bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Roles of second messengers in the regulation of cyanobacterial physiology: the carbon-concentrating mechanism and beyond
Authors: Mantovani Oliver , Haffner Michael , Selim Khaled A , Hagemann Martin , Forchhammer Karl
Published: February 2023

Second messengers are a fundamental category of small molecules and ions that are involved in the regulation of many processes in all domains of life. Here we focus on cyanobacteria, prokaryotes playing important roles as primary producers in the geochemical cycles due to their capability of oxygenic photosynthesis and carbon and nitrogen fixation. Of particular interest is the inorganic carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM), which allows cyanobacteria to concentrate CO2 near RubisCO. This mechanism needs to acclimate toward fluctuating conditions, such as inorganic carbon availability, intracellular energy levels, diurnal light cycle, light intensity, nitrogen availability, and redox state of the cell. During acclimation to such changing conditions, second messengers play a crucial role, particularly important is their interaction with the carbon control protein SbtB, a member of the PII regulator protein superfamily. SbtB is capable of binding several second messengers, uniquely adenyl nucleotides, to interact with different partners in a variety of responses. The main identified interaction partner is the bicarbonate transporter SbtA, which is regulated via SbtB depending on the energy state of the cell, the light conditions, and different CO2 availability, including cAMP signaling. The interaction with the glycogen branching enzyme, GlgB, showed a role for SbtB in the c-di-AMP-dependent regulation of glycogen synthesis during the diurnal life cycle of cyanobacteria. SbtB has also been shown to impact gene expression and metabolism during acclimation to changing CO2 conditions. This review summarizes the current knowledge about the complex second messenger regulatory network in cyanobacteria, with emphasis on carbon metabolism.
Improvement of valine and isobutanol production in sake yeast by Ala31Thr substitution in the regulatory subunit of acetohydroxy acid synthase
Authors: Isogai Shota , Nishimura Akira , Murakami Naoyuki , Hotta Natsuki , Kotaka Atsushi , Toyokawa Yoichi , Ishida Hiroki , Takagi Hiroshi
Published: February 2023

The fruit-like aroma of two valine-derived volatiles, isobutanol and isobutyl acetate, has great impact on the flavour and taste of alcoholic beverages, including sake, a traditional Japanese alcoholic beverage. With the growing worldwide interest in sake, breeding of yeast strains with intracellular valine accumulation is a promising approach to meet a demand for sakes with a variety of flavour and taste by increasing the valine-derived aromas. We here isolated a valine-accumulating sake yeast mutant (K7-V7) and identified a novel amino acid substitution, Ala31Thr, on Ilv6, a regulatory subunit for acetohydroxy acid synthase. Expression of the Ala31Thr variant Ilv6 conferred valine accumulation on the laboratory yeast cells, leading to increased isobutanol production. Additionally, enzymatic analysis revealed that Ala31Thr substitution in Ilv6 decreased sensitivity to feedback inhibition by valine. This study demonstrated for the first time that an N-terminal arm conserved in the regulatory subunit of fungal acetohydroxy acid synthase is involved in the allosteric regulation by valine. Moreover, sake brewed with strain K7-V7 contained 1.5-fold higher levels of isobutanol and isobutyl acetate than sake brewed with the parental strain. Our findings will contribute to the brewing of distinctive sakes and the development of yeast strains with increased production of valine-derived compounds.
Synteny Identifies Reliable Orthologs for Phylogenomics and Comparative Genomics of the Brassicaceae
Authors: Walden Nora , Schranz Michael Eric
Published: February 2023

Large genomic data sets are becoming the new normal in phylogenetic research, but the identification of true orthologous genes and the exclusion of problematic paralogs is still challenging when applying commonly used sequencing methods such as target enrichment. Here, we compared conventional ortholog detection using OrthoFinder with ortholog detection through genomic synteny in a data set of 11 representative diploid Brassicaceae whole-genome sequences spanning the entire phylogenetic space. Then, we evaluated the resulting gene sets regarding gene number, functional annotation, and gene and species tree resolution. Finally, we used the syntenic gene sets for comparative genomics and ancestral genome analysis. The use of synteny resulted in considerably more orthologs and also allowed us to reliably identify paralogs. Surprisingly, we did not detect notable differences between species trees reconstructed from syntenic orthologs when compared with other gene sets, including the Angiosperms353 set and a Brassicaceae-specific target enrichment gene set. However, the synteny data set comprised a multitude of gene functions, strongly suggesting that this method of marker selection for phylogenomics is suitable for studies that value downstream gene function analysis, gene interaction, and network studies. Finally, we present the first ancestral genome reconstruction for the Core Brassicaceae which predating the Brassicaceae lineage diversification ∼25 million years ago.
Decreasing Incidence and Prevalence of Dementia Among Octogenarians: A Population-Based Study on 3 Cohorts Born 30 Years Apart
Authors: Wetterberg Hanna , Najar Jenna , Rydberg Sterner Therese , Rydén Lina , Falk Erhag Hanna , Sacuiu Simona , Kern Silke , Zettergren Anna , Skoog Ingmar
Published: February 2023

Background

Recent studies suggest a decline in the age-specific incidence and prevalence of dementia. However, results are mixed regarding trends among octogenarians. We investigated time trends in the prevalence and incidence of dementia in 3 population-based cohorts of 85–90-year olds. We also examined if there were different time trends for men and women.

Methods

We examined population-based birth cohorts within the Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies born 1901–02, 1923–24, and 1930, at ages 85 (N = 1481) and 88 (N = 840) years. The first 2 cohorts were also examined at age 90 (N = 450). The incidence was examined in 1 109 individuals free from dementia at baseline using information from the examination at age 88 or register data. All 3 cohorts were examined with identical methods.

Results

The prevalence of dementia decreased from 29.8% in 1986–87 to 21.5% in 2008–10 and 24.5% in 2015–16 among 85-year olds, and from 41.9% in 1989–90 to 28.0% in 2011–12 to 21.7% in 2018–19 among 88-year olds, and from 41.5% in 1991–92 to 37.2% in 2013–14 among 90-year olds. The decline was most accentuated among women. The incidence of dementia per 1 000 risk-years from ages 85 to 89 declined from 48.8 among those born 1901–02 to 37.9 in those born 1923–24 to 22.5 among those born 1930.

Conclusions

The prevalence and incidence of dementia decreased substantially over 3 decades among octogenarians. This might slow down the projected increase in cases of dementia expected by the increasing number of octogenarians during the following decades.
Reproducible variability: assessing investigator discordance across 9 research teams attempting to reproduce the same observational study
Authors: Ostropolets Anna , Albogami Yasser , Conover Mitchell , Banda Juan M , Baumgartner William A , Blacketer Clair , Desai Priyamvada , DuVall Scott L , Fortin Stephen , Gilbert James P , Golozar Asieh , Ide Joshua , Kanter Andrew S , Kern David M , Kim Chungsoo , Lai Lana Y H , Li Chenyu , Liu Feifan , Lynch Kristine E , Minty Evan , Neves Maria Inês , Ng Ding Quan , Obene Tontel , Pera Victor , Pratt Nicole , Rao Gowtham , Rappoport Nadav , Reinecke Ines , Saroufim Paola , Shoaibi Azza , Simon Katherine , Suchard Marc A , Swerdel Joel N , Voss Erica A , Weaver James , Zhang Linying , Hripcsak George , Ryan Patrick B
Published: February 2023

Objective

Observational studies can impact patient care but must be robust and reproducible. Nonreproducibility is primarily caused by unclear reporting of design choices and analytic procedures. This study aimed to: (1) assess how the study logic described in an observational study could be interpreted by independent researchers and (2) quantify the impact of interpretations’ variability on patient characteristics.

Materials and Methods

Nine teams of highly qualified researchers reproduced a cohort from a study by Albogami et al. The teams were provided the clinical codes and access to the tools to create cohort definitions such that the only variable part was their logic choices. We executed teams’ cohort definitions against the database and compared the number of subjects, patient overlap, and patient characteristics.

Results

On average, the teams’ interpretations fully aligned with the master implementation in 4 out of 10 inclusion criteria with at least 4 deviations per team. Cohorts’ size varied from one-third of the master cohort size to 10 times the cohort size (2159–63 619 subjects compared to 6196 subjects). Median agreement was 9.4% (interquartile range 15.3–16.2%). The teams’ cohorts significantly differed from the master implementation by at least 2 baseline characteristics, and most of the teams differed by at least 5.

Conclusions

Independent research teams attempting to reproduce the study based on its free-text description alone produce different implementations that vary in the population size and composition. Sharing analytical code supported by a common data model and open-source tools allows reproducing a study unambiguously thereby preserving initial design choices.
Productive and physiological responses of feedlot cattle receiving different sources of Ca salts of fatty acids in the finishing diet
Authors: Cooke Reinaldo F , Colombo Eduardo A , Mackey Shea J , Pickett Autumn T , Batista Luiz Fernando D , Pohler Ky G , de Souza Osvaldo A , Cappellozza Bruno I , Brandão Alice P
Published: February 2023

This study evaluated productive and physiological responses in feedlot cattle receiving a finishing diet that included Ca salts of palm oil (CSPALM), or a blend of Ca salts of palm, cottonseed, and soybean oils (CSMIX). Ninety yearling steers were housed in 15 pens equipped with Calan-gate feeders (6 steers/pen). Steers within each pen were stratified by shrunk body weight (BW; 410 ± 3.3 kg across pens) on d 0 and assigned to receive a total-mixed ration (TMR) containing (dry matter basis) 2.2% of CSPALM (n = 30), 2.2% of CSMIX (n = 30), or no supplemental fat (CON; n = 30). Individual TMR intake was evaluated weekly. Blood samples were collected on d 0, 28, 56, 91, 119, and 147. Samples of the Longissimus muscle (LM) were collected on d 84 via biopsy. Upon slaughter on d 148, hot carcass weight (HCW) was recorded to estimate final BW (63% dressing), and one LM steak sample (2.54 cm thickness) was removed from the right side of each carcass. Steer ADG was greater (P = 0.02) for CSMIX compared with CSPALM and tended to be greater (P = 0.09) for CSMIX compared with CON. The gain:feed ratio was greater (P ≤ 0.05) for CSMIX compared with CSPALM and CON, and carcass LM area was less (P = 0.01) for CSPALM compared with CSMIX and CON. No treatment effects were detected (P ≥ 0.21) for TMR intake, final BW, and other carcass merit traits including marbling. Mean plasma cholesterol concentrations were greater (P < 0.01) in CSMIX and CSPALM compared with CON, and mRNA expression of adipocyte fatty acid binding protein in the LM on d 84 was greater (P ≤ 0.04) in CSPALM compared with CSMIX and CON. No treatment effects were detected (P ≥ 0.15) for plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, insulin-like growth factor I, and leptin, nor for other LM genes associated with marbling and muscle growth. Concentrations of total fatty acids (FA) in plasma and LM steak samples were greater (P < 0.01) in CSMIX compared with CSPALM and CON, and greater (P < 0.01) in the LM samples of CSPALM compared with CON. Steers receiving CSMIX had greater (P < 0.01) concentrations of polyunsaturated and ω-6 FA in plasma and LM steak samples compared with CSPALM and CON. Supplementing CSMIX improved gain efficiency and FA profile in the LM of feedlot steers compared with the CON diet, but the same responses were not observed when CSPALM was offered. Perhaps the advantages from CSMIX supplementation resulted from increasing the supply of polyunsaturated and ω-6 FA to the finishing diet.
Medial approach for hip arthroscopy: a case report to access and treat osteoid osteoma of the medial femoral neck
Authors: Pierre Kinsley J , Safran Marc R
Published: February 2023

A 15-year-old, otherwise healthy, female presented with right hip pain, which had worsened over 2 years. Radiographs, computed tomography imaging and physical examination confirmed the diagnosis of osteoid osteoma of the proximal posteromedial femoral neck of the right hip. After failed conservative measures, including attempted radiofrequency ablation, and with persistent unrelenting pain, surgical intervention was offered. The location of the lesion made it challenging to consider hip arthroscopy using standard arthroscopic portals, due to medial periarticular neurovascular structures. The options included open surgical dislocation and the less invasive, yet uncommonly utilized hip arthroscopy using medial portals. An arthroscopic approach using medial portals allowed for complete excision of the lesion and successful resolution of her symptoms.
Semiautomatic contour tracking method for biological object segmentation in thin-section electron microscope images with modified zero DC component–type Gabor wavelets
Authors: Maeda Gen , Baba Misuzu , Baba Norio
Published: February 2023

In electron microscopic image processing, artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful method for segmentation. Because creating training data remains time-consuming and burdensome, a simple and accurate segmentation tool, which is effective and does not rely on manual drawings, is necessary to create training data for AI and to support immediate image analysis. A Gabor wavelet–based contour tracking method has been devised as a step toward realizing such a tool. Although many papers on Gabor filter–based and Gabor filter bank–based texture segmentations have been published, previous studies did not apply the Gabor wavelet–based method to straightforwardly detect membrane-like ridges and step edges for segmentation because earlier works used a nonzero DC component–type Gabor wavelets. The DC component has a serious flaw in such detection. Although the DC component can be removed by a formula that satisfies the wavelet theory or by a log-Gabor function, this is not practical for the proposed scheme. Herein, we devised modified zero DC component–type Gabor wavelets. The proposed method can practically confine a wavelet within a small image area. This type of Gabor wavelet can appropriately track various contours of organelles appearing in thin-section transmission electron microscope images prepared by the freeze-substitution fixation method. The proposed method not only more accurately tracks ridge and step edge contours but also tracks pattern boundary contours consisting of slightly different image patterns. Simulations verified these results.
Trouble in Tiger country: isolated traumatic pancreatic transection – a case report
Authors: Ramzee Ahmed Faidh , Bakhsh Zeenat Khuda , Al Jogol Hisham , Rizoli Sandro , Peralta Ruben , El-Menyar Ayman , Al-Thani Hassan , AlMadani Ammar
Published: February 2023

Isolated pancreatic transection is a rare surgical condition that occurs more commonly following blunt abdominal trauma. It carries a high degree of morbidity and mortality, and the management remains a source of debate as universally accepted guidelines are not well established owing to the paucity in clinical experience and large series. We presented a case of an isolated pancreatic transection following blunt abdominal trauma. The surgical management of pancreatic transection has evolved over the decades from aggressive approaches to more conservative measures. Given the lack of large series and clinical experience, no universal consensus exists, except for applying damage control surgery and resuscitation principles in critically unstable patients. For transections of the main pancreatic duct, most recommend excision of the distal pancreas. Concerns over the iatrogenic complications of wide excisions, particularly diabetes mellitus, have led to reconsideration and more conservative approaches, but it may fail in some cases.
Mixed neuroendocrine-non-neuroendocrine carcinoma (MiNEN) in gallbladder with liver metastasis of neuroendocrine carcinoma component: a case report
Authors: In Park Se , Lee Jae Won , Zhiang Joo Ho , Chung Yeon Seung , Chung Moon Jae , Kim Sung Hyun
Published: February 2023

Mixed neuroendocrine-non-neuroendocrine neoplasms of the gallbladder are rare with a lack of established standardized therapeutic strategies. We report a case of gallbladder mixed neuroendocrine-non-neuroendocrine neoplasm with liver metastasis of neuroendocrine carcinoma. A patient who underwent radical cholecystectomy for gallbladder adenocarcinoma was detected with increasing liver mass, and hepatectomy was performed. Pathological report revealed neuroendocrine carcinoma. To find primary origin, pathological review of the old specimen from previous cholecystectomy with a slightly different perspective was conducted, where the neuroendocrine component was positively dyed. In conclusion, though it might be impossible to review every pathological result in cases with ambiguous findings, reviewing the previous specimen can be a useful option in diagnosis.
Associations Among PTSD, Cognitive Functioning, and Health-Promoting Behavior in Post-9/11 Veterans
Authors: Lawrence Karen A , Garcia-Willingham Natasha E , Slade Emily , DeBeer Bryann B , Meyer Eric C , Morissette Sandra B
Published: February 2023

Introduction

PTSD is associated with negative health behaviors that increase chronic disease risk, yet health behaviors and their determinants are not well investigated in this context. One understudied mechanism of health behaviors is cognitive functioning. Deficits in cognitive functioning may undermine engagement in health-promoting behavior, thereby increasing the negative impact of PTSD. We tested three hypotheses: (1) Greater PTSD symptom severity is associated with less health-promoting behavior; (2) greater PTSD symptom severity is associated with poorer cognitive functioning across verbal memory, processing speed, attention, and executive functioning domains; and (3) verbal memory and executive functioning exhibit indirect effects on the relationship between PTSD and health-promoting behavior.

Materials and Methods

We examined associations between PTSD symptom severity (Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-IV), cognitive functioning, and health-promoting behavior (Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II) in 124 post-9/11 veterans (average age = 37.82; 85.5% male; 63.7% White; 18.5% Black; 26.6% Hispanic). Cognitive domains examined included verbal memory (California Verbal Learning Test), processing speed (Digit Symbol Coding), attention and working memory (Digit Span), and executive functions (Trail Making Test and Stroop Interference).

Results

Regression analyses indicated that greater PTSD symptom severity was associated with less health-promoting behavior (B = −.0101, SE = 0.0016, P < .0001; R2 = 0.3052). Path analyses revealed that verbal learning and memory partially accounted for this relationship (R2 = 0.037- 0.043; P < .05).

Conclusions

Therapeutic targeting of these relationships may have implications for the prevention of long-term disease impact in veterans; longitudinal research is needed to elucidate the potential impact on chronic disease.
Absence of the predicted 2022 October outburst of OJ 287 and implications for binary SMBH scenarios
Authors: Komossa S , Grupe D , Kraus A , Gurwell M A , Haiman Z , Liu F K , Tchekhovskoy A , Gallo L C , Berton M , Blandford R , Gómez J L , Gonzalez A G
Published: February 2023

The project MOMO (Multiwavelength Observations and Modelling of OJ 287) was set up to test predictions of binary supermassive black hole (SMBH) scenarios and to understand disc–jet physics of the blazar OJ 287. After a correction, the precessing binary (PB) SMBH model predicted the next main outburst of OJ 287 in 2022 October, making the outburst well observable and the model testable. We have densely covered this period in our ongoing multifrequency radio, optical, ultraviolet (UV), and X-ray monitoring. The predicted outburst was not detected. Instead, OJ 287 was at low optical–UV emission levels, declining further into November. The predicted thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum was not observed either, at any epoch. Further, applying scaling relations, we estimate an SMBH mass of OJ 287 of 108 M⊙. The latest in a sequence of deep low states that recur every 1–2 yr is used to determine an upper limit on the Eddington ratio and on the accretion-disc luminosity. This limit is at least a factor of 10 lower than required by the PB model with its massive primary SMBH of >1010 M⊙. All these results favour alternative binary SMBH models of OJ 287 that require neither strong orbital precession nor a very large mass of the primary SMBH.
Spectro-polarimetric view of bright atoll source GX 9+9 using IXPE and AstroSat
Authors: Chatterjee Rwitika , Agrawal Vivek K , Jayasurya Kiran M , Katoch Tilak
Published: February 2023

We have carried out the first spectro-polarimetric study of the bright NS-LMXB GX 9+9 using IXPE and AstroSat observations. We report a significant detection of polarization of $1.7\pm 0.4~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ over the 2–8 keV energy band, with a polarization angle of 63° ± 7°. The polarization is found to be energy-dependent, with a 3σ polarization degree consistent with null polarization in 2–4 keV, and 3.2 per cent in 4–8 keV. Typical of the spectra seen in NS-LMXBs, we find that a combination of soft thermal emission from the accretion disc and Comptonized component from the optically thick corona produces a good fit to the spectra. We also attempt to infer the individual polarization of these components, and obtain a 3σ upper limit of $\sim 11~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ on the polarization degree of the thermal component, and constrain that of the Comptonized component to $\sim 3~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. We comment on the possible corona geometry of the system based on our results.
Copper homeostasis and the ubiquitin proteasome system
Authors: Zhang Bichao , Burke Richard
Published: February 2023

Copper is involved in many physiological pathways and important biological processes as a cofactor of several copper-dependent enzymes. Given the requirement for copper and its potential toxicity, intracellular copper levels are tightly controlled. Disturbances of human copper homeostasis are characterized by disorders of copper overload (Wilson’s disease) or copper deficiency (Menkes disease). The maintenance of cellular copper levels involves numerous copper transporters and copper chaperones. Recently, accumulating evidence has revealed that components of the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) participate in the posttranslational regulation of these proteins, suggesting that they might play a role in maintaining copper homeostasis. Cellular copper levels could also affect the activity of the UPS, indicating that copper homeostasis and the UPS are interdependent. Copper homeostasis and the UPS are essential to the integrity of normal brain function and while separate links between neurodegenerative diseases and UPS inhibition/copper dyshomeostasis have been extensively reported, there is growing evidence that these two networks might contribute synergistically to the occurrence of neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we review the role of copper and the UPS in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and discuss the genetic interactions between copper transporters/chaperones and components of the UPS.
Two Levels of Understanding
Authors: Rank Mark Robert
Published: February 2023

Chapter 6 argues that there are two levels of understanding impoverishment. On one hand, it can be ascertained who is more likely to experience poverty through the impact that human capital exerts on creating individual economic vulnerability discussed in Chapter 4. On the other hand, why poverty occurs in the first place can be largely understood through failings at the structural level. These failings include a lack of decent-paying jobs and a weak social safety net. The analogy of musical chairs is used to illustrate these processes. Like a large-scale game of musical chairs, there are many more people competing for decent opportunities, such as livable wage jobs versus the number of such opportunities available. The chapter concludes by presenting a schematic model diagramming the structural vulnerability framework.
The Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities
Authors: Braveman Paula
Published: February 2023

This book not only poses the question, What influences health? but also asks, What influences the influences? It examines current scientific knowledge of how social factors—such as wealth, education, neighborhood characteristics, and racism—and the factors such as power and social values that influence social factors shape health and health disparities. Throughout, readers are challenged to look “upstream” at the root or fundamental causes of good and ill health rather than considering only the more visible “downstream” causes that were set in motion by the more fundamental but often hidden upstream factors. The book reviews the critical mass of knowledge that has accumulated on the social determinants of health, which has documented associations, explored causal pathways and biological mechanisms, and provided a previously unavailable scientific foundation for appreciating the role of social factors in health. The questions are no longer whether social factors influence health and health disparities but, rather, how they do so and how best to intervene. Each of the chapters discusses knowledge of how a given social determinant—income and wealth, education, stress, racism, neighborhoods, housing, work, and behaviors—affects health and health disparities (health differences adversely affecting socially disadvantaged groups of people). Each chapter also discusses the upstream influences on that determinant and potential interventions. Key points and questions for discussion are provided for each chapter to assist instructors of university courses in public health, public policy, and related fields.
Assessing and Managing Your Concussion
Authors: Jaffee Michael S. , Broshek Donna K. , Svingos Adrian M.
Published: February 2023

One of the primary goals of the initial concussion assessment is to ensure that the injured person is safe and to rule out more serious forms of brain injury. It is absolutely critical to be evaluated by a clinician after a suspected concussion so that they can rule out a more serious form of brain injury and provide the patient with an individualized plan to best promote recovery. The clinician will look for red flags, or signs that could indicate a more serious injury and will warrant further testing, including repeated vomiting, decreased alertness, worsening severe headache, and visual field cuts. Once a more severe injury is ruled out, the clinician or health care provider can give the patient accurate information about the specific injury and can transition toward helping them best manage their symptoms and develop a plan to optimize recovery.
Setting the Stage for Recovery
Authors: Jaffee Michael S. , Broshek Donna K. , Svingos Adrian M.
Published: February 2023

Most concussions resolve without any complications, but having a concussion can be both distressing and disruptive. One of the most important things patients can do to promote a smooth recovery is related to their mindset and expectations about recovery. It is normal to experience symptoms after a concussion, but patients should not expect these symptoms to become their new normal. Staying hydrated and eating well-balanced healthy meals can be helpful as well. Recent studies demonstrate that staying physically active after an injury can also be helpful. While a subset of individuals will experience symptoms that persist after a concussion, these symptoms are treatable and may actually be persisting due to contributions from comorbid conditions. This highlights the importance of receiving an evaluation from a medical provider and receiving an accurate diagnosis and appropriate education about your individual condition to best support recovery.
Concussions in School-Age Children and Adolescents
Authors: Jaffee Michael S. , Broshek Donna K. , Svingos Adrian M.
Published: February 2023

Children and adolescents are at increased risk of getting concussions, and research has shown that they may also take longer to recover. Parents who suspect their child has sustained a concussion should closely monitor the child’s behavior and mood and discuss any relevant changes with the child’s pediatrician or other health care provider. Careful questioning and observation by the health care provider and information obtained from parents or other family members can be helpful in identifying symptoms. Management of concussion in school-age children and adolescents involves paced return to activities with guidance from a health care provider.
Military Concussions
Authors: Jaffee Michael S. , Broshek Donna K. , Svingos Adrian M.
Published: February 2023

This chapter discussed the common mechanisms of military concussion, some of the unique challenges military personnel may experience with a concussion, the process in which military personnel are screened for a concussion in theater, and how military concussions are managed. As with athletes who sustain a suspected concussion while playing a sport, military personnel need to be promptly removed from the combat situation and carefully evaluated. Any associated symptoms, such as polytrauma or posttraumatic stress, should be incorporated into a comprehensive treatment plan. Standardized protocols are then used to rule out more severe injuries and to ensure a safe return to duty.
Conclusion
Authors: Jaffee Michael S. , Broshek Donna K. , Svingos Adrian M.
Published: February 2023

This book was written to help patients navigating through the challenges of concussion. The authors explained what a concussion is, how it is acutely diagnosed, what the early symptoms can feel like, and how these symptoms may affect the patient physically, emotionally, and cognitively. Information was provided on what to expect for recovery and what to do if symptoms don’t improve after a few weeks. Chapters were devoted to concussion in special populations, including children, athletes, employees, military personnel, and older adults. Much has been learned about concussion over the years, and the future will be exciting as technological and research advancements bring us to the next generation of concussion care.
Court orders for young offenders
Authors: Easton Susan , Piper Christine
Published: February 2023

This chapter first considers the range of civil orders available to the courts in responding to anti-social or criminal behavior by children and young people. It therefore focusses on the criminal behaviour orders and injunctions as well as the community remedy. It then looks at the options available to the sentencing court in relation to criminal offending and so refers in particular to the referral order and the Youth Offender Panel, the youth rehabilitation order and the detention and training order. We note the welcome fall in the number of children in prison but note the increase in the average custodial sentence length. The chapter also discusses selected aspects of conditions in secure accommodation and reviews the role and achievements of using rights in responding to problematic issues.
Reparations and War
Authors: Moffett Luke
Published: February 2023

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how feasible it is to deliver reparations? This book, drawing from interviews with dozens of victims, ex-combatants, government officials, and civil society actors in six post-conflict countries, examines the history, theoretical justifications, and practical challenges of implementing reparations after war. Importantly it argues that reparation success rests on the struggle of victims against the hegemony of States and unwillingness of other responsible actors to remedy the past. To secure implementation involves finding a goldilocks zone between victims’ rights and societal interests, as well as encouraging those responsible for causing such carnage in war to make amends to those left suffering the consequences. Reparations offer the promise of a better future for victims caught up in war, but just because the guns have been silenced, this does not mean that the contestation of the legitimacy of war, who is a victim, and who deserves to benefit from scarce resources has ceased. This book sheds new light on the role of non-State armed groups in making reparations, the role of victim mobilization, the evolving use of reparations, and the political instrumentalization of redress.
Back to the Future
Authors: Strazdins Estelle
Published: February 2023

Chapter 2 explores the responses of Greeks in the Roman empire to the problem of being postclassical. More precisely, it teases out the implications of creating new cultural expression within the context of a long and rich literary tradition. It argues that imperial Greek authors use the past to negotiate their own potential canonicity in a hypothetical future. The chapter begins by outlining ideas of what constitutes ‘classic’ and ‘canonical’ literature, and how one might go about rivalling it. Ancient and modern literary criticism are drawn on to do so, with On the Sublime and Dio Chrysostom’s Oration 21 the focus of discussion in relation to imperial Greek oratory. Having established two common strategies employed by imperial Greek authors—competitive imitation and the use of novelty or originality—the chapter moves on to examine how these strategies are used by Arrian, Lucian, Aelius Aristeides, and Philostratos to promote their own cultural production as worthy of canonicity. Themes that are particularly important for this chapter are the relationship between the orator/author and his audience, the performative and agonistic context that underlies much Greek literature of the Roman empire, and the tension between text and speech.
The Politics of Posterity
Authors: Strazdins Estelle
Published: February 2023

This brief concluding chapter draws together and summarizes the major themes of the book. It argues that the temporally expansive outlook adopted by elite Roman-era Greeks enables them to subordinate reception in the Roman present to that in the future. The chapter thus reiterates the book’s central contribution in establishing that imperial Greek embroilment in the Classical past does not limit its cultural output but rather allows its positioning as worthy of canonicity in its own right. The primary strategies used by imperial Greeks to fashion a place in future consciousness are resurveyed, including the forging of a movable temporal perspective that enables the rescaling of time, competitive imitation, and originality. This stake in the future, moreover, reveals elite imperial Greeks as a genuine threat to the smooth running of the empire that, through the example of Herodes Attikos’ trial for tyranny before Marcus Aurelius, clearly registered with imperial power. Finally, the integral synergy of topography, texts, and monuments in the imperial Greek revisioning of time is reviewed.
Documenting the Past in Medieval Puglia, 1130-1266
Authors: Oldfield Paul
Published: February 2023

This book explores the production of historical memory in the region of Puglia after it was subsumed within the new kingdom of Sicily in 1130. It assesses the significance of the apparent disappearance of more traditional forms of Pugliese historical writing after 1130 and explores the existence of other historical discourses which were embedded in surviving local documentation. The book incorporates an extensive examination of charters and correspondence, an evidence-type yet to be fully utilized for this purpose in the study of medieval Puglia during the Norman–Staufen era (1130–1266). One of the book’s key aims is to examine the role of both Pugliese individuals and communities, and ‘central agents’ (monarchy, papacy), in producing local historical memory, especially across phases of political upheaval and socio-cultural transformation. In doing so it demonstrates the preservation and creation of multiple, intertwined public and private historical narratives and remembrances embedded within documents, and that these were the product of repeated encounters between local communities and centralized superstructures. The former acted as mediators of knowledge to assert their own versions of the past, the latter aimed for information acquisition to enable more effective interventions and provided the framework to record and shape dialogue about the past. We can, therefore, identify the vibrant, ongoing production of local historical narratives and memories claimed by monastic, episcopal, professional, urban, and familial communities. As such, the book contributes to a broader understanding of the nuanced interrelationship between ‘Centre’ and ‘Periphery’ in medieval polities.
The Grammar of Interactives
Authors: Heine Bernd
Published: February 2023

The concern of the book is with identifying a domain of discourse processing referred to as ‘interactive grammar’. The book rests on the analysis of grammatical descriptions of well over one hundred languages spoken in all major regions of the world. Ten types of interactives, that is, extra-clausal expressions of linguistic discourse, are distinguished, namely attention signals, directives, discourse markers, evaluatives, ideophones, interjections, response elicitors, response signals, social formulae, and vocatives. The main message of the book is that speakers dispose of two contrasting modes for structuring their discourses. One mode, represented by sentence grammar, organized in a propositional format and having an analytic organization, focuses on conceptual communication about the world. The second mode, represented by interactive grammar, has a holophrastic organization and a focus on social communication. Both kinds of grammar have an argument structure, but whereas that of sentence grammar is shaped by the propositional format of sentences, that of interactive grammar is shaped by the indexical nature of the situation of discourse. The distinction between two grammars exhibits, on the one hand, correlations with observations made in neurolinguistic studies on differential activity in the two hemispheres of the human brain. On the other hand, there are also noteworthy parallels to a similar distinction made in social psychology between two types or systems of reasoning and judgment. The conclusion drawn in the book is that the two grammars have complementary functions and both are needed for successful communication.
Interactives
Authors: Heine Bernd
Published: February 2023

The chapter provides an introduction to the usage of interactive forms in grammar and discourse. To this end, a definition of ‘interactives’ is proposed in Section 1.2 in terms of syntactic and prosodic detachment, indexicality, etc. A catalog of additional properties is discussed in Section 1.3.2, such properties including phonologically unusual features, gestures, and conceptual displacement. Furthermore, the chapter identifies a set of properties relating to what has been called the ‘design features’ of human languages (Section 1.4), and in Section 1.5 an overview of English interactives is presented. The main thesis of the chapter is that there are two kinds of grammatical structures, called sentence grammar and interactive grammar.
Development
Authors: Heine Bernd
Published: February 2023

Chapter 4 is devoted to explaining salient features of interactives with reference to the way they came into being, that is, to their history. Two diachronic mechanisms are distinguished to analyze this history. One of them is cooptation, whereby text pieces of sentence grammar are transferred to be deployed in discourse, thereby losing their status as words, phrases or clauses of sentence grammar and turning into syntactically independent units of texts. The second mechanism is grammaticalization, which is discussed in terms of four parameters, namely context extension, decategorialization, desemanticization, and erosion (phonetic reduction). Grammaticalization works in two directions. On the one hand, grammaticalization is responsible for changing one type of interactives into another type. In this way, for example, interjections may gradually develop into discourse markers. On the other hand, it has the effect that linguistic forms and constructions are gradually integrated in the structure of sentences.
Conclusions
Authors: Heine Bernd
Published: February 2023

This finalchapter summarizes the findings discussed in the book. According to the summary presented, there are in particular nine observations that justify separating interactive grammar from sentence grammar. The conclusion drawn is that both grammars distinguished are needed for successful communication. At the same time, the chapter points out that there remain a number of problems that could not be treated and identifies issues that are in need of further research. One issue concerns the question of what determines the choice of speakers when drawing either on sentence grammar or on interactive grammar—a question that requires detailed analysis by means of text corpora. Another issue relates to the relationship between interactives and usage of gestures. This issue has been addressed in a number of studies but so far no detailed information has become available.
Narratives of Continuity
Authors: Ray Reeju
Published: February 2023

In this chapter processes of place-making appear in narratives of continuity with a pre-colonial past. Place-making is understood as heterogeneous articulations, including material and imaginative processes, that shape identity, livelihood, and belonging in the hills. I argue that the published writing by Khasi men in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century demonstrates colonialism’s ‘irreversible process of transmutation’ that impact notions of place in the hills. The chapter further demonstrates the linkages between the development of literacy through English education and the constitution of a gendered ethnic identity within a legal-customary space. The creeping and insidious domination of written culture in the region was the product of legal power and of the inalterable nature of the written agreements made between the Syiems and the East India Company from the early nineteenth century. This chapter begins with a discussion of the writings of missionary-educated Khasi elite men who became part of an ‘interpretive community’ within the public sphere in the hills. English-educated Khasi men drew upon multiple spatial frameworks to represent the hills and its people including those of colonial law. Even within the public domain created by published books, newspapers, and journal articles, the assertion of Khasi religion and identity played a significant role in challenging a strictly colonial spatial imagination of place and its people. The public sphere was even inaccessible to educated women in the hills, and this crystallized the practices of the exclusion and non-participation of women in political negotiations.
Place-Making
Authors: Ray Reeju
Published: February 2023

The dominant forms of knowledge that emerged in the nineteenth century through literacy and writing eluded the experiential reality of frontier societies. This chapter turns towards the embodied and situated experiences of frontier hill inhabitants by exploring their relationship to landscape, environment, and the changing spatiality of new jurisdictional boundaries, lines of communication, enhanced economic mobility, and politico-social architecture. The chapter demonstrates the importance of partial and complex conceptions of the past that defy notions of homogeneity of identity, and authenticity of narratives of self, community, and belonging in the hills. By examining oral histories and oral traditions this chapter centres the non-hegemonic notions of space and place found in the Khasi and Jaintia hills. This chapter begins with a discussion of landscape and memory as intersubjective elements of place-making through megalithic record-keeping, sacred ecologies, folktales, and legends. The chapter then turns to matrilineal organization and customary kinship-based geography and multiple possibilities of non-hegemonic articulations of space therein. The chapter also demonstrates the relationship between law, alternative geographies, and places.
Creating an Institutional ‘Family’
Authors: Soares Claudia
Published: February 2023

Taking a broad notion of relatedness, the chapter examines how the WSS imagined the institution might offer an alternative and substitute family to the children in its care, which is an area that has been left largely unexplored. It turns to a range of institutional literature to unpick how the Society imagined the institutional family’s purpose, role, and meaning. It unpicks how major voluntary welfare organizations like the WSS modelled their practices on the family, rather than those simply associated with kinship and friendship, in seeking to offer an alternative and substitute family for children in care. These children were taught to place significant value on these affective ties, rather than blood relationships, as a means of offering ultimate security. It also highlights expectations of the emotional labour that institutional staff and carers were to perform in order to create an affective culture of care within its residential homes. In doing so, the chapter makes an important contribution to histories of the family, in which scholarship has predominantly focussed on the affective nuclear family and household. It also has significant implications for the history of emotions, in expanding understandings of emotional labour, intimacy, affect, and the social and emotional dynamics of interpersonal relationships. By studying the ideas and practices of ‘family’ in its broadest sense that were embedded in institutional policy and practice, the chapter offers a new narrative of the institutional family as both an imagined but tangible entity in children’s lives.