons, or glia. However, the interplay between different cellular elements during brain development was not previously investigated. In this study, we generated a novel mutant mouse line (NEX-Tsc2) in which theTsc2gene is deleted specifically in postmitotic excitatory neurons of the developing forebrain. Homozygous mutant mice failed to thrive and died prematurely, whereas heterozygous mice appeared normal. Mutant mice exhibited distinct neuroanatomical abnormalities, including malpositioning of selected neuronal populations, neuronal hypertrophy, and cortical astrogliosis. Intrinsic neuronal defects correlated with increased mTORC1 signaling, whereas astrogliosis did not result from altered intrinsic signaling, since these cells were not directly affected by the gene knockout strategy. All neuronal and non-neuronal abnormalities were suppressed by continuous postnatal treatment with the mTORC1 inhibitor RAD001. The data suggest that the loss of Tsc2 and mTORC1 signaling activation in excitatory neurons not only disrupts their intrinsic development, but also disrupts the development of cortical astrocytes, likely through the mTORC1-dependent expression of abnormal signaling proteins. This work thus provides new insights into cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous functions of Tsc2 in brain development.
Cognitive Deficits, Changes in Synaptic Function, and Brain Pathology in a Mouse Model of Normal Aging
Authors: Weber Martin , Wu Tiffany , Hanson Jesse E. , Alam Nazia M. , Solanoy Hilda , Ngu Hai , Lauffer Benjamin E. , Lin Han H. , Dominguez Sara L. , Reeder Jens , Tom Jennifer , Steiner Pascal , Foreman Oded , Prusky Glen T. , Scearce-Levie Kimberly
Published: October 2015

Age is the main risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. Yet, cognitive decline in aged rodents has been less well studied, possibly due to concomitant changes in sensory or locomotor function that can complicate cognitive tests. We tested mice that were 3, 11, and 23 months old in cognitive, sensory, and motor measures, and postmortem measures of gliosis and neural activity (c-Fos). Hippocampal synaptic function was also examined. While age-related impairments were detectable in tests of spatial memory, greater age-dependent effects were observed in tests of associative learning [active avoidance (AA)]. Gross visual function was largely normal, but startle responses to acoustic stimuli decreased with increased age, possibly due to hearing impairments. Therefore, a novel AA variant in which light alone served as the conditioning stimuli was used. Age-related deficits were again observed. Mild changes in vision, as measured by optokinetic responses, were detected in 19- versus 4-month-old mice, but these were not correlated to AA performance. Thus, deficits in hearing or vision are unlikely to account for the observed deficits in cognitive measures. Increased gliosis was observed in the hippocampal formation at older ages. Age-related changes in neural function and plasticity were observed with decreased c-Fos in the dentate gyrus, and decreased synaptic strength and paired-pulse facilitation in CA1 slices. This work, which carefully outlines age-dependent impairments in cognitive and synaptic function, c-Fos activity, and gliosis during normal aging in the mouse, suggests robust translational measures that will facilitate further study of the biology of aging.