bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prisons in Africa
Authors: Sarkin Jeremy
Published: February 2019

African prisons are some of the least-studied penal institutions anywhere in the world. This is not true everywhere on the continent, as prisons in some countries such as South Africa are adequately studied and have been the subject of commissions of inquiry stretching back to colonial times. It is also difficult to generalize about Africa. For example, there are massive disparities between north Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Usually, not much information beyond generalities exists for many of them across the African continent. As a result, many negative perceptions endure that are not reflective of the different systems and the different countries in the region. The focus of the research has often been on specific themes and certain countries only and has generally focused on problems. There is, however, a need to portray a more realistic situation in prisons in all fifty-four countries more accurately, without generalizing, and to provide more solution-orientated research to a variety of issues. This can be partly achieved by comparative investigation.

While the conditions in many African prisons are harsh and difficult for inmates, comparatively speaking, prisons in Africa are not the worst in the world. However, they are generally overcrowded, and there is much violence. Issues generally concerning health, food, sanitation, amenities, and other matters remain generally problematic. However, much data is missing from a range of countries. More research is needed to gather more data and to interrogate the diverse prisons in the different countries. There is a need for more holistic research that understands prisons not as isolated institutions but as part of criminal justice systems. There is a need to understand how methods of policing, the conduct of prosecutions, and court processes all have an impact upon conditions within the prisons of a particular country.
Psychoneuroendocrinology and Physical Activity
Authors: Hackney Anthony C. , Ağgön Eser
Published: February 2019

Stress is encountered by every individual on a daily basis. Such encounters can be of a negative (distress) or a positive (eustress) nature. Excessive and chronic distress exposure is associated with numerous health problems affecting both physiological and psychological components of a person’s well-being. One mediating aspect of these occurrences is the responses of the neuroendocrine system with the body. Physical activity (i.e., exercise) produces large and dramatic changes in the neuroendocrine system as it serves as a “stressor” to the system. To this end, though, chronic engagement in physical activity leads to exercise training-induced adaptations within the neuroendocrine system that potentiate an individual’s ability to deal with distressful experiences and exposures. Therefore, becoming more physically fit and exercise trained is one potential adjunctive therapy available for clinicians to recommend in the treatment of health problems associated with chronic exposure to distress.
A Review and Reappraisal of the Default Network in Normal Aging and Dementia
Authors: Andrews-Hanna Jessica R. , Grilli Matthew D. , Irish Muireann
Published: February 2019

The brain’s default network (DN) has received considerable interest in the context of so-called “normal” and pathological aging. Findings have generally been couched in support of a pessimistic view of brain aging, marked by substantial loss of structural brain integrity accompanied by a host of impairments in brain and cognitive function. A critical look at the literature, however, reveals that the standard loss of integrity, loss of function (LILF) view in normal aging may not necessarily hold with respect to the DN and the internally guided functions it supports. Many internally guided processes subserved by the DN are preserved or enhanced in cognitively healthy older adults. Moreover, differences in motivational, contextual, and physiological factors between young and older adults likely influence the extant neuroimaging and cognitive findings. Accordingly, normal aging can be viewed as a series of possibly adaptive cognitive and DN-related alterations that bolster cognitive function and promote socioemotional well-being and stability in a stage of life noted for change. On the other hand, the available evidence reveals strong support for the LILF view of the DN in neurodegenerative disorders, whereby syndromes such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and semantic dementia (SD), characterized by progressive atrophy to distinct DN subsystems, display distinct aberrations in autobiographical and semantic cognition. Taken together, these findings call for more naturalistic, age-appropriate, and longitudinal paradigms when investigating neurocognitive changes in aging and to adequately assess and control for differences in non-neural factors that may obscure “true” effects of normal and pathological aging. A shift in the framework with which age-related alterations in internally guided cognition are interpreted may shed important light on the neurocognitive mechanisms differentiating healthy and pathological aging, leading to a more complete picture of the aging brain in all its complexity.
Neurocognitive Aging and Brain Signal Complexity
Authors: McIntosh Anthony Randal
Published: February 2019

Brain organization can be measured across multiple spatial and temporal scales where each scale affects the other in the emergent functions that are known as cognition. As a complex adaptive system, the interplay of these scales in the brain represents the information that ultimately supports what one thinks and does. The dynamics of these multiscale operations can be quantified with measures of complexity, which are sensitive to the balance between information that is coded in local cell populations and that is captured in the network interactions between populations. This local versus global balance has its foundation in the structural connectivity of the brain, which is then realized through the dynamics of cell populations and their ensuing interactions with other populations. Considering brain function and cognition in this way enables a different perspective on the changes in cognitive function in aging.

Changes in brain signal complexity from childhood to adulthood were assessed in two independent studies. Both showed that maturation is accompanied by an overall increase in signal complexity, which also correlated with more stable and accurate cognitive performance. There was some suggestion that the maximal change occurs in medial posterior cortical areas, which have been considered “network hubs” of the brain. In extending to the study of healthy aging, a scale-dependent change in brain complexity was observed across three independent studies. Healthy aging brings a shift in local and global balance, where more information is coded in local dynamics and less in global interactions. This balance is associated with better cognitive performance and, interestingly, in a more active lifestyle. It also seems that the lack of this shift in local and global balance is predictive of worse cognitive performance and potentially predictive of additional decline indicative of dementia.
Social Isolation and Loneliness in Old Age
Authors: Tesch-Roemer Clemens , Huxhold Oliver
Published: February 2019

Social isolation refers to the objective lack of social integration. Loneliness, in contrast, refers to the perceived lack of social integration. Loneliness has serious consequences for the well-being of aging persons. Individuals who feel lonely tend to have poorer health, less autonomy, and lower subjective well-being than individuals who do not feel lonely. Lonely individuals even tend to become more socially isolated over time. While prevalence rates of social isolation increase with advancing age, only a minority of older people suffer from severe loneliness, however. Hence, loneliness is not necessarily a consequence of growing old, but rather, depends on specific risk factors (e.g., social needs, social expectations, resources, and competencies). Interventions therefore should be focused on these risk factors (unfulfilled social needs, unmet social perceptions, and lack of resources and competencies).
Trajectories of Well-Being in Later Life
Authors: Steverink Nardi
Published: February 2019

Well-being is a core concept for both individuals, groups and societies. Greater understanding of trajectories of well-being in later life may contribute to the achievement and maintenance of well-being for as many as possible. This article reviews two main approaches to well-being: hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and shows that it is not chronological age per se, but various factors related to age that underlie trajectories of well-being at older ages. Next to the role of genes, heritability and personality traits, well-being is determined to a substantial extent by external circumstances and resources (e.g., health and social relationships), and to malleable individual behaviors and beliefs (e.g., self-regulatory ability and control beliefs). Although many determinants have been identified, it remains difficult to decide which of them are most important. Moreover, the role of some determinants varies for different indicators of well-being, such as positive affect and life satisfaction. Several prominent goal- and need-based models of well-being in later life are discussed, which explicate mechanisms underlying trajectories of well-being at older ages. These are the model of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation, the Motivational Theory of Lifespan Development, Socio-emotional Selectivity Theory, Ryff’s model of Psychological Well-Being, Self-Determination Theory, and Self-Management of Well-being theory. Also, interventions based on these models are reviewed, although not all of them address older adults. It is concluded that the literature on well-being in later life is enormous, and, together with various conceptual models, offers many important insights. Still, the field would benefit from more theoretical integration, and from more attention to the development and testing of theory-based interventions. This remains a challenge for the science of well-being in later life, and could be an important contribution to the well-being of a still growing proportion of the population.
Interprofessional Training and Practice: The Need for More Engagement, Training, and Research in Geropsychology
Authors: Pachana Nancy A. , Yeo Gwen
Published: February 2019

Interdisciplinary teams consisting of a variety of health professionals working toward common patient goals have become an important innovation in clinical practice. In many parts of the world interdisciplinary teams have become part of practice, including in geriatrics. However, many gaps and the need for further empirical research and translation into practice remain. This is particularly true for the discipline of psychology, as much of the extant literature in engagement, training and practice in geriatric settings or educational settings does not include psychologists. Many advances in interprofessional teams, in acute settings in particular, do not include psychologists as part of the team. With respect to training, educating trainee health professionals, including psychologists, in interdisciplinary practice has still not become a standard part of training curricula internationally. Several excellent models of interprofessional and interdisciplinary training, including international models of interdisciplinary team competencies, have been developed. However, both the empirical testing of these models and their implementation in educational and practice settings is lacking. Within the geriatric healthcare context, the evidence base for both interprofessional care and the need for enhanced training models incorporating interprofessional skills is evolving, and further research on efficacy in evolving clinical contexts and translation into educational contexts worldwide is required. Ultimately, psychology must increase its presence within both interprofessional research and applied contexts.
Prevalence of Gangs in the U.S.: Measurement Approaches and Findings From Police Data
Authors: Egley, Jr. Arlen
Published: February 2019

Street gang activity has garnered academic and public attention for many decades. Compared with other youth groups, street gangs contribute disproportionately to crime and violence, though the vast majority of crime and violence in the United States is unrelated to gang activity. A distinctive aspect in the study of gangs is the multiple dimensions in which gangs are situated. Depending on the research interest, gang activity may be construed as an independent variable (as a cause) or a dependent variable (as an effect). Moreover, gang activity simultaneously represents multiple levels of analysis: the individual level (gang member), the group level (gang), and the macro level (neighborhoods and broader geographical places in which gangs form and transform). These multiple dimensions present a wide variety of research streams in which to study gangs. Where and why gang activity emerges, when and why individuals join and leave gangs, the wide-ranging diversity in gang structure and organization are but a few of the many areas gang scholars have focused on in order to describe and explain gangs and gang members. Some research areas, such as the association between gang membership and criminal offending and the risk factors for gang joining, have been researched quite extensively. Other areas, such as the nature and extent of gang migration outside larger cities and desistance processes from the gang, have not received or have only recently begun to receive intensive and consistent scholarly attention. Definitional matters are also paramount and inextricably linked to understanding gang activity. How should we define “street gangs,” how should “gang membership” be defined and determined, when and how should a crime be designated as “gang related”? These definitional issues have sparked considerable and sometimes heated debates, and consensus remains elusive. It is important to be mindful of these various dimensions, streams, and issues as we continue our efforts to describe and document street gangs and enhance our understanding of gang processes. Successful strategies for the response to and reduction of street gang activity are contingent on them.
Probation Revocation
Authors: Olson David E.
Published: February 2019

Despite all the attention paid to the growing prison populations in the United States since the early 1990s, it remains, as it has throughout recent history, that probation accounts for the largest portion of those under the custody of the criminal justice system. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that at the end of 2015, there were more than 3.7 million adults under the supervision of U.S. probation authorities, compared to 1.5 million in prison, 870,000 on parole, and 728,000 in local jails. And while probation is not often thought about within the context of “mass incarceration” in the United States, probation directly impacts prison and jail populations in two specific ways. First, a sentence of probation for a felony offense is the most frequent alternative to a prison sentence. Second, the revocation of probation can directly lead to the imposition of a sentence to prison or jail, depending on the nature of the original conviction offense. During 2015, in the United States, it is estimated that 12% of all probationers exiting supervision were incarcerated due to probation revocation, which translates to an estimate of more than 233,000 probationers annually.

Probation revocation means that the sentencing court has determined that a violation of the conditions of probation have occurred, and because of this, the original probation sentence is no longer appropriate. As a result of a probation sentence being revoked, the sentencing court imposes a different (usually more serious) sanction on the offender. Often, those on probation for a felony offense who have their probation revoked are sentenced to prison, leading to their admission to prison. Indeed, given this link, scholars and practitioners have identified reducing probation revocation as one strategy to reducing prison populations, and jurisdictions often focus on reducing probation revocations as a means to lowering their commitments to prison. Probation revocation can result from either new arrests or violations of technical aspects of the sentence, such as missed appointments or non-compliance with treatment orders. However, whether or not a probation sentence is revoked as a result of these violations varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This variation in the use of probation revocation as a response to violations of probation illustrates the localized nature of revocation proceedings, and attempts to reduce these disparities have taken many forms. These efforts to reduce the impact of probation revocations on prison admissions have ranged from providing local jurisdictions with financial incentives to respond to revocation-eligible violations with sanctions other than incarceration, to legislative efforts to prohibit sentences to prison as a response to probation revocations stemming from technical violations or instances where public safety is not threatened.
The Death Penalty in the 21st Century
Authors: LaChance Daniel
Published: February 2019

The dawn of the 21st century marked a turning point in the history of the American death penalty. Politically, the death penalty seemed vulnerable. A wave of abolitionism not seen since the Progressive Era took hold in the 2000s, as six states abandoned the death penalty, and governors in five others instituted moratoria, promising to use their executive power to stay all executions while they remained in office. While the Supreme Court remained committed to the constitutionality of the death penalty, it slowly chipped away at it in a series of decisions that narrowed the range of persons whom the state could execute.

Public support for the death penalty, already in decline during the late 1990s, continued to fall in the 21st century. A number of factors depressed support for the death penalty to levels not seen since the early 1970s: a decline in violent crime and fear of crime; highly publicized DNA-based exonerations of death-row inmates; and wariness of the cost of maintaining the death penalty, particularly during the great recession of the late 2000s.

The use of the death penalty was declining as well. The expansion of life without parole as an alternative punishment in the 1990s and 2000s gave juries in some states harsh alternatives to death sentences that they did not previously have. Longer-term changes to the judicial and penal administration of the death, meanwhile, continued to make the path between conviction and execution longer and more difficult for state officials to traverse. Most offenders sentenced to death since the 1970s were not (or have not yet been) put to death, and the average wait on death row for those who have been executed has grown to over a decade and a half. Growing problems with the practice of lethal injection, meanwhile, have posed new problems for states seeking to execute capital defendants in the 2000s, producing new legal battles and bringing executions nationwide to a temporary halt in 2007–2008.

The 2016 election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States, however, may portend a slowing or reversing Americans’ 21st-century turn away from the death penalty.
Punishment and Citizenship
Authors: Light Michael T. , Robey Jason P.
Published: February 2019

Amid global trends of increasingly mobile populations, scholars have debated whether national citizenship status remains relevant for international migrants. Some argue that international courts have practically eliminated the differences between citizens and noncitizens through equal protection under the law, while others maintain that national membership remains an essential form of stratification in modern societies. Recent trends in immigration enforcement seem to emphasize the continuing salience of citizenship, as criminal sanctions have become increasingly commonplace in border control. With the increasing importation of criminal justice strategies into migration policy, Western societies have witnessed dramatic increases in the number of noncitizens adjudicated and punished in recent decades, a trend that has gained considerable steam in the United States under the Trump administration. For example, between the president’s inauguration (January 20, 2018) and the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2018), the number of immigration arrests increased by 42% over the same time period in 2016. Yet despite these debates and trends, the role of citizenship status has received only limited consideration within the field of criminology. In the same vein, the role of punishment has been underappreciated in the field of citizenship studies. Against this backdrop, theoretical insights from the sociology of punishment are connected with three central aspects of citizenship: (1) state sovereignty, (2) cultural understanding, and (3) group membership. Drawing these parallels to theoretical and methodological traditions within criminology will set new research paths for future scholars to understand criminology in the context of a globalizing world increasingly characterized by international migration.
Enhancing the Regeneration of Neurons in the Central Nervous System
Authors: Cartoni Romain , Bradke Frank , He Zhigang
Published: February 2019

Injured axons fail to regenerate in the adult mammalian central nervous system, representing a major barrier for effective neural repair. Both extrinsic inhibitory environments and neuron-intrinsic mechanisms contribute to such regeneration failure. In the past decade, there has been an explosion in our understanding of neuronal injury responses and regeneration regulations. As a result, several strategies have been developed to promote axon regeneration with the potential of restoring functions after injury. This article will highlight these new developments, with an emphasis on cellular and molecular mechanisms from a neuron-centric perspective, and discuss the challenges to be addressed toward developing effective functional restoration strategies.
Regulation of Chloride Gradients and Neural Plasticity
Authors: Perez-Sanchez Jimena , De Koninck Yves
Published: February 2019

One of the most remarkable properties of neural circuits is the ability to restructure their synaptic connections throughout life. This synaptic plasticity allows neurons to structurally reorganize and adapt their function in response to experience. Among the multiple mechanisms that can modulate this property is synaptic inhibition by gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) and/or glycine ionotropic receptors, which allow the flow of chloride and bicarbonate ions through the membrane. Neurons rely upon tight regulation of intracellular chloride for efficient inhibition through these receptors. The maintenance of chloride gradients is important not only to determine the strength of synaptic inhibition but also to determine its nature. Indeed, this inhibition can be hyperpolarizing or depolarizing, or with no outright change in the membrane potential. Despite the fact that membrane depolarization is commonly associated with excitation, depolarizing GABA/glycine can also produce inhibition, thereby highlighting the dual action of these neurotransmitters. Several considerations must be taken into account in order to allow depolarizing GABA/glycine responses to be excitatory. On the other hand, chloride homeostasis is never steady-state and even small changes of chloride across the membrane can impact the strength of inhibition. This dynamic effect has a direct impact on neuronal excitability and makes its regulation by changes in chloride gradients a highly tunable mechanism. Furthermore, increased excitability may also open a window for system refinement changes, such as synaptic plasticity. Indeed, the regulation of chloride homeostasis may underlie periods of enhanced plasticity, such as during early development. Finally, disruption of chloride gradients arises as a hub for pathology, which is evidenced in multiple disorders in the central nervous system.
The Empire of Mali
Authors: Canós-Donnay Sirio
Published: February 2019

The Mali Empire is one of the largest and most widely known precolonial African states. It has featured in films, video games, works of fiction, and its memory is still a profound force in the articulation of social and political identities across Mande West Africa. Founded in the 13th century in the south of modern Mali, it quickly grew from a small kingdom to a vast empire stretching from the Senegambia in the west to Ivory Coast in the south. Before its disintegration in the late 16th century, its connections to distant trade networks stretched from Europe to China and its rulers became famous across the Old World for their wealth. In the absence of indigenous written histories, knowledge of the Mali Empire has been based on a complex combination of oral traditions, medieval Arabic chronicles, European accounts, oral histories, and archaeology. Through a critical analysis of these sources, it has been possible to learn much about Mali’s history, including aspects its social organization, political structure, belief systems, and historical evolution. However, there is much we still do not know, including the location and nature of its capital(s).
Economic Geography and Trade
Authors: Venables Anthony J.
Published: February 2019

Economic activity is unevenly distributed across space, both internationally and within countries. What determines this spatial distribution, and how is it shaped by trade? Classical trade theory gives the insights of comparative advantage and gains from trade but is firmly aspatial, modeling countries as points and trade (in goods and factors of production) as either perfectly frictionless or impossible. Modern theory places this in a spatial context in which geographical considerations influence the volume of trade between places. Gravity models tell us that distance is important, with each doubling of distance between places halving the volume of trade. Modeling the location decisions of firms gives a theory of location of activity based on factor costs (as in classical theory) and also on proximity to markets, proximity to suppliers, and the extent of competition in each market. It follows from this that—if there is a high degree of mobility—firms and economic activity as a whole may tend to cluster, providing an explanation of observed spatial unevenness. In some circumstances falling trade barriers may trigger the deindustrialization of some areas as activity clusters in fewer places. In other circumstances falling barriers may enable activity to spread out, reducing inequalities within and between countries. Research over the past several decades has established the mechanisms that cause these changes and placed them in full general equilibrium models of the economy. Empirical work has quantified many of the important relationships. However, geography and trade remains an area where progress is needed to develop robust tools that can be used to inform place-based policies (concerning trade, transport, infrastructure, and local economic development), particularly in view of the huge expenditures that such policies incur.
Economics and Family Law
Authors: Dnes Antony W.
Published: February 2019

Economists increasingly connect legal changes to behavioral responses that many family law experts fail to see. Incentives matter in families, which respond to changes in legal regulation. Changing incentive structures linked to family law have largely affected marriage, cohabitation, and divorce. Economic analysis has been applied to assess the causes of falling marriage rates and delays in marriage. Much analysis has focused on increases in divorce rates, which appear to respond to legal changes making divorce easier, and to different settlement regimes. Less work has been done in relation to children but some research does exist showing how children are impacted by changes in incentives affecting adults.
Strikebreakers
Authors: Norwood Stephen H.
Published: February 2019

Strikebreakers have been drawn from many parts of the American population, most notably the permanently and seasonally unemployed and underemployed. Excluded from a vast range of occupations and shunned by many trade unions, African Americans constituted another potential pool of strikebreakers, especially during the early decades of the 20th century. During the first quarter of the 20th century, college students enthusiastically volunteered for strikebreaking, both because of their generally pro-business outlook and a desire to test their manhood in violent clashes.

A wide array of private and government forces has suppressed strikes. Beginning in the late 19th century, private detective agencies supplied guards who protected company property against strikers, sometimes assaulting them. During the early 20th century, several firms emerged that supplied strikebreakers and guards at companies’ request, drawing on what amounted to private armies of thousands of men. The largest of these operated nationally.

On many occasions the state itself intervened to break strikes. Like some strikebreaking firms, state militiamen deployed advanced weaponry against strikers and their sympathizers, including machine guns. Presidents Hayes and Cleveland called out federal troops to break the 1877 and 1894 interregional railroad strikes. In 1905, Pennsylvania established an elite mounted force to suppress coal miners’ strikes modeled on the British Constabulary patrols in Ireland.

Corporations directly intervened to break strikes, building weapons arsenals, including large supplies of tear gas, that they distributed to police forces. They initiated “back to work” movements to destroy strikers’ morale and used their considerable influence with the media to propagandize in the press and on the radio. Corporations, of course, discharged strikers, often permanently.

In the highly bureaucratized society of the late twentieth and early 21st century that stigmatized public displays of anger, management turned to new “union avoidance” firms to break strikes. These firms emphasized legal and psychological methods rather than violence. They advised employers on how to blur the line between management and labor, defame union leaders and activists, and sow discord among strikers.
The Politics of Spirituality and Secularization in Western Modernity
Authors: Crosson J. Brent
Published: February 2019

Contrary to many of the predictions of secularization theory, religion seems to be at the heart of political contests in avowedly secular nation-states. While religious identities seem to define many modern polities or political orientations, “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) has arisen as a growing identification that eschews these forms of “organized religion.” The politics of the spiritual in contemporary worlds points toward neoliberal emphases on flexible labor and self-making, but also indexes a longer genealogy of the categories of religion and superstition in colonial contexts. From Reformation invectives against superstition to colonial regulations against superstitious practices, a history of the distinction between “true” and “false” religion has informed the more recent separation of spirituality from religion proper. Emerging in the 19th century, movements emphasizing personal spirituality in opposition to organized religion both extended post-Reformation visions of true religion while also adopting some of the very practices that European reformers had deemed false religion. To complicate matters further, the notion of religion that spirituality came to oppose also contradicted what scholars have deemed a “Protestant” theological bias in the formation of the modern category of religion. This bias asserts that personal dispositions rather than outward manifestations are the essence of religion, but the “organized religion” that spirituality opposes is defined precisely by outward manifestations of structure and power. In this way, spirituality both extends and rejects the contradictory poles of the modern category of religion as both the essence of community and an eminently personal affair. Spirituality does not simply foreground these shifting poles of religion and not-religion in the modern era, but also highlights contemporary transformations in the category of politics itself. The emphasis on personal experience and self-transformation in “spiritual but not religious” movements points toward a similarly therapeutic register in movements for restorative justice or human rights. No longer confined to the realm of collective contests for state power, contemporary politics often speaks in the psycho-juridical register of spirituality.
Colonial Elites: Planters and Land Nobility in 17th- and 18th-Century Brazil
Authors: Fragoso João , Krause Thiago
Published: February 2019

Portuguese colonists carried their conceptions of social organization to the Americas. Their ideal was to “live like a gentleman,” that is, to own land and command laborers in order to distance themselves from manual labor and exercise patriarchal authority over a large household. Their property also allowed them the time and resources to be active in local politics and serve the Crown. They intended to reproduce in the New World the lifestyle of the Portuguese provincial nobility. There were, however, huge differences, since in Brazil the elite lorded over enslaved persons instead of peasants. The first elite families made their fortunes through the conquest and enslavement of Native Americans in the second half of the 16th century, but many of them did not manage to maintain their position during the transition to enslaved African labor in the following decades. Especially in the most dynamic areas, such as Pernambuco and Bahia, the first half of the 17th century was a period of flux in elite composition. By mid-century, however, a small number of families controlled most local offices, slowly fashioning themselves into local nobilities and wielding these claims to negotiate with the Crown and its representatives. Planter elites also established broad patron-client networks that included even their enslaved property. Nevertheless, their preeminence was threatened by the rise of merchant power in the 18th century, boosted by the huge demographic and economic expansion derived from gold discoveries in the southeast and the development of the internal market. Nevertheless, the noble ideal did not lose its appeal, and many rich merchants linked themselves to old noble families through marriage and the adoption of an aristocratic lifestyle.
The Wreck of the USS Memphis in the Dominican Republic
Authors: Roorda Eric Paul
Published: February 2019

On August 29, 1916, the USS Memphis wrecked on the coast of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. A series of enormous waves drove the heavy armored cruiser ashore, killing forty-five sailors. The fact that the death toll was not much higher is owed to the heroic efforts of Dominicans to rescue the survivors of the shipwreck. This was despite the fact that the US Marine Corps had invaded their country three months before, initiating an occupation with unwonted violence. The US Marine occupation of the Dominican Republic would last for eight years, compiling a record of brutality inflicted on the civilian population that Senate hearings documented in excruciating detail. In the aftermath of the traumatic occupation, the shipwreck of the USS Memphis itself, rusting away in plain sight along the seaside boulevard in the Dominican capital city, became symbolic of US imperialism. The dictator Rafael Trujillo, a Marine protégé who seized power in 1930, pointed to the wreck as a relic of the days before US domination, contrasting it with the happy days after national sovereignty had been attained under his own strong rule. In order to implement the Good Neighbor Policy, an effort to expunge the negative legacy of the era of intervention and occupation known as “Gunboat Diplomacy,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the removal of the wreck of the Memphis after taking office in 1933. The wreck’s removal finally took place in 1937.
brain
Authors: Rocca Julius
Published: February 2019

Knowledge of the brain as a body part is ancient. The term encephalos is found in Homer, but cognitive function was not ascribed to its contents. Certain of the Presocratics linked cognitive capacity to the brain. Similar views existed in the Hippocratic writings. For Plato, the brain’s cognitive role is due to its housing the rational soul. Aristotle regarded heart and brain as exerting sovereign control. In the Hellenistic period, the brain was systematically investigated, its cognitive and sensory capacities experimentally verified. Galen, building on this legacy and applying a rigorous experimental methodology, provided overwhelming proof that the brain mediated sensation and voluntary motion.
knowledge, theories of
Authors: Bett Richard
Published: February 2019

Questions about the nature and possibility of knowledge extend throughout Greek philosophy. In the early period, several thinkers raised doubts about our ability to know the truth of the proto-scientific theories they themselves were developing. Plato depicted Socrates as disclaiming knowledge about anything important but searching for fundamental ethical truths. He (Plato) also introduced the idea of unchanging Forms, a grasp of which is crucial for knowledge; in one dialogue, he examined a number of proposed definitions of knowledge itself. Aristotle developed an ideal of scientific knowledge centered on demonstrations of why the objects under examination must have certain features, the starting points of which are an understanding of the essences of the things in question. The Stoics and the Epicureans both offered robustly positive accounts of how knowledge is possible, and they were challenged on this by sceptics of both the Academic and Pyrrhonian traditions.
Xenarchus (3) of Seleucia, Peripatetic philosopher, c. 30 BCE
Authors: Hatzimichali Myrto
Published: February 2019

Xenarchus taught at Alexandria, Athens, and Rome, and his acquaintances included the geographer Strabo and the emperor Augustus. He is best known for his critique of Aristotle’s fifth element, which constitutes the material of the heavenly bodies according to the De caelo. Xenarchus targeted in particular Aristotle’s reliance on direct correspondences between simple bodies and simple motions and suggested that the ontologically privileged fire “in its natural place” could perform circular motion and was thus a plausible candidate for the material constituent of the heavens. He made further contributions in physics, psychology, and ethics, but he does not seem to have shown the same interest in the Categories as his Peripatetic contemporaries.
lex Papia Poppaea
Authors: Giltaij Jacob
Published: February 2019

The lex Papia Poppaea was enacted in 9 ce by the suffect consuls, M. Papius Mutilus and Q. Poppaeus Secundus, probably on the initiative of the Emperor Augustus. The law complemented, supplemented, and enhanced the provisions of the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus (the law of Augustus concerning the regulation of marriage, enacted in 18 bce). The two laws, referred to jointly as the lex Iulia et Papia, had the primary effect of obliging all Roman citizens to marry and have (legitimate) heirs.
senatus consultum Tertullianum
Authors: Czajkowski Kimberley
Published: February 2019

The senatus consultum Tertullianum was a senatorial decree of the Hadrianic era that placed certain mothers in the line of succession to the estates of their intestate children, thereby improving their position. It is typically discussed alongside the sc Orfitianum in the context of the gradual shift from agnatic to cognatic ties in succession law.
Within-Person Associations Between Financial Hardship and Cognitive Performance in the PATH Through Life Study
Authors: Kiely Kim M , Anstey Kaarin J , Butterworth Peter
Published: February 2019

The aim of this study was to investigate the within-person associations between the experience of financial hardship and cognitive performance throughout adulthood. Three waves of data provided by 6,343 participants (49% men) were analyzed from a representative community-based sample from Canberra, Australia (2003–2015). The outcome was a composite measure reflecting fluid cognitive abilities. Financial hardship was assessed by markers of scarcity (being unable to heat the home, missing meals, and going without other basic needs) and behavioral responses to hardship (pawning items and seeking help from community welfare organizations). Multivariable-adjusted fixed-effect regression models for panel data with robust standard errors tested time-dependent associations between measures of financial hardship and fluid cognitive abilities. Declines in cognitive performance coincided with the experience of scarcity (β = −0.07; standard error, 0.018). There was no association between behavioral responses to hardship and cognitive performance, and there was no difference in the associations across age cohorts or by sex. There was no evidence that mastery or mental health attenuated the time-dependent link between hardship and cognition. This study provides new evidence that the onset (shock) of financial hardship is a potent stressor associated with occasion-specific deficits in fluid cognitive abilities.
Sex Differences in Aversion-Resistant Ethanol Intake in Mice
Authors: Fulenwider Hannah D , Nennig Sadie E , Price Michaela E , Hafeez Hiba , Schank Jesse R
Published: February 2019

Aims

Compulsive ethanol intake, characterized by persistent consumption despite negative consequences, is an addictive behavior identified by the DSM-5 as a central criterion in diagnosing alcohol use disorders (AUD). Epidemiological data suggest that females transition from recreational alcohol use to AUD more rapidly than males. Because of this potential sex difference in the etiology of AUD, it is critical to assess addictive behaviors such as compulsive intake in both males and females in preclinical studies.

Methods

We used the model of aversion-resistant ethanol consumption to assess compulsive-like ethanol intake. In these experiments, C57BL6/J mice were first provided with continuous access two-bottle choice between water and ethanol to establish baseline intake. Ethanol solution was then adulterated with increasing concentrations of the bitter tastant quinine hydrochloride. Animals that consume ethanol solution despite its pairing with this negative stimulus are thought to be exhibiting compulsive-like behavior.

Results

We found that higher concentrations of quinine were required to suppress ethanol consumption in female mice relative to males. We found no effect of estrous cycle phase on baseline ethanol intake or on quinine-adulterated ethanol intake in females.

Conclusions

Collectively, these data suggest that females exhibit a higher degree of aversion-resistance than male mice. Because we observed no effect of estrous cycle phase, it is likely that the presence of threshold levels of estradiol or progesterone, as opposed to their natural fluctuation across the estrous cycle, mediates increased aversion-resistance in females. Alternatively, or in combination, developmental effects of sex hormones could contribute to aversion-resistant ethanol intake.
Differential patterns of nitrogen nutrition and growth cost of the indigenous Vachellia sieberiana and the introduced Chromolaena odorata in the savannah environment
Authors: Ndzwanana Zimbini , Tsvuura Zivanai , Valentine Alex J , Pérez-Fernández María A , Magadlela Anathi
Published: February 2019

Vachellia sieberiana fixes atmospheric nitrogen (N) and distributes it back into ecosystems. We hypothesize that biological nitrogen fixation in this plant species is limited by competition from the invasive shrub, Chromolaena odorata. Competition would therefore result in the legume plant switching its limited nitrogen (N) sources in phosphorus-poor soils in savannah ecosystems when resources have to be shared. This study investigated the different patterns of N use and growth costs by a native and an introduced leguminous shrubby species. We propose that the two species sharing the same environment might result in competition. The competitive effect would induce in the indigenous legume to better utilize atmospheric-derived N modifying plant growth kinetics and plant mineral concentrations. Seedlings of V. sieberiana were cultivated in natural soil inoculum with low levels of phosphorus (mg L−1 ± SE) of 3.67 ± 0.88. The experiments were divided into two treatments where (i) seedlings of V. sieberiana were subjected to competition by cultivating them together with seedlings of C. odorata, and (ii) seedlings of V. sieberiana were cultivated independently. Although V. sieberiana was subjected to competition, the N2-fixing bacteria that occupied the nodules was Mesorhizobium species, similar to plants not subjected to competition. Total plant biomass was similar between treatments although V. sieberiana plants subjected to competition accumulated more below-ground biomass and showed higher carbon construction costs than plants growing individually. Total plant phosphorus and nitrogen decreased in seedlings of V. sieberiana under competition, whereas no differences were observed in percent N derived from the atmosphere (%NDFA) between treatments. The specific nitrogen utilization rate (SNUR) was higher in V. sieberiana plants subjected to competition while specific nitrogen absorption rate (SNAR) showed the opposite response. Vachellia sieberiana is highly adapted to nutrient-poor savannah ecosystems and can withstand competition from invasive shrubs by utilizing both atmospheric and soil nitrogen sources.
The transition of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases from -4 to -1 induces aggressive behavior and poor patient survival in dedifferentiated liposarcoma via YAP/TAZ activation
Authors: Shrestha Madhu , Ando Toshinori , Chea Chanbora , Sakamoto Shinnichi , Nishisaka Takashi , Ogawa Ikuko , Miyauchi Mutsumi , Takata Takashi
Published: February 2019

Liposarcoma (LS) is the most common soft-tissue sarcoma. Dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDLS) shows more aggressive biological behavior than that of well-differentiated liposarcoma (WDLS), so advanced therapeutic agents based on molecular mechanism are urgently needed. Here we show that tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) from TIMP-1 to TIMP-4 are differently expressed and regulate yes-associated protein (YAP)/transcriptional co-activator with PDZ binding motif (TAZ) in LS. Database analysis showed high TIMP-1 expression in DDLS patients correlating with poor prognosis, but high TIMP-4 expression in WDLS patients with better prognosis. Stable TIMP-1 knockdown inactivated YAP/TAZ and inhibited proliferation, colony formation and migration in DDLS cells, which was rescued by a constitutive active YAP. However, stable overexpression of TIMP-1 showed the opposite in WDLS cells. Stable TIMP-4 knockdown activated YAP/TAZ and promoted proliferation and migration in WDLS cells, which was suppressed by YAP/TAZ inhibitor (verteporfin) or knockdown of YAP/TAZ. Recombinant TIMP-4 showed opposite results in DDLS cells. These results indicate that dedifferentiation in LS shifts the expression of TIMPs from type 4 to type 1, inducing more aggressive behavior and poor prognosis through YAP/TAZ activation, which can be prognostic markers and therapeutic targets for LS patients.