bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Glioma-related epilepsy following low-grade glioma surgery
Authors: Youshani Amir Saam , Heal Calvin , Lee Jing X , Younis Michael , Mohanraj Rajiv , Maye Helen , Bailey Matthew , Coope David , D’Urso Pietro I , Karabatsou Konstantina
Published: July 2024

Background

Epileptic seizures commonly burden low-grade glioma (LGG) patients and negatively impact quality of life, neurocognition, and general patient health. Anti-seizure medications (ASMs) are used to manage seizures but can result in undesired side effects. Our aim was to report our experience in epilepsy in one of the largest case series of LGG patients (reclassified in accordance with the WHO 2021 classification). Furthermore, we evaluate our postoperative seizure frequency difference between LGG patients who use preoperative ASMs and ones with no ASMs.

Methods

Data were retrospectively collected from Salford Royal Hospital electronic records and Neuro-Oncology database from 2006 to 2022. Descriptive statistics were performed for demographic analysis, while multivariable analysis was used to determine postoperative seizure-free outcomes.

Results

In total, 257 operations were performed on 206 patients. Postoperatively, 114 patients suffered from seizures, and approximately 45.2% of patients developed seizures at 3–12 months postsurgery, with the odds higher in patients on preoperative ASMs. There was no evidence to suggest a higher postoperative seizure rate in patients undergoing awake craniotomy versus general anesthetic. The extent of resection (EOR) was inversely related to seizure failure, with gross-total resection showing a statistically significant reduction in seizures in comparison to all other surgical resections.

Conclusions

In our experience, there is no evidence to suggest a reduced postoperative seizure outcome when prescribing preoperative ASMs. EOR is an independent prognosticator for postoperative seizure failure with all other variables demonstrating nonsignificance. Overall, a larger study can investigate the role of ASMs in LGG in greater detail.
Fast selective edge-enhanced imaging with topological chiral lamellar superstructures
Authors: Chen Wen , Zhu Dong , Liu Si-Jia , Zhang Yi-Heng , Zhu Lin , Li Chao-Yi , Ge Shi-Jun , Chen Peng , Zhang Wan-Long , Yuan Xiao-Cong , Lu Yan-Qing
Published: July 2024

Edge detection is a fundamental operation for feature extraction in image processing. The all-optical method has aroused growing interest owing to its ultra-fast speed, low energy consumption and parallel computation. However, current optical edge detection methods are generally limited to static devices and fixed functionality. Herein, we propose a fast-switchable scheme based on a ferroelectric liquid crystal topological structure. The self-assembled chiral lamellar superstructure, directed by the azimuthally variant photo-alignment agent, can be dynamically controlled by the polarity of the external electric field and respectively generates the vector beams with nearly orthogonal polarization distribution. Even after thousands of cycles, the horizontal and vertical edges of the object are selectively enhanced with an ultra-fast switching time of ∼57 μs. Broadband edge-enhanced imaging is efficiently demonstrated. This work extends the ingenious building of topological heliconical superstructures and offers an important glimpse into their potential in the emerging frontiers of optical computing for artificial intelligence.
Effects of Different Cow-Milk Beta-Caseins on the Gut–Brain Axis: A Narrative Review of Preclinical, Animal, and Human Studies
Authors: Robinson Stephen R , Greenway Frank L , Deth Richard C , Fayet-Moore Flavia
Published: July 2024

The gut and brain communicate through bidirectional neural, endocrine, and immune signals to coordinate central nervous system activity with gastrointestinal function. Dysregulated inflammation can promote immune cell activation and increase entero-endocrine signaling and intestinal permeability; hence, a functional gut–brain axis is necessary for a healthy digestive system. The consumption of milk products can lead to gut discomfort via effects on gastrointestinal tract function and the inflammatory state, which, in turn, affect the brain. A1 β-casein and A2 β-casein are major components of bovine-milk protein, and their digestion may result in different physiological effects following the consumption of milk products. Peptides derived from A1 β-casein, such as β-casomorphins, may increase gut dysfunction and inflammation, thereby modulating the availability of bioactive metabolites in the bloodstream and contribute to changes in cognitive function. This narrative review examines the functional interrelationships between the consumption of cow-milk–derived β-caseins and their effect on the brain, immune system, and the gut, which together comprise the gut–brain axis.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Cytomegalovirus Among Men Having Sex With Men Enrolled in a Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Study
Authors: Chawki Sylvain , Leturque Nicolas , Minier Marine , Gabassi Audrey , Foubert Valérie , Charreau Isabelle , Cua Eric , Pialoux Gilles , Meyer Laurence , Molina Jean-Michel , Delaugerre Constance
Published: July 2024

Risk factors for cytomegalovirus (CMV) acquisition in men having sex with men remain unclear. Seroprevalence, incidence, risk factors and shedding of CMV were analyzed among participants enrolled in the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis IPERGAY-ANRS trial. Among the 417 participants tested, 382 were seropositive at baseline (prevalence of 91.6%; 95%CI[88.5–94.1]) and 10/35 seroconverted during the study (incidence of 17.1 per 100 person-years; 95%CI[8.2–31.3]). A high number of sexual partners was independently associated with CMV seroprevalence. Shedding among CMV-seroconverters was reported for 6/9 and 2/9 at the oral and anal levels, respectively. Our data supports transmission of CMV during sexual contacts.

Study part of the ANRS-IPERGAY Clinical trial

ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01473472.
Retreatment and Anti-tuberculosis Therapy Outcomes in Brazil Between 2015 and 2022: A Nationwide Study
Authors: Barreto-Duarte Beatriz , Villalva-Serra Klauss , Miguez-Pinto João P , Araújo-Pereira Mariana , Campos Vanessa M S , Rosier Gabriela , Nogueira Betânia M F , Queiroz Artur T L , Rolla Valeria C , Cordeiro-Santos Marcelo , Kritski Afrânio L , Martinez Leonardo , Rebeiro Peter F , Sterling Timothy R , Rodrigues Moreno M , Andrade Bruno B
Published: July 2024

Background

Adherence to anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT) in Brazil remains a challenge in achieving the goals set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Patients who are lost to follow-up during treatment pose a significant public health problem. This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with unfavorable ATT outcomes among those undergoing retreatment in Brazil.

Methods

We conducted an observational study of patients aged ≥18 years with tuberculosis (TB) reported to the Brazilian National Notifiable Disease Information System between 2015 and 2022. Clinical and epidemiologic variables were compared between the study groups (new cases and retreatment). Regression models identified variables associated with unfavorable outcomes.

Results

Among 743 823 reported TB cases in the study period, 555 632 cases were eligible, consisting of 462 061 new cases and 93 571 undergoing retreatments (44 642 recurrent and 48 929 retreatments after loss to follow-up [RLTFU]). RLTFU (odds ratio [OR], 3.96 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 3.83–4.1]) was a significant risk factor for any type of unfavorable ATT. Furthermore, RLTFU (OR, 4.93 [95% CI, 4.76–5.11]) was the main risk factor for subsequent LTFU. For death, aside from advanced age, living with HIV (OR, 6.28 [95% CI, 6.03–6.54]) was the top risk factor.

Conclusions

Retreatment is a substantial risk factor for unfavorable ATT outcomes, especially after LTFU. The rates of treatment success in RLTFU are distant from the WHO End TB Strategy targets throughout Brazil. These findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to improve treatment adherence and outcomes in persons who experience RLTFU.
Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Incidence, STI Screening, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Preexposure Prophylaxis Uptake in United States Veterans With Opioid Use Disorder in Long Island, New York
Authors: Srivastava Pronoma , Modi Viraj , Lier Audun J
Published: July 2024

Background

Opioid use disorder (OUD) confers increased risk of contracting bloodborne and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Limited data exist on infectious disease screening and preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) usage among United States Veterans (USVs) with OUD, including persons who inject drugs (PWID). This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), bacterial STIs, and PrEP uptake in USVs with OUD, including PWID.

Methods

A retrospective chart review of USVs with OUD seeking care at Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center between 2012 and 2022 was completed. Sociodemographics, HIV, HCV, STI testing rates and diagnosis, and PrEP uptake were compared between USVs, stratified by injection drug use history.

Results

We identified 502 USVs with OUD; 43% had a history of injection drug use. Overall, 2.2% of USVs had HIV and 28.7% had HCV. An STI was diagnosed in 10% of USVs, most frequently syphilis (1.8%). PWID were more likely to be tested for HIV (93.5% PWID vs. 73.1% non-PWID; P < .001), HCV (95.8% PWID vs. 80.8% non-PWID; P < .001), and syphilis (80% PWID vs. 69.2% non-PWID; P = .006). Total gonorrhea and chlamydia testing rates were 31.9% and 33.7%, respectively, without difference between the groups. PrEP was prescribed in 1.2% of USVs.

Conclusions

In USVs with OUD, gonorrhea and chlamydia screening occurred less frequently than syphilis, HCV, and HIV. PWID were more likely to be screened for HIV, HCV, and syphilis. PrEP uptake was low. Both PWID and non-PWID may benefit from increased STI screening and linkage to PrEP.
Structure and Processes of Care
Authors: Kelemen Anne , Tosca Regina
Published: July 2024

I feel like I’m an observer in my life.
Psychological Aspects of Care
Authors: Onderdonk Chris , Thornberry Kathryn
Published: July 2024

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
Figuring It Out Together
Authors: Hicks Lance
Published: July 2024

I realized two years ago there was no such thing as mental healthcare for someone like me. It was 7 am, and I was standing alone in the ice-glazed parking lot behind glowing red emergency room doors. I don’t remember if I was crying, but I doubt it. Really, I doubt if I was breathing either. Sunrise was still thirty minutes away, and I had no idea where I was.
Informed Consent
Authors: Wickell Asher J
Published: July 2024

Three years along, my heart still stops a minute, some days, when you first walk in the door. I wonder if I’ll look like I know what I’m doing. I wonder if I’ll feel like I know what I’m doing—and whether you’ll notice. Sometimes, I can hold my curiosity out away from my anxiety; those are good days. Others, all my questions collapse into panic. I can worry about anything—how shaggy my beard is getting, or whether I wore the same shirt on this day last week, or if you already know I’m trans, and what it will be like for each of us when you find out. There are still stretches when I’m not at all certain I’m doing a convincing impression of “therapist.” The parts of myself I trust most are reasonably sure this is irrelevant to how much of a therapist I actually am. I try to remind myself of that, when I can’t get around to eating breakfast because my stomach is so unsettled over my next intake. Don’t take it personally—it’s definitely me, not you—but, of course, the same hesitation walks toe-to-heel with us both.
Introduction
Authors: Ostovar Afshon
Published: July 2024

This chapter begins with a discussion of how Iran’s support for Russia’s war on Ukraine evinces Iran’s ambitions to check Western hegemony, the shifting geopolitical orientation of Middle East states, and their growing importance in great power competition. It then outlines the central arguments of the book. It examines leading explanations for why the Middle East seems prone to conflict (foreign involvement, the resource curse, and weak state capacity), and suggests such explanations do not account for the role of agency of states, leaders, and non-state groups. It then discusses unsolved issues that attract outside intervention (Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Kurdish dilemma, and Iran’s nuclear program) and the major fault-lines in regional competition. It further explores how defense spending underpins competition, reveals power disparities, and shapes grand strategies (especially that of Iran) and provides context by discussing major conflicts and turning points of the 20th century that continue to reverberate in the 21st century.
Introduction
Authors: Fullington Doug , Smith Marian
Published: July 2024

This introduction begins with the point that while ballets are handed down, dancer to dancer, through oral tradition, there also exists a great wealth of documents that offers explicit written information about how many nineteenth-century ballets were performed in their earliest incarnations. This book is based largely on findings from three types of such documents: annotated répétiteurs, staging manuals created by Henri Justamant, and choreographic notations made in the Stepanov system. After providing information about these three types of documents, the authors offer a brief summary of the history of the Stepanov system, followed by a discussion of Nikolai Sergeyev’s reputation as notator and stager, arguing (after Roland John Wiley and Tim Scholl) that he has been unjustly maligned. Finally, the authors enumerate several other types of archival documents that they have used in the preparation of the book.
Mass Release, Faltering, and New Resistance
Authors: Bernstein Alyssa G.
Published: July 2024

This chapter explains how the changes described in the previous chapters transformed the Prisoners Movement. Focusing on the importance of emotions in framing a social movement, it explains how a sense of betrayal took root among Fatah members following the Oslo Accords. They lost interest in maintaining the structures of the Prisoners Movement, including daily schedules, compulsory education, and security. At the same time, the number of Hamas members was rising. Unlike Fatah, Hamas rejected the Oslo Accords from the outset and did not experience the same disillusionment. They maintained their internal discipline and took over some leadership of the Movement. A new strategy to cope with imprisonment, termed here ‘biding time’, arose. The chapter posits that this strategy, which aims to make prison as comfortable as possible, is part of the Palestinian strategy of sabr, or patience, a means of resistance for a long-term conflict.
Epilogue: Does the Prisoners Movement Still Exist?
Authors: Bernstein Alyssa G.
Published: July 2024

The Epilogue sums up this book’s major findings and extends its analysis of the Prisoners Movement to 2021. Using three case studies and the explanations of still-imprisoned Palestinian political leaders, it explores whether the Prisoners Movement has any power within Israeli prisons. Looking at Marwan Barghouti’s 2017 hunger strike, clashes in 2019 between Hamas and the Israel Prison Service over the installation of cell-phone-blocking devices, and finally at the 2021 escape through the ‘Tunnel of Freedom’ in Gilboa prison, the chapter shows that Palestinian prisoners still control a great deal of the environment of their ‘fortresses’. The Prisoners Movement, and Palestinians in prison generally, respond to and symbolically lead Palestinian resistance. In prison, where Israeli power has the greatest weight, Palestinians are not immune from the issues plaguing group resistance overall, yet might still innovate ways to overcome them.
Why Bother and Why It Matters?
Authors: Wordsworth Sam , Veeder Marie
Published: July 2024

This chapter considers how legal institutions may suddenly crumble, with the focus being the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), including by reference to the sudden loss of its two most senior officers and threats to its budget. The question of why it matters is addressed by reference to an example from history, the fate of the 1908 La Brea concession in Peru. In 1921, Great Britain and Peru had been able to agree to a one-off arbitration treaty and the then dispute was resolved. No such remedy could be agreed or was available in 1963, when a further and acrimonious dispute developed, which ultimately led to scandal and to a military coup, followed, in turn, by economic ruin. Hence why investment arbitration matters, and ICSID too.
The Importance of a Party Treating as Independent Its Independent Arbitrator
Authors: Wordsworth Sam , Veeder Marie
Published: July 2024

This chapter explains the importance of the appointment of an arbitrator who exercises their duties with strict independence, focusing on the catastrophic appointment of the then Lord Chief Justice Sir Alexander Cockburn as arbitrator in the Alabama Claims Arbitration, who was openly partisan and discourteous. The author observes that the appointment of a partisan arbitrator is counterproductive because he/she loses influence with the presiding arbitrator. A party-appointed arbitrator should ensure that all the arguments of the appointing party get a thorough and fair hearing; while, importantly, a party’s appointment of an independent arbitrator carries with it an obligation to respect that arbitrator’s independence.
Pathogens II
Authors: Stearns Stephen C. , Medzhitov Ruslan
Published: July 2024

This chapter discusses how pathogens evade and suppress host defences and how their virulence and resistance evolve. Bacteria and protozoa evade the immune system by varying the surface molecules recognized by the immune system. Some hide from the immune system within cells and manipulate them; some hide within cysts. Viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and worms all have ways to suppress the immune response. The virulence of a pathogen evolves to maintain pathogen fitness. It is influenced by how virulence affects transmission, the degree to which transmission is horizontal versus vertical, the frequency of single versus multiple infections, and whether the pathogen infects one or several host species. The virulence of a pathogen that spills over into a new host is unpredictable. Human interventions, including vaccinations, can influence the evolution of virulence. Resistance to antibiotics evolves quickly, spreads widely, and undermines therapy. Treatment strategies depend importantly on whether resistance genes in the infected host arise by de-novo mutations or were already present in the initial infection. It is critical that we develop ways to delay, avoid, or prevent the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Evolution-proof therapies are being explored.
Applying evolutionary thinking in the clinic
Authors: Stearns Stephen C. , Medzhitov Ruslan
Published: July 2024

This chapter discusses evolutionary insights that impact clinical treatments. The insight that symptoms are there for evolutionary reasons supports watchful waiting and cautious intervention when an ill person presents with fever or tonsillitis. The insight that chemotherapy selects resistance among cancer clones leads to strategies of adaptive therapy for the solid cancers that can be visualized. The crisis in antibiotic resistance calls for multiple alternative antimicrobial therapies. A promising one is phage therapy designed to exploit trade-offs that bacteria cannot avoid. It is saving lives and reducing suffering. When the gut microbiota is disrupted by antibiotics or surgery, resulting in Clostridioides difficile infections, fecal transplants are effective. Prebiotics and probiotics are also beneficial in certain cases. High-throughput sequencing at reasonable cost is allowing polygenic risk scores to be used to guide clinical therapy against a background of genome evolution that reflects the diversity produced by recent evolutionary history—a foundation of personalized medicine.
Epilogue
Authors: Jenks Tom
Published: July 2024

The Epilogue recounts an incident in which Baldwin, already a well-known and respected figure, having been invited to dinner by a white writer friend, was denied entrance by the doorman of the apartment building. Discussion and comparison of the relationship between “Sonny’s Blues” and Edward P. Jones’s “All Aunt Hagar’s Children,” which comes a half century later than Baldwin’s story and represents some aspects of social improvement and some worsened conditions, while regarding possibilities for the future, which was also Baldwin’s concern. Consideration of story writing as myth-making and revivification of archetypal motifs in progressively contemporary terms from age to age. Touches on today’s racial struggles and Baldwin’s focus on law, or justice, and on the human heart at the core of understanding and the willingness to create change and renewal.
Introduction: At the frontier of imagination. The Indian Diary of Vera Luboshinsky (1938-1945)
Authors: Deák Dušan
Published: July 2024

The Indian Diary of Vera Luboshinsky, a Russian émigré to Czechoslovakia, was written during the time she lived with the royal family of the Nawab of Bhopal and travelled across the Indian subcontinent. It is a rich autobiographical account completely unknown to global audiences. Written at the time of the Second World War, it contains Vera’s observations of India, ranging from comments on the lifestyle of the royal family and the people of Bhopal to her reflections on politics and her search for ‘the Indian India’. Drawing on current research of life histories, this Introduction presents the personal history of the Luboshinskys and the history of Vera’s Diary. It discusses Vera’s narrative strategy, which on the one hand claims to ‘write about our life in India and write the truth’, and on the other presents a literary account full of personal views, displaying the author’s deliberate and careful attempt to depict an imagined India and share it with her potential readers. The Introduction argues that the richness of content and the intensity of Vera’s engagement with the subject of India in her writing, illustrate how an individual life history can translate into a literary account that, despite being intertextually coded and individually framed, connects and creates several pasts. This, in turn, helps to revisit the social processes that modernity imprinted on non-Indian—and, in particular, female and Eastern European—representations of the experienced Indian realities.
A Day in the Life of . . .
Authors: Rai Shirin M.
Published: July 2024

What did you do yesterday? This is the question that animates this chapter. Analyzing the time used in social reproductive and paid labor by eight women across class boundaries in one day of their lives in New Delhi, this chapter explores how women from different social classes organize their paid and unpaid work, and how this is narrated, valued, and translated into everyday strategies of mitigating and replenishing to reverse depletion? How is this labor valued by those who do it and those who don’t? What philosophical, gendered, political, and social histories are harnessed in these narratives on work? The research presented in this chapter suggests that women experience depletion through modes of caring; those who are in paid employment value their work; and all women wish to be valued for their work within the home.
Postcards to the Future
Authors: Rai Shirin M.
Published: July 2024

This chapter explores the idea of depletion and anticipatory harm through examining the campaign of the Amadiba community to protect its everyday way of life in the Wild Coast region of South Africa. The members of the Amadiba communities anticipate harm, articulate it, resist it, and are also depleted by it. The deep connection between gender relations, ecologies and temporalities of depletion can be seen through people anticipating the harm to their communities and their life-worlds. The community pushes back against this threat, to generate a politics that aims to mitigate, replenish, and transform social relations. This story of anticipating harm provides an important lens to think through depletion as the costs of social reproduction and of resistance to the threat to the ecologies of communities.
Hebrew Letters
Authors: Jortner Adam
Published: July 2024

This chapter tells the story of how religious freedom in the American Revolution came as political change and religious choice. It focuses on the letter of Moses Seixas and the Newport Jews to George Washington, asking whether Jews would have full citizenship in the independent United States. Jews had received uneven and unequal treatment prior to the war, even in Rhode Island, which had been founded as a haven of religious tolerance. As the new American government got underway, President Washington made deliberate efforts to include small religious groups as full citizens—including the Jews of Newport. The letters of Seixas and Washington became a plank in the American history of religious freedom, indicating that the new relationship of faith and citizenship in the republic was not just an extension of British habits, but the decision of a free people.
The Jew Bill
Authors: Jortner Adam
Published: July 2024

This chapter explains the odyssey of the Jew Bill, Thomas Kennedy’s efforts to expand the rights of officeholding to Jews. This event saw Maryland politics divided into the “Christian Ticket” and the “No Jew Bill Ticket” in 1823. The opponents of the Jew Bill proceeded to give the loudest denunciation of Jewish civil rights as a threat to Christian belief yet heard in the independent United States. Those in favor of the Bill pointed repeatedly to the words and deeds of Founding Fathers as supporters of broad religious citizenship. According to Jew Bill supporters, religious freedom for all was a revolutionary ideal that became a reality as the nation achieved independence. Opponents claimed that the Constitution and revolution were contracts that only applied to Christians at the moment of their creation. This idea has sometimes been cited in the modern age as evidence of “original intent,” but it is historically false. The Jew Bill eventually passed, but its legacy points out that religious freedom must be built and rebuilt by every generation
pēē ä wēē, an Outrageous Clatter, and Other Sounds of Acclimatization
Authors: Hui Alexandra
Published: July 2024

This chapter traces the shifting sounds of European starlings following their introduction to North America at the end of the nineteenth century. Determining how and why the hearing of the birds’ sounds changed over the time offers an answer to the question of whether sounds themselves are subject to acclimatization. The public-facing rhetoric of naturalists and USDA scientists documenting the spread of the starling reflected anxiety about human immigration, sharing concerns about noise, clatter, and din. Further, I show how the sounds of abatement and modern industrialized agriculture became interchangeable with the sounds of the bird itself. Perhaps these human-made bird sounds are the sound of acclimatization?
Introduction
Authors: Oyallon-Koloski Jenny
Published: July 2024

This introduction lays the historical, analytical, and theoretical foundations that support the book. It begins by establishing the importance of cinematic choreography and figure movement as narrative and stylistic tools in musical cinema. Elements of film form mediate the movements of the human figure in significant ways, and filmmakers have learned to draw on key craft practices to guide viewer attention, communicate narrative and stylistic information, and solve aesthetic problems. To demonstrate these strategies, the introduction expands on the book’s methodological foundations in film studies, videographic criticism, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies, and performative research. It then emphasizes why the industrial specificity of the film musical makes it an ideal study for discussions of figure movement on screen.
The Great Depression
Authors: Rogovoy Seth
Published: July 2024

Chapter 33 of Within You Without You, “The Great Depression,” considers the possibility that George Harrison may have suffered from clinical depression. Song titles alone tell half the story: “For You Blue,” “Deep Blue,” “So Sad,” “Tired of Midnight Blue,” “Grey Cloudy Lies,” and “Teardrops,” to name just a few. The color blue, clouds, darkness, tears, and greyness are words and concepts Harrison repeatedly turned to in his songwriting. In interviews, Harrison and his wife Olivia alluded to “clouds of gloom” over his head. It is no great stretch to conclude that Harrison viewed the world through eyes full of tears hidden behind blue-tinted glasses.
Structural Violence Is Self-Repairing
Authors: Ruíz Elena
Published: July 2024

Chapter 1 addresses the question: What is “structural” about “structural violence” in the context of systemic racism in settler colonial societies? It elucidates the standard social scientific view of structural violence used in the social sciences and humanities, and it critiques the critical feature of this view as having “no identifiable culprit or aggressor.” It tracks the influence of this view on feminist political philosophy and associated views of “structural injustice.” It traces various projects in voter suppression, implicit-bias training, and philosophy as part of the machinery of oppression produced by structural violence, and it outlines an anticolonial theory of social regeneration that accounts for the self-repairing and adaptive features of settler colonial white supremacy.
Structural Violence Is by Design
Authors: Ruíz Elena
Published: July 2024

Chapter 4 argues that structural violence is intentional through an extended look at “gaslighting.” This chapter shows how intentionally structured harm can exist without invoking psychological notions of individual intent. It explains the social engineering behind distribution-of-harm designs in settler colonial cultures by looking at structural invariance in healthcare metrics, such as Black maternal mortality rates. It introduces the notion of “cultural gaslighting” as a heuristic for identifying the intentional features of white dynastic formations and tracking the impacts of such predesigned harms in the daily lives of women of color. This chapter also argues that the US legal system is specifically designed to reject legal claims based on structural violence and explains why this is critical to its ability to operationalize racial violence while extending civil rights protections in name only.
Be Plural! A Poet’s Creed
Authors: Ganeri Jonardon
Published: July 2024

Fernando Pessoa was not the first to associate the creed of the poet with a demand to be many. We can better appreciate what makes Pessoa unique by way of a brief review of his premodern precursors. In a letter dated October 27, 1818, the Romantic poet John Keats famously described the poet as a chameleon. Likewise, Hazlitt’s Shakespeare has only to exercise his formidable powers of imagination, anticipation, and intuition in order to “become that thing,” and in so doing to think what it thinks, feel what it feels, and in general experience the world as it does, from its perspective. Against the background of these two premodern understandings of the poet’s creed, Pessoa comes out with a radically new and modern one. He enacts his motto “Be plural like the universe!” by becoming a plurality of poets, including the famous triplet in Portuguese literature.
Government
Authors: Talen Emily
Published: July 2024

This chapter discusses government buildings. It elaborates on how the placement of government sends a political message, like how the location of the executive branch in Putrajaya is superior compared to the legislature. Symbolism is reflected in the degree of centrality, and the connections and hierarchies between important buildings and places. The chapter then identifies that there are two types of capital cities in the most recent times: the classic model and the modernist model. The chapter explains that ideal cities, not intended as a commercial venture, express political values in built form, citing that Renaissance city planning translated to capital cities throughout Europe.
Towers in a Park
Authors: Talen Emily
Published: July 2024

This chapter covers the significance of towers in parks. By the late 19th century, the skyscraper ushered in a new level of vertical monumentalism that held exclusively corporate and commercial powers. Tall buildings set in parks were more visible as monuments to rationality and the rule of reason. The chapter explains how towers in parks separate people from the ground and their surroundings, which correlates to their sense of belonging and actions. Thus, urban districts composed of high-rise living are regularly interpreted as places where people are alienated from each other and the outside world. However, skyscrapers can also be interpreted as a reconciliation of density and green space.
Washington Recedes
Authors: Chervinsky Lindsay M.
Published: July 2024

In the fall of 1796, the Republican and Federalist parties waged a presidential campaign for the first time. They met in caucuses to nominate candidates: Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr for the Republicans, and John Adams and Thomas Pinckney for the Federalists. Following eighteenth-century custom, both Adams and Jefferson remained at home, while their supporters organized events, coordinated voter efforts, and published pieces in partisan newspapers. The campaign centered around questions of foreign policy and how the presidency might work without George Washington at the helm.
Massacre the Inhabitants
Authors: Chervinsky Lindsay M.
Published: July 2024

On May 9, 1798—the date President Adams had set aside as a day of fasting and prayer—mob violence swept through the city of Philadelphia. Although state authorities restored order and prevented widespread destruction, the chaos confirmed many Federalists’ worst fears about the influx of immigration, partisan organizing, and inflammatory (and often false) speech in newspapers. Many of these threats appeared to be the product of a nefarious partnership between France and the Republican Party. In response, Congress passed a series of laws to limit citizenship, restrict free speech, and empower the president to deport resident aliens.
Struck by a Thunderbolt
Authors: Chervinsky Lindsay M.
Published: July 2024

The Arch Federalists were horrified by Adams’s appointment of William Vans Murray as special envoy to France. A committee of Federalist senators visited the president, attempting to persuade him to withdraw the nomination. Adams refused, so the senators threatened to reject the appointment. After a stalemate, Adams agreed to nominate two other Federalist envoys as part of a three-person commission. The squabble over the nomination revealed the increasing divisions within the Federalist Party and forecast a coming showdown over executive power, the presidency, and the cabinet.
A Paltry Insurrection
Authors: Chervinsky Lindsay M.
Published: July 2024

John Adams issued a presidential proclamation calling for the immediate end of the rebellion. Fries and his fellow protestors complied with the order; there was no violence or further resistance. Unconvinced, the president ordered Secretary of War James McHenry to summon the local militia to subdue the insurrection. Adams then left Philadelphia to return to Quincy for the next nine months. It was one of the worst decisions of his presidency. In his absence, the militia force arrested any suspected rebels, including John Fries. Fries and several leaders of the rebellion were charged and convicted of treason.
Dreaming the New Woman
Authors: Bond Jennifer
Published: July 2024

Chapter 3 discusses how students constructed and performed their gendered identities at mission schools for girls. It highlights the alliance between the Chinese government’s and missionaries’ rather conservative goals for women’s education, namely, to create good wives and wise mothers. The paradoxes of being a missionary school student are also revealed in the chapter. Missionary schools offered girls an all-female space in which they could daydream new roles for themselves. They envisioned a future society where they could become lawyers, bankers, politicians, and even interstellar explorers. From dressing as male and pursuing same-sex courtships, to acting male roles in the school play and taking on leadership roles, missionary schools also offered girls a space in which they could experiment with new ways of being a woman in China. Upon graduation, however, girls woke up to the reality of a society in which traditional gendered ideas about women’s homemaking roles were firmly entrenched.
‘A Gay Presence’
Authors: Grundy David
Published: July 2024

In the early 1970s, the nationwide upsurge of Gay Liberation saw a concurrent blooming of gay poetry. Addressing Boston-based queer anarchist group Fag Rag and the related Good Gay Poets Press, the chapter focuses on texts by Charley Shively which advance a frank, explicit, and sex-positive view of sexuality, before turning to John Wieners’ work of the 1970s: radically performative, formally disjunctive, and centred in working-class, non-neurotypical, and queer lived experience. Feminist, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist in its focus, and intent on challenging conventional understandings of family, private property, and the state, such work, as Michael Bronski puts it, ‘conceptualised a new way to be gay’. Emblematic of the utopian sexual politics of the pre-AIDS era, the writings of Wieners and Shively are a vital component of post-Stonewall queer history in the United States.
Jewish Mobilities and the Business of Migration
Authors: Brinkmann Tobias
Published: July 2024

In a transformative phase during the middle decades of the nineteenth century the railroad business in Central and Eastern Europe attracted several Jewish investors and entrepreneurs. These mobility entrepreneurs made a substantial impact on mass mobility in and far beyond Eastern Europe. In the 1880s and 1890s Albert Ballin, the son of a Jewish ticket broker from Denmark, turned the Hamburg America Line into the largest steamship line in the world. German steamship lines dominated the transatlantic passenger market in Eastern Europe. The mobility revolution displaced many Jews from economic niches, forcing especially younger men and women to move to industrializing cities. Increasing numbers crossed the Atlantic to the United States. The railroad stories of Sholem Aleichem illustrate the dramatic social transformation and the ambiguities of mobility for Jews in this period.
Exposure Science to Protect Children’s Health
Authors: Weisel Clifford P.
Published: July 2024

Exposure science is the study of human contact with chemical, physical, and biological contaminants in the environment. Exposure science is critical for understanding and quantifying relationships between exposures and health effects. Knowledge of exposure is essential for preventing diseases of environmental origin. Exposure science studies the routes of exposure to environmental hazards. These include inhalation, dermal absorption, ingestion, and injection. Measurement of total exposure and of total risk from environmental exposure requires consideration of exposures to multiple contaminants via multiple routes. Total exposure is a function of not only of the levels of contaminants in the environment, but also of the human activities and behaviors that lead to contact with contaminants. Quantification and characterization of exposure is undertaken through a series of direct and indirect measurements. These include traditional environmental monitoring as well as personal environmental sampling and biological sampling.
Developmental Toxicology and Children’s Environmental Health
Authors: Levin Edward D.
Published: July 2024

Developmental toxicology is the study of toxic exposures in early life and their impacts on health and development. It employs a combination of experimental and human studies. Early development from zygote, through gestation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence is a highly vulnerable period. Exposures to environmental toxicants in early development can disrupt developmental processes and result in lifelong functional impairment. The timing of exposure is of critical importance. Early development is also a time of enhanced exposures to toxic substances because of sole-source nutrition and hand-to-mouth behavior. Even low-level exposures to environmental toxicants can be deleterious when they occur on a population-wide scale and result in widespread impairment. The consequences of developmental toxicity are not restricted to children. The entire population has progressed through development, and people of all ages can bear lifelong impacts of early toxic events.
The School/Child Care Environment
Authors: Galvez Maida P. , Evans Sarah , Mann Mana , Paul Hester
Published: July 2024

Children of all ages in most countries may spend from 35 to 50 hours every week in schools and other learning environments. These learning environments are multifaceted and include the routes that children take to school, the buildings where they attend class, eating areas, pools, gymnasia, and outdoor areas such as playgrounds and sports fields. Healthy school environments optimize children’s learning potential and minimize harmful exposures that may cause injuries or trigger illnesses such as asthma. Unhealthy schools, by contrast, may result in exposures to toxic chemicals or other environmental hazards that impair children’s health. Unhealthy school environments can be the result of poor school siting. Unhealthy school environments can result also from use of unsafe materials in school construction such as asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, or synthetic turf fields. And unhealthy schools can result from use of toxic chemicals such as noxious cleaning products, hazardous arts supplies, or dangerous pesticides within the school environment. These hazards are magnified when schools are poorly ventilated.
Nanomaterials and Child Health
Authors: Sripada Kam
Published: July 2024

Nanomaterials are all around us. Nanomaterials are used in everything from paint to batteries, car tires, sunscreen, and water filters, and they are generated unintentionally through combustion, friction, volcanic eruptions, and countless other processes in nature. Nanomaterials represent a growing category of potentially toxic substances for children. Some nanoscale particles may be more toxic than larger forms, and some nanomaterials are smaller than the barriers of the human body. It is therefore important to understand the potential for early exposures. Even if just a small fraction crosses the body’s protective barriers, this can still be a large number of particles.
Engaging in YPAR With Middle School Students
Authors: Hayden Laura A. , Siwek Faith , Cox Mackenzie , Gould Kait
Published: July 2024

The purpose of this chapter is to consider the use of youth participatory action research (YPAR) in middle school settings. Developmentally, middle school students traverse a period of identity formation shaped by interactions with peers and the larger ecosystem, including familial values and traditions as well as the greater community and society, making YPAR an intriguing approach to support their development. The authors offer a case study that illustrates YPAR as a multimodal process with positive youth development outcomes for students. The authors also offer recommendations for how school counselors can engage in YPAR with middle school students. The authors start at the individual level, with student voices being centered and elevated, with attention to improving personal and community circumstances while simultaneously building coping and collective healing strategies to support capacity for cocreating equitable systems and practices.
Why Exact Repetitions May Not Be the Best Goal
Authors: Gebrian Molly
Published: July 2024

Deliberately changing the details and parameters of a skill enables us to learn the skill in a richer, more flexible way, enhancing performance. This is known as variable practice. The use of variable practice is dependent on skill level, however. Novices already have a high level of variability in their execution of a skill, and so introducing more is likely to be detrimental. As skill level improves, introducing a greater variety of variation will be more beneficial than sticking with uniform practice. In addition to discussing this research, this chapter offers variable practice ideas specific to musicians, including instrument-specific ideas.
The Most Effective Ways to Memorize Music
Authors: Gebrian Molly
Published: July 2024

There are different types of memory that all work together seamlessly on a day-to-day basis. Understanding these different types and how to strengthen them individually increases ability and confidence in memorized performance. This chapter discusses the various types of memory used in performing, focusing on the most important type of memory for consistent performance: long-term memory. The formation of long-term memories requires three stages—encoding, consolidation, and retrieval—the first of which is the focus of this chapter. Specific practice strategies are given to enhance encoding, targeting the different subtypes of memory involved, namely muscle memory, auditory memory, and declarative memory.
The Earnings-Return Relation
Authors: Frankel Richard M. , Kothari S. P. , Zuo Luo
Published: July 2024

This chapter describes research on the magnitude and determinants of the relation between stock returns and accounting earnings, that is, the earnings response coefficient (ERC). ERC research is motivated by its potential use in valuation and fundamental analysis as well as in performing more powerful tests of contracting or disclosure hypotheses in accounting. The literature documents two prominent phenomena: (1) the estimated ERC is relatively small compared to its predicted value, and (2) the incremental slope on negative returns is positive in a piecewise linear regression of earnings on returns. To explain these empirical patterns, researchers advance several hypotheses, such as prices leading earnings and accounting conservatism. This chapter emphasizes that economic fundamentals and accounting practices jointly determine the observed earnings-return relation.
The land between the rivers
Authors: Paulette Tate
Published: July 2024

The chapter “The Land Between the Rivers” introduces ancient Mesopotamia, the geographical, cultural, and historical setting for the remainder of the book. The chapter begins with the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the great classics of Mesopotamian literature and also one of the most vivid illustrations of the centrality of beer in the Mesopotamian worldview. Early in the tale, the wild man Enkidu is taught to eat bread and drink beer like a civilized human being. After recounting this episode, the chapter provides an introduction to the environment and geography of Mesopotamia, as well as the key types of source material available: archaeological remains, cuneiform documents, and artistic representations. Following a brief discussion of chronology and dating, the chapter concludes by considering the position of beer within Mesopotamian history. Attention is devoted in turn to the connection beer and the city, the state, the economy, and inequality.