“Sticky” Brains and Sticky Encounters in a U.S. Pediatric Pain Clinic

In the U.S. multidisciplinary pediatric pain clinic where I conducted 18 months of fieldwork, a widely held explanatory model tied the neurobiology of intractable pain to certain features of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) such as concrete thinking, an interest in details, and hyper-attentiveness. Clinicians used terms such as “sticky brains” and “sticky neurons” to describe the perseverative thoughts and quirky behavior that characterized a sizable subset of the program’s chronic pain patients who were believed to show signs of PDD, and consequently, did not respond well to treatment. Drawing on observations of clinical consultations, team meetings, and interviews with clinicians and families, I examine the meta-discursive processes by which clinical difficulties were inscribed onto difficult patients. Specifically, I demonstrate how discourse on sticky brains worked to re-classify challenging patients as psychologically abnormal, rationalizing their failed response to standard treatment. I argue that ‘stickiness’ provides an appropriate metaphor not only for a particular neurobiological configuration, but also for challenging clinical encounters. By illuminating the interactional processes through which clinical difficulties are managed, interpreted, and explained, the paper advances anthropological theorizing on the performative work of diagnosis and institutionalized misrecognition.     

Does Size Matter? Scaling of CO2 Emissions and U.S. Urban Areas

Urban areas consume more than 66% of the world’s energy and generate more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the world’s population expected to reach 10 billion by 2100, nearly 90% of whom will live in urban areas, a critical question for planetary sustainability is how the size of cities affects energy use and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Are larger cities more energy and emissions efficient than smaller ones? Do larger cities exhibit gains from economies of scale with regard to emissions? Here we examine the relationship between city size and CO₂ emissions for U.S. metropolitan areas using a production accounting allocation of emissions. We find that for the time period of 1999–2008, CO₂ emissions scale proportionally with urban population size. Contrary to theoretical expectations, larger cities are not more emissions efficient than smaller ones.     

Logical-Semantic Analysis and the Development of L.S. Vygotsky's Ideas About “Units” and “Elements” of Psychological Systems

Based on an analysis of L.S. Vygotsky's concepts of “units” and “elements” of psychological systems, this article highlights five of their attributes. It shows that these attributes are logically symmetrical, since in their wording they can be converted into one another by negation or by replacing some words with their opposites. This suggests that the concepts of the “unit” and “element” of a system are different poles of one theoretical construct of the activity of human psychology. Thus methods for the study of psychological systems by breaking them down into elements or by separating them into units can be seen as complementary. The article describes differences among the concepts of “unit,” “minimal unit,” and “cell” of a psychological system. It reviews several problems that are solvable using the “method of units,” as well as some concepts of the theory of psychological systems that are understood as holistic, conceptual, and active processes and/or results of human interaction with the world. Among the examples of such systems are “systems of psychological functions” (according to Vygotsky), as well as separate activities (according to A.N. Leontiev), human actions and operations (interactions with the world on the level of objects and mental or physical means). The “component” of a psychological system is defined as any “something” that in some sense belongs to or is included in human interaction with the world. A component that belongs to the system is called an “element” of it, but a component that is included in the functioning and development of the system is called a “part” of it. The article presents the mathematical and psychological foundation of these definitions. It identifies and discusses the substantial (independently existing) components of psychological systems and their attributes (properties and conditions). It describes the relationships between them using the bipolar theoretical constructs “part-element” and “substantial-attributive” component of a system.     

“Inflammaging” and Estradiol among Older U.S. Women: A Nationally Representative Longitudinal Study

Despite accumulating small-sample and clinical evidence on “inflammaging,” no population-representative longitudinal studies have specifically examined women’s late-life inflammation trends. While a range of studies indicates estradiol’s immunomodulation role, evidence is contradictory on whether its effects are pro- or antiinflammatory among older women. Using longitudinal data from the first two waves of the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project—a national probability sample of older U.S. adults aged 57 to 85 years at baseline—this study began to fill these gaps. Findings suggested rather than being a lifelong process, older women’s inflammaging may have a biological window that closes with senescence. Moreover, their endogenous estradiol plays a proinflammatory rather than immunoprotective role. Nor does this sex steroid modulate age effects on women’s inflammation. More sex-specific basic research is needed on causal mechanisms underlying women’s late-life inflammaging patterns.     

Transit rights and U.S. security interests in international straits: The “straits debate”; revisited

Abstract

The issue of transit rights through international straits overlapped by an extension of territorial seas to 12nm was the focal point of intense debate between the United States and straits states during the formative stages of UNCLOS III. Even though the ICNT provisions on transit through straits reflect basic U.S. navigation and security interests, this paper argues that the issue of transit rights through straits is not a dead issue. Straits states may either refuse to ratify a LOS treaty incorporating ICNT provisions on transit passage, or the attempts to obtain a comprehensive LOS treaty may end in failure. In either case, the United States may be forced to accept a right of innocent passage through international straits. The conclusions of this paper are that the security of transit will be determined by political rather than legal considerations, and that U.S. security interests in straits are not undermined by a right of innocent passage.     

Does the Functional Form of the Association Between Education and Mortality Differ by U.S. Region?

To understand the education–mortality association among U.S. adults, recent studies have documented its national functional form. However, the functional form of education–mortality relationship may vary across geographic contexts. The four U.S. Census regions differ considerably in their social and economic policies, employment opportunities, income levels, and other factors that may affect how education lowers the risk of mortality. Thus, we documented regional differences in the functional form of the education–mortality association and examined the role of employment and income in accounting for regional differences. We used data on non-Hispanic white adults (2,981,672, person years) aged 45–84 in the 2000–2009 National Health Interview Survey, with Linked Mortality File through 2011 (37,598 deaths) and estimated discrete-time hazard models. The functional form of education and adult mortality was best characterized by credentialism in the Midwest, Northeast, and for Western men. For Western women, the association was linear, consistent with the human capital model. In the South, we observed a combination of mechanisms, with mortality risk declining with each year of schooling and a step change with high school graduation, followed by steeper decline thereafter. Our work adds to the increasing body of research that stresses the importance of contexts in shaping the education–mortality relationship.     

A cytochemical and ultrastructural study of the “S.I.F.” cells in cat sympathetic ganglia

Summary According to the hypothesis of Eccles and Libet, the small intensely fluorescent cells (S.I.F. cells) in the sympathetic ganglion would represent an essential element in the inhibition of the principal neuron. As a contribution to the study of this important problem, we have investigated serial sections in superior cervical (S.C.G.) and celiac (C.G.) ganglia of the cat, a species that has not been extensively studied up to now, both by fluorescence and electron microscopy. We have shown that the S.I.F. cells are three times fewer in the cat S.C.G. than in the rat S.C.G. There are five times more S.I.F. cells in the C.G. of the cat than in the S.C.G. of the same species. Moreover we have described two types of S.I.F. cells.Type I is composed of cells characterized by highly polymorphous large dense-cored vesicles. These cells lack processes and are grouped in clusters centered on fenestrated capillaries. They could be endocrine function cells. Type II is formed of isolated cells which exibit long processes and establish synaptic junctions with the dendrites of the principal neurons. In this case, the dense-cored vesicles are very regular and much smaller. These cells could be equivalent to interneurons. Type I very strongly predominates in the S.C.G. and C.G. of the cat where it represents more than 90% of the S.I.F. cell total observed by fluorescence microscopy. A priori such a quantitative and qualitative heterogeneity hardly consistent with Eccles and Libet's hypothesis based on the existence of dopaminergic interneurons only, allows the question to be raised as to the functional significance of the S.I.F. cells in ganglion physiology. The notion of modulation of ganglionic transmission does not seem to be quiered by these new data but could be founded on different forms of action embodied in the broader conception of the neuromodulation phenomenon.     

Contraceptive sterilization: A comparison of Mexican‐Americans and Anglos living in U.S. counties bordering Mexico

Abstract

Prior to the U.S.‐Mexico Border Survey of Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning conducted by the Centers for Disease Control in 1979, little information was available about the extent to which Mexican‐Americans in the U.S., relative to Anglos, were using male and female sterilization for contraceptive reasons. This paper compares Mexican‐Americans and Anglos for (a) prevalence of contraceptive sterilization; (b) social and demographic characteristics of users of contraceptive sterlization; and (c) tuning during the reproductive life cycle when contraceptive sterilization occurs. For both Mexican‐Americans and Anglos, contraceptive sterilization (male and female) was the second most prevalent method used. Anglos were more likely to use male than female sterilization (22.4 per cent and 19.5 per cent), while Mexican‐Americans were much more likely to use female than male sterilization (23.2 per cent and 5.8 per cent). Having an unwanted last live birth and/or high parity were important factors related to the use of female sterilization for both Mexican‐Americans and Anglos.     

Review of the book by A.A. Kudryavtsev,A.S. Smirnov,and L.D. Tsendin “Physics of Glow Discharge”

A new voluminous book on gas-discharge physics is reviewed. It is emphasized that the authors consistently follow a nontraditional approach based on the electron distribution function with allowance for its nonlocal character. This opens new, sometimes unexpected, issues of the well-known phenomena, which is illustrated by the reviewer by using the positive column of a low-pressure glow discharge as an example.