Generalized monotonic functional mixed models with application to modelling normal tissue complications

Summary.  Normal tissue complications are a common side effect of radiation therapy. They are the consequence of the dose of radiation that is received by the normal tissue surrounding the site of the tumour. Within a specified organ each voxel receives a certain dose of radiation, leading to a distribution of doses over the organ. It is often not known what aspect of the dose distribution drives the presence and severity of the complications. A summary measure of the dose distribution can be obtained by integrating a weighting function of dose ( w ( d )) over the density of dose. For biological reasons the weight function should be monotonic. We propose a generalized monotonic functional mixed model to study the dose effect on a clinical outcome by estimating this weight function non-parametrically by using splines and subject to the monotonicity constraint, while allowing for overdispersion and correlation of multiple obervations within the same subject. We illustrate our method with data from a head and neck cancer study in which the irradiation of the parotid gland results in loss of saliva flow.     

Ethics and Research Assessing the Relative Roles of Genes and the Environment*

Research on the interaction of genes and the environment is revealing that many human diseases have both genetic and environmental components. Even traditional “environmental” diseases, such as infections, appear to interact with genetic components in the human host. Environmental genetics research will inevitably increase understanding of individual susceptibilities to toxic exposures in the environment and harmful side effects of medications; therefore, it has great promise for improving the prevention and treatment of human diseases. However, realizing the benefits of this research requires careful attention to ethical issues that are particularly relevant in this context. This article reviews some of the most pressing issues related to research design and methods, as well as from the application of research results (e.g., workplace genetic screening and legal toxic torts, personal medical responsibility, and the relationship between genetics and public health measures).     

Changing Policy Environments in Europe and the Resilience of the Third Sector

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - In the article, we analyse the impact of changing policy environments on the development of the third sector in Europe....     

The Ban’s mana: post-imperial affect and public memory in Zagreb

ABSTRACT

How might scholars of public memory approach the protean relationship among imperial legacies, nationalized collective memories and urban space from an ‘off-center’ perspective? In this essay, I pursue this question in relation to a monument whose political biography traverses, and troubles, the distinction between imperial and national times, sentiments, and polities. The statue in question is that of Ban Josip Jela?i?, a nineteenth Century figure who was both a loyal servant of the Habsburg Empire and a personification of nascent Croatian and South Slavic national aspirations. Jela?i?'s monument was erected in Zagreb's central square in 1866, only seven years following his death; in the heady political context of the Dual Monarchy, his apotheosis as a figure of regional rebellion caused consternation on the part of the Hungarian authorities. Nor did the statue's controversy end with the Habsburgs. Following World War II, Jela?i?'s embodiment of Croat national pride proved anathema to Yugoslav socialist federalism, and the monument was dismantled in 1947, only to be re-erected following the disintegration of Yugoslavia and Croatian independence in 1991. Accordingly, the statue of Jela?i? is a privileged material medium of and for nationalist memory in Croatia, even as it also conjures ghosts of the city's and state's imperial and socialist pasts. I theorize this play of hegemonic and repressed collective memories through the concepts of public affect and mana, especially in relation to several recent public events that centred on the statue: the memorial to Bosnian-Croat general Slobodan Praljak, who committed suicide during proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in November 2017, and the celebration of Croatia's achievements in the 2018 World Cup.     

Religion,Pledging, and the Premarital Sexual Behavior of Married Young Adults

Social scientists know little about the effect of religion and abstinence pledging on premarital sex beyond adolescence. Evidence from a sample of married young adults in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 2,079) reveals that premarital sex is widespread even among religious Americans and abstinence pledgers. Nevertheless, these individuals are much more likely than their counterparts to avoid premarital sex entirely. When they do have premarital sex, pledgers are more likely to restrict the behavior to their future spouse. Though contextual, exposure, and social control effects explain some of the influence of religion and abstinence pledging, religion and abstinence pledging appear to exert robust, direct effects on premarital sexual behavior.     

The bund: Littoral space of empire in the treaty ports of East Asia

This article is a preliminary study of a spatial form known as the bund, which developed in the treaty ports of East Asia from the mid-nineteenth century to the Second World War. Though now generally associated with that celebrated stretch of waterfront known as the Shanghai Bund, many treaty ports throughout the East Asian region once claimed their own bund. The generic space of the bund was unique in that it embodied many of the principles inherent in Victorian mercantile capitalism. It also reflected the unique situation of treaty port life, in which concepts such as extra-territoriality and laissez-faire capitalism shaped the spatial layout and development of port cities. Bunds played a central role in facilitating the commercial, military and recreational activities of European, North American and, in the twentieth century, Japanese residents of the treaty ports. They furthermore marked the site at which the segregation and violence that accompanied late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century imperialism made its presence felt in Asian ports. In addressing the historical development and post-war demise of bunds, this article also questions the meaning behind the contemporary trend for nostalgic restoration of treaty port era waterfronts in many East Asian cities today.     

Ethical Challenges in International HIV Prevention Research

Members of an HIV-prevention research network were asked to describe ethical challenges faced in their work. Major themes included acceptable standards of care for participants, defining research of relevance to host countries, reducing risks related to stigma, designing research that meets local needs without contributing to an inadequate status quo, and ensuring informed consent for complex research with potentially vulnerable participants. The challenges are interrelated and highlight the need for innovative, practical strategies to be incorporated into the planning, design, and conduct of HIV prevention trials. Research in applied ethics to support decision-making about HIV prevention research is needed, along with ethics training, mechanisms to support community-wide benefit from research, and expanded dialog on the ethics surrounding HIV prevention and public health research.