The Evolving Presence of Women in Academic Plastic Surgery: A Study of the Past 40 Years.

BACKGROUND: Among surgical subspecialties, plastic surgery holds the highest percentage of women, and, the female contingent of board-certified plastic surgeons and trainees has grown steadily. However, their academic impact has been underestimated. We present the academic footprint of female plastic surgeons over the past 40 years. METHODS: A list of female plastic surgeons currently active at, and retired from, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited plastic surgery residency programs was compiled. Each surgeon was searched on PubMed to gather their total number of publications, journals, and topics of research after completion of training. Date of publication and 5-year impact factor for each journal were recorded. Publications were organized into 10-year periods (1976 to 1985, 1986 to 1995, 1996 to 2005, and 2006 to 2016). RESULTS: One hundred fifty-five currently active and 80 retired academic female plastic surgeons were identified, who published 2982 articles in 479 peer-reviewed journals. The average 5-year impact factor was 4.093. The number of publications increased with each decade: 37 (1976 to 1985), 218 (1986 to 1995), 472 (1996 to 2005), and 2255 (2006 to 2016). The most commonly published areas were hand/nerve (22 percent), craniofacial (21 percent), and breast (20 percent). Over time, publications in hand/nerve research decreased (76, 60, 38, and 14 percent, respectively); craniofacial-related publications increased (8, 11, 18, and 23 percent, respectively); and publications in breast research increased (0, 8, 9, and 24 percent, respectively). The 2006 to 2016 period yielded the most even distribution of research topics. CONCLUSION: The academic contribution of female plastic surgeons has substantially increased in number and has become more evenly distributed across subspecialty topics.

Inequalities in global health inequalities research: A 50-year bibliometric analysis (1966-2015).

BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence shows that health inequalities exist between and within countries, and emphasis has been placed on strengthening the production and use of the global health inequalities research, so as to improve capacities to act. Yet, a comprehensive overview of this evidence base is still needed, to determine what is known about the global and historical scientific production on health inequalities to date, how is it distributed in terms of country income groups and world regions, how has it changed over time, and what international collaboration dynamics exist. METHODS: A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the global scientific production on health inequalities, from 1966 to 2015, was conducted using Scopus database. The historical and global evolution of the study of health inequalities was considered, and through joinpoint regression analysis and visualisation network maps, the preceding questions were examined. FINDINGS: 159 countries (via authorship affiliation) contributed to this scientific production, three times as many countries than previously found. Scientific output on health inequalities has exponentially grown over the last five decades, with several marked shift points, and a visible country-income group affiliation gradient in the initiation and consistent publication frequency. Higher income countries, especially Anglo-Saxon and European countries, disproportionately dominate first and co-authorship, and are at the core of the global collaborative research networks, with the Global South on the periphery. However, several country anomalies exist that suggest that the causes of these research inequalities, and potential underlying dependencies, run deeper than simply differences in country income and language. CONCLUSIONS: Whilst the global evidence base has expanded, Global North-South research gaps exist, persist and, in some cases, are widening. Greater understanding of the structural determinants of these research inequalities and national research capacities is needed, to further strengthen the evidence base, and support the long term agenda for global health equity.

Trend in H2S Biology and Medicine Research-A Bibliometric Analysis.

The biological and medical importance of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been recognized for decades. The aim of this bibliometric study is to analyze the quantity and quality of publications in H2S biology and medicine (H2SBM) based on the databases of Web of Science and Google Scholar. A total of 5881 publications published between 1990 and 2016 were analyzed. The number of H2SBM papers published before 2004 was below 100 annually, but thereafter this number rapidly increased and peaked in 2015 with more than 7-fold increase. All publications related to H2SBM research achieved a total h-index of 136 and were cited 123,074 times. The most published disciplines in H2S biomedicine research were the cardiovascular system (8.5%), neuroscience (6.5%), and gastroenterology hepatology (4.7%). The country with the greatest number of publications in the H2SBM research field was the USA with 1765 (30.0%) publications, followed by China with 995 (16.9%) publications and Japan with 555 (9.4%) publications. The top 3 most published institutes were National University of Singapore, Peking University in China, and University of Groningen in Netherlands. Nitric Oxide Biology and Chemistry was the most exploited journal for H2SBM publications with 461 articles, followed by FASEB Journal with 200 publications and Antioxidants Redox Signaling with 116 publications. The most highly cited publications and researchers in H2SBM research were also unmasked from this bibliometric analysis. Collectively, H2SBM publications exhibit a continuous trend of increase, reflecting the increased H2SBM research intensity and diversity globally.

[Gerontological research in social and behavioral sciences in Germany since 1968 : Review, critical assessment and perspectives]. / Gerontologische Forschung im Bereich der Sozial- und Verhaltenswissenschaften in Deutschland seit 1968 : Rückblick, kritische Würdigung und Perspektiven.

This article addresses the development of German social and behavioral aging research during the last 50 years based on four propositions: (a) the development and unfolding of social and behavioral aging research in the 1960s and 1970s was tedious. (b) During the 1980s and 1990s the significance of social and behavioral aging research grew considerably. (c) The last 20 years brought increasing and strong recognition of social and behavioral aging research. (d) Currently, social and behavioral aging research in Germany follows high and internationally established standards, and findings are published in internationally recognized journals. In a resume and outlook the structural aspects, future research topics, funding dynamics, and issues of the application of social and behavioral aging science are discussed.

The systematic assessment of traditional evidence from the premodern Chinese medical literature: a text-mining approach.

OBJECTIVES: This project aimed to develop an approach to evaluating information contained in the premodern Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) literature that was (1) comprehensive, systematic, and replicable and (2) able to produce quantifiable output that could be used to answer specific research questions in order to identify natural products for clinical and experimental research. METHODS: The project involved two stages. In stage 1, 14 TCM collections and compendia were evaluated for suitability as sources for searching; 8 of these were compared in detail. The results were published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Stage 2 developed a text-mining approach for two of these sources. RESULTS: The text-mining approach was developed for Zhong Hua Yi Dian; Encyclopaedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 4th edition) and Zhong Yi Fang Ji Da Ci Dian; Great Compendium of Chinese Medical Formulae). This approach developed procedures for search term selection; methods for screening, classifying, and scoring data; procedures for systematic searching and data extraction; data checking procedures; and approaches for analyzing results. Examples are provided for studies of memory impairment and diabetic nephropathy, and issues relating to data interpretation are discussed. CONCLUSIONS: This approach to the analysis of large collections of the premodern TCM literature uses widely available sources and provides a text-mining approach that is systematic, replicable, and adaptable to the requirements of the particular project. Researchers can use these methods to explore changes in the names and conceptions of a disease over time, to identify which therapeutic methods have been more or less frequently used in different eras for particular disorders, and to assist in the selection of natural products for research efforts.

Carson in cartoon: a new window onto the noisy reception to Silent Spring.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring generated a firestorm of controversy following its publication in 1962. While numerous scholars have relied on written sources to gage how industry representatives, scientists, government officials, and the public responded to this bestselling book, they have paid much less attention to how visual sources might further our understanding of the context in which Carson wrote, the message she sought to convey, and the impact of her work. This article analyzes sixteen editorial cartoons that appeared in the wake of Carson's book, images that reveal an emerging set of shared understandings about how modern technology presented potential dangers to both humans and the natural world. Using culturally resonant words and images, the cartoonists who editorialized about Carson and her book demonstrate the extent to which her frightening vision of bodily and ecological vulnerability began to permeate society, spawning a counternarrative to the still dominant discourse that linked technological progress, economic development, and the common good. These cartoons thus provide a useful window onto the reception of Silent Spring, the times in which it was published, and the birth of the modern environmental movement.

Writing the male abuser in cultural responses to domestic violence in Spain.

The article analyzes the portrayal of the male perpetrator of heterosexual domestic violence in a selection of contemporary Spanish texts (novel, drama, and autobiography) that form part of a clearly discernible cultural response to the issue of intimate partner violence in Spain today. It reads the figure of the abuser in conjunction with a range of primarily Spanish studies on domestic aggression, with the aim of showing how and why the chosen authors engage with bodies of theory that address battery. The study concludes that some cultural producers devise a strategy of eliding the male aggressor in an attempt to subvert the power he wields over the female victim.

Constructing a scientist: expert authority and public images of Rachel Carson.

This article uses the voluminous public discourse around Rachel Carson and her controversial bestseller "Silent Spring" to explore Americans' views on science and scientists. Carson provides a particularly interesting case study because of intense and public debates over whether she was a scientist at all, and therefore whether her book should be granted legitimacy as science. Her career defied easy classification, as she acted variously as writer, activist, and environmentalist in addition to scientist. Defending her work as legitimate science, which many though not all commentators did, therefore became an act of defining what both science and scientists could and should be. This article traces the variety of nonscientific images and narratives readers and writers assigned to Carson, such as 'reluctant crusader' and 'scientist-poet'. It argues that nonscientific attributes were central to legitimating her as both admirable person and admirable scientist. It explores how debates over "Silent Spring" can be usefully read as debates over the desirability of putatively nonscientific attributes in the professional work of a scientist. And it examines the nature of Carson's very democratized image for changing notions of science and scientists in 1960s United States politics and culture.

African American students' reactions to Benjamin Cooke's "Nonverbal Communication Among Afro-Americans: An Initial Classification".

The nonverbal communication behavior of Black people continues to take new forms as time progresses. In Kochman's 1972 book, Rappin' and Stylin' Out: Communication in Urban Black America, Benjamin Cooke introduced an initial classification and code of nonverbal behaviors among people of African descent. In this study, students react to Cooke's study conducted in the late 1960s by commenting on Cooke's initial findings in comparison to nonverbal behaviors practiced among Black people as of late. Respondents suggest that while differences and variations exist between the expression of nonverbal behaviors exhibited by the original group studied and people recently observed, there yet remains a similarity in the cultural significance and motivation behind the displays.

Forgetting and remembering alienation theory.

Alienation theory has acted as the stimulus for a great deal of research and writing in the history of sociology. It has formed the basis of many sociological "classics" focused on the workplace and the experiences of workers, and has also been mobilized to chart wider social malaise and individual troubles. Alienation theory usage has, however, declined significantly since its heyday of the 1960s and 1970s. Here, the reasons why alienation theory was "forgotten" and what can be gained by "remembering" alienation theory are explored. to realize this ambition this article proceeds by (1) briefly visiting differing definitions of alienation theory, before charting its high point, and the various debates and tensions of the time, during the 1960s and 1970s; (2) analysing the reasons why alienation theory fell from grace from the 1980s onwards; (3) elaborating how and why alienation theory is still relevant for sociology and the wider social sciences today.

Racial liberalism, the Moynihan Report & the Daedalus Project on "The Negro American".

In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an official in the Johnson administration, published "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," better known as the Moynihan Report. He was influenced by his participation in two conferences organized by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the mid-1960s, as well as two issues of its journal Daedalus, on the topic of "The Negro American." Arguing that the "damaged" family structure of African Americans would impede efforts to achieve full racial equality in the United States, the Moynihan Report launched an explosive debate that helped fracture a fragile liberal consensus on civil rights. Geary examines the report alongside the Daedalus project, establishing its roots in the racial liberalism of the mid-1960s and connecting it to efforts by liberals to address the socioeconomic dimensions of racial inequality. He considers the close relationship between scholarship and public policy that existed at the time and reflects on the ways liberal ideas about race have changed in the decades since.

[Rape and transgression. Forensic medicine and sexual morality in Spain in the 19th century]. / Violación y transgresión. Medicina forense y moral sexual en la España del siglo XIX.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of the contribution of the Spanish forensic medical discourse in the 19th century, and its application in cases of sexual harassment, to legitimize the sexual moral value of the time. For that reason we will analyse the main forensic medicine treaties edited in Spain during this century.

Darwin's historical sketch - an American predecessor: C.S. Rafinesque.

When early reviewers of Darwin's "On the origin of species" chided him for neglecting to mention predecessors to his theory of evolution, he added an "historical sketch" in later editions. Among the predecessors he cited was a French émigré to American named Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, who in the mid-1830s had written about the emergence of new species at a time when most naturalists (including Darwin initially) accepted the biblical story of creation and assumed the immutability of species. Rafinesque discovered and named thousands of new plants and animals in his American travels and flooded the taxonomic literature with reports, which seemed incomplete, confusing, and excessive to other naturalists. He alienated many who later dismissed his findings and excluded them from the biological literature. Soon after Rafinesque's death in 1840, Asa Gray, the young American botanist, wrote a damning critique of his work and suggested it be ignored. How Darwin learned of Rafinesque and his views on species is the focus of this essay, which also mentions briefly the two other American naturalists cited by Darwin in his sketch. Gray seems the likely informant through his correspondence with Darwin or his close associates.

[Principles and criteria used by the National Evaluation Committee of Research Activity (CNEAI-Spain) for the assessment of scientific publications: 1989-2009]. / Principos y criterios utilizados en España por la Comisión Nacional Evaluadora de la Actividad Investigadora (CNEAI) para la valoración de las publicaciones científicas: 1989-2009.

Study of the origins, philosophy and history of the criteria used to assess research activities in Spain by the CNEAI. The assessment criteria and quality evidence of publications is discussed. Results are presented on the temporal development of the criteria used, grouped by publication type (articles and books) and fields of knowledge. Between 1989-1996, assessment was based on the definition and goals set by the Spanish scientific framework and on general criteria. Between 1996-2004, the formulation of indicators began to be almost exclusively based on Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Success rates up to 2004 indicate that the evaluation criteria and publishing behaviour matched the "hard sciences", but not the Social Sciences and Economics. In 2005, the criteria used were further developed and reoriented with an eye to softening the preceding JCR-centrism by taking into consideration other databases and defining the quality criteria to be met by journals, books and conferences not included in JCR. Correspondingly, the success rates for 2007 indicate a dramatic recovery in Economics. In the last 4 years, Humanities and Social Sciences have consolidated the further opening of the criteria used with the addition of new benchmarks and the full integration of books.

Books vs bombs? Humanitarian development and the narrative of terror in Northern Pakistan.

This article examines the role of humanitarian discourse and development in reconfiguring the contemporary culture of empire and its war on terror. It takes as its point of entry the immensely popular biographical tale, Three Cups of Tea, which details how the American mountaineer Greg Mortenson has struggled to counter terrorism in Northern Pakistan through the creation of schools. Even as this text appears to provide a self-critical and humane perspective on terrorism, the article argues that it constructs a misleading narrative of terror in which the realities of Northern Pakistan and Muslim life-worlds are distorted through simplistic tropes of ignorance, backwardness and extremism, while histories of US geopolitics and violence are erased. The text has further facilitated the emergence of a participatory militarism, whereby humanitarian work helps to reinvent the military as a culturally sensitive and caring institution in order to justify and service the project of empire.