bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Static Versus Expandable Devices Provide Similar Clinical Outcomes Following Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion
Authors: Khechen Benjamin , Haws Brittany E. , Patel Dil V. , Yoo Joon S. , Guntin Jordan A. , Cardinal Kaitlyn L. , Iyer Sravisht , Singh Kern 
Published: March 2019

Background Few studies have analyzed differences in radiographic parameters and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) between expandable and static interbody devices in patients undergoing minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS TLIF). Questions/Purposes To evaluate differences in radiographic parameters and PROs following MIS TLIF between static and expandable interbody devices. Methods Patients undergoing primary, single-level MIS TLIF between 2014 and 2017 were retrospectively identified. Radiographic measurements including lumbar lordosis (LL), segmental lordosis (SL), disc height (DH), and foraminal height (FH) were performed on lateral radiographs before and after MIS TLIF with a static or expandable articulating interbody device. Radiographic outcomes and PROs were compared using paired and unpaired Student's t test. Results Thirty patients received expandable interbody devices and 30 patients received static interbody devices. The expandable device cohort exhibited significantly greater improvement in DH and FH at final follow-up compared with those receiving a static device. Both device cohorts experienced significant improvements in PROs at 6 months post-operatively. Conclusion MIS TLIF with an expandable interbody device led to a greater increase of DH and FH than with a static interbody device. Patients undergoing MIS TLIF can expect similar improvements in PROs whether receiving a static or an expandable interbody device. Further studies are required to better understand improvements in clinical outcomes afforded by expandable interbody devices.
Geographical variation in spawning histories of age-1 Pacific saury Cololabis saira in the North Pacific Ocean during June and July
Authors: Suyama Satoshi , Ozawa Hitomi , Shibata Yasutoki , Fuji Taiki , Nakagami Masayasu , Shimizu Akio 
Published: March 2019

AbstractWe examine geographical differences in percentages of age-1 Pacific saury Cololabis saira with previous spawning experience collected from 143°E to 165°W during June and July of 2013 and 2014. Previous spawning experience of fish was determined using a new histological method involving Victoria blue (VB)-positive ovarian arterioles. We also compared the radius of the otolith annual ring (ROA), which indicates fish body size at the beginning of the breeding season, with the incidence of previous spawning experience. A generalized linear model was used that treats the occurrence of fish with VB-positive arterioles as a response variable, following the Bernoulli distribution of probability pi, where longitude, latitude, body length, ROA in age-1 fish, year (2013 or 2014), sea surface temperature, and days elapsed from a survey starting date, are used as fixed effect terms. An estimated regression coefficient of longitude was negative while that of ROA was positive, meaning that the probability of previous spawning increases with a latitudinal progression west, and with increased ROA. Our results suggest that differences in the percentage of previously spawned fish in different geographic areas are caused by differences in body length at the beginning of the breeding season.
A hybrid machine learning algorithm for designing quantum experiments
Authors: O’Driscoll L. , Nichols R. , Knott P. A. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
We introduce a hybrid machine learning algorithm for designing quantum optics experiments to produce specific quantum states. Our algorithm successfully found experimental schemes to produce all 5 states we asked it to, including Schrödinger cat states and cubic phase states, all to a fidelity of over 96%. Here, we specifically focus on designing realistic experiments, and hence all of the algorithm’s designs only contain experimental elements that are available with current technology. The core of our algorithm is a genetic algorithm that searches for optimal arrangements of the experimental elements, but to speed up the initial search, we incorporate a neural network that classifies quantum states. The latter is of independent interest, as it quickly learned to accurately classify quantum states given their photon number distributions.
PROPERTY GRAPHS – A STATISTICAL MODEL FOR FIRE AND EXPLOSION LOSSES BASED ON GRAPH THEORY
Authors: Parodi Pietro , Watson Peter 
Published: March 2019

AbstractIt is rare that the severity loss distribution for a specific line of business can be derived from first principles. One such example is the use of generalised Pareto distribution for losses above a large threshold (or more accurately: asymptotically), which is dictated by extreme value theory. Most popular distributions, such as the lognormal distribution or the Maxwell-Boltzmann-Bose-Einstein-Fermi-Dirac (MBBEFD), are convenient heuristics with no underlying theory to back them. This paper presents a way to derive a severity distribution for property losses based on modelling a property as a weighted graph, that is, a collection of nodes and weighted arcs connecting these nodes. Each nodev(to which a value can also be assigned) corresponds to a room or a unit of the property where a fire can occur, while an arc (v,v′;p) between verticesvandv′ signals that the probability of the fire propagating fromvtov′ isp. The paper presents two simple models for fire propagation (the random graph approach and the random time approach) and a model for explosion risk that allow one to calculate the loss distribution for a given property from first principles. The MBBEFD model is shown to be a good approximation for the simulated distribution of losses based on property graphs for both the random graph and the random time approach.
A Survey of Cerebrospinal Fluid Total Protein Upper Limits in Canada: Time for an Update?
Authors: Bourque Pierre R. , McCudden Christopher R. , Warman-Chardon Jodi , Brooks John , Hegen Harald , Deisenhammer Florian , Breiner Ari 
Published: March 2019

ABSTRACT:Background:The antiquated standard reference range of 0.15–0.45 g/L for cerebrospinal fluid total protein (CSF-TP) is well entrenched in medical literature and laboratory operating procedures across the world.Methods:We conducted a web-based survey with a response rate of 34.9% through the listserv of the Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation. Additional laboratory reference data were collated by telephone interview of hospital laboratory technologists across Canada.Results:A total of 142 site responses were obtained: 64.1% from academic/tertiary hospitals and 35.9% from community hospitals. A strong majority (80.4%) of both types of institutions reported using a CSF-TP upper reference limit of 0.45 g/L or less. As a rule, no age adjustments were implemented in CSF-TP-level interpretation.Conclusions:Recent well-powered laboratory reference studies have documented CSF-TP upper reference limits that are above 0.6 g/L starting at age 50, with incremental limits partitioned by subsequent decades of age. The conventional 0.45 g/L limit could lead to false positive results. Our survey suggests there is a need to consider a wide adoption of data-driven, rather than historical, reference values.
The evolution of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI): Is it time for more inclusive metrics?
Authors: Advani Sonali D. , Fakih Mohamad G. 
Published: March 2019

AbstractCatheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) has long been considered a preventable healthcare-associated infection. Many federal agencies, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and public and private healthcare organizations have implemented strategies aimed at preventing CAUTIs. To monitor progress in CAUTI prevention, the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) CAUTI metric has been adopted nationally as the primary outcome measure and has been refined over the past decades. However, this surveillance metric may underestimate infectious and noninfectious catheter harm. We suggest evolving to more inclusive performance metrics to better reflect quality improvement efforts underway in hospitals. The standardized device utilization ratio (SUR) provides a good surrogate for preventable catheter harm. On the other hand, a population-based metric that combines both standardized infection ratio (SIR) and SUR would address both infectious and noninfectious harm, while adjusting for population risk. Finally, electronically captured catheter-associated bacteriuria may contribute essential information on local testing stewardship.
Popularity in Early Modern England (ca. 1580–1642): Looking Again atThingandConcept
Authors: Cuttica Cesare 
Published: March 2019

AbstractAn important object of study in the historiography of early modern England, popularity has been examined in relation to figures such as the Earl of Essex and the Duke of Buckingham. It has been equally accounted for as the activity of MPs who fostered the cause of patriotic and freeborn Englishmen during the absolutist reigns of the early Stuarts. Popularity has also been dealt with when addressing resistance theory and people's power in pre-societal arrangements (“popular power”) and with regard to the popular component within a mixed government (“popular sovereignty”). Far less studied is another meaning ofpopularity, identified with direct democracy and its practices (“popular government”). This article shows how a large portion of public debate between the 1580s and 1642 focused on what were perceived as the threats of democratic strategies pursued by various (subversive) actors in England. Besides setting forth a revised understanding of the pejorative “popular” that distinguishes it from constitutional (republican) meanings on the one hand and from elite or royal popularity seeking on the other, this article unearths usages that presented it as an anarchic empowerment of the meanest of people—neither a mere theoretical sovereignty nor a mere right to be represented by one body in a mixed regime. Considering a composite range of sources and analyzing political, social, and, above all, ecclesiastical controversies, the article explains what democratic popularity was thought to stand for, who its exponents were, and how it was attacked from a wide spectrum of perspectives.
“Whatever Community Is, This Is Not It”: Notting Hill and the Reconstruction of “Race” in Britain after 1958
Authors: Schofield Camilla , Jones Ben 
Published: March 2019

AbstractThe impact of the 1958 Notting Hill riots tends to figure in histories of the political right, as a galvanizing force for anti-immigrant sentiment—or as radical catalyst in the transnational history of the Black Atlantic. Meanwhile, the generation of black and white social workers and activists who flocked to Notting Hill after the riots have largely been left out of the history of the British left. This article treats Notting Hill after 1958 as an important locale of new progressive thinking and action. It seeks to consider the political work that the idea of “community” did in Notting Hill, allowing us consider how the politics of antiracism relates in complex ways to the reformulation of progressive politics in postwar Britain. It reveals how black activists came to reappropriate the language of “community” to critique the ameliorative, welfarist approach to antiracism. It also unearths the forgotten eclectic beginnings of Britain's New Left. By excavating the history of community work and New Left activism “from below,” this article traces the ways in which a motley group of Methodist ministers, Christian Workers, students, social workers, and community leaders tested the limits of the liberal paternalism and “universalism” of the postwar social democratic state.
Safe for Democracy: Constitutional Politics, Popular Spectacle, and the British Monarchy 1910–1914
Authors: Mort Frank 
Published: March 2019

AbstractHow did the British monarchy respond to the multiple challenges of early twentieth-century mass democracy? Historians have separated the growth of constitutional sovereignty from the practice of a welfare monarchy, or from royalty as decorative and media friendly. This article argues that the political transformation of the modern monarchy was inseparable from innovations to its style and presentation. Opening with the dramatic constitutional crisis that confronted George V and his advisors in 1910, I show how the monarchy's entanglement in high politics forced the crown to assume an increasingly neutral, arbitrarial stance on industrial disputes and on the Irish question, despite the king's own conservatism. Simultaneously, George V invested in styles of royal accessibility and informality that contrasted sharply with other major European dynasties, in a series of royal tours across the industrial heartlands of England and Wales in 1912 and 1913. Extensively covered by the national and imperial press and by the newsreels, these visits to the strongholds of laborism promoted a vision of patrician democracy that drew heavily on traditions of organic, one-nation conservatism. But they also positioned royalty and the people in a new imaginary relationship that was more personal and intimate. Both versions had long-term consequences for the British monarchy across the twentieth century.
A new way of rapidly screening for depression in multiple sclerosis using Emotional Thermometers
Authors: Thompson Andrew G. B. , Sheldon Rollo , Poole Norman , Varela Rita , White Sarah , Jones Paula , Mulley Carole , Berg Amy , Blain Camilla R. V. , Agrawal Niruj 
Published: March 2019

AbstractObjectiveDepression is a common, serious, but under-recognised problem in multiple sclerosis (MS). The primary objective of this study was to assess whether a rapid visual analogue screening tool for depression could operate as a quick and reliable screening method for depression, in patients with MS.MethodPatients attending a regional MS outpatient clinic completed the Emotional Thermometer 7 tool (ET7), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale – Depression Subscale (HADS-D) and the Major Depression Inventory (MDI) to establish a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition (DSM-IV) diagnosis of Major Depression. Full ET7, briefer subset ET4 version and depression and distress thermometers alone were compared with HADS-D and MDI. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were calculated to compare the performance of all the screening tools.ResultsIn total, 190 patients were included. ET4 performed well as a ‘rule-out’ screening step (sensitivity 0.91, specificity 0.72, NPV 0.98, PPV 0.32). ET4 performance was comparable to HADS-D (sensitivity 0.96, specificity 0.77, NPV 0.99, PPV 0.37) without need for clinician scoring. The briefer ET4 performed as well as the full ET7.ConclusionET are quick, sensitive and useful screening tools for depression in this MS population, to be complemented by further questioning or more detailed psychiatric assessment where indicated. Given that ET4 and ET7 perform equally well, we recommend the use of ET4 as it is briefer. It has the potential to be widely implemented across busy neurology clinics to assist in depression screening in this under diagnosed group.
Between ‘forced marriage’ and ‘free choice’: social transformations and perceptions of gender and sexuality among the Balanta in Guinea-Bissau
Authors: Temudo Marina Padrão 
Published: March 2019

AbstractAfrican women are frequently portrayed as a subaltern group in need of external support, used as property in forging social relations, producing wealth in people and doing most of the agricultural work to feed household members in societies where ‘modernization’ does not always seem to change their unfortunate predicament. This article destabilizes such narratives by showing the complexities of marriage practices and the difficult dialectics between freedom and subjugation in one West African agrarian society – the Brasa-speaking people of Guinea-Bissau. Among this patrilineal and virilocal group, marriage was usually arranged at birth or when girls were still small children. However, after marriage, women enjoyed great freedom of movement to have distant sexual partners and to pursue private profit-making activities. Paradoxically, while at present most young women are allowed to marry a young husband of their choice, having lost the support of their descent groups they are becoming more subjected to their husbands’ power and control.
Categorizing colonial patients: segregated medical care, space and decolonization in a Congolese city, 1931–62
Authors: Geenen Kristien 
Published: March 2019

AbstractThis article deals with the Belgian colonial authorities’ obsession with classification and categorization, and explores how this obsession affected medical care in the city of Coquilhatville. Whereas the authorities aspired to medical care that was strictly segregated along ‘racial’ lines, providing separate hospitals for Europeans and Africans, in reality such rigorous segregation was unsustainable. I argue that it was the authorities’ inclination to categorize patients that eventually blurred the lines. Indeed, this article shows how the administrators became thoroughly enmeshed in their taxonomic zeal when members of the African upper class, the so-calledévolués, demanded different treatment from other Congolese, to reflect their status. Furthermore, these upper-class patients insisted on being differentiated among themselves too. Responding to more and more claims to be discerned from yet another ‘lower’évolué, and in an attempt to translate social space into physical space and thus provide the applicant with a more sophisticated hospital room, the authorities gradually ran out of options. As a consequence, they – albeit unwillingly – opened the doors toévoluésof a hospital that was initially reserved exclusively for Europeans.
‘Films that don't seem Cameroonian’: professional video making and self-styling among Douala youth
Authors: Santanera Giovanna 
Published: March 2019

AbstractThis article discusses youth cultural production in contemporary Africa, analysing the videos of Douala, which are often called ‘films that don't seem Cameroonian’. Most contemporary African videos dramatize everyday life, telling didactic stories that are very close to ordinary people's experiences. As such, they have been interpreted as forms of African popular art. Films that don't seem Cameroonian, however, break with this dominant trend. Directors and actors openly quote international hits and are more interested in transcending the local context than in dramatizing (and moralizing) it. Inserting this production into Douala society, this article deals with the youths’ desire to escape their everyday situations and connect with the global arena. It also considers the failures of this ambition, as their poor finances and infrastructural challenges bind them to a much more restricted horizon of possibilities. Video filmmaking in Cameroon is both a source of empowerment and prestige and a sign of marginality and powerlessness. The article concludes with an account of the cultural work at the core of videos that are syncretic and urban, but only partially ascribable to other experiences of African popular art.
The Permanent Refugee Crisis in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949—
Authors: Stokes Lauren 
Published: March 2019

AbstractThis article puts forced migration at the center of the Federal Republic's history. Forced migration to Germany has often been understood as an unprecedented crisis, but, far from being an aberration, such migration has been a necessary component of the classic legitimating narratives of the Federal Republic and a crucial support for its postwar “economic miracle.” The official reception of forced migrants has been structured by a categorical distinction between genuine refugees and ersatz “economic refugees.” The former are lauded for their economic contributions to Germany, whereas those alleged to have migrated mainly for economic reasons are condemned as fraudulent opportunists. These categories have been continually transposed onto new groups of forced migrants, whose arrival is invariably grasped as a crisis. The unfolding of refugee “crises” and their resolutions have continually shown the artificiality of the distinction between genuine and economic refugees—while simultaneously redrawing it.
Public Health in a Radioactive Age: Environmental Pollution, Popular Therapies, and Narratives of Danger in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949–1970
Authors: Murdock Caitlin E. 
Published: March 2019

AbstractIn the 1950s and 1960s, West German citizens found themselves living in a “radioactive age.” The public learned that radiation exposure pervaded postwar society, not only from atomic testing but also from medical treatment, workplace exposures, and radium consumer goods. By 1970, West Germans—ranging from farmers and housewives, to physicians, scientists, and bureaucrats—had recast nuclear radiation from a technological wonder or health aid into a public health hazard. This article illustrates that anxieties about uncontrollable technology, ineffective institutions, disingenuous political leaders, and volatile citizens persisted from the 1950s to the 1970s, coexisting with optimism and progress, without truly subsiding in the 1960s, as historians often suggest. Further, it advocates taking those fears seriously, showing that they played a critical—and lasting—role in shaping public policy and state-society relations in the early Federal Republic.
Writing Women's Agency into the History of the Federal Republic: “1968,” Historians, and Gender
Authors: von Hodenberg Christina 
Published: March 2019

AbstractTo a large extent, master surveys of the Federal Republic's history have failed to weave into their narratives the rise of female emancipation or challenges to male domination. This article addresses the reasons for this failure, as well as the implications of its reversal. It analyzes the role of women activists during West Germany's “1968,” underlining the gender bias of common narratives of the West German Sixties. The addition of feminist agency to West German history necessarily changes the definition of “success” in the Westernization narrative of the Federal Republic, and also the way in which we define generations and engage in public forms of commemoration.Die Emanzipation der Frauen und die Infragestellung männlicher Dominanz spielen in den Überblickswerken zur Geschichte der Bundesrepublik nur eine untergeordnete Rolle. Warum dies so ist, und welche Folgen eine Umkehr dieser Tendenz hätte, ist Thema dieses Aufsatzes. Am Beispiel feministischer Aktivistinnen des westdeutschen “1968” wird aufgezeigt, wie geschlechtsspezifisch verzerrt die gängigen Narrative der Protestbewegung und des Wertewandels in den 1960er Jahren sind. Sobald wir die Narrative der westdeutschen Geschichte mit feministischer “agency” zusammendenken, verändert sich notwendigerweise die Definition von “Erfolg” in der “Erfolgsgeschichte” der Bundesrepublik. Zudem werden die Kategorien des “Westens” und der “Verwestlichung”, der “politischen Generation” und des “Generationskonflikts” als geschlechtsspezifische Konstrukte erkennbar, die bislang eine männliche Perspektive in der Geschichtsschreibung wie in der öffentlichen Erinnerungskultur privilegiert haben.