bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte dynamics after pyronaridine–artesunate or artemether–lumefantrine treatment
Authors: Roth Johanna M. , Sawa Patrick , Omweri George , Osoti Victor , Makio Nicodemus , Bradley John , Bousema Teun , Schallig Henk D. F. H. , Mens Pètra F. 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
Background
Artemisinin-based combinations differ in their impact on gametocyte prevalence and density. This study assessed female and male gametocyte dynamics after treating children with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria with either pyronaridine–artesunate (PA) or artemether–lumefantrine (AL).

Methods
Kenyan children with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria were included and randomly assigned to PA or AL treatment. Filter paper blood samples were collected as a source of RNA for quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) and nucleic acid sequence based amplification (QT-NASBA) to detect female gametocytes (targeting Pfs25 mRNA). Male gametocytes were detected by qRT-PCR (targeting PfMGET mRNA). Duration of gametocyte carriage, the female and male gametocyte response and the agreement between qRT-PCR and QT-NASBA were determined.

Results
The mean duration of female gametocyte carriage was significantly longer for PA (4.9 days) than for AL (3.8 days) as estimated by QT-NASBA (P = 0.036), but this difference was less clear when determined by Pfs25 qRT-PCR (4.5 days for PA and 3.7 for AL, P = 0.166). qRT-PCR based female gametocyte prevalence decreased from 100% (75/75) at baseline to 6.06% (4/66) at day 14 in the AL group and from 97.7% (83/85) to 13.9% (11/79) in the PA group. Male gametocyte prevalence decreased from 41.3% (31/75) at baseline to 19.7% (13/66) at day 14 in the AL group and from 35.3% (30/85) to 22.8% (18/79) in the PA group. There was good agreement between Pfs25 qRT-PCR and QT-NASBA female gametocyte prevalence (0.85, 95% CI 0.82–0.87).

Conclusions
This study indicates that female gametocyte clearance may be slightly faster after AL compared to PA. Male gametocytes showed similar post-treatment clearance between study arms. Future studies should further address potential differences between the post-treatment transmission potential after PA compared to AL.
Trial registration This study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov under NCT02411994. Registration date: 8 April 2015. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02411994?term=pyronaridine-artesunate&cond=Malaria&cntry=KE&rank=1
An evaluation of the short physical performance battery following pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Authors: Larsson Petra , Borge Christine Råheim , Nygren-Bonnier Malin , Lerdal Anners , Edvardsen Anne 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
Objective
There is a need for simple tools to evaluate physical performance in patients with COPD before and after pulmonary rehabilitation. The aims of this study were to evaluate changes in short physical performance battery (SPPB)-scores in patients with COPD after a 4-week pulmonary rehabilitation program; explore possible relationships between SPPB-scores and exercise capacity (6-min walk distance), dyspnea (modified Medical Research Council’s dyspnea scale), disease-specific quality of life (COPD assessment test), and pulmonary function (predicted forced expiratory volume in one second) at baseline; and explore if changes in SPPB-scores are related to changes in exercise capacity, dyspnea, and disease-specific quality of life following pulmonary rehabilitation.

Results
Forty-five patients with COPD were included in the final analysis. SPPB-scores improved following pulmonary rehabilitation (mean change: 1.2 ± 1.7 points, p < 0.001). There were moderate correlations between SPPB-scores and exercise capacity (r = 0.50, p < 0.001) and dyspnea (r = − 0.45, p = 0.003) at baseline, but not with pulmonary function or disease-specific quality of life. Changes in SPPB-scores were not associated with changes in exercise capacity or dyspnea scores. The SPPB may be a useful tool for evaluating physical performance in COPD
Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02314338, December 11, 2014.
Improvement in Overall Survival in a Randomized Study That Compared Dacomitinib With Gefitinib in Patients With Advanced Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer and EGFR-Activating Mutations
Authors: Mok Tony S. , Cheng Ying , Zhou Xiangdong , Lee Ki Hyeong , Nakagawa Kazuhiko , Niho Seiji , Lee Min , Linke Rolf , Rosell Rafael , Corral Jesus , Migliorino Maria Rita , Pluzanski Adam , Sbar Eric I. , Wang Tao , White Jane Liang , Wu Yi-Long 
Published: June 2018

Purpose ARCHER 1050, a randomized, open-label, phase III study of dacomitinib versus gefitinib in treatment-naïve patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and activating mutations in EGFR, reported significant improvement in progression-free survival with dacomitinib. The mature overall survival (OS) analysis for the intention-to-treat population is presented here. Patients and Methods In this multinational, multicenter study, patients age 18 years or older (≥ 20 years in Japan and Korea) who had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1 and newly diagnosed NSCLC with activating mutations in EGFR (exon 19 deletion or exon 21 L858R) were enrolled and randomly assigned in a 1:1 manner to dacomitinib (n = 227) or gefitinib (n = 225). Random assignment was stratified by race (Japanese, Chinese, other East Asian, or non-Asian) and EGFR mutation type. The final OS analysis was conducted with a data cutoff date of February 17, 2017; at that time 220 deaths (48.7%) were observed. Results During a median follow-up time of 31.3 months, 103 (45.4%) and 117 (52.0%) deaths occurred in the dacomitinib and gefitinib arms, respectively. The estimated hazard ratio for OS was 0.760 (95% CI, 0.582 to 0.993; two-sided P = .044). The median OS was 34.1 months with dacomitinib versus 26.8 months with gefitinib. The OS probabilities at 30 months were 56.2% and 46.3% with dacomitinib and gefitinib, respectively. Preliminary subgroup analyses for OS that are based on baseline characteristics were consistent with the primary OS analysis. Conclusion In patients with advanced NSCLC and EGFR activating mutations, dacomitinib is the first second-generation epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) to show significant improvement in OS in a phase III randomized study compared with a standard-of-care TKI. Dacomitinib should be considered one of the standard treatment options for these patients.
Panoptic Overview of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Nigeria: Current Challenges and Promising Global Initiatives
Authors: Wright Nikita , Rida Padmashree , Rakha Emad , Agboola Ayodeji , Aneja Ritu 
Published: June 2018

Purpose Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most deadly form of breast cancer (BC) today. TNBC treatment is fraught with challenges because of the extensive interpatient heterogeneity in clinical behavior and scarcity of stratifying biomarkers and actionable targets. Women of African ancestry face a disproportionate burden resulting from this disease, which affects them earlier and more aggressively and has a higher propensity to spread and resist conventional treatments. A much higher proportion of Nigerian patients with BC have TNBC compared with patients with BC in the United States and Europe. Methods This article spotlights Nigeria as an example of a nation wherein genetic and nongenetic spheres of influence intersect to affect the prevalence of this disease, the scale of its challenge, and its toll. Results Studies have illuminated the inherently different tumor biology of Nigerian TNBCs, which show distinct genetic variants and gene expression patterns compared with European or European-American TNBCs. Parallels are apparent between TNBC phenotypes among African Americans and Nigerians, implicating the common thread of shared genetic ancestry between these populations. Reproductive, lifestyle, socioeconomic, and cultural factors also shape TNBC outcomes in Nigeria, as do resource constraints in Nigerian health care and research sectors. Conclusion Increasing our understanding of how these factors contribute to poorer outcomes among Nigerian women may uncover valuable insights and strategies in alleviating the TNBC burden in many countries of the world and help reduce the racial disparity in BC-related outcomes here in the United States. Importantly, this review also highlights collaborative global and local initiatives that converge expertise and resources to advance research on effective management of TNBC in diverse populations.
Introduction
Authors: Lienau Annette Damayanti 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
This essay introduces the American Comparative Literature Association Forum “Vernacular Comparisons beyond the Europhone.” Characterizing the Europhone “vernacular” as a protean term of diverse application, the essay highlights the paradoxes associated with its use in Global Southern contexts. Drawing attention to the asymmetries of conceptual exchange that accompany vernacular comparisons across former colonial contexts, this essay raises the following questions: How might we explore and move beyond the insufficiencies of the Europhone term “vernacular” to frame non-Europhone literatures and literary histories? If we displace Europhone terms of analysis as conceptual categories, what alternatives emerge in their stead from non-European languages, lineages, and source materials? In pursuing lateral comparisons within the Global South, how can the risks of anachronism, distortion, and incommensurability be managed across disparate contexts? This introduction offers an overview of the contributing essays and concludes with remarks on the advantages and drawbacks of employing the term “vernacular” in pursuing South-South comparisons.
Print for the People: Tagore, China, and the Bengali Vernacular
Authors: Lahiri Madhumita 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
Whereas most modern South Asian vernacular literatures emerged in concert with nationalism, Tagore moved Bengali literature to its contemporary colloquial form even as he became ever more critical of Indian nationalism. This essay follows Tagore’s anti-nationalist and pan-Asianist predilections, considering his transformations of Bengali towards an increasingly vernacular literature in concert with those of Chinese literature. The essay focuses on Tagore’s 1901 story “Nastanirh,” known in translation as “The Broken Nest,” and contextualizes it within Tagore’s Bengali writings on Bengali literature. These writings are framed with respect to Tagore’s Anglophone ruminations on language while in China, as well as his interactions with Chinese linguistic reformers such as Hu Shi. Tagore’s 1917 dichotomy between the language of books (পুঁথির ভাষা) and that of speech (মুখের ভাষা) maps intriguingly onto early twentieth-century Chinese vernacularization debates and offers a transnational method for the study of vernacularization that decenters European models.
Feminist Receptions of Medusa: Rethinking Mythological Figures from Ovid to Louise Bogan
Authors: Morse Heidi 
Published: June 2018

AbstractSince the 1970s, the topic of feminist adaptations of Greco-Roman mythology has been dominated by narratives of revision and retelling from the perspective of female characters, including—via Hélène Cixous—Medusa as a creative muse for women’s writing. Pairing the modernist US poet Louise Bogan’s 1921 lyric “Medusa” with Ovid’s Metamorphoses, this essay asks what modes of women’s engagement with myth have been left out or undertheorized in the wake of feminist critics’ investment in narratives of reclaimed voice. Instead of being a prosopopoeia in which the imagined woman speaks, Bogan’s Medusa is a metonymic figure—the ancient Gorgoneion mask that preceded the woman in myth—whose silent rhetorical force dislodges a literary history of petrified gender relations first consolidated in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. By rethinking Ovidian mythological figures in Bogan’s “Medusa” and related twentieth-century poems by US women writers, this essay identifies alternative modes of feminist revisionist mythmaking.
Piotr Rawicz’sLe Sang du ciel, Heidegger, and the Holocaust as Ontological Experience
Authors: Rose Sven-Erik 
Published: June 2018

AbstractWhen Piotr Rawicz’s (1919–82) semi-autobiographical novel Le Sang du ciel (Blood from the Sky) was published in 1961, Rawicz expressly rejected documentary status for his novel and eschewed moral indignation in his self-consciously philosophical and literary treatment of the Nazi genocide. Rawicz rejects moral and historical frameworks because they do not engage the Holocaust on the level he finds most salient: as a terrifying experience of ontological truths about the nature of God, subjectivity, and Being writ large. I situate Rawicz’s novel alongside his pronouncements and theorizations about the Holocaust as an extreme yet paradigmatic experience of ontological truth. Following allusions in the novel to concepts and tropes in the thought of Martin Heidegger, I unearth a provocative dialogue with Heidegger’s postwar anti-humanism and infamous refusal to confront the significance of the Holocaust, arguing that Rawicz brings Heidegger’s anti-humanist ontology and the Nazi genocide into an irreducible intimacy that Heidegger seemed determined to avoid or deny.
Children on the Boat: The Recuperative Work of Postmemory in Short Fiction of the Vietnamese Diaspora
Authors: Kurmann Alexandra , Do Tess 
Published: June 2018

AbstractIn this article we argue that a cohort of French, Canadian, and Australian authors of Vietnamese descent are adapting postmemory narratives to fit the purposes of the 1.5 generation. Linda Lê, Kim Thúy, and Nam Le each displace the Vietnam War to reimagine in its stead, for the first time in Vietnamese diasporic writing, the trauma of the refugee boat journey. Breaking the silence of parents wont to forget, in short fiction they narrativize shared accounts of flight by sea that have until this time remained the domain of autobiography and memoir. Through a process of spectral recuperation, these children of survivors employ the figure of the child to tell the event of their own refugee becoming. Former child refugees recently come of writerly age across a multilingual global diaspora are thus reappropriating an in-between generation’s collective postmemory to form what we call the sub-genre of “the boat narrative.”
A novel rabbit model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy generated by CRISPR/Cas9
Authors: Sui Tingting , Lau Yeh Siang , Liu Di , Liu Tingjun , Xu Li , Gao Yandi , Lai Liangxue , Li Zhanjun , Han Renzhi 
Published: June 2018

ABSTRACT
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked muscle-wasting disorder caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, with an incidence of 1 in 3500 in new male births. Mdx mice are widely used as an animal model for DMD. However, these mice do not faithfully recapitulate DMD patients in many aspects, rendering the preclinical findings in this model questionable. Although larger animal models of DMD, such as dogs and pigs, have been generated, usage of these animals is expensive and only limited to several facilities in the world. Here, we report the generation of a rabbit model of DMD by co-injection of Cas9 mRNA and sgRNA targeting exon 51 into rabbit zygotes. The DMD knockout (KO) rabbits exhibit the typical phenotypes of DMD, including severely impaired physical activity, elevated serum creatine kinase levels, and progressive muscle necrosis and fibrosis. Moreover, clear pathology was also observed in the diaphragm and heart at 5 months of age, similar to DMD patients. Echocardiography recording showed that the DMD KO rabbits had chamber dilation with decreased ejection fraction and fraction shortening. In conclusion, this novel rabbit DMD model generated with the CRISPR/Cas9 system mimics the histopathological and functional defects in DMD patients, and could be valuable for preclinical studies.
This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.
Pilot Study of Impact of a Pedal Desk on Postprandial Responses in Sedentary Workers
Authors: HAN HO , LIM JONGIL , VISKOCHIL RICHARD , AGUIAR ELROY J. , TUDOR-LOCKE CATRINE , CHIPKIN STUART R. 
Published: June 2018

ABSTRACT
Physical inactivity has been linked to rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease through insulin resistance and other mechanisms. Although sedentary workplace environments have unintentionally contributed to the risk for chronic diseases, innovations in the workplace environment could potentially rectify this public and occupational health problem.

Purpose
To evaluate the effects of light-intensity physical activity using a pedal desk (PD) compared with a standard desk (STD) in a pilot study on postprandial metabolic responses and work skills.

Methods
Twelve overweight/obese full-time sedentary office workers (six men and six women; body mass index, 28.7 ± 3.6 kg·m−2) were tested in two conditions: 1) PD, pedaling at self-selected light-intensity pace for 2 h and 2) STD, remaining seated for 2 h in a conventional workstation setup while performing scripted computer-based work tasks. Blood samples were analyzed for plasma glucose, insulin, and free-fatty acids in response to a standardized meal and work skills were evaluated. Paired samples t-tests were used to examine the differences in metabolic responses and work performance tasks between the conditions.

Results
Pedal desk use required significantly less insulin to maintain glucose concentrations compared with STD condition (peak insulin concentration, 42.1 μU·mL−1 vs 66.9 μU·mL−1; P = 0.03; and area under the curve, 302.6 vs 441.8 μU·min−1·mL−1; P < 0.001). No significant changes in plasma glucose and free-fatty acid concentrations were observed at any timepoints (all P > 0.05). In addition, pedaling at a self-paced rate caused no adverse effects on work skills (P > 0.05).

Conclusions
The PD resulted in lower postmeal insulin concentrations without an overall negative impact on work skills. Thus, the PD could have the potential to achieve public and occupational health goals in sedentary work environments.
The Stochastic Container Relocation Problem
Authors: Galle V. , Manshadi V. H. , Boroujeni S. Borjian , Barnhart C. , Jaillet P. 
Published: June 2018

The container relocation problem (CRP) is concerned with finding a sequence of moves of containers that minimizes the number of relocations needed to retrieve all containers, while respecting a given order of retrieval. However, the assumption of knowing the full retrieval order of containers is particularly unrealistic in real operations. This paper studies the stochastic CRP, which relaxes this assumption. A new multistage stochastic model, called the batch model, is introduced, motivated, and compared with an existing model (the online model). The two main contributions are an optimal algorithm called Pruning-Best-First-Search (PBFS) and a randomized approximate algorithm called PBFS-Approximate with a bounded average error. Both algorithms, applicable in the batch and online models, are based on a new family of lower bounds for which we show some theoretical properties. Moreover, we introduce two new heuristics outperforming the best existing heuristics. Algorithms, bounds, and heuristics are tested in an extensive computational section. Finally, based on strong computational evidence, we conjecture the optimality of the “leveling” heuristic in a special “no information” case, where, at any retrieval stage, any of the remaining containers is equally likely to be retrieved next. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2018.0828 .
The ebb and flow of female homoeroticism in the online Chinese queer fandom of Super Voice Girl (2006)
Authors: Zhao Jamie J. 
Published: June 2018

Abstract

Super Voice Girl (SVG) was an Idol-style Chinese reality show that allowed only female contestants. The show became famous worldwide for featuring gender-nonconforming contestants. This article examines the rise and fall of the most popular online Chinese queer fandom of the 2006 SVG in the forum feise chaonv (FSCN). I focus on the fans’ ambivalent play with Chinese-specific female homoerotic imaginaries that initially popularized and protected but eventually led to the decay of FSCN as a queer fantasy space. First, I look at the subtle ways in which the 2006 SVG tactically normalized the female homoerotic imaginaries surrounding its tomboyish national finalists. Then, I examine FSCN fans’ struggles with both this female homoeroticism and the stigmatization of real-world lesbianism. I demonstrate that the fictional imagination of female homoeroticism sustained FSCN as a popular queer fantasy space after the show ended. Additionally, I detail the fans’ self-contradictory reactions to several real-life lesbian incidents involving the finalists that gradually came to light in the post-show years. I argue that the fans’ confinement of female homoeroticism to a youthful, memorable fantasy scenario that was substantially shaped by both Chinese mainstream and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender cultures eventually contributed to the abrupt end of FSCN’s queer-themed practices.
Drift report from Downtown LA
Authors: Ford Laura Grace 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
In March 2016 I walked around Downtown LA in an attempt to move beyond a neutralized contemporary version of psychogeography with its subjective, personalized relationship to space, towards an engagement with collective intensities held in the fabric of the place. The 3000 word text generated from these walks has drawn on earlier drawings, photographs, notes and recordings of the architectural ruins and social conditions left in the wake of deregulated capital. It maps a web of tactics and strategies undermining gentrification; points of intensity/contested sites include MacArthur Park, Skid Row, Union Station, Bradbury Building, Grand Central Market and the abandoned cinemas of Broadway.
Espials (Xtofer Marlowe in London)
Authors: McDevitt Niall 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
Niall McDevitt and Simon King’s joint Poetopography/Walkative explorations of Christopher Marlowe’s life and death in London prove the starting point for McDevitt’s retelling of the Marlowe myth and its astonishing relevance to the major issues of today. Two sites in particular – the Dutch Church in Broadgate where an anti-immigrant verse diatribe signed ‘Tamburlaine’ was pinned to the door on 5 May 1593, and Deptford Strand where Marlowe was murdered on 30 May 1593 and where the inquest took place two days later – prove especially mind-boggling. Many Marlovians believe there was a cover-up; and the tragic loss of one of the most brilliant poets in English literature still festers. The terrain cries for redress. A Los Angeles parallelogram is erected with the help of occasional allusions to Raymond Chandler’s fictional detective Philip Marlowe, named after the Elizabethan poets Philip Sidney and Christopher Marlowe. King chose the novel Farewell My Lovely as bibliomantic aid, the title of which seemed suitably elegiac, and which also furnished a succinct phrase to describe the general methodology of this book: leg art. We are all Marlowes, literary gumshoes.