bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Understanding and Deploying the Political Settlement Framework in Africa
Authors: Gray Hazel
Published: August 2019

Research using variants of political settlement analysis have gained prominence in scholarship on Africa. Political settlement research provides an analytical lens that takes the researcher beyond a narrow focus on formal institutions to examine how distributions of power among groups affect the way that institutions work. A political settlement can be defined as a combination of power and institutions that is mutually compatible and also sustainable in terms of economic and political viability. The main theoretical building blocks of the framework are institutions, power, and rents. Despite its burgeoning influence as an analytical approach, existing literature contains considerable differences in the core concepts and causal mechanisms described as constituting a political settlement framework. There are key differences within the literature between research that conceptualizes political settlement as action and political settlement conceptualized as process. In understanding political settlement as process, a political settlement is conceptualized as a stable political order that has not necessarily been planned or consciously willed by different social groups. The outcomes intended from the adoption of any particular set of institutions cannot be taken for granted. Groups that may appear powerful in terms of their formal political and economic positions in society may not be able to actually enforce compliance with formal and informal institutions they desire, leading to a much more complex relationship between institutions and paths of political and economic change. Approaches that understand political settlement as action emphasize the role of agreements made by powerful groups or elites. Forging a viable and inclusive political settlement is treated as a desirable policy outcome where institutions that generate inclusion, stop war, or reduce violent conflict can be purposefully established and enforced by elites. The two versions of the framework have been deployed to explore a range of different phenomena including economic change and industrialization, corruption, social policy, conflict, and state-building in a number of African countries. A key insight of the political settlement framework is that it provides many new insights into the variation between political economies on the continent. However, it is crucial that those seeking either to deploy or to critique the framework recognize the diverse way in which concepts and underlying causal processes have been defined. Such tensions within the framework can be important for driving research and thinking forward.
Social Justice, Anti-Poverty Work, and Religion
Authors: Rusch Lara , Brown R. Khari , Brown Ronald E. , Banner Francine
Published: August 2019

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s spiritual vision of a Beloved Community, equally valuing all humans, called for direct, transgressive action for political and cultural change. Despite his and others’ effective mobilization for racial justice, this vision of an economically just society has largely not been achieved. The 20th century witnessed a growing chasm in political interpretations of American Christianity, between those who believe their faith requires challenging the roots of poverty and those who believe such inequality reflects fair judgment on personal behavior. These dynamics affect the charitable and political choices of religious institutions as well as individual support for social programs. Most clergy in the United States report preaching about issues social justice, and the vast majority of churches provide some social services; however, less than a third engage in political action toward similar goals. Regional inequality, the mobility of people and capital, and dynamics of congregational adaptation create challenges for religious leaders who seek to educate and engage congregants on social justice. Still, a persistent minority of leaders and institutions actively seek Dr. King’s vision, often working in community coalitions, such as innovative programs for court reform, addressing the criminalization of poverty. More research is needed to assess what kinds of anti-poverty programs and activism are the product of congregations across ideology, and what belief systems or contexts shape their choices to assist the needy. Additionally, future work could consider the appropriate roles for religious institutions in negotiating their own religious mandates and community pressures in relation to the interests of the state, such as through the criminal justice system or public social programs, and the interests of vulnerable community members.
Multilevel Modeling Methods
Authors: González-Romá Vicente , Hernández Ana
Published: August 2019

Human behavior takes place in different contexts (e.g., organizations, schools, families, sports teams, and communities) whose properties (e.g., climate, culture, cohesion, leadership, communication networks, and structure) influence human behavior. To estimate this influence, researchers need appropriate methods that avoid the problems associated with the application of standard Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression.

Multilevel modeling methods offer researchers a way to estimate the aforementioned influence. These methods take into account that the variables involved reside at different levels. For instance, in the relationship between work unit climate and employee job satisfaction, the former variable resides at the work unit level (level 2) whereas the latter resides at the individual one (level 1). Moreover, multilevel modeling methods also take into account that the data analyzed to estimate this type of relationships have a nested structure in which individuals (e.g., employees) are nested into collectives (e.g., work units). Finally, these methods decompose variance into between-group and within-group components and allow researchers to model variability at the between and within levels.

Specifically, multilevel modeling methods allow researchers to test hypotheses that involve, among others: 1. A relationship between a higher-level predictor (e.g., work unit climate) and a lower-level outcome (e.g., employee job satisfaction); a so-called “direct cross-level effect”, and 2. An influence of a higher-level moderator (e.g., work unit climate) on an individual level relationship (e.g., the relationship between employee job stress and job satisfaction); a so-called “cross-level interaction”. Multilevel modeling methods can also be used to test more complex models involving mediation (e.g., 2-2-1, 2-1-1, or 1-1-1 models, depending on whether the antecedent and the mediator are level 1 or level 2 variables) and moderated mediation. We show how to test these models by presenting examples with real data and the corresponding SPSS syntax that readers can use to practice.
Making Gender-Responsive Programming More Queer Responsive
Authors: Kahle Lindsay L. , Rosenbaum Jill
Published: August 2019

The emergence of feminist criminology several decades ago heralded the creation of theoretical and justice-involved spaces that are specifically centered and tailored to the unique needs of women. More specifically, this shift turned attention to issues that weren’t typically discussed, for example, female victims and offenders, male battery, and sexual assault, as well as sexual and familial violence. One of the greatest contributions made by feminist criminology is gender-responsive programming, which recognizes that unique “pathways to delinquency” exist for girls and that these pathways often involve trauma and abuse. As a result, this type of programming attends to the specific needs of girls and young women, as they differ from those of boys and young men. Although research shows that these programs work to improve the lives of girls, they often overlook how sexual orientation—as it intersects with gender—often compounds such pathways altogether.
Black Feminist Thought and Qualitative Research in Education
Authors: Clemons Kristal Moore
Published: August 2019

Black feminist thought and qualitative research in education is guided by a particular understanding of the learning strategies informed by Black women’s historical experiences with race, gender, and class. Scholars of Black feminist thought remind us of a Black feminist pedagogy that fosters a mindset of intellectual inclusion. Black feminist thought challenges Western intellectual traditions of exclusivity and chauvinism. This article presents a synopsis of the nature and scope of Black feminist thought and qualitative research in education. Further, this article highlights the work of scholars who describe the importance of an Afrocentric methodological approach in the field of education because it offers scholars and practitioners a methodological opportunity to promote equality and multiple perspectives.
Teacher Education and Inclusivity
Authors: Alvarado Sarah L. , Salinas Sarah M. , Artiles Alfredo J.
Published: August 2019

Inclusive teacher education (ITE) defines the professional training of preservice teachers to work in learning spaces encompassing students from all circumstances, regardless of race, linguistic background, gender, socioeconomic status, and special education needs (SEN). This preparation includes the content, pedagogy, and formative experiences required for teachers to work in inclusive schools.

To fully understand ITE, it is necessary to examine what is meant by inclusive education (IE). Indeed, it is essential to explore ITE’s definition since scholars and teacher educators have struggled to agree on what is meant by IE. In addition to disagreements about IE’s definition, support for this idea and its implementation may vary due to the cultural, historical, and political differences specific to local contexts. For these reasons, it is necessary to recognize the inclusive policies, practices, and processes that often shape definitions and concepts related to ITE.

Notwithstanding the ambitious meanings of ITE across the globe, researchers, professionals, and policymakers tend to emphasize a vision of teacher preparation for working with students with disabilities (SWD) or SEN. Also, there is no consensus about which particular aspects matter in teacher education programs, primarily based on ideological differences about the core goals of IE. These differences in views and beliefs have resulted in limited understandings and applications of ITE. For instance, a student with an SEN may also come from a family living in poverty, with no access to books in the home, or speak multiple languages, including languages that are not a part of their first (formal) educational experiences. In such circumstances, there is no agreement about whether ITE programs should focus on students’ linguistic, socioeconomic, learning differences, or multiple factors.

We review the research on ITE in various national contexts. We also discuss how scholars have conceptualized the preparation of future teachers and the implications for greater clarity on how teacher preparation can improve IE in an increasingly diverse society.
Qualitative Research at the Policy Table
Authors: Pillow Wanda S.
Published: August 2019

The “paradigm wars” of the 1970s−1990s fostered intense debate about the meanings and purposes of research and policy. Paradigmatic stances seemed to keep these two fields separate—at odds with each other methodologically and theoretically. Tracing this history yields knowledge about past and potential relationships between qualitative research and policy studies. Given qualitative research studies, social phenomena, and policy that reflects social values, it seems obvious that policy studies need qualitative research in order to understand policy processes, from development to implementation and practice, and that qualitative research would benefit from examining, analyzing, and contributing to a policy process. But who is responsible for this work? Are post-paradigm war relations possible and, if so, what may such relations look like? A review of the paradigmatic trajectories of each field allows a closer look at what qualitative and policy relationships look like when specifically thought through a focus on how theory shapes what we think of as research and policy. Whatever purposeful relationships are formed, rethinking dogmatic post-paradigm war logic is necessary to envision new questions that may drive research and policy futures.
Archives and Qualitative Research in Education (from Foucault and Bourdieu’s Approaches)
Authors: Marín-Diaz Dora , Schilling Flávia , Groppa Aquino Julio
Published: August 2019

This article focuses on the proposal of archival research in qualitative educational research. Based on the assumption that, in this context, different paths are available to the researcher, the question of how to select relevant sources in order to provide singular approaches to the issues at stake arises. More specifically, when conducting qualitative research in education how can the archives be navigated? To that end, the article begins with the notion of sociological imagination drawn from the work of Charles Wright Mills, in conjunction with Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology; for the latter, the construction of the object of investigation was based on a system of objective relations. Next, the archaegenealogical perspective of Michel Foucault is examined; for him the archive is the instance that governs the emergence of discourses.

In both cases, the goal is for the researcher to glean certain insights from the surface of what is said, critically describing the functioning of discourse around the problem investigated according to its dispersion among different practices, which in turn are responsible for giving form to the objects to which the researcher dedicates himself.

Rather than a methodology per se, the notion of the archive defended here, without any prescriptive intention, describes a specific way of conducting qualitative investigation marked by originality and critical accuracy.
Latin American Perspectives on Participatory Methodologies in Educational Research
Authors: Streck Danilo Romeu , Adams Telmo
Published: August 2019

Since the second half of the 20th century, research practices in social science and the humanities in Latin America and the Caribbean have been developed alongside criticisms of positivist methodologies. Some of the main interventions are reviewed by scholars such as Orlando Fals Borda, João Bosco Guedes Pinto, Michel Thiollent, Paulo Freire, Carlos Rodrigues Brandão, and Oscar Jara. Participation is central to all of these, but each contain nuances that must be identified, explained, and analyzed. Furthermore, these interventions relate to the field of popular education or, more broadly, to practices associated with critical educational proposals.
Vygotsky’s Theoretical and Conceptual Contributions to Qualitative Research in Education
Authors: Smolka Ana Luiza Bustamante , Nogueira Ana Lucia Horta , Dainez Débora , de Laplane Adriana Lia Friszman
Published: August 2019

Vygotsky’s approach to human development is profoundly intertwined with his methodological inquiry. This inquiry is related to his persistent quest for framing and understanding the problem of consciousness. His untiring search for a plausible explanation of the material basis of specifically human psychological functions pervades his theoretical, practical, and empirical work in the fields of psychology and education. Throughout this search, sociogenesis and semiotic mediation, at first investigative hypotheses, become explanatory principles. Excerpts from his seminal texts allow us to follow the elaboration of epistemological assumptions that anchor his process of theorization and evidence the interrelationships between object of study, explanatory principle, and unit of analysis in studies of cultural development. One of his major concerns had to do with the ways of teaching and the ways of studying teaching relations, as well as the results or effects of such relations. To talk about Vygotsky’s theoretical elaborations is, hence, to talk about method—of inquiring, of studying, of teaching. From the beginning through to the end of his theoretical endeavor, we find a deep concern about what it means to be human, what are the means to be human. Repercussions and contributions of Vygotsky’s approach to research in education, as well as their ethical and political implications, must be highlighted. His way of conceiving method escapes from rigidity, not from rigor, pointing to an instigating flexibility which approximates his efforts to the efforts of many contemporary authors in different fields.
Arts-Based Action Research in the North
Authors: Jokela Timo
Published: August 2019

The art-based action research (ABAR) method has its roots in action research, particularly in participatory action research (PAR) and action research in education and is clearly linked with international artistic research (AR) and art-based educational research (ABER). The ABAR methodology was developed collaboratively by a group of art educators and researchers at the University of Lapland (UoL) to support the artist-teacher-researcher with skills and professional methods to seek solutions to recognized problems and promote future actions and visions in the changing North and the Arctic. On the one hand, the need for decolonizing cultural sustainable art education research was identified in multidisciplinary collaboration with the UoL’s northern and circumpolar network. On the other hand, the participatory and dialogical approach was initiated by examining the pressures for change within art education stemming from the practices of relational and dialogical contemporary art. ABAR has been developed and completed over the years in doctoral dissertations and art-based research projects on art education at UoL that are often connected to place-specific issues of education for social and cultural sustainability.

The multi-phased and long-term Winter Art Education project has played a central role in the development of the ABAR methodology. During the Winter Art Education project, ABAR has been successfully used in reforming formal and informal art education practices, school and adult education, and teacher education in Northern circumstances and settings. Winter art developed through the ABAR method has supported decolonization, revitalization, and cultural sustainability in schools and communities. In addition, the ABAR method and winter art have had a strong impact on regional development and creative industries in the North.
Well-Being and the Preparation of Teachers
Authors: Gustems-Carnicer Josep , Calderon Caterina
Published: August 2019

Modern society has achieved levels of well-being linked to economic prosperity, better and more extended education, and greater life expectancy. For individuals, improvements in well-being impact positively on friendships and other social relationships, marriage, and work satisfaction.

There is no doubt that the future of society depends in great measure on the teachers who work with future citizens. Unfortunately, too many teachers in developed countries suffer from chronic, work-related stress, which negatively affects their health, life satisfaction, vocation, and professional stability in the education system. Ensuring the well-being of teachers is essential to ensure that future generations of citizens receive the best help in their intellectual, emotional, and interpersonal growth.

For teachers, certain personality traits can mitigate the effects of stress. Mindfulness and coping strategies can also help to minimize the negative effects of stress, but the most effective way to help student teachers deal with stress is to include specific programs throughout teacher education courses in universities.

Starting university is traditionally considered to be a period characterized by many changes that can cause stress among students, such as separation from one’s family, entering the job market, negotiating the student workload, changing address, and attempting to make new friendships. In teacher education, universities are in a position both to improve their students’ lives and to give them information about how to negotiate future professional difficulties. Teacher education programs must maintain constant interest in enhancing the academic performance of the students, and their affective conditions must enrich the exercise and development of students’ virtues and strengths, at the same time as students are offered tools for their working future.

The actions promoted to help students develop these virtues and strengths should be accompanied by an effective tutorial action plan, a psychological health service for students, activities to help students acquire self-awareness of character strengths, a mentoring plan, tutoring among students, teamwork, programs to develop coping strategies, the organization of educational material, discipline, full class control, programs to optimize students’ time management, guidance on negotiating the increasing levels of bureaucracy in education, creative exercises to compensate for the lack of resources, collective exercise (sports), artistic activities, programs of mindfulness, religious practice, and volunteer work. Education students need to have a university experience that provides them with numerous opportunities to develop values, competences, attitudes, knowledge, beliefs, an identity, and coping strategies that will help them to be better professionals, more conscientious citizens, and happier individuals.
Economic Theory of Criminal Law
Authors: Hylton Keith N.
Published: August 2019

Criminal law consists of substantive and procedural parts. Substantive law is the set of rules defining conduct that violates the law. Procedural criminal law is the set of rules regulating the process of punishment. Substantive rules apply mostly to individual actors, and procedural rules apply to public enforcement agencies and adjudicators.

Economic theory of criminal law consists of normative and positive parts. Normative economic theory, which began with writings by Beccaria and Bentham, aims to recommend an ideal criminal punishment scheme. Positive economic theory, which appeared later in writings by Holmes and Posner, aims to justify and to better understand the criminal law rules that exist. Since the purpose of criminal law is to deter socially undesirable conduct, economic theory, which emphasizes incentives, would appear to be an important perspective from which to examine criminal law.

Positive economic theory, applied to substantive criminal law, seeks to explain and to justify criminal law doctrine in economic terms—that is, in terms that emphasize the incentive effects created by the law. The positive economic theory of criminal law literature can be divided into three phases: Classical deterrence theory, neoclassical deterrence, and modern synthesis. The modern synthesis provides a rationale for fundamental criminal law doctrines and also more puzzling portions of the law such as the doctrines of intent and necessity. Positive economic theory also provides a rationale for the allocation of enforcement responsibilities.
The Surface Composition of Terrestrial Planets
Authors: Mangold Nicolas , Flahaut Jessica , Ansan Véronique
Published: August 2019

Planetary surface compositions are fundamental to an understanding of both the interior activity through differentiation processes and volcanic activity and the external evolution through alteration processes and accumulations of volatiles. While the Moon has been studied since early on using ground-based instruments and returned samples, observing the surface composition of the terrestrial planets did not become practical until after the development of orbital and in situ missions with instruments tracking mineralogical and elemental variations. The poorly evolved, atmosphere-free bodies like the Moon and Mercury enable the study of the formation of the most primitive crusts, through processes such as the crystallization of a magma ocean, and their volcanic evolution. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown more diversity than initially expected, including the presence of ice in high latitude regions. Because of its heavy atmosphere, Venus remains the most difficult planetary body to study and the most poorly known in regards to its composition, triggering some interest for future missions. In contrast, Mars exploration has generated a huge amount of data in the last two decades, revealing a planet with a mineralogical diversity close to that of the Earth. While Mars crust is dominated by basaltic material, recent studies concluded for significant contributions of more felsic and alkali-rich igneous material, especially in the ancient highlands. These ancient terrains also display widespread outcrops of hydrous minerals, especially phyllosilicates, which are key in the understanding of past climate conditions and suggest a volatile-rich early evolution with implications for exobiology. Recent terrains exhibit a cryosphere with ice-rich landforms at, or close to the surface, of mid- and high latitudes, generating a strong interest for recent climatic variability and resources for future manned missions. While Mars is certainly the planetary body the most similar to Earth, the observation of specific processes such as those linked to interactions with solar wind on atmosphere-free bodies, or with a thick acidic atmosphere on Venus, improve our understanding of the differences in evolution of terrestrial bodies. Future exploration is still necessary to increase humankind’s knowledge and further build a global picture of the formation and evolution of planetary surfaces.
Women Leaders in National Politics
Authors: Jalalzai Farida
Published: August 2019

In recent years the number of women executives has increased globally, and academic focus on these actors has grown accordingly. While some of the earliest research offered descriptive analyses of women leaders, concentrating particularly on their career preparation or political inspirations, this has given way to more systematic assessments of topics including paths, powers, and impacts. Global methodical studies have been supplemented by similarly rigorous country case studies and regional analyses. These works offer quantitative examinations, rich qualitative investigations, and often a combination. Consequently, factors facilitating women’s rise to power and authorities exercised in their capacities as presidents and prime ministers are illuminated. Much more research, however, must be conducted to evaluate the myriad effects women in power exert on societies.
Women in Early American Economy
Authors: Merritt Jane T.
Published: August 2019

From the planter societies and subsistence settlements of the 17th century to the global markets of the late 18th century, white, black, and Indian women participated extensively in the early American economy. As the colonial world gave way to an independent nation and household economies yielded to cross-Atlantic commercial networks, women played an important role as consumers and producers. Was there, however, a growing gendered divide in the American economy by the turn of the 19th century? Were there more restrictions on women’s business activities, property ownership, work lives, consumer demands, or productive skills? Possibly, we ask the wrong questions when exploring women’s history. By posing questions that compare the past with present conditions, we miss the more nuanced and shifting patterns that made up the variety of women’s lives. Whether rural or urban, rich or poor, free or enslaved, women’s legal and marital status dictated some basic parameters of how they operated within the early American economy. But despite these boundaries, or perhaps because of them, women created new strategies to meet the economic needs of households, families, and themselves. As entrepreneurs they brought in lodgers or operated small businesses that generated extra income. As producers they finagled the materials necessary to create items for home use and to sell at market. As consumers, women, whether free or enslaved, demanded goods from merchants and negotiated prices that fit their budgets. As laborers, these same women translated myriad skills into wages or exchanged labor for goods. In all these capacities, women calculated, accumulated, and survived in the early American economy.
Arab-Israeli Wars and US Foreign Relations
Authors: Anziska Seth
Published: August 2019

American policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict has reflected dueling impulses at the heart of US-Middle East relations since World War II: growing support for Zionism and Israeli statehood on the one hand, the need for cheap oil resources and strong alliances with Arab states on the other, unfolding alongside the ebb and flow of concerns over Soviet influence in the region during the Cold War. These tensions have tracked with successive Arab–Israeli conflagrations, from the 1948 war through the international conflicts of 1967 and 1973, as well as shifting modes of intervention in Lebanon, and more recently, the Palestinian uprisings in the occupied territories and several wars on the Gaza Strip. US policy has been shaped by diverging priorities in domestic and foreign policy, a halting recognition of the need to tackle Palestinian national aspirations, and a burgeoning peace process which has drawn American diplomats into the position of mediating between the parties. Against the backdrop of regional upheaval, this long history of involvement continues into the 21st century as the unresolved conflict between Israel and the Arab world faces a host of new challenges.
Francisco de Miranda
Authors: Iserov Andrey
Published: August 2019

Francisco de Miranda (March 28, 1750, Caracas, Venezuela—July 14, 1816, La Carraca, Spain) was a Spanish American revolutionary who after a career in the Spanish Army from 1783 devoted his life to the cause of Spanish American independence. The various designs of Miranda in the 1780s–1800s were founded upon the idea of a military liberation expedition to Spanish America led by him and organized with the support of a power (Great Britain, United States, France) in conflict with Spain that would then foment existing discontent and lead to a wide-scale revolt and independence. Though these plans failed, as did his attempt to organize an expedition from New York without the support of any power (1805–1807), in 1810 the revolution in Spanish America started without his participation as a consequence of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain. Miranda was called to Caracas and eventually led the short-lived First Venezuelan Republic in 1812. After its defeat he spent the last years of his life in Spanish jails. Miranda’s failure influenced the South American revolutionaries who adopted the tactics of unconditional warfare against the Spanish troops from 1813.

A shrewd and sophisticated expert in world affairs and political intrigues and an acclaimed military commander, Miranda was persistently trying to use the conflicts between great powers to achieve his goal though he knew that these powers’ leaders were eager to use him as a trump card against the Spanish Empire in their geopolitical games. His contacts ranged from US Founding Fathers, British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and Viscount Melville to the Prussian king Friedrich II and the Russian empress Catherine II. He was a respected peer in the high society of the European “republic of letters” in the Age of Enlightenment. In the United States his friends belonged to the Federalist Party, which represents an interesting phenomenon since Federalists are usually viewed as being generally skeptical toward foreign revolutions. In Spanish America Miranda’s ideas received no support until 1810–1812, as his failed expedition clearly shows—this is an excellent example of the interplay between “evental history” (histoire évenémentielle) and the longue durée, demonstrating how fast and unpredictable radical historical change may be. In spite of this long political solitude, Miranda entered the Spanish American symbolic pantheon as the precursor of independence.
The Motor Theory of Speech Perception
Authors: Whalen D. H.
Published: August 2019

The Motor Theory of Speech Perception is a proposed explanation of the fundamental relationship between the way speech is produced and the way it is perceived. Associated primarily with the work of Liberman and colleagues, it posited the active participation of the motor system in the perception of speech. Early versions of the theory contained elements that later proved untenable, such as the expectation that the neural commands to the muscles (as seen in electromyography) would be more invariant than the acoustics. Support drawn from categorical perception (in which discrimination is quite poor within linguistic categories but excellent across boundaries) was called into question by studies showing means of improving within-category discrimination and finding similar results for nonspeech sounds and for animals perceiving speech. Evidence for motor involvement in perceptual processes nonetheless continued to accrue, and related motor theories have been proposed. Neurological and neuroimaging results have yielded a great deal of evidence consistent with variants of the theory, but they highlight the issue that there is no single “motor system,” and so different components appear in different contexts. Assigning the appropriate amount of effort to the various systems that interact to result in the perception of speech is an ongoing process, but it is clear that some of the systems will reflect the motor control of speech.
New horizons in management of heart failure in older patients
Authors: Stefil Maria , Manzano Luis , Montero-PéRez-Barquero Manuel , Coats Andrew J S , Flather Marcus
Published: August 2019

Heart failure has a high prevalence in older populations, is a common and growing cause for hospital admission and carries a high risk of morbidity and mortality. Important co-morbidities in older patients with heart failure include atrial fibrillation, renal impairment, hypertension and anaemia. Diagnosing and managing heart failure in older patients are complicated due to atypical presentations, co-morbidities and a relative lack of evidence for commonly used treatments in younger patients. The growing epidemic of heart failure is also under-recognised and resourced in most health systems. Despite potential differences, we recommend that the basic approach to manage heart failure patients with an ejection fraction (EF) of <40% should be the same in older and younger. These treatments need to be started at low doses and titrated slowly along with the management of co-morbidities. Older patients with EF 40–49% can be treated in a similar manner to those with <40%, while the treatment of those with EF ≥50% is pragmatic in nature based on symptom control and management of co-morbidities although the evidence base for these recommendations is lacking. Overall management must be holistic and continuous based on the patient’s social circumstances and ongoing needs. Finally, there is an urgent need for more research, evidence and resources directed towards older populations with heart failure to improve their care and the quality of life.
Association of Laboratory Methods, Colonization Density, and Age With Detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae in the Nasopharynx
Authors: Sutcliffe Catherine G , Grant Lindsay R , Cloessner Emily , Klugman Keith P , Vidal Jorge E , Reid Raymond , Colelay Janene , Weatherholtz Robert C , Chochua Sopio , Jacobs Michael R , Santosham Mathuram , O’Brien Katherine L , Hammitt Laura L
Published: August 2019

Culture-based methods for detecting Streptococcus pneumoniae in the nasopharynx lack sensitivity. In this study, we aimed to compare the performance of culture and molecular methods in detecting pneumococcus in the nasopharynx of healthy individuals and to evaluate the associations of age and colonization density with detection. Between 2010 and 2012, nasopharyngeal specimens were collected from healthy individuals living on Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache Tribal lands in the United States. Pneumococci were detected by means of broth-enrichment culture and autolysin-encoding gene (lytA) quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Among 982 persons evaluated (median age, 18.7 years; 47% male), 35% were culture-positive and an additional 27% were qPCR-positive. Agreement between culture and qPCR was 70.9% but was higher among children (age <18 years) (75.9%–84.4%) than among adults (age ≥18 years) (61.0%–74.6%). The mean density of colonization was lower for culture-negative samples (3.14 log10 copies/mL) than for culture-positive samples (5.02 log10 copies/mL), overall and for all age groups. The percent culture-positive increased with increasing density, exceeding 80% at densities of ≥10,000 copies/mL. Mean colonization density decreased with age. Use of qPCR improved detection of pneumococcus in the nasopharynx of healthy individuals. This finding was most notable among adults, probably because of improved detection of low-density colonization.
The role of ultraviolet reflectance and pattern in the pollination system of Hypoxis camerooniana (Hypoxidaceae)
Authors: Klomberg Yannick , Dywou Kouede Raissa , Bartoš Michael , Mertens Jan E J , Tropek Robert , Fokam Eric B , Janeček Štěpán
Published: August 2019

Apart from floral morphology and colours perceived by the human eye, ultraviolet (UV) reflectance acts as an important visual advertisement of numerous flowering plant species for pollinators. However, the effect of UV signalling on attracting pollinators of particular plant species is still insufficiently studied, especially in the Afrotropics. Therefore, we studied the pollination system of Hypoxis camerooniana in montane grasslands of Mount Cameroon, West/Central Africa. We focused mainly on the effects of the flowers’ UV reflectance on its visitors. We experimentally removed UV reflection from petals either completely or partially. Thereafter, flower visitors were recorded and pistils were collected post-flowering to quantify germinated pollen tubes per treatments. The most important visitors were bees, followed by flies. Due to their contacts with reproductive organs bees are considered as the primary pollinators. Visitation rates were lower when UV reflectance was completely removed, whereas the decrease of frequency on half-treated flowers did not differ significantly from control treatments. The complete removal of UV also affected bees’ landing behaviour, but not that of flies. We showed that the presence of UV reflectance is more important than UV pattern for bees visiting flowers of H. camerooniana. We hypothesize that exploiting all flowers irrespective of their pattern can be more efficient for pollinators in the open grasslands of high altitudes to spot these relatively scarce flowers by their UV reflectance. Furthermore, we highlight the necessity of both experimental and natural controls in similar studies to control for additional effects of the used UV manipulations.

Many plants advertise their flowers with UV reflectance visible to their insect visitors. By manipulating the UV reflectance and pattern of Hypoxis camerooniana in the Afromontane grasslands of Mount Cameroon, we have shown how crucial it is for the predominant visitor, bees. Both bees' preferences for flowers and their behaviour during visits are influenced by changes in UV reflectance. However, the presence of some UV signal is more important than the specific pattern. Especially in montane grasslands with higher UV irradiation, the UV floral colours are important for recognition of flowers by potential pollinators.
Linking genetic merit to sparse behavioral data: behavior and genetic effects on lamb growth in Soay sheep
Authors: Regan Charlotte E , Pemberton Josephine M , Pilkington Jill G , Smiseth Per T , Wilson Alastair J
Published: August 2019

Wild quantitative genetic studies have focused on a subset of traits (largely morphological and life history), with others, such as behaviors, receiving much less attention. This is because it is challenging to obtain sufficient data, particularly for behaviors involving interactions between individuals. Here, we explore an indirect approach for pilot investigations of the role of genetic differences in generating variation in parental care. Variation in parental genetic effects for offspring performance is expected to arise from among-parent genetic variation in parental care. Therefore, we used the animal model to predict maternal breeding values for lamb growth and used these predictions to select females for field observation, where maternal and lamb behaviors were recorded. Higher predicted maternal breeding value for lamb growth was associated with greater suckling success, but not with any other measures of suckling behavior. Though our work cannot explicitly estimate the genetic basis of the specific traits involved, it does provide a strategy for hypothesis generation and refinement that we hope could be used to justify data collection costs needed for confirmatory studies. Here, results suggest that behavioral genetic variation is involved in generating maternal genetic effects on lamb growth in Soay sheep. Though important caveats and cautions apply, our approach may extend the ability to initiate more genetic investigations of difficult-to-study behaviors and social interactions in natural populations.
Unification of miRNA and isomiR research: the mirGFF3 format and the mirtop API
Authors: Desvignes Thomas , Loher Phillipe , Eilbeck Karen , Ma Jeffery , Urgese Gianvito , Fromm Bastian , Sydes Jason , Aparicio-Puerta Ernesto , Barrera Victor , Espín Roderic , Thibord Florian , Bofill-De Ros Xavier , Londin Eric , Telonis Aristeidis G , Ficarra Elisa , Friedländer Marc R , Postlethwait John H , Rigoutsos Isidore , Hackenberg Michael , Vlachos Ioannis S , Halushka Marc K , Pantano Lorena
Published: August 2019

Motivation

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules (∼22 nucleotide long) involved in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies led to the discovery of isomiRs, which are miRNA sequence variants. While many miRNA-seq analysis tools exist, the diversity of output formats hinders accurate comparisons between tools and precludes data sharing and the development of common downstream analysis methods.

Results

To overcome this situation, we present here a community-based project, miRNA Transcriptomic Open Project (miRTOP) working towards the optimization of miRNA analyses. The aim of miRTOP is to promote the development of downstream isomiR analysis tools that are compatible with existing detection and quantification tools. Based on the existing GFF3 format, we first created a new standard format, mirGFF3, for the output of miRNA/isomiR detection and quantification results from small RNA-seq data. Additionally, we developed a command line Python tool, mirtop, to create and manage the mirGFF3 format. Currently, mirtop can convert into mirGFF3 the outputs of commonly used pipelines, such as seqbuster, isomiR-SEA, sRNAbench, Prost! as well as BAM files. Some tools have also incorporated the mirGFF3 format directly into their code, such as, miRge2.0, IsoMIRmap and OptimiR. Its open architecture enables any tool or pipeline to output or convert results into mirGFF3. Collectively, this isomiR categorization system, along with the accompanying mirGFF3 and mirtop API, provide a comprehensive solution for the standardization of miRNA and isomiR annotation, enabling data sharing, reporting, comparative analyses and benchmarking, while promoting the development of common miRNA methods focusing on downstream steps of miRNA detection, annotation and quantification.

Availability and implementation

https://github.com/miRTop/mirGFF3/ and https://github.com/miRTop/mirtop.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
breakpointR: an R/Bioconductor package to localize strand state changes in Strand-seq data
Authors: Porubsky David , Sanders Ashley D , Taudt Aaron , Colomé-Tatché Maria , Lansdorp Peter M , Guryev Victor
Published: August 2019

Motivation

Strand-seq is a specialized single-cell DNA sequencing technique centered around the directionality of single-stranded DNA. Computational tools for Strand-seq analyses must capture the strand-specific information embedded in these data.

Results

Here we introduce breakpointR, an R/Bioconductor package specifically tailored to process and interpret single-cell strand-specific sequencing data obtained from Strand-seq. We developed breakpointR to detect local changes in strand directionality of aligned Strand-seq data, to enable fine-mapping of sister chromatid exchanges, germline inversion and to support global haplotype assembly. Given the broad spectrum of Strand-seq applications we expect breakpointR to be an important addition to currently available tools and extend the accessibility of this novel sequencing technique.

Availability and implementation

R/Bioconductor package https://bioconductor.org/packages/breakpointR.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Gene expression profiles of bovine genital ridges during sex determination and early differentiation of the gonads†
Authors: Planells Benjamín , Gómez-Redondo Isabel , Sánchez José María , McDonald Michael , Cánovas Ángela , Lonergan Patrick , Gutiérrez-Adán Alfonso
Published: August 2019

Most current knowledge of sex determination in mammals has emerged from mouse and human studies. To investigate the molecular regulation of the sex determination process in cattle, we used an RNA sequencing strategy to analyze the transcriptome landscape of male and female bovine fetal gonads collected in vivo at key developmental stages: before, during, and after SRY gene activation on fetal days D35 (bipotential gonad formation), D39 (peak SRY expression), and D43 (early gonad differentiation). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in male vs. female germinal ridges and among group genes showing similar expression profiles during the three periods. There were 143, 96, and 658 DEG between males and female fetuses at D35, D39, and D43, respectively. On D35, genes upregulated in females were enriched in translation, nuclear export, RNA localization, and mRNA splicing events, whereas those upregulated in males were enriched in cell proliferation regulation and male sex determination terms. In time-course experiments, 767 DEGs in males and 545 DEGs in females were identified between D35 vs. D39, and 3157 DEGs in males and 2008 in females were identified between D39 vs. D43. Results highlight unique aspects of sex determination in cattle, such as the expression of several Y chromosome genes (absent in mice and humans) before SRY expression and an abrupt increase in the nuclear expression of SOX10 (instead of SOX9 expression in the Sertoli cell cytoplasm as observed in mice) during male determination and early differentiation.