Growth Expansion Research Articles

SURGICAL TREATMENT IN A CASE OF MODERATELY DIFFERENTIATED MUCOEPIDERMOID CARCINOMA AFTER EXCISIONAL BIOPSY: CASE REPORT

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is the most common malignant major and minor salivary gland neoplasm, with a predilection for the parotid gland, followed by the hard palate. A 45-year-old female patient presented to the maxillofacial outpatient clinic with a symptomatic nodular lesion on the hard palate that had first appeared 6 months earlier. The imaging exam showed an expansive growth in the region. The diagnostic hypothesis was hemangioma. Accordingly, an excisional biopsy was performed. Histomorphologic analysis showed lobular infiltration of mucous cells permeated by intermediate and epidermoid cells, in addition to intense vascular proliferation within the affected structures and margins. The diagnosis of MEC (moderately differentiated) was made. The patient was referred to the head and neck surgical service and the surgical margins were expanded. At 12-month follow-up, there was no recurrence. Hence, the case points to the importance of incisional biopsy in suspicious lesions to avoid possible loss of margins in surgical treatment. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is the most common malignant major and minor salivary gland neoplasm, with a predilection for the parotid gland, followed by the hard palate. A 45-year-old female patient presented to the maxillofacial outpatient clinic with a symptomatic nodular lesion on the hard palate that had first appeared 6 months earlier. The imaging exam showed an expansive growth in the region. The diagnostic hypothesis was hemangioma. Accordingly, an excisional biopsy was performed. Histomorphologic analysis showed lobular infiltration of mucous cells permeated by intermediate and epidermoid cells, in addition to intense vascular proliferation within the affected structures and margins. The diagnosis of MEC (moderately differentiated) was made. The patient was referred to the head and neck surgical service and the surgical margins were expanded. At 12-month follow-up, there was no recurrence. Hence, the case points to the importance of incisional biopsy in suspicious lesions to avoid possible loss of margins in surgical treatment.

CALCIFYING EPITHELIAL ODONTOGENIC TUMOR IN THE POSTERIOR MAXILLA ASSOCIATED WITH A SUPERNUMERARY TOOTH: A CASE REPORT

The calcifying epithelial odontogenic tumor is a rare benign neoplasm responsible for approximately 1% of all odontogenic tumors. Cases involving the maxilla are uncommon, even more so when it also involves supernumerary tooth. We describe the case of a 33-year-old female patient exhibiting swelling in the right maxilla. On radiographic examination, an isodense area was found associated with an impacted supernumerary tooth. Cone beam computed tomography also revealed expansive growth of the lesion in the maxillary sinus that caused the displacement of the first and second upper right premolars. The patient underwent an incisional biopsy, and the histopathologic diagnosis was a calcifying epithelial odontogenic tumor. After the first diagnosis, an excisional biopsy was done that confirmed the diagnosis. The treatment of choice was surgical removal of the lesion and associated dental elements. The patient has been followed up for 11 months and shows no signs of recurrence.

Jasmonates in plant growth and development and elicitation of secondary metabolites: An updated overview.

Secondary metabolites are incontestably key specialized molecules with proven health-promoting effects on human beings. Naturally synthesized secondary metabolites are considered an important source of pharmaceuticals, food additives, cosmetics, flavors, etc., Therefore, enhancing the biosynthesis of these relevant metabolites by maintaining natural authenticity is getting more attention. The application of exogenous jasmonates (JAs) is well recognized for its ability to trigger plant growth and development. JAs have a large spectrum of action that covers seed germination, hypocotyl growth regulation, root elongation, petal expansion, and apical hook growth. This hormone is considered as one of the key regulators of the plant’s growth and development when the plant is under biotic or abiotic stress. The JAs regulate signal transduction through cross-talking with other genes in plants and thereby deploy an appropriate metabolism in the normal or stressed conditions. It has also been found to be an effective chemical elicitor for the synthesis of naturally occurring secondary metabolites. This review discusses the significance of JAs in the growth and development of plants and the successful outcomes of jasmonate-driven elicitation of secondary metabolites including flavonoids, anthraquinones, anthocyanin, xanthonoid, and more from various plant species. However, as the enhancement of these metabolites is essentially measured via in vitro cell culture or foliar spray, the large-scale production is significantly limited. Recent advancements in the plant cell culture technology lay the possibilities for the large-scale manufacturing of plant-derived secondary metabolites. With the insights about the genetic background of the metabolite biosynthetic pathway, synthetic biology also appears to be a potential avenue for accelerating their production. This review, therefore, also discussed the potential manoeuvres that can be deployed to synthesis plant secondary metabolites at the large-scale using plant cell, tissue, and organ cultures.

Static–Dynamic coordinated Transformer for Tumor Longitudinal Growth Prediction

Accurate prediction of the tumor’s future imaging features can provide its complete growth evolution and more detailed clinical parameters. The existing longitudinal models tend to lose detailed growth information and make it difficult to model the complete tumor development process. In this paper, we propose the Static–Dynamic coordinated Transformer for Tumor Longitudinal Growth Prediction (SDC-Transformer). To extract the static high-level features of tumors in each period, and to further explore the dynamic growth associations and expansion trend of tumors between different periods. Aiming at the insensitivity to local pixel information of the Transformer, we propose the Local Adaptive Transformer Module to facilitate a strongly coupled status of feature images, which ensures the characterization of tumor complex growth trends. Faced with the dynamic changes brought about by tumor growth, we introduce the Dynamic Growth Estimation Module to predict the future growth trend of the tumor. As a core part of SDC-Transformer, we design the Enhanced Deformable Convolution to enrich the sampling space of tumor growth pixels. And a novel Cascade Self-Attention is performed under multi-growth imaging to obtain dynamic growth relationships between periods and use dual cascade operations to predict the tumor’s future expansion trajectories and growth contours. Our SDC-Transformer is rigorously trained and tested on longitudinal tumor data composed of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) and collaborative Shanxi Provincial People’s Hospital. The RMSE, Dice, Recall, and Specificity of the longitudinal prediction results reach 11.32, 89.31%, 90.57%, and 89.64%, respectively. This result shows that our proposed SDC-Transformer model can achieve accurate longitudinal prediction of tumors, which will help physicians to establish specific treatment plans and accurately diagnose lung cancer. The code will be released soon.

Safety Aspects in Road Construction Projects, Study of Safety Measures used by Workers at Site

Road construction industry has wide expansion growth in the world particularly in past few years. The India’s road network is, in need of extensive construction, reconstruction and maintenance of constructed roads. High traffic rush on roads runs to be safe with minimum time take to reach at their destinations as well as the road construction workers are to be safe during working and playing of traffic. The scope of safety in road construction is to be standardize and develop before starting, during construction and after completion of road project. This road safety study is to identify the critical safety practices in major accident areas with the safety of construction workers. The provision of minimum safety standards is mentioned in IRC: SP: 55-2014 “GUIDLINE ON TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT IN WORK ZONS. This is for making the road route smooth with advance information so road users can understand the road features easily by seeing the advance sign boards, cautionary board, road marking and blinkers etc. Many suggestions have been made by researchers for improvement of safety measures during execution of projects and after completion to road users. Key Words: IRC, SP, FY

Defining a Discipline: Archival Research and Practice in the Twenty-First Century, Essays in Honor of Richard J. Cox. Edited by Jeannette A. Bastian and Elizabeth Yakel. [Review

In their introduction to this volume, editors Jeannette Bastian and Elizabeth Yakel offer the thought that the maturity of a field of study may be marked by the recognition of its outstanding scholars. So far, few Festschriften honor archivists—a fact that attests to the still-recent maturing and professionalization of the discipline of archival science and its practitioners. During the career of Richard J. Cox, the honoree of this volume, archival science moved forward from many of its older practices and philosophies to become a modern, more mature, and better-defined profession. The growth of degree programs specifically offering archival education, along with the creation and adoption of archival standards and best practices at the national and international levels, continued that maturation. Cox’s career also saw the application of computer technology as a tool for both the creation and management of archival records, which introduced profound and rapid changes as the technology created an ever-increasing volume of digital materials to be added to archival repositories alongside their analog counterparts. Cox entered the field at the beginning of an era of expansive growth for the archival profession, and, when he retired 40 years later, the field had expanded and evolved considerably in response to technology and sociocultural motivators.

Retrospective evaluation of the oral brush biopsy in daily dental routine — an effective way of early cancer detection

ObjectivesOral brush biopsies are a well researched index for early detection of oral cancer in specialised centers. But the performance of the exfoliative biopsy is not yet researched in daily dental routine.MethodsPrivate dentists and private oral surgeons in Germany took brush biopsies out of 814 suspicious lesions from 670 patients using the Orcellex brush while regular dental appointments. The analyses of the biopsies were performed by the Cytological Laboratory of Bonn (CLB) using liquid-based cytology.ResultsThe final results were 74 oral squamous cell carcinomas and one verrucous carcinoma, histological proven, 232 cases of leukoplakia, 242 cases of lichen planus, 17 cases of erythroplakia, 259 cases of benign inflammatory, traumatic or hyperplastic oral lesions. The sensitivity for the detection of cancer cells using brush biopsy archived 100%, the specificity for the detection of non-neoplastic cells was 86.5%. The positive predictive value was 43.1%, the negative predicative value was at 100%.ConclusionThe oral brush biopsy seems to be a sufficient tool for early cancer detection in private dental offices.Clinical Relevance.Generally, practicing dentists do not see various oral squamous cell carcinomas in their careers, so the experience in identifying oral squamous cell carcinomas as such is very low. The brush biopsy might help them in cases of doubt to prevent tumors from expansive growth.

Impact of giants tech on media industries in digital economy pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic

Information and communications technologies have facilitated the emergence of companies like Google (Alphabet), Amazon, Facebook (Meta), Apple or Microsoft (GAFAM), which represent business ecosystems. They compete amid themselves through communications and entertainment groups. At the same time, their capacity to manage big data makes unlimited growth possible, towards any activity that involves large quantities of data these companies are characterized within their respective markets. This article examine on 5 giants tech by analysis the characteristics of giants tech, the expansive growth before and after Covid-19 pandemic, the risk and threat to democracy, business model and ecosystem competitive which allows us to assess their impact on the media.

Projections of urban built-up area expansion and urbanization sustainability in China's cities through 2030

In the context of socioeconomic initiatives to address world development sustainability such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), China's urbanization with increasing intensity and quickening pace has always been central to debates over the past few decades. Although the United Nations (UN) recommend to estimate and predict the local-scale urbanization sustainability by using the SDG indicator 11.3.1: “ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate (LCRPGR)”, there remains a lack of reliable projections and applicable assessments at the city level, especially for the future urban expansion. Until now, limited knowledge of the urbanization sustainability dynamics in the next decade has been the primary challenge to inform the realization of urban sustainable development goal under the framework of SDGs. To evaluate the geographic region- and population size-specific urbanization sustainability at the city level in mainland China between 2020 and 2030, an integrated downscaling approach of trend extrapolation and regression analysis was developed based on historical statistics of urban built-up area and subnational scenarios of population and gross domestic product (GDP) under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). The SSPs-consistent urban built-up area projections across different scales showed that the logistic regression had a better modeling performance than the panel data regression, while there was little difference between the linear and exponential extrapolation methods. Despite the geographical heterogeneity and size-related disparity, the scenario modeling results suggested that the average value of LCRPGR indicator in mainland China was expected to decline continuously, and would reach at the ideal state with a coordination between urban expansion and population growth through 2030. Specifically, the population growth stagnation of cities in Northeast China and the allometric urban expansion of cities in Western China should be the focus of strengthened regulations, and the urban growth of megacities would experience a steady and slower trend compared to their surrounding super-large cities and large cities. In summary, China's urbanization process might have headed toward a more sustainable and coordinated future under feasible SSPs scenarios. The local-scale forecasts will not only fill the data gap of SSPs-consistent urban land demand for all county- and prefecture-level cities in mainland China, but can also provide a reference for forecasting and assessment of urbanization sustainability to meet the SDGs in urban areas such as indicator 11.3.1.

Analysis on process of temporal and spatial evolution of urban built-up area expansion in the Yellow River Basin.

Urban spatial expansion is known as an important indicator of urbanization. In order to provide a reference for urban spatial expansion in the future high-quality development strategy of the Yellow River Basin (YB) cities in China, it is necessary to identify and calculate urban spatial expansion patterns. For this reason, we provide a "Spatiotemporal pattern-Center of gravity migrationt-Expansion pattern" solution to identify and calculate urban spatial expansion patterns in the YB. More specifically, 78 prefecture-level cities in the YB were selected as the subjects of the study, using the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Line Scan System (DMSP/OLS) and the National Polarimetric Partnership/Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP/VIIRS) nighttime light data (NTL), together with the center of gravity shift and common edge detection models, to identify the YB urban expansion patterns from 2000–2018. The results suggest that: (1) on the spatial pattern, there is a obvious difference in the expansion intensity and growth rate of the urban built-up (UB) areas of cities in the upper and middle reaches of YB. In addition, there are also certain differences between the expansion patterns of provincial capital cities and non-capital cities; (2) The UB areas of YB has steadily expand from 3,500 km2 in 2000 to 10,600 km2 in 2018, amongst which the expansion of provincial capital cities is the most obvious 1919 km2; (3) Interestingly it is also discovered that urban expansion in Qinghai Province, the sourceland of the YB, takes place in a diffuse way, with the shifting of the centre of gravity for four types of total area, net increase in area, rate of growth and intensity of expansion followed a "northwest to southeast" tendency of development.

Smart pedestrian network is an approach for promoting walkability: A case of Riyadh city

SPN is an important aspect of smart and sustainable mobility in cities that promote walkability (SPN) Walking is becoming an important component of transportation and urban policies to achieve more sustainable development. Riyadh's rapid urban expansion and population growth have increased pedestrian accidents and damaged people's daily walking conditions during the last four decades. As a result, implementing the Smart Pedestrian Network has the potential to significantly increase walkability and create more sustainable urban spaces. The research technique is deductive, with modern technology playing a significant part in introducing new ways to pedestrian path planning and design, ultimately improving this form of transportation in Riyadh. The current paper concluded with proposed guidelines for strategic implementation using the Smart Pedestrian Network system and a conceptual framework for smart pedestrian networks, both of which could add value to exploring the pedestrian network in more advanced ways in Riyadh. The application of a smart network for pedestrians resulted in increased walkability and satisfaction with walking in Riyadh city, according to the findings.

AN ANALYSIS OF AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO CAROTID BODY TUMOR SURGICAL
 TREATMENT AT THE NATIONAL RESEARCH ONCOLOGY CENTER
 (NUR-SULTAN, KAZAKHSTAN)

Relevance: Carotid body tumors (CBT) account for 0.01% of all head and neck tumors. 5-15% of CBTs are malignant. The expansive growth
 of this tumor and its tight attachment to the carotid arteries pose a risk of damage to the main blood vessels and cranial nerves during surgery
 that can lead to life-threatening bleeding. Today, preoperative embolization of CBT feeding vessels (PECBT) is used to minimize blood loss during
 CBT radical excision.
 The study aimed to evaluate the results of preoperative preparation of patients with CBT by PECBT; justification of a CBT incidence multicenter study to determine CBT's current status in Kazakhstan.
 Methods: An anamnesis was collected from all patients, and instrumental diagnostic studies (ultrasound, CTA) were performed. We used the
 Shamblin (1971) classification of CBT modified by Luna-Ortiz et al. (2006). PECBT was performed to prepare patients for open surgery. CBT
 excision tactics were selected depending on the classification of the CBT according to Shamblin.
 Results: Out of 9 patients with CBT, seven patients complained mainly of a neck tumor; the others mentioned pain and dysphagia. Four patients had a left-side CBT, and the others had a right-side. One tumor was Shamblin type I, five were Shamblin type II, and three were Shamblin type
 III. Eight patients underwent PECBT, and one was operated on without PECBT. In 8 cases, CBT was surgically incised; one patient did not show
 up for the second stage of treatment. Arterial reconstruction was required in two cases. An average size tumor was 27.4 cm3. The CBT excision was
 controlled without significant bleeding thanks to the presence of an embolic agent. Blood loss averaged 750 ml; reinfusion – 243.3 ml.
 Conclusion: The CBT incidence in Kazakhstan has not been studied yet, so a multicenter study is required. Early ultrasound and CT diagnostics support providing patients with up-to-date, efficient surgical treatment. PECBT provides favorable conditions for the tumor resection without
 hemodynamically significant blood loss

Gallium‐based liquid metals for lithium‐ion batteries

AbstractLithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) are one of the most exciting inventions of the 20th century and have been widely employed in modern society. LIBs have powered many of our electronics, such as laptop computers, smartphones, and even large‐scale energy storage systems. With the development of modern technology, next‐generation LIBs with higher energy density are in demand. A number of electrode materials with high theoretical capacity, including Sn, Si, Li metal anode, and S cathode materials, have been explored. Nevertheless, they usually suffer from structural or interface failure during cycling, limiting their practical application. Ga‐based liquid metals (LMs) possess self‐healing capability, fluidity, and metallic advantages so they have been employed as self‐healing skeletons or interfacial protective layers to minimize the negative impact of volume expansion or dendritic growth on the electrode materials. Herein, the features of Ga‐based LMs are briefly discussed to indicate their potential for battery systems. In addition, recent developments on Ga‐based LMs applied in LIBs have been summarized, including from the aspects of anodes, cathodes, and electrolytes. Finally, future opportunities and challenges for the development of Ga‐based LMs in LIBs are highlighted.

Improving the imaging diagnostic strategy for pulmonary artery masses based on 18F-FDG PET/CT integrated with CTPA.

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) for pulmonary artery (PA) masses. Of 2889 patients with PA filling defects of PA on CTPA, 79 consecutive patients suspicious for PA malignancy who subsequently underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT were enrolled. All masses were diagnosed on the basis of pathological findings or clinical imaging follow-up. For each mass, morphological CT signs, standardized uptake value (SUVmax and SUVmean), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) on 18F-FDG PET/CT were used as diagnostic markers. Expansive growth, irregular margin, invasion, CT contrast uptake, and wall eclipse sign were strongly associated with the malignant nature of masses. The coexistence of at least 5 CT signs perfectly identified malignant masses, whereas the detection of no more than 4 CT signs did not accurately discriminate between the natures of masses. Mean SUVmax, SUVmean, MTV, and TLG values were significantly higher in malignant masses compared to those in benign masses. The diagnostic accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT parameters (SUV, MTV, and TLG) was excellent in detecting malignant masses. Among patients with 3 or 4 pathological CT signs, SUVmax > 3.4 significantly increased the identification of malignancies. CTPA is a useful imaging modality for diagnosing PA masses, especially when at least 5 abnormal CT signs are identified. Similarly, 18F-FDG PET/CT accurately identified malignant masses and provided additional valuable information on diagnostic uncertainties after CTPA.

Assessment of Domestic Investment, Export Expansion and Economic Performance in Nigeria: A Vector Autoregression Approach

The purpose of this article is to investigate the nexus between domestic investment, export expansion and economic growth in Nigeria. To achieve this purpose, annual time series data from the period between 1981 and 2018 was tested using the Johansen co-integration analysis, VECM and the Granger-Causality test. The result of the analysis revealed an insignificant relationship between domestic investment and export expansion. Based on the Granger-Causality test, the result indicated a bi-directional relationship between domestic investment and economic growth. These results provide evidence that domestic investment and economic growth are not viewed as sources of export expansion in Nigeria during the period under review. Therefore, changes in policies and regulations to accelerate the export expansion of Nigeria will ultimately yield positive results in terms of achieving high rates of stable economic growth. Policymakers in Nigeria should search for the alternative catalyst to stimulate domestic investment and economic growth geared towards promoting long-term export expansion in Nigeria effectively.

Mapping ecosystem service supply and demand dynamics under rapid urban expansion: A case study in the Yangtze River Delta of China

Much remains to be learned about the contributions of urban expansion to the supply–demand budgets of ecosystem services (ES), a relationship that is crucial for achieving more sustainable urbanization. To fill this knowledge gap, we mapped supply and demand dynamics of two important ES (i.e., carbon sequestration and nature-based recreation) at 1-km resolution in the rapidly urbanizing Yangtze River Delta (YRD) of China. Carbon sequestration supply (CSS) and demand (CSD) were estimated under alternative carbon reduction policies, and supply (NRS) of and demand (NRD) for nature-based recreation were estimated by considering multiple levels of spatial accessibility. A moderate increase in CSS between 2000 and 2015 was contrasted with a sharp increase in CSD, indicating the existence of a widening gap between demand and supply in the YRD. Urban expansion was responsible for nine-tenths of the total increase in CSD and two-thirds of the growth in deficit area. As of 2015, CSS offset less than 5% of CSD in the eight core cities of the YRD. The areas of deficient CSS in these eight cities expanded by 8% under the long-term carbon neutrality goal, but they shrank by 34% due to significant decreases in carbon emissions per unit of GDP under the mid-term carbon reduction goal. NRS in the YRD decreased slightly coincident with moderate increases in NRD during the same period as a result of urban expansion and population growth. More than half of the increased deficit area was attributable to urban expansion across the region. NRD in the eight core cities equaled four-fifths of NRS in 2000, but it surpassed NRS by one-fifth in 2015. The disparities between NRS and NRD in these eight cities were reduced with increasing levels of accessibility to ecological land. Bridging the gaps between supply of and demand for these two ES will require control of unsustainable urban expansion, construction of urban-to-rural greenways, and improved economic efficiency of industrial carbon emissions in the YRD. The analytical framework and methods for mapping ES used here are applicable to other rapidly urbanizing regions of the world.

Spatial Expansion and Population Growth Analysis of Ogbomoso Metropolis to Forestall Overwhelming Available Infrastructures

The requirement of land for an array of uses as population grows and cities open up to further development is at an astronomical rate. This has resulted in effort to convert areas covered by water bodies into dry land. This notwithstanding, land has remain a relatively fixed asset which cannot be massively expanded by any means, but its utilization can be managed to ensure its sustainability. Most human activities are land based hence how land is used have a ripple effect on most aspects of our lives and the environment. The way and manner land is being used relative to population growth of an area must be monitored to avoid environmental degradation. This research attempts an analysis of the Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes of Ogbomoso metropolis between the years 1985 and 2015 and makes projections for the next 30years at regular interval of 10years. Secondary data obtained through Remote Sensing were adopted for the research. Landsat imageries TM 1985, 1995 and ETM+ imageries of 2005 and 2015 were downloaded from the Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) while Remote Sensing techniques was adopted for data processing and analysis. Population data obtained for the study area from the National Population Commission (NPC) were used for the population projection. Land Consumption Rate and Land Absorption Coefficient were introduced to aid in the quantitative assessment of the change. Analysis of the results showed the alarming rate of growth in built-up area between the periods considered and suitable recommendations was made on measures to properly manage such growth.

Bonds of Salvation: How Christianity Inspired and Limited American Abolitionism by Ben Wright

Reviewed by: Bonds of Salvation: How Christianity Inspired and Limited American Abolitionism by Ben Wright April Holm (bio) Bonds of Salvation: How Christianity Inspired and Limited American Abolitionism. By Ben Wright. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2020. Pp. 253. Cloth, $45.00.) Historians have long connected the rise of the antebellum abolitionist movement with the growth of evangelical Christianity in the early decades of the nineteenth century. However, we more frequently approach the relationship between religion and abolition from the perspective of abolitionists than from within evangelical denominations. In Bonds of Salvation, Ben Wright examines the relationship between evangelical Christianity and abolitionism from the vantage point of the major evangelical denominations. He argues that the ideological approach that made Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists so successful ultimately dictated the contours of American abolitionism and the limits of antislavery action within the churches. Wright takes seriously the priorities of American evangelicals, even as he reveals how those priorities paved the way for denominational schism over the sinfulness of slavery. He begins his book with a question: How could so many white antebellum evangelicals privately condemn slavery and at the same time oppose abolitionism? Wright finds his answer in the millennial dreams of universal salvation through conversion that dominated American evangelicalism in the nineteenth century. While many evangelicals disapproved of slavery, Wright argues, they viewed it as one of a range of social ills that would be remedied by the salvation of the world. [End Page 272] By this logic, the best way to end slavery—and all earthly suffering—was through the conversion of souls to Christianity. Wright calls this ideology “conversionism.” Conversionists, he explains, viewed the United States itself as a divine agent of salvation. They dominated American evangelicalism in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. Wright is particularly adept at explaining how conversionism intersected with denominational growth and the development of American nationalism. He argues that the focus on salvation within American Christianity accommodated a wide range of antislavery views and helped fuel both the colonization movement, promoted as a way to spread Christianity in Africa, and westward denominational expansion, a mechanism for “continental conversion” (110). Wright makes a compelling point about the role of conversionism in developing American nationalism during the early nineteenth century. Denominational growth, especially in the West, was key to the goal of converting the nation. Conversionism also conveniently allowed white evangelicals to avoid debates over slavery that could threaten the success of these Christian nationalist projects. Wright explains that conversionism as a solution to slavery never went unchallenged. Even as conversionists promoted colonization, westward expansion, and denominational growth, Black Christians and some white allies maintained that the church must be purified of the sin of slavery. Through their unceasing activism, Wright argues, these “purification-ists” helped to spawn the abolitionist movement that created fault lines in American churches and American politics. To counter purificationist demands that the church rid itself of slavery, white southern Christians made the conversionist argument that slavery provided access to the souls of enslaved people. Fearful of dividing the churches, antislavery conversionists retreated into a conservative alliance with proslavery evangelicals. In the 1830s and 1840s, the debate over the sinfulness of slavery divided the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist denominations into separate sectional bodies, both foreboding and hastening the coming of secession and war. Bonds of Salvation offers valuable insight into the limits of conversionism. It is one thing to oppose something on principle and quite another to oppose it with action. Believing that slavery was wrong carried very few consequences for white antebellum evangelicals. Acting on those beliefs, as Wright demonstrates in later chapters, most certainly did. Conversionists opposed slavery but prioritized conversion as “more urgent and its result as more radically transformative” than abolitionism (3). It would save the souls of both the free and the enslaved and potentially bring forth the millennium, which would, among other things, occasion the end of slavery. [End Page 273] Wright shows how, as the century progressed and abolitionists made more demands on their denominations, this passive opposition to slavery faded into a conservative stance aligned with proslavery members of the denomination against abolitionism. Wright’s work engages with a...

Observational constraints on Starobinsky f(R) cosmology from cosmic expansion and structure growth data

The unknown physical nature of the Dark Energy motivates in cosmology the study of modifications of the gravity theory at large distances. One of these types of modifications is to consider gravity theories, generally termed as f(R). In this paper we use observational data to both constrain and test the Starobinsky f(R) model (Starobinsky in JETP Lett 86(3):157–163, 2007), using updated measurements from the dynamics of the expansion of the universe, H(z); and the growth rate of cosmic structures, [fsigma _8](z), where the distinction between the concordance varLambda CDM model and modified gravity models f(R) becomes clearer. We use MCMC likelihood analyses to explore the parameters space of the f(R) model using H(z) and [fsigma _8](z) data, both individually and jointly, and further, examine which of the models best fits the joint data. To further test the Starobinsky model, we use a method proposed by Linder (Astropart Phys 86:41–45, 2017), where the data from the observables is jointly binned in redshift space. This allows one to further explore the model’s parameter that better fits the data in comparison to the varLambda CDM model. The joint analysis of H(z) and [fsigma _8](z) show that the n=2–Starobinsky f(R) model fits well the observational data. In the end, we confirm that this joint analysis is able to break the degenerescence between modified gravity models as proposed in the original work (Starobinsky 2007). Our results indicate that the f(R) Starobinsky model provides a good fit to the currently available data for a set of values of its parameters, being, therefore, a possible alternative to the varLambda CDM model.

Plant mitochondrial FMT and its mammalian homolog CLUH controls development and behavior in Arabidopsis and locomotion in mice.

Mitochondria in animals are associated with development, as well as physiological and pathological behaviors. Several conserved mitochondrial genes exist between plants and higher eukaryotes. Yet, the similarities in mitochondrial function between plant and animal species is poorly understood. Here, we show that FMT (FRIENDLY MITOCHONDRIA) from Arabidopsis thaliana, a highly conserved homolog of the mammalian CLUH (CLUSTERED MITOCHONDRIA) gene family encoding mitochondrial proteins associated with developmental alterations and adult physiological and pathological behaviors, affects whole plant morphology and development under both stressed and normal growth conditions. FMT was found to regulate mitochondrial morphology and dynamics, germination, and flowering time. It also affects leaf expansion growth, salt stress responses and hyponastic behavior, including changes in speed of hyponastic movements. Strikingly, Cluh± heterozygous knockout mice also displayed altered locomotive movements, traveling for shorter distances and had slower average and maximum speeds in the open field test. These observations indicate that homologous mitochondrial genes may play similar roles and affect homologous functions in both plants and animals.