bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cyberstalking
Authors: Glancy Graham D. , Newman Alan W.
Published: November 2020

Cyberstalking involves the use of the Internet or other electronic communication to stalk another person. Already common, it is likely to become more common as the use of the Internet continues to grow. The characteristics of online stalkers and their victims have some differences from those of the offline stalker. Mullen, Pathé, Purcell, and Stuart’s (1999) classification may apply to cyberstalkers except for the apparently common phenomenon of child luring that may be a new category. The methods of cyberstalking, as described in this chapter, are particularly ingenious. We know little about the effect on victims, but postulate that it is similar to offline stalking. We make some suggestions that may prevent cyberstalking, as well as offer some steps to bear in mind once cyberstalking occurs. The proliferation of personal computers with Internet access in the last decade has raised concerns about a new phenomenon known as cyberstalking. The Internet can be used to annoy and harass large numbers of victims in a generic manner by disseminating computer viruses, Internet scams, and “spamming” people with unsolicited e-mail. In 1999 Janet Reno, the attorney general of the United States, defined cyberstalking as the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other electronic communications devices to stalk another person (Reno, 1999). Barak (2005) looked at the issue of sexual harassment on the Internet. He characterizes cyberstalking as one type of sexual coercion. He notes that online behavior is characterized by disinhibition, openness, venture, and bravado—an atmosphere characterized by typical masculine attitudes. He argues that the lack of legal boundaries or enforcement vehicles encourage people to do what they would not have done in offline situations. He notes the near impossibility of implementation of legal procedures on a large scale. In this chapter we will discuss what is known about the prevalence of this phenomenon, the types of cyberstalking, and what is known about the perpetrators. In addition, we will generate some hypotheses about the comparison between online and offline stalkers. We will also discuss the effects on victims and current thoughts and resources for dealing with cyberstalking.
Temperate Forests of the Southern Andean Region
Authors: Veblen Thomas T.
Published: November 2020

Although most of the continent of South America is characterized by tropical vegetation, south of the tropic of Capricorn there is a full range of temperate-latitude vegetation types including Mediterranean-type sclerophyll shrublands, grasslands, steppe, xeric woodlands, deciduous forests, and temperate rain forests. Southward along the west coast of South America the vast Atacama desert gives way to the Mediterranean-type shrublands and woodlands of central Chile, and then to increasingly wet forests all the way to Tierra del Fuego at 55°S. To the east of the Andes, these forests are bordered by the vast Patagonian steppe of bunch grasses and short shrubs. The focus of this chapter is on the region of temperate forests occurring along the western side of the southernmost part of South America, south of 33°S. The forests of the southern Andean region, including the coastal mountains as well as the Andes, are presently surrounded by physiognomically and taxonomically distinct vegetation types and have long been isolated from other forest regions. Although small in comparison with the extent of temperate forests of the Northern Hemisphere, this region is one of the largest areas of temperate forest in the Southern Hemisphere and is rich in endemic species. For readers familiar with temperate forests of the Northern Hemisphere, it is difficult to place the temper temperate forests of southern South America into a comparable ecological framework owing both to important differences in the histories of the biotas and to contrasts between the broad climatic patterns of the two hemispheres. There is no forest biome in the Southern Hemisphere that is comparable to the boreal forests of the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The boreal forests of the latter are dominated by evergreen conifers of needle-leaved trees, mostly in the Pinaceae family, and occur in an extremely continental climate. In contrast, at high latitudes in southern South America, forests are dominated mostly by broadleaved trees such as the southern beech genus (Nothofagus). Evergreen conifers with needle or scaleleaves (from families other than the Pinaceae) are a relatively minor component of these forests.
Sea Peoples and Land Peoples, 1250 BC–1100 BC
Authors: Abulafia David
Published: November 2020

Both the fall of Troy and the Sea Peoples have been the subject of a vast literature. They were part of a common series of developments that affected the entire eastern Mediterranean and possibly the western Mediterranean too. Troy had been transformed at the end of the eighteenth century BC with the building of the most magnificent of the cities to stand on the hill of Hisarlık: Troy VI , which lasted, with many minor reconstructions, into the thirteenth century BC . The citadel walls were nine metres thick, or more; there were great gates and a massive watchtower, a memory of which may have survived to inspire Homer; there were big houses on two floors, with courtyards. The citadel was the home of an elite that lived in some style, though without the lavish accoutrements of their contemporaries in Mycenae, Pylos or Knossos. Archaeological investigation of the plain beneath which then gave directly on to the seashore suggests the existence of a lower town about seven times the size of the citadel, or around 170,000 square metres, roughly the size of the Hyksos capital at Avaris. One source of wealth was horses, whose bones begin to appear at this stage; Homer’s Trojans were famous ‘horse-tamers’, hippodamoi, and even if he chose this word to fit his metre, it matches the archaeological evidence with some precision. In an age when great empires were investing in chariots, and sending hundreds of them to perdition at the battle of Kadesh (or, according to the Bible, in the depths of the Red Sea), horse-tamers were certainly in demand. Opinion divided early on the identity of the Trojans. Claiming descent from Troy, the ancient Romans knew for sure that they were not just a branch of the Greek people. Homer, though, made them speak Greek. The best chance of an answer comes from their pottery. The pottery of Troy is not just Trojan; it belongs to a wider culture that spread across parts of Anatolia.
Serrata – Closing, 1291–1350
Authors: Abulafia David
Published: November 2020

The fall of Acre in 1291 shocked western Europe, which had in fact done little to protect the city in its last decades. Plans to launch new expeditions abounded, and among the greatest enthusiasts was Charles II of Naples, after his release from his Catalan gaol. But this was all talk; he was far too preoccupied with trying to defeat the Aragonese to be able to launch a crusade, nor did he have the resources to do so. The Italian merchants diversified their interests to cope with the loss of access to eastern silks and spices through Acre. Venice gradually took the lead in Egypt, while the Genoese concentrated more on bulky goods from the Aegean and the Black Sea, following the establishment of a Genoese colony in Constantinople in 1261. But the Byzantine emperors were wary of the Genoese. They favoured the Venetians as well, though to a lesser degree, so that the Genoese would not assume they could do whatever they wished. Michael VIII and his son Andronikos II confined the Genoese to the high ground north of the Golden Horn, the area known as Pera, or Galata, where a massive Genoese tower still dominates the skyline of northern Istanbul, but they also granted them the right to self-government, and the Genoese colony grew so rapidly that it soon had to be extended. By the mid-fourteenth century the trade revenues of Genoese Pera dwarfed those of Greek Constantinople, by a ratio of about seven to one. These emperors effectively handed control of the Aegean and the Black Sea to the Genoese, and Michael’s navy, consisting of about eighty ships, was dismantled by his son. It was assumed that God would protect Constantinople as a reward for the rejection of all attempts at a union of the holy Orthodox Church with the unholy Catholic one. The Genoese generally tolerated a Venetian presence, for war damaged trade and ate up valuable resources. Occasionally, as in 1298, pirate attacks by one side caused a crisis, and the cities did go to war.
Ever the Twain Shall Meet, 1830–1900
Authors: Abulafia David
Published: November 2020

The English poet of empire Rudyard Kipling penned the much quoted lines, ‘East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet’. Even if, by the early twentieth century, European observers had become overwhelmed by what they saw as fundamental differences between attitudes and styles of life in East and West, this was not true of the nineteenth century. Then, the ideal became the joining of East and West: a physical joining, through the Suez Canal, but also a cultural joining, as western Europeans relished the cultures of the Near East, and as the rulers of Near Eastern lands – the Ottoman sultans and their highly autonomous viceroys in Egypt – looked towards France and Great Britain in search of models they could follow in reviving the languishing economy of their dominions. This was, then, a reciprocal relationship: despite the claims of those who see ‘orientalism’ as the cultural expression of western imperialism, the masters of the eastern Mediterranean actively sought cultural contact with the West, and saw themselves as members of a community of monarchs that embraced Europe and the Mediterranean. Ismail Pasha, viceroy of Egypt between 1863 and 1879, always dressed in European clothes, though he would occasionally top his frock-coat and epaulettes with a fez; he spoke Turkish, not Arabic. Equally, the Ottoman sultans, and more particularly their courtiers (like Ismail, frequently Albanian), often sported western dress. They would, of course, be selective in their use of western ideas. The Egyptian viceroys were happy to send clever subjects to study at the École Polytechnique in Paris, a Napoleonic foundation; at the same time they discouraged excessive mixing in the French salons: they wished to import radical ideas, but about technology, not government. What had almost entirely disappeared by the early nineteenth century was the idea of the Ottoman realms as the seat of conquering warriors of the faith. Having lost their military and naval superiority in the East, the Ottomans were no longer the subject of fear but of fascination. Traditional ways of life caught the attention of western artists such as Delacroix, but other westerners, notably Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal, were keen to promote modernization.
A Tale of Four and a Half Cities, 1900–1950
Authors: Abulafia David
Published: November 2020

From a Mediterranean perspective, the First World War was only part of a sequence of crises that marked the death throes of the Ottoman Empire: the loss of Cyprus, Egypt, Libya, the Dodecanese, then the war itself with the loss of Palestine to British control, soon followed by a French mandate in Syria. All these changes had consequences, sometimes drastic, in the port cities where different ethnic and religious groups had coexisted over the centuries, notably Salonika, Smyrna, Alexandria and Jaffa. At the end of the war, the Ottoman heartlands were carved up between the victorious powers, and even Constantinople swarmed with British soldiers. The sultan was immobilized politically, providing plenty of opportunities for the Turkish radicals, in particular Mustafa Kemal, who had acquitted himself with great distinction fighting at Gallipoli. Allied mistrust of the Turks was compounded by public feeling: the mass deportation of the Armenians in spring and summer 1915 aroused horror among American diplomats based in Constantinople and Smyrna. Marched across the Anatolian highlands in searing heat, with harsh taskmasters forcing them on, men, women and children collapsed and died, or were killed for fun, while the Ottoman government made noises about the treasonable plots that were said to be festering among the Armenians. The intention was to ‘exterminate all males under fifty’. The worry among Greeks, Jews and foreign merchants was that the ‘purification’ of Anatolia would not be confined to persecution of the Armenians. In its last days, the Ottoman government had turned its back on the old ideal of coexistence. In Turkey too, as the radical Young Turks often revealed, powerful nationalist sentiment was overwhelming the tolerance of past times. Smyrna survived the war physically intact, with most of its population protected from persecution, partly because its vali, or governor, Rahmi Bey, was sceptical about the Turkish alliance with Germany and Austria, and understood that the prosperity of his city depended on its mixed population of Greeks, Armenians, Jews, European merchants and Turks. When he was ordered to deliver the Armenians to the Ottoman authorities, he temporized, though he had to despatch about a hundred ‘disreputables’ to an uncertain fate.
The Smooth Pursuit System
Authors: Wong Agnes
Published: November 2020

Smooth pursuit consists of conjugate eye movements that allow both eyes to smoothly track a slowly moving object so that its image is kept on the foveae. For example, smooth pursuit eye movements are used when you track a child on a swing. Only animals with foveae make smooth pursuit eye movements. Rabbits, for instance, do not have foveae, and their eyes cannot track a small moving target. However, if a rabbit is placed inside a rotating drum painted on the inside with stripes so that the rabbit sees the entire visual field rotating en bloc, it will track the stripes optokinetically. Humans have both smooth pursuit and optokinetic eye movements, but pursuit predominates. When you track a small, moving object against a detailed stationary background, such as a bird flying against a background of leaves, the optokinetic system will try to hold your gaze on the stationary background, but it is overridden by pursuit. Pursuit works well at speeds up to about 70°/sec, but top athletes may generate pursuit as fast as 130°/sec. Pursuit responds slowly to unexpected changes—it takes about 100 msec to track a target that starts to move suddenly, and this is why we need the faster acting vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) to stabilize our eyes when our heads move. However, pursuit can detect patterns of motion and respond to predictable target motion in much less than 100 msec. Pursuit cannot be generated voluntarily without a suitable target. If you try to pursue an imaginary target moving across your visual field, you will make a series of saccades instead of pursuit. However, the target that evokes pursuit does not have to be visual; it may be auditory (e.g., a moving, beeping pager), proprioceptive (e.g., tracking your outstretched finger in the dark), tactile (e.g., an ant crawling on your arm in the dark), or cognitive (e.g., tracking a stroboscopic motion in which a series of light flashes in sequence, even though no actual motion occurs.
Disorders Affecting the Extraocular Muscles
Authors: Wong Agnes
Published: November 2020

Chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO) occurs in 90% of patients with mitochondrial myopathy. It is characterized by a slowly progressive ptosis and ophthalmoplegia. The ophthalmoplegia is usually preceded by ptosis for months to years, and downgaze is usually intact. Kearns-Sayre Syndrome is a subtype of chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia. Most cases are sporadic and associated with single deletions of mitochondrial DNA. Ragged-red fibers are seen on light microscopy (using modified Gomori trichrome stain). ■ Due to accumulation of enlarged mitochondria under the sarcolemma of affected muscles ■ Found in skeletal muscles, orbicularis, and extraocular muscles ■ On electron microscopy, the mitochondria contain paracrystalline (“parking lot”) inclusions and disorganized cristae that are sometimes arranged concentrically. 1. Muscle biopsy (e.g., deltoid) 2. ERG 3. Electrocardiogram (EKG) 4. Genetic testing There is no effective treatment for CPEO. Maintaining a high-lipid, low-carbohydrate diet, taking co-enzyme Q10, biotin, or thiamine, and avoiding medications such as valproate and phenobarbital may be helpful. ■ MELAS stands for mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and strokelike episodes. ■ Maternally inherited; caused by point mutations of mitochondrial DNA (A3243G mutation accounts for about 80% of all cases) ■ Clinical features 1. Strokelike episodes before age 40 (hallmark feature) 2. Encephalopathy characterized by developmental delay, seizures, or dementia 3. Mitochondrial dysfunction manifested as lactic acidosis or ragged-red fibers 4. Ophthalmoplegia 5. Optic atrophy and pigmentary retinopathy 6. Diabetes mellitus and hearing loss ■ MNGIE stands for mitochondrial neuro-gastrointestinal encephalomyopathy. ■ Autosomal recessive; caused by mutations in the nuclear gene ECGF1, resulting in thymidine phosphorylase deficiency, which in turn causes deletions, duplications, and depletion of mitochondrial DNA ■ Clinical features: ophthalmoplegia, peripheral neuropathy, leukoencephalopathy, and gastrointestinal symptoms (recurrent nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea) with intestinal dysmotility SANDO stands for sensory ataxic neuropathy, dysarthria, and ophthalmoplegia. It is sporadic and is caused by multiple deletions of mitochondrial DNA.
A Master/Slave Narrative: Drug Addiction and Psychoactives
Authors: Griep Mark A. , Mikasen Marjorie L.
Published: November 2020

All addictive chemicals are psychoactive, but not all psychoactive compounds are addictive although they can be abused. Notable non-addictive psychoactive compounds are hallucinogens and the many mood-altering drugs marketed for depression, anxiety, epilepsy, and so forth. This chapter’s movies were chosen for the variety of psychoactive substances used by characters. They all show either drug abuse or addiction. The first few times that someone chooses to take a potentially addictive drug, they experience a rapid-onset pleasurable response followed by a slower onset, longer lasting dark side called withdrawal (Koob and Le Moal 2006; Grens 2007). Chronic use and bingeing lead to “tolerance” such that the euphoric effects are diminished even as the dose is increased. A person is said to be addicted to a drug when he or she seeks out the drug to avoid the dark side more than to induce its bright side. The bright and dark emotional and biochemical responses of euphoria, tolerance, and withdrawal are associated with a set of nerves called the “reward system” that lie at the top of the brainstem, buried deep within the human brain. We inherited these neurons from our earliest vertebrate ancestors. They are normally stimulated when we quench our thirst, stave off hunger, engage in sexual behavior, or participate in a host or other pleasurable activities. Repeated use of addictive drugs triggers the synthesis of proteins in the brain that cause anxiety or depression. Therefore, one promising line of research is to lessen the effects of withdrawal by finding other small molecules (therapeutic drugs) that bind to the receptors for the anxiety-producing or depression-inducing compounds. The “big three” legally addictive substances are nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine. About three-quarters (76%) of Americans over the age of 12 have smoked at least one cigarette in their lifetime, and 19% of Americans over the age of 12 smoke every day. From this we can calculate that 25% of users are addicted (=19%/76%), the highest addiction rate for any substance. With regard to alcohol, 51% of Americans are regular, moderate drinkers, 23% are binge drinkers, and 7% are heavy drinkers.
Inventors and Their Often Wacky Chemical Inventions
Authors: Griep Mark A. , Mikasen Marjorie L.
Published: November 2020

Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness in The Man in the White Suit) knows exactly what he wants to make. He just doesn’t know how to make it. So, he engages in a trial-and-error search for the right conditions to create his nonstaining fiber. Every time he makes a new trial, however, he sets off an explosion. As the Birnley Mills building crumbles around him, he tries, tries, and tries again. Like Stratton, most movie inventors create oxymoronic products such as rechargeable batteries, flexible glass, bulletproof tires, and water-repellent hairsprays. Movie inventors are very closely associated with the slapstick humor of the 1910s to 1930s, but ultimately they owe the strength of their fictional existence to Thomas Alva Edison. His inventions brought him worldwide fame in 1877, when he was 29 years old. After that, he regularly made front-page news until his death in 1931. His creation of the phonograph, commercialization of the light bulb, and 1,091 other inventions changed the way we live. Of all his inventions, the phonograph truly came out of nowhere, so much so that a journalist dubbed him the “Wizard of Menlo Park.” He followed that up with the electric light bulb and, more important, the electric power generation and delivery system. His most profound creation was the research laboratory, discussed in the next section, which he didn’t even patent. The iconic power of Edison is evident in the observation that inventors before The Absent-Minded Professor in 1961 create in the absence of theory, while those after 1961 rely on theory to make their products. Edison wanted to invent things that interested him. He didn’t care how they worked, just that they did. He hired men with advanced degrees for their theoretical expertise but relied on them more for their specialized technical abilities. In contrast, the industrial research laboratories that were founded on Edison’s example, such as General Electric Laboratories and Bell Laboratories, among many others, were and are staffed by large numbers of trained scientists, engineers, and technicians who rely on the free flow of ideas and expertise between theory and practicality to solve problems.
Other Assessment Methods—An Overview
Authors: Lee P.J.
Published: November 2020

Resource evaluation procedures have evolved along distinct paths, involving a variety of statistical, geochemical, and geological approaches because of different types of data and various assumptions that have driven their development. Many methods have been developed so far, but only those methods that have been published and have significantly influenced subsequent development of evaluation procedures are discussed here. The purpose of this chapter is to present an overview of the principles of these methods and identify the direction of future research in this area. Methods discussed include the following: • Geological approach—volumetric yield by analogy, basin classification • Geochemical approach—petroleum systems, burial and thermal history • Statistical approach (methods that were not discussed in previous chapters are discussed here) • Finite population methods—Arps and Roberts’, Bickel’s, Kaufman’s anchored, and Chen and Sinding–Larsen’s geoanchored • Superpopulation methods—USGS log-geometric, Zipf’s law, creaming, and Long’s • The regression method • The fractal method Specific data and assumptions can be applied to each of these methods. Some of the assumptions can be validated by the data whereas others cannot. These methods have their own merits and disadvantages. The geological approach has been used for the past several decades and is a qualitative method. This section discusses the volumetric yield method and the basin classification method. Volumetric yield using the analogous basin method was the earliest method of petroleum resource evaluation applied to frontier basins. It requires knowledge of the volume of a basin and its characteristics (e.g., tectonic, sedimentation, thermal generation, migration, and accumulation). Based on comparative studies, geologists are able to apply a hydrocarbon yield factor per unit volume (i.e., barrels of oil/cubic unit of sediment) from one known basin to an unknown basin with similar characteristics. Thus, for conceptual basins, this provides some information about the richness of an unknown basin. The advantages are the following: 1. It is suitable for the evaluation of conceptual basins. 2. It is easy to understand. 3. It combines geochemical data and/or experience from mature basins.
Congenital Infections
Authors: Yamashita Yushiro
Published: November 2020

Congenital infections are designated frequently by the term ‘‘TORCH syndrome’’ (toxoplasmosis, other infections/pathogens [i.e., syphilis and human immunodeficiency virus], rubella, cytomegalovirus [CMV], and herpes simplex). Most of the patients are asymptomatic in the neonatal period, although the neonatal neurological symptoms that do occur are quite dramatic. Infants with congenital infections are at high risk for developmental disabilities (Stagno and Britt 2006; Volpe 2000). The infection may not be apparent immediately after birth, but may manifest with signs of disease weeks, months, or years later, such as seen in chorioretinitis of Toxoplasma gondii. Because of this increased neurodevelopmental risk, these infections require comprehensive, longitudinal follow-up that should begin in the neonatal period and continue through adolescence (Willamson 1994). In this chapter, I review the pathophysiology, neurological manifestations, and imaging of congenital infections by CMV, rubella virus, and Toxoplasma gondii briefly followed by their cognitive and behavioral manifestations. Cytomegalovirus is the leading cause of congenital infection in the United States and northwestern Europe (Istas et al. 1995). Neonatal signs of intrauterine CMV infection include hepatosplenomegaly, petechial rash (usually related to thrombocytopenia), small-for-gestational-age infant, hyperbilirubinemia, microcephaly, and chorioretinitis. Ten to 15% of neonates with asymptomatic congenital CMV infection and almost all neonates with symptomatic infection develop persistent problems, most commonly neurological impairment. Cytomegalovirus can be transmitted from mother to fetus anytime during gestation through the placenta. It is most likely to cause serious harm to the fetus when the mother has a primary CMV infection during pregnancy. Primary CMV infections are reported in 1%–4% of seronegative women during pregnancy, and the risk for viral transmission to the fetus is 30%–40%. Reactivation of the infection during pregnancy is reported in 10%–30% of seropositive women, and the risk of transmitting the virus is about 1%–3% (Stagno and Britt 2006). The pathogenesis of central nervous system (CNS) infection by CMV in the developing fetus remains poorly understood because of the lack of autopsy cases and well-developed animal models.
Cognitive and Behavioral Manifestations of Classical Galactosemia
Authors: Antshel Kevin M.
Published: November 2020

An autosomal recessive group of disorders, galactosemia is caused by a deficiency of one of four enzymes: galactose mutarotase (GALM), galactokinase (GALK), galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (GALT), and UDP-galactose epimerase (GALE) (Holton et al. 2001). Galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase deficiency is clearly the most prevalent of these four and is labeled classical galactosemia. All of the information provided in this chapter refers to classical galactosemia. These four enzymes metabolize galactose to glucose. Lacking one of these enzymes, galactose accumulates in individuals with galactosemia. Treatment involves a galactose-restricted diet and, with this diet, the normally high levels of galactose that are excreted in the urine return to normal (Jakobs et al. 1995). Endogenous production of galactose, however, amounting to 1 g/day in adults, has been suggested to be a major cause of the substantial disease morbidity (Schadewaldt et al. 2004). Thus, even with strict dietary elimination of galactose, the human body produces galactose endogenously. Also due to the GALT deficiency, galactose-1-phosphate cannot be further metabolized and begins to accumulate in red blood cells and other cells and tissues. Unlike the normalization of urinary galactose excretion, galactose-1-phosphate concentrations remain elevated even with dietary treatment relative to healthy comparison subjects (Holton et al. 2001). In addition, if untreated, significantly elevated concentrations of galactitol are detected in plasma, as well as in urine in individuals with galactosemia. With treatment, plasma galactitol and the urinary excretion of galactitol decrease, yet still remain above the upper limit of normal (Jakobs et al. 1995). Thus, the pathophysiology of galactosemia is manifold and involves elevations of galactose, galactose-1-phosphate, and galactitol. Screening for galactosemia is part of newborn screening programs in all 50 states and most countries worldwide. A positive screen will be followed up with measurement of galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase activity in red blood cells. If done before the fifth day of life, neonatal screening can prevent acute morbidity and mortality, yet does not change the long-term outcomes of significant disease morbidity (Schweitzer-Krantz 2003).
Cognitive and Behavioral Manifestations of Disorders of Homocysteine Metabolism
Authors: Murphy Elaine
Published: November 2020

This chapter reviews the metabolism of homocysteine and its associated defects, focusing on the clinical manifestations of cognitive and behavioral disturbances. The terminology of homocysteine and its derivatives can be confusing, so I begin by clarifying that. Next, the metabolism of homocysteine is outlined, followed by discussion of the disorders of homocysteine transsulfuration. Vitamin B12 (cobalamin, CBL) is important in the effective metabolism of homocysteine and thus defects of CBL absorption, transport, and intracellular transport are also discussed. Finally, disorders of remethylation of methionine will be described. Diagnostic criteria, imaging results, and the pathophysiology of these disorders are also considered. The terminology related to homocysteine metabolism can be confusing. In 2000, a consensus statement on homocysteine nomenclature was published (Mudd et al. 2000). Normal human plasma contains total concentrations of homocysteine and its derivative disulfides of less than 15 μmol/L, although there is some variation due to genetic and other factors. Of this total, only 1%–2% occurs as the thiol (i.e., sulfhydryl) containing amino acid homocysteine. The remaining 98% is in the form of disulfides. Approximately 75%–80% of the total is bound to protein through disulfide bonds with protein cysteines, mainly in albumin, whereas the remainder occurs in non–protein-bound or free forms: the disulfide homocystine-homocystine (Hcy-Hcy), homocysteine-cysteine mixed disulphide, and minor amounts of other mixed disulfides. Together all these moieties make up what is referred to as total homocysteine (tHcy). As all these disulfide bonds can be cleaved by reducing agents, giving the thiol homocysteine, this allows measurement of tHcy as the sum of any thiol homocysteine originally present plus that originally present as a disulfide. In patients with homocystinuria, the percentage contribution of the thiol homocysteine to the total of these forms in plasma rises, reaching 10%–25% as the total homocysteine concentration reaches 150–400 μmol/L. The methionine/homocysteine cycle, also known as the single carbon transfer pathway, is found in all tissues and can broadly be divided into transsulfuration and remethylation components. The cycle aims to conserve methionine and provide sufficient S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) for vital transmethylation reactions.
Prenatal Drug Exposure: Childhood Behavior and Cognitive Functioning
Authors: Sithisarn Thitinart , Bada Henrietta S.
Published: November 2020

Based on the estimates of the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 9.5% of women of child-bearing age (ages 15–44 years)—almost six million—use illicit drugs annually (SAMHSA 2007). A lower proportion of use is estimated among pregnant women (5.2%), but this rate is high enough to make illicit drug use during pregnancy a major public health concern. However, among 15- to 17-year-olds, the rate of illicit drug use during pregnancy is 22.6%, higher than the rate of use (13.3%) in those not pregnant in same age range (SAMHSA 2007). The commonly used illicit substances by women of child-bearing age include marijuana and hashish, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, and psychotherapeutic agents including pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives. Of interest is the increasing nonmedical use of prescription medications; rate of use of pain relievers among women of child-bearing age is 2.6%, higher than the reported rates of cocaine (1.0%) and heroin (0.1%) use. The use of hallucinogens and inhalants is more common among teens (SAMHSA 2007). The rates and types of substance used vary among different sociodemographic characteristics such as marital status, level of education, employment status, method of hospital payment, and ethnicity (NIH 1996). In 2006–2007, the annual rate of drug use during pregnancy was highest among non-Hispanic white women (6.2%), slightly higher than in the non- Hispanic African American women (5.7%). An earlier survey on drug use during pregnancy found that the rate of cocaine use was highest among African Americans (4.5%) and in the those older than 25 years of age, whereas the younger age group had the highest rate of marijuana use (3.5%) (NIH 1996). In utero exposure to illicit substances may be associated with adverse effects on the developing brain through various mechanisms, with resultant physical and or cognitive and behavioral abnormalities. This chapter focuses on cognitive and behavioral outcomes in childhood and adolescence following prenatal illicit drug exposure. However, it is essential to realize that most women who use drugs are polydrug users; that is, they also use tobacco and/or alcohol, or a combination of other illicit drugs.
Love Canal
Authors: Newman Richard S.
Published: November 2020

In the summer of 1978, residents of Love Canal, a suburban development in Niagara Falls, NY, began protesting against the leaking toxic waste dump in their midst-a sixteen-acre site containing 100,000 barrels of chemical waste that anchored their neighborhood. Initially seeking evacuation, area activists soon found that they were engaged in a far larger battle over the meaning of America's industrial past and its environmental future. The Love Canal protest movement inaugurated the era of grassroots environmentalism, spawning new anti-toxics laws and new models of ecological protest. Historian Richard S. Newman examines the Love Canal crisis through the area's broader landscape, detailing the way this ever-contentious region has been used, altered, and understood from the colonial era to the present day. Newman journeys into colonial land use battles between Native Americans and European settlers, 19th-century utopian city planning, the rise of the American chemical industry in the 20th century, the transformation of environmental activism in the 1970s, and the memory of environmental disasters in our own time. In an era of hydrofracking and renewed concern about nuclear waste disposal, Love Canal remains relevant. It is only by starting at the very beginning of the site's environmental history that we can understand the road to a hazardous waste crisis in the 1970s-and to the global environmental justice movement it sparked.
Our Mission
Authors: van Santen Rutger , Khoe Djan , Vermeer Bram
Published: November 2020

There was no shortage of unprecedented events as we were writing this book. Oil and food prices rocketed and then fell back to Earth; there was a devastating earthquake in Haiti; banks failed; and a new flu virus sparked a worldwide pandemic alert. None of these developments was predicted a year in advance—or at least, not loudly enough to be heard. For all our technological and forecasting skills, we proved unable to take appropriate measures in advance. Technology has been helping us satisfy our material needs since prehistoric times. We learned how to till the soil, how to communicate with one another, and how to stay healthy. Almost everyone in the Western world now has enough to eat, a roof over their heads, and clean water. A great many basic needs have therefore been met—so much so that some observers now claim that the need for further technological advances is diminishing. Recent events argue against such a view. Humanity is increasingly confronted with crises that, for the first time in our history, are global in scope. The food shortages we saw in 2007 occurred simultaneously in Asia, Africa, and South America; the recession that took hold in 2008 did so simultaneously worldwide; and when the flu pandemic broke out in 2009, germs were able to cross between continents in a matter of days. Climate change and oil depletion, meanwhile, are no less global challenges that we will face in the decades ahead. The globalization of disaster is itself rooted in our technology. Generations of engineers have steadily woven an international web of industries, communications, and markets that has resulted in planetary interdependence. These global networks are now so tightly knit that we share a common fate. We will now survive together or quite possibly perish together. The authors of this book are concerned about the new scale on which many of these pressing problems are now manifesting themselves. Because technology has been a key factor in triggering these issues in the first place, we believe it should also be part of solving them and of preventing similar problems from arising in the future.
Sustainable Materials
Authors: van Santen Rutger , Khoe Djan , Vermeer Bram
Published: November 2020

Volkswagen’s new car plant is located more or less in the center of Dresden, Germany. Through its glass shell, you can watch the fitters from the street as they work at the production line. On another storey, robots spray the car bodies in bright colors without a single splash of paint winding up on any of the windows. Back in the twentieth century, it was customary to push factories beyond the city limits because they were too dirty to share our living environment. Today, clean, attractive, and compact factories are finding their way back. Production techniques have reached such a state of perfection that we’re eager for them to be seen. Factories and houses can once again stand side by side. A hundred kilometers away in Leipzig, BMW has also made a symbol of this kind of modern, clean manufacturing. The production line at the company’s new plant runs straight through the cafeteria. Cars float above the tables as lunch is served below. The automotive industry’s production techniques are every bit as clean nowadays as those of the firms providing the food on the workers’ plates. Cars are only one example, but they are an icon of our industry. Every last detail of their production process has indeed been finetuned. Yet the cleanness of its production is only superficial. It hasn’t resulted in the perfect car. Far from it: Motor vehicles continue to impose an ever-heavier burden on the environment. It takes more raw materials to produce one now than it did 20 years ago, and cars still use the same amount of fuel for every kilometer they travel. That simply can’t continue if we still want to visit friends on the other side of the country two decades from now. Breakthroughs are needed that will make cars more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. And the same goes for other modes of transport, such as trains, aircraft, and ships. Apart from further inventions, we’re going to need entirely new materials, construction methods, and production techniques if the boundaries are truly to shift.
Reaching Everyone
Authors: van Santen Rutger , Khoe Djan , Vermeer Bram
Published: November 2020

The majority of Earth’s inhabitants don’t have a telephone or e-mail, and many places still lie beyond the reach of established communication networks. That severely precludes development, meaning that new insights percolate through slowly and that essential services such as water provision are based on imprecise information. Lack of information exchange is also an obstacle to improving agriculture, education, and many other fields. Even in well-connected areas, networks are less dense than required to improve our safety and well-being. You need a fine-meshed network if you want to keep on top of the genesis of earthquakes, floods, climate change, and many other unstable systems. Sparsity in networks means a lack of control. Making network coverage more complete could help develop and stabilize our world. However, any attempt to extend networks raises significant problems, which we explore in this chapter using the example of radio networks. We should keep in mind, though, that similar phenomena are evident in other networks as well, including the power grid and social networks geared to education. At first sight, radio is an excellent technology for filling the gaps left by other communication technologies. Its capacity is restricted, however, because wireless communication is limited by basic laws of physics, obliging broadcasting and communication companies, for instance, to battle it out for their slice of the ether. The number of radio and TV stations, mobile phones, and satellite connections increases inexorably, filling up every patch of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be used for radio. The historical pattern has been to develop new techniques and then to lay claim to unused spectrum. The old medium-wave bands were the first to be used for radio programs. Broadcasters later adopted FM, exploiting higher frequencies at the price of reduced range. New semiconductor electronics then became faster and brought access to even higher frequencies. Once the first global standard for mobile communication (GSM) slots had been filled, new space was opened up at double the frequency. The latest third-generation (3G) mobile phone technologies—like the universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS)—work with higher frequencies still.
Cryptography
Authors: van Santen Rutger , Khoe Djan , Vermeer Bram
Published: November 2020

Electronic payments, Internet shopping, and mobile communication have fundamentally changed our society and not only because digital services have made our lives more convenient. Never before in our history has our behavior been tracked in such detail as it is today. The bank remembers precisely where and when we withdraw cash from the machine, the phone company keeps a list of all our calls, and the online bookstore knows exactly what we like to read. Stores use loyalty cards and discount points to record their customers’ purchasing behavior. These databases have proved extremely useful. Companies can present us with attractive offers at just the right moment. All those data are useful for the authorities, too. They tell them if someone is in regular contact with a suspect or where a person was located at a particular time. The information helps the police and intelligence services prevent bombings or trace pedophiles. Much of this information is protected so that not just anyone is able to poke around our personal digital records. But protecting our privacy is increasingly difficult because the number of databases and communication channels continues to grow rapidly. Messages have been protected since the beginning of written communication. For a couple of millennia now, military dispatches have been translated into an incomprehensible alphabet soup in case they should fall into enemy hands. Breaking codes was and is a challenge. The course of World War II would probably have been entirely different if military codes had been more robust. The process of encoding and decoding can, of course, be performed much faster and more effectively in the computer age than was ever possible with pen and paper. Cryptography—the science of encryption—has perfected its techniques over the past decades. Cryptographers are constantly searching for mathematical operations that will allow insiders to decode a message easily and make it so hard for outsiders that it’s no longer worth the effort of even trying. Several important security techniques use prime numbers—numbers that are only divisible by 1 and by themselves. Examples are 2, 3, 5, and 13 but also 7,901 and 16,769,023.
Robust Logistics
Authors: van Santen Rutger , Khoe Djan , Vermeer Bram
Published: November 2020

Our lives seem to revolve around schedules. If we don’t honor them with second-to-second precision, we miss our trains and our workplace rosters fall apart. We’re reliant on one another, and we constantly have to coordinate our schedules with those of others. Planning is crucial to our industry, too. If you unexpectedly run out of nuts and bolts, you can’t make any more cars, and the entire production process grinds to a halt. No manufacturer can afford that, so industrial companies employ large teams of specialists whose job is to ensure there are never any shortages of key parts. A worldwide logistic network has become our industry’s lifeblood. The central issue facing logistics is that of reliability. How do you keep your supply network intact? And how do you limit the consequences if it fails? These are questions that go far beyond the supply of nuts and bolts for new cars. Reliable logistics touches equally on the web of interactions that determine food production and the optimization of the Internet. It also extends to power supply, telecommunications, and workforce. Reliable networks make our society tick. But they face uncertainties of various kinds. That lends a broader significance to insights gained from industrial logistics, which offer us tools we can use to optimize networks and account for uncertainties in other areas as well. The reliability of a supply network is intimately bound up with the inventories you need to maintain. Businesses hold millions of dollars’ worth of supplies in their warehouses to make absolutely certain they never cease production due to a failure in the supply chain. So the key question is how large a stock do you need to hold of each component? Smart planning to hold down inventory levels in your warehouse generates immediate savings. On the other hand, you need enough stock to ensure continuity should anything go wrong. Optimizing storage is a common problem in supply networks. There is always a trade-off between the reliability of the network and the need for it to be profitable in an economic sense.