Racial Templates

This riveting tale of greed, international skullduggery, and behind-the-scenes heroism recounts the events that led up to America’s “wicked war” with Mexico. It depicts how expansionist ambitions in high circles fueled jingoistic propaganda (pp. 25, 34–35, 58), fed a public eager for national muscle flexing (pp. 57, 103, 108), and set the stage for a military skirmish in a disputed region between two rivers (pp. 75–77, 95, 100, 138) that provided the pretext for a savage and short-lived military campaign against the weak new nation of Mexico in which the U.S. Army, under General Scott, marched all the way to Mexico City, marauding as it went. On arrival, President Polk’s negotiator dictated terms of surrender under which Mexico ceded nearly half its territory — what is now the states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas (pp. xvii, 258–61) — a land grab that accounts for about one-third of the current continental United States. As America’s first foreign campaign, the War with Mexico strengthened the hold of slavery in the South, paving the way for the Civil War a generation later. It launched Lincoln’s career, although he opposed it (p. xvi); brought Henry Thoreau, who abhorred it, to national prominence; and sparked the country’s first antiwar movement (p. xvi). With its explicitly racist rhetoric, the war marked the first time in the United States’ seventy-year history that it invoked race as a justification for expanding its borders. The war also facilitated future uses of racist rhetoric in oppressing domestic minorities. Let us first examine the war itself as portrayed in Amy S. Greenberg’s A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico. This will first entail examining the parts played by five political figures — some young, some senior — together with their families and children. Then we shall show the prominent role of what we call “racial templates” — linguistic frames, habits, and attitudes of mind — in the War with Mexico and later. As we shall see, these templates, often operating at an unconscious level, predisposed society and individual actors to reproduce risky or oppressive behavior in arenas far beyond the ones in which they first emerged. Identifying these templates is a necessary first step in reducing their sway

Racial Templates

This riveting tale of greed, international skullduggery, and behind-the-scenes heroism recounts the events that led up to America’s “wicked war” with Mexico. It depicts how expansionist ambitions in high circles fueled jingoistic propaganda (pp. 25, 34–35, 58), fed a public eager for national muscle flexing (pp. 57, 103, 108), and set the stage for a military skirmish in a disputed region between two rivers (pp. 75–77, 95, 100, 138) that provided the pretext for a savage and short-lived military campaign against the weak new nation of Mexico in which the U.S. Army, under General Scott, marched all the way to Mexico City, marauding as it went. On arrival, President Polk’s negotiator dictated terms of surrender under which Mexico ceded nearly half its territory — what is now the states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas (pp. xvii, 258–61) — a land grab that accounts for about one-third of the current continental United States. As America’s first foreign campaign, the War with Mexico strengthened the hold of slavery in the South, paving the way for the Civil War a generation later. It launched Lincoln’s career, although he opposed it (p. xvi); brought Henry Thoreau, who abhorred it, to national prominence; and sparked the country’s first antiwar movement (p. xvi). With its explicitly racist rhetoric, the war marked the first time in the United States’ seventy-year history that it invoked race as a justification for expanding its borders. The war also facilitated future uses of racist rhetoric in oppressing domestic minorities. Let us first examine the war itself as portrayed in Amy S. Greenberg’s A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico. This will first entail examining the parts played by five political figures — some young, some senior — together with their families and children. Then we shall show the prominent role of what we call “racial templates” — linguistic frames, habits, and attitudes of mind — in the War with Mexico and later. As we shall see, these templates, often operating at an unconscious level, predisposed society and individual actors to reproduce risky or oppressive behavior in arenas far beyond the ones in which they first emerged. Identifying these templates is a necessary first step in reducing their sway

Impact of the dicyanomethylene substitution position on the cyclophane macrocycle formation in carbazole-based biradicals

π-Conjugated biradical compounds, featuring unique unsaturated valences and radical centers in the ground state, are fundamentally important for understanding the nature of chemical bonds and have potential applications in material science. [1] Recently, it has been demonstrated that several -conjugated mono- and biradicals systems form long strain -bonds between two unpaired electrons resulting in macrocyclic or staircase oligomers or polymers by self-assembly processes. [2] Therefore, these materials are potential building blocks for dynamic covalent chemistry (DCC) since the aggregates can be formed or broken upon soft external stimuli. For instance, 2,7-dicyanomethylene-9-(2-ethylhexyl)carbazole biradical (p-Cz-alkyl in Figure 1) reversibly converts upon soft stimuli (temperature, pressure, light) to a cyclophane tetramer as a result from the formation (or bond cleavage) of long C-C single bonds.[3] Here, we present an experimental and theoretical study in order to investigate how the N-substitution and the change from para- to meta-dicyanomethylene substitution on carbazole-based biradicals affects their biradical character and thus, their tendency to act as useful motifs for DCC (see Figure 1).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Response by Caravaca Pérez et al to Letter Regarding Article, "Potential Role of Natriuretic Response to Furosemide Stress Test During Acute Heart Failure".

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Severity of post-cardiac surgery acute kidney injury and long-term mortality: is chronic kidney disease the missing link?

While the retrospective cohort study by Lopez-Delgado and colleagues suggests a strong association of the RIFLE classification and long-term mortality of acute kidney injury (AKI) after post-cardiac surgery, it has a number of limitations. The numbers of patients with pre-existing chronic kidney disease (CKD) or with non-recovery of renal function, de novo CKD or progression of CKD to stage V are not given. The authors used an obsolete definition of CKD and a modified RIFLE classification system for definition and grading of AKI. Taken together, numerous studies underscore the strong association between AKI and de novo CKD. Severity, duration and frequency of AKI as well as age, comorbidities and pre-existing CKD are known risk factors for the development and/or progression of CKD. Careful analyses of the cumulative mortality curves reported by Lopez-Delgado and colleagues or by our group revealed a triphasic pattern. In the early phase, survival rates drop steeply due to critical illness, followed by a phase of smaller decline (caused by patient characteristics and development of CKD) and later on by a flatter survival curve attributable to the high cardiovascular mortality of progressive CKD. Physicians need to consider the long-term sequels of severe AKI. Lopez Delgado and colleagues's study provides further arguments for an early follow-up of survivors of AKI by nephrologists

Headache of recent onset in adults: a prospective population-based study

One hundred consecutive adult patients with headache of recent onset were prospectively studied. Every patient was examined by craneal CT scan. Their mean age was 46 years (range 17-82). Neurological examination was normal in 80 patients. Organic headache represented 39% of the entire group, and 26% of them had a normal neurological examination. The yield of CT scan in patients with headaches and a normal neurological examination was 22.5% (95% IC: 14%-33%); of which we encountered the following pathologies: intracranial tumors (13), hydrocephalus (2), arachnoid cyst (l), toxoplasmic abscess (1) and parenchymal hemorrhage (1). The clinical characteristics of the headache on their own was insufficient to rule out the possibility of an intracranial tumor. Neuroimaging studies should be performed in all adult patients with non-vascular headache of recent onset, I and previously headache-free individual

Interplay between right ventricular function and cardiac resynchronization therapy : an analysis of the CARE-HF trial (cardiac resynchronization–heart failure)

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) on right ventricular (RV) function and the influence of RV dysfunction on the echocardiographic and clinical response to CRT among patients enrolled in the CARE-HF (Cardiac Resynchronization-Heart Failure) trial. Background: Cardiac resynchronization therapy prolongs survival in appropriately selected patients with heart failure but the benefit might be diminished in patients with RV dysfunction. Methods: Of 813 patients enrolled in the CARE-HF study, 688 had tricuspid plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) measured at baseline, and 345 of these were assigned to CRT. Their median (interquartile range) age was 66 (58 to 71) years, left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction was 24% (21% to 28%), and TAPSE was 19 (16 to 22) mm. Baseline LV function and size and QRS duration were similar among TAPSE tertiles, but those in the worst tertile (TAPSE < 17.4 mm) were more likely to have ischemic heart disease. Results: Overall, CRT improved LV but not RV structure and function with little evidence of an interaction with TAPSE. During a median (interquartile range) follow-up of 748 (582 to 950) days, 213 deaths occurred. Patients with lower TAPSE had a higher mortality, regardless of assigned treatment (p < 0.001). Greater inter-ventricular mechanical delay, New York Heart Association functional class, mitral regurgitation, and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, lower TAPSE, and assignment to the control group were independently associated with higher mortality. Reduction in mortality with CRT was similar in each tertile of TAPSE. Conclusions: Right ventricular dysfunction is a powerful determinant of prognosis among candidates for CRT, regardless of treatment assigned, but did not diminish the prognostic benefits of CRT among patients enrolled in the CARE-HF trial. (Care-HF CArdiac Resynchronization in Heart Failure; NCT00170300) © 2013 American College of Cardiology Foundation

π-Dimerization of Heptathienoacene Radical Cations

Oligothienoacenes, the fused-ring analog of pi-linked oligothiophenes, belong to the most promising candidates for organic electronic applications. This is in part due to their fully planar structure that avoids conformational disorder and allows for densely packed solid-state structures resulting in high charge carrier mobilities. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the study of the pi-dimerization of conjugated radical cations with a dual purpose: (i) elucidation of the nature of the charge-transport phenomena in p-doped semiconducting polymers and (ii) development of supramolecular bonding ideas for applications in material science, such as actuators. However, the π-dimerization of planar conjugated radical cations in solution is scarce and usually encountered at low temperatures. In this work, we investigate the exceptional pi-dimerization capability showed by radical cations of a heptathienoacene alpha,beta-substituted with four n-decyl side groups (D4T7•+) by using a joint experimental and theoretical approach. D4T7 radical cations are found to exhibit an exceptional ability to form pi-dimer dications even at ambient temperature. Our results evidence the presence of two different transitory oxidized species formed during the course of the one-electron oxidation: (i) different conformations of the [D4T7•+]2 pi-dimer dications and (ii) the intermediate [D4T7]2•+ pi-dimer radical cations.[5] The nature and structure of these transitory species and ultimate pi-dimer dication are rigorously analyzed with the help of the DFT and TD-DFT calculations. Our study would provide valuable guidance for the further development of pi-dimer based supramolecular architectures.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech