bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Employers’ Associations and Open Shops in the United States
Authors: Pearson Chad
Published: March 2017

Employers began organizing with one another to reduce the power of organized labor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Irritated by strikes, boycotts, and unions’ desire to achieve exclusive bargaining rights, employers demanded the right to establish open shops, workplaces that promoted individualism over collectivism. Rather than recognize closed or union shops, employers demanded the right to hire and fire whomever they wanted, irrespective of union status. They established an open-shop movement, which was led by local, national, and trade-based employers. Some formed more inclusive “citizens’ associations,” which included clergymen, lawyers, judges, academics, and employers. Throughout the 20th century’s first three decades, this movement succeeded in busting unions, breaking strikes, and blacklisting labor activists. It united large numbers of employers and was mostly successful. The movement faced its biggest challenges in the 1930s, when a liberal political climate legitimized unions and collective bargaining. But employers never stopped organizing and fighting, and they continued to undermine the labor movement in the following decades by invoking the phrase “right-to-work,” insisting that individual laborers must enjoy freedom from so-called union bosses and compulsory unionism. Numerous states, responding to pressure from organized employers, begin passing “right-to-work” laws, which made union organizing more difficult because workers were not obligated to join unions or pay their “fair share” of dues to them. The multi-decade employer-led anti-union movement succeeded in fighting organized labor at the point of production, in politics, and in public relations.
Isolationism
Authors: Doenecke Justus D.
Published: March 2017

For the United States, isolationism is best defined as avoidance of wars outside the Western Hemisphere, particularly in Europe; opposition to binding military alliances; and the unilateral freedom to act politically and commercially unrestrained by mandatory commitments to other nations. Until the controversy over American entry into the League of Nations, isolationism was never subject to debate. The United States could expand its territory, protect its commerce, and even fight foreign powers without violating its traditional tenets. Once President Woodrow Wilson sought membership in the League, however, Americans saw isolationism as a foreign policy option, not simply something taken for granted. A fundamental foreign policy tenet now became a faction, limited to a group of people branded as “isolationists.” Its high point came during the years 1934–1937, when Congress, noting the challenge of the totalitarian nations to the international status quo, passed the neutrality acts to insulate the country from global entanglements.

Once World War II broke out in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt increasingly sought American participation on the side of the Allies. Isolationists unsuccessfully fought FDR’s legislative proposals, beginning with repeal of the arms embargo and ending with the convoying of supplies to Britain. The America First Committee (1940–1941), however, so effectively mobilized anti-interventionist opinion as to make the president more cautious in his diplomacy.

If the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor permanently ended classic isolationism, by 1945 a “new isolationism” voiced suspicion of the United Nations, the Truman Doctrine, aid to Greece and Turkey, the Marshall Plan, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and U.S. participation in the Korean War. Yet, because the “new isolationists” increasingly advocated militant unilateral measures to confront Communist Russia and China, often doing so to advance the fortunes of the Republican party, they exposed themselves to charges of inconsistency and generally faded away in the 1950s. Since the 1950s, many Americans have opposed various military involvements— including the ones in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan— but few envision returning to an era when the United States avoids all commitments.
The Cosmological Vision of Martin Luther
Authors: Mattox Mickey L.
Published: March 2017

Martin Luther was not an original contributor to the study of cosmology, and if one were to judge only by his explicit remarks on the matter, it would seem to have been of little interest to him. He was, however, every bit a man of his times, and as such he assumed what educated people of his times assumed, including in the matter of the nature and structure of reality. The world in which he came of age was informed by a compelling vision of the universe as a whole. Astronomical observation and mathematical calculation in the traditions of Aristotle and Ptolemy had long since combined with philosophical and religious speculation to render Luther’s world a coherent “cosmos” (Gk. kosmos, “order” or “world”), at the center of which reposed a stationary sphere, the earth. This world was surrounded at ever-increasing heights by the heavenly spheres, each of them thought to be wheeling in at tremendous rates of speed that increased as one moved up through their heights: first the moon, then the planets, the stars, and ultimately the prime mover. This long-traditional view of the cosmos rendered reality itself an arena of intense motion and beauty.

Taken in a broad scientific and aesthetic sense, cosmology provided not only an interpretation of the heavens but also an imaginative lens through which to experience and understand one’s self and one’s world. Though he quibbled over some of the details, Luther clearly viewed himself and his world through that very lens. During his university studies in Erfurt for the bachelor and master of arts degrees, he read cosmology as a subject covered in the integrated approach to learning set forth in a curriculum based on the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). In combination with other later medieval notions—such as the understanding of the human body and its four humors or the sublunar sphere and its four constituent elements (earth, water, air, fire)—cosmology became for Luther what it was for all his educated peers, that is, a world view. Thus, while Luther was not a cosmologist per se, the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmos provided a set of background beliefs that informed his theology and world view at every level. He also developed a distinctive understanding of the reality and exercise of power and authority, both on the earth and in the heavens.
Martin Luther’s Disputations
Authors: Luy David
Published: March 2017

Academic disputations were a fixture of university life throughout Martin Luther’s lifetime. Luther participated regularly in various sorts of disputations, first as a student at the University of Erfurt and then as a professor at the University of Wittenberg. Although the disputation represents an important aspect of Luther’s indebtedness to late medieval scholasticism, the disputational form was not simply a matter of convention to Luther. It became one of the major communicative vehicles through which he developed and expressed his theological ideas. The 95 theses are a well-known case in point, but Luther’s prolific career as a disputator had already begun prior to the eruption of public controversy in October of 1517, and would continue at regular intervals (with the exception of one conspicuous hiatus) for several decades afterwards.

Although several of Luther’s most influential sets of theses were explicitly intended for the consideration of his academic and ecclesiastical colleagues (e.g., the “Heidelberg Disputation”), the majority of his disputations took place as a curricular exercise within the University of Wittenberg. As such, most serve a purpose, which is simultaneously pedagogical and polemical. Luther viewed the disputation as a crucial opportunity for students both to observe and to practice the utilization of logic and dialectic for the refutation of theological error. He deployed and recommended those same tools for the defense of proper doctrine in the face of objections. In many cases, the specific topic under consideration was furnished by contextual stimuli and accordingly reflects particular sites of disagreement between Luther and his variegated array of theological opponents. This naturally includes many of the neuralgic points, which stand at the center of the Protestant reformation (e.g., original sin, the doctrine of justification, free choice, church authority, etc), but it also includes a range of contested topics between Luther and other reformers (e.g., disputations against the antinomians, against the Christology of Caspar Schwenckfeld, and in response to anti-trinitarianism, etc). Several of Luther’s disputations also treat the relationship between theology and philosophy, and reflect at some length upon what he refers to somewhat provocatively as the “new language” of theology. Taken cumulatively, Luther’s disputations encompass a broad and diverse theological terrain. Indeed, there is hardly an aspect of the reformer’s theology, which fails to appear within this extensive corpus. As such, the disputations provide an essential resource for the study of Luther’s thought and its development over time.
Martin Luther in Roman Catholic German-Language Theologies
Authors: Thönissen Wolfgang
Published: March 2017

From the outset, Catholic interest in the life and work of Martin Luther stemmed from ecumenical inquiry as the 19th century ended. The Catholic research concerned with Luther that followed in the 20th century is one of the driving forces of the international ecumenical movement and arose as Catholic theologians made their first hesitant approaches to international ecumenical efforts surrounding the founding of the World Council of Churches in 1948 in Amsterdam. At first restricted essentially to Germany and German-speaking regions, a specific methodology for approaching the Reformation developed which gradually began to determine ecumenical methodology in international Lutheran–Catholic dialogue. The methodology of differentiating consensus, ultimately developed and applied in today’s Lutheran–Catholic dialogue, frees the approach of dialogical theology when applied to each particular confessional theology to overcome the effect of inherent confessional distinctions and to prepare the way for mutual understanding of the message of justification in the gospel of Jesus Christ, without eliminating particular confessional aspects and emphases.

As a result, neither the theology of Martin Luther nor that of the Council of Trent proves to be an insurmountable impediment to dialogue. Surprisingly, the results of this research have not been restricted to theology and ecumenical dialogue; rather, they continue to be at least implicitly received by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and the popes since the Second Vatican Council.

Today, Catholic doctrine can speak of Martin Luther as a witness to Jesus Christ, a teacher of theology, and a Catholic reformer, without the 16th-century condemnations having yet been revised. The reconsideration of Martin Luther by Catholic theologians demonstrates a capacity for reform and points the way to overcoming the contentious theological gestalt of Catholic theology altogether. In this respect, the shape of Catholic theology today shows the influence of Martin Luther’s Reformation.
Martin Luther in Central Europe: Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia
Authors: Batka L'ubomír
Published: March 2017

The reception of Luther in central Europe has been influenced by the Counter-Reformation and re-Catholicization more than anywhere else. Protestantism was so widespread in this area throughout the 16th century that it largely reduced the Roman Catholic Church to a minority confession, but 500 years later it comprises a majority. The diaspora situation did not leave space for academic research in Luther’s theology. This article focuses on just two regions of central Europe that can serve as typical case studies: parts of the lands of the Bohemian crown, and of the kingdom of Hungary. Similarities could be found in other parts of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, but particular historical complexities make it difficult to speak about central Europe as a whole.

In its early phase, Luther’s thought spread primarily in regions where the population was able to read Reformation texts in German: Silesia, North Bohemia, Moravia, Upper Hungary, west Hungary, and Transylvania. From about 1520, it was predominantly the cities along the routes of German traders that contributed to the spread of Luther’s writings in central Europe. In addition, the strong political position of the estates influenced the reception of Luther’s theology in certain areas more than in others. Moreover, the catechetical work done in schools under humanistic influence supported the idea of reformation and religious tolerance. Luther had a much more lasting impact on piety and spirituality through his Small Catechism and hymns than through theological reception, for example in Slovakia. In Bohemia, in contrast, Luther’s works were first translated into another national language, and there occurred theological reflection from various angles, yet no lasting tradition of Lutheranism was established.

Reformation in Slovakia, as in like in Hungary, Austria, and Poland, was dominated by Lutherans, whereas in Bohemia and Moravia the Hussite reformation and religious freedom allowed the development of various other confessions, such as Utraquism and the Unity of the Brethren. In central Europe, the Reformation started earlier but was broadly established later than in western Europe. In the first half of the 1520s, the impact of Luther was sporadic and not connected throughout larger areas. After the battle at Mohács and the Diet of Augsburg, the call for ecclesiastical reform was more broadly accepted, first in the cities with predominant German populations, then by the nobility, and by the 1540s by Hungarians, Slovaks. The Letter of Majesty in Bohemia (1609), and the Peace of Vienna and Diet of 1608 in Hungary constituted legal recognition of the evangelical communities. The Reformation in Bohemia and Hungary was more diverse than anywhere in western Europe. The confessionalization of the Reformation reflected and accentuated ethnic differences throughout the region.
Martin Luther in Britain and Anglican Theology
Authors: Chapman Mark D.
Published: March 2017

Luther’s impact on Anglicanism, especially on the Church in England but also in Scotland, is difficult to gauge. The English and Scottish Reformations moved in ways that were more influenced by Reformed theology than by Luther himself. Nevertheless, there were many relationships between Luther and Britain that began during the time of Henry VIII. There was a correspondence between Luther and Henry, and the Reformer was even consulted on the King’s Great Matter (his attempt to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled). The king also wrote a treatise on the seven sacraments attacking Luther’s theology, to which Luther responded with his usual vitriol. During the 1520s there were efforts to ban Lutheran ideas under Cardinal Wolsey and John Fisher, although a number of early English evangelicals, including William Tyndale, Robert Barnes and John Frith, adopted many of Luther’s key doctrines even though they blended them with other sources. During the 1530s there were several efforts at forging diplomatic alliances between Henry and the German princes of the Schmalkaldic League, which in turn meant that Lutheran theology received a more sympathetic hearing in England. There was a significant although contested influence of Lutheran formularies on Anglican statements of faith and to a lesser extent on the liturgy of the Books of Common Prayer. What has been described as the “death of Lutheran England” began toward the end of the 1530s and early 1540s with the conservative backlash that led to the execution of Barnes. Later, after the death of Henry, there was a gradual acceptance of ideas, especially on Eucharistic presence, that stemmed from elsewhere in the Continent and that departed significantly from Luther’s views. As such ideas rose to prominence in Anglican theology, especially during the reign of Edward VI, Lutheran theology came to be regarded as increasingly conservative. Although there were further efforts to revive Lutheranism in the Elizabethan period, in general he was understood more as a pastor than a theologian. Although several later British figures promoted Luther, in general it has been more Calvinist or pietist positions far removed from Luther and his teachings that have dominated: for Anglican theology, and with rare exceptions for Britain in general, Luther remains a distant figure who for the most part is unread and seldom taught.
Martin Luther on Christian Hope and the Hope for Eternal Life
Authors: Silcock Jeffrey G.
Published: March 2017

Luther does not develop a theology of hope because hope is not the central driver of his mature theology. Central for him is rather faith in the promise of God, which gives rise to hope as well as love. There are two sides to justification that correspond to the now/not-yet character of Luther’s eschatology. On the one hand, we are already righteous through the gift of Christ’s righteousness, which we have in spe but not yet in re. On the other hand, the hope of righteousness strengthens us against sin as we wait for the perfection of our righteousness in heaven. However, in the final analysis, the basis of our hope is not the incipient righteousness which has begun in us (in re) as we gradually grow in holiness and righteousness, but Christ’s own perfect righteousness which he imputes to us through faith (iustitia aliena). For hope can only be rock-solid if it is grounded not on anything within us, but on Christ alone.

The early Luther has a very different view of things because, before 1518, he is still very much under the influence of Augustine, which means that justification is primarily a process that goes on within a person’s heart rather than, as in the later Luther, faith in God’s word of promise that comes to a person from outside and gives what it says. The dominant theological concept in Luther’s early work is the theology of humility, which is predicated on the view that God must first humble you and cause you to despair, before he can raise you up and give you hope. Since here faith is not yet oriented to the promise but defined by humility, it has to remain uncertain, as does hope. In the later Luther, on the other hand, faith gives rise to confidence and hope because it is firmly grounded in God’s word of promise, which is always reliable because God does what he says.

With his faith firmly grounded in Christ, Luther knows that he can weather all the trials and struggles of life; in fact, he can even look forward to death, since for Christians death is but the door to life with God forever. For Luther, Christ is the only hope for a hopeless world. For him, this is not wishful thinking but is rock-solid because it is based on the promise of the crucified and risen Lord. This is also the basis of the Christian hope for eternal life in the presence of the Triune God, together with the renewed creation and all the hosts of heaven.
Promise in Martin Luther’s Thought and Theology
Authors: Walter Gregory
Published: March 2017

Martin Luther used the practice and notion of promise for theological and practical ends. As a theological notion, promise allowed Luther to work through important problems about God and God’s actions in Christ. Practically, Luther employed promise to understand sacraments, human action, and interpretation of the Bible.

What unites these two ends is Luther’s taking promise as a gift of God, albeit a gift difficult to categorize according to the taxonomy of gifts in cultural anthropology. God’s promise is an effective word (verbum efficax), a speech act that does what it says. In other places of Luther’s work, promise denotes an action that priests and ministers undertake in order to communicate God’s word. He used it to articulate Christ’s activity in the Eucharist. Faith can mean many things in Luther’s work, but he frequently sees it as the correlate of promise. This shows that Luther follows the practical use of promise and fidelity in the Stoic tradition in addition to his interpretation of the Bible and his theological heritage. Luther considers promise to point to something God will do in the future or that promise limits God’s power in a way that makes that promise trustworthy. When compared to a “last will and testament,” it signifies a gift to those designated as heirs. In sum, not only does promise offer practical aims for the activity of the church; it also limits and generates theological reflection on God. For Luther, “God does not deal, nor has he ever dealt, with [human beings] other than through the word of promise” (De captivitae babylonica (1520) WA 6:516, 30–33; LW 36:42, translation modified).
Penance, Confession, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation in Martin Luther’s Context and Writings
Authors: Rittgers Ronald K.
Published: March 2017

Martin Luther vigorously opposed the traditional sacrament of penance and the theology upon which it was based, arguing that they had no scriptural warrant and that they promoted a troubled conscience, works righteousness, and clerical tyranny. As Luther developed his evangelical soteriology, he dismantled the entire late medieval penitential system, seeking to provide for himself and others what he believed this system lacked: an enduring sense of forgiveness of sin. Luther believed that justification by faith offered this certainty of absolution. Still, despite Luther’s opposition to the sacrament of penance, he was a strong supporter of a reformed version of private confession, arguing that it allowed the consoling promises of the Word to be applied directly to the troubled conscience. Owing to Luther’s support for the practice, Lutherans soon developed an evangelical version of private confession that appeared in the vast majority of Lutheran church ordinances as a mandatory rite. However, there was disagreement among Lutherans as to the theological justification for this new rite, with some arguing that it was a sacrament, while others, including Luther, maintained that it was not. This disagreement contributed to an important debate about private confession in the 1530s, the so-called Nürnberg Absolution Controversy, in which Andreas Osiander sought to make a compelling case for the sacramental status of private confession. Luther was directly involved in this debate, and while he shared Osiander’s enthusiasm for private confession, he disagreed with Osiander’s theology of the power of keys. Luther’s view won out, but Osiander raised important questions about the theological justification for Lutheran private confession as a mandatory rite.
Latin America in World War I
Authors: Schuler Friedrich E.
Published: March 2017

The English-speaking world awaits its first detailed study examining Latin America during World War I. Many historical events of the era remain little-known, as does much of the region’s military history during this period. While key chronologies, personalities, groups, and historical avenues remain unidentified, researchers must draw knowledge from existing texts. The authors cited in this article for further study cover only a small fraction of the myriad topics presented by the war.

World War I set in motion a unique power readjustment in Latin America, the likes of which had not been experienced in the region since the 1820s. Most significantly, the temporary suspension of economic ties with Europe disrupted everyday processes that elites and commoners had previously taken for granted. Changes in economy and finance triggered a struggle between indigenous Americans, peasants, workers, elites, and immigrants, setting the stage for the social and political changes of the 1920s. Amidst the upheaval of World War I, non-elite Latin American groups successfully focused national politics on regional and ethnic issues, while elite Latin Americans weighed the potential advantages of ties with Spanish and Italian authoritarianism. World War I ended European financial dominance over the region, and the destruction of Europe reduced export markets to a point where Latin America’s economic relations with the United States gained new significance. U.S. military advisors took their places alongside European trainers, and many different “U.S.” actors emerged on Latin American soil, acting out rivaling understandings of appropriate U.S. activity in Latin America. The war heralded the end of Belgian influence and of significant French power in the region, British acceptance of U.S. financial preeminence, and questions as to how Prussian military expertise could be leveraged to Latin America’s benefit in the future. The creation of the League of Nations, a development alien to Latin American political culture, caught the region off guard. And yet it laid the foundation for global Latin American diplomacy in the 1930s and after World War II. In the end, the search for a new understanding of a Latin American nation’s place on the changing world stage led to the elevation of the institution of the national army as a social and political arbiter. The myth of the army as embodiment of national essence would last until the 1980s.
Donatus and Donatism
Authors: Wilhite David E.
Published: March 2017

The Donatist party began around 312 ce when Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, died and was replaced by Caecilian. Caecilian’s accusers claimed that he had been ordained by a traditor, someone who had “handed over” the scriptures to Roman officials during the Diocletian persecution. This ordination by a traditor allegedly contaminated Caecilian and all who continued in his communion with the contagion of idolatry, and therefore his ordination was seen as invalidated. In his place the opposing party appointed Majorinus as the rightful bishop of Carthage, and when he died, he was succeeded by Donatus, for whom the party eventually was named. Caecilian and his supporters continued to claim his innocence from such contagion, and so the Donatists appealed to Constantine. A council was summoned to Rome which ruled on Caecilian’s behalf. The Donatists again appealed, and so a larger council met in Arles in 314 and ruled again for Caecilian. When the Donatists still refused to recognize Caecilian, and since they broke fellowship with all in communion with him, Constantine pressured the Donatists with legal and even violent means. This schism continued through the 4th century with sporadic violence between the parties: Caecilian’s party could invoke government officials to enforce their legitimacy, while the Donatists were accused of utilizing the Circumcellions, a group which functioned as a violent mob. In the late 4th century, writers such as Optatus of Milevis and Augustine articulated a defense of their own “Catholic” party through various pamphlets and treatises; they claimed that their party was never guilty of such contagion, and that the Donatists were so concerned with the purity of the church that they had forsaken its catholicity. In short, the Donatists allegedly believed that their party in North Africa was the only remaining true church. In the late 4th and early 5th centuries, the government, advised by Augustine’s party, developed stricter attempts to coerce the Donatists. In 411 a conference met in Carthage at which the Donatists were found to be “heretics,” which finalized the Roman policy against them by requiring the enforcement of heresy laws against this party. While there is ongoing evidence for Donatists long after Augustine’s time, when the Vandals invaded and conquered North Africa beginning in 429, the Donatist controversy largely disappeared in the surviving literary sources.
the self in Greek literature
Authors: Gill Christopher
Published: March 2017

The notion of “self” is a non-technical one, bridging the areas of psychology and ethics or social relations. Criteria for selfhood include psychological unity or cohesion, agency, responsibility, self-consciousness, reflexivity, and capacity for relationships with others. “Self” is a modern concept with no obvious lexical equivalent in Greek (or Latin); the question therefore arises of the relationship between the modern concept and ancient thinking, as embodied in Greek literature. Three approaches to this question can be identified. One focuses on the idea that there is development within Greek literature towards an understanding of the self or person as a cohesive unit and bearer of agency and responsibility. Another approach sees certain aspects of Greek literature and philosophy as prefiguring some features of the modern concept of self. A third approach underlines the difference between the Greek and modern thought worlds in the formulation of concepts in this area, while also suggesting that Greek ideas and modes of presenting people can be illuminating to moderns, in part because of the challenge posed by their difference. These approaches draw on a range of evidence, including psychological vocabulary, characterization in Greek literature, and Greek philosophical analyses of ethical psychology. There are grounds for maintaining the credibility of all three approaches, and also valid criticisms that can be made of each of them.
Natural Language Ontology
Authors: Moltmann Friederike
Published: March 2017

Natural language ontology is a branch of both metaphysics and linguistic semantics. Its aim is to uncover the ontological categories, notions, and structures that are implicit in the use of natural language, that is, the ontology that a speaker accepts when using a language. Natural language ontology is part of “descriptive metaphysics,” to use Strawson’s term, or “naive metaphysics,” to use Fine’s term, that is, the metaphysics of appearances as opposed to foundational metaphysics, whose interest is in what there really is.

What sorts of entities natural language involves is closely linked to compositional semantics, namely what the contribution of occurrences of expressions in a sentence is taken to be. Most importantly, entities play a role as semantic values of referential terms, but also as implicit arguments of predicates and as parameters of evaluation.

Natural language appears to involve a particularly rich ontology of abstract, minor, derivative, and merely intentional objects, an ontology many philosophers are not willing to accept. At the same time, a serious investigation of the linguistic facts often reveals that natural language does not in fact involve the sort of ontology that philosophers had assumed it does.

Natural language ontology is concerned not only with the categories of entities that natural language commits itself to, but also with various metaphysical notions, for example the relation of part-whole, causation, material constitution, notions of existence, plurality and unity, and the mass-count distinction.

An important question regarding natural language ontology is what linguistic data it should take into account. Looking at the sorts of data that researchers who practice natural language ontology have in fact taken into account makes clear that it is only presuppositions, not assertions, that reflect the ontology implicit in natural language.

The ontology of language may be distinctive in that it may in part be driven specifically by language or the use of it in a discourse. Examples are pleonastic entities, discourse referents conceived of as entities of a sort, and an information-based notion of part structure involved in the semantics of plurals and mass nouns. Finally, there is the question of the universality of the ontology of natural language. Certainly, the same sort of reasoning should apply to consider it universal, in a suitable sense, as has been applied for the case of (generative) syntax.
Climatology of Flooding in the United States
Authors: Villarini Gabriele , Slater Louise
Published: March 2017

Flood losses in the United States have increased dramatically over the course of the past century, averaging US$7.96 billion in damages per year for the 30-year period ranging from 1985 to 2014. In terms of human fatalities, floods are the second largest weather-related hazard in the United States, causing approximately 80 deaths per year over the same period. Given the wide-reaching impacts of flooding across the United States, the evaluation of flood-generating mechanisms and of the drivers of changing flood hazard are two areas of active research.

Flood frequency analysis has traditionally been based on statistical analyses of the observed flood distributions that rarely distinguish among physical flood-generating processes. However, recent scientific advances have shown that flood frequency distributions are often characterized by “mixed populations” arising from multiple flood-generating mechanisms, which can be challenging to disentangle. Flood events can be driven by a variety of physical mechanisms, including rain and snowmelt, frontal systems, monsoons, intense tropical cyclones, and more generic cyclonic storms.

Temporal changes in the frequency and magnitude of flooding have also been the subject of a large body of work in recent decades. The science has moved from a focus on the detection of trends and shifts in flood peak distributions towards the attribution of these changes, with particular emphasis on climatic and anthropogenic factors, including urbanization and changes in agricultural practices. A better understanding of these temporal changes in flood peak distributions, as well as of the physical flood-generating mechanisms, will enable us to move forward with the estimation of future flood design values in the context of both climatic and anthropogenic change.
Valuation of Mangrove Restoration
Authors: Barbier Edward B.
Published: March 2017

Since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, there has been strong interest globally in restoring mangrove ecosystems and their potential benefits from protecting coastlines and people from damaging storms. However, the net economic gains from mangrove restoration have been variable; there have been some notable project successes but also some prominent failures. There is also an ongoing debate over whether or not the cost of mangrove restoration is justified by the benefits these ecosystems provide. Although the high costs of mangrove restoration and the risk of failure have led to criticism of such schemes, perhaps the more pertinent concern should be whether the ex post option of restoration is economically beneficial compared to preventing irreversible mangrove conversion to alternative land uses. Case studies on mangrove valuation from Brazil and Thailand illustrate the key issues underlying this concern. Since much recent mangrove restoration has been motivated by the trees’ potential storm-protection benefit, a number of studies have valued mangroves for this purpose. However, mangroves are also valued for other important benefits, such as providing collected products for local coastal communities and serving as nursery and breeding grounds for off-shore fisheries. The implications of these benefits for mangrove restoration can be significant. It is also important to understand the appropriate use of benefit transfer when it is difficult to value restored mangroves, methods to incorporate the potential risk of mangrove restoration failure, and assessment of cost-effective mangrove restoration.
Economic Justice
Authors: Simmons Louise
Published: March 2017

Economic justice is a multifaceted set of issues that affect individuals, families, and communities with which social work interacts. These issues are interrelated and inherently challenge corporate and neoliberal hegemony. They do not necessarily lend themselves to conflict resolution strategies but rather to social, political, and economic power struggles. These issues of economic justice are inseparable from organizing, contestation for power, and the philosophical question of whether people believe that they have a responsibility to assist those in need, or whether the unbridled quest for profit is what should govern our society.

Social work often refers to economic justice but rarely considers what economic justice truly entails. This article discusses the rationale for social workers to be knowledgeable of and involved with economic justice initiatives. It specifies several areas that comprise an economic justice agenda. Examples of advocacy and organizations that lead the campaigns are discussed. Six realms of economic justice are discussed: inequality, workplace rights, living wage levels and minimum wages, immigrant rights in the workplace, community–labor partnerships, and social programs that support working families and individuals.
Fuento: functional enrichment for bioinformatics
Authors: Weichselbaum David , Zagrovic Bojan , Polyansky Anton A
Published: March 2017

The currently available functional enrichment software focuses mostly on gene expression analysis, whereby server- and graphical-user-interface-based tools with specific scope dominate the field. Here we present an efficient, user-friendly, multifunctional command-line-based functional enrichment tool (fu-en-to), tailored for the bioinformatics researcher.

Availability and Implementation

Source code and binaries freely available for download at github.com/DavidWeichselbaum/fuento, implemented in C ++ and supported on Linux and OS X.
SQC: secure quality control for meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies
Authors: Huang Zhicong , Lin Huang , Fellay Jacques , Kutalik Zoltán , Hubaux Jean-Pierre
Published: March 2017

Motivation

Due to the limited power of small-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS), researchers tend to collaborate and establish a larger consortium in order to perform large-scale GWAS. Genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) is a statistical tool that aims to synthesize results from multiple independent studies to increase the statistical power and reduce false-positive findings of GWAS. However, it has been demonstrated that the aggregate data of individual studies are subject to inference attacks, hence privacy concerns arise when researchers share study data in GWAMA.

Results

In this article, we propose a secure quality control (SQC) protocol, which enables checking the quality of data in a privacy-preserving way without revealing sensitive information to a potential adversary. SQC employs state-of-the-art cryptographic and statistical techniques for privacy protection. We implement the solution in a meta-analysis pipeline with real data to demonstrate the efficiency and scalability on commodity machines. The distributed execution of SQC on a cluster of 128 cores for one million genetic variants takes less than one hour, which is a modest cost considering the 10-month time span usually observed for the completion of the QC procedure that includes timing of logistics.

Availability and Implementation

SQC is implemented in Java and is publicly available at https://github.com/acs6610987/secureqc

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Challenges in adapting existing clinical natural language processing systems to multiple, diverse health care settings
Authors: Carrell David S , Schoen Robert E , Leffler Daniel A , Morris Michele , Rose Sherri , Baer Andrew , Crockett Seth D , Gourevitch Rebecca A , Dean Katie M , Mehrotra Ateev
Published: March 2017

Objective: Widespread application of clinical natural language processing (NLP) systems requires taking existing NLP systems and adapting them to diverse and heterogeneous settings. We describe the challenges faced and lessons learned in adapting an existing NLP system for measuring colonoscopy quality.

Materials and Methods: Colonoscopy and pathology reports from 4 settings during 2013–2015, varying by geographic location, practice type, compensation structure, and electronic health record.

Results: Though successful, adaptation required considerably more time and effort than anticipated. Typical NLP challenges in assembling corpora, diverse report structures, and idiosyncratic linguistic content were greatly magnified.

Discussion: Strategies for addressing adaptation challenges include assessing site-specific diversity, setting realistic timelines, leveraging local electronic health record expertise, and undertaking extensive iterative development. More research is needed on how to make it easier to adapt NLP systems to new clinical settings.

Conclusions: A key challenge in widespread application of NLP is adapting existing systems to new clinical settings.
Absence of Alzheimer Disease Neuropathologic Changes in Eyes of Subjects With Alzheimer Disease
Authors: Williams Erik A. , McGuone Declan , Frosch Matthew P. , Hyman Bradley T. , Laver Nora , Stemmer-Rachamimov Anat
Published: March 2017

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, and is characterized by extracellular deposition of β-amyloid and intracellular accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau protein in the brain. These pathologic findings are identified postmortem. Various visual deficits in AD have been reported and there have been conflicting reports, through imaging and pathology studies, regarding the presence of changes in the globe that mirror Alzheimer changes in the brain. Moreover, both macular degeneration and glaucoma have been variously characterized as having AD-related features. We examined one or both eyes from 19 autopsy cases, 17 of which had varying degrees of AD-related changes, and 2 of which were age-matched controls. Three cases had glaucoma and 4 had macular degeneration. Immunohistochemistry for tau, β-amyloid, TDP-43, ubiquitin, and α-synuclein showed no evidence of inclusions, deposits or other protein accumulation in any case, in any part of the globe. This finding suggests that regardless of the severity of changes seen in the brain in AD, there are no similar changes in the globe.
Psychology of Pain
Authors: Price Julie R. , Price Micah J. , Huntoon Marc A.
Published: March 2017

The role of psychosocial variables in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of pain has grown significantly in the past 30 years. Pain is no longer dichotomously thought of as either a purely psychological or physiological condition (mind–body dualism) but, rather, as a combination of biopsychosocial factors and experiences. The questions in this chapter consider the changing role of these psychosocial factors by exploring the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and other pain-related assessments and psychodiagnostics; cognitive–behavioral, acceptance and commitment, behavioral, and other psychological interventions for pain management; the role of stages of change in selection of interventions; and biopsychosocial theoretical models for understanding pain. The answers provide detailed and empirically supported explanations of the biopsychosocial impact of pain, along with references to texts commonly utilized in the training of anesthesiologists, so as to promote a better understanding of the associated materials.
Physiology of blood vessels
Authors: van Hinsbergh Victor W.M.
Published: March 2017

This chapter covers two major fields of the blood circulation: ‘distribution’ and ‘exchange’. After a short survey of the types of vessels, which form the circulation system together with the heart, the chapter describes how hydrostatic pressure derived from the heartbeat and vascular resistance determine the volume of blood that is locally delivered per time unit. The vascular resistance depends on the length of the vessel, blood viscosity, and, in particular, on the diameter of the vessel, as formulated in the Poiseuille-Hagen equation. Blood flow can be determined in vivo by different imaging modalities. A summary is provided of how smooth muscle cell contraction is regulated at the cellular level, and how neuronal, humoral, and paracrine factors affect smooth muscle contraction and thereby blood pressure and blood volume distribution among tissues. Subsequently the exchange of solutes and macromolecules over the capillary endothelium and the contribution of its surface layer, the glycocalyx, are discussed. After a description of the Starling equation for capillary exchange, new insights are summarized(in the so-called glycocalyx cleft model) that led to a new view on exchange along the capillary and on the contribution of oncotic pressure. Finally mechanisms are indicated in brief that play a role in keeping the blood volume constant, as a constant volume is a prerequisite for adequate functioning of the circulatory system.
Vascular smooth muscle cells
Authors: Bochaton-Piallat Marie-Luce , de Vries Carlie J.M. , van Eys Guillaume J.
Published: March 2017

To understand the function of arteries in the regulation of blood supply throughout the body it is essential to realize that the vessel wall is composed predominantly of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) with only one single layer of luminal endothelial cells. SMCs determine the structure of arteries and are decisive in the regulation of blood flow. This review describes the reason for the large variation of SMCs throughout the vascular tree. This depends on embryonic origin and local conditions. SMCs have the unique capacity to react to these conditions by modulating their phenotype. So, in one situation SMCs may be contractile in response to blood pressure, in another situation they may be synthetic, providing compounds to increase the strength of the vascular wall by reinforcing the extracellular matrix. This phenotypic plasticity is necessary to keep arteries functional in fulfilling the metabolic demands in the various tissues of the body.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Authors: Wainger Brian J.
Published: March 2017

Mouse and cellular models of ALS including stem cells have revealed tremendous insight into the molecular processes that lead to ALS. Models of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases have led to emergent molecular themes that span several diseases. Future models must account for neuronal subtype specificity of different neurodegenerative diseases, particularly between tightly related diseases such as FTD and ALS. Human iPSC-derived motor neurons offer promise both with regard to the use of human cells and in particular the ability to model sporadic disease, which is critically important given the overwhelming abundance of sporadic disease in ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Spinal Muscular Atrophy
Authors: Burghes Arthur H. M. , McGovern Vicki L.
Published: March 2017

Spinal muscular atrophies affect the lower motor neuron. The most common SMA maps to 5q is an autosomal recessive disorder. SMA is caused by loss or mutation of the SMN1 gene and retention of the SMN2 gene, and these genes lie in a complex area of the genome. Mild missense alleles of SMN1 work to complement SMN2 to give function and therapeutics that restore SMN levels are in clinical testing. Modifiers that lie outside the SMN gene locus and influence severity clearly exist, but what they are remains unknown as do the critical genes affected by SMN deficiency.
Ego Distortion in Terms of True and False Self
Authors: Winnicott Donald W.
Published: March 2017

In this paper on the subject of the True and False Self, Winnicott locates the area of this conceptualization as arising out of recognition of the difference of Ego versus Id in both infant development and analytic work with patients. Winnicott sees the False Self arising in the first object-relationships, where its positive function is to hide the True Self. Only the True Self can be spontaneous, creative and feel real. Where there is a pronounced split between the True and False Self, there is a poor capacity for symbol use and a poor quality of life. In analysis, the patient’s False Self can collaborate indefinitely with the analyst in the analysis of defences, but the real issues remain untouched. Suicide, which may occur in this context, is the destruction of the total self in avoidance, in fantasy, of the feared annihilation of the True Self.
Case VI: ‘Rosemary’ aet 10 Years
Authors: Winnicott Donald W.
Published: March 2017

This is case VI in part 1 of Winnicott’s book Therapeutic Consultations in Child Psychiatry: the case of ‘Rosemary’ aet 10 years.