University Of Massachusetts Research Articles

Keratin 17 Is a Prognostic Biomarker in Endocervical Glandular Neoplasia.

Previous work in our laboratory identified keratin 17 (K17) as a specific and sensitive biomarker for high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions and cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). K17, however, has not been previously evaluated in endocervical glandular neoplasia. Based on the similar pathogenesis of squamous and glandular lesions of the cervix, we hypothesized that K17 overexpression could also be a diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarker for endocervical neoplasia. Cases of endocervical adenocarcinoma (n = 90), adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) (n = 32), benign glandular lesions (n = 36), and normal endocervical mucosa (n = 5) were selected from Stony Brook Medicine and the University of Massachusetts from 2002 to 2013. Immunohistochemical staining for K17 was performed by an indirect immunoperoxidase method and was scored based on the proportion of cells that showed strong (2+) staining. K17 was highly expressed in 21 (65.6%) of 32 AIS and in 75 (83.0%) of 90 adenocarcinoma cases. In adenocarcinomas, K17 staining was detected in a mean of 33.9% of malignant cells. Staining tended to be strongest at the periphery of pseudoglandular groups and at the invasive front of tumors. K17 was not detected in the epithelial cells of benign glandular lesions, but groups of cuboidal cells, residing beneath the epithelial layer of benign glands, were frequently positive for K17, especially in cases of microglandular hyperplasia. High levels of K17 expression were significantly associated with decreased patient survival. K17 is highly expressed in most cases of both invasive adenocarcinoma and in AIS and is a powerful, negative prognostic marker for patient survival.

The art and science of planting seeds of mindfulness

This article explores the Art and Science of Mindfulness from the perspective of a Buddhist Monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, an author of five books in the Mindfulness Essentials series and that of an American medical doctor, Jon Kabat Zinn, who founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) clinic at the University of Massachusetts. Mindfulness training for stress reduction is discussed with positive results in pain reduction, blood pressure reduction, and a greater sense of well-being. Mindfulness practices used with educators are examined including the Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) program developed by Patricia Jennings, a professor at the University of Virginia; Stress management and Using Relaxation Techniques (SMART) designed by Margaret Cullen, a therapist and MBSR instructor; and MindUp a mindfulness program for elementary and middle school students sponsored by the Hawn Foundation. Mindfulness practices have the capacity for transformation in students and their teachers, as well as in parents and their children.

On the Remains of Guesses: Searching For A Philosophy of Communication in Academia

This study focuses on the first phase of my ongoing research project, The Case of Ulysses: A Comparative Analysis on How to Study Philosophy of Communication . I try to examine a feature of current philosophy of communication both in the USA and in Turkey. Through this project, I also develop ‘a novel method’, The Case of Ulysses , which does not read but performs James Joyce’s Ulysses , for studying philosophy of communication. My research areas are academia and the departments of philosophy, communication, media and/or visual studies, in particular. This article reveals findings from semi-structured interviews with academics at Boston University (BU), Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Massachusetts (UMASS Amherst) on what they think about philosophy of communication. When searching philosophy of communication becomes an improvisation on philosophy of communication, this does not only depict the field but also reveals how to change it.

Handling of thermal paper: Implications for dermal exposure to bisphenol A and its alternatives.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine disrupting chemical used in a wide range of consumer products including photoactive dyes used in thermal paper. Recent studies have shown that dermal absorption of BPA can occur when handling these papers. Yet, regulatory agencies have largely dismissed thermal paper as a major source of BPA exposure. Exposure estimates provided by agencies such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) are based on assumptions about how humans interact with this material, stating that ‘typical’ exposures for adults involve only one handling per day for short periods of time (<1 minute), with limited exposure surfaces (three fingertips). The objective of this study was to determine how individuals handle thermal paper in one common setting: a cafeteria providing short-order meals. We observed thermal paper handling in a college-aged population (n = 698 subjects) at the University of Massachusetts’ dining facility. We find that in this setting, individuals handle receipts for an average of 11.5 min, that >30% of individuals hold thermal paper with more than three fingertips, and >60% allow the paper to touch their palm. Only 11% of the participants we observed were consistent with the EFSA model for time of contact and dermal surface area. Mathematical modeling based on handling times we measured and previously published transfer coefficients, concentrations of BPA in paper, and absorption factors indicate the most conservative estimated intake from handling thermal paper in this population is 51.1 ng/kg/day, similar to EFSA’s estimates of 59 ng/kg/day from dermal exposures. Less conservative estimates, using published data on concentrations in thermal paper and transfer rates to skin, indicate that exposures are likely significantly higher. Based on our observational data, we propose that the current models for estimating dermal BPA exposures are not consistent with normal human behavior and should be reevaluated.

Patrick H. Breen. The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt.

In 1904, after being editorially deprived of writing a biography of Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois informed his editor that he wished to write about Nat Turner because “no single man before 1850 had a [more] giant influence on southern loyalties & feeling” than did the failed Virginia insurrectionist. “There is abundant material for his life & times,” he concluded (Du Bois to Oberholtzer, [January 30?, 1904], handwritten draft #00244, W. E .B. Du Bois Papers, UMass Amherst Libraries, University of Massachusetts, Amherst). While Du Bois unfortunately was denied this project too, Patrick H. Breen certainly has proven him correct by making good use of this “abundant material” on Turner, notwithstanding his own recognition that information about the revolt at times “is sketchy and often suspect” (13). Nevertheless, perhaps, no scholar has so deepened the research or so sagaciously and meticulously examined the available sources as we find done in The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt.

Planning and Executing the Neurosurgery Boot Camp: The Bolivia Experience.

The neurosurgical boot camp has been fully incorporated into U.S. postgraduate education. This is the first implementation of the neurosurgical boot in a developing country. To advance neurosurgical education, we developed a similar boot camp program, in collaboration with Bolivian neurosurgeons, to determine its feasibility and effectiveness in an international setting. In a collective effort, the Bolivian Society for Neurosurgery, Foundation for International Education in Neurological Surgery, Solidarity Bridge, and University of Massachusetts organized and executed the first South American neurosurgical boot camp in Bolivia in 2015. Both U.S. and Bolivian faculty led didactic lectures followed by a practicum day using mannequins and simulators. South American residents and faculty were surveyed after the course to determine levels of enthusiasm and their perceived improvement in fund of knowledge and course effectiveness. Twenty-four neurosurgery residents from 5South American countries participated. Average survey scores ranged between 4.2 and 4.9 out of 5. Five Bolivian neurosurgeons completed the survey with average scores of 4.5-5. This event allowed for Bolivian leaders in the field to unify around education, resulting in the formation of an institute to continue similar initiatives. Total cost was estimated at $40 000 USD; however, significant faculty, industry, and donor support helped offset this amount. The first South American neurosurgical boot camp had significant value and was well received in Bolivia. This humanitarian model provides a sustainable solution to education needs and should be expanded to other regions as a means for standardizing the core competencies in neurosurgery.

Comparison Of Step Estimates Between A Consumer Activity Tracker And Research Accelerometer On The Dominant And Non-dominant Wrist

Many consumer activity trackers (AT) can be worn at different locations such as the hip, shoe, or wrist. The versatility of wear locations makes these devices attractive to the consumer. However, there is limited data on the differences between wear locations of the dominant (D) and non-dominant (ND) wrist location when estimating steps, a common metric produced by many AT. PURPOSE: To compare estimates of total steps (TS) obtained from a consumer AT and a research accelerometer (RA) worn simultaneously on the dominant (D) and non-dominant (ND) wrist during three simulated free-living conditions. METHODS: Twenty healthy adults wore an AT and RA on the D and ND wrist and completed three 1-hour laboratory conditions: 1) sedentary (SED), 2) sedentary plus walking (SW), and sedentary plus jogging (SJ). During the SED condition, participants completed 60 minutes of sitting. During the SW and SJ conditions, participants completed 30 minutes of sitting plus 30 minutes of continuous walking or jogging at 3.0 or 5.0 mph, respectively. Means and 95% confidence intervals were used to assess differences of TS between the D and ND wrist locations for the AT and RA among all three conditions. RESULTS: Within devices, similar TS estimates were produced from the D and ND wrist across all three conditions. Between devices, the AT and RA placed at the D and ND wrist produced similar estimates of TS during the SED and SW conditions. For the SJ condition, the AT produced significantly higher TS estimates, compared with the RA, which was less sensitive to TS detection with increasing intensity. CONCLUSIONS: Researchers should use caution when using TS detected from a wrist-worn RA. An additional criterion measure, such as manual step counting, would more clearly identify under- and over-reporting of TS output from AT and RA during controlled laboratory settings. Supported by: Seed Grant from the Institute of Applied Life Sciences at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and by Fossil Inc.Figure

Global Neurology Initiative: Piloting an Innovative Global Health Curriculum for Neurology Residents at the University of Massachusetts in collaboration with Charutar Arogya Mandal in Gujarat, India (P3.326)

Global Neurology Initiative: Piloting an Innovative Global Health Curriculum for Neurology Residents at the University of Massachusetts in collaboration with Charutar Arogya Mandal in Gujarat, India (P3.326)

Global Neurology Initiative: Piloting an Innovative Global Health Curriculum for Neurology Residents at the University of Massachusetts in collaboration with Charutar Arogya Mandal in Gujarat, India

Global Neurology Initiative: Piloting an Innovative Global Health Curriculum for Neurology Residents at the University of Massachusetts in collaboration with Charutar Arogya Mandal in Gujarat, India

Theoretical analysis of cyber-interpersonal violence victimization and offending using cyber-routine activities theory

The current study provides an empirical testing of the victim-offender overlap in online platforms due to the scarcity of studies examining this overlapping victim-offending dynamic. Two types of cyber-interpersonal violence are examined: Cyber-harassment (including cyber-sexual harassment) and cyber-impersonation. Using Choi's (2008) integrated theory of Cyber-Routine Activities Theory, a sample of 272 college students at a Massachusetts university are examined. Three major findings are revealed: (1) Respondents who engage in risky online leisure activities are more likely to experience interpersonal violence in cyberspace, (2) poor online security management can contribute to the likelihood of being victimized by interpersonal violence on social networking sites (SNS), and (3) respondents who engage in risky social networking site activities are likely to commit cyber-interpersonal violence. For the two types of cyber-interpersonal violence examined in this study, it could also be predicted that females are more likely to have higher levels of victimization. Cybersecurity management and sex had no significant effects on cyber-interpersonal violence offending. The hope is that education on the potential hazards of the Internet and of cyber-interpersonal violence will induce more responsible online activity and engagement.

Camera Traps, Bird Song, and Creatures of Darkness

Camera Traps, Bird Song, and Creatures of Darkness

Do Market Forces Steer Money Away from Basic Research at Academic Medical Centers?

We always wonder whether a single case study has the requisite depth of penetration of the subject to serve as the basis for extrapolation. In his treatise, The Golden Bough (1), the Scottish anthropologist Sir James Frazer erected nothing less than an explanation for all religion (and much of civilization in the modern era) based on a single vignette in Greek mythology (the myth of Aeneas and Sibyl, who brought a golden bough to the gates of Hades to procure their entrance) having to do with a celebration of the harvest and an imperative for royal succession by unpleasant means (Fig. 1). Frazer's book catalyzed polar views. Some felt he had committed an act of blasphemy against Christianity (apparently the only religion that took offense), whereas others thought he was onto something. Genius may be the ability to perceive analogies, but in some cases, creating a sweeping generalization from a limited perspective can be folly. In this issue, we have a perfect case of this dialectic in the form of a Perspective that presents a case study of how, in the opinion of the authors, funding for basic research became encumbered at one of America's elite academic medical centers (2). In publishing this article (after peer review and extensive give-and-take between the authors and the editor-in-chief), I am of the view that it makes a point, but. As readers will see, this Perspective makes three main points. One is that reduced state support to the authors' institution, starting about 20 years ago, occurred when the clinical enterprise was expanding. Second, and related, they convey that the overall culture at their institution has been powerfully skewed toward clinical departments. Third, they argue that their and all other academic medical centers of ambition should seek major funds that are unrestricted as to use and deployed by an overarching research leadership office to support the best science on campus. As to their first point, they present comprehensive data to support their contention, but as my Golden Bough metaphor conveys, the issue here is extrapolation. To paraphrase Tolstoy's famous opening line in Anna Karenina: “Happy U.S. academic medical centers are all alike; every unhappy one is unhappy in its own way.” A major parameter in all of what the authors present is whether a given academic medical center does or does not own and operate its allied clinical system. Theirs does, mine does not, and having served on the Board of Trustees of my clinical system, separate from the University of Massachusetts legally but yet in common purpose as to mission, this can make a difference. As to the authors' second point, they present data that underscore the preferential growth of NIH translational and clinical research grants at their institution relative to basic research R01s. To me, this is a case of “it is what it is.” The authors' third point is that academic medical centers should have unrestricted money to support basic research. They make the valid point that most philanthropic gifts to their institution and most other academic medical centers are restricted-use donations. They can spot fund some labs or perhaps cover, from earned income, some or all of a faculty member's salary. But, for the most part, these gifts don't reach down to drive basic research at the hands of junior faculty in the basic science departments, especially as many go to clinical faculty (anent the authors' second point above). Although many institutions now confer named professorships upon junior faculty, what the authors argue for is a different sector of philanthropy that creates a fund that can be used with no restrictions to support basic research campus-wide on an internally peer-reviewed basis. They also argue for a specific research leadership structure, just one level below the top campus executive office, with this position responsible for the deployment of such funds. I read this part of the authors' Perspective with particular interest, because I was surprised to learn that their institution doesn't have this structure. So, let us read this Perspective with an open mind and ponder how the authors' case relates to our own institutions. The authors do not assert that what they have claimed to have found at their institution translates to comparable institutions but ask us to consider the possibility that it may. Frazer dared to advance a major thesis from a single vignette. An extrapolation from n = 1 to beyond should not be faulted on that basis alone.

MicroRNAs: Tiny genetic switches in our genome

Gary Ruvkun is a winner of the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. He is a co-discoverer of microRNAs (with Victor Ambros, University of Massachusetts), regarded as one of the seminal discoveries of 21st century molecular biology. In addition to the Breakthrough Prize, Ruvkun and Ambros have received the Warren Triennial Prize, the Laskar Foundation Award, and numerous other awards and prizes. Professor Ruvkun obtained his PhD from Harvard University, did his postdoctoral research at MIT, and subsequently accepted a faculty position at Harvard, where he is currently Professor of Genetics. His laboratory conducts research on basic cellular processes, using the worm C. elegans as a model system.

My introduction to copulas

Roger Nelsen is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, USA. He studied mathematics at DePauw University (BA, 1964) and Duke University (PhD, 1969). Roger joined the faculty at Lewis & Clark in the fall of 1969, and retired in 2009. Prior to Lewis & Clark, Roger spent a year with the Biostatistics Unit of the Centre International de Recherche sur le Cancer in Lyon, France. He has had visiting appointments at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. In addition to his monograph An Introduction to Copulas, Roger has authored or co-authored eleven books published by the Mathematical Association of America. He has served on the editorial boards of two MAA journals and several of their book series. The fifth interview of this series features a conversation with Roger Nelsen. His Springer book An Introduction to Copulas is eponymous for a mathematical precise and well written entrance into the fascinating field of copulas. Moreover, it serves as a classical reference book, a large number of citations bear witness to this. He collaborated with seminal researchers in our field, and kindly shares his view and memories with us. Roger’s second strand of research – a combination of mathematical puzzles, art, and visualization – are “Proofs Without Words.” He published several books, containing elegant visual justifications of mathematical statements. In the following, our questions to Roger Nelsen are typeset in bold-face.

From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store by Vicki Howard

Reviewed by: From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store by Vicki Howard Traci Parker (bio) From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store. By Vicki Howard. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. Pp. 304. $34.95 cloth) From the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century, department stores were portals to luxury, innovators of modern retailing, and major players in the development of center cities. Today, department stores are considered passé and fêted as “historic or nostalgic artifacts” that epitomize the good old days of urban life and leisure (p. 5). Vicki Howard examines this transformation in From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store. She rejects the conventional wisdom offered by marketing and retail scholars—the idea that the rise and fall of department stores was simply “part of a life cycle” of retailing (p. 5). Instead, she argues that their course was shaped by structural shifts in the U.S. economy, the rise and proliferation of chain and discount stores, suburbanization, the decline of American cities, and the actions (as well as inactions) of the state. She also insists that the department store industry itself made decisions that facilitated the birth and success of discounters, as well as its own demise. In doing all of this, Howard makes significant contributions to our historical understanding of American department stores—those in and outside major cities—and their relationship to the state and other retailers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [End Page 304] Howard’s book is an impressive achievement. Well written and extensively researched, it deftly builds on the works of Susan Porter Benson, Lizabeth Cohen, Alison Isenberg, William R. Leach, Richard Longstreth, and Daniel Opler, among others, while engaging department store records, trade publications, and newspapers. What distinguishes From Main Street to Mall from other books on department stores, however, is its meticulous attention to the industry’s relationship with the government through the decades. Department stores welcomed the support and protection of state and federal governments when they believed their interests and goals would be safeguarded. However, when government agencies sought to implement fair-trade legislation, protect price maintenance, or pursue any policy retailers believed would undermine their power, department stores strategically campaigned against government oversight. In such instances, they even went as far as to ally themselves with their competitors—chain and discount stores—to push for a laissez-faire program. In the end, Howard argues, it was “loose federal oversight of the financial sector and the explosion of leveraged buyouts” that “allowed a wave of ‘retail-merger mania’ . . . and left far fewer firms standing” in the final decades of the twentieth century (p. 199). From Main Street to Mall is arguably at its best when exploring postwar department stores and their efforts to expand and modernize in the face of the discount revolution and federal policies that supported the decentralization of cities. However, its consideration of the industry during the civil rights movement may leave some readers wanting more. Howard rightly notes that many merchants, specifically those in the South, “opposed federally mandated desegregation of public accommodations” (p. 160). She also rightly credits grassroots activism and government intervention for integrating these spaces on behalf of African American workers and consumers. But Howard surprisingly makes no mention of the urban disturbances of the 1960s or how department stores often thwarted integration by shifting into suburban retailing (where they could continue to cater to and secure the work of their desired clientele and personnel—the [End Page 305] white middle class). All of this significantly affected the industry and American cities. Nevertheless, From Main Street to Mall remains an insightful and valuable text on the history of department stores. It is essential reading for anyone interested in American consumer capitalism, retailing, and politics. Traci Parker TRACI PARKER is an assistant professor in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts– Amherst. She is currently writing a book on African American workers and consumers in twentieth-century department stores. Copyright © 2017 Kentucky Historical Society

An Innovative Psychometric Model for Dynamic Educational Testing that is a Sequential Section of the 4a Metric Algorithm as Repetitive Mastery Testing

This monograph provides an epistemological rational for the innovative and novel use of repetitive psychometrics in the“4A Metric Algorithm” first introduced in the 2016 Journal of Educational Technology. It is grounded in the seminal work on“Mastery Testing” conducted by pioneering researcher John A. Emrick while at the University of Massachusetts at Amherstand detailed in his groundbreaking article entitled, “An Evaluation Model for Mastery Testing” published in the NCME(National Council on Measurement in Education) Journal of Educational Measurement. The 4A Metric Algorithm©Repetitive Mastery Test (4A [RMT] or simply “[RMT]”) is an innovative testing methodology that is embedded in the 4A Metricarchitecture as an infrastructural method of psychometric assessment. It is the pivotal point around which the student isable to demonstrate and illustrate their complete mastery of subject matter at multiple levels. The methodology of theRMT is provided via a set of robust and rigorous calculations, a sequence of precise geometric models, and a series ofsequential computational formulae. The use of the RMT within the 4A Metric Algorithm sequentially provides the rationaland evidence that the Metric is ideal for the verification and validation of meta-competency-based mastery learning.

Comparative Analysis of Toll Plaza Safety Features in Puerto Rico and Massachusetts with a Driving Simulator

Driving simulators have been widely used in transportation research and have potential applications for toll plaza safety research. The University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass-Amherst) performed a collaborative investigation using driving simulators to evaluate drivers’ behavior in two toll plazas with different signage and lane configurations that operate under the U.S. jurisdiction. The studied toll roads were the Caguas South Toll Plaza in Puerto Rico and the West Springfield Toll Plaza in Massachusetts. The major safety issues identified in both toll roads were unexpected lane changes, sudden vehicle stops, and variable speed patterns. The purpose of this study was to exchange research scenarios between UPRM and UMass-Amherst to test drivers who were unfamiliar with the areas of the study and enlarge the scope. Assuming that the patterns of behavior were similar, the results would suggest that drivers’ behaviors from different regions depend largely on the geometry of the toll plaza and not on the driving culture particular to a region. This study will greatly add to the utility of driving simulator studies because the results reported from one region and one toll plaza arrangement should generalize to other regions around the country and to territories. Results show that familiar drivers had a better driving performance, with respect to variability of lane position, when compared with unfamiliar drivers. However, the proposed treatments for each toll plaza improved road safety for both familiar and unfamiliar drivers.

Poétiques du descriptif dans le roman français du XIXe siècle éd. par Alice De Georges-Métral

enhanced by his own careful reading of the text and the “configuration scénique nouvelle” (136) that he proposes as a result. His discussion of Dom Juan is especially noteworthy, with three drawings of his own supplied to help visualize the key moments under discussion. In the conclusion, Cornuaille describes his work as a counterpoint, a complement to the abundant bibliography on Molière by literary scholars. He sees his approach and the literary approach as two sides of the same coin, despite the fact that“on a toujours eu un peu trop tendance à encenser [Molière] l’auteur et à occulter [Molière] le metteur en scène” (264). He also opens up new avenues for further scholarship by arguing that we should take a closer look at the set design of Molière’s lesser plays, in order to better appreciate them. Thus, this book makes a major contribution to our understanding of Molière the director in tandem with Molière the writer. University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Stephanie O’Hara De Georges-Métral,Alice, éd. Poétiques du descriptif dans le roman français du XIXe siècle. Paris: Garnier, 2015. ISBN 978-2-8124-5083-9. Pp. 325. Description, while undeniably an integral feature of French fiction in the nineteenth century, is sometimes viewed as little more than “une pause dans le récit ou [...] un simple morceau de bravoure”(7). To counter that sort of dismissive assessment, this volume promotes the diversity of descriptive practices over the century and highlights, as a secondary focus, “le rapport que la configuration des descriptions entretient avec la peinture” (10). Following the editor’s brief preview of each article, Bernard Vouilloux proposes contrasting paradigms: a “modèle représentationaliste” featuring “la description-bloc” and a “modèle phénoméniste” characterized by “un épanchement du descriptif et une fragmentation ou mieux une pulvérulence du texte” (25). A pair of essays then circumscribe the period in question: Christof Schöch’s overview of descriptive practices from the late eighteenth century through the 1830s and Jean-Marie Seillan’s analysis of the increasing tension between realist and idealist aesthetics as the nineteenth century drew to a close. As one would expect, a number of studies treat canonical authors or works: Christophe Reffait focuses on an early scene in Le rouge et le noir, Arnaud Vareille probes the complexity of Balzacian portraiture in Béatrix, Pascale Auraix-Jonchière takes up Sand’s depiction of the countryside in Contes d’une grand-mère, Gaël Prigent and Alexandra Delattre each analyze aspects of Huysmans’s descriptions in different works, while Rosine Galluzzo-Dafflon traces the interplay of mimetic and semiotic modes in Zola’s Nana. Gabrielle Melison-Hirchwald sees in Daudet’s descriptive touch something of “le caractère irremplaçable de l’instantané” (178) that Impressionist painters sought to capture. Different works by Hugo draw the attention of both Odile Gannier and De Georges-Métral, while, in quite a different vein, Bertrand Marquer follows the evolution of nosography through 216 FRENCH REVIEW 91.2 Reviews 217 the century. In a more anecdotal manner that makes for interesting reading, MarieFran çoise Melmoux-Montaubin retraces the animated, at times heated exchanges between Jules Verne and his editor, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, over the extent and tenor of descriptive passages to be included in Voyages extraordinaires. Readers who make their way systematically through this volume—which can be challenging at times, given the subject matter and the profusion of critical terminology—will find the last two contributions especially rewarding. In a study of Un cœur simple that is both perceptive and gracefully written, Nadia Fartas shows how “une poétique de la simplicité se confond avec la simplicité du personnage” (256) to set the stage for the famously ambiguous ending. Jacques Neefs brings the collection to a satisfying close with his engaging reading of passages from Madame Bovary, L’éducation sentimentale, and À la recherche du temps perdu; alluding to the secondary emphasis of the volume, he observes:“On mesure combien le‘descriptif’transformé en prose-vision, s’ouvre ainsi à un autre type d’expérience, que l’on pourrait dire‘c...

Messieurs les Anglais, pillez les premiers! par by Jean Maillet

les trois contributions de cette partie proposent des réflexions sur l’expression, la perception et la représentation des identités francophones au sens linguistique, culturel et littéraire (entre autres) des locuteurs à travers le monde. La troisième partie, “Contact des langues dans l’espace francophone”, se compose essentiellement d’études sur l’analyse d’interactions verbales, avec la longue étude de Galatanu, Bellachaab et Cozma (les trois coéditeurs de ce volume) sur le cas de “remercier”, ainsi que deux articles théoriques sur l’enseignement du français langue étrangère (Pescheux, El Masrar). Dans l’ensemble, toutes les études regroupées dans ce livre sont accessibles à un lectorat non spécialisé, mais les linguistes et les théoriciens de la langue y trouveront des informations et des analyses d’une grande qualité scientifique et de solides cadres théoriques sur les significations et les constructions des discours identitaires francophones. University of Massachusetts, Lowell Carole Salmon Maillet, Jean. Messieurs les Anglais, pillez les premiers! Paris: L’Opportun, 2016. ISBN 978-2-36075-415-1. Pp. 476. 18 a. Maillet’s volume laments the massacre of the French language, a phenomenon he attributes to an invasion of Anglo-American loanwords. In this respect, his work has numerous precedents. Yet Maillet introduces a subtlety that has escaped previous discussions: if French draws on English for novel lexical items, the“borrowing vector” has not always been one way. Indeed, English has drawn significantly upon French, albeit during a much earlier epoch. Having acknowledged this debt, Maillet’s discussion interrogates contemporary usage. Why has borrowing become essentially unidirectional? Why must worthy French vocabulary be replaced by anglicismes? Is it due to snobbism? Linguistic laziness? On a more sinister note, might this embrace of Anglo-American lexical items signify a surrender of cultural identity, an (unconscious ?) affirmation of the economic/social ideals that animate the Anglo-American lexicon? These introductory arguments frame the remainder of Maillet’s volume, divided into three robust chapters supplemented by an epilogue. The first addresses English neologisms whose origins may be traced to French. The second explores the phenomenon of faux amis and the third, words whose forms may suggest a false relationship. In his initial chapter, Maillet addresses the term “battle” as a representative example. Its origins derive from the New York hip-hop culture, signifying an improvised confrontation between two rappers. This nod to cultural innovation along with an appeal to l’exotisme facilitated its entry into French. Yet its usage has become more banal: the concept of battle has been extended to other contexts, delegitimizing its initial semantic exceptionalism. An odd trajectory, as Maillet notes: bataille was borrowed from French around the fourteenth century. The form battell occurs in Shakespeare, only to be reimported into French during the 1970s.Among the examples 204 FRENCH REVIEW 90.4 Reviews 205 of faux amis that Maillet explores in his second chapter, the pair library ≠ librairie is instructive. At an earlier stage, the words were nearly synonymous. However, French abandoned the meaning of bibliothèque in the seventeenth century, whereas English retained it, resulting in a disconcerting difference for the learner. As an exemplar of “deceptive” pairs inventoried in his final chapter, Maillet turns to aunt/tante. Both derive from Latin amita, but the French acquired the initial consonant from children’s usage of the possessive (t’ante), whereas the English is a more faithful rendering. Although superficially similar, they may not be considered cognates. Maillet succeeds in sustaining a nuanced analysis of the crosslinguistic components that have determined the modern French lexicon. But he seems unable to expand his prescriptive argumentation beyond the tiresome battle metaphor. His epilogue disappoints by its weakly formulated cohortative: “Sus aux anglicismes! Chassons-les, corrigeons-les” (418). For better or for worse, the dynamic nature of language change can hardly be constrained by such an idealized manifesto. Although not a pedagogical handbook, it has important implications for the classroom. If students encounter an Anglicism in an authentic text, can—or should—they adopt its usage? Which have achieved droit de cité? What pragmatic factors might determine their word choice? Unfortunately, absolute prescriptions ignore these complex considerations. Cabrillo College and Graduate...

American Plagues: Lessons from Our Battles with Disease by Stephen H. Gehlbach

Reviewed by: American Plagues: Lessons from Our Battles with Disease by Stephen H. Gehlbach Alan M. Kraut Stephen H. Gehlbach. American Plagues: Lessons from Our Battles with Disease. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. ix + 301 pp. Ill. $38.00 (978-1-4422-565-07). Before he was dean of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Dean Emeritus Stephen H. Gehlbach was a medical detective. He served in the Epidemic Intelligence Service with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta. In the years following his service, he has sought to "make epidemiology contagious" (p. viii). His intended audience is composed of the medical and public health students "who need to understand how diseases operate in populations and how best to control them" (p. viii). The updated version of his 2005 volume, American Plagues: Lessons from Our Battles with Disease, succeeds admirably. It conveys Gehlbach's infectious enthusiasm for his subject so effectively that general readers will also relish the historical detective's account of medical mysteries stretching back to the founding of the nation. Founding Father Benjamin Rush was also an early medical detective. Gehlbach begins his volume with Rush's response to the deadly 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, which took four thousand lives, almost 10 percent of the city's population. Attributing the disease to miasmas, Rush was mistaken in his understanding of the epidemic's cause. His bleeding of yellow fever victims failed to cure them. However, without a sneer of condescension, Gehlbach describes Rush's mistakes and why other physicians came to different conclusions. Not long before Rush, a clergyman effectively curbed a smallpox epidemic, and not by prayer alone. Cotton Mather's advocacy of inoculation, echoed by Zabdiel Boylston in Boston and Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, led to a comparison of outcomes with interventions, a kind of "natural experiment," to answer questions about the efficacy of preventive procedures. Later, Benjamin Waterhouse would conduct America's "first public health experiment" to learn whether cowpox could prevent smallpox as Englishman Edward Jenner claimed. Jenner and Waterhouse are no strangers to students of public health history, but Gehlbach explains how their achievements contributed to the expanding field of disease prevention and control. The relationship of environment to disease vectors was explored by Daniel Drake in the 1840s to understand what caused autumnal fever. Offering the example of malaria and the mosquito, Gehlbach explains how comprehending environmental factors such as those that favor mosquito breeding could assist physicians hoping to prevent malaria transmission. In his discussion of Lemuel Shattuck, a pioneer in the collection and analysis of vital statistics, Gehlbach reminds readers that it is impossible to determine the health patterns of any population without systematic data collection. He describes how physicians and statisticians in Massachusetts jointly lobbied for state legislation in the 1840s that improved the "recording of vital events, such as births, deaths, marriages, and standardize the system of morality classification" (p. 84). The 1850 Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts compiled under Shattuck's leadership became a public health classic. [End Page 666] Gehlbach's chapters on tuberculosis, polio, cancer, heart disease, and HIV/ AIDS amply demonstrate how advances in medical science resulted in public health programs to curb the spread of some diseases and to prevent others. In his chapter on polio, Gehlbach traces the hundred-year life cycle of the epidemic from its first identification in the 1890s, to the Salk and Sabin vaccines that stopped the catastrophic summer epidemics in the United States, to the current patterns of prevention that have all but extinguished the disease as a world public health threat. Gehlbach's updated edition includes chapters on fresh patterns of infectious disease and their spread, sometimes by the very health care providers and in hospitals dedicated to battling such diseases, a circumstance first identified 170 years ago by Dr. Oliver Wendell Homes. The bacterium called MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), for example, is often contracted in hospitals where there has been a breakdown of sterile procedures. The volume's last chapter, "Another Kind of Plague," refers to the plague of misunderstanding and misinformation that Gehlbach associates with the antivaccine movement, especially...