Apparent Rejection Research Articles

The Kremlin and the principle of self- determination

The paper attempts to analyze the principle of self-determination in the international agenda focusing on Moscow´s foreign policy since Gorbachev´s rejection of the Nagorno Karabagh Autonomous Region constitutional request to separate from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan in February 1988 through the successive crises in the Kosovo, the Caucasus and Ukraine. The central argument sustains that the apparent rejection to the principle of self-determination must be understood in the context of Moscow´s continued drive for hegemony in the geopolitical space of Eurasia, and more specifically, in the ex-Soviet space.

From cooperation to confrontation: US-Russia relations since 9/11

Relations between the US and Russia during the George W. Bush era were marked by a dramatic shift from cooperation to confrontation. Russia’s unequivocal support for the US-led War on Terror in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 gave way to a sustained rise in anti-Western sentiment in the Russian political narrative. This article analyses US-Russia relations during the presidency of George W. Bush through the lens of great power relations and status. It explores the distinctive aspects of the Bush administration’s foreign policy approach and how they impacted the US-Russia relationship: notably increasing US unilateralism and its apparent rejection of multilateralism, liberal interventionism and the pursuit of democracy promotion around the world. These continue to shape the Russian view of the US, its intentions and attitude towards international order.

Tolstoy on the injustice of the philosophy of education

Abstract Tolstoy had a lifelong interest in education and philosophy. However, he was suspicious of using philosophy as a foundation for educational practice or applying philosophy to the educational problems of his day, most importantly, the development of an education system in Russia around the time of the emancipation of the serfs. Tolstoy’s rejection of the philosophy of education arose from his concerns about what would be identified in contemporary terminology as ‘epistemic injustice’ or ‘epistemicide’. How could European philosophy inform a curriculum and pedagogy for the Russian peasantry when the peasants’ own forms of knowledge were more valuable to their ways of life? Tolstoy sought to answer this question by engaging with children in peasant schools. This experience informed the development of his own worldview, articulated in the latter years of his life—a vision of uniting the insights of indigenous peoples from various times and places to inform what he considered to be the pursuit of authentic knowledge. This article considers Tolstoy’s apparent rejection of the philosophy of education, exploring how this seemingly bombastic position led to the evolution of an innovative meta-philosophy that offers some contribution to thinking about contemporary educational problems.

The Merits of Ambiguity: Provocation from the Irish Perspective

The old common law defence of provocation has been abolished in many jurisdictions, including England and Wales and Northern Ireland, but it is still part of the law south of the Irish border. Up to now the Irish law of provocation has been built up solely by the courts, and has developed a number of peculiarities, not least the apparent rejection of the objective test by the Court of Criminal Appeal in the 1978 case of MacEoin. However, it is not until recently that the defence has come to the attention to the Supreme Court, in the 2020 case of McNamara. In this case the court set out to clarify the law, but the case has been criticised by commentators for its failure to clear up some of the existing ambiguities; indeed, it has been said that it has even introduced further ambiguities into the law that did not exist before. Be that as it may, this paper argues that McNamara is to be welcomed, in so far as it promotes a flexible approach and one which recognises the essentially normative nature of the provocation defence.

Machine Learning Analysis of Postkeratoplasty Endothelial Cell Images for the Prediction of Future Graft Rejection.

This study developed machine learning (ML) classifiers of postoperative corneal endothelial cell images to identify postkeratoplasty patients at risk for allograft rejection within 1 to 24 months of treatment. Central corneal endothelium specular microscopic images were obtained from 44 patients after Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK), half of whom had experienced graft rejection. After deep learning segmentation of images from all patients' last and second-to-last imaging, time points prior to rejection were analyzed (175 and 168, respectively), and 432 quantitative features were extracted assessing cellular spatial arrangements and cell intensity values. Random forest (RF) and logistic regression (LR) models were trained on novel-to-this-application features from single time points, delta-radiomics, and traditional morphometrics (endothelial cell density, coefficient of variation, hexagonality) via 10 iterations of threefold cross-validation. Final assessments were evaluated on a held-out test set. ML classifiers trained on novel-to-this-application features outperformed those trained on traditional morphometrics for predicting future graft rejection. RF and LR models predicted post-DMEK patients' allograft rejection in the held-out test set with >0.80 accuracy. RF models trained on novel features from second-to-last time points and delta-radiomics predicted post-DMEK patients' rejection with >0.70 accuracy. Cell-graph spatial arrangement, intensity, and shape features were most indicative of graft rejection. ML classifiers successfully predicted future graft rejections 1 to 24 months prior to clinically apparent rejection. This technology could aid clinicians to identify patients at risk for graft rejection and guide treatment plans accordingly. Our software applies ML techniques to clinical images and enhances patient care by detecting preclinical keratoplasty rejection.

The ‘Optimistic Cruelty’ of Hayek’s Market Order: Neoliberalism, Pain and Social Selection

This article argues that cruelty, as a willingness to see or orchestrate the suffering of others, is not an unfortunate side-effect of neoliberal theories put into practice but is constitutive of the neoliberal project from its theoretical inception. Drawing on Lisa Duggan’s concept of ‘optimistic cruelty’ and treating the canonical texts of neoliberal economic theory as literary artefacts, the article develops this argument through a close reading of one of the central architects of the neoliberal project, the philosopher and economist Friedrich Hayek. The first part of the article examines how Hayek attempts to justify the brutality of the market order he imagines – the catallaxy – by arguing that this brutality is the natural consequence of the spontaneous evolutionary processes that move civilisation forward. The second part brings to the fore the eugenicist undertones that suffuse this vision, despite Hayek’s apparent rejection of Social Darwinism. I analyse how Hayek’s market order operates through a series of disciplinary and biopolitical technologies that use pain, frustration, punishment and stigmatisation to eliminate bad habits, practices and subjectivities. These cruel mechanisms enable the catallaxy to sort between productive and unproductive lives to ensure that available resources are directed towards the former – even if it means that the others might be left to die. As such, cruelty is an affective atmosphere that permeates the catallaxy.

Urban Life in Two 1920s Sino-Malay Poems

Abstract Batavia, the capital of the former Netherlands Indies, was home to a popular Chinese-run printing industry that published works in the Malay vernacular. Two 1920s Sino-Malay poems reveal firsthand accounts of the city's vibrant sociocultural landscape. Sair park (The Poem of the Park) narrates everyday life at the parks of the colonial metropole, including the opportunities these urban spaces provide for illicit encounters between men and women. Pantoen tjapgome (The Quatrain of the Lantern Festival) describes the festivities of an important holiday that increasingly drifted away from its religious origins and became a public spectacle attended by people from different ethnicities. Together, these poems provide intricate and otherwise unavailable details of everyday life in late-colonial Java. They also reveal some of the anxieties faced by its Chinese-descended population, including the specter of cultural loss and unwarranted interaction between young people from different genders and racial backgrounds. Yet despite this apparent rejection of an Indies-style hybrid modernity, an examination of the language of these poems—Batavia Malay with a substantial influence from Hokkien, the Sinitic variety historically spoken by many Chinese-Indonesian families—demonstrates that they are best approached as examples of Chinese-Indonesian acculturation.

Genetically Modified Porcine-to-Human Cardiac Xenotransplantation

SummaryA 57-year-old man with nonischemic cardiomyopathy who was dependent on venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and was not a candidate for standard therapeutics, including a traditional allograft, received a heart from a genetically modified pig source animal that had 10 individual gene edits. Immunosuppression was based on CD40 blockade. The patient was weaned from ECMO, and the xenograft functioned normally without apparent rejection. Sudden diastolic thickening and failure of the xenograft occurred on day 49 after transplantation, and life support was withdrawn on day 60. On autopsy, the xenograft was found to be edematous, having nearly doubled in weight. Histologic examination revealed scattered myocyte necrosis, interstitial edema, and red-cell extravasation, without evidence of microvascular thrombosis — findings that were not consistent with typical rejection. Studies are under way to identify the mechanisms responsible for these changes. (Funded by the University of Maryland Medical Center and School of Medicine.)

A Noble Pity. ἔλεος in Plato’s Philosophy

This article examines Plato’s remarks on compassion to show that his apparent rejection of this emotion is, in fact, a rejection of a kind of ill-founded compassion. In the first section, I argue that his criticisms in the Apology and the Republic are not directed to compassion per se, but to instances in which this emotion betrays false beliefs and is felt in improper contexts. Thus, Plato’s criticisms leave room for an appropriate type of pity that should be grounded on true beliefs about harm, virtue, and justice. In the second section, I address Plato’s remarks on compassion in the Gorgias and the Laws, where he asserts that it should be felt towards the unpunished wrongdoer. I argue that such a disposition to feel compassion appropriately - which I have called a “noble compassion”, akin to the “noble anger” (θυμός γενναῖος) present in the Laws – is an important feature of the character of an ideal citizen. Thus, for Plato, compassion could contribute to psychological well-being and social order. By inspecting the cognitive and contextual conditions that enable a noble compassion in Platonic philosophy, this article aims to contribute to the study of a crucial emotion both in Greek and Christian philosophy.

‘El canto y lira mía’: The Horatian Authorial Persona in the Work of Fray Luis de León

In this study I discuss the generic implications of Fray Luis’s adoption of the Horatian authorial persona. Firstly, I interpret Ode I as a statement of his poetic programme. Next, I argue that in Ode XXII Fray Luis navigates lyric’s apparent rejection of epic themes by modelling his portrayal of Pedro Portocarrero on Horace’s relationship with Maecenas. I then discuss how other elevated poems are compatible with the lyric persona through their affiliation with the hymn form and particularly with Pindar’s lyric. Critics often comment that Fray Luis avoids amatory themes; while this is true in his original poetry, I argue that in his translations of Horace and in his use of Classical allusion in the Latin commentary In Canticum Canticorum, the lyric persona gives him both the licence to treat amatory themes and the ability to distance himself from them through Horatian humour.

The 2019 Bougainville Referendum and the Question of Independence: From Conflict to Consensus

ABSTRACT In 2019, a referendum on the political future of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville was held, resulting in a resounding majority – 97.7 per cent – for independence from Papua New Guinea. The non-binding referendum was a long-awaited event within a lengthy peace process following a civil war that began in the late 1980s. The conflict caused deep divisions in an already factionalized society and generated divergent ideas on the future status of the region. Yet the referendum, held more than 20 years after the end of the conflict, revealed a near-universal consensus on the question of independence, and an apparent rejection of the idea of ‘greater autonomy’. This article looks to the complex political economy and politics of Bougainville, and traces the paths taken by both the Autonomous Bougainville Government and the Government of Papua New Guinea leading up to the referendum, to seek to explain how this consensus was achieved in a society previously divided on the issue. It further examines how the almost unanimous verdict on the question of independence is being carried forward through political transitions, and how it informs ongoing consultations with the Government of Papua New Guinea on Bougainville’s future political status.

The unrealised potential of Robert Browning’s “Gold Hair: A Legend of Pornic”

ABSTRACT This article explores a hitherto neglected context of Robert Browning’s “Gold Hair” (1864), analysing the poem in relation to the tradition of “hair harvests” in Brittany, France, as well as the broader contexts of the hair trade and hairwork in the nineteenth century. In doing so, it makes a case for reading the textual evocation of hair in the poem literally to trace a cultural shift towards hair framed in material rather than corporeal terms. The girl of the poem has abundant golden hair that corresponds with gold, hairwork, and the hair trade in ways that highlight its potential against the girl’s apparent rejection of common hair practices. Diverging from previous analyses that have read poetic representations of hair in Browning primarily as symbolic (especially in relation to sexuality), the pairing of hair with gold is shown in this poem to signify unrealised sources of credit, unprocessed matter, holding the potential to be exchanged or refined. This article considers practices of keeping, working, and selling hair in conjunction with the Brownings’ collection of hair and hairwork held by the Armstrong Browning Library, in this way elucidating the materiality of hair in both the poem and the Victorian imaginary.

SCRI-CAR19x22v2 T Cell Product Demonstrates Bispecific Activity in B-ALL

Introduction: CAR T cells in B-ALL have recently focused on the dual targeting of CD19 and CD22 to enhance long term remissions and prevent antigen negative recurrence that is frequently encountered with single antigen targeting. However, a barrier to this approach has been the retention of dual specificity killing and ongoing persistence. PLAT-05 is a multisite phase 1 trial (NCT03330691) that was undertaken to evaluate the safety and feasibility of SCRI-CAR19x22v1, a dual transduced patient-derived product with lentiviral vectors encoding for either a CD19- or CD22-specific CAR, both with 4-1BB co-stimulation. Early results of the first 27 subjects infused demonstrated feasibility and a favorable safety profile with encouraging CR rates. Products were fractionated evenly between CD19 CAR, CD19+CD22 CAR and CD22 CAR. However, engraftment was predominated by the single CD19 CAR population, leading to unsuccessful eradication of CD19-CD22+ leukemia. This finding led to re-engineering the CD22 CAR construct for enhanced CD22 targeting, and re-initiation of dose finding with the new product, SCRI-CAR19v2.Methods: After enrollment, subjects undergo apheresis followed by a combined CD4/CD8 positive immunomagnetic selection and seeded at a prescribed ratio for co-culture in a closed-system G-Rex bioreactor. Following anti-CD3xCD28 bead stimulation, T cells are transduced with two lentiviral vectors that encode for either a CD19- or CD22-specific CAR. After flu/cy lymphodepletion, CAR T cells are infused at one of three dose levels: 0.5, 1 or 3 X 10 6 CAR T cells/kg. Toxicity is graded according to CTCAEv5 except for CRS and ICANS which are graded per ASTCT criteria. Leukemic response and CAR T cell persistence are evaluated by flow cytometry.Results: 14 subjects enrolled onto PLAT-05 for the SCRI-CAR19x22v2 dose escalation and products were successfully manufactured in all subjects with an average of 8.9 days in culture (range 7-12 days). In contrast to v1 products, the CAR composition of v2 products was skewed in favor of CD22 CAR expression, with median expression of each population as follows: 42% CD22 only, 33% CD19 and CD22, 3.2% CD19 only. Twelve subjects were infused (0.5x10 6/kg n=3, 1x10 6/kg n=3, 3x10 6/kg n=6), 11 of whom had prior exposure to CD19 or CD22 targeted therapies with diverse expression of CD19 and CD22 on the leukemic blasts. No dose limiting toxicities occurred in the 11 fully evaluable subjects (1 subject is pending) and the recommended phase 2 dose was determined as 3x10 6 CAR + cells/kg. CRS was present in 45% of subjects, all grade 1. Neurotoxicity occurred in 45% of subjects, all grade 1 except a single self-limited grade 3 ICANS event (due to a single time point CAPD score). 91% of infused subjects obtained a CR, of which 100% were MRD negative. The non-responder had persistent disease that was CD19-CD22-. The in vivo engraftment of CAR T cells peaked most frequently between day +7 and +14 and was predominated by the CD22 CAR T cells, with some minimal contribution of dual and CD19 CAR T cells. Of the 4 subjects who had previously received an FMC63 based CD19 CAR, expansion was due to solely to the CD22 CARs in all 4 subjects, with apparent rejection of the T cells expressing CD19 CAR.Conclusions: We demonstrate enhanced activity of SCRI-CAR19x22v2 compared to v1, now with dual activity against both CD19 and CD22 demonstrated by elimination of ALL with single antigen expression. We maintained encouraging CR rates with a favorable toxicity profile. Interestingly, the product is predominated by CD22 CAR and CD19/CD22 CAR populations, while in vivo engraftment is predominated by single CD22 CAR expressing T cells. Subjects exposed to prior CD19 murine based CAR rejected the CD19 CAR but engrafted the CD22 CAR with demonstratable activity, a potential advantage of a dual transduced product. The impact of lower CD19 CAR engraftment on durable remissions is unknown. While limited expansion of the CD19 CAR population could be protective against exhaustion, the uneven engraftment of the CAR populations may ultimately lead to single antigen targeting. Optimization of transduction may be required for a more balanced product to maintain dual targeting and give further insight into the behavior of dual-expressing CAR T cells. An expansion cohort is currently underway to further characterize engraftment kinetics and in vivo performance to best inform future development of this product. [Display omitted] DisclosuresPulsipher: Jasper Therapeutics: Honoraria; Adaptive: Research Funding; Equillium: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Li: Novartis Canada: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Jensen: Bluebird Bio: Research Funding; Umoja Biopharma: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; BMS: Patents & Royalties. Gardner: Novartis: Consultancy; BMS: Patents & Royalties. OffLabel Disclosure:investigational use of SCRI-CAR19x22 will be discussed

Discipleship, Secularity, and the Modern Self: Dancing to Silent Music, Judith A.Merkle, T&T Clark, 2020 (ISBN 978‐0‐5676‐9340‐2), viii + 240 pp., pb £21.99

Discipleship, Secularity, and the Modern Self: Dancing to Silent Music, Judith A.Merkle, T&T Clark, 2020 (ISBN 978‐0‐5676‐9340‐2), viii + 240 pp., pb £21.99

Between Mysticism and Philosophical Rationality: Al-Ghazālī on the Reasons of the Heart

In his seminal Orientalism and Religion (1999), Richard King argues that Western scholars of religion have constructed a conceptual dichotomy between “mysticism” and “rationality” that has caused them to systematically distort the claims and arguments of Eastern thinkers. While King focuses primarily on Western scholarship on the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, this essay shows that his argument can also be extended to apply to Western scholarship on al-Ghazālī, whose sympathy for Sufism and apparent rejection of Greek philosophy has often earned him the reputation of being a champion of Islamic mysticism. I argue that al-Ghazālī transcends the dueling categories of ‘rationality’ and ‘mysticism’ that have been imposed on him by offering a conception of experiential knowledge that retains its roots in the ‘mystical’ Sufi tradition, even while also highlighting the rational merits of experientially-grounded modes of knowing. In particular, I argue that al-Ghazālī shows us how experiential knowledge is both important to providing motivation for rational action and also critical to underwriting persons’ genuine understanding of the evaluative properties of that which is known.

Challenging Colonial Narratives: Nineteenth-Century Great Lakes Archaeology

Challenging Colonial Narratives: Nineteenth-Century Great Lakes Archaeology

Investigating the Influence of Islamic State’s Discourse in Jordan

Guided by the general investigation of the “discursive assault” launched by Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East and beyond, this paper examines the resonance of IS’ use of language in grassroots populations living in Jordan. Representing IS’ communication campaign as a sender-message-receiver continuum, this research aims to give primary importance to the message and its audience. Frame theory is used as the general framework to understand the formation and reception of IS’ discourse on the conflicts in Iraq and Syria. The analysis reveals that, while IS’ rhetoric on the perceived “crisis of the Ummah” and its solution seems to resonate inside Jordan, the social practices this solution entails failed to convince. In that sense, if IS succeeded to echo the grievances and resentment of its audiences in Jordan, the group was unable to attract generalized support for its caliphate. Nonetheless, this apparent rejection of IS’ project must be nuanced at the regional and state levels. After years of war in Iraq and Syria, the conditions that initially gave rise to IS remain. So, do the dynamics that nurtured the popular grievances against perceived illegitimate rulers.

Biocompatibility, hemostatic properties, and wound healing evaluation of tilapia skin collagen sponges

Dialyzed tilapia skin collagen sponge (DTSCS) and self-assembled tilapia skin collagen sponge (STSCS) were prepared by freeze-drying. The raw components used in the fabrication of DTSCS and STSCS were separated and purified from tilapia fish skin. It is anticipated that these collagen sponges could be developed into medical dressings for hemostasis and wound healing. The aim of the present research was to explore the possibility of DTSCS and STSCS as medical dressings and compare their differences by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water absorption measurement, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), measurement of porosity, cytotoxicity, hemolysis, in vivo biocompatibility, and evaluation of hemostatic performance and wound healing. The results indicate that DTSCS and STSCS are suitable materials for use in medical applications with a loose and porous structure, high water absorption, high porosity, and high thermal stability. The materials also displayed good biocompatibility, including excellent blood compatibility, a lack of cytotoxicity, with no apparent rejection following implantation. STSCS exhibited rapid hemostasis and promoted healing, with slightly greater efficacy than DTSCS. The hemostatic properties and promotion of healing in DTSCS was similar to that of commercial bovine collagen sponge. Therefore, DTSCS and STSCS both represented excellent potential candidate materials for use as hemostatic agents and wound dressings.

Tailoring and Remotely Switching Performance of Ultrafiltration Membranes by Magnetically Responsive Polymer Chains.

Magnetically responsive ultrafiltration membranes were prepared by grafting poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) chains from the outer surface of 100-kDa regenerated cellulose ultrafiltration membranes. Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization was used to graft the polymer chains. Grafting from the internal pore surface was suppressed by using glycerol as a pore-filling solvent during initiator immobilization at varied densities. Glycerol suppresses the initiator attachment to the pore surface. Polymerization times of up to four hours were investigated. Superparamagnetic nanoparticles were covalently attached to the chain end. Membrane performance was determined using bovine serum albumin and dextran as model solutes. Increasing the grafted polymer chain density and length led to a decrease in the permeate flux and an increase in the apparent rejection coefficient. In an oscillating magnetic field, movement of the grafted polymer chains led to a decrease in the permeate flux, as well as an increase in the apparent rejection coefficient of the model solutes.

Intrastromal implantation of chicken corneal grafts into the cornea of rabbits for corneal thickening: an experimental study.

To evaluate the feasibility and effects of the intrastromal implantation of chemically modified corneal stroma obtained from chicken into the corneas of rabbits for corneal thickening. Chicken corneas were cut, debrided, treated with cross-linking and implanted in an intrastromal pouch created in the cornea of 10 white New Zealand rabbits with femtosecond laser. Slit-lamp biomicroscopy and optical coherence tomography were performed immediately, 7, 30 and 90days postoperatively. Corneas were removed at 90daysand cut in two halves. One half was sent to histological analysis for the presence of necrosis, polymorphonuclear inflammatory cells, blood vessels and fibrosis, while the other half was evaluated with transmission electron microscopy to verify tissue organization and the presence of keratocytes and inflammatory cells. Corneal thicknesses were comparatively analyzed over time with Wilcoxon test (p ≤ 0.05). The chicken grafts were incorporated into the cornea of all animals over time. Mean rabbit cornea thickness increased from 338µm preoperatively to 538µm (p < 0.0077) at 90days, while mean chicken graft thickness decreased from 350 to 215µm (p < 0.0077). No clear signs of rejection attributable to the xenograft were observed in any of the implanted eyes. However, some macroscopic and histological events were observed in some of the eyes, probably due to procedural issues during implantation. The intrastromal implantation of chicken grafts was shown to be feasible and predictable to thicken the recipient rabbit cornea without apparent rejection. However, before being considered in humans, further meticulous clinical trials are required to establish the clinical utility, safety and efficacy of xenografts for the treatment of patients with advanced keratoconus.