bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Latinx Visibility
Authors: Shapiro Michael J.
Published: January 2023

Chapter 5’s inquiry into the architectural articulation of Latinx presence in public history focuses on two venues: the City of Los Angeles and Frontera, a fictional Texas border town in John Sayles’s 1996 film Lone Star. The trajectory of textual readings in the Los Angeles portion of the chapter includes a juxtaposition of David Hockney’s and Ramiro Gomez’s pool paintings, analyses of Helena María Viramontes’s novel Their Dogs Came with Them, and Joel Schumacher’s 1993 film Falling Down. While the Los Angeles freeway system is central to the analysis in the LA portion of the chapter, the Texas portion focuses on the controversies surrounding the historic building the Alamo. The textual trajectory in that part of the chapter begins with treatments of Hollywood film versions of the Alamo and ends with a critical reading of Lone Star, emphasizing the film’s architectural narrative.
Twenty-First-Century Proxy Warfare
Authors: Rondeaux Candace , Sterman David
Published: January 2023

This chapter explores how theorists and practitioners have historically defined proxy warfare, the limits and scope of existing state-centric research into proxy warfare, and the ways that proxy conflicts have become more complex in recent years. The chapter also presents a case for a definition of proxy warfare rooted in International Humanitarian Law with proxy warfare's core characteristic being its strategic use of third parties to exact benefits from blurred lines of command responsibility.
Social Networks, Class, and the Syrian Proxy War
Authors: Gopal Anand , Hodge Jeremy
Published: January 2023

This chapter examines how pre-war social networks and socio-economic class shaped the Syrian conflict. Departing from analysis of proxy warfare that prioritizes the external sponsor, this chapter illustrates how the networks and wealth available to Syrians shaped whether and how they were able to take up arms, and which foreign sponsors they could connect with. The chapter draws upon field research in Syria.
Botswana
Authors: Rotberg Robert I.
Published: January 2023

Botswana is an outlier in Africa. Since independence in 1966 and under the early leadership of Sir Seretse Khama and Sir Ketumile Masire, Botswana rejected the Afro-socialism of Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia, eschewed the dictatorial tendencies of Zimbabwe, Uganda, and much of West Africa, and sought to banish corruption. After the discovery of diamonds, Botswana was able to manage its wealth and uplift its citizens by emphasizing the virtues of honest dealings in the national, not the personal interest. Its GDP per capita has always ranked among the highest in Africa. This chapter explains how those happy results occurred, and how Khama’s principles sustain Botswana still.
The Function of Language in Law
Authors: Hahn Judith
Published: January 2023

This chapter takes up the idea that law is communication and can therefore be explained using communication models. Understanding the language of the law as an attempt to convey meaning from a sender to a receiver through the use of signs primarily focuses on linguistic signs—written text or speech—as being key for legal communication. A core function of legal communication is connected with performative language, which brings about the reality that it describes. The performative functioning of legal statements mirrors the way sacraments function in the church. So there is a common root to legal and sacramental thought and to legal and religious ritual, which affects the language of the law.
What Is It Like to Lack Mineness?
Authors: Billon Alexandre
Published: January 2023

Patients suffering from depersonalization complain of feeling detached from their body, their mental states, and actions or even from themselves. In this chapter, I argue that depersonalization consists in the lack of a phenomenal feature that marks my experiences as mine, which is usually called “mineness,” and that the study of depersonalization constitutes a neglected yet incomparable probe to assess empirically the scope, role, and even the nature of mineness. Here is how I will proceed. After describing depersonalization (§2) and arguing that it involves a lack of mineness (§3) I will confront a series of objections (§4). I will then spell out what depersonalization can teach us about the scope of mineness (§5), about its role and psychological function (§6) and even about its nature (§7).
Women and the Crusades
Authors: Nicholson Helen J.
Published: January 2023

The medieval crusades needed women: women’s money, prayer support, active participation and inspiration. This book surveys women’s involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570, when Cyprus, the last crusader state, was captured by the Ottoman Turks. It considers women’s actions not only on crusade battlefields but also in recruiting crusaders, supporting crusades through patronage, propaganda, and prayer, and as both defenders and aggressors. It argues that medieval women were deeply involved in the crusades although the roles that they could play and how their contemporaries recorded their deeds were dictated by social convention and cultural expectations. Although its main focus is the women of Latin Christendom, it also looks at the impact of the crusades and crusaders on the Jews of western Europe and the Muslims of the Middle East, and compares relations between Latin Christians and Muslims with relations between Muslims and other Christian groups.
Locating Women in the Crusades
Authors: Nicholson Helen J.
Published: January 2023

Contemporary commentators suggested that women played little role in crusades, but as women did play a constructive role in medieval European warfare and were even expected to take part in conflict in certain circumstances, it is not surprising to find that in fact they also took part in crusades. This chapter surveys the roles that women played in crusades, considers the different sorts of campaigns and expeditions which contemporaries called ‘crusades’ and in which women were involved, and looks at some of the difficulties in establishing women’s presence in crusade armies and roles in crusades. It concludes by weighing up the different motivations which could lead women to be involved in the crusades. The dominant motivation was probably piety and the desire to win a spiritual reward, but family tradition was also a significant driver. Women played a significant role in upholding this tradition and introducing it to each new generation.
The Home Front
Authors: Nicholson Helen J.
Published: January 2023

Women who did not join crusade expeditions with their families had many difficulties to surmount. Women who remained at home to administer their family estates often had to combat the rival claims of relatives or other claimants to their property; although as members of crusaders’ families they were under papal protection, this protection was not always enforced by secular and ecclesiastical authorities. If their crusading relatives were captured, they would have to raise the ransom for their relief; if their crusading relative died on campaign, they would have to implement their will. It was difficult to establish whether alleged deathbed bequests were genuine, as such claims could be an attempt by a dead crusader’s companions to defraud his widow and children of their property. Women, like men, helped to finance crusades by taking a crusade vow and then redeeming it for a money payment rather than joining a crusade in person; they also financed institutions which supported crusaders, such as the military religious orders, the Templars and Hospitallers, and religious orders which gave charitable support to captives and negotiated ransoms for them. Women also gave spiritual support for crusades: taking part in religious rituals to support the crusade, making donations to religious houses, and venerating saints; while holy women supported the crusade through prayer and their writings.
After the Crusade
Authors: Nicholson Helen J.
Published: January 2023

After a crusade, crusaders and their families would remember their own part in the crusade and the impact that the crusade had had on their lives; and wanted to ensure that future generations would be aware of these events, either to glorify their deeds or as a warning for the future. Women certainly played a role in this memorializing, although in most cases we do not know who initiated an event or monument in memorial of the crusades. Noble women created memorials for deceased crusaders which referenced their and their family’s dedication to the crusade, and they commissioned sculptures which alluded to crusading. They also founded churches and religious houses and made donations to religious institutions in thanks for divine assistance during a crusade. Some noblewomen recorded events from the crusades in writing: in her biography of her father Emperor Alexios Komnenos, the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene described the arrival of the First Crusade at Constantinople. Elite women’s interest in the crusades was reflected in their patronage of cultural objects, such as psalters with illustrations of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Nunnery libraries included books recording events of the crusades and saints associated with the crusades. Women of every social status could take part in ceremonies commemorating significant events during the crusades. Although most of these women, like most men, would never travel to the Holy Land or join a crusade, the crusades were part of their everyday world.
Adil Jussawalla
Authors: Ravinthiran Vidyan
Published: January 2023

Writing for hardly prestigious outlets, and with little oversight, the Indian journalist (and poet) Adil Jussawalla makes the most of his marginality—responding to events reflectively and allusively. Contending that journalism, rather than fiction, lies at the heart of Indian writing in English, he combines a sensuous delight in the sheer feel of prose with a self-lacerating commitment to underclass plights. Stressing the moment of writing as a political occasion, he engages with Wordsworthian spontaneity in considering the relation of writing to politics, or more specifically to its originating event: how can sentences maintain contact with one’s subject without becoming a merely reflex response? He also, in his art criticism, begins to probe within postcolonial India the lingering repressive effects, upon desire and agency, of the Raj. To understand this, I read him on the paintings of Bhupen Khakar in juxtaposition with Hazlitt’s prose on the Elgin Marbles. In both cases, a journalist heightens the textures and imagery of his sentences towards a deeper significance.
Conclusion
Authors: Ravinthiran Vidyan
Published: January 2023

The book’s conclusion is also a new chapter: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah provides a means of revisiting and theorizing the innovations of the other writers. Adichie’s novel provides a digital poetics of migrancy: Ifemelu, moving between Nigeria and the United States, expresses her hybridized and unmoored sensibility in the spontaneous prose of her blog, which allows her to utter herself at once, without mediation. Adichie’s novel predicts such cycles of exposure and outrage as characterize today the dopamine-inducing loops of social media. Although it hasn’t previously been realized, Ifemelu’s spontaneous outbursts return us to evangelical Christianity, since she’s shaped by her mother’s search for communal security through a series of Nigerian congregations. The author draws on Cheng Pheah’s notion of the world as not the globe, but a temporally undecided zone of possibility—a Nigerian woman experiences moments of relation that, enabled by the instantaneousness of digital messaging, have serious consequences.
Generations
Authors: Walsham Alexandra
Published: January 2023

This book injects fresh energy into tired debates about England’s plural and protracted Reformations by adopting the fertile concept of generation as its analytical framework. It demonstrates that the tumultuous religious developments that stretched across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries not merely transformed the generations that experienced them but were also forged and created by them. The book investigates how age and ancestry were implicated in the theological and cultural upheavals of the era and how these, in turn, reconfigured the relationship between memory, history, and time. It explores the manifold ways in which the Reformations shaped the horizontal relationships that early modern people formed with their siblings, kin, and peers, as well as the vertical ones that tied them to their dead ancestors and their future heirs. It highlights the vital part that families bound by blood and by faith played in shaping these events, as well as in mediating our knowledge of the religious past and in the making of its archive. Drawing on a rich array of evidence, it provides poignant glimpses into how people navigated the profound challenges that the English Reformations posed in everyday life.
The Divided Mind
Authors: Le Poidevin Robin
Published: January 2023

The third incarnational model imagines two separate streams of consciousness in the mind of Christ, where the divine stream can access the human stream but not vice versa. Potentially helpful analogies can be found in cases of split brains and dissociated identity disorder. A number of questions concerning the divided mind model are explored in this chapter: should the human stream be thought of as contained within the divine mind? If so, does this introduce error, or the propensity to error, in the divine mind? Does the model lead to the heretical view that there were two persons in Christ? And does the model collapse into one of the compositional models? The divided mind model, it is argued, faces a series of dilemmas on these fronts.
The Problem of Necessity
Authors: Le Poidevin Robin
Published: January 2023

God is traditionally conceived of as a necessary being—one which could not have failed to exist. But a vulnerable human being is a contingent, non-necessary object. So, in becoming incarnate, did a necessary being become a contingent one? But surely this notion makes no sense. So either the Son is contingent, or Christ is a necessary being, and neither option looks acceptable. The problem is distinguished from the question whether an immortal being could become mortal. The notions of conditional necessity and self-sufficiency are introduced, and the suggestion explored that the Son is conditionally necessary, that the conditions of that necessity may change, and that the property given up in the kenotic act is not necessity but self-sufficiency.
The Times of God Incarnate
Authors: Le Poidevin Robin
Published: January 2023

An orthodox tradition represents God as timeless, a proposition that is also the conclusion of a compelling argument from the status of God as creator of all things. But divine timelessness would seem to rule out an act of kenosis, as this would require the Son to undergo an intrinsic change, and so be in time. A truly timeless being cannot become temporal. Conceding that the kenotic model is not orthodox, the kenoticist must dismantle the argument from creation to timelessness. This chapter aims to do just that, in the context of a relationist view of time. But it also attempts to show how a temporal God can nevertheless be, to some degree, not dependent on time. The final conclusion of the book is that a radical version of kenoticism is both defensible and superior to rival accounts.
Policing Gun Violence
Authors: Braga Anthony A. , Cook Philip J.
Published: January 2023

This book makes the case that increasing the effectiveness of the police in gun-violence prevention is both possible and essential. It is essential because in many cities, gun violence is the most pressing crime problem, making cities less liveable and negatively affecting economic development. There is no good alternative to police authority for gaining control of criminal gangs and interrupting cycles of retaliation. Increasing police effectiveness is possible due to considerable advances in the understanding of what works (and what does not) in the strategic use of police resources. In particular, innovations such as focused deterrence, hot spots policing, procedural justice, and enhanced shooting investigations have been widely studied and offer real promise if implemented correctly. The challenges in this domain begin with the fact that low-income communities of color, which bear the brunt of gun violence, tend to be distrustful of the police. Residents of these communities often believe that they are overpoliced, due to heavy-handed tactics and officer-involved shootings. But they also believe they are underpoliced, as evidenced by slow response times, failure to intervene in tense situations, and low arrest rates for serious crime. A comprehensive strategy for policing gun violence requires a community focus and a commitment to reining in police misbehavior. This book makes the case that, done correctly, policing gun violence is an urgent investment and a matter of social justice.
The Medicago SymCEP7 hormone increases nodule number via shoots without compromising lateral root number
Authors: Ivanovici Ariel , Laffont Carole , Larrainzar Estíbaliz , Patel Neha , Winning Courtney S , Lee Han-Chung , Imin Nijat , Frugier Florian , Djordjevic Michael A
Published: January 2023

Legumes acquire soil nutrients through nitrogen-fixing root nodules and lateral roots. To balance the costs and benefits of nodulation, legumes negatively control root nodule number by autoregulatory and hormonal pathways. How legumes simultaneously coordinate root nodule and lateral root development to procure nutrients remains poorly understood. In Medicago (Medicago truncatula), a subset of mature C-TERMINALLY ENCODED PEPTIDE (CEP) hormones can systemically promote nodule number, but all CEP hormones tested to date negatively regulate lateral root number. Here we showed that Medicago CEP7 produces a mature peptide, SymCEP7, that promotes nodulation from the shoot without compromising lateral root number. Rhizobial inoculation induced CEP7 in the susceptible root nodulation zone in a Nod factor-dependent manner, and, in contrast to other CEP genes, its transcription level was elevated in the ethylene signaling mutant sickle. Using mass spectrometry, fluorescence microscopy and expression analysis, we demonstrated that SymCEP7 activity requires the COMPACT ROOT ARCHITECTURE 2 receptor and activates the shoot-to-root systemic effector, miR2111. Shoot-applied SymCEP7 rapidly promoted nodule number in the pM to nM range at concentrations up to five orders of magnitude lower than effects mediated by root-applied SymCEP7. Shoot-applied SymCEP7 also promoted nodule number in White Clover (Trifolium repens) and Lotus (Lotus japonicus), which suggests that this biological function may be evolutionarily conserved. We propose that SymCEP7 acts in the Medicago shoot to counter balance the autoregulation pathways induced rapidly by rhizobia to enable nodulation without compromising lateral root growth, thus promoting the acquisition of nutrients other than nitrogen to support their growth.
Long-term opioid therapy and mental health comorbidity in patients with chronic pain
Authors: Vogt Susanne , Pfau Giselher , Vielhaber Stefan , Haghikia Aiden , Hachenberg Thomas , Brinkers Michael
Published: January 2023

Objectives

Evidence suggests that patients with chronic pain and mental illness are more likely to receive long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) and at higher doses but are also at increased risk of experiencing opioid-related harm. This study investigates LTOT and its relationship to mental illness in the setting of a university-based outpatient pain clinic with liaison psychiatric care.

Methods

Retrospective analysis of patients with chronic pain admitted between 2011 and 2015. After a 1-year treatment period, patients with non-opioid treatment, guideline-recommended LTOT, and high-dose LTOT were compared, and multiple regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of higher opioid dosage.

Results

Of 769 patients, 46% received LTOT (opioids for >90 consecutive days), 13% at high dosage (>120 oral morphine milligram equivalents [MME] / day). Two thirds of all patients had mental illness. The prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses and prescription rate of psychotropic medication did not significantly differ between groups. Pain chronicity stages, use of antidepressants, and sex significantly predicted MME/day but explained only a minor part of the variance. The association with antidepressants can be attributed to the prescription of antidepressants for analgesic purposes rather than for treating depression. No association with any other type of psychiatric disorders was observed.

Conclusion

This study shows that mental health comorbidity is highly prevalent but that the prescribed opioid dosage is independent of it in the clinical setting of this study. The concept of liaison psychiatric care might have essentially contributed to the “detachment” of opioid prescription and psychiatric conditions but cannot be isolated from other potentially contributing factors within this single-center observational study.
Spatiotemporal reconstruction of ancient road networks through sequential cost–benefit analysis
Authors: Stahlberg Maximilian J , Sagnol Guillaume , Ducke Benjamin , Klimm Max
Published: January 2023

The construction of ancient road networks spanned generations and exhibits temporal path dependence that is not fully captured by established network formation models that are used to support archaeological reasoning. We introduce an evolutionary model that captures explicitly the sequential nature of road network formation: A central feature is that connections are added successively and according to an optimal cost–benefit trade-off with respect to existing connections. In this model, the network topology emerges rapidly from early decisions, a trait that makes it possible to identify plausible road construction orders in practice. Based on this observation we develop a method to compress the search space of path-dependent optimization problems. We use this method to show that the model’s assumptions on ancient decision-making allow the reconstruction of partially known road networks from the Roman era in good detail and from sparse archaeological evidence. In particular, we identify missing links in the major road network of ancient Sardinia that are in good agreement with expert predictions.
Critical policy capacity factors in the implementation of the community health worker program in India
Authors: Roy Bijoya , Saddi Fabiana da Cunha , Peckham Stephen , Barretos Maria Pereira
Published: January 2023

This paper employs the policy capacity framework to develop a multidimensional and nested policy analysis that is able to examine how different types of capacity—analytical, organizational, and political from different related levels of the health system—have contributed to both policy success and failure during the implementation of a politically significant national community health worker (CHW) program in India. Directed toward rural and urban marginalized populations in India, this CHW has become the world’s largest CHW program. Launched in 2006, it has targeted communitization, strengthening of the primary health-care system, and universal health-care coverage, ultimately receiving an international award in 2022. We argue that, in a context of capacity deficits and tensions between different capacity domains, the individual political capacity has been more critical to policy success and strengthening. The analysis not only clarifies the ways in which the government took some initiatives to build up capacity but also highlights capacity deficits along different competency dimensions. This approach demonstrates the value of understanding and creating awareness concerning complex poor-resource settings and low organizational capacity while concomitantly building up the capacities needed to foster (workforce and leadership) strengthening.
Precautionary Saving in a Financially Constrained Firm
Authors: Abel Andrew B , Panageas Stavros
Published: January 2023

For a firm that cannot raise external funds, cash on hand serves as precautionary saving. We derive a closed-form expression for the target level of cash on hand in the presence of persistent cash flows. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mean-preserving increase in the volatility of cash flow can decrease this target. Over the set of admissible parameter values, the average impact of volatility on the target is zero. Endogenous selection, reflecting termination of firms that run out of cash, leads to a positive average impact of volatility on the target level of cash, consistent with empirical findings.
Long day’s journey into sleep
Authors: Kupfer David J , Frank Ellen
Published: January 2023

My long day’s journey into sleep began as an adolescent trying to manage my evening chronotype. The relief, I felt when my undergraduate finals were scheduled at night and as a medical student being able to select psychiatry over surgery deepened my interest in sleep and chronobiology. That interest was allowed to flourish at the National Institute of Mental Health and then at Yale Medical School in setting up a sleep laboratory. The decision to move to the University of Pittsburgh in 1973 led to a 42-year adventure in which we were able to initiate research efforts on the psychobiology of depression. Our interest in social zeitgebers (daily routines) led directly to the development and testing of a treatment intervention for mood disorders, interpersonal, and social rhythm therapy. Our continued emphasis on sleep and circadian rhythms convinced us that sleep and circadian factors were central to all of health, based on the importance of connectivity between sleep and major metabolic and cell functions. This ongoing research motivated our strong desire to study the developmental aspects of sleep. Our success was influenced immensely by the presence of young scientists and a strong subsequent interest in career mentoring. Finally, as we left Pittsburgh in 2015, we became involved in the field of continuous objective monitoring using the commercial smartphone’s behavioral sensing capabilities. Our journey is not over. We hope to explore the potential of these remarkable devices to improve our understanding of sleep/wake and circadian factors across all of health.
Analysing freeway diverging risks using high-resolution trajectory data based on conflict prediction models
Authors: Li Ye , Dalhatu Sani , Yuan Chen
Published: January 2023

This study aims to develop a reliable safety evaluation model for diverging vehicles and investigates the impact of the surrounding traffic environment on freeway diverging risks. High-resolution trajectory data from three sites in the Netherlands (Delft, Ter-Heide and Zonzeel) were employed for the risk analysis. Linear regression (LR), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), extreme randomize trees (ET), adaptive boosting (Adaboost), extreme gradient boosting (XGboost) and multilayer perceptron (MLP), were developed for safety evaluation. The result showed that MLP outperforms the other models for diverging risk prediction over all the indicators, conflict thresholds and locations. Pairwise matrix, shapely addictive explanation (SHAP), and LR algorithms were further adopted to interpret the influence of the surrounding environment. It indicates that an increase in traffic density, subject vehicle (SV) lateral speed, the distance of SV from ramp nose and SV length would increase the diverging risk. At the same time, an increase in leading vehicle speed and space headway would decrease diverging risk. Finally, spatial analysis was also conducted to explore the stability of identified traffic features regarding the impact on the diverging risk across the sites.
Arabidopsis Dynamin-Related Protein AtDRP2A Contributes to Late Flg22-Signaling and Effective Immunity Against Pseudomonas syringae Bacteria
Authors: Ekanayake Gayani , Leslie Michelle E. , Smith John M. , Heese Antje
Published: January 2023

In eukaryotes, dynamins and dynamin-related proteins (DRPs) are high–molecular weight GTPases responsible for mechanochemical fission of organelles or membranes. Of the six DRP subfamilies in Arabidopsis thaliana, AtDRP1 and AtDRP2 family members serve as endocytic accessory proteins in clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Most studies have focused on AtDRP1A and AtDRP2B as critical modulators of plant pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) against pathogenic, flagellated Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 bacteria and immune signaling in response to the bacterial flagellin peptide flg22. Much less is known about AtDRP2A, the closely related paralog of AtDRP2B. AtDRP2A and AtDRP2B are the only classical, or bona fide, dynamins in Arabidopsis, based on their evolutionary conserved domain structure with mammalian dynamins functioning in endocytosis. AtDRP2B but not AtDRP2A is required for robust ligand-induced endocytosis of the receptor kinase FLAGELLIN SENSING2 for dampening of early flg22 signaling. Here, we utilized Arabidopsis drp2a null mutants to identify AtDRP2A as a positive contributor to effective PTI against P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000 bacteria, consistent with reduced PATHOGEN RELATED1 ( PR1) messenger RNA accumulation. We provide evidence that AtDRP2A is a novel modulator of late flg22 signaling, contributing positively to PR1 gene induction but negatively to polyglucan callose deposition. AtDRP2A has no apparent roles in flg22-elicited mitogen-activated protein kinase defense marker gene induction. In summary, this study adds the evolutionary conserved dynamin AtDRP2A to a small group of vesicular trafficking proteins with roles as non-canonical contributors in immune responses, likely due to modulating one or both the localization and activity of multiple different proteins with distinct contributions to immune signaling.

[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
Changing Dynamics in the Spread and Management of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt Disease in Uganda Over Two Decades
Authors: Kubiriba Jerome , Erima Rockefeller , Tugume Arthur K. , Tinzaara William , Tushemereirwe Wilberforce K.
Published: January 2023

Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) is a destructive disease caused by Xanthomonas vasicola pv . musacearum ( Xvm), a bacterium that indiscriminately infects all banana varieties grown in East and Central Africa (ECA). In this region, BXW was first reported in 2001 in Uganda and was projected to eliminate >90% of Uganda's banana crops (worth USD4 billion) if not controlled in less than 10 years. Lack of basic information led to application of control approaches that were based on similarity of BXW symptoms to those of Moko disease of banana. However, the approaches were unsuccessful and, in 7 to 9 years, BXW had covered six countries and threatened to wipe out the banana industry in ECA. However, BXW has been tamed to date, mainly due to relentless and systematic deployment of carefully crafted and packaged cultural control practices based on epidemiological information generated within target banana cropping ecosystems. In Uganda, the initial “top-down” communication approaches reached >85% of banana farming communities but did not mobilize the communities enough into action; hence, only 30% impact in controlling BXW was registered. In contrast, participatory approaches mobilized farming communities into action and effectively controlled BXW at field and community levels to near eradication. The approaches effectively controlled BXW in Uganda and, consequently, in eastern Kenya, northern Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This article reviews step-wise processes leading to success over the 2 decades and identifies critical research gaps. Deployment of resistant genotypes is urgently needed as a significant addition to the BXW management toolbox to create BXW-free banana cropping systems in ECA.

[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
Xylella fastidiosa Not Detected on Tree Crops After Five Years of Survey
Authors: Al-Karablieh Nehaya , AbuObeid Ibtihal , Al-Elaumi Lina , Mutlaq Ihsan , Haddadin Jihad , Omari Ruba Al , Al-Jabaree Abdel-Munem , Mazahreh Safa
Published: January 2023

With the Xylella fastidiosa outbreak in Europe affecting olive and other major crops, the Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) signaled a red warning light to prevent its entry into Jordan. An intensive survey was performed from 2016 to 2021 to assess its spread in Jordan across a range of agricultural crops in parallel to the previously published survey on olives. Grapevine (no. of samples: 899), stone fruit trees (1,480), citrus fruit trees (1,225), pome fruit trees (292), and ornamental plants (1,351) growing in Jordan were sampled. Both symptomatic and asymptomatic plants were sampled, in addition to collecting potential insect vectors from Hemiptera species. Plant samples were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits, and their results were confirmed by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using three sets of primers. Insect samples were tested using RST31/RST33 PCR. The obtained results did not show any confirmed positive results in any sample. These results indicate that X. fastidiosa has not been detected in Jordan despite a comprehensive survey. These results also demonstrate the importance of the monitoring and inspection programs executed by the MoA for detection of X. fastidiosa and identifying its potential insect vectors; these programs should be continued to prevent the entry of this bacterium and its potential insect vectors into Jordan from the neighboring countries.
New Gaps and Urgent Needs in Graduate Medical Education and Training in Abortion
Authors: Beasley Anitra D. , Olatunde Aishat , Cahill Erica P. , Shaw Kate A.
Published: January 2023

Abortion is essential health care, and abortion training and education are essential at all levels of medical education. Among the most common procedures performed in obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), abortion is a core competency for OB/GYN residency programs. For nearly 50 years, the procedure was federally protected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s January 22, 1973, Roe v Wade decision. On June 24, 2022, amidst increasing state restrictions limiting abortion access, the Court’s decision on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization effectively reversed Roe. As a result, immediate bans on abortion went into effect across the country, removing access to abortion for millions of people and newly limiting training and education in this core competency for many medical residents. As of June 2022, nearly half of U.S. OB/GYN residency programs and more than 40% of residents are located in states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion. In states where abortion is restricted or illegal, states must adapt quickly to ensure their residents meet training requirements. This adaptation may include developing and leveraging relationships with programs in states where access is protected, depending on simulation, and placing greater emphasis on education and training in pregnancy loss management and postabortion care. None of these is a comprehensive solution and even all together, they are insufficient to train residents and medical students. Ultimately, many future physicians will not receive the training they need to provide full reproductive health care to their pregnant patients. Legal and other systems of support are needed to ensure that current and future physicians can provide compassionate, evidence-based reproductive health care, including essential abortion care.
Evidence-based Best Practices in Recruitment of Diverse Residents: A Perspective From a Diversity Officer
Authors: Howard Tera Frederick
Published: January 2023

The recruitment of a diverse resident workforce is the immediate proximate step to growing a diverse physician workforce. This recruitment requires intentionality on the part of residency programs and institutional graduate medical education offices. This article describes evidence-based recruitment “best practices” and encourages programs to stay committed.
Intersectionality of Socioecological Factors Associated With Cognitive Function Among Older Women With HIV in the United States: A Structural Equation Model Analysis Using Data From the Women's Interagency HIV Study
Authors: Njie-Carr Veronica P. S. , Zhu Shijun , Stafford Kristen A. , Tong Weiqun , Plankey Michael , Sharma Anjali , Milam Joel , Cohen Mardge , Diaz Monica M. , Rubtsova Anna A. , Fischl Margaret A. , Konkle-Parker Deborah , Gustafson Deborah , Rubin Leah H.
Published: January 2023

Increased life expectancy of people with HIV has health implications including the intersection of the long-term use of antiretroviral treatment, inflammatory events, and age-related immunosenescence. In a cross-sectional study utilizing using the Socio-Eecological Model, we identified pathways of cognitive function (CF) among 448 women with HIV, 50 years and older. A structural equation model showed the direct effects of mood (β = −0.25, p < .01), comorbidities (β = −-0.13, p < .05), race (β = −-0.13, p < .05), and abuse (β = 0.27, p < .001) on the latent variable CF. Substance and alcohol use, depressive symptoms, cigarette smoking, and the number of comorbidities are important considerations when designing interventions utilizing using a multi-level and intersectional lens to maximize positive CF outcomes.
Colorectal Cancer Risk and Recommendations for Colorectal Cancer Surveillance in Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer
Authors: Shen Katie , Farha Natalie , Rotz Seth , Balagamwala Ehsan H. , Macaron Carole , Mankaney Gautam M. , Burke Carol A.
Published: January 2023

While many organizations have published guidance on the approach to colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in average-risk and certain high-risk groups, adult survivors of childhood cancer (ASCC) who have a heightened risk of CRC are rarely included as a target group for enhanced CRC surveillance. The population of ASCC continues to grow due to increasingly effective cancer therapies and improved survival. With this increased survival comes an increased risk for subsequent malignant neoplasms, including CRC. Since there is little published guidance for CRC surveillance in ASCC and limited awareness of increased CRC risk among both physicians and patients, the objectives of our paper are to review the incidence of and risk factors for colorectal neoplasia in ASCC, describe the clinical phenotypes of colorectal neoplasia in ASCC, review published surveillance strategies based on consensus-based survivorship guidelines, and outline areas for future research to optimize surveillance strategies.
Reduced Presentation of Biliary Atresia During the COVID-19 Lockdown: A Population Based Observational Study
Authors: Arshad Adam , Sutcliffe Alastair , Jain Vandana , Alizai Naved , Rajwal Sanjay , Kelly Deidre A. , Dhawan Anil , Sharif Khalid , Gardiner Julian , Davenport Mark , Baker Alastair
Published: January 2023

Objective:

The aim of this study was to assess whether there has been a change in presentations of biliary atresia (BA) in England and Wales during the first and second coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdowns (January–June 2020 and 2021).

Design:

This population study assessed all confirmed cases of BA, from January 2020 to December 2021 across the 3 UK pediatric liver centers originating from England and Wales. Data was then compared to the incidence of confirmed BA cases from January to December 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Results:

During January–June 2020 and 2021, there were only 8 and 12 presenting cases of BA in England and Wales, compared to 16, 13, and 18 for the same time periods in 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. This difference was significant in a two-sidedttest for 2020 (P= 0.035) but not for 2021 (P= 0.385). There was no difference in the mean days to Kasai procedure in January–June 2020 and 2021 compared to 2017–2019; however average time to Kasai after the lockdown periods was significantly higher.

Conclusions:

There was a significant reduction in the presenting cases of BA during the first COVID-19 lockdown, with an increased time for BA referrals after the pandemic lockdowns were lifted in England and Wales.
Myoglobinemia, Peripheral Arterial Disease, and Patient Mortality
Authors: Scrivner Ottis , Fletcher Emma , Hoffmann Carson , Li Feifei , Wilkinson Trevor , Miserlis Dimitrios , Smith Robert S , Bohannon William T , Jordan William D , Sutliff Roy , Koutakis Panagiotis , Brewster Luke P
Published: January 2023

Background:

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) causes leg muscle damage due to inadequate perfusion and increases cardiovascular (CV) events and mortality 2-3 fold. It is unclear if PAD is a biomarker for high-risk cardiovascular disease or if skeletal muscle injury harms arterial health. The objective of this work is to test if serum myoglobin levels (myoglobinemia) is a marker of PAD, and if so, whether myoglobin impairs vascular health.

Study Design:

Patient blood samples were collected from PAD and control (no PAD) patients and interrogated for myoglobin concentrations and nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability. Patient mortality over time was captured from the medical record. Myoglobin activity was tested on endothelial cells and arterial function.

Results:

Myoglobin is a biomarker for symptomatic PAD and was inversely related to NO bioavailability. 200 ng/mL of myoglobin in vitro increased EC permeability in vitro and decreased nitrate bioavailability. Ex vivo, 100 ng/mL myoglobin increased vascular tone in naïve murine aortas ~1.5x, impairing absolute vessel relaxation. In vivo, we demonstrated that myoglobinemia caused impaired flow-mediated dilation in a porcine model. Patients presenting with myoglobin levels of 100 ng/mL or greater had significantly more deaths than those with less than 100 ng/mL.

Conclusions:

Using a combination of patient data, in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo testing, we found that myoglobin is a biomarker for symptomatic PAD and a potent regulator of arterial health that can increase vascular tone, vascular permeability, and cause endothelial dysfunction. All of which may contribute to the vulnerability of PAD patients to CV events and death.
Sex differences in the effects of mild traumatic brain injury and progesterone treatment on anxiety-like behavior and fear conditioning in rats
Authors: Fox Laura C. , Scholl Jamie L. , Palmer Geralyn M. , Forster Gina L. , Watt Michael J.
Published: January 2023

Mild traumatic brain injuries (mild TBIs) commonly occur in young adults of both sexes, oftentimes in high-stress environments. In humans, sex differences have been observed in the development of post-concussive anxiety and PTSD-like behaviors. Progesterone, a sex steroid that has neuroprotective properties, restores cognitive function in animal models following more severe TBI, but its effectiveness in preventing the psychological symptoms associated with mild TBI has not been evaluated. Using a model of mild TBI that pairs a social stressor (social defeat) with weight drop, male and naturally estrous-cycling female rats were treated with 4 mg/kg progesterone or vehicle once daily for 5 days after injury. Behavioral measures, including elevated plus maze (EPM), contextual fear conditioning, and novel object recognition (NOR) were assessed following progesterone treatment. Anxiety-like behavior was increased by mild TBI in male rats, with a smaller effect seen in female rats in the diestrus phase at the time of EPM testing. In contrast, mild TBI impaired fear learning in female rats in estrus at the time of fear acquisition. Progesterone treatment failed to attenuate post-mild TBI anxiety-like behavior in either sex. Furthermore, progesterone increased fear conditioning and impaired NOR discrimination in male rats, independent of TBI status. Overall, both sex and estrous cycle contributed to psychological outcomes following mild TBI, which were not ameliorated by post-TBI progesterone. This suggests sex steroids play an important role as a moderator of the expression of mild TBI-induced psychological symptoms, rather than as a potential treatment for their underlying etiology.
Model-guided Design of Biological Controller for Septic Wound Healing Regulation
Authors: Green Leopold N. , Naghshnejad Pegah , Dankwa Derrick , Tang Xun
Published: January 2023

Immune response is critical in septic wound healing. The aberrant and imbalanced signaling dynamics primarily cause a dysfunctional innate immune response, exacerbating pathogen invasion of injured tissue and further stalling the healing process. To design biological controllers that regulate the critical divergence of the immune response during septicemia, we need to understand the intricate differences in immune cell dynamics and coordinated molecular signals of healthy and sepsis injury. Here, we deployed an ordinary differential equation (ODE)-based model to capture the hyper and hypo-inflammatory phases of sepsis wound healing. Our results indicate that impaired macrophage polarization leads to a high abundance of monocytes, M1, and M2 macrophage phenotypes, resulting in immune paralysis. Using a model-based analysis framework, we designed a biological controller which successfully regulates macrophage dysregulation observed in septic wounds. Our model describes a systems biology approach to predict and explore critical parameters as potential therapeutic targets capable of transitioning septic wound inflammation toward a healthy, wound-healing state.
Fly-CURE, a Multi-institutional CURE usingDrosophila, Increases Students’ Confidence, Sense of Belonging, and Persistence in Research
Authors: Merkle Julie A. , Devergne Olivier , Kelly Seth M. , Croonquist Paula A. , Evans Cory J. , Hwalek Melanie A. , Straub Victoria L. , Hamill Danielle R. , Puthoff David P. , Saville Kenneth J. , Siders Jamie L. , Villanueva Gonzalez Zully J. , Wittke-Thompson Jackie K. , Bieser Kayla L. , Stamm Joyce , Vrailas-Mortimer Alysia D. , Kagey Jacob D.
Published: January 2023

The Fly-CURE is a genetics-focused multi-institutional Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) that provides undergraduate students with hands-on research experiences within a course. Through the Fly-CURE, undergraduate students at diverse types of higher education institutions across the United States map and characterize novel mutants isolated from a genetic screen inDrosophila melanogaster. To evaluate the impact of the Fly-CURE experience on students, we developed and validated assessment tools to identify students’ perceived research self-efficacy, sense of belonging in science, and intent to pursue additional research opportunities. Our data show gains in these metrics after completion of the Fly-CURE across all student subgroups analyzed, including comparisons of gender, academic status, racial and ethnic groups, and parents’ educational background. Importantly, our data also show differential gains in the areas of self-efficacy and interest in seeking additional research opportunities between Fly-CURE students with and without prior research experience, illustrating the positive impact of research exposure (dosage) on student outcomes. Altogether, our data indicate that the Fly-CURE experience has a significant impact on students’ efficacy with research methods, sense of belonging to the scientific community, and interest in pursuing additional research experiences.