bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Nordic Paradox
Authors: Ornston Darius
Published: May 2019

This chapter introduces the “Nordic paradox,” asking why countries that are so economically successfully make such poor policy choices and suffer such devastating economic crises, including the banking crises of the early 1990s, the dot com crash, Finnish dependence on Nokia, and the recent Icelandic financial crisis. Nordic success is puzzling in its own right, as traditional theories based on state intervention, labor power resources, and employer organization cannot explain the diverse ways in which the Nordic countries have succeeded over time. Drawing on the literature on small states, the chapter hypothesizes that cohesive, encompassing networks best explain the Nordic region's capacity for radical reform and restructuring as well as its vulnerability to overshooting.
Overshooting in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Ornston Darius
Published: May 2019

While the book leverages cross-national differences within Nordic Europe, this chapter examines several small, open societies without cohesive, encompassing networks. While Austria and Switzerland are consensual societies, regional, linguistic and industrial cleavages have generated a pronounced status quo bias, characterized by the gradual modernization of existing industries rather than big leaps into fundamentally new ones. This incremental orientation has insulated these countries from Nordic-style economic crises. Greece and Portugal are characterized by Nordic levels of volatility, but here high levels of fragmentation and polarization have inhibited efforts to resolve basic collective action problems such as industrial peace and macroeconomic stability. In these countries, the challenge is not too much reform and restructuring, but too little.
Overshooting beyond Nordic Europe
Authors: Ornston Darius
Published: May 2019

This chapter illustrates how the politics of overshooting apply outside of Nordic Europe by identifying two countries with cohesive, encompassing networks and high levels of economic volatility. Ireland differs from Nordic Europe in several respects, but it has suffering a strikingly similar set of abrupt policy reversals and dramatic boom-bust cycles. Tight-knit relationships also supported comprehensive reform and restructuring in Estonia. Dense, widely distributed ties facilitated rapid digitalization, but also increased the country's vulnerability to external shocks, including the 2007-2009 credit crunch and the emerging threat of cyberwarfare.
Lessons for Large States
Authors: Ornston Darius
Published: May 2019

At first glance, large states such as France, Germany, and the United States appear very different from their Nordic counterparts. Reform and restructuring proceeds at a slower pace, overshooting is less pronounced, and economic volatility is lower. At the same time, I suggest that even fragmented, polarized countries may resemble the Nordic countries at a local level, where individuals are more likely to know and trust one another. Examining the politics of economic adjustment in San Diego, California and Waterloo, Ontario, I illustrate how local communities can use the politics of interconnectedness to accelerate restructuring, as well as the risks associated with this strategy.
Pursuing Hegemony
Authors: Walker William O.
Published: May 2019

This chapter describes how the United States forged the American Century while pursuing hegemony from 1945 through 1949. More than consultation with friends and allies was necessary after the onset of the Cold War. To demonstrate the nation’s credibility, the Department of State, through the efforts of George Marshall, George Kennan, and Dean Acheson, fashioned programs for military aid and economic assistance, namely, the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. The former prefigured the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, whereas the Marshall Plan, thanks to the work of the Economic Cooperation Administration, became a model for economic reconstruction in strategically vital places in Western Europe and beyond, most notably Japan.
Seeking Order and Stability
Authors: Walker William O.
Published: May 2019

This chapter examines how the Eisenhower administration sought to bring stability to a changing world. Global containment remained at the heart of grand strategy, focusing on developments in the Third World. The rise to power of the Shah of Iran and Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam after France’s defeat at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 bolstered the American Century, yet officials could not ignore the growth of radical nationalism, as represented by Jacobo Árbenz Guzmân in Guatemala, Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, and nations present at the Bandung Conference in April 1955. Nation-building offered one response through educational programs and religious missions. To guard against revolution, Washington supported counterinsurgency operations in places where radicalism took hold.
Sustaining Leadership
Authors: Walker William O.
Published: May 2019

This chapter argues that Washington maintained its position of global leadership in the second half of the 1950s, keeping alive prospects for growth of the American Century. Challenges were many, including the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, the lure of trade with the People’s Republic of China, and instability in the Middle East and Indochina. In the Western Hemisphere, the rise of Fidel Castro in Cuba shook American prestige. Responses resulted in an arms race with the USSR and a greater U.S. strategic presence from Indochina to Pakistan and Lebanon. Importantly, economic aid to the Third World via the World Bank, Development Loan Fund, and Inter-American Development Bank drew on the tenets of modernization theory.
Attaining Primacy
Authors: Walker William O.
Published: May 2019

This chapter explores Richard Nixon’s and Henry Kissinger’s disdain for hegemony and search for primacy as they sought to refurbish America’s tarnished reputation. Through their pursuit of détente with the Soviet Union and China, their resort to the Nixon Doctrine (to exit as gracefully as possible from Indochina), and the meeting at the Smithsonian Institution in December 1971 to restore America’s global economic stature, they attempted to achieve U.S. primacy in world affairs. Their efforts to implement the novel grand strategy of strategic globalism fell short, as seen in the difficulty of extricating the United States from Vietnam, Nixon’s Watergate imbroglio, and the presence of competing visions of world order among allies, most notably in West Germany’s pursuit of Ostpolitik.
The Commander’s Dilemma
Authors: Hoover Green Amelia
Published: May 2019

This chapter discusses the Commander's Dilemma framework that motivated the study of Salvadoran armed groups, examining literature from sociology, social psychology, and economics to understand why restraint is rare, and when it can succeed. This theoretical approach rests on four claims. First, to succeed, commanders must increase combatants' predispositions to violence. Yet—second—both training and combat durably increase combatants' predispositions to violence in general, not only their predisposition to perpetrate ordered killings of enemy soldiers. Third, commanders wish to avoid violence that appears likely to threaten the group's, or the commander's, survival, including some unordered violence against civilians. This imperative conflicts with the necessity to increase violent predispositions. These conflicting imperatives are referred to as the Commander's Dilemma. Fourth, purely extrinsic incentives are not sufficient to halt unordered violence in irregular war, because so many violence-causing factors are present in most conflict contexts. Violence is, in a word, overdetermined.
The Outlaw
Authors: Hohendahl Peter Uwe
Published: May 2019

The first chapter focuses on Schmitt’s post-war diaries (Glossarium) and a number of small essays written between 1946 and 1949. In these works Schmitt seeks to come to terms with the defeat of the Third Reich, his own fate as a well-known collaborator, and the situation of the German people. The reading underscores Schmitt’s resistance to the admission of guilt and analyses his strategies to present himself as the victim of liberal moralism. At the centre of the inquiry stands Schmitt’s complex and conflicted self-definition in religious, political and professional terms.
Revolutionary War and Absolute Enemy
Authors: Hohendahl Peter Uwe
Published: May 2019

The fourth chapter refers to a historical situation defined by Schmitt as the stage of global civil war. It examines Schmitt’s understanding of the history of irregular warfare, especially of the conflicts that spread after World War II in response to liberation movements and social revolutions in third-world countries. The reading stresses the conflicted sympathies of Schmitt’s theoretical intervention: his defence of late European colonialism on the one hand and his empathy for the logic of revolutionary wars, resulting in the figure of the absolute enemy. In this context the theological horizon of civil war is addressed as well.
Final Reflections
Authors: Hohendahl Peter Uwe
Published: May 2019

The last chapter discusses the present state of Schmitt research and the relevance of his work for political and legal theory. The chapter traces the changes of Schmitt’s reception in the West from the 1990s until the present, giving a critical account especially of the normalization of Schmitt’s late work after 2000 in the context of a new geopolitical approach to a globalized political order. The discussion closes on a sceptical note.
Melancholy, Ecstasy, Phantasma
Authors: Roychoudhury Suparna
Published: May 2019

This chapter considers the broad pathological discourse of imagination, particularly the relation between faculty psychology and the Galenic theory of humors. While imaginative hallucination and melancholic disorder had been linked since antiquity, it seemed to physicians of the seventeenth century that delusive melancholia had reached pandemic proportions. At a time when medicine was struggling to distinguish between natural and supernatural disorders, Shakespearean tragedy foregrounds the difficulty of diagnosis itself. Whereas it is yet possible in Hamlet to make deductions about the mind’s health from the condition of the imagination, the nebulous mental diseases of Macbeth more grimly blur the distinction between normal and pathological ideation.
Introduction
Authors: Ibrahim Nur Amali
Published: May 2019

This chapter explains the main concept of the book, religious improvisation, or how the practice of Islam involves trial and error and is contingent upon context. The possibility for religious improvisation has been enhanced in Indonesia’s transition from authoritarianism and democracy, which is why both conservative Islamists and liberal Muslims—the main actors shaping Indonesian democracy—are participating in it. Religious improvisation produces part-Islamic, part-Western assemblages. Such hybrid practices may indeed seem strange and surprising, and they importantly challenge dominant assumptions that Islam is external to Western secular liberalism.
Religion Unleashed
Authors: Ibrahim Nur Amali
Published: May 2019

Building on the previous chapter, this chapter argues that religious innovation among student activists has also been enabled by the fall of Suharto’s New Order regime in 1998. Unlike life during authoritarianism, democracy meant that religious identity is no longer subject to the same degree of microscopic governmental surveillance. People are able to try on different religious identities as they join various ideological groups at once, or move between them, and pursue different strategies to deal with the enlargement of secular liberal ideals in this context. The flurry of religious improvisation produces the counter-intuitive patterns of Islamists emerging from secular schools and liberal Muslims from madrasas.
Conclusion
Authors: Flood Julee T. , Leap Terry L.
Published: May 2019

Institutions are often viewed as moving targets for the media and other critics. This chapter summarizes some of the controversies surrounding U.S. institutions of higher learning. Future considerations are also examined along with a discussion of how risk management can help to deal with problems facing U.S. institutions of higher education.
Cheer Up, Vietnam
Authors: Leheny David
Published: May 2019

Nguyen Viet and Duc are likely the most famous Vietnamese in Japan, with the possible exception of the modern nation’s founder, Ho Chi Minh himself. Viet and Duc, conjoined twins who were likely the victims of in utero Agent Orange contamination, had received life-saving medical treatment in Tokyo in 1986, two years before the surgery to separate them in Vietnam, with Japanese support. Viet remained in a coma after that 1988 operation, finally dying in 2007, while Duc has emerged as a living symbol of Vietnamese-Japanese relations. This chapter examines this episode and its aftermath, tracing the ways in which a broad national narrative shaped views of Japan’s changing place in an Asian international order.
Management Strategies in Transnational Workspaces
Authors: Wagner Ines
Published: May 2019

Chapter 3 combines institutional theory with strategic perspectives drawn from the sociology of organizations to examine how industrial relations actors “enact” EU rules at the micro-level of the workplace. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to study how micro-level societal actors such as firms, unions, works councils, and individual workers interact with the changing regulatory configuration. It studies how employers enact the posting framework creatively by circumventing rules. This chapter demonstrates how these mechanisms initiate a process of institutional change through power dynamics at the micro-level that are generally relevant for theories about institutional change. In pursuit of a more nuanced understanding of the regulatory dynamics of posted work, this chapter identifies the ways in which actors draw on different power resources to influence the outcomes of negotiations or to implement policies without negotiation at the workplace level.
The Alliance Politics of Nuclear Proliferation
Authors: Lanoszka Alexander
Published: May 2019

This chapter introduces the main themes and arguments of the book. It argues that alliances should make problematic instruments for thwarting nuclear proliferation despite the conventional wisdom that they have been partly responsible for keeping the number of states armed with nuclear weapons low. One reason is that they are ultimately unbelievable since states can still decide to forego spending blood and treasure to rescue an ally in dire need. Another reason is that strengthening alliance ties to discourage nuclear proliferation could lead to other undesirable behaviours that might increase the chance of war. In light of this puzzle, this introductory chapter sketches the book’s main argument that alliances can be most useful for preventing potential nuclear proliferation but much less useful for curbing actual nuclear proliferation.
West Germany, 1954–1970
Authors: Lanoszka Alexander
Published: May 2019

Several leading international scholars argue that West Germany enjoyed limited autonomy in the Cold War and was thus susceptible to American coercion, especially on issues relating to nuclear weapons. This chapter challenges such arguments. It shows that the alliance with the United States was less useful for curbing West German nuclear ambitions than commonly presumed. It also demonstrates that in-theater conventional forces mattered for bolstering American extended nuclear guarantees to West Germany. American coercion of West Germany was important, but it played a much less direct role than what many scholars claim. Other factors—especially domestic politics—drove West Germany’s final choices pertaining to whether it should get nuclear weapons.
The Perraults in the Countryside
Authors: Rabinovitch Oded
Published: May 2019

Always in need of credit, financiers had to project an image of wealth, and literature became a means for supporting this avenue of mobility. The Perraults entertained other notables and men of letters in their country house at Viry, and spread their reputation through poems that described the sumptuous dinners held there. This chapter argues that Charles’s entry to the world of letters was motivated by the need to augment the reputation of Pierre, whose career in finance peaked in those years. This analysis, coupled with a study of later representations of the Perraults’ social and literary life in this period, serves to present a nuanced view of the hotly-debated concept of the “salon” as applicable to seventeenth-century literary life.
Failure in Finance and the Rise of Charles Perrault (1660–1680)
Authors: Rabinovitch Oded
Published: May 2019

With the beginning of Louis XIV’s “personal reign,” a new and powerful minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, assumed control of the monarchy’s financial and cultural endeavors. The first result was Pierre’s disgrace, as part of the general purge of the financiers orchestrated by Colbert. But Charles profited from this change. Using the literary reputation that he had already acquired, he became one of Colbert’s trusted cultural advisors. Supported by Charles’s influence, Claude became one of the founding members of the French Academy of Sciences, and Pierre himself cultivated literary and scientific endeavors in an effort to join one of the royal academies. As this chapter shows, in this period writing became the most important avenue for social mobility left to the family members.
Claude Perrault and the Mechanics of Animals
Authors: Rabinovitch Oded
Published: May 2019

This chapter starts with one individual–Claude–and examines how the impact of the family on scientific inquiry is seen when examined from the perspective of the individual. Studying Claude’s renowned zoological work on the “mechanics of animals,” this chapter shows the project depended on a unique set of skills Claude possessed, from drawing to knowledge of mechanics, rather than on any specific set of philosophical commitments. Tracing these skills to Claude’s place in the family network, this chapter argues that the family played a crucial role in pre-modern scientific creativity. Moreover, the detailed reconstruction of the “mechanics of animals” project shows how the Academy of Sciences functioned in practice as a node in a broader network.
Changing the State’s Story
Authors: Dixon Jennifer M.
Published: May 2019

This chapter introduces a conceptual framework with which to analyze official narratives of dark pasts, fleshes out the argument introduced in the previous chapter, and discusses the nature of change in states’ narratives. The conceptual framework consists of eight steps, ranging from silencing and denial to acknowledgment and on to commemoration, each of which captures a possible element of an official narrative. The core argument is that international pressures increase the likelihood of change in official narratives of dark pasts, while domestic considerations determine the content of such change. In particular, decisions about whether and how to respond to international pressures are contingent on four types of domestic considerations: material concerns, legitimacy and identity concerns, electoral-political concerns, and domestic contestation. Finally, the nature of change in states’ narratives is characterized by feedback effects and layering, and is typically incremental, multifaceted, and multivalent.
“History Issues” in the Postwar Period (1952–1989)
Authors: Dixon Jennifer M.
Published: May 2019

This chapter analyzes Japan’s narrative over the course of the Cold War. The first phase of Japan’s narrative was characterized by silencing, mythmaking, and relativizing and lasted from the return of Japan’s sovereignty in 1952 until the beginning of negotiations to normalize relations with China in 1971. The second phase began in 1971 and extended through 1982. Alongside a continued focus on Japanese victimhood, the official narrative shifted to include general acknowledgment, along with vague expressions of regret. The third phase began in 1982 and ended with Emperor Hirohito’s death in early 1989. Overall, the official narrative more explicitly identified the Nanjing Massacre and Japan’s aggression, although the general tenor of acknowledgment remained vague. Broadly speaking, these changes arose from the normalization of relations between Japan and China, pressures from China and other victim states, and domestic contestation of “history issues” and war responsibility.
Can You Get to Socialism by Camel?
Authors: Cameron Sarah
Published: May 2019

This chapter examines the initial phase of Soviet rule over the Kazakh steppe, scrutinizing how officials, ethnographers and Kazakhs themselves struggled to fit Kazakhs’ nomadic practices and the Kazakh steppe’s arid environment into a Marxist-Leninist worldview. Initially, Moscow pursued a contradictory approach, seeking to support pastoral nomadism in some realms and weaken it in others. Nonetheless, this chapter finds that there were aspects of Kazakhs’ practice of nomadism that brought this way of life into clear tension with the proposals for more rapid industrialization that began to circulate during this era. By 1928, Moscow’s assault on pastoral nomadism had begun.
Public Mapping and Redistricting Reform
Authors: McDonald Michael P. , Altman Micah
Published: May 2019

This concluding chapter looks at the benefits of public mapping. The public approaches redistricting from a perspective fundamentally different from that of politicians. Redistricting plans produced by the public, compared to plans adopted by redistricting authorities, are generally more politically fair, have more competitive districts, have at least the same number or more voting rights districts, are more compact, and adhere more closely to existing political boundaries. Indeed, when politicians gerrymander, they are not particularly interested in achieving any goal other than political advantage. The chapter then argues that public mapping should be a component of redistricting reform. Redistricting is an astoundingly complex problem that benefits from having more maps to help inform the range of possible policy choices. Thus, redistricting authorities should accept, consider, and be responsive to redistricting plans created by the public. Public mapping can also help inform the courts about the intent of a redistricting authority.
Boat anchoring contributes substantially to coral reef degradation in the British Virgin Islands
Authors: Flynn Rebecca L. , Forrester Graham E.
Published: May 2019

Community decline is often linked to anthropogenic activities. Coral reef declines, for example, have been linked to overfishing and climate change, but impacts of coastal development, pollution, and tourism have received increasing attention. Here, we isolated the impact of one little-studied aspect of recreational activity on coral reefs—damage from boat anchoring—by performing a survey of 24 sites in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) subject to varying levels of anchoring activity. The percent cover of hard corals and sea fans was reduced by a factor of ∼1.7 and ∼2.6 respectively at highly anchored sites. Hard coral colonies were  40% smaller in surface area and ∼60% less dense at sites experiencing high anchoring frequency. In addition, highly anchored sites supported only ∼60% of the species richness of little anchored sites. Frequently anchored sites were ∼60% as structurally complex and supported less than half as many fish as those rarely anchored, with 5 of 7 fish functional groups affected. Roughly 24% of BVI coral reef by area appears suitable for anchoring, suggesting that impacts associated with boat anchoring may be both locally severe and more pervasive than previously appreciated.
Tinuy-an, The Hidden Treasure and other literary forms in barangay Burboanan
Authors: Almazan Lilifreda , Mundiz Teresa May A. , Salazar Edwin C.
Published: May 2019

This study examines the different literary forms present in Burboanan, Bislig City, where the indigenous tribe, Mandaya Kamayo, is still thriving and practicing their culture and more alongside the new one. It aimed to anthologize literary traditions found in their locality like the indigenous songs, myths, and rituals. Purposive sampling was used involving key informants such as the Mandaya leaders. A triangulation was done with a focused group discussion with the Ancestral Domain Council elders, and documentation of demonstrations on the indigenous ways of life for these people. The study found out that oral tradition is still a dominant practice in the literary scene in Burboanan. The tribe has myth on the origin of the name Tinuy-an; a collection of songs, or bagi; and rituals are done for their anito in order to ask for abundant harvests and heal sick relatives. With this information, a contextualized resource material has been developed for social science classes. The study concludes that nature played a big part in the lives of indigenous people of Burboanan, Bislig City as reflected in their literary tradition. The Mandaya Kamayo living in the area depended on nature for their sustenance, and that the belief of living harmoniously together with unseen beings is still evident.
A Short Review and the Prediction of Tumor Growth based on Numerical Analysis
Authors: Hossine Zakir , Meghla Afrina Asad , Kamrujjaman Md.
Published: May 2019

In this study, we consider Murray’s and Glioma’s tumor growth models based on reaction- diffusion equation. Mathematical modeling of tumor development are involved with the associated experimental work, reasoning the final relationship between experimental and theoretical approaches and these lead a path to model the prediction of tumor growth. Initially, we study the primary model of tumor growth which is connected with the ordinary differential equations and finally extended the problem to reaction-diffusion models. We predict the  tumor growth model using numerical study and the observation in different zone of time. The goal of tumor growth prediction is to model the tumor growth process, which can be achieved by theoretical mathematical  modeling collaboration with the model personalization from clinical assessment. After certain time period, it is shown that the mathematical model shows the tumor cell population reaching a maximum cell number that the tissue can carry.
Use of Performance Status Score for Cytotoxic Chemotherapy among Surgeons in a Tertiary Hospital, Southern Nigeria
Authors: Okugbo Stanley Ukadike , Irowa Omorodion
Published: May 2019

Introduction: Performance score evaluation is a tool for assessment of patients prior to cytotoxic chemotherapy administration. It has also been used to modify and personalize the dosage, route and types of the various chemotherapeutic agents.

Aim: The present study was aimed at evaluating the use of performance status as assessment tool for patients on cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Study Design: This study is a questionnaire survey involving all doctors in the Department of Surgery of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. The returned questionnaires were individually inspected for clarity of responses and collated. The data was entered into excel sheets. Forms which were incomplete, poorly filled or not returned were not included in the study. All the data entered into the spreadsheets were analysed using the SPSS 20 package.

Results: A total of 64 (70%) doctors where enlisted in the study. Though 73.4% had knowledge about the use of performance status in the assessment of oncology patients, only 62.1% could name any type of performance status. Most respondents agreed that they would reduce the chemotherapeutic dosage in response to a poor PS score. Routine use of PS should be emphasized as it enhances patients’ care, brings measurable objective assessment to bear on the process of both palliative and potential curative measures.

This study focused on the practice amongst doctors, however PS may be routinely measured by nurses both in the clinic or wards when these patients present.

Conclusion: The awareness of performance status score is high however its uptake in clinical practice was low requiring further development and adherence to established protocols.
Nematodes Associated to Tropical Forages in Pasture Areas
Authors: Marques Bruna Nogueira , Kobayasti Leimi , Oliveira Arieira Giovani De , De Faria Dayana Aparecida , Avelino Anne Caroline Dallabrida , De Abreu Joadil Gonçalves , Martins Luciana Alves , Silva Moreira Gabriela Cristina , De Oliveira Lucas Dias , Terzi Bruno Giuseppe
Published: May 2019

The quantification of soil nematodes is of great importance for the management and evaluation of the efficiency of control methods, considering the damages caused in crops of economic interest. The present work aimed to quantify and identify plant parasitic nematodes in pasture areas in the municipality of Santo Antônio do Leverger, Mato Grosso state, Brazil. For that purpose, 25 soil and root samples were collected in four plots, consisting of the following forage grasses: Brachiaria humidicola cv. Common (Plot 1), Panicum maximum cv. Tanzania (Plot 2), Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu (Plot 3) and Panicum maximum cv. Massai (Plot 4). The nematode extraction from the soil and root samples was performed, followed by the quantification and identification of nematodes genera. The nematodes classified as free-living were observed in all plots, with population densities varying from 230 to 1180 specimens. The genus Pratylenchus presented the lowest population level, with 40 specimens, in the area where the Brachiaria humidicola cv. Common is cultivated. The following phytoparasitic nematodes genera were observed: Pratylenchus and Paratrichodorus associated to the Humidicola grass, and Heterodera and Criconemoides associated to the Tanzania grass.
Fluorescence and Growth of Eggplant under Irrigation Levels and Silicon Doses
Authors: Fatima Reynaldo Teodoro de , Nobrega Jackson Silva , Carreiro Daniel De Almeida , Guerrero Amaralina Celoto , Lima Adriana Silva , Figueiredo Francisco Romário Andrade , Andrade Ferreira Jean Telvio , Barbosa Brito Marcos Eric
Published: May 2019

Aims: The study was conducted to evaluate the fluorescence and growth of eggplant under influence of water deficit and silicon doses.

Study Design: The design was a randomized complete block design, in a 5 x 2 factorial arrangement, with four replications and one plant per plot, totaling 40 experimental units.

Length and Place of Study: The research was implemented between September and November 2016, in a greenhouse of the Center of Science and Technology Agrifood, at the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG / CCTA), Campus of Pombal-PB, Brazil.

Methods: Doses of 0, 75, 150, 225 and 300 mg L-1 of silicon and the irrigation slides of 50 and 100% of real evapotranspiration - ETr were used, which were obtained by weighing the pots daily in order to keep the weight close to the field capacity.

Results: The use of 50% level of the ETr provides reductions of 5.58; 7.92 and 6.84% of fluorescence in the initial, maximum and quantum yield of the photosystem. The fresh and dry mass of the stem presented the maximum productivity (140.8 and 48.1 g) in the plants irrigated with 100% Etr and treated with doses of 106 and 110 mg L-1 of Si.

Conclusion: The fluorescence and biomass of the eggplant plants is reduced with the decrease in irrigation level; while the application of silicon does not result in increment in the fluorescence and dry mass of the leaf. The 100% irrigation level of the ETr associated with the application of 108 mg L-1 of silicon resulted in the best results in stem mass accumulation.
Structural Functional Theory
Authors: Garner Roberta T.
Published: May 2019

Structural functional theory is an orientation that focuses on structure – the patterning of roles, the form of institutions, and the overall articulation of institutions in a society – and seeks to explain these structures in terms of their functions – contributions to the stability and persistence of societies. It was the leading paradigm in sociology in the 1950s, and although criticized from many perspectives, its concepts of social structure, institutions, and the overall patterning of societies remain central to the discipline, specifically in neofunctionalism and more generally as a framework for understanding societies.
Safety climate, hearing climate and hearing protection device use among transportation road maintainers
Authors: Cavallari Jennifer M. , Burch Katrina A. , Hanrahan Jeffrey , Garza Jennifer L. , Dugan Alicia G.
Published: May 2019

Background

It is important to understand workplace factors including safety climate that influence hearing protection device (HPD) use. We sought to investigate the association between HPD use, safety climate, and hearing climate, a new measure specific to hearing.

Methods

A survey was developed and distributed among transportation “maintainers” who perform road maintenance and repair. A new hearing climate measure was designed by adapting a safety climate measure. HPD use was assessed by asking workers how often they wear HPD while in noise. The differences in safety climate and hearing climate were compared by the frequency of HPD use using analysis of variance.

Results

Among 166 maintainers, 54% reported always or almost always wearing HPD while noise exposed. High‐frequency HPD users reported a statistically significant higher safety climate (P = 0.004) and hearing climate (P = 0.003).

Conclusions

Hearing climate predicts the frequency of HPD use and may be a useful measure when assessing and improving hearing conservation programs.
Descriptive evaluation of methods for identifying work‐related emergency department injury visits
Authors: Harduar Morano Laurel , Richardson David , Proescholdbell Scott
Published: May 2019

Background

Use of worker's compensation (WC) as payer underestimates work‐related (WR) injuries. We evaluated three methods to identify WR injuries: WC as payer, ICD‐9‐CM work‐status codes E000.0/E000.1, and other ICD‐9‐CM external cause codes.

Methods

We identified injury‐related emergency department visits from North Carolina's syndromic surveillance system (2010‐2013). Characteristics were compared by indicator. We manually reviewed 800 admission notes to confirm if the visit was WR or non‐WR; WR keywords from the review were applied to all visits.

Results

133 156 injury‐related visits (age, 16 years or older) were identified: WC = 69%, work‐status codes = 18%, other ICD‐9‐CM codes = 13%. Among manually reviewed visits: few visits identified by WC (0.3%) or work‐status codes (2%) were non‐WR, while 12% of other ICD‐9‐CM code identified visits were non‐WR; 53%, 46%, and 31% of visits identified by WC, work‐status codes, and other ICD‐9‐CM codes were WR, respectively.

Conclusions

Findings support use of WC and work‐status codes to capture WR injuries; other ICD‐9‐CM codes should be used with caution or in combination with other indicators.
Work experiences of Latino building cleaners: An exploratory study
Authors: Eggerth Donald E. , Ortiz Bermang , Keller Brenna M. , Flynn Michael A.
Published: May 2019

Background

There are roughly 3.8 million cleaning workers in the United States. The cleaning workforce is largely composed of women, immigrants, and ethnic minorities who receive low wages and have low education levels. They are exposed to physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial hazards.

Methods

Qualitative methodology was used to investigate how Latino immigrants experience work as building cleaners. A grounded theory coding approach was used to analyze focus group data from 77 participants.

Results

Three major themes were identified: economic vulnerability, psychosocial stressors, and health and safety effects. Although workers are aware of the safety hazards associated with their jobs, they believe their immigration status limits employment opportunities leading them to accept poor working conditions. They work through injuries and cope psychologically through minimizing negative health impacts and normalizing work‐related injuries and illnesses.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that interventions for these workers should recognize the hostile organizational and psychosocial contexts within which immigrants often work.
Pharmacokinetic changes and therapeutic drug monitoring of lamotrigine during pregnancy
Authors: Ding Ye , Tan Xiaoping , Zhang Shuo , Guo Yang
Published: May 2019

Objectives

To evaluate the pharmacokinetic changes in lamotrigine (LTG) from prepregnancy to postpartum and to assess the impact of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) on seizure management during pregnancy in a Chinese population.

Methods

A series of women who were on LTG monotherapy before conception or during pregnancy were included in this retrospective study. The clinical characteristics of the mothers and fetuses were collected. The apparent clearance (AC) and the ratio to target concentration (RTC) were calculated for each trimester or for each month. RTCs were compared between patients with and without an increase in the frequency of seizures. A receiver operating characteristic curve to determine the RTC threshold, which predicts increased seizure frequency best, was drawn.

Results

A total of 12 patients and their 12 pregnancies were reviewed retrospectively. AC increased by 82.5% during the first trimester (p = 0.0343), 203.2% during the second trimester (p = 0.0010), and 197.0% during the third trimester (p = 0.0061) compared with the prepregnancy level. The value returned to the prepregnancy level after delivery. Seven patients who had adequate baseline information were included to examine the association between serum LTG concentration and seizure frequency. The RTC values of patients with and without an increased frequency of seizures were significantly different (p = 0.0164), and increased seizure frequency was associated with a lower RTC. An RTC < 0.64 was a predictor of deteriorating seizures.

Conclusions

The pharmacokinetic changes in LTG during pregnancy displayed marked interpatient variation. TDM can support a rational treatment plan for LTG use during pregnancy. We recommend regular monitoring of LTG serum concentrations from prepregnancy to postpartum.
Increased risk of pelvic fracture after radiotherapy in rectal cancer survivors: A propensity matched study
Authors: Kang Yu‐Mei , Chao Tze‐Fan , Wang Ti‐Hao , Hu Yu‐Wen
Published: May 2019

To determine whether radiotherapy (RT) can increase pelvic fracture risk in rectal cancer survivors. Rectal cancer patients who underwent curative surgery between 1996 and 2011 in Taiwan were retrospectively studied using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan. ICD‐9 Codes 808, 805.4‐805.7, 806.4‐806.7, and 820 (including pelvic, sacrum, lumbar, and femoral neck fracture) were defined as pelvic fracture. Propensity scores for RT, age, and sex were used to perform one‐to‐one matches between the RT and non‐RT group. Risks of pelvic and arm fractures were compared by multivariable Cox regression. Of the 32 689 patients, 7807 (23.9%) received RT, and 1616 suffered from a pelvic fracture (incidence rate: 1.17/100 person‐years). The median time to pelvic fracture was 2.47 years. After matching, 6952 patients each in the RT and non‐RT groups were analyzed. RT was associated with an increased risk of pelvic fractures in the multivariable Cox model (hazard ratio (HR): 1.246, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.037‐1.495, P = 0.019) but not with arm fractures (HR: 1.013, 95% CI: 0.814‐1.259, P = 0.911). Subgroup analyses revealed that RT was associated with a higher pelvic fracture rate in women (HR: 1.431, 95% CI: 1.117‐1.834) but not in men, and the interaction between sex and RT was significant (P = 0.03). The HR of pelvic fracture increased 2‐4 years after RT (HR: 1.707, 95% CI: 1.150‐2.534, P = 0.008). An increased risk of pelvic fracture is noted in rectal cancer survivors, especially women, who receive RT.
SCAI clinical expert consensus statement on the classification of cardiogenic shock
Authors: Baran David A. , Grines Cindy L. , Bailey Steven , Burkhoff Daniel , Hall Shelley A. , Henry Timothy D. , Hollenberg Steven M. , Kapur Navin K. , O'Neill William , Ornato Joseph P. , Stelling Kelly , Thiele Holger , van Diepen Sean , Naidu Srihari S.
Published: May 2019

Background

The outcome of cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial infarction has not appreciably changed in the last 30 years despite the development of various percutaneous mechanical circulatory support options. It is clear that there are varying degrees of cardiogenic shock but there is no robust classification scheme to categorize this disease state.

Methods

A multidisciplinary group of experts convened by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions was assembled to derive a proposed classification schema for cardiogenic shock. Representatives from cardiology (interventional, advanced heart failure, noninvasive), emergency medicine, critical care, and cardiac nursing all collaborated to develop the proposed schema.

Results

A system describing stages of cardiogenic shock from A to E was developed. Stage A is “at risk” for cardiogenic shock, stage B is “beginning” shock, stage C is “classic” cardiogenic shock, stage D is “deteriorating”, and E is “extremis”. The difference between stages B and C is the presence of hypoperfusion which is present in stages C and higher. Stage D implies that the initial set of interventions chosen have not restored stability and adequate perfusion despite at least 30 minutes of observation and stage E is the patient in extremis, highly unstable, often with cardiovascular collapse.

Conclusion

This proposed classification system is simple, clinically applicable across the care spectrum from pre‐hospital providers to intensive care staff but will require future validation studies to assess its utility and potential prognostic implications.
SCAI/ACVP expert consensus statement on cardiovascular catheterization laboratory economics: If the cath lab is your home you should understand its finances
Authors: Blankenship James C. , Choi James W. , Das Tony S. , McElgunn Peggy M. , Mukherjee Debabrata , Paxton Linda L. , Piana Robert , Sauer Joel R. , White Christopher J. , Duffy Peter L.
Published: May 2019

This article is intended for any physician, administrator, or cardiovascular catheterization laboratory (CCL) staff member who desires a fundamental understanding of finances and economics of CCLs in the United States. The authors' goal is to illuminate general economic principles of CCL operations and provide details that can be used immediately by CCL leaders. Any article on economics in medicine should start by acknowledging the primacy of the principles of medical ethics. While physicians have been trained to act in the best interests of their patients and avoid actions that would harm patients it is vitally important that all professionals in the CCL focus on patients' needs. Caregivers both at the bedside and in the office must consider how their actions will affect not only the patient they are treating at the time, but others as well. If the best interests of a patient were to conflict with any recommendation in this article, the former should prevail.

Key Points

To be successful and financially viable under current payment systems, CCL physicians, and managers must optimize the outcomes and efficiency of care by aligning CCL leadership, strategy, organization, processes, personnel, and culture.

Optimizing a CCL's operating margin (profitability) requires maximizing revenues and minimizing expenses. CCL managers often focus on expense reduction; they should also pay attention to revenue generation.

Expense reduction depends on efficiency (on‐time starts, short turn‐over time, smooth day‐to‐day schedules), identifying cost‐effective materials, and negotiating their price downward.

Revenue optimization requires accurate documentation and coding of procedures, comorbidities, and complications. In fee‐for‐service and bundled payment reimbursement systems, higher volumes of procedures yield higher revenues.

New procedures that improve patient care but are expensive can usually be justified by negotiating with vendors for lower prices and including the “halo effect” of collateral services that accompany the new procedure.

Fiscal considerations should never eclipse quality concerns. High quality CCL care that prevents complications, increases efficiency, reduces waste, and eliminates unnecessary procedures represents a win for patients, physicians, and CCL administrators.
Accurate 3D Characterization of Catalytic Bodies Surface by Scanning Electron Microscopy
Authors: Gontard Lionel C. , Cauqui Miguel Ángel , Yeste María Pilar , Ozkaya Dogan , Calvino José Juan
Published: May 2019

Catalytic bodies of millimetric dimensions are frequently used in industrial catalysis. The engineering process applied on the raw nanocatalyst during the fabrication and the working conditions affect the spatial and chemical relations of the exposed surface of the catalytic device. Hence, for improving their synthesis and for monitoring the evolution during its life cycle it is important understanding the actual heterogeneities of their surfaces. In this work scanning electron microscopy, photogrammetry and X‐Ray spectroscopy are combined to perform physico‐chemical characterization in three‐dimensions and with high resolution of the surface of commercial water gas shift catalyst bodies. By analyzing a phase of carbon present on their surface we show that the method provides measurements that are at the same time reliable, accurate and precise.
Female reproduction bears no survival cost in captivity for gray mouse lemurs
Authors: Landes Julie , Henry Pierre‐Yves , Hardy Isabelle , Perret Martine , Pavard Samuel
Published: May 2019

The survival cost of reproduction has been revealed in many free‐ranging vertebrates. However, recent studies on captive populations failed to detect this cost. Theoretically, this lack of survival/reproduction trade‐off is expected when resources are not limiting, but these studies may have failed to detect the cost, as they may not have fully accounted for potential confounding effects, in particular interindividual heterogeneity. Here, we investigated the effects of current and past reproductive effort on later survival in captive females of a small primate, the gray mouse lemur. Survival analyses showed no cost of reproduction in females; and the pattern was even in the opposite direction: the higher the reproductive effort, the higher the chances of survival until the next reproductive event. These conclusions hold even while accounting for interindividual heterogeneity. In agreement with aforementioned studies on captive vertebrates, these results remind us that reproduction is expected to be traded against body maintenance and the survival prospect only when resources are so limiting that they induce an allocation trade‐off. Thus, the cost of reproduction has a major extrinsic component driven by environmental conditions.