Narrating Violation: Harriet Prescott Spofford’s “Circumstance”

The several critical interpretations of Harriet Prescott Spofford’s short story, “Circumstance,” generally acknowledge the presence of sexual violation, but they also tend to de-center it, either glossing over it, or enlisting the nature and implications of the assault to serve other ends. In contrast, “Narrating Violation” sees the story’s sexual assault as its main subject; it explores the methods that Spofford employs to present the sexual violation and the implications for reading “Circumstance” as a rape narrative. Spofford’s multiple ways of speaking the violation at the heart of “Circumstance” align with Emily Dickinson’s treatment of rape. The possibility that Dickinson recognized in “Circumstance” a story of rape and wrote her own poetic version of it begins to identify a literary stream in nineteenth-century American women’s writing that resists the elision of violence against women and tells of rape in a way acceptable for its time

Quantification of mixed contributions of primary producers from amino acid δ15N of marine consumers: a Bayesian approach.

Estimations of the trophic position (TP) and the food web nitrogen baseline from compound-specific isotope analysis of individual amino acids (CSIA-AA) are challenged when the diet of consumer organisms relies on different proportions of vascular and non-vascular primary producers. Here we provide a new method to infer such proportions using the δ15N patterns from individual AAs (δ15NAA) in the consumer. Combining published and new data, we first characterized the δ15NAA signatures in primary producers and determined the isotopic enrichment (β) for the major taxa of primary producers. Then, we applied MixSIAR Bayesian isotope mixing models to investigate the transfer of these signatures to marine primary consumers (molluscs, green turtles, zooplankton and fish), and their utility to quantify autotrophic sources. Reliable source proportions were quantified, using appropriate combinations of trophic discrimination factors (TDFs), and were used to estimate β values for each consumer. We demonstrated that phytoplankton, macroalgae and vascular plants have singular δ15NAA fingerprints that can be tracked from the δ15NAA values in their primary consumers, and can be used to estimate mixed baseline sources. This method is useful to accurately estimate βmix values from consumer δ15NAA signatures with no requirement to sample or characterize the primary producers supporting the food web, thus providing reliable TP estimates in complex environments dominated by vascular and non-vascular autotrophs. This study evidences a suitable integration of δ15NAA fingerprinting and MixSIAR for quantitative estimations of autotrophic sources, complementing other methods to quantify resource utilization in natural systems. This method represents a major advance to unravel trophic dynamics at the aquatic/terrestrial interface using CSIA-AA.PID2020-115620RB-100, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/50110001103

Alcachofa de Tudela, Cynara scolymus L., y suelo de cultivo analizados por Análisis Instrumental por Activación con Neutrones (INAA)

Presentamos la composición elemental analizada por Análisis Instrumental por Activación con Neutrones: a) en cada uno de los estadíos significativos del ciclo agrícola de la planta entera de alcachofa de Tudela: zuecas, planta tomada, planta en primera brotación, planta en estadío de roseta, planta en segunda brotación, planta en plena producción y zuecas obtenidas de la planta; b) en las inflorescencias de la alcachofa de Tudela en tres momentos distintos de su recolección; c) en las inflorescencias de otras tres variedades de alcachofa (INIA-D, “in vitro” y crisantem) cultivadas en Navarra; y d) en el suelo de cultivo muestreado simultáneamente con la planta y secuencialmente a lo largo del ciclo agrícola. La alcachofa se ha cultivado al aire libre en dos parcelas situadas en la Ribera Tudelana, Cadreita y Tudela. Tanto el suelo y el clima, como las técnicas culturales, son los idóneos aconsejados por el Instituto Técnico y de Gestión Agrícola y empleados desde antiguo por los agricultores de la zona. El análisis elemental se ha llevado a cabo en el Interfacultair Reactor Instituut, Technische Universiteit Delft. En total se han analizado 22 muestras vegetales y 24 muestras de suelo. Para la planta se han obtenido 486 datos de concentraciones elementales correspondientes a 29 elementos -Na, Mg, Al, Si, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, Br, Rb, Sr, Cs, La, Ce, Sm, Eu, Y, Hf, Ta, W, Au y Th-; para 14 de ellos -Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Sr, Cs, La, Ce, Sm, Eu, Yb, Hf, Ta y Th- sólo se han obtenido datos de concentraciones en estadíos vegetativos, y para 2 -Al y Si- sólo en estadíos reproductores. Respecto al suelo, se han obtenido 858 datos de concentraciones elementales correspondientes a 37 elementos -Na, Mg, Al, CI, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, As, Br, Rb, Sr, Zr, Ru, Sb, I, Cs, La, Ce, Nb, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Yb, Lu, Hf, Ta, Au, Th y U-

A Physiologically Based Clinical Measure for Spastic Reflexes in Spinal Cord Injury

Objective: To test the validity of the Spinal Cord Assessment Tool for Spastic reflexes (SCATS), a clinical tool intended to rate spastic motor behavior after spinal cord injury (SCI). Design: By using correlational analyses, the SCATS was validated using concurrent measurements of kinematics and electromyograms and traditional assessments of spasms and spastic hypertonia. Setting: Research laboratory (kinematics and electromyography) and outpatient medical clinic (traditional measures of spastic hypertonia). Participants: Eleven people with SCI were used for kinematic and electromyographic measurements. Seventeen people with SCI were used for comparison with other clinical scales. Interventions: Not applicable. Main outcome measures: Kinematic and surface electromyographic measurements of the tested lower extremity were used to quantify magnitude and/or duration of motor behaviors, and the Penn Spasm Frequency Scale (PSFS) and the Ashworth Scale were used to measure spasm frequency and resistance to joint movement for the hip flexors, knee flexors, and ankle plantarflexors, respectively. Concurrently, the SCATS was used to assess the clonus response to an imposed ankle dorsiflexion, the flexion response to a stimulus to the foot, and the knee extensor activity in response to an imposed leg extension. Each component of the SCATS was compared with the Ashworth Scale, the PSFS, and kinematic and electromyographic measurements by using the Spearman rank correlation test. Results:Clonus, flexor spasm, and extensor spasm responses measured by using the SCATS correlated significantly with kinematic and electromyographic recordings (PP\u3c.05). Conclusions: The SCATS produced a valid measure of 3 distinct types of spastic motor behaviors in SCI and may provide a complementary tool for measuring spastic hypertonia. Such a measure is valuable because current assessment tools do not differentiate between the different types of spastic motor behaviors that manifest after SCI. Distinguishing the 3 spastic reactions using an efficient and valid clinical tool may help guide management of spastic hypertonia in SCI

A Multidimensional Rasch Analysis of the Functional Independence Measure Based on the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Database

A number of studies have evaluated the psychometric properties of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM™) using Rasch analysis, although none has done so using the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Database, a longitudinal database that captures demographic and outcome information on persons with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury across the United States. In the current study, we examine the psychometric properties of the FIM as represented by persons within this database and demonstrate that the FIM comprises three subscales representing cognitive, self-care, and mobility domains. These subscales were analyzed simultaneously using a multivariate Rasch model in combination with a time dependent concurrent calibration scheme with the goal of creating a raw score-to-logit transformation that can be used to improve the accuracy of parametric statistical analyses. The bowel and bladder function items were removed because of misfit with the motor and cognitive items. Some motor items exhibited step disorder, which was addressed by collapsing Categories 1-3 for Toileting, Stairs, Locomotion, Tub/Shower Transfers; Categories 1 and 2 for Toilet and Bed Transfers; and Categories 2 and 3 for Grooming. The strong correlations (r = 0.82-0.96) among the three subscales suggest they should be modeled together. Coefficient alpha of 0.98 indicates high internal consistency. Keyform maps are provided to enhance clinical interpretation and application of study results

Surfaceome Profiling of Cell Lines and Patient-Derived Xenografts Confirm FGFR4, NCAM1, CD276, and Highlight AGRL2, JAM3, and L1CAM as Surface Targets for Rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children. The prognosis for patients with high-grade and metastatic disease is still very poor, and survivors are burdened with long-lasting side effects. Therefore, more effective and less toxic therapies are needed. Surface proteins are ideal targets for antibody-based therapies, like bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells. Specific surface targets for RMS are scarce. Here, we performed a surfaceome profiling based on differential centrifugation enrichment of surface/membrane proteins and detection by LC-MS on six fusion-positive (FP) RMS cell lines, five fusion-negative (FN) RMS cell lines, and three RMS patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). A total of 699 proteins were detected in the three RMS groups. Ranking based on expression levels and comparison to expression in normal MRC-5 fibroblasts and myoblasts, followed by statistical analysis, highlighted known RMS targets such as FGFR4, NCAM1, and CD276/B7-H3, and revealed AGRL2, JAM3, MEGF10, GPC4, CADM2, as potential targets for immunotherapies of RMS. L1CAM expression was investigated in RMS tissues, and strong L1CAM expression was observed in more than 80% of alveolar RMS tumors, making it a practicable target for antibody-based therapies of alveolar RMS