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Background: Cervical spine mobilizations may differentially modulate both components of the stress response, consisting of the autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal-axis, depending on whether the target location is the upper or lower cervical spine. To date, no study has investigated this. Methods: A randomized, crossover trial investigated the effects of upper versus lower cervical mobilization on both components of the stress response simultaneously. The primary outcome was salivary cortisol (sCOR) concentration. The secondary outcome was heart rate variability measured with a smartphone application. Twenty healthy males, aged 21–35, were included. Participants were randomly assigned to block-AB (upper then lower cervical mobilization, n = 10) or block-BA (lower than upper cervical mobilization, n = 10), separated by a one-week washout period. All interventions were performed in the same room (University clinic) under controlled conditions. Statistical analyses were performed with a Friedman’s Two-Way ANOVA and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. Results: Within groups, sCOR concentration reduced thirty-minutes following lower cervical mobilization (p = 0.049). Between groups, sCOR concentration was different at thirty-minutes following the intervention (p = 0.018). Conclusion: There was a statistically significant reduction in sCOR concentration following lower cervical spine mobilization, and between-group difference, 30 min following the intervention. This indicates that mobilizations applied to separate target locations within the cervical spine can differentially modulate the stress response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality in the US. Recent studies have demonstrated survival benefits for FOLFIRINOX (5-FU, leucovorin, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin) and Gem/nab-P (gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel) over gemcitabine. We aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes of mPDAC before and after incorporating these newer regimens into the clinical practice. A retrospective study of patients with mPDAC at our institution between 2009 and 2018, who were followed up until December 2019. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were calculated using Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. Univariate and multivariable Cox regression analyses were used to explore predictors of survival. A total of 394 patients with mPDAC were included: 122 (31%) were diagnosed 2009-2013 and 272 (69%) 2014-2018. In 2009–2013 cohort vs. 2014–2018 cohort, the median OS and PFS were similar (4 vs. 3.6 months, P = 0.5) and (2.3 vs. 2.5 months, P = 0.41), respectively. Age, ECOG-PS >1, serum albumin, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and platelets-to-lymphocyte ratio were independent predictors of better OS. In this study of real-world data, the median OS and PFS for all patients with mPDAC were equivalent before and after incorporating newer treatment regimens into the clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age-related memory change has been a topic of much investigation in recent years, including spacing benefits and reliance on contextual cues. We manipulated the spacing schedule and the context of learning and observed the effects on long-term recall ability in healthy older and younger adults. After learning Swahili–English word pairs, half practiced immediately (massed) and half practiced 24 h later (spaced) either in the same room or a different room (context) from the initial session. A final recall test 10 days after the practice session occurred in the same room as the first session. Participants in the spaced condition remembered more than those in the massed condition 10 days later. Younger adults remembered more word pairs than older adult participants. Context change eliminated the spacing benefit for both age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relative backwardness of eighteenth-century German literature and the presumed ambivalence of German writers towards political power have traditionally been explained by the lack of a copyright law in Germany, which meant that German writers, in contrast to their British contemporaries, were often financially dependent on the state. This paper argues that the differences between British and German writers in economic terms have been overstated. British copyright law did not in fact serve the interests of writers to the extent that has traditionally been supposed. In Germany and Britain the situation of writers was determined more by the underlying economics of the publishing trade, especially the high cost of book production, which enabled publishers to pursue monopolistic practices and tilted the tables in favour of publishers and against writers. This argument has further implications for our understanding of the politics of German literature in the late eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple retrievals of a memory over a spaced manner improve long-term memory performance in infants, children, younger and older adults; however, few studies have examined spacing effects with young school-age children. To expand the understanding of the spacing benefit in children, the current study presented weakly associated English word-pairs to children aged 7–11 and cued their recall two times immediately (massed), after a delay of 5 or 10 items (spaced) or not at all (control). After this encoding session with or without two retrievals, participants were tested two times for memory of all word-pairs: immediately and 30 minutes after the encoding session. Multiple retrievals significantly improved memory on the tests. However, words repeated in a spaced design were remembered at higher rates than those that were massed, while gap size between repetitions (5 or 10) did not differentially impact performance. The data show that a within-session spacing strategy can benefit children's ability to remember word-pairs after 30 minutes. Thus, asking students to recall what they have learned within a lesson is a technique that can be used in a classroom to improve long-term recall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affording Our Future, the New Zealand Treasury's 2013 long-term fiscal statement, tests fiscal sustainability over the next 40 or so years through a series of projections. These projections endeavour to capture the effect of population ageing and other influences on the future government budget balances and public debt. This paper explains the modelling approaches, major assumptions, and sensitivities around the assumptions. It provides results for two scenarios: ‘Resume Historic Cost Growth’ and ‘Spending Path that Maintains 20% Net Debt’. The paper also discusses the costs of delay in addressing the fiscal pressures produced by an ageing population structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have shown that memory is enhanced when study sessions are spaced apart rather than massed. This spacing effect has been shown to have a lasting benefit to long-term memory when the study phase session follows the encoding session by 24 hours. Using a spacing paradigm we examined the impact of sleep and spacing gaps on long-term declarative memory for Swahili–English word pairs by including four spacing delay gaps (massed, 12 hours same-day, 12 hours overnight, and 24 hours). Results showed that a 12-hour spacing gap that includes sleep promotes long-term memory retention similar to the 24-hour gap. The findings support the importance of sleep to the long-term benefit of the spacing effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kleist's 'tragic vision' is here related to the great historical tradition of melancholy, and specifically to the iconography established by Dürer's Melencolia I. In readings of Der Findling, Die Verlobung in St. Domingo, and Michael Kohlhaas, the characters' perplexity is seen to culminate in melancholy. The cognitive stance of melancholy is validated by the chaotic nature of chance events. Suggestions are made for widening the focus to other aspects of the melancholy tradition with which Kleist came into contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vigilance reinforcement hypothesis (VRH) asserts that errors in signal detection tasks are partially explained by operant reinforcement and extinction processes. VRH predictions were tested with a computerized baggage screening task. Our experiment evaluated the effects of signal schedule (extinction vs. variable interval 6 min) and visual field complexity (dial vs. baggage x-ray) on search behavior rates. There was a main effect for signal schedule [F (1, 20) = 14.0, p = .001, prep = 0.99], but no effects for field complexity or interaction. The VRH suggests that performance errors in visual screening work may be reduced through operant conditioning of search behaviors by intensive management of artificially planted signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors exposed pigeons to 2 equal 3-link chains by using variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. An intertrial interval (ITI) bisected by free food separated the chains. After baseline training, the authors presented terminal links in a successive discrimination to devalue 1 terminal link: The authors reinforced responses to 1 terminal link and extinguished responses to the other. The authors then presented full chains in extinction, except that they continued to deliver free food during the midpoint of the ITI. There were 2 principal findings. First, across all extinction conditions, responding decreased but did not extinguish. Second, when extinction testing revealed a terminal link devaluation effect in the 3rd condition, responding to the initial link was affected, but not middle-link responding. Overall, the results suggested that ITI food presentations can exert a substantial effect on responding in 3-link chain schedules, and they appear to influence both the pattern of extinction and devaluation effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several poems by the young Goethe dramatize melancholy consciousness. A common theme of these poems is the pathos of unattained sublimity, in which the modes of fruitful engagement with the world become problematic. Goethe is able to achieve exceptionally complex results in representing melancholy consciousness by means of estrangement in poetic diction (as proposed by Shklovsky) and ambiguity in metaphor, complex words, and syntax (Empson). These techniques are highlighted in close readings of two poems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competition entry for a new library in Evanston, Illinois, addresses two important themes of the American city--ideality of form in civic buildings and representation of values associated with a public institution. Of primary concern was the desire for the building to be understood as an important part of the public realm of the city of Evanston, that it present itself as a library and a civic institution, and that it be seen, by association with other well-known public libraries, to represent the broader cultural values associated with knowledge and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on personnel changes in the English Goethe Society literary club and lists academic papers read in 2007 including "Goethe and Imaginary Friendship" by John Armstrong, "In Sickness and in Health: Nietzsche's Goethe" by Nicholas Martin, and "Poetry, Sex and the City: Goethe in Venice, 1790" by Matthew Bell.

This article is a letter from the English Goethe Society concerning the theme of novelty. The theme is found on the cover of this issue of the journal, because the drawing pictured there is a previously unreleased drawing of a flower by Goethe. The drawing is being shown with the rest of the Frida Mond collection at King's College in London, England in November 2006. The English Goethe Society is also changing its venue to the second floor of the Stewart House wing of London University's Senate House. The article also lists papers that were read at the Society meeting in 2005.

A preface for the 2006 issue of the "The English Goethe Society" is presented.

The ancient MYH7b gene, expressed in striated muscle and brain, encodes a sarcomeric myosin and the intronic microRNA miR-499. We find that skipping of an exon introduces a premature termination codon in the transcript that downregulates MYH7b protein production without affecting microRNA expression. Among other genes, endogenous miR-499 targets the 3' untranslated region of the transcription factor Sox6, which in turn acts as a repressor of MYH7b transcriptional activity. Thus, concerted transcription and alternative splicing uncouple the level of expression of MYH7b and miR-499 when their coexpression is not required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one on the workshop organized in commemoration of Frank M. Fowler and another on relationship between the literary text and theatrical realization.

A preface to the March 2007 issue of the "Publications of the English Goethe Society" is presented.