bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Immunotherapy for metastatic liver disease from colorectal carcinoma: case series from the Middle East
Authors: Kakati Rasha T , Faraj Walid , Qaraqe Taha , El Chaer Frederic , Hussain Hero , Shamseddine Ali , Khalife Mohamad Jawad 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Immunotherapy poses new considerations and alterations to the management of metastatic colorectal carcinoma (mCRC), where chemotherapy achieves complete radiological response but yields complete pathological response in few patients only. Immunotherapy may be superior in the conversion of unresectable disease to resectable liver lesions from mCRC and downsizing borderline lesions for more feasible resectability and achieving complete pathologic response, with the potential for cure and to alter current, established guidelines for surgical resection with a shift from chemotherapy. We present two patients with hepatic lesions from mCRC characterized by deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) which were unresectable after traditional chemotherapy but were converted to resectable lesions with a complete histopathological response following immunotherapy. Complete histopathologic response and radiologic regression or disappearance of liver lesions was observed in patients with dMMR mCRC after pembrolizumab. Immunotherapy exhibits notable potential for cure, achieving complete, successful surgical resection and improving prognosis.
Dexamethasone and MicroRNA-204 Inhibit Corneal Neovascularization
Authors: Zhang Xiaoping , Wang Gang , Wang Qing , Jiang Rui 
Published: August 2022

ABSTRACT

Introduction
This was an in vivo animal study designed to investigate the interaction between dexamethasone (Dex) and microRNA-204 (miR-204) in a mouse alkali burn-induced corneal neovascularization (CNV) model. The function of miR-204 was then investigated in human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) in vitro.

Materials and Methods
The CNV model was induced by corneal alkali burn in BLAB/c mice. The mice were randomly divided into five groups: normal control (Ctrl), alkali burn-induced corneal injury (Alkali), alkali burn + Dex (Dex), alkali burn + negative control (NTC), and alkali burn + miR-204 agomir (miR-204). Subconjunctival injection of NTC, Dex, or miR-204 agomir was conducted at 0, 3, and 6 days, respectively, after alkali burn. The corneas were collected at day 7 after injury, and the CNV area was observed using immunofluorescence staining. The expression of miR-204 was analyzed with quantitative real time (qRT)-PCR. In HMECs, exogenous miR-204 agomir or antagomir was used to strengthen or inhibit the expression of miR-204. Migration assays and tube formation studies were conducted to evaluate the function of miR-204 on HMECs.

Results
At 7 days post-alkali burn, CNV grew aggressively into the cornea. MicroRNA-204 expression was reduced in the Alkali group in contrast with the Ctrl group (P = .003). However, miR-204 was upregulated in the Dex group (vs. alkali group, P = .008). The CNV areas in the NTC and miR-204 groups were 59.30 ± 8.32% and 25.60 ± 2.30%, respectively (P = .002). In vitro, miR-204 agomir showed obvious inhibition on HMEC migration in contrast with NTC (P = .033) and miR-204 antagomir (P = .017). Compared with NTC, miR-204 agomir attenuated tube formation, while miR-204 antagomir accelerated HMEC tube formation (P &lt; .05).

Conclusion
The role of Dex in attenuating CNV may be partly attributed to miR-204. MiR-204 may be a potential therapeutic target in alkali burn-induced CNV.
Disease burden, risk factors, and trends of primary central nervous system (CNS) cancer: A global study of registries data
Authors: Huang Junjie , Chan Sze Chai , Lok Veeleah , Zhang Lin , Lin Xu , Lucero-Prisno Don Eliseo , Xu Wanghong , Zheng Zhi-Jie , Elcarte Edmar , Withers Mellissa , Wong Martin C S ,   NCD Global Health Research Group,   Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU)
Published: August 2022

Abstract

Background
This study aimed to evaluate the global incidence, mortality, associated risk factors, and temporal trends of central nervous system (CNS) cancer by sex, age, and country.

Methods
We extracted incidence and mortality of CNS cancer from the GLOBOCAN (2020), Cancer Incidence in Five Continents series I–X, WHO mortality database, the Nordic Cancer Registries, and the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. We searched the Global Health data exchanges for the prevalence of its associated risk factors. We tested the trends by Average Annual Percentage Change (AAPC) from Joinpoint regression analysis with 95% confidence intervals in different age groups.

Results
The age-standardized rates (ASRs) of CNS cancer incidence and mortality were 3.5 and 2.8 per 100,000 globally. Southern Europe (ASR = 6.0) and Western Asia (ASR = 4.2) had the highest incidence and mortality, respectively. The incidence was associated with Human Development Index, Gross Domestics Products per capita, prevalence of traumatic brain injuries, occupational carcinogens exposure, and mobile phone use at the country level. There was an overall stable and mixed trend in the CNS cancer burden. However, increasing incidence was observed in younger male population from five countries, with Slovakia (AAPC = 5.40; 95% CI 1.88, 9.04; P = .007) reporting the largest increase.

Conclusions
While the overall global trends of cancer have been largely stable, significant increasing trends were found in the younger male population. The presence of some higher-HDI countries with increasing mortality suggested an ample scope for further research and exploration of the reasons behind these epidemiological trends.
Kings and Subjects
Authors: Podany Amanda H. 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThe Early Dynastic period (2900–2300 bce) began when powerful men in Sumerian cities first took the title of king. The writing system developed into cuneiform, which began to represent the Sumerian language. A case study of a priest, Ushumgal, and his daughter, Shara-igizi-Abzu, shows that powerful people at this time could transfer large amounts of property under oath, and that a permanent legal record was desired, attesting to a developing legal system. Short biographies of three kings of the city-state of Lagash explore the development of royal propaganda and interpret the nature of kingship at the time. First is Ur-Nanshe, who bragged of his temple construction, promotion of international trade, and warfare against distant Elam. He also began hostilities against neighboring Umma, which continued for many generations. The second biography is of Eannatum, who commissioned the Stela of the Vultures, depicting the divine authority that he claimed for his military campaigns against Umma, and the oaths sworn by the kings. The third king is Enmetena, an innovator in the use of diplomacy, the creation of alliances, and the cancellation of some of his subjects’ debts. He and other kings were represented by inscribed statues that prayed on their behalf to the gods. The Royal Tombs of Ur demonstrate the great wealth accumulated by some Early Dynastic kings and queens, and their power to be joined in death by attendants. The kings wished to live on in the afterlife and to be remembered by the gods and by people in the future.
Royal Couples, Divine Couples, and Envoys
Authors: Podany Amanda H. 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThe marriage of King Irkab-damu and Queen Tabur-damu of Ebla provides insights into the administration, beliefs, and economy of a Syrian kingdom in the Early Dynastic period. The chapter explores the stages in the royal marriage, including gifts given and received (some from distant lands), sacrifices to the gods and to dead kings, anointing of the bride, processions, and appearance of the couple before the city gods. The honeymoon was largely spent in the “House of the Dead” performing rituals to honor ancient kings and gods. By the end of the honeymoon, Tabur-damu and Irkab-damu were considered the true queen and king. As in southern Mesopotamia at this time, statues of past kings and queens were venerated and provided with gifts. Many gifts in Ebla were of textiles. Even more than in Sumer, textiles drove the local economy; people were even paid in textiles. Ebla had contacts with many kingdoms in Syria and beyond. A diplomatic letter found in the archive refers to an alliance as a relationship of “brotherhood” and shows that the ties were maintained by envoys who carried letters and gifts between courts. A biography of two merchants, Enar-Lim and Ruzi-malik, shows that Ebla even had ties to Egypt, where the men traveled for the king of Ebla, taking silver, tin, lapis lazuli, and oil and receiving linen, elephant ivory, copper, monkeys, and other goods in exchange. Travel was common; even the royal family traveled regularly within the kingdom of Ebla, especially on pilgrimages to shrines.
Sparring Kings and Their Military Commanders
Authors: Podany Amanda H. 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThe Ur III dynasty was succeeded by the kingdom of Isin (2017–1817 bce) and the kingdom of Larsa (1932–1763 bce), which together dominated the era called the Isin-Larsa period. This chapter looks at the struggles between these two kingdoms from the perspective of the town of Kisurra, which was located near their border, and focuses on a number of kings who ruled during the era. Several new dynasties were founded by Amorite-speaking leaders in this era. Letters written by King Sumu-El of Larsa to his military commanders, detailed in a case study, provide a view of his specific concerns during warfare. Sumu-El mentions concerns over the release of needed troops and over quarrels among the generals, intelligence about the enemy’s movements, oracles taken to determine the gods’ directives for attacks, and advice about fort construction, though he makes few references to casualties in his letters. His messages were conveyed by and to military men, one of whom was named Pihatni-ipiq. This official’s responsibilities, both military and civilian, are examined. Two more kings are profiled in the chapter: Sumu-la-El, who founded an Amorite dynasty in Babylon, and Enlil-bani of Isin, who apparently came to the throne in an unusual way. He was said to be a gardener who was serving as a substitute king, ready to die in order to fulfill an omen predicting the king’s death, but the true king died. Enlil-bani kept the throne and devoted much of his attention to venerating the gods.
Businessmen, Charioteers, and Translators
Authors: Podany Amanda H. 
Published: August 2022

AbstractMittani, a kingdom in northern Syria, expanded west to the Mediterranean and east to Assyria during the fifteenth century bce. Its kings’ archives have not been found, so little is known about its court. The kings had Indo-Aryan throne names, but spoke the local Hurrian. Alalakh, in western Mittani, was rich from trade. The people there were divided into social classes with specific obligations. Ilim-ilimma was a businessman in Alalakh. As a member of the elite maryanni class, he would have fought in a chariot, and was exempt from corvée labor. All classes of men in Mittani served in the military when needed. Ilim-ilimma lent silver to other citizens, purchased slaves, and found other ways to enrich himself. The kings oversaw and sealed many transactions and contracts; this included local kings, like the ruler of Alalakh who witnessed Ilim-ilimma’s transactions, and the great king of Mittani. The great powers of Mittani, Hatti, and Egypt fought for control of northwest Syria until around 1418 bce when they reached a peace agreement, and began to interact following ancient rules of diplomacy. Their relationships depended on envoys and translators. A profile of Hane, an Egyptian translator, reveals the responsibilities of translators, how they were treated, the education of cuneiform scribes in Egypt, the challenges of travel between capital cities, and difficulties of translation. The translators also had to understand nuances of the languages used. These are seen in a study of the word “love” as used by the king of Mittani.
“I Just Got on My Travelin’ Shoes”
Authors: Zolten Jerry 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
The 1930s were formative and expansive years for all styles of African American entertainment, including acapella gospel quartets. Recordings, radio, and touring provided regional groups access to broad audiences. James Davis and Barney Parks were inspired to pursue a livelihood as professional singers. They called themselves the Dixie Hummingbirds and began a campaign of “wildcatting,” going from town to town and remaining until they had established themselves there before moving on to the next. The Hummingbirds drove as far north as Michigan down south to Florida. They faced trial and tribulation along the way: detentions, sleeping in the car, all-night driving, wrecks, not getting paid, and racist confrontations. Their break came in the late 1930s for the famous recording group when Jimmy Bryant, stranded in Greenville while on tour with the Heavenly Gospel Singers of Detroit, used his record company connections to get the Hummingbirds an audition. The group, Bryant, James Davis, Barney Parks, and Wilson Baker, drove to New York City and recorded fourteen acapella spirituals for the Decca record label, which were released in 1939. The Hummingbirds were paid a flat fee. They returned home with the prestige of having recorded, but otherwise their career had stalled, leaving them wondering where to go from there.
“Twelve Gates to the City”
Authors: Zolten Jerry 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
In 1943 the Dixie Hummingbirds moved to Philadelphia, a strategic location that offered population density, easy access to nearby cities, and an opportunity to perform on the radio. They also wanted to escape the racist climate of the South. Philadelphia became the home base for the Hummingbirds and their families. The move paid off when powerhouse producer John Hammond, who had helped the careers of Bessie Smith and Benny Goodman, offered the Hummingbirds a regular spot at a New York City nightclub, Café Society. Café Society offered the best in African American talent at affordable prices with no racial restrictions as at other New York City venues. The Hummingbirds filled in for the Golden Gate Quartet when they were away on tour, but when a second location was opened, the Hummingbirds got their own weekly featured spot. Billed as the Jericho Quartet, in that guise they appeared in white-tailed tuxedos and started their show by sliding out from side stage into formation around their microphones as they performed their opening number. During their run, the Hummingbirds associated with entertainment luminaries including Paul Robeson, Josh White, and Billie Holiday. They polished stagecraft and artistry that kept audiences riveted. The war, however, continued to rage and Barney Parks and bass singer Wilson Baker were drafted. Baker was replaced by William Bobo, Tucker's childhood friend from Spartanburg. Bobo would become one of the most respected bass singers in the history of gospel.
“Who Are We?”
Authors: Zolten Jerry 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
The Hummingbirds—James Davis, Ira Tucker, James Walker, Beachey Thompson, and Howard Carroll—celebrated their fiftieth anniversary with an album, Golden Flight. The album and the occasion sparked appearances on numerous network television programs. The group was the subject of a segment on ABC-TV’s magazine show 20/20 and Ebony Magazine ran a cover story. Looking for independence and artistic control, the Hummingbirds began producing their own recordings, leasing them to independent labels. Aging and constant travel taking a toll, James Davis retired, though remaining compensated and in control. The group drew on reserve singers and Paul Owens rejoined after a thirty-year absence. A documentary about the Hummingbirds began shooting in 1992, but while it was underway, James Walker and Beachey Thompson passed. Carl Davis stepped in and the documentary, We Love You Like a Rock, was released in 1994. The Dixie Hummingbirds—Ira Tucker, Paul Owens, Carl Davis, and Howard Carroll—toured internationally. They marked their seventieth anniversary with the album Music in the Air, featuring musical guests Shirley Caesar, Isaac Hayes, Wynona Judd, Mavis Staples, Deniece Williams, Vickie Winans, Bobby Womack, Paul Simon, and Stevie Wonder. They performed with Simon and Wonder on NBC’s The Late Show with David Letterman. The Hummingbirds were inducted into the Gospel Music and Vocal Group Halls of Fame and named National Heritage Fellows. Leading up to their seventy-fifth anniversary, they questioned continuing and in what form.
Interior Frontiers
Authors: Stoler Ann Laura 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThis book reviews the colonial projects of the nineteenth and twentieth century which cast a long shadow on the laws, politics, and culture of nations around the world. It mentions the colonial residue that is apparent in fears about caravans of refugees and their effects on national culture. It also highlights the argument that nationalism isn’t something that appeared out of nowhere, pointing out that liberals failed to see it coming because of the philosophical concepts that can’t capture the importance of imperial thinking to liberal notions of self and nation. The book looks at a range of concepts that fall outside of traditional political measures and that structure the ways in which nations and individuals conceive of themselves. It considers Europe as a “shatterzone,” an eighteenth-century geological term for areas of fissured rock that networks of veins that fill with rich mineral deposits.
Interior Frontiers
Authors: Stoler Ann Laura 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThis chapter reviews the early-nineteenth-century term, interior frontier, that was forged into a political concept and became an unexpected conceptual hinge for the thinking about racial formations. It reflects on the paradoxical, quixotic quality of a concept in the practices interior frontier calls forth. It also talks about seal affiliations among “a people,” and between person and polity to bolster moral armament or tear at the inner seams of civic life, turning persons against one another. The chapter analyzes the French expression “moi peau,” which invites to thought about the skin as an envelope, a sensorial limit, site of excitation, a protection against aggression, or a defense against effraction. It explains that moi peau is thought less as a metaphor of “me” or ego, but more of the skin’s capacity to designate features activated in becoming a political subject.
“All Things Being Equal”
Authors: Stoler Ann Laura 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThis chapter discusses shatterzones that are on the borderlands of civility and beyond their common designated location in Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq. It elaborates how the shatterzone equally describes the contemporary carceral history of Europe and the U.S. and defines them as sites of compressed inequalities, racial cleavages, and racial geopolitics distributing exorbitant divisions of poverty and wealth. The chapter focuses on a constellation of practices and policies that question the U.S. as a carceral exception and look at one of the hinges on which collusions between capitalist profits and state expansion depend, such as convict leasing and the extraction and mobility of penal labor. It emphasizes how the usual time frame offered for convict leasing that was confined to the period 1885 to 1928 and to the American South is misleading.
Anton Wilhelm Amo
Authors: Smith Justin E. H. 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
In 1738 the German-based African philosopher Anton Wilhelm Amo published the last and by far the longest of his three philosophical works: the Treatise on the Art of Soberly and Accurately Philosophizing. It is first and foremost a work of logic, evidently intended for students following the courses he taught. In it, Amo covers a wide range of topics, and notably makes some original contributions on the subject of hermeneutics. It also draws on some surprising and unexpected sources, and often poses difficult questions to today’s reader seeking to understand why Amo was attracted to this or that predecessor’s ideas rather than another's. Notably absent among his sources is any other African philosopher or author interested in African philosophical traditions, and here we are pushed toward another sort of interpretive question: Was Amo himself an African philosopher in any meaningful sense?
Civility, Silence, and Epistemic Labor in Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider
Authors: Khader Serene J. 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Audre Lorde writes that conditions of oppression and injustice make it difficult to arrive at an accurate shared understanding of social reality. This chapter identifies three mechanisms by which Lorde takes oppression to impede shared knowledge of social reality. The first is a distorting or deficient conceptual repertoire. The second is unjust epistemic labor flows that demand that the oppressed, rather than devoting their energy to pursuing the questions that they prioritize, devote labor to the questions, and framings of those questions, that interest the dominant. The third is the perception that anger is epistemically disadvantageous, and that expressing it is a violation of the spirit of collective inquiry. The piece suggests connections between Lorde’s ideas and contemporary discussions of cancel culture, emotional labor, and the expectation that the oppressed educate the dominant.
Religious Republics in Seville, 1248–1502
Authors: Graubart Karen B. 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Late medieval Seville was a city built on complex social and economic relationships involving Muslims, Christians, and Jews. While Christian authorities sometimes expressed a will to separate minority populations and designate them with insignias, these measures were largely ineffective until the late fourteenth century. When fifteenth-century Jewish and Muslim notarial archives are mapped onto the city using arcGIS, the aljamas come to life as networks of relationships within and across the faiths. Muslims and Jews carved out their own enclaves and also found alliances with others of their status or occupation. The chapter investigates the structures of the Muslim and Jewish communities, and how these shaped their members’ experiences in the city.
Alma Mahler-Werfel, “Licht in der Nacht” (1901)
Authors: Smith Kenneth M. 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
From Mahler-Werfel’s catalogue of seventeen songs, this chapter examines “Licht in der Nacht” from 1901, along with several other songs which stage a similar narrative of searching for a light. Mahler-Werfel displays a technique which the author likens to the cybernetic concept of feedback, by which her tense chord progressions continually attempt to find resolution, first trying out one route, then another, groping, as if in the dark, for light. The chapter considers how Mahler-Werfel integrates octatonic and hexatonic cycles within diatonic cycles of fifths. Several passages of the song are plotted on a model of functional harmonic space that is designed to illuminate the diatonic thread that runs through Mahler-Werfel’s complex chord surface. The chapter uses neo-Riemannian theory to further consider her technique of parsimoniously transforming chords, always serving the broader poetic narrative.
Rebecca Clarke, “Tiger, Tiger” (1933)
Authors: Bernstein Zachary 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Rebecca Clarke’s setting of William Blake’s “The Tyger,” entitled “Tiger, Tiger,” is one of her most ambitious tonal experiments, revealing an innovative and creative sense of tonality’s possibilities for extension. This chapter explores how the song’s use of selectively chosen and creatively reconfigured tonal characteristics support its text setting. Harmony, linearity, and motivic structure combine to support a reading of the text that vividly captures the dark forces depicted in Blake’s poem. A modified Schenkerian approach—adapted using concepts from Daniel Harrison’s Pieces of Tradition—illuminates Clarke’s exceptional approach to tonality.