bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Efficient DNA sequence compression with neural networks
Authors: Silva Milton , Pratas Diogo , Pinho Armando J
Published: November 2020

Background

The increasing production of genomic data has led to an intensified need for models that can cope efficiently with the lossless compression of DNA sequences. Important applications include long-term storage and compression-based data analysis. In the literature, only a few recent articles propose the use of neural networks for DNA sequence compression. However, they fall short when compared with specific DNA compression tools, such as GeCo2. This limitation is due to the absence of models specifically designed for DNA sequences. In this work, we combine the power of neural networks with specific DNA models. For this purpose, we created GeCo3, a new genomic sequence compressor that uses neural networks for mixing multiple context and substitution-tolerant context models.

Findings

We benchmark GeCo3 as a reference-free DNA compressor in 5 datasets, including a balanced and comprehensive dataset of DNA sequences, the Y-chromosome and human mitogenome, 2 compilations of archaeal and virus genomes, 4 whole genomes, and 2 collections of FASTQ data of a human virome and ancient DNA. GeCo3 achieves a solid improvement in compression over the previous version (GeCo2) of $2.4\%$, $7.1\%$, $6.1\%$, $5.8\%$, and $6.0\%$, respectively. To test its performance as a reference-based DNA compressor, we benchmark GeCo3 in 4 datasets constituted by the pairwise compression of the chromosomes of the genomes of several primates. GeCo3 improves the compression in $12.4\%$, $11.7\%$, $10.8\%$, and $10.1\%$ over the state of the art. The cost of this compression improvement is some additional computational time (1.7–3 times slower than GeCo2). The RAM use is constant, and the tool scales efficiently, independently of the sequence size. Overall, these values outperform the state of the art.

Conclusions

GeCo3 is a genomic sequence compressor with a neural network mixing approach that provides additional gains over top specific genomic compressors. The proposed mixing method is portable, requiring only the probabilities of the models as inputs, providing easy adaptation to other data compressors or compression-based data analysis tools. GeCo3 is released under GPLv3 and is available for free download at https://github.com/cobilab/geco3.
Abstract-Induced Modules for Reductive Algebraic Groups With Frobenius Maps
Authors: Chen Xiaoyu , Dong Junbin
Published: November 2020

Let ${\textbf{G}}$ be a connected reductive algebraic group defined over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ of $q$ elements and $\textbf{B}$ be a Borel subgroup of ${\textbf{G}}$ defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$. Let $\mathbb{k}$ be a field and we assume that $\mathbb{k}=\bar{\mathbb{F}}_q $ when $\textrm{char}\ \mathbb{k}=\textrm{char} \ \mathbb{F}_q$. We show that the abstract-induced module $\mathbb{M}(\theta )=\mathbb{k}{\textbf{G}}\otimes _{\mathbb{k}\textbf{B}}\theta $ (here $\mathbb{k}\textbf{H}$ is the group algebra of $\textbf{H}$ over the field $\mathbb{k}$ and $\theta $ is a character of $\textbf{B}$ over $\mathbb{k}$) has a composition series (of finite length) if $\textrm{char}\ \mathbb{k}\ne \textrm{char} \ \mathbb{F}_q$. In the case $\mathbb{k}=\bar{\mathbb{F}}_q$ and $\theta $ is a rational character, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a composition series (of finite length) of $\mathbb{M}(\theta )$. We determine all the composition factors whenever a composition series exists. Thus we obtain a large class of abstract infinite-dimensional irreducible $\mathbb{k}{\textbf{G}}$-modules.
Clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients with MDR tuberculosis in Dar Es Salaam region, Tanzania
Authors: Myemba David T , Bwire George M , Sambayi Godfrey , Maganda Betty A , Njiro Belinda J , Ndumwa Harrieth P , Majani Frank , Kunambi Peter P , Matee Mecky I N
Published: November 2020

Background

In Tanzania more than 28% of all multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases occur in Dar es Salaam. However, information about management and clinical outcomes of patients with MDR-TB in the region is scarce, and hence the need for this study.

Methods

A 5-year retrospective cohort study was conducted in six centres in Dar es Salaam. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize social demographics and clinical characteristics. Associations between occurrence of adverse events, regimen change and cure were determined using the Chi-square test whereas factors associated with mortality were determined using the Log-ranking test and Cox regression model.

Results

Three-hundred patient files were found and reviewed. The majority were male 199 (66.3%), aged 25–44 years [176 (58.7%)] and 89 (30.1%) were HIV co-infected. 186 (62%) completed their treatment, 68 (22.0%) were on treatment and 9 (3.3%) were lost to follow-up. The majority, 152 (51.0%) were managed using long MDR-TB regimens. The overall mortality rate was 5.7 per 1000 MDR-TB patients. A higher mortality rate was associated with being ≥45 years [adjusted hazard ratio (AHR): 10.82, 95% CI: 1.14–102.74, P = 0.038), female (AHR: 5.92, 95% CI: 1.75–20.08, P = 0.004), on a short anti-TB regimen (AHR: 4.34, 95% CI: 1.41–13.35, P = 0.010), HIV co-infected [crude hazard ratio (CHR): 2.56, 95% CI: 1.01–6.50, P = 0.048), on concomitant long-term medication use (CHR: 2.99, 95% CI: 1.17–7.64, P = 0.022) and having other co-morbidities (CHR: 3.45, 95% CI: 1.32–9.02, P = 0.011).

Conclusions

MDR-TB mortality was associated with short anti-TB regimens, sex, age, concomitant long-term medication use and HIV coinfection. In this population, use of long and individualized regimens is recommended.
“Bow-tie” optimal pathway discovery analysis of sepsis hospital admissions using the Hospital Episode Statistics database in England
Authors: De Oliveira Hugo , Prodel Martin , Lamarsalle Ludovic , Inada-Kim Matt , Ajayi Kenny , Wilkins Julia , Sekelj Sara , Beecroft Sue , Snow Sally , Slater Ruth , Orlowski Andi
Published: November 2020

Objective

The “Bow-tie” optimal pathway discovery analysis uses large clinical event datasets to map clinical pathways and to visualize risks (improvement opportunities) before, and outcomes after, a specific clinical event. This proof-of-concept study assesses the use of NHS Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) in England as a potential clinical event dataset for this pathway discovery analysis approach.

Materials and Methods

A metaheuristic optimization algorithm was used to perform the “bow-tie” analysis on HES event log data for sepsis (ICD-10 A40/A41) in 2016. Analysis of hospital episodes across inpatient and outpatient departments was performed for the period 730 days before and 365 days after the index sepsis hospitalization event.

Results

HES data captured a sepsis event for 76 523 individuals (>13 years), relating to 580 000 coded events (across 220 sepsis and non-sepsis event classes). The “bow-tie” analysis identified several diagnoses that most frequently preceded hospitalization for sepsis, in line with the expectation that sepsis most frequently occurs in vulnerable populations. A diagnosis of pneumonia (5 290 patients) and urinary tract infections (UTIs; 2 057 patients) most often preceded the sepsis event, with recurrent UTIs acting as a potential indicative risk factor for sepsis.

Discussion

This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that a “bow-tie” pathway discovery analysis of the HES database can be undertaken and provides clinical insights that, with further study, could help improve the identification and management of sepsis. The algorithm can now be more widely applied to HES data to undertake targeted clinical pathway analysis across multiple healthcare conditions.
Local trends in abundance of migratory bats across 20 years
Authors: Green Dana M , McGuire Liam P , Vanderwel Mark C , Willis Craig K R , Noakes Matthew J , Bohn Shelby J , Green Eric N , Brigham R Mark
Published: November 2020

Hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus) and silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans) are species of conservation concern because of the documented annual mortality that occurs at wind energy facilities. Several recent studies have predicted continental-scale declines of hoary bat populations due to interactions with wind turbines. We predicted a decrease in captures at a summer site over 20 years where researchers have captured bats using generally consistent methods. We developed a hierarchical Bayesian model to estimate the relative change in the expected number of captures while controlling for time of year, temperature, and netting effort. We found no decrease in the number of captures for either species. We suggest that the lack of decrease observed at our study site may be a result of compensatory immigration, despite potential broader-scale population declines.
Entropy subspace separation-based clustering for noise reduction (ENCORE) of scRNA-seq data
Authors: Song Jia , Liu Yao , Zhang Xuebing , Wu Qiuyue , Gao Juan , Wang Wei , Li Jin , Song Yanling , Yang Chaoyong
Published: November 2020

Single-cell RNA sequencing enables us to characterize the cellular heterogeneity in single cell resolution with the help of cell type identification algorithms. However, the noise inherent in single-cell RNA-sequencing data severely disturbs the accuracy of cell clustering, marker identification and visualization. We propose that clustering based on feature density profiles can distinguish informative features from noise. We named such strategy as ‘entropy subspace’ separation and designed a cell clustering algorithm called ENtropy subspace separation-based Clustering for nOise REduction (ENCORE) by integrating the ‘entropy subspace’ separation strategy with a consensus clustering method. We demonstrate that ENCORE performs superiorly on cell clustering and generates high-resolution visualization across 12 standard datasets. More importantly, ENCORE enables identification of group markers with biological significance from a hard-to-separate dataset. With the advantages of effective feature selection, improved clustering, accurate marker identification and high-resolution visualization, we present ENCORE to the community as an important tool for scRNA-seq data analysis to study cellular heterogeneity and discover group markers.
The Value of Guns for Personal and Collective Defense
Authors: Cook Philip J. , Goss Kristin A.
Published: November 2020

Why Is Self-Defense Central to the Debate over Gun Control?

Personal safety is a vital matter, and self-protection is a more compelling rationale for owning guns than recreation. We can all conjure up the nightmare scenario of being defenseless in a violent confrontation with...
Public Opinion, Political Parties, and Guns
Authors: Cook Philip J. , Goss Kristin A.
Published: November 2020

Do Americans Want Stricter Gun Laws?

Public opinion experts have long observed that the United States has a gun control paradox: Most Americans favor all sorts of firearms regulations—sometimes overwhelmingly so—yet these regulations are not enacted into law. Four decades ago, one scholar noted...
How to Assemble a Habitable Planet
Authors: Deamer David W.
Published: November 2020

Hydrogen is a colorless, odorless gas that, when given enough time, changes into people. How much time? 13.7 billion years!

A good way to present the information in this book is to pose a question, provide an answer, and then go on to ask and...
The Present
Authors: Anderson C. W. , Downie Leonard , Schudson Michael
Published: November 2020

What is news—and what is journalism—today?

News is everywhere today. It is on all kinds of mobile digital devices, on computer and television screens in homes and offices, on car radios, even in bus and airport waiting areas, and, still, on the printed page. News...
Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement
Authors: Byman Daniel
Published: November 2020

On the morning of September 11, 2001, the entire world was introduced to Al Qaeda and its enigmatic leader, Osama bin Laden. But the organization that changed the face of terrorism forever and unleashed a whirlwind of counterterrorism activity and two major wars had been on the scene long before that eventful morning. In Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What Everyone Needs to Know, Daniel L. Byman, an eminent scholar of Middle East terrorism and international security who served on the 9/11 Commission, provides a sharp and concise overview of Al Qaeda, from its humble origins in the mountains of Afghanistan to the present, explaining its perseverance and adaptation since 9/11 and the limits of U.S. and allied counterterrorism efforts. The organization that would come to be known as Al Qaeda traces its roots to the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Founded as the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, Al Qaeda achieved a degree of international notoriety with a series of spectacular attacks in the 1990s; however, it was the dramatic assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11 that truly launched Al Qaeda onto the global stage. The attacks endowed the organization with world-historical importance and provoked an overwhelming counterattack by the United States and other western countries. Within a year of 9/11, the core of Al Qaeda had been chased out of Afghanistan and into a variety of refuges across the Muslim world. Splinter groups and franchised offshoots were active in the 2000s in countries like Pakistan, Iraq, and Yemen, but by early 2011, after more than a decade of relentless counterterrorism efforts by the United States and other Western military and intelligence services, most felt that Al Qaeda's moment had passed. With the death of Osama bin Laden in May of that year, many predicted that Al Qaeda was in its death throes. Shockingly, Al Qaeda has staged a remarkable comeback in the last few years. In almost every conflict in the Muslim world, from portions of the Xanjing region in northwest China to the African subcontinent, Al Qaeda franchises or like-minded groups have played a role. Al Qaeda's extreme Salafist ideology continues to appeal to radicalized Sunni Muslims throughout the world, and it has successfully altered its organizational structure so that it can both weather America's enduring full-spectrum assault and tailor its message to specific audiences. Authoritative and highly readable, Byman's account offers readers insightful and penetrating answers to the fundamental questions about Al Qaeda: who they are, where they came from, where they're going-and, perhaps most critically-what we can do about it.
Organization and Recruitment
Authors: Byman Daniel
Published: November 2020

Why Was Bin Laden Such an Effective Leader?

Perhaps no terrorist in history has created, nurtured, and managed a terrorist group as effectively as Osama Bin Laden. His success lies both in his personal story and in the unusual mix of traits he embodied,...
What Is Adhd? and Why Should We Care?
Authors: Hinshaw Stephen P. , Ellison Katherine
Published: November 2020

In a Nutshell, What is ADHD?

ADHD, the acronym for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is a neurodevelopmental problem that can result in distraction, forgetfulness, impulsivity, and in some cases excessive, restless physical movement, from fidgeting to pacing.

That said, ADHD doesn’t comfortably fit in...
HOW HELPFUL—OR HARMFUL—IS MEDICATION?
Authors: Hinshaw Stephen P. , Ellison Katherine
Published: November 2020

How Many US Children and Adults are Taking Medication for ADHD?

In 2015, more than two-thirds of US children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD were taking medication. By the most recent estimates, that works out to be close to 4 million youth. The vast...
How Helpful Is Behavior Therapy, and What Kinds of Behavior Therapies Help the Most?
Authors: Hinshaw Stephen P. , Ellison Katherine
Published: November 2020

What is Behavior Therapy?

Behavior therapy is the only form of treatment besides medication that researchers have found to be consistently helpful for children and adolescents with ADHD. It can be effective as a substitute for or supplement to medication. Which type of the...
Genomics and Personalized Medicine
Authors: Snyder Michael
Published: November 2020

In 2001 the Human Genome Project succeeded in mapping the DNA of humans. This landmark accomplishment launched the field of genomics, the integrated study of all the genes in the human body and the related biomedical interventions that can be tailored to benefit a person's health. Today genomics, part of a larger movement toward personalized medicine, is poised to revolutionize health care. By cross-referencing an individual's genetic sequence -- their genome -- against known elements of "Big Data," elements of genomics are already being incorporated on a widespread basis, including prenatal disease screening and targeted cancer treatments. With more innovations soon to arrive at the bedside, the promise of the genomics revolution is limitless. This entry in the What Everyone Needs to Know series offers an authoritative resource on the prospects and realities of genomics and personalized medicine. As this science continues to alter traditional medical paradigms, consumers are faced with additional options and more complicated decisions regarding their health care. This book provides the essential information everyone needs.
An Introduction to Cancer Genetics
Authors: Snyder Michael
Published: November 2020

What is cancer and how does it arise?

The ability to sequence genomes inexpensively has had enormous impact in medicine and helped usher in the new era of personal genomics. One of the areas of highest impact is cancer, which will strike 40% of...
Pharmacogenomics
Authors: Snyder Michael
Published: November 2020

How can your genome directly help guide drug treatments for treating disease?

As noted earlier, genomics can have a direct impact on drug treatments for cancer and mystery diseases. In a patient with cancer, it may be possible to use that patient’s DNA sequence...
Education
Authors: Snyder Michael
Published: November 2020

Michael Snyder and his healthy >80-year-old mother (Phyllis Snyder) both carry a mutation previously thought to inevitably lead to aplastic anemia, but neither have this disease (which illustrates the limitations of genomics).
The Future of Personalized Medicine
Authors: Snyder Michael
Published: November 2020

What other technologies will be prevalent in the personalized medicine space?

The information gathered from genomics will ultimately be coupled with other technologies to further guide and treat human health. For example, it is now possible to construct pluripotent stem cells from any individual....
Noncombat Technolog
Authors: Kreps Sarah E.
Published: November 2020

The use of drones for armed conflict has tended to draw a good deal of scrutiny and indeed criticism, but drones have potential uses far beyond combat. This chapter, which returns the focus to aerial drones because of where many of the developments have...
Energy Quantization and Atoms
Authors: Raymer Michael G.
Published: November 2020

What is energy quantization in quantum mechanics?

We now return to a more historical progression and discuss how Schrödinger’s equation describes the properties and behaviors of atoms, as was Schrödinger’s original motivation. This area of study is called quantum mechanics
.

A major idea...
The Global Pain Crisis
Authors: Foreman Judy
Published: November 2020

Hundreds of millions around the world live in chronic pain - many in such severe pain they are disabled by it. The Institute of Medicine estimates that chronic pain costs the U.S. alone $560 to $635 billion a year in direct medical costs and lost productivity. Morphine, an effective painkiller, costs only three cents a dose, yet because of excessive regulation in many countries, it is unavailable to millions of people who need it, even at the end of life. The World Health Organization notes that in addition to the one million end-stage AIDS/HIV patients who can’t get morphine and other controlled medications, 5.5 million terminal cancer patients, nearly a million people suffering from accidents or violence, and an incalculable number of people living with chronic illnesses and recovering from surgery can’t get it, either. Women, children, older people, and the poor are disproportionally affected by inadequate pain relief. Physicians know almost nothing about chronic pain, much less how to treat it, for two reasons: medical schools barely teach it and government institutions allot almost nothing to the pain research budget. In The Global Pain Crisis: What Everyone Needs to Know®, renowned health journalist Judy Foreman addresses the most important questions about chronic pain: what is it, who does it affect most, what works and what doesn’t for pain relief in Western and alternative medicines, what are the risks and benefits for opioids and marijuana, and how can the chronic pain crisis be resolved for good? Foreman’s book is a wake-up call for a health problem that affects all people across the globe, at all stages of life. Written in the classic, easy-to-read and quick reference style of the What Everyone Needs to Know® series, The Global Pain Crisis is a must for anyone whose life or work is affected by chronic pain.
Who is Hardest Hit by Chronic Pain?
Authors: Foreman Judy
Published: November 2020

The short answer is women, blacks and Hispanics, children, older people, and the poor.

We’ll talk about the poor as part of the discussion about the global inequality of access to morphine and other opioids, especially at the end of life. In this chapter, we...
Western Medicine Treatments for Chronic Pain
Authors: Foreman Judy
Published: November 2020

Overall, how effective is Western medicine at treating chronic pain?

Not very, which is especially discouraging for people with low back pain, headaches, joint pain, and neck pain—the biggest causes of chronic noncancer pain in America.1 Indeed, more than 28 percent of all...
Marijuana Legalization
Authors: Caulkins Jonathan P. , Kilmer Beau , Kleiman Mark A.R.
Published: November 2020

Should marijuana be legalized? Since 2012 four US states have legalized commercial for-profit marijuana production and use, while Washington DC has legalized possession, growth and gifting of limited amounts of the plant. Other states, and even cities, have decriminalized possession, allowed for medical use, or reduced possession to a misdemeanor. While marijuana is forbidden by international treaties and by national and local laws across the globe, polls show that public support for legalization has continued to increase steadily over time. So why does the issue of marijuana legalization continue to be so controversial? One short answer is that it is an extremely complicated business, with approaches toward legalization just within the United States varying widely. What’s more, not all supporters of “legalization ” agree on what it is they want to legalize: Just using marijuana? Growing it? Selling it? Advertising it? If sales are to be legal, what regulations and taxes should apply? Different forms of legalization have demonstrated very different results. This second edition of Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know® provides readers with a non-partisan primer covering everything from the risks and benefits of using marijuana to what is happening with marijuana policy in the United States and abroad. The authors discuss the costs and benefits of legalization at the state and national levels and explore the “middle ground ” of policy options between prohibition and commercialized production. The book also considers the personal impact of marijuana legalization on parents, heavy users, medical users, employers, and even drug traffickers.
How Would Alcohol-Style Legalization Affect Me Personally?
Authors: Caulkins Jonathan P. , Kilmer Beau , Kleiman Mark A.R.
Published: November 2020

Policy analysis, in keeping with Jeremy Bentham’s principle of seeking “the greatest good for the greatest number,” tends to focus on aggregate or average effects, with an occasional glance at distributional issues: in particular, the effects of a policy on those currently disadvantaged. Politics,...
The Moral Significance of Sport
Authors: Simon Robert L.
Published: November 2020

Why is it important to study and analyze sports rather than just enjoying them? What can an analysis of ethical issues in sports contribute to our understanding of sports, and perhaps of broader ethical concerns as well?

In a fiercely fought qualifying match for...
Winning, Cheating, and the Ethics of Competition
Authors: Simon Robert L.
Published: November 2020

What ethical issues are raised by competitive athletics?

As we saw in the previous chapter, there are a host of moral benefits that we can reap by playing, supporting, or otherwise participating in sports, and there are also rich ethical questions that arise from...
The Rise and Fall of Public Funding
Authors: Mutch Robert E.
Published: November 2020

Public funding for presidential elections was the most controversial and most innovative part of the post-Watergate reforms. It was not controversial with the public, which supported it by large majorities, and every serious presidential contender participated in the program from 1976 through the rest...
Billionaires
Authors: Mutch Robert E.
Published: November 2020

The rise of the super PAC was also the rise of the politically active billionaire. Dropping the old restrictions on who could give how much to whom did more than turn the attentions of fundraisers from millionaires to billionaires. It also freed billionaires to...
Outside Money
Authors: Mutch Robert E.
Published: November 2020

By 2015, “outside money” had come to mean spending by super PACs and politically active tax-exempt groups. Super PACs are registered political committees under the FECA and must disclose their donors; their spending is labeled “outside” only because it is done outside the formal...
Corporations, Unions, And Citizens United
Authors: Mutch Robert E.
Published: November 2020

Citizens United undermined more than 100 years of campaign finance law when it gave corporations the First Amendment right to spend money in elections. Congress had said in 1907 that corporations did not have that right; that First Amendment rights were the rights...
Vaccine Development
Authors: Feemster Kristen A.
Published: November 2020

Vaccine development is a long process that requires numerous highly regulated steps, many years, and significant scientific and financial resources. Given the breadth of infections that affect children and adults, how are decisions made about which ones to prevent with vaccination? Once vaccine development begins,...
Vaccine Financing and Distribution
Authors: Feemster Kristen A.
Published: November 2020

Making and manufacturing vaccines is only the first part of the story in getting vaccines into public health programs and health care facilities: Someone has to pay for them and facilitate their distribution. These practices and decisions can vary significantly by region and country.
Laws and Standard Practices for Vaccine Administration
Authors: Feemster Kristen A.
Published: November 2020

Despite the fact that vaccines have been shown to drastically improve health outcomes at both individual and public health levels, their implementation as a civic requirement has been a longtime source of conflict. At the heart of this issue is the dual nature of vaccines...
On the Horizon
Authors: Feemster Kristen A.
Published: November 2020

Despite the challenges of increasing vaccine hesitancy among the public, vaccines remain one of society’s most important and influential tools for promoting public health. Accordingly, the immunization schedule will continue to evolve and expand in response to ongoing shifts in the diseases that threaten us,...
Physician-Assisted Death
Authors: Sumner L. W.
Published: November 2020

The issue of physician-assisted death is now firmly on the American public agenda. Already legal in five states, it is the subject of intense public opinion battles across the country. Driven by an increasingly aging population, and a baby boom generation just starting to enter its senior years, the issue is not going to go away anytime soon. In Physician-Assited Death L.W. Sumner equips readers with everything they need to know to take a reasoned and informed position in this important debate. The book provides needed context for the debate by situating physician-assisted death within the wider framework of end-of-life care and explaining why the movement to legalize it now enjoys such strong public support. It also reviews that movement's successes to date, beginning in Oregon in 1994 and now extending to eleven jurisdictions across three continents. Like abortion, physician-assisted death is ethically controversial and the subject of passionately held opinions. The central chapters of the book review the main arguments utilized by both sides of the controversy: on the one hand, appeals to patient autonomy and the relief of suffering, on the other the claim that taking active steps to hasten death inevitably violates the sanctity of life. The book then explores both the case in favor of legalization and the case against, focusing in the latter instance on the risk of abuse and the possibility of slippery slopes. In this context the experience of jurisdictions that have already taken the step of legalization is carefully reviewed to see what lessons might be extracted from it. It then identifies some further issues that lie beyond the boundaries of the current debate but will have to be faced sometime down the road: euthanasia for patients who are permanently unconscious or have become seriously demented and for severely compromised newborns. The book concludes by considering the various possible routes to legalization, both political and judicial. Readers will then be prepared to decide for themselves just where they stand when they confront the issue both in their own jurisdiction and in their own lives.
What is the case in favor of legalization?
Authors: Sumner L. W.
Published: November 2020

What is the relationship between ethics and law?

Earlier we discussed the ethical status of physician-assisted death, surveying (in Chapters 3 and 4) arguments for and against its justifiability. There the focus was on what it might be right or wrong...
Security and Violence in Mexico
Authors: Ai Camp Roderic
Published: November 2020

Why does Mexico have so much drug violence today?

Mexico’s drug problems emanate from the insatiable demand for drugs in the United States. Currently, the United States serves as the largest market for drugs in the world. The level of demand by the United States...
Relations with the United States
Authors: Ai Camp Roderic
Published: November 2020

What is the impact of geography on Mexico?

Mexico’s proximity to the United States—the two countries share a 1,954-mile border—has had an extraordinary effect on Mexico economically, politically, and culturally. The disparity in income levels between the two countries has, had numerous consequences. Perhaps the...
Mexico’s Social Development
Authors: Ai Camp Roderic
Published: November 2020

How inequitable is Mexican development and what are the social consequences?

Depending on the measurement used, Mexico’s development is considered to be significantly inequitable; development in Latin America as a whole is marked by the greatest degree of inequality in the world. Inequality is typically...
Mexico’s Colonial Heritage
Authors: Ai Camp Roderic
Published: November 2020

How did the Spanish viceroys shape Mexico’s political heritage in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?

When Spain sent expeditions to what is today Mexico and conquered the indigenous populations, it needed to create a structure of governance for its colonies in North and South America....
Afghanistan Seen by Others
Authors: Rubin Barnett R.
Published: November 2020

Through much of the twentieth century Afghanistan seemed to be a distant concern in the United States. “Afghanistanism” used to be journalistic shorthand for stories about distant places, which editors dismissed as irrelevant. Afghanistan’s territory does include some remote, barely accessible regions, but it...
The Land and the People
Authors: Rubin Barnett R.
Published: November 2020

How do people in Afghanistan identify themselves?

To understand a society, it is important to understand the identities of its people; it is equally important to remember that there is no direct causality from identity to belief or action in politics, culture, economics, or...
Communist Coup, Islamic Resistance
Authors: Rubin Barnett R.
Published: November 2020

How did the war start?

Since 2001, the war in Afghanistan has entered a new phase, but it began on April 27, 1978, when military officers belonging to the PDPA overthrew President Daud and established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA). This event marked...
Civil War: Islamic State to Islamic Emirate
Authors: Rubin Barnett R.
Published: November 2020

What set off the 1992–96 civil war?

Various actors maneuvered to fill the power vacuum in Kabul left by the Soviet withdrawal. After the failure of the offensive on Jalalabad, the US moved away from the Pakistani position. It cut off aid to Hikmatyar...
Types of Care and the Role of Spirituality
Authors: Sabat Steven R.
Published: November 2020

The powerful stigma and negative stereotypes regarding Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias can lead to unnecessary fear, embarrassment, anger, and depression in people diagnosed and their loved ones. The importance of providing education and supportive care that is not influenced by stigma and stereotype...
And in the End
Authors: Sabat Steven R.
Published: November 2020

When one of our loved ones or someone whom we are trying to help professionally is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or another type of dementia, we are presented with what is often considered a terrible fate that ends with death. We can, however, look...
Capturing Antiquity
Authors: Anderson Maxwell L.
Published: November 2020

What is meant by object documentation and why is it important?

While mass production as we know it is a phenomenon that began only in the industrial age, ancient artisans had, as we have noted, techniques at their disposal to create multiple versions of objects...
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Authors: Waxman Dov
Published: November 2020

No conflict in the world has lasted as long, generated as many news headlines, or incited as much controversy as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, despite, or perhaps because of, the degree of international attention it receives, the conflict is still widely misunderstood. While Israelis and Palestinians and their respective supporters trade accusations, many outside observers remain confused by the conflict's complexity and perplexed by the passion it arouses. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an even-handed and judicious guide to the world's most intractable dispute. Rather than presenting a traditional, narrative history, this book employs an accessible question-and-answer format. Writing in an engaging, jargon-free style, Dov Waxman, a leading expert on the Middle East, provides clear and concise answers to common questions, from the most basic to the most contentious. Covering the conflict from its nineteenth-century origins to the latest developments of the twenty-first century, this book explains the key events, examines the core issues, and presents the competing claims and narratives of both sides. Readers will learn what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about, how it has evolved over time, and why it continues to defy diplomatic efforts at a resolution.
The Arab-Israeli Wars
Authors: Waxman Dov
Published: November 2020

How many Arab-Israeli wars have there been, and how many people have been killed?

It is not as easy as you might think to count the number of Arab-Israeli wars or tally the number of casualties in them. Since Israel’s founding in 1948 until the...
The Peace Process
Authors: Waxman Dov
Published: November 2020

When was the first attempt to make peace?

Attempts to make peace between Arabs and Jews date back to the beginning of their conflict over Palestine a century ago, before it turned violent. The first attempt involved Chaim Weizmann, the head of the Zionist Organization...
The Occupied Territories
Authors: Waxman Dov
Published: November 2020

Why are the West Bank and Gaza Strip considered “occupied territories”?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been fought with words as well as weapons. The public rhetoric of both sides, and their respective supporters, has been deliberately formulated to discredit the other side’s claims, delegitimize...
Diversity and Its Discontents
Authors: Zimmerman Jonathan
Published: November 2020

Have American universities become more diverse?

Of course they have. The number of black college students in the United States tripled between 1976 and 2012; during that span, African Americans went from 9 percent to 14 percent of the undergraduate population. The rise in...
The Book Business
Authors: Shatzkin Mike , Riger Robert Paris
Published: November 2020

Many of us read books every day, either electronically or in print. We remember the books that shaped our ideas about the world as children, go back to favorite books year after year, give or lend books to loved ones and friends to share the stories we've loved especially, and discuss important books with fellow readers in book clubs and online communities. But for all the ways books influence us, teach us, challenge us, and connect us, many of us remain in the dark as to where they come from and how the mysterious world of publishing truly works. How are books created and how do they get to readers? The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know® introduces those outside the industry to the world of book publishing. Covering everything from the beginnings of modern book publishing early in the 20th century to the current concerns over the alleged death of print, digital reading, and the rise of Amazon, Mike Shatzkin and Robert Paris Riger provide a succinct and insightful survey of the industry in an easy-to-read question-and-answer format. The authors, veterans of "trade publishing," or the branch of the business that puts books in our hands through libraries or bookstores, answer questions from the basic to the cutting-edge, providing a guide for curious beginners and outsiders. How does book publishing actually work? What challenges is it facing today? How have social media changed the game of book marketing? What does the life cycle of a book look like in 2019? They focus on how practices are changing at a time of great flux in the industry, as digital creation and delivery are altering the commercial realities of the book business. This book will interest not only those with no experience in publishing looking to gain a foothold on the business, but also those working on the inside who crave a bird's eye view of publishing's evolving landscape. This is a moment of dizzyingly rapid change wrought by the emergence of digital publishing, data collection, e-books, audio books, and the rise of self-publishing; these forces make the inherently interesting business of publishing books all the more fascinating.
From Idea to Book
Authors: Shatzkin Mike , Riger Robert Paris
Published: November 2020

What are agents and what do they do?

Agents, also sometimes called “literary agents,” in the book business represent authors in their business interactions with publishers. The biggest publishers get nearly all their books through agents, so agents are effectively both scouts for new...
Bookselling, Marketing, and Sales
Authors: Shatzkin Mike , Riger Robert Paris
Published: November 2020

How does a book go from a publisher to a reader?

Trade publishers, who are the biggest, the best known, and the focus of this book, are called that because they sell primarily through the book “trade,” which is bookstores, libraries, and the wholesalers—intermediaries...
E-Books
Authors: Shatzkin Mike , Riger Robert Paris
Published: November 2020

Although much of the e-book market and world is in flux, one thing is safe to say: the success of e-books is difficult for publishers and resellers to predict, and it has been from the beginning. If there is one thing the publishing establishment...
The Book Publishing Business Model
Authors: Shatzkin Mike , Riger Robert Paris
Published: November 2020

How do trade publishers make money?

Take, as an almost absurd example of this business model, the companies that merged in 2013 to become Penguin Random House (PRH)—in 2016 they are said by Publishers Weekly to have had €3.7 billion in revenues,...
Bookselling in the Twenty-First Century—Amazon.com
Authors: Shatzkin Mike , Riger Robert Paris
Published: November 2020

How has Amazon influenced publishing?

Although Amazon began identifying itself as “earth’s biggest bookstore” and pretty much only sold books for the first few years of its existence, it has clearly outgrown its roots. Nevertheless, for obvious reasons given our focus in this book,...
Children’s and Young Adult (YA) Publishing
Authors: Shatzkin Mike , Riger Robert Paris
Published: November 2020

Why is children’s book publishing so often viewed as a world apart from adult publishing?

You can tell if someone doesn’t work in children’s publishing if she can’t tell you the difference between the Caldecott and Newbery Awards. The American Library Association (ALA) awards...
Introduction
Authors: Anderson Rick
Published: November 2020

Scholarly communication may seem, quite reasonably, like a narrow and specialized area of inquiry, one that most people neither need nor probably want to know very much about. So perhaps we should begin this book with what might be the most obvious question of all:...
Needs and Practices in STM and HSS
Authors: Anderson Rick
Published: November 2020

What do STM and HSS stand for?

STM stands for “scientific, technical, and medical,” and the acronym has basically come to be used as a shorthand reference to what many call the “hard” sciences—those that produce findings based on controlled laboratory practice, concrete experimentation, and...
Modern Egypt
Authors: Rutherford Bruce K. , Sowers Jeannie
Published: November 2020

With almost every news broadcast, we are reminded of the continuing instability of the Middle East, where state collapse, civil wars, and terrorism have combined to produce a region in turmoil. If the Middle East is to achieve a more stable and prosperous future, Egyptwhich possesses the regions largest population, a formidable military, and considerable soft powermust play a central role. Modern Egypt: What Everyone Needs to Know® by Bruce Rutherford and Jeannie Sowers introduces readers to this influential country. The book begins with the 2011-2012 uprising that captured the worlds attention before turning to an overview of modern Egyptian history. The book then focuses on present-day Egyptian politics, society, demography, culture, and religion. It analyzes Egypts core problems, including deepening authoritarianism, high unemployment, widespread poverty, rapid population growth, and pollution. The book then concentrates on Egypts relations with the United States, Israel, Arab states, and other world powers. Modern Egypt concludes by assessing the countrys ongoing challenges and suggesting strategies for addressing them. Concise yet sweeping in coverage, the book provides the essential background for understanding this fascinating country and its potential to shape the future of the Middle East.
Antarctica
Authors: Day David
Published: November 2020

Part of the What Everyone Needs to Know® series, David Day's book on Antarctica examines the most forbidding and formidably inaccessible continent on Earth. Antarctica was first discovered by European explorers in 1820, and for over a century following this, countries competed for the frozen land's vast marine resources--namely, the skins and oil of seals and whales. Soon the entire territory played host to competing claims by rival nations. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 was meant to end this contention, but countries have found other means of extending control over the land, with scientific bases establishing at least symbolic claims. Exploration and drilling by the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, and others has led to discoveries about the world's climate in centuries past--and in the process intimations of its alarming future. Delving into the history of the continent, Antarctic wildlife, arguments over governance, underwater mountain rangers, and the continent's use in predicting coming global change, Day's work sheds new light on a territory that, despite being the coldest, driest, and windiest continent in the world, will continue to be the object of intense speculation and competition.
Commercial Activity in Postwar Antarctica
Authors: Day David
Published: November 2020

Why did postwar whaling peter out so quickly?

The lack of Antarctic whaling activity during World War II allowed whale stocks to begin recovering. But it didn’t take long for whaling ships to reappear once the war ended in 1945. The British and Norwegians were...
Global Warming
Authors: Day David
Published: November 2020

How vulnerable to climate change are Antarctica’s fauna?

Antarctica’s fauna are very vulnerable to climate change. All we have to do is look at the penguins. With the recent dramatic loss of ice in the Arctic, the world has focused on whether polar bears are...
The Arctic
Authors: Dodds Klaus , Nuttall Mark
Published: November 2020

As the threat of global climate change becomes a reality, many look to the Arctic Ocean to predict coming environmental phenomena. There, the consequences of Earth's warming trend are most immediately observable in the multi-year and perennial ice that has begun to melt, which threatens ice-dependent microorganisms and, eventually, will disrupt all of Arctic life. In The Arctic: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Klaus Dodds and Mark Nuttall offer a concise introduction to the circumpolar North, focusing on its peoples, environment, resource development, conservation, and politics to provide critical information about how changes there can and will affect our entire globe and all of its inhabitants. Dodds and Nuttall shed light on how the Arctic's importance has grown over time, the region's role during the Cold War, indigenous communities and their history, and the past and future of the Arctic's governance, among other crucial topics. The Arctic is an essential primer for those seeking information about one of the most important regions in the world today.
Land, Sea, and Ice
Authors: Dodds Klaus , Nuttall Mark
Published: November 2020

Humans and non-humans make their homes in many Arctic places. Cultures, societies, and ecologies have formed in relation to northern surroundings over millennia, over centuries, or mere decades. Environmental biologists warn of a new generation of invasive species entering northern terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments,...
The Global Arctic
Authors: Dodds Klaus , Nuttall Mark
Published: November 2020

The term “global Arctic” has gained traction in recent years as a shorthand term for a region in transition. We have spoken at length about climate change and resource speculation and their cumulative effects are part of this accounting for change. Another aspect of all...