Journal articles: 'Inc Immediate Records' – Grafiati (2024)

Abstract:

Study Background IMR-687 is an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase 9 intended to treat sickle cell disease (SCD) by stimulating the production of fetal hemoglobin (HbF). IMR-SCD-102-EXT is an open-label extension (OLE) study of an ongoing Ph 2a, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study (IMR-SCD-102) of IMR-687 in patients with SCD (hom*ozygous sickle hemoglobin [HbSS] or sickle-β0 thalassemia). The Ph 2a study consists of a monotherapy sub-study (IMR-687 vs. placebo) of 6 months and a combination sub-study (IMR-687 + HU vs. HU + placebo) of 4 months. The OLE study examines the long-term benefit and safety of IMR-687 administered for up to 4 years. Patient Background Patient 1, a 28-year-old female diagnosed with HbSS, received IMR-687 100 mg once daily (qd) for 3 months, then escalated to 200 mg qd in the monotherapy Ph 2a sub-study. After a 1-month safety follow-up period, the patient enrolled in the OLE, received IMR-687 100 mg qd for an additional 12 months; and subsequently escalated to 200 mg qd per protocol amendment. Patient 2, a 33-year-old female diagnosed with HbSS, received placebo for 4 months in the combination Ph 2a sub-study. After a 14-month hiatus, the patient enrolled in the OLE, received IMR-687 for ~6 months: 100 mg qd for 4 months, then escalated to 200 mg qd for ~2 months. The patient was on a stable dose of HU for >18 months prior to OLE study and has remained on that same dose during the OLE. Analysis Methods Retrospective review of patient medical records allows for comparison of equal time periods prior to and after the start of IMR-687 treatment, with durations of 18 months for Patient 1 and 6 months for Patient 2. For patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and biomarkers, values were compared for the patient's most recent OLE visit and their baseline visit before the first dose of IMR-687, i.e., the start of the Ph 2a study for Patient 1 and the start of the OLE for Patient 2. Clinical Outcomes: VOCs, Healthcare Use, and PROs Patient 1 had a 55% reduction in reported vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) when comparing the 18 months prior to IMR-687 initiation to the 18 months while on IMR-687 (38 to 17 VOCs). Specifically, VOCs that resulted in emergency department (ED) and outpatient visits decreased by 55% (22 to 10 visits) and 50% (14 to 7 visits), respectively, in the periods before versus after IMR-687 initiation. VOCs that resulted in hospitalization decreased from 2 to 0 while on IMR-687. Analysis of the 18-month period on IMR-687 showed a decrease in reported VOCs with increased time on therapy. In the first 6-month interval, the patient had 9 VOCs, of which 5 were ED visits and 4 were outpatient visits. In the second interval, the patient had 6 VOCs, with 5 ED visits and 1 outpatient visit. In the third and most recent 6-month interval, the patient had 2 VOCs, with 0 ED visits and 2 outpatient visits. Patient 1 also showed improvement in 5 of the 7 domains (including pain episode frequency and severity) of the Adult Sickle Cell Quality of Life Measurement Information System (ASCQ-Me®) after 18 months of IMR-687 treatment compared with pre-treatment baseline. Patient 2 has had no reported VOCs since starting IMR-687, compared with 15 VOCs (all outpatient visits) in the 6 months prior to first dose of IMR-687. The patient also showed a substantial improvement in an average pain score while on IMR-687, from a pre-treatment score of 8/10 to 2/10 after ~6 months of IMR-687 treatment and had a decrease in breakthrough opioid use (morphine sulfate, immediate release) from 63 to 5 tablets weekly. Safety and Biomarker Results IMR-687 was well-tolerated in both patients. Improvement across key SCD biomarkers was observed for both patients (Figure 1). Parameters included cells positive for fetal hemoglobin (F-cells), HbF, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), hemoglobin (Hb), and markers of hemolysis: percent reticulocytes, absolute reticulocyte count (ARC), indirect bilirubin, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Conclusion A case series of 2 patients enrolled on the IMR-SCD-102 EXT study and treated with IMR-687, showed sustained increases in F-cells/HbF, better clinical outcomes, and improved SCD biomarkers, including Hb and measures of hemolysis. These preliminary results potentially show that extended duration of treatment with IMR-687 could be beneficial to SCD patients as a monotherapy or in combination with HU. Disclosures Andemariam: Guidepoint: Honoraria; Sanofi Genzyme: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Cyclerion: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; CRISPR/Vertex: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; CHNCT: Consultancy; Accordant: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Imara: Research Funding; Hemanext: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Terumo BCT: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Emmaus: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Vertex: Honoraria; bluebird bio: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; NovoNordisk: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Global Blood Therapeutics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Mant:Imara, Inc: Consultancy. Howard:Agios, Forma Therapeutics, Inc., Global Blood Therapeutics, Imara, Inc., Novo Nordisk, Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Imara, Inc., Novartis, Resonance Health: Honoraria. Fok:Imara, Inc: Consultancy. Hagar:Imara, Inc: Other: Data Monitoring Committee. Ballal:Imara, Inc: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Lufkin:Imara, Inc: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Lisbon:Imara, Inc: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company.

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Object Intraoperative dorsal column mapping, transcranial motor evoked potentials (TcMEPs), and somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) have been used in adults to assist with the resection of intramedullary spinal cord tumors (IMSCTs) and to predict postoperative motor deficits. The authors sought to determine whether changes in MEP and SSEP waveforms would similarly predict postoperative motor deficits in children. Methods The authors reviewed charts and intraoperative records for children who had undergone resection for IMSCTs as well as dorsal column mapping and TcMEP and SSEP monitoring. Motor evoked potential data were supplemented with electromyography data obtained using a Kartush microstimulator (Medtronic Inc.). Motor strength was graded using the Medical Research Council (MRC) scale during the preoperative, immediate postoperative, and follow-up periods. Reductions in SSEPs were documented after mechanical traction, in response to maneuvers with the cavitational ultrasonic surgical aspirator (CUSA), or both. Results Data from 12 patients were analyzed. Three lesions were encountered in the cervical and 7 in the thoracic spinal cord. Two patients had lesions of the cervicomedullary junction and upper spinal cord. Intraoperative MEP changes were noted in half of the patients. In these cases, normal polyphasic signals converted to biphasic signals, and these changes correlated with a loss of 1–2 grades in motor strength. One patient lost MEP signals completely and recovered strength to MRC Grade 4/5. The 2 patients with high cervical lesions showed neither intraoperative MEP changes nor motor deficits postoperatively. Dorsal columns were mapped in 7 patients, and the midline was determined accurately in all 7. Somatosensory evoked potentials were decreased in 7 patients. Two patients each had 2 SSEP decreases in response to traction intraoperatively but had no new sensory findings postoperatively. Another 2 patients had 3 traction-related SSEP decreases intraoperatively, and both had new postoperative sensory deficits that resolved. One additional patient had a CUSA-related SSEP decrease intraoperatively, which resolved postoperatively, and the last patient had 3 traction-related sensory deficits and a CUSA-related sensory deficit postoperatively, none of which resolved. Conclusions Intraoperative TcMEPs and SSEPs can predict the degree of postoperative motor deficit in pediatric patients undergoing IMSCT resection. This technique, combined with dorsal column mapping, is particularly useful in resecting lesions of the upper cervical cord, which are generally considered to be high risk in this population. Furthermore, the spinal cord appears to be less tolerant of repeated intraoperative SSEP decreases, with 3 successive insults most likely to yield postoperative sensory deficits. Changes in TcMEPs and SSEP waveforms can signal the need to guard against excessive manipulation thereby increasing the safety of tumor resection.

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Introduction: Increases in plasma von Willebrand Factor (vWF) levels, accompanied by decreases in its respective metalloprotease, ADAMTS13, have been demonstrated in diseases of microvascular injury. We hypothesized that following severe trauma, a burst of ultra-large vWF (UL-vWF) is released into the bloodstream by damaged endothelium, resulting in increased thrombogenicity due to circulating vWF multimers. We further hypothesized that traumatic injury would lead to a deficit of ADAMTS13, promoting the accumulation of UL-vWF forms and, ultimately, the increased risk of microvascular disease, such as acute kidney injury (AKI). Methods: A cohort of 37 severely injured trauma patients was analyzed for antigen levels of plasma vWF and ADAMTS13 at 0- and 24-hours after admission. Circulating vWF multimeric composition from both time points was determined by vertical agarose gel electrophoresis. Multivariate analyses were performed with data abstracted from the electronic medical records to identify further dependences. A similar analysis was also performed on plasma from a cohort of 8 patients with trauma induced AKI at 0-, 24-, and 72-hours after admission; these patients were well matched against trauma patients without AKI. Finally, we utilized a murine model of polytrauma and hemorrhage, in conjunction with qRT-PCR of ADAMTS13 in total liver RNA, to specifically address how the expression of ADAMTS13 is altered by the systemic effects of traumatic injury. Results: Circulating vWF levels were increased in severe trauma patients when compared to healthy controls at presentation (189% (110-263) vs. 95% (74-120)) and persisted through 24-hours (213% (146-257) vs. 132% (57-160)). Ultra-large vWF forms were elevated at both 0- and 24-hours when compared to pooled normal plasma ((10.0% (8.9-14.3) and 11.3% (9.1-21.2), respectively, vs 0.6%). The largest vWF forms within trauma patient plasma circulated at 33±4 dimers vs 18±1 dimer in length within pooled normal plasma. Severe trauma patient ADAMTS13 activity was decreased at 0-hours (66% (47-86) vs. 100% (98-100)) and at 24-hours (72.5% (56-87.3) vs 103% (103-103)) when compared to healthy patients. Furthermore, the proportion of circulating low molecular weight multimeric (LMWM) vWF to total circulating vWF forms was directly dependent upon ADAMTS13 activity at 24-hours (Decreased ADAMTS13 Activity: 20.4% (15.0-22.7) LMWM vWF vs Normal Activity: 25.8% (22.7-35.2) LMWM vWF). Strikingly, ADAMTS13 activity independently predicted the development of coagulopathy, correlating with presentation INR (ρ =-0.63), activated clotting time of thromboelastography (TEG) (ρ=-0.36), and TEG maximum amplitude (ρ=0.36). ADAMTS13 activity also closely correlated with injury severity (ISS) (ρ=-0.34) and blood product transfusion (ρ =-.45). The cohort of 8 trauma patients who went on to develop AKI showed a 1.54-fold (1.02-2.05) increase in plasma vWF antigen levels between 0 and 72 hours, while those who did not develop AKI showed no change in vWF levels over this time period. Furthermore, those who developed AKI demonstrated a smaller proportion of LMWM vWF in plasma than those who did not (25.4% (23.4-28.0) vs 31.2% (27.2-35.6)), suggesting the increased thrombogenicity of their circulating vWF forms. Finally, qRT-PCR of total liver RNA in 6 mice demonstrated a 2-fold decrease in ADAMTS13 RNA expression levels between the times immediately before and 24-hours after trauma. Altogether, these data indicate that both circulating ADAMTS13 and its production are deficient in the days following severe injury. Conclusions: Severe traumatic injury alters the circulating composition of ADAMTS13 and its target, vWF, shifting their equilibrium to one that promotes thrombosis. Not only is the concentration of circulating ADAMTS13 decreased following traumatic injury, but hepatic expression of the enzyme is lacking as well. In the immediate moments following injury, these mechanisms contribute to life-saving hemostasis; however, as these changes extend into the following days, the early hemostatic benefit quickly shifts to burden that may exacerbate microvascular disease. Disclosures Ragni: Bioverativ/Sanofi: Consultancy, Research Funding; Sangamo: Research Funding; Shire/Takeda: Consultancy, Other: Study drug; Alnylam/Sanofi: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bayer: Consultancy; Spark Therapeutics: Consultancy, Research Funding; ICER: Consultancy; OPKO: Research Funding; Biomarin: Consultancy, Research Funding. Rollins-Raval:Bayer, Inc: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Raval:Sanofi: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bayer, Inc: Research Funding. Neal:Janssen Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; CSL Behring: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

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Object. Only some meningiomas of the cerebellopontine angle (CPA) extend into the internal auditory canal (IAC) or arise from its dural lining. The authors investigated cases of CPA tumors in which the meningioma was inserted in the dura mater in or at the ICA or infiltrated a cranial nerve. Methods. The authors reviewed patient charts including surgical and clinical records, intraoperative recordings of auditory evoked potentials, records of postoperative auditory examinations, and imaging studies. In a series of 421 patients harboring CPA meningiomas, 72 patients in whom there was dural involvement of the IAC were investigated. Total tumor resection was achieved in 86.1%. In 34 patients, opening of the IAC was required for total tumor removal; this procedure did not influence the patient functional outcome. Among patients with secondary involvement of the IAC, anatomical preservation of the facial and cochlear nerves was obtained in 94%, whereas among patients in whom the lesion arose from the dura in or at the IAC these values were 80 and 75%, respectively. Functional preservation of the seventh and eighth cranial nerves in cases of tumor extension within the IAC was 86 and 77%, respectively, whereas in cases in which the IAC was involved it was only 60%. In four of five patients in whom the tumor had its origin in the dura mater within the IAC, the seventh or eighth cranial nerve had to be sacrificed to achieve tumor removal because of the lesion's infiltrative behavior. Facial nerve reconstruction by sural grafting was performed in the same operative procedure. Conclusions. Meningiomas of the CPA involving the IAC require special surgical management. Dural involvement of the IAC requires opening by using a diamond drill, a procedure that does not influence cranial nerve outcome. The increased rate of cranial nerve morbidity is attributed to the infiltrative behavior of these meningiomas. If affected nerve segments have to be sacrificed, immediate reconstruction enables satisfactory long-term results.

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ObjectiveThe aim of our study was to evaluate clinical and pathological data in order to draw eligibility criteria for oncologically sufficient radical trachelectomy (RT) in early-stage cervical cancer. Reviewing all cases of attempted RT performed at our unit, we focused attention on prognostic indicators of the need for additional oncologic treatment following RT. The analysis was extended by extensive literature review to include previously published cases of oncologic failures.MethodsThe authors retrospectively analyzed data of patients who underwent RT at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Debrecen. Electronic records and case notes of RT cases were reviewed to determine the incidence of abdominal and vagin*l route, distribution of clinicopathologic data, and follow-up results of individual cases. Individual procedures were categorized as oncologically insufficient if additional oncologic treatment was necessary following RT. Theoretical eligibility criteria for RT in early-stage cervical cancer were determined retrospectively by selecting prognostic features that were associated with oncologic insufficiency from clinicopathologic indicators of the complete series.ResultsTwenty-four cases of RT were performed by the authors, 15 vagin*l RTs with laparoscopic pelvic lymphadenectomy and 9 abdominal RTs with open pelvic lymphadenectomy. Fifteen of 24 cases proved oncologically sufficient. Three cases required immediate conversion to radical hysterectomy because of positive sentinel nodes and/or positive isthmic disc on frozen section. In further 5 cases, final pathology results indicated additional oncologic treatment, that is, radical hysterectomy (n = 2), chemoradiotherapy (n = 2), or chemotherapy (n = 1). One patient among immediately converted cases and another 3 among those who required additional oncologic treatment died of their disease later. There were no other cases of recurrences over a median follow-up of 34 months (range, 12–188 months). Factors that may predict oncologic insufficiency of RT were stage IB1 or greater, tumor size of greater than 2 cm in 1 dimension or greater than 15 mm in 3 dimensions, G3, nonsquamous/adeno histological type, stromal invasion of greater than 9 mm, and lymphovascular space involvement in the primary tumor.ConclusionsMost cases of oncologically insufficient RTs have significant risk features that can be identified preoperatively. There is a need for more clinicopathologic data on oncologic failure of RT cases in order to improve patient selection.

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The hypothesis was tested that interstitial cells of Cajal can generate slow wave activity. Intracellular recordings were performed only in the most superficial cells at the submucosal surface of the canine colonic circular muscle layer. An omnipresent and characteristic slow wave activity was present in all cells with a mean amplitude of 37 +/- 3 mV, a frequency of 4.6 +/- 0.1 counts/min (cpm), and a duration of 5.6 +/- 0.5 s; the average resting membrane potential was -70 +/- 1 mV. To determine the type of cell from which these recordings were obtained, methylene blue was injected by microiontophoresis. The strips were immediately fixed while the microelectrode was kept in the cell. A small segment of the tissue containing this cell was then processed for electron microscopy and serially sectioned. Electron-microscopic evidence showed that the microelectrode tip was positioned in an interstitial cell of Cajal (ICC): 1) several sections were observed with round cytoplasmic lesions of decreasing diameter followed by sections from the same cell without the lesion and 2) electron-dense material was observed in these sections due to the injected methylene blue. These cells were identified as part of the ICC network present at the muscle-submucosa interface of the circular muscle and were positively identified as ICC by the presence of cell processes. This is the first report giving direct evidence for the occurrence of electrical slow waves in ICC. It is essential support for the hypothesis that ICC are the actual pacemaker cells of the gut musculature.

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BackgroundOvarian transposition before planned pelvic irradiation can preserve ovarian function in young patients with pelvic malignancies. The transposed ovaries are fixed to the posterolateral abdominal wall. We described the use of a titanium spiral tack as a fixation device and compared it with other methods of oophoropexy.MethodsMedical and surgical records of all consecutive patients who underwent oophoropexy in our institution between 2007 and 2013 were reviewed. Demographic and clinical data were summarized; follicle-stimulating hormone values, recorded; and imaging scans, reviewed.ResultsOophoropexy was performed in 30 patients: 28 with cervical carcinomas and 2 with pelvic sarcomas. The procedure was done through laparoscopy in 13 patients and through laparotomy in 17. Titanium spiral tack was used for ovarian fixation in 14 patients, Vicryl suturing in 14, and in 2 cases the ovaries were pulled up through a retroperitoneal tunnel and fixed to the peritoneum with sutures. Titanium spiral tack fixation took a few seconds to perform. There were no immediate intraoperative or postoperative complications. Ovarian function was preserved in 15 patients (7/14 with spiral tack, 6/14 with sutures, and in both patients with retroperitoneal tunneling). Postoperative imaging results showed that all ovaries retained their extrapelvic location for a median period of 11.6 months (range, 2.3–63 months).ConclusionsSpiral tack is a simple, reliable method for oophoropexy before pelvic irradiation. Its efficacy is comparable with that of suture fixation, with the added advantage of ultrashort operative time. It is therefore worth considering as an alternative to suturing.

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Buildings in south of Iraq were designed for gravity loads only. Recent studies showed that the Badra-Amarah fault at the Iraq-Iran boarder is an active fault and could suffer a major damage. Hence seismic evaluation of existing buildings is getting more importance. The objective of this paper is to assess the seismic performance of two reinforced concrete buildings with six floors each, one has a shear wall and the other has not. The concentrated plasticity with nonlinear time history is adopted for the analysis. The spectrum matching method is used to scale three time-acceleration records to the expected seismic level in the region. Three different codes are used for the analysis, the International building code-2012, the Uniform building code-1997 and the Iraqi seismic code-2017. Comparison of results showed that IBC-2012 gave the most conservative results in displacements, number and performance of plastic hinges and base shear. The Iraqi code gave the least values within 60% for the base shear and 18-50% for drifts. As a conclusion, the analyzed buildings are a little beyond the elastic level according to the Iraqi code, beyond the immediate occupancy level according to the UBC-1997 and near the collapse prevention level according to IBC-2012.

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Abstract Aim: In this study, symptoms at presentation, indication for surgery, surgical treatment modalities, postoperative results and complications were studied. Material and methods: We retrospectively compiled the details of patients with IAC from admission and operative records admitted through our OPD during the period between January 1995 and January 2015. Only those patients were admitted whose symptoms attributes to the cyst and asymptomatic patients were followed on OPD basis. This is a single institutional study. Results: This study includes 56 patients of IAC who were operated. Posterior fossa cysts (62.5%) were found more commonly symptomatic. Headache (32%) was the most common symptom in a patient with IAC. Out of all, 24 patients presented with headache and underwent surgery subsequently; 20 showed satisfactory relief after surgery while four showed partial relief. Size of cyst was significantly reduced after surgery in 52 patients after 12 weeks but four patients, who underwent cystoperitoneal shunt, required re-operation as patients showed no decrease in size of cyst due to shunt malfunction. Head circumference was reduced following intervention in infant patients. Three patients who presented with visual field defects with IAC in sellar region showed improvement after endoscopic fenestration of cyst. One of the patient with cerebellopontine angle arachnoid was died immediately after marsupialization due to unexplained bleeding. Conclusions: IAC is not an uncommon finding on imaging but only few are symptomatic. Patients with Intracranial arachnoid cyst should be treated only if the patient’s symptoms are attributable to the cyst.

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Intermittent bladder catheterization (IBC) involves regular urine draining using a catheter, which is removed immediately after urinary elimination. It allows for the patient’s urological health to be managed and their renal function to be preserved, and it promotes autonomy. Compliance with the prescribed number of daily catheterizations, which must be conducted by the patient, and infection prevention measures are crucial. To identify the patients requiring IBC, and to determine their adherence (whether they followed the prescribed guidelines and their difficulty in carrying out the procedure, as well as to assess how the IBC influences their quality of life and state of mind after receiving self-care training from a specialized nurse), we carried out a prospective, multicenter observational study in 24 Spanish hospitals with one month of monitoring and a sample of 99 patients. The sources of information were the patients’ clinical records, the King’s Health Questionnaire, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS). Descriptive and bivariate statistics were used to analyses the paired data. After recruitment (n = 99), 79 patients completed the questionnaire at a mean age of 35.2 years (SD = 20.5 years). In total, 53.5% (53) of the sample consisted of men and 32.3% (32) had neurological damage as the reason for prescription; 67% (67.7) performed self-catheterization and 86.7% adhered to the IBC. After one month of monitoring, a statistically significant improvement in quality of life was observed in all criteria, with the exception of personal relationships (p < 0.005), as well as an improvement in anxiety and depression levels (p < 0.001). Patients who require IBC show good adherence to the IBC with a significant percentage of self-catheterization. After one month of IBC, a significant improvement in the patients’ quality of life and mood was observed. These results could be attributed to adequate patient training and adequate personalization of the IBC materials by the specialized nurses.

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Seismicity generated from the Chicxulub impact has been postulated as the cause for the dramatic alteration of basin margin morphology and catastrophic movement of sediments in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Immediately following the impact, the formation of the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary deposit (KPBD) was widespread and caused considerable erosion as portions of the Florida Escarpment collapsed, inducing sediment failure on the northern Florida Platform and formation of the ancestral De Soto Canyon. Overlying the more prominent KPBD existed a distinct, younger, post-Cretaceous/Paleogene carbonate slope deposit (CSD) confined within the De Soto Canyon bathymetric feature. Presence of this discrete unit provided insight into the post-impact history of De Soto Canyon and its long-duration connection to the Suwannee Strait, which linked the GOM with the Atlantic Ocean for almost 40 ma. We have postulated that the bathymetric low of the De Soto Canyon acted as a conduit for west to east sediment movement from nearby carbonate-dominated shorelines into the canyon in episodic sediment transport events from the Danian to the earliest Miocene. Closure of the Suwannee Strait, due to sediment infilling, terminated deposition of the De Soto Canyon CSD. This was followed by major siliciclastic influx as the paleo-Tennessee drainage system began to enter the Mississippi Canyon area.

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Abstract Objective The Objective Structured Assessment of Debriefing (OSAD) is an evidence-based, 8-item tool that uses a behaviorally anchored rating scale in paper-based form to evaluate the quality of debriefing in medical education. The objective of this project was twofold: 1) to create an easy-to-use electronic format of the OSAD (eOSAD) in order to streamline data entry; and 2) to pilot its use on videoed debriefings. Materials and Methods The eOSAD was developed in collaboration with the LSU Health New Orleans Epidemiology Data Center using SurveyGizmo (Widgix Software, LLC, Boulder, CO, USA) software. The eOSAD was then piloted by 2 trained evaluators who rated 37 videos of faculty teams conducting pre-briefing and debriefing after a high-fidelity trauma simulation. Inter-rater reliability was assessed, and evaluators’ qualitative feedback was obtained. Results Inter-rater reliability was good [prebrief, intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC = 0.955 (95% CI, 0.912–0.977), P &lt; .001; debrief, ICC = 0.853 (95% CI, 0.713–0.924), P &lt; .001]. Qualitative feedback from evaluators found that the eOSAD was easy to complete, simple to read and add comments, and reliably stored data that were readily retrievable, enabling the smooth dissemination of information collected. Discussion The eOSAD features a secure login, sharable internet access link for distant evaluators, and the immediate exporting of data into a secure database for future analysis. It provided convenience for end-users, produced reliable assessments among independent evaluators, and eliminated multiple sources of possible data corruption. Conclusion The eOSAD tool format advances the post debriefing evaluation of videoed inter-professional team training in high-fidelity simulation.

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BackgroundQuality of life (QoL) has become a major outcome in the treatment of patients with cancer. This study is aimed at examining the impact of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting on QoL of patients with gynecologic cancer in Indonesia.MethodsChemotherapy-naive patients with gynecologic cancer, who were treated with cisplatin at a dosage 50 mg/m2or higher as monotherapy or as part of combination chemotherapy regimens, were recruited in the Oncology Department, Dr. Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Quality of life was assessed by using the Indonesian version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment for Cancer of Quality of Life Questionnaire and Short Form-36, administered immediately before and on day 5 after chemotherapy administration. Patients used a daily diary to record nausea and vomiting during 5 days after chemotherapy.ResultsMost (74.9%) of the 179 patients experienced delayed emesis during the 5 days after chemotherapy despite prophylactic use of antiemetics. The delayed nausea and emesis caused significant negative impact on patients’ QoL. Nausea in the delayed phase caused negative effects on patients’ QoL.ConclusionsPatients reported a negative impact on the QoL of delayed emesis after chemotherapy. Poor prophylaxis of patients’ nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy interferes with patients’ QoL. Medical and behavioral interventions may help to alleviate the negative consequences of chemotherapeutic treatment in patients with gynecologic cancers treated with suboptimal antiemetics.

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Platform margins have been targets for carbonate exploration because they are commonly seismically resolvable and reservoir prone for several critical reasons including karstic porosity. Platform margin karst models, mainly based on the Quaternary of the Caribbean (tropical humid, including “flank margin caves”) are well documented, but analogs remain rarely identified in the stratigraphic record. Analysis of a remarkably well-exposed macroporosity paleokarst system from the Paleocene of north Spain, formed under an arid to semiarid climate, provided a model that differs from the Caribbean template. Implications for exploration and appraisal strategies, include provisos regarding (1) how early fracture intensity can be estimated at platform margins, (2) the absence of flank margin caves at the margin, (3) the absence of karstic features at or immediately below the main lowstand surface, (4) the presence of cave-free corridors such that the porosity zones could be missed completely, and (5) the stratigraphic inheritance of caves into successive levels adjacent to the cave-free zones. Quantitative data were evaluated on the main macroporous intervals. We also compared this model with other paleokarst models in the literature to emphasize the diversity of approaches that can be used to evaluate paleokarst targets: “one size does not fit all.”

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Abstract Forty-five beef cull cows [body weight (BW) = 503 ± 58 kg; body condition score (BCS) = 2.1 ± 0.6] were randomized into two treatments to compare the effects of oral drenching of no probiotic vs. 100 mL of Megasphaera elsdenii NCIMB 41125 (M. elsdenii culture; Lactipro Advance; 2 × 108 cfu/mL; MS Biotec, Inc., Wamego, KS) on the realimentation of cull cows. The study featured a rapid 0-d step-up of concentrate-naïve cull cows to a 90% concentrate diet (1.43 Mcal/kg of NEg). The cows were finished for 35 d and were fitted with a wireless rumination tag (Allflex Flex Tag; SCR Engineers, Ltd, Netanya, Israel), which tracked head movement to record eating and chewing activity. Rumen morphometrics was recorded on the harvest floor, with each carcass assigned a rumenitis score, and a fragment of the cranial sac removed for further papillae analysis. An additional 23, thin, non-fed cull cows were harvested at the same abattoir to compare the effects of concentrate realimentation on ruminal morphometrics. Megasphaera elsdenii culture-drenched cattle registered a 13.3% increase in rumination time (39.27 min/d, P = 0.03) during the first week of the trial compared to controls. A numerical rumination advantage for M. elsdenii culture-administered cattle was observed during week 2 of trial (P = 0.17), with no differences between treatments from weeks 3 to 5 (P ≥ 0.40). Subjective rumenitis evaluations approached a tendency (P = 0.12), with non-M. elsdenii culture-drenched concentrate-fed cattle logging twice the score of their day 0 cohorts (2.52 vs. 1.17) suggesting considerable lactic insults occurred to the ruminal epithelium in the short 35-d trial. Despite the short feeding duration, concentrate realimentation prompted a significant improvement in mean papillae area (P &lt; 0.01). Among concentrate-fed treatments, M. elsdenii culture-drenched cattle posted superior absorptive surface area (P = 0.01) and a greater ratio of papillae area of absorptive surface area (P = 0.05), suggesting that M. elsdenii culture is favorably altering the ecology of the rumen and promoting papillae growth perhaps by mitigating lactate-driven pH drops. In conclusion, M. elsdenii culture application in a 0-d step-up protocol to finishing diets can help mitigate the effects of ruminal acidosis.

Abstract:

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, industry engineer-turned entrepreneur regarding his pioneering efforts in bringing a robotic invention to market. This paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The interviewee is Geoff Howe, Senior Vice President of Howe & Howe, Inc., a subsidiary of Textron Systems and a leader in advanced robotic platform solutions and applications built and proven for the most extreme conditions in the world. Geoff and Michael Howe founded Howe & Howe Technologies in 2001 and was acquired by Textron Systems in 2018. In 2010, Howe and Howe developed one of the world’s first robotic fire-fighting solutions. Geoff Howe describes the evolution of the Thermite robotic firefighter’s commercial development, along with the challenges of breaking ground in this new industry. Findings Geoff and his identical twin brother, Michael Howe, are inventors, military contractors, actors and entrepreneurial businessmen famous for their philanthropic drive to give back to their community. When Geoff and Mike were just six years old, they were known as “Howe and Howe Construction.” At the age of eight, Mike and Geoff built their own one room log cabin with the power tools their mom had given them for their birthday. At 16 years old, they started tinkering with vehicles before they even had their drivers’ licenses. They both graduated from Maine high school and colleges with honors. The company’s portfolio includes the RIPSAW® , Thermite, the Badger, Subterranean Rover and other extreme vehicles used for numerous applications. In 2010, Howe and Howe completed three new vehicles. First was the Thermite™ which entered the unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) market as the USA’s first firefighting UGV. The second vehicle was Ripchair™, the development of an off-road wheelchair for those that have become disabled and are unable to walk. The third vehicle was Riptide, the amphibious version of the RIPSAW. Year 2015 saw the commercial development of the Big Dog Extreme 4x4 fire truck and the Thermite RS1 and RS3 firefighting robots. The Big Dog is an off-road truck and also serves as an all-terrain multi-use firetruck. The Thermite provides firefighters and first responders immediate eyes inside the fire as well the ability to safely attack industrial, chemical and HAZMAT fires from their core. The Thermite robot provides safety and inside access on containing and defeating fires of any magnitude. Originality/value Howe & Howe Technologies first gained notoriety in 2001, with the development of the world’s fastest tank, the RIPSAW. Successful demonstrations soon followed, which eventually allowed the Howes, at the age of 31, to be named among the youngest in history to ever receive a multi-million dollar military contract from the USA. Soon after, in 2010, Howe & Howe received a Guinness World Record for developing the world’s smallest armored vehicle, the Badger. By the time the Howes were 36, they had one world record, multiple patents pending for their product developments, as well as military contracts. The Howes also had their own reality television show on a major US network. In 2010, they completed the Thermite, Fire Fighting Unmanned Ground Vehicle. In 2012, the Howes founded “Outdoors Again,” a nonprofit 501c3 organization that holds outdoor events and social activities for those who require the use of a wheelchair.

Abstract:

In the current era we have entered the disruptive 4.0 era where sophistication has been applied in the finance of a company to record every expense incurred by an institution or company. In the transaction process as it is now does not rule out the possibility of several triggers for making a deposit such as the example of a sales or purchase return and overpayment if it is not handled immediately it will arise as a financial report problem. The Cloud Accounting system is equipped with a credit memo facility which is divided into 2 (two) parts, namely customer memo credit and supplier memo credit. The Cloud Accounting system is then equipped with a credit memo facility which is divided into 2 (two) parts, namely customer memo credit and supplier memo credit. Where customer memo credit is the customer entrusting a sum of money to the company, it will be used as a payment on the upcoming sales bill. While supplier memo credit is the balance that arises due to overpayment, then the deposit will be used as a discount on future sales bills. By using a memo credit based on Cloud Accounting, it can minimize crime or crime at the company because it has been certified by ISO / IEC 2700. Keywords: Online Accounting Software, Customer Memo Credit, and Supplier Memo Credit.

Abstract:

Abstract The objective of this study was to determine if oral meloxicam (M; a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug) administered at castration to pre-weaning age calves affected average daily gain (ADG) or behavior. Prior to castration (d −14), Angus bulls were weighed and randomly assigned to be band castrated (BAN; n = 8; age = 90.2 ± 6.5 d; BW = 146.3 ± 11.4 kg; scrotal circumference = 16.0 ± 0.5 cm) or castrated with M (BAN + M; n = 9; age = 102.1 ± 6.2 d; BW = 146.0 ± 7.7 kg; scrotal circumference = 16.1 ± 0.3 cm). Six bulls selected to remain bulls based on pedigree and phenotype were maintained in the same pasture (BULL; age = 104.2 ± 6.1 d; BW = 172.1 ± 8.7 kg; scrotal circumference = 17.5 ± 0.4 cm). On d 0, BAN and BAN + M had a rubber band applied tightly around the scrotum, and BAN + M also received oral M (2 mg/kg BW). On d 1, 14, and 28, animals were weighed and a blood sample was collected to determine circulating concentrations of haptoglobin and fibrinogen. Data loggers were affixed to the legs of calves immediately prior to castration (d 0) to record behaviors [mean lying time (h/d), mean lying bouts (n/d), and steps (n/d)] at 1-min intervals and removed on d 28. Behavior and plasma data were tested for effect of treatment, day, and treatment × day interaction, and ADG data were tested for effect of treatment, period (d −14 to 1, d 1 to 14, and d 14 to 28), and treatment × period interaction using JMP procedures for repeated measures (SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC). BULL in period d 0 to 14 had greater ADG than all other treatment period combinations, and BULL had greater ADG than BAN or BAN + M overall (P &lt; 0.05). There was no effect of M treatment on circulating concentrations of fibrinogen or haptoglobin (P &gt; 0.05). On d 7 and 15, BAN took more steps than BAN + M (P &lt; 0.05). BAN + M had more lying bouts than BAN on d 13 and 14 (P &lt; 0.05). Overall, M administration had no effect on ADG post-castration and only had minor impacts on behavior in calves band castrated pre-weaning.

Abstract:

Purpose Stage at diagnosis and receipt of therapy are the most important determinants of breast cancer (BC) survival in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Recently, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network therapy guidelines for SSA were published. Our study aimed to describe the cancer-directed therapy (CDT) received by patients with BC at the population level in SSA. Methods Random samples of patients with BC (≥ 40 cases per registry) who were diagnosed from 2009 to 2015 were drawn from 11 population-based cancer registries—Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Bamako, Brazzaville, Bulawayo, Cotonou, Eldoret, Kampala, Maputo, Namibia and Nairobi—which represented 10 countries in SSA. Active methods were used to update therapy and outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed invasive BC. Results A total of 834 patients were included, with median age at diagnosis of 48 years (range, 20 to 92 years; 16% diagnosed younger than age 35 years). Among patients with known stage (n = 434), 66% were diagnosed at stage III and IV. Eighty-one percent of all cases were morphologically verified. Detailed information on therapy and/or outcome was available for 533 patients (63.9%), and other files not found were assumed without therapy (worst-case scenario). Of the total cohort, 52% of patients had no record of CDT. Of patients without known metastasis (n = 747), 40.6% received surgery (83.1% mastectomy), 33.6% chemotherapy, and 15.5% radiotherapy. Hormone receptor status (HRS) was known for only 16.3%. Of patients with positive or unknown HRS (n = 714), 18.6% received endocrine therapy. Of 299 patients who received chemotherapy, 51.8% received an anthracycline-based regimen and 32.1% received an anthracycline regimen with an additional taxane. For patients in areas with radiotherapy facilities, use ranged from 26% in Addis to 67% in Namibia. Among patients with stage II and III disease (n = 334), 16.5% received surgery only, 8.4% chemotherapy only, 15% received both, 11.1% received both plus endocrine therapy, 5.7% received both plus radiotherapy, and 16.2% received all four modalities. The 5-year overall survival for all patients was 51.1% (95% CI, 44.9% to 56.9%). Conclusion More than one half of patients with BC in SSA had no record of CDT. Our finding of four of five patients without HRS testing suggests high underutilization of affordable and tolerable endocrine therapy. Improving access to care and HRS testing may facilitate adherence to resource-stratified guidelines. AUTHORS' DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The following represents disclosure information provided by authors of this manuscript. All relationships are considered compensated. Relationships are self-held unless noted. I = Immediate Family Member, Inst = My Institution. Relationships may not relate to the subject matter of this manuscript. For more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to www.asco.org/rwc or ascopubs.org/jco/site/ifc . Eva Johanna Kantelhardt Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Daiichi Sankyo Oncology Europe

Abstract:

Purpose Across the Caribbean, too many women are presenting with advanced breast cancer and dying with little or no access to palliative care. No comprehensive assessment of the current capacity to deliver palliative care in the region exists, largely because of limited data. Cancer is the second leading cause of death, and significant numbers of patients present with advanced disease. Breast cancer is no exception, with an incidence rate of more than 26% and a mortality rate accounting for 17% of all cancer-related deaths in women. In this paper, we assess the challenges and opportunities that are faced by small island states in delivering palliative care through the lens of women with breast cancer. Methods We performed a systematic review of the literature on palliative care provision in the region. Background information and country statistics were obtained from recognized databases, such as GLOBOCAN and Pan American Health Organization country cancer profiles, and information on opioid usage from the Pain and Policy Study Group. Much of the detailed information gleaned for this paper was through personal communication. Results Palliative care provision in the Caribbean exists in isolated pockets throughout the region. Capturing data on the palliative care capacity in the Caribbean was challenging, as electronic health records and robust data collection is not yet the norm. Challenges included insufficient health care infrastructure to support the spectrum of cancer care, tremendous unmet need for palliative care, pervasive opiophobia that resulted in limited access to opioids for pain relief, patients’ reluctance to engage early with clinical care, and widespread use of complementary and alternative medicines before the acceptance of conventional care. Conclusion This is the first study to our knowledge to examine the extent of palliative care service provision across the Caribbean. We conclude that there is an urgent need to improve access to palliative care and pain relief for patients with cancer in the region. Our proposed solutions include strengthening regional collaboration through policy and guideline development, human resource training, improved availability and accessibility of opioid medicines, and in-country development of information technology infrastructure to support patient care and research. AUTHORS' DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The following represents disclosure information provided by authors of this manuscript. All relationships are considered compensated. Relationships are self-held unless noted. I = Immediate Family Member, Inst = My Institution. Relationships may not relate to the subject matter of this manuscript. For more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to www.asco.org/rwc or ascopubs.org/jco/site/ifc . Sheray N. Chin Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Roche Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, AstraZeneca

Abstract:

Background: Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) can be curative for patients (pts) with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) who are sensitive to salvage therapy, particularly for pts who achieve a complete metabolic response (CMR) before ASCT. Pts who fail multiple salvage regimens have inferior outcomes and are generally considered poor candidates for ASCT. Recent studies suggest that anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) may restore sensitivity to cytotoxic therapy in HL pts with previously chemorefractory disease. We hypothesized that PD-(L)1 mAb-based salvage therapy may therefore also improve ASCT outcomes for HL pts who had failed salvage therapy. Methods: Medical records were reviewed at 13 US transplant centers to identify pts with a diagnosis of classic HL who failed at least 2 systemic therapies, were treated with a PD-1 or PD-L1 mAb (either alone or in combination) as 3rd line or later therapy, and subsequently underwent ASCT. Results: 44 eligible pts were identified. The median age was 33 (range 19-68). Pts received ABVD (39), AVD (2), brentuximab vedotin (BV) + AVD (1), Stanford V (1), or eBEACOPP (1) as 1st line therapy. 26 pts (59%) were refractory to 1st line treatment and 8 additional pts (18%) relapsed within 12 months. High-risk clinical features were observed frequently at 1st relapse including extranodal involvement (47%), B symptoms (27%), and advanced stage (64%). Pts received PD-(L)1 based treatment after failing 2 lines (32%), 3 lines (57%), or ≥4 lines (11%) of therapy. 32 pts (73%) were refractory to the line of therapy before PD-(L)1, 25 pts (57%) to 2 consecutive lines before PD-(L)1, and 10 pts (22%) to 3 consecutive lines before PD-(L)1. 16 pts (36%) were refractory to ≥2 salvage therapies immediately before PD-(L)1 therapy and 17 (39%) were refractory to all prior treatments. 39 pts (89%) received BV or a BV-based combination before ASCT. 67% were BV-refractory, including 86% of those receiving BV monotherapy. Pts received a median of 6 doses of a PD-(L)1 mAb (range 2-26) either as monotherapy (75%) or as part of a PD-1 based combination (25%). The median time from last dose of PD-(L)1 mAb to ASCT was 54 days (range 12-386). Best response to PD-(L)1-based therapy was CR (53%), PR (33%), SD (12%), or PD (2%). The median number of systemic therapies (including PD-(L)1) before ASCT was 4 (range 3-7) and 12 pts (27%) received intervening salvage therapy between PD-(L)1 treatment and ASCT. Pre-ASCT PET status was CR in 31 pts (70%), PR in 9 (18%), SD in 4 (9%), and PD in 1 (2%). There were no ASCT-related deaths. 2 pts developed BCNU pneumonitis and 1 developed engraftment syndrome. All 3 pts responded to steroids. 14 pts (32%) have received maintenance therapy with BV (4), a PD-1 mAb (8), or BV + PD-1 mAb (2). 4 pts (9%) received consolidative radiation. With a median post-ASCT follow-up of 12.2 months, progression-free survival (PFS) at 1 yr was 91% [95CI 75-97]. Notably, resistance to chemotherapy before PD-(L)1 therapy did not predict worse post-ASCT outcomes (see Table). 1-yr PFS was 90% for pts who were refractory to the 3 lines of therapy before PD-(L)1, 93% for pts refractory to ≥2 salvage therapies immediately before PD-(L)1, and 90% for pts refractory to all prior treatments. Favorable 1-yr PFS was also seen among pts who received PD-(L)1 as 4th or later line therapy (88% vs 100% for pts receiving PD-[L]1 as 3rd line, p=0.17) and among pts who failed to achieve a CMR on pre-ASCT PET (1-yr PFS 81% vs 96% for CMR pts, p=0.34). Lack of response to PD-(L)1 therapy (1-yr PFS 67% vs 96%, p=0.04), receipt of intervening salvage therapy (1-yr PFS 72% vs 100%, p=0.026), and increasing age (HR 1.11, p=0.015) were all significant predictors of inferior PFS. 1-yr overall survival was 100%. Conclusions: This high-risk cohort is heterogenous in terms of number of prior therapies and degree of chemoresistance, but excellent post-ASCT outcomes were observed among even the most heavily pre-treated, chemorefractory subgroups. Outcomes for PD-(L)1 responders were particularly favorable with a 1-yr PFS of 96%, suggesting that response to PD-(L)1 rather than prior chemotherapy may be the more important predictor of post-ASCT outcomes in this pt population. While longer follow-up is required to confirm the durability of these remissions, ASCT can be considered for HL pts responding to PD-(L)1 based salvage therapy, even if they have previously demonstrated a high degree of chemoresistance. Table Disclosures Nieto: Novartis: Research Funding; Astra-Zeneca: Research Funding; Affimed: Research Funding; Affimed: Consultancy. Byrne:Karyopharm: Research Funding. Maddocks:BMS: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Teva: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pharmacyclics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding. Svoboda:BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Celgene: Research Funding; Kyowa: Consultancy; Kite: Consultancy. McGuirk:Juno Therapeutics: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; ArticulateScience LLC: Other: Assistance with manuscript preparation; Pluristem Ltd: Research Funding; Gamida Cell: Research Funding; Kite Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Research Funding; Fresenius Biotech: Research Funding; Astellas: Research Funding; Bellicum Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding. Advani:Kyowa Kirin Pharmaceutical Developments, Inc.: Consultancy; Millennium: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding; Cell Medica, Ltd: Consultancy; Regeneron: Research Funding; Autolus: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Stanford University: Employment, Equity Ownership; Agensys: Research Funding; Kura: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Roche/Genentech: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Bayer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Forty-Seven: Research Funding; Celmed: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Merck: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Infinity Pharma: Research Funding; Gilead Sciences, Inc./Kite Pharma, Inc.: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Cohen:Seattle Genetics, Inc.: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company: Research Funding; Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc.: Research Funding; Gilead/Kite: Consultancy; LAM Therapeutics: Research Funding; UNUM: Research Funding; Hutchison: Research Funding; Astra Zeneca: Research Funding; ASH: Research Funding; Lymphoma Research Foundation: Research Funding; Genentech, Inc.: Consultancy, Research Funding; Janssen Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy. Frigault:Xenetic: Consultancy; Foundation Medicine: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Nkarta: Consultancy; Juno/Celgene: Consultancy; Kite/Gilead: Honoraria; Incyte: Consultancy. Chen:Magenta: Consultancy; Takeda: Consultancy; Incyte: Consultancy; Kiadis: Consultancy; Abbvie: Consultancy. Lynch:Johnson Graffe Keay Moniz & Wick LLP: Consultancy; Rhizen Pharmaceuticals S.A: Research Funding; Juno Therapeutics: Research Funding; Takeda Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Incyte Corporation: Research Funding; T.G. Therapeutics: Research Funding. Smith:Seattle Genetics: Research Funding; Denovo Biopharma: Research Funding; Ayala (spouse): Research Funding; Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp: Consultancy, Research Funding; Acerta Pharma BV: Research Funding; Incyte Corporation: Research Funding; Ignyta (spouse): Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb (spouse): Research Funding; Portola Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Ho:Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; Omeros Corporation: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Armand:Affimed: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Merck: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Sigma Tau: Research Funding; Infinity: Consultancy; Otsuka: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Tensha: Research Funding; Roche: Research Funding; Adaptive: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Herrera:Merck: Consultancy; BMS: Consultancy; Genentech: Research Funding; Adaptive Biotechnologies: Consultancy; Gilead Sciences: Research Funding; KiTE/Gilead: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy; Merck: Research Funding; Astra-Zeneca: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy; BMS: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Research Funding.

Abstract:

Purpose In low-income countries, most women with breast cancer present with advanced-stage disease. To facilitate earlier diagnoses of symptomatic disease, feasible and effective early detection strategies are needed. We assessed health care use and patient outcomes from a randomized pilot study of an early detection program in Burera, a rural Rwandan district, where the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence (BCCOE) is located. Methods The intervention included training for community health workers in breast health, training for health center (HC) nurses in the evaluation of breast concerns, and weekly breast clinics at HCs and BCCOE. Twelve of 18 eligible HCs were randomly assigned to receive the intervention—seven beginning in April and May 2015, and five in November and December 2015—and six served as controls for the entire study period. We abstracted HC and hospital records of patients seen between April 2015 and April 2017 and used generalized linear models to compare the incidence of biopsies, breast cancer diagnoses, and early-stage diagnoses in the geographic sectors served by intervention versus control HCs. Results Overall, 276,282 person-years were in intervention sectors and 302,856 in control sectors. Of patients, 1,500 patients sought care at intervention HCs for breast concerns versus 600 at control HCs. Three hundred eighteen patients that were referred from intervention HCs were evaluated at BCCOE compared with 62 from control HCs. The biopsy rate was 36.6 per 100,000 person-years from intervention sectors versus 8.9 per 100,000 from control sectors ( P < .001). Breast cancer was diagnosed in 19 of 101 patients from intervention HCs who underwent biopsy (18.8%) compared with 10 (37.0%) of 27 patients from control HCs. Breast cancer incidence was 6.9 per 100,000 in intervention sectors versus 3.3 per 100,000 in control sectors ( P = .35). Nine patients from intervention HCs had early-stage disease (47.4%) versus two from control HCs (20.0%). The incidence rate of early-stage breast cancer was 3.7 per 100,000 in intervention sectors versus 0.7 per 100,000 in control sectors ( P = .08). Conclusion Over 2 years, our early detection program was associated with more patients referred for hospital-level evaluation and requiring biopsies. Most patients referred by intervention HCs had benign conditions; however, there was a trend toward a higher incidence of early-stage breast cancer among patients from intervention regions. AUTHORS' DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The following represents disclosure information provided by authors of this manuscript. All relationships are considered compensated. Relationships are self-held unless noted. I = Immediate Family Member, Inst = My Institution. Relationships may not relate to the subject matter of this manuscript. For more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to www.asco.org/rwc or ascopubs.org/jco/site/ifc . Lydia E. Pace Stock or Other Ownership: Firefly Health

Abstract:

Purpose Diagnostic breast ultrasound (US) can be an important tool for the early detection of breast cancer in low-resource settings where efficient strategies to refine the likelihood of malignancy among palpable breast masses are needed. However, the feasibility and clinical role of breast US in such settings has not been described. We trained four general practitioners and five nurses in diagnostic breast US at a rural Rwandan district hospital that serves as a cancer referral facility. We examined management plans, biopsy rates, and patient diagnoses after trainee breast US to determine the impact on clinical care. Methods We abstracted US assessment forms and medical records to determine outcomes from trainee US during 21 months of in-person and electronic training by Boston-based radiologists. We examined management plans, biopsy rate, cancer detection rate, rate of benign diagnoses, and cancers diagnosed among patients discharged after initial evaluation. Results Between January 2016 and September 2017, 307 patients had trainee-performed diagnostic breast US. After US, 158 (51%) were recommended to undergo biopsy, 30 (10%) were recommended to have aspiration/drainage, 49 (16%) were recommended for clinical/US surveillance, one (0.3%) was referred elsewhere, 65 (21%) were discharged, and four—all with no abnormalities on US—had missing recommendations. Of those recommended for initial biopsy, 151 patients (96%) underwent biopsy at that time. Fifty-six patients (37%) were diagnosed with breast cancer, 44 (30%) with fibroadenoma, and 50 (33%) with other benign diagnoses. Among those with breast masses on US (n = 255), 149 patients (58%) underwent biopsy and 55 (22%) were diagnosed with cancer. As of November 2017, all patients ultimately diagnosed with cancer had had a biopsy at their initial visit. No patients who had been discharged or were receiving surveillance had been subsequently diagnosed with cancer. Conclusion Diagnostic breast US by general practitioners and nurses has been a useful tool for the evaluation of breast lesions at a rural Rwandan facility and has helped avoid biopsy for 42% of patients with breast masses on US. Clinical follow-up is ongoing to assess longer-term outcomes and examine cancer detection rates and loss-to-follow-up rates among patients not initially biopsied. AUTHORS' DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The following represents disclosure information provided by authors of this manuscript. All relationships are considered compensated. Relationships are self-held unless noted. I = Immediate Family Member, Inst = My Institution. Relationships may not relate to the subject matter of this manuscript. For more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to www.asco.org/rwc or ascopubs.org/jco/site/ifc . Lydia E. Pace Stock or Other Ownership: Firefly Health Sughra Raza Honoraria: Fujifilm Medical Services Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Fujifilm Medical Services

Abstract:

Introduction: Gemcitabine/oxaliplatin (GemOx), with or without rituximab, is a frequently used treatment of relapsed or refractory (r/r) aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL), and is NCCN compendium-listed for both transplant-eligible and ineligible patients based upon results in small phase II clinical trials. Increasingly, GemOx is being accepted as a comparator arm for clinical trials in these populations. However, there is a paucity of observational data describing the effectiveness of R-GemOx in the treatment of r/r aggressive B-cell lymphoma. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the use of the GemOx regimen (with or without rituximab) in patients with r/r aggressive B-NHL at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center between January 2007 and January 2018, with a data cutoff of July 1, 2019. Data were extracted from the electronic medical record. Eligible diagnoses included diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and its subtypes (DLBCL); high-grade B-cell lymphomas (HGBL); transformed indolent B-cell lymphoma (tNHL) and grade 3B follicular lymphoma (FL3B). The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the activity of GemOx-based treatment in this patient population, as measured by overall response rate (ORR), complete response (CR) rate, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). CR was defined by a qualitatively negative 18-FDG-PET scan following completion of GemOx. PFS was defined as the time from start of therapy to disease progression or death, censoring patients at the time of initiation of any consolidative treatment. Similarly, OS was defined as the time from the start of GemOx until death or loss to follow-up. Results: Data were collected for 140 consecutive patients that received GemOx with (n=81) or without (n=59) rituximab in the treatment of a qualifying diagnosis (Table 1). Those treated had a median age at initiation of therapy of 69 (range, 30-92) and were predominantly male (58%). The median number of prior lines of therapy was 1 (range, 1-7), and the majority (97%) had received prior rituximab; few had received either prior autotransplant (11%) or allotransplant (1%). Regarding treatment delivered, the median number of cycles of therapy was 2 (range 1-12) with a mode of 2 (n=44, 31%). The ORR was 26% (n=37) with a CR rate of 15% (n=21). When evaluated by diagnosis, the ORR was 22% (n=19/88) in DLBCL, 40% (n=4/10) in HGBL, 35% (n=14/40) in tNHL, and 0% (n=0/2) in FL3B. Of the patients that responded to GemOx, 11 were successfully bridged to transplant (7 auto; 4 allo); two of those who went on to allotransplant had previously undergone autotransplant. Additionally, 3 patients went on to subsequently receive CAR-T therapy. Assessing the cohort overall, with a median follow-up of 48.1 months, PFS was only 1.4 months (95% CI: 1.3, 1.8), and median OS was 7.8 months (95% CI: 5.5, 12.0) (Figure 1). OS was longest for patients with tNHL at 10.2 months followed by DLBCL (7.5), HGBL (6.8) and FL3B (4.1) (Figure 2). Patients that received GemOx without rituximab in the setting of rituximab-refractory disease had a median OS of 4.1 months, less than that of 10.7 months for those receiving rituximab (p=0.052). However, there was no difference observed in PFS by inclusion of rituximab (1.6 months vs. 1.3 months, p=0.166). Patients with disease that was primary refractory following first-line therapy had a median OS of 4.5 months from initiation of GemOx, less than that of 10.8 months for patients that had achieved complete remission with first-line therapy (p=0.024). Patients that received GemOx as second-line therapy did not have a statistically significantly higher ORR (31% vs. 19%), OS (10.8 vs. 6.0 months), or PFS (1.7 vs, 1.4 months; all p=NS). In the subset of patients with DLBCL, there was again no significant difference in ORR (21% vs. 22%, p=NS), OS (8.5 vs. 6.1 months), or PFS (1.6 vs. 1.4 months; all p=NS). Conclusion: Despite compendium listing for both transplant-eligible and ineligible patients, and despite its adoption as a comparator arm in current and planned trials in r/r DLBCL, the real-world activity of GemOx with or without rituximab in the treatment of relapsed or refractory aggressive B-cell lymphoma is poor. Ongoing analysis is being conducted to seek clinical and histopathologic features associated with improved outcomes with GemOx. Disclosures Batlevi: Juno Therapeutics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Colbourn:GILD: Other: Stock; LLY: Other: Stock; JNJ: Other: Stock; SGEN: Other: Stock; MRK: Other: Stock; SNY: Other: Stock; BIIB: Other: Stock; ABBV: Other: Stock; CELG: Other: Stock. Horwitz:Infinity/Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding; Trillium: Research Funding; Infinity/Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kyowa Hakko Kirin: Consultancy; Corvus Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Millennium/Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Mundipharma: Consultancy; Portola: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Portola: Consultancy; Innate Pharma: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Infinity/Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kura: Consultancy; Aileron: Research Funding; Corvus Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Corvus Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Forty-Seven: Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; ADCT Therapeutics: Research Funding; Kyowa Hakko Kirin: Consultancy; ADCT Therapeutics: Research Funding; Astex: Consultancy; Mundipharma: Consultancy; Miragen: Consultancy; Portola: Consultancy; Mundipharma: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Innate Pharma: Consultancy; Innate Pharma: Consultancy; Affimed: Consultancy; Affimed: Consultancy; Innate Pharma: Consultancy; Aileron: Research Funding; Kyowa Hakko Kirin: Consultancy; Forty-Seven: Research Funding; Kura: Consultancy; Millennium/Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Forty-Seven: Research Funding; ADCT Therapeutics: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Astex: Consultancy; Aileron: Research Funding; Portola: Consultancy; Astex: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Trillium: Research Funding; Miragen: Consultancy; Trillium: Research Funding; Kyowa Hakko Kirin: Consultancy; Mundipharma: Consultancy; Millennium/Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Trillium: Research Funding; Aileron: Research Funding; Affimed: Consultancy; Corvus Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Millennium/Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Astex: Consultancy; Miragen: Consultancy; Miragen: Consultancy; Affimed: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kura: Consultancy; Kura: Consultancy; ADCT Therapeutics: Research Funding; Forty-Seven: Research Funding; Infinity/Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding. von Keudell:Bayer: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Bayer: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy. Kumar:Seattle Genetics: Research Funding. Noy:Medscape: Honoraria; Prime Oncology: Honoraria; NIH: Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy; Pharamcyclics: Research Funding; Raphael Pharma: Research Funding. Palomba:Merck & Co Inc.: Other: Immediate Family Member, Consultancy (includes expert testimony); Seres Therapeutics: Other: Immediate Family Member, Equity Ownership and Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Hemedicus: Other: Immediate Family Member, Speakers Bureau ; Kite Pharmaceuticals: Other: Immediate Family Member, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pharmacyclics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; STRAXIMM: Other: Immediate Family Member, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Noble Insights: Consultancy; Evelo: Other: Immediate family member, Equity Ownership; MSK (IP for Juno and Seres): Other: Immediate Family Member, Patents & Royalties - describe: intellectual property rights . Rodriguez-Rivera:Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Employment. Sauter:Juno Therapeutics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Sanofi-Genzyme: Consultancy, Research Funding; Spectrum Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; GSK: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Genmab: Consultancy; Precision Biosciences: Consultancy; Kite/Gilead: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy. Straus:Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria; Hope Funds for Cancer Research: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Elsevier (PracticeUpdate): Consultancy, Honoraria. Vardhana:ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Rheos Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria; Agios Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria. Younes:Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Janssen: Honoraria, Research Funding; Curis: Honoraria, Research Funding; Merck: Honoraria, Research Funding; Abbvie: Honoraria; Takeda: Honoraria; Pharmacyclics: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding; Biopath: Consultancy; Xynomics: Consultancy; Epizyme: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; HCM: Consultancy; BMS: Research Funding; Syndax: Research Funding. Zelenetz:Pfizer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Beigene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Genentech/Roche: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bayer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; MEI Pharma: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Astra-Zeneca: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Gilead: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; DAVA Oncology: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Verastem: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Gilead: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; DAVA Oncology: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Genentech/Roche: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Morphosys: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bayer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Beigene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Astra-Zeneca: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pharmacyclics/AbbVie: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Morphosys: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pharmacyclics/AbbVie: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Verastem: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; MEI Pharma: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Matasar:GlaxoSmithKline: Honoraria, Research Funding; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy; Juno Therapeutics: Consultancy; Teva: Consultancy; Rocket Medical: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel, accomodation, expenses, Research Funding; Janssen: Honoraria, Research Funding; Bayer: Other: Travel, accommodation, expenses; Genentech, Inc.: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel, accommodation, expenses , Research Funding; Bayer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other; Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel, accommodation, expenses , Research Funding; Merck: Consultancy, Equity Ownership; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding.

Abstract:

Introduction: Idelalisib (IDELA, Zydelig®) is the first-in-class PI3Kδ inhibitor and is approved in the U.S. as an oral monotherapy for relapsed / refractory follicular lymphoma (R/R FL) after at least two prior lines of systemic therapy. IDELA's regulatory approval was based on a phase 2, open-label clinical trial in 125 patients with R/R indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (Gopal et al., NEJM, 2014) and outcomes in the FL subgroup were published by Salles et al. (Haematologica, 2017). The current study evaluates the characteristics and treatment patterns of patients treated with IDELA for R/R FL in a real-world setting. Methods: Adult patients diagnosed with R/R FL (grades 1, 2, and 3a) and treated with IDELA within the US Oncology Network (USON) between 7/1/2014 to 6/30/2018 were analyzed retrospectively. Patient data were obtained from USON's structured electronic health records' system, iKnowMed (iKM)TM. Manual chart review (ChR) was used to determine physician response and to confirm IDELA treatment patterns. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods. Descriptive statistics were generated for outcomes of interest, including duration of therapy (DoT), median follow-up, and adverse event (AE) frequency. Results: A total of 124 patients with FL and prescribed IDELA were identified in iKM TM. After Chr confirming the diagnosis of follicular lymphoma diagnosis and initiation of IDELA, 88 patients were retained for analysis. Median age of patients was 68.9 years, with 52.3% female and the majority white and non-Hispanic (90.9% and 93.2%, respectively, Table 1). The most common regimens immediately prior to IDELA initiation were bendamustine + rituximab (22.7%), rituximab (17%), and rituximab maintenance (11.4%). Eighty-six (97.7%) patients had co-morbidities categorized as vascular (50%), endocrine (33%), respiratory (13.6%), or cardiac (12.5%). Thirteen (14.8%), 21 (23.9%), and 54 (61.4%) patients initiated IDELA in second line (2L), 3L, and >4L, respectively. Baseline lab values at IDELA initiation were similar regardless of line of therapy (LOT). mDOT was 5.5 mos. for the entire population and was similar across all LOTs (4.1 mos., 6.1 mos., and 5.5 mos. in 2L, 3L, and >4L, respectively). AEs were noted in 45.5% with the most common being gastrointestinal (31.8%) and dermatologic (10.2%). Respiratory and infectious AEs were noted in 2.3% and 1.1%, respectively, although Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) prophylaxis was rarely prescribed (2.3%). Toxicity as a reason for IDELA discontinuation varied in frequency across LOT and was more common in 2L compared to 3L and >4L (91.7% compared to 43.8% and 46.9%, respectively). With a median follow-up of 18.6 months for the population, the mPFS was 11.4 mos. [95%CI: 8.5,17.0] and mOS was 32.5 mos. [95% CI: 25.3,NR]. Stratified by LOT, median follow-up time, mOS, and mPFS were greater in 2L (30.8 mos., NR [95% CI: 27.37,NR], and 29.0 mos. [95% CI: 8.6,NR], respectively) than in 3L or >4L (3L: 17.9 mos., 29.4 mos. [95%CI: 18.6,NR], and 17.5 mos. [95% CI: 6.1,NR]; >4L: 16.5 mos., 25.3 mos. [95%CI: 13.5.,NR], and 8.6 mos. [95% CI: 6.1,12.6], respectively, Figures 1 and 2). Conclusion: Findings from this analysis suggest that R/R FL patients treated with IDELA in a real-world setting experience a similar mDOT and mPFS as those treated in the clinical trial setting (Salles et al., Haematologica, 2017). Patients treated in 2L demonstrated longer PFS and OS compared to later lines, but also experienced increased IDELA discontinuation due to toxicity, perhaps reflecting a lower incidence of progressive disease in earlier treatment lines, or a more immunocompetent population leading to higher rates of autoimmune AEs. Use of PJP prophylaxis in IDELA-treated patients was uncommon, an observation suggesting an opportunity for provider education. Our findings enhance available data on relapsed FL patient outcomes in real-world clinical practice and support the use of IDELA in patients with R/R FL after at least 2 systemic therapies. Disclosures Andorsky: Gilead: Research Funding; Genetech: Research Funding; CTI: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Celgene: Research Funding. Chan:Gilead Sciences, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Clark:McKesson: Consultancy, Employment, Equity Ownership. Ruzicka:Gilead Sciences, Inc.: Employment. Robert:McKesson: Employment. Awan:Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Abbvie: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy; Sunesis: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy. OffLabel Disclosure: Idelalisib is a PI3 kinase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of patients with relapsed follicular B-cell lymphoma who have received at least two prior systemic therapies. Some patients in this observational study used Idelalisib after one prior systemic treatment.

Abstract:

Purpose Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women in Malaysia. Although there is a scarcity of data on the relation between delays and survival, it is generally accepted that optimum outcomes are dependent on the early detection and adherence to treatment. This study was conducted to evaluate the time intervals and associated factors with delays in presentation, diagnosis, and treatment among patients with breast cancer who attended public hospitals in Malaysia. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted in six public hospitals involving all patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012. Data were collected through review of medical records and interviews using a structured questionnaire. Presentation delay was defined as time taken from the discovery of symptoms to the first presentation at primary care of more than 3 months. Diagnosis delay was defined as time taken from the first presentation to diagnosis disclosure of more than 1 month, and treatment delay was defined as time taken from diagnosis disclosure to initial treatment of more than 1 month. We used univariable logistic regression and multiple logistic regressions for analysis. A total of 340 patients with breast cancer were included in the study. Median times for presentation, diagnosis, and treatment were 2.4 months, 26 days, and 21 days, respectively. The presentation delay rate was 35%, and the factors associated with it were location (Kelantan: odds ratio [OR], 4.78) and use of complementary and alternative medicine (OR, 1.67). The diagnosis delay rate was 41.8%, and the factors associated with it were symptoms without lump (OR, 1.98), undergoing two or more biopsies (OR, 3.02), and surgical biopsy (OR, 2.56). Meanwhile, the treatment delay rate was 35.3%, and the factors associated with it were location (Johor: OR, 4.95; Kelantan: OR, 6.68; and Sarawak: OR, 3.88) and those diagnosed at other hospitals (OR, 2.18). Results Delays in presentation, diagnosis, and treatment were high among patients with breast cancer who attended public hospitals in Malaysia. Factors that influenced delays were locality, socio-culture, patients, and health systems. Mutual collaboration involving patients and health care sectors and a comprehensive intervention study are suggested to improve the quality of breast cancer care in Malaysia. Conclusion Delays in presentation, diagnosis, and treatment were high among patients with breast cancer who attended public hospitals in Malaysia. Factors that influenced delays were locality, socio-culture, patients, and health systems. Mutual collaboration involving patients and health care sectors and a comprehensive intervention study are suggested to improve the quality of breast cancer care in Malaysia. AUTHORS' DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The following represents disclosure information provided by authors of this manuscript. All relationships are considered compensated. Relationships are self-held unless noted. I = Immediate Family Member, Inst = My Institution. Relationships may not relate to the subject matter of this manuscript. For more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to www.asco.org/rwc or ascopubs.org/jco/site/ifc . No COIs from the authors.

Abstract:

Abstract Background: Recent data have shown that pre-transplant FDG-PET is prognostic in DLBCL patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). We retrospectively analyzed data on patients with DLBCL treated with ASCT to assess the impact of pre-transplant FDG-PET on relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). Methods: We reviewed medical records of 32 patients with DLBCL who underwent ASCT using high dose busulfan, cyclophosphamide, and etoposide (Bu/Cy/VP) at Cleveland Clinic from June 2008 to December 2012 and had both a relapse FDG-PET as well as a pre-transplant FDG-PET available for review. All images were interpreted by a staff nuclear medicine radiologist blinded to the outcomes. Visual analysis was performed using the Deauville five-point scale and semiquantitative analysis was done by measuring the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax). ΔSUVmax was calculated by determining the difference between the SUVmax at the time of relapse and the SUVmax immediately prior to transplant. Patients were grouped into pre-transplant Deauville score 1-3 or 4-5. Baseline characteristics were compared between groups using the Chi-square test or Wilcoxon rank test. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to identify prognostic factors. Outcomes were calculated from the date of ASCT. Overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log-rank test Results: The median age of the patients at transplant was 57 and 69% were male. There was no significant difference in baseline characteristics of patients who had a Deauville score 1-3 compared to patients who had a Deauville score 4-5 including mean age, gender, race, Karnofsky performance status, number of prior chemotherapy regimens, prior radiation therapy, and IPI at diagnosis and transplant. There was a trend towards significance in the median SUVmax at relapse in the Deauville 1-3 group compared to the Deauville 4-5 group (11.1 vs. 18.1, p=0.08) and a significant difference in the median pre-transplant SUVmax (2.3 vs. 8.1, p<0.001). Deauville score 4-5 was the only baseline variable that was prognostic for both RFS (HR=4.2, CI 1.6-11.5, p=0.004) and OS (HR=5.5, CI 1.6-18.9, p=0.006). The 3-year RFS for patients in the Deauville 1-3 group was 64% compared to 12% in the Deauville 4-5 group (p=0.002) and the 3-year OS for patients in the Deauville 1-3 group was 84% compared to 30%, respectively (p=0.002 [Figure 1]). The median ΔSUVmax was 74%. There was no difference in RFS or OS in patients who had a ΔSUVmax above or below this median. However, a high pre-transplant SUVmax(>6 vs. <6) was associated with significantly inferior RFS (p=0.03 [Figure 2]). Conclusions: Pre-transplant FDG-PET Deauville score is prognostic of RFS and OS in patients with DLBCL undergoing ASCT. High SUVmax(>6) prior to transplant is predictive of poor RFS. Pre-transplant PET is a powerful tool for identifying DLBCL patients at high risk for treatment failure with ASCT and could be used to risk-stratify patients in prospective clinical trials of novel transplant strategies. Figure 1. OS of DLBCL patients undergoing ASCT based on pre-transplant Deauville score. Figure 1. OS of DLBCL patients undergoing ASCT based on pre-transplant Deauville score. Figure 2. RFS of DLBCL patients undergoing ASCT based on pre-transplant SUVmax. Figure 2. RFS of DLBCL patients undergoing ASCT based on pre-transplant SUVmax. Disclosures Smith: celegene, spectrum, genentech: Honoraria. Majhail:Gamida Cell Ltd.: Consultancy; Anthem Inc.: Consultancy.

Abstract:

Background: The observation or measurement of eye movement can aid in the detection and localization of vestibular pathology due to the relationship between the function of the vestibular sensory receptors in the inner ear and the eye movements produced by the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). The majority of bedside and laboratory tests of vestibular function involve the observation or measurement of horizontal eye movements (i.e., horizontal VOR) produced by stimuli that activate the horizontal semicircular canals (SCCs) and the superior vestibular nerve. The video head impulse test (vHIT) is a new clinical test of dynamic SCC function that uses a high-speed digital video camera to record head and eye movement during and immediately after passive head rotations. The SYNAPSYS Inc. vHIT device measures the “canal deficit” (deviation in gaze) during passive head impulses in the horizontal and diagonal (vertical) planes. There is, however, a paucity of data that has been reported using this device. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to obtain normative data and assess the test-retest reliability of the SYNAPSYS vHIT (version 2.0). Research Design: A prospective repeated measures design was utilized. Study Sample: Thirty young adults with normal hearing, normal caloric test results, and a negative history of vestibular disorder, neurological disease, open or closed head injury, or cervical spine injury participated in the study. Data Collection and Analysis: A single examiner manually rotated each participant’s head in the horizontal and diagonal planes in two directions (left and right in the horizontal plane; downward and upward in each diagonal plane) resulting in the stimulation of each of the six SCCs. Each participant returned for repeat testing to assess test-retest reliability. The effects of ear, session, and semicircular canal (horizontal, anterior, posterior) on the magnitude of canal deficit during the vHIT were assessed using repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: The mean canal deficit of the horizontal canals (8.3%) was significantly lower than the mean canal deficit of the anterior canals (16.5%) and the posterior canals (15.2%); there was no significant difference between the mean canal deficits of the anterior and posterior canals. The main effects of session and ear on canal deficit were not significant, and there were no significant interaction effects. There was no significant difference between the mean canal deficit for session 1 and session 2 for the horizontal, anterior, and posterior canals. The 95th percentiles for canal deficit were 19, 26, and 22% for the horizontal, anterior, and posterior SCCs, respectively. Conclusions: Testing of all six SCCs was completed in most participants in ˜10 min and was well-tolerated. The vHIT has some important advantages relative to more established laboratory tests of horizontal SCC function including the ability to assess the vertical SCCs, lower cost, shorter test time, greater portability, minimal space requirements, and increased patient comfort. Additional data, however, should be obtained from older participants with normal vestibular function and from patients with vestibular disorders. Within-subject comparisons between the results of the vHIT and the caloric and rotary chair tests will be important in determining the role of the vHIT in the vestibular test battery.

Abstract:

Abstract Background: Outcomes to salvage therapy for patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) are suboptimal. Checkpoint blockade therapy (CBT) has been explored in the relapsed/refractory (R/R) NHL population, but response rates to single agent CBT therapy are modest. To date, there is no literature on whether treatment with CBT may sensitize NHL patients to subsequent therapy. We investigated the outcome of subsequent treatment in patients with R/R NHL who had received CBT in a large multicenter international retrospective analysis. Methods: Seventeen centers across the US and Canada are participating in this study to date. Medical records of each institution were queried to identify lymphoma patients who received CBT and were subsequently treated with an additional line of therapy. The primary aim of the current analysis was to determine the best response to post-CBT treatment in patients who discontinued CBT due to progression of disease (PD) or toxicity. Patients who discontinued CBT due to a complete response (CR), or patients whose best response to post-CBT therapy could not be determined due to death from another cause, were excluded from analysis. Responses were assessed using Lugano criteria. Survival status to date was analyzed for the entire study population and stratified by post-CBT treatment regimen categories and disease subgroups using the Kaplan-Meier method. Progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were calculated for patients with at least stable disease (SD) to post-CBT treatment. Log rank tests were performed to test for statistical significance. Two-sided P<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: To date, out of 121 total lymphoma patients, we identified 42 NHL patients whom received therapy subsequent to CBT. The median age was 62 (range 27-85); 26 patients were men and 16 women. Twelve patients were stage 1-2, and 30 were stage 3-4. Forty patients, with 10 histologic subtypes (Table 1) were included in analysis. At least 24 patients (60%) had aggressive NHL; 12 (30%) had indolent histologies, and 4 (10%) were not otherwise specified (NOS). Seven patients had stem cell transplant (SCT) prior to CBT: 6 autologous (auto) and 1 allogeneic (allo). SCT occurred between 142 days and 8.3 years prior to treatment with CBT. The median number of treatments prior to CBT was 3 (range 1-9), and the median duration of response (DOR) to the treatment immediately prior to CBT was 2 months. The best response to CBT for these patients included: 4 partial response (PR), 11 SD, and 25 PD. Patients discontinued CBT due to PD (90%) and toxicity (10%). Post-CBT treatment regimens included standard chemotherapy (55%), targeted therapy (22.5%), and clinical trial drugs (22.5%). The overall response rate (ORR) to post-CBT treatment was 52.50% with 12 (30%) CR and 9 (22.5%) PR. Five patients (12.5%) had SD as their best response, and 14 (35.0%) PD. Of the patients with CR to post-CBT treatment, their best responses to CBT were PD for 6, SD for 4, and PR for 2. Currently, 13 patients have died: 12 from disease progression and 1 from AML, thus median overall survival (OS) has not been reached (Figure 1). Nine patients have not progressed on their subsequent therapy. For patients with CR, PR, or SD to post-CBT therapy, the median PFS is 12.5 months (Figure 2). The post-CBT treatment regimen used did not impact the survival outcome, and there is no significant evidence that post CBT treatment response and post CBT regimens are associated (Figure 3, Table 2). Fourteen patients had consolidative SCT after their post-CBT treatment: 11 allo and 3 auto. All of these patients remain alive and half have progressed. Conclusions: These data suggest that in a R/R NHL population, treatment with CBT may sensitize some patients to subsequent therapy even if they progress or do not respond to CBT. Patient survival and best response to post-CBT treatment were independent of the treatment regimen, but many of these treatments bridged patients to SCT. In many patients the post-CBT treatment responses with or without SCT were of a significantly greater duration than their pre-CBT DOR (2 months vs 1 year). For this population, especially if they are ineligible for SCT or CAR-T cell therapy, this may be a novel treatment approach. We plan to expand this analysis with additional patients prior to the December meeting. Disclosures Advani: Kura: Research Funding; Infinity: Research Funding; Kyowa: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Participated in an advisory board; Agensys: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Bayer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Participated in an advisory board; Forty Seven Inc.: Research Funding; Roche/Genentech: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Participated in an advisory board, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Regeneron: Research Funding; Gilead/Kite: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Participated in an advisory board; Cell Medica: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Participated in an advisory board; Autolus: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Participated in an advisory board; Bristol Myers Squibb: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Participated in an advisory board, Research Funding; Astra Zeneca: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Participated in an advisory board; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Participated in an advisory board, Research Funding; Millenium: Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Herrera:Immune Design: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Research Funding; Merck, Inc.: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Research Funding; Gilead Sciences: Research Funding; KiTE Pharma: Consultancy, Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy, Research Funding. Chen:Affimed: Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Millennium Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Research Funding; Genentech Inc.: Consultancy; Merck & Co., Inc.: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau. Ramchandren:Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics LLC an AbbVie Company: Consultancy, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding. Assouline:Janssen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; BMS: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Roche: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Research Funding. Wagner-Johnston:Celgene: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; JUNO: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; ADC Therapeutics: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; ASTEX: Research Funding. Svoboda:Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Regeneron: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; KITE: Consultancy; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kyowa: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding. Barta:Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Merck, Takeda, Celgene, Seattle Genetics, Bayer: Research Funding. Karmali:Gilead: Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Speakers Bureau. Persky:Genentech: Honoraria; Morphosys (IDMC): Consultancy; Spectrum: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding. Smith:BMS: Consultancy; Portola: Honoraria. Chavez:Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Speakers Bureau; Merck: Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Kite: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Humanigen: Consultancy. Diefenbach:Merck: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; Acerta: Research Funding; Millenium/Takeda: Research Funding; Denovo: Research Funding; Trillium: Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy.

Abstract:

Abstract Background Immediate newborn care (INC) practices, notably early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF), are fundamental for newborn health. However, coverage tracking currently relies on household survey data in many settings. “Every Newborn Birth Indicators Research Tracking in Hospitals” (EN-BIRTH) was an observational study validating selected maternal and newborn health indicators. This paper reports results for EIBF. Methods The EN-BIRTH study was conducted in five public hospitals in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Tanzania, from July 2017 to July 2018. Clinical observers collected tablet-based, time-stamped data on EIBF and INC practices (skin-to-skin within 1 h of birth, drying, and delayed cord clamping). To assess validity of EIBF measurement, we compared observation as gold standard to register records and women’s exit-interview survey reports. Percent agreement was used to assess agreement between EIBF and INC practices. Kaplan Meier survival curves showed timing. Qualitative interviews were conducted to explore barriers/enablers to register recording. Results Coverage of EIBF among 7802 newborns observed for ≥1 h was low (10.9, 95% CI 3.8–21.0). Survey-reported (53.2, 95% CI 39.4–66.8) and register-recorded results (85.9, 95% CI 58.1–99.6) overestimated coverage compared to observed levels across all hospitals. Registers did not capture other INC practices apart from breastfeeding. Agreement of EIBF with other INC practices was high for skin-to-skin (69.5–93.9%) at four sites, but fair/poor for delayed cord-clamping (47.3–73.5%) and drying (7.3–29.0%). EIBF and skin-to-skin were the most delayed and EIBF rarely happened after caesarean section (0.5–3.6%). Qualitative findings suggested that focusing on accuracy, as well as completeness, contributes to higher quality with register reporting. Conclusions Our study highlights the importance of tracking EIBF despite measurement challenges and found low coverage levels, particularly after caesarean births. Both survey-reported and register-recorded data over-estimated coverage. EIBF had a strong agreement with skin-to-skin but is not a simple tracer for other INC indicators. Other INC practices are challenging to measure in surveys, not included in registers, and are likely to require special studies or audits. Continued focus on EIBF is crucial to inform efforts to improve provider practices and increase coverage. Investment and innovation are required to improve measurement.

Abstract:

Gray & Pape, Inc., of Houston, Texas, under contract with BIO-WEST, Inc., has prepared the following report on cultural resources management activities in Fort Bend County, Texas. The project includes an archaeological survey of a total of approximately 0.93 kilometers (0.58 miles) along Buffalo Bayou between Katy-Flewellen Road and Kingsland Boulevard in Katy, Texas. The archaeological Area of Potential Effects is defined as the maintenance corridor, 30 to 60 meters (98 to 196 feet) long. The goal of this study was to assist Fort Bend County, the Texas Historical Commission, and the lead federal agency in determining whether or not intact cultural resources are present within areas for construction, and if so to provide management recommendations for these resources. All activities described herein were subject to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and issuance of an Antiquities Permit for Archeology (Permit 9319) applied for by Gray & Pape, Inc. on February 13, 2020, and issued by the Texas Historical Commission. No diagnostic or non-diagnostic artifacts were collected in the course of the current survey. As a project permitted through the Texas Historical Commission; however, Gray & Pape, Inc. submitted project records to the Center of Archaeological Studies at Texas State University. The Natural Resource Conservation Service is the lead federal agency for the project. Fieldwork was conducted between March 12 and March 16, 2020 and required approximately 40person hours to complete. Subsurface testing included a combination of systematic shovel testing and judgement sample auger probing. The site file research revealed two previously recorded archaeological sites (41FB101 and 41FB102) are located within the project area. At the beginning of the survey, an initial attempt was made to relocate previously recorded Sites 41FB101 and 41FB102 through surface inspection and limited shovel testing across the Area of Potential Effects along both sides of Buffalo Bayou. Recent disturbances from mechanical excavation along the channel slopes, the dumping of spoil across the surface of the two-track right-of-way along the bayou, and the active installation of sheet piling were photographed and mapped. Sites 41FB101 and 41FB102 could not be relocated within the Area of Potential Effects during the surface inspection, shovel testing or auger probing. No other historic or prehistoric artifacts or cultural features were identified as a result of this survey. During the initial reconnaissance, Rangia shells (n=8), including whole (closed) specimens and half shell, were observed on the surface in an area recently disturbed by heavy machinery. The shells were located east of Site 41FB101 along the two-track right-of-way and slope of the east bank of Buffalo Bayou. The majority of them were smaller than 3 centimeters (1.2 inches), with one whole specimen measuring approximately 6 centimeters (2.4 inches). Surface and subsurface inspection in the immediate area of these specimens failed to find evidence of associated cultural features or artifacts on the surface or in a buried context. A variety of modern bricks and brick fragments were also observed along the inner slopes of the east bank near the shell scatter. These same materials were later observed among the variety of riprap materials along the west bank of the bayou west of Site 41FB102 near a residential property immediately adjacent to the Area of Potential Effects. No additional cultural materials were observed on the surface with the exception of modern debris including plastics and aluminum cans. Gray & Pape, Inc. is not recommending a site designation for the Rangia shell or brick scatter observed during the survey for the foregoing reasons:1) there were no intact, buried deposits or features found; 2) there was no material that could be positively identified as artifacts; 3) the bricks observed were modern and likely deposited by landowners in attempts to prevent erosion; 4) the size, quantity, and inclusion of whole Rangia identified on the surface appear to be natural occurrences as opposed to the remains of an archaeological deposit or feature; and 5) it is impossible to determine the original location of the shell specimens at this time. Based on the results of this investigation, Sites 41FB101 and 41FB102 do not appear to extend into the existing easem*nt belonging to the Fort Bend County Drainage District. Instead, both sites appear to be located on private property outside of the project Area of Potential Effects. As such, these sites have not been evaluated for National Register eligibility, but Gray & Pape, Inc. recommends that there will be no direct impact to these sites. It is also recommended that because the majority of project impacts will occur within sediments that have been repeatedly impacted by past channelization activities, the potential to identify intact, significant cultural resources is low. Gray & Pape, Inc. recommends the project be allowed to proceed as currently planned. As a protective measure during construction, high-visibility temporary fencing should be installed against the edge of the Area of Potential Effects in the vicinity of the two known sites. No additional cultural resources activities are recommended unless project plans change.

Abstract:

Terracon Consultants, Inc. (Terracon) was contracted by PNM Resources to conduct a Phase I archeological survey on lands owned by The University of Texas System in Ward County, Texas, the location of a proposed 12,000-foot-long power transmission line. Since the proposed undertaking will occur on land owned by a public institution of higher education, this project required compliance under the jurisdiction of the Antiquities Code of Texas (Natural Resources Code, Chapter 191) and its implementing rules (Texas Administrative Code, Title 13, Chapter 26). The proposed project area comprises an easem*nt approximately 12,000 feet (2.27 miles) long and approximately 30 feet wide. The total area covered is approximately 8.26 acres. Terracon archeologists excavated a total of forty (40) shovel tests to a depth of 80 centimeters (cm) below surface (bs), or to sediments predating human occupation in the area. The removed sediment was passed through ¼” hardware mesh to recover artifacts. One prehistoric archeological site, 41WR139, was recorded during the survey. The portion of the site that is within the project area is not eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or for designation as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL). Jenni Hatchett Kimbell served as Principal Investigator under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 8996. Fieldwork was conducted between July 16 and July 17, 2019 by Michael Hogan (Staff Archeologist) and Edgar Vazquez (Staff Archeologist). The report was authored by Michael Hogan and Jenni Hatchett Kimbell. Project records will be curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at the University of Texas at Austin. Given the absence of NRHP-eligible archeological sites within the proposed project area, Terracon recommends that the installation of the power transmission line proceed as planned. In the event that human remains, historic properties, or buried cultural materials are encountered during construction or disturbance activities, work should cease in the immediate area but can continue where no cultural materials are present. TNMP Environmental Services Department should be contacted.

Abstract:

Student academic records management and assessment are among the vital processes in any higher education institution. These processes must be efficient and systematic. The significant problems of the current system that is holding the student’s academic record have been observed and identified. Based upon the limitations and the challenges on the existing procedures of a manual storing and archiving of the students’ academic records, a centralized students’ academic record management system was proposed. This project primarily aimed to develop a computerized student academic record management system in order to help DMC College Foundation Incorporated (DMCCFI) Philippines improve its performance in the registrar services, specifically in the assessment and evaluation of student records. The newly developed system is integrated with business intelligence. It offers modules such as grade submission, assessment, and student kiosk with security feature. The development model included Rapid Application Development (RAD). The tools used in the development are Windows Server 2008 R2, DevExpress, Microsoft Visual Studio C#, MSSQL, and SmartDraw. Based on the system evaluation, the proposed system is very good with an aggregate mean of 4.55. The result implies that the MIS staff, coordinators and dean strongly agree that the proposed system is highly acceptable. In terms of usability, the proposed system is rated with an aggregate mean of 6.43 described as “Strongly Agree.” It was concluded that the developed system offers the capabilities and functions that can help improve the performance of the registrar services in DMCCFI and is highly recommended for immediate utilization by DMCCFI.

Abstract:

Most digitisation workflows are focused on legacy material, due to the sheer number of objects already collected. However, it is just as important to develop protocols for digitisation of incoming material to reduce accumulation of an additional backlog. This is especially crucial with the advent of molecular collections and field sequencing. In-the-field extraction and sequencing (Oxford Nanopore Technologies 2018) may lead to increasing numbers of voucher specimens without proper collection data and labels; or specimens disassociated with data. It is easy for researchers occupied by collecting and sequencing to delay proper documentation until a later date. As a curator, I can vouch that specimens without properly recorded data (with only collecting codes, for example) are lost for science. Fortunately, a combination of the best collecting and curatorial practices, simple online and offline tools, and modern technologies, makes in-the-field digitisation a reality. In the last couple of years, entomologists at the National Museums Scotland (NMS) have been testing the following workflow: Collecting routes and points are recorded with ViewRanger (Augmentra Ltd 2019), available as an app for mobile phones; At the moment of collecting, event data is recorded with Epicollect5 (Imperial College London 2019), available as Android app. Software's field generator allows creation of different scenarios, depending on method or circ*mstances of collection; and records main types of data: text, dates, time, coordinates. Individual collecting code is associated with the record; Specimens collected are prepared (pinned, stored in preservative, dried, etc.) and associated with corresponding collecting code; Additional data (diary records) is recorded in a notebook with Neo Smartpen (NEO SMARTPEN Inc. 2017) and digitsed. Collecting event records are imported into a collection management system (CMS) (PAPIS, Pape and Ioannou 2019) or EarthCape (EarthCape 2019); Specimen lots (if relevant) are sorted to a desirable level; Multiple specimen or lot records are created in CMS based on collecting event records; Data labels and UID labels are printed and physically associated with specimens or lots; Additional data (klm file of collecting route, diary records) are imported and associated with collecting events. Collecting routes and points are recorded with ViewRanger (Augmentra Ltd 2019), available as an app for mobile phones; At the moment of collecting, event data is recorded with Epicollect5 (Imperial College London 2019), available as Android app. Software's field generator allows creation of different scenarios, depending on method or circ*mstances of collection; and records main types of data: text, dates, time, coordinates. Individual collecting code is associated with the record; Specimens collected are prepared (pinned, stored in preservative, dried, etc.) and associated with corresponding collecting code; Additional data (diary records) is recorded in a notebook with Neo Smartpen (NEO SMARTPEN Inc. 2017) and digitsed. Collecting event records are imported into a collection management system (CMS) (PAPIS, Pape and Ioannou 2019) or EarthCape (EarthCape 2019); Specimen lots (if relevant) are sorted to a desirable level; Multiple specimen or lot records are created in CMS based on collecting event records; Data labels and UID labels are printed and physically associated with specimens or lots; Additional data (klm file of collecting route, diary records) are imported and associated with collecting events. Steps 1-4, and, depending on available facilities, steps 5-9, can be performed in the field, before specimens reach the depository. Alternatively, steps 5-9 should be performed immediately on returning from the field. There is no excuse for newly collected material not to be digitised before it is reaches the collection. Recent entomological collecting trips of NMS yielded 7358 specimens from 72 collecting events, fully documented and digitised in a matter of hours.

Abstract:

This report summarizes the results of a cultural resources survey by Gray & Pape, Inc. of an approximately 14.8-hectare (36.6-acre) property in Fort Bend County, Texas, planned for a bank stabilization project on behalf of their client, Berg-Oliver Associates, Inc. The goals of the survey were to determine if the proposed project would affect any previously identified archaeological sites as defined by Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended (36 CFR 800), and to establish whether or not previously unidentified buried archaeological resources were located within the project’s Area of Potential Effect. Portions of the project are on property owned by Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District Number 121, political subdivisions of the state, as such, a Texas Antiquities Permit (Permit Number 8734) was required prior to the commencement of fieldwork. All fieldwork and reporting activities were completed with reference to state (the Antiquities Code of Texas) and federal guidelines. Prior to fieldwork mobilization, a background literature and site file search were conducted to identify the presence of recorded sites and previous cultural resource surveys within or near the project area. The search indicated that no previously identified archaeological sites, cemeteries, historic markers, or National Register properties are located within the project area. The same research identified that eight previous cultural resource surveys had been conducted within the study radius of the project area, one of which overlapped with the current project area. In addition, 14 previously recorded archaeological sites are located within the study radius, none of which are located within or immediately adjacent to the current project area. Field investigations were carried out in two mobilizations in January and December 2019 and consisted of a combination of pedestrian survey and subsurface testing, resulting in the excavation of 32 shovel tests. Five planned tests were left unexcavated due to inundation, and eight planned tests were left unexcavated due to significant surface disturbance. All shovel tests were negative for cultural resource material and no historic-age resources were identified during survey. After a revised scope of work was submitted to the Texas Historical Commission, investigation of deeply buried soils took place tandem with construction by regular monitoring of construction excavation. When the construction schedule allowed, traditional deep testing, by means of mechanical excavation, was carried out in five of six areas anticipated to have deep impacts from the proposed bank stabilization project. A total of 22 trenches were excavated. No buried features or deeply buried paleosols were encountered. Gray & Pape, Inc. archaeologists are of the opinion that the shovel test survey and deep testing completed within the Area of Potential Effects has adequately assessed the potential for surface and near surface intact, significant cultural resources, as well as determining the potential for deeply buried resources or paleosols. No artifacts or cultural features were encountered during the course of the survey, and no new archaeological sites were identified. No negative impacts on any previously identified sites are anticipated from the proposed project. Based on these results, Gray & Pape, Inc. recommends that no further cultural work be required and that the project be cleared to proceed as planned. As required under the provisions of Texas Antiquities Code Permit 8734, all project records are housed at the Center for Archaeological Studies at Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

Abstract:

Horizon Environmental Services, Inc. (Horizon) was selected by LJA Engineering, Inc. (LJA), on behalf of Montgomery County Municipal Utility District (MUD) No. 157, to conduct a cultural resources inventory and assessment for the proposed West Fork of the San Jacinto River South Drainage Channel Phase 3 Project. The proposed undertaking would consist of constructing a new outfall structure within an approximately 1.5-hectare (3.6-acre) area on the eastern bank of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River near Moorhead Road. The project area is located on a broad coastal flat that has been historically mined for borrow materials, and numerous artificial lakes that represent infilled borrow pits characterize the surrounding area. The project area is bounded on the southeast by the channel of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River and on the northeast by a large pond that represents an infilled borrow pit. A prominent earthen levee parallels the river channel, and a massive erosional gully runs through the southern portion of the project area. The Liberty Materials, Inc. Moorehead Wet Plant is located approximately 0.8 kilometer (0.5 mile) east of the project area. For purposes of the cultural resources survey, the project area is considered to consist of the entire 1.5-hectare (3.6-acre) outfall construction area. The proposed undertaking would be sponsored by Montgomery County Municipal Utility District (MUD) No. 157, which represents a political subdivision of the state of Texas. As such, the project falls under the jurisdiction of the Antiquities Code of Texas. In addition, the project may require the use of Nationwide Permits (NWP) issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Galveston District, for construction within or adjacent to any water features that meet the criteria for designation as “waters of the US” under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and/or Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. As NWPs are federal permits, those portions of the overall project area located within the federal permit area would fall under the jurisdiction of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, as amended. As the proposed project represents a publicly sponsored undertaking, the project sponsor is required to provide the applicable federal agencies and the Texas Historical Commission (THC), which serves as the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for the state of Texas, with an opportunity to review and comment on the project’s potential to adversely affect historic properties listed on or considered eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and/or for designation as State Antiquities Landmarks (SAL). On March 28, 2020, Horizon archeologists Jesse Dalton and Jared Wiersema under the overall direction of Jeffrey D. Owens, Principal Investigator, performed an intensive cultural resources survey of the project area to locate any cultural resources that potentially would be impacted by the proposed undertaking. The survey was performed under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 9315. Horizon’s archeologists traversed the archeological survey area on foot and thoroughly inspected the modern ground surface for aboriginal and historic-age cultural resources. The survey area consisted of a flat, heavily modified landform situated between the West Fork of the San Jacinto River channel to the southwest and an artificial lake that represents an infilled borrow pit to the northeast. Historical aerial photographs suggest that past borrow material mining activities have extensively impacted the landform. An earthen levee runs along the edge of the landform parallel to the river channel, and a massive erosional gully passes through the southern portion of the project area. Vegetation within the project area consists primarily of short grasses, and artificial pea gravel deposits cover large portions of the modern ground surface. Overall, ground surface visibility was poor to fair (20 to 40%), though the landform that characterizes the project area appears to have been heavily disturbed and may be almost entirely man-made. In addition to pedestrian walkover, the Texas State Minimum Archeological Survey Standards (TSMASS) require a minimum of two shovel tests per 0.4 hectare (1.0 acres) for tracts between 1.2 and 4.0 hectares (3.0 and 10.0 acres) in size. As such, a minimum of seven shovel tests would be required within the 1.5-hectare (3.6-acre) project area. However, given the physiographic setting of the project area on the floodplain of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River, the extent of prior disturbances associated with historical borrow material mining, and the geomorphological potential for deeply buried Holocene-age sediments, Horizon determined that shovel testing would not likely be a productive survey technique. As such, mechanical trenching was utilized instead. Horizon excavated seven trackhoe trenches within the floodplain of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River in the northern portion of the project area. Trenches ranged from 5.0 to 7.0 meters (16.4 to 23.0 feet) in length and from to 1.5 to 5.5 meters (4.9 to 18.0 feet) in depth. Most trenches were terminated at depths of approximately 2.0 meters (6.6 feet) below surface, though two trenches were excavated to depths of 3.0 to 5.5 meters (9.8 to 18.0 feet) below surface where possible to investigate the potential for more deeply buried natural soil horizons and/or archeological deposits. Sediments observed in all trenches consisted of lenses of artificial fill materials resulting from borrow material mining activities over the years. These sediments tended to be poorly structured and unconsolidated, resulting in frequent collapses of trench walls. The water table was encountered in one trench at a depth of 1.8 meters below surface. While it is possible that some of the more deeply buried clay layers are of natural origin, the vast majority of the sediments observed were clearly artificial fill deposits. No cultural resources, prehistoric or historic-age, were observed on the modern ground surface or within any of the shovel tests excavated within the project area. As no cultural resources were observed during the survey, no cultural resources were collected. Following completion of the project, all project records will be prepared for permanent curation at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL). Based on the results of the survey-level investigations documented in this report, no potentially significant cultural resources would be affected by the proposed undertaking. In accordance with 36 CFR 800.4, Horizon has made a reasonable and good-faith effort to identify historic properties within the project area. No cultural resources were identified within the project area that meet the criteria for designation as SALs according to 13 TAC 26 or for inclusion in the NRHP under 36 CFR 60.4. Horizon recommends a finding of “no historic properties affected,” and no further archeological work is recommended in connection with the proposed undertaking. However, human burials, both prehistoric and historic, are protected under the Texas Health and Safety Code. In the event that any human remains or burial objects are inadvertently discovered at any point during construction, use, or ongoing maintenance in the project area, even in previously surveyed areas, all work should cease immediately in the vicinity of the inadvertent discovery, and the Texas Historical Commission (THC) should be notified immediately.

Abstract:

Horizon Environmental Services, Inc. (Horizon) was selected by LJA Engineering, Inc. (LJA), on behalf of the City of Conroe, to conduct a cultural resources inventory and assessment for the proposed Stewarts Creek Wastewater System Improvements Project in Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas. The proposed undertaking would consist of rehabilitating and replacing approximately 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles) of existing gravity sewer pipeline that runs along the western terraces of Stewarts Creek in the southeastern portion of Conroe. The segment of the existing sewer line proposed for rehabilitation and replacement runs along the western terraces of Stewarts Creek extending from Avenue M southward to an existing transmission line right-of-way (ROW) located southeast of the intersection of Foster Drive and Ed Kharbat Drive. For purposes of the cultural resources survey, the project area was considered to consist of a linear project corridor measuring 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles) in length by 39.6 meters (130.0 feet) in width, covering a total area of 8.3 hectares (20.4 acres). The proposed undertaking would be sponsored by the City of Conroe, which represents a political subdivision of the state of Texas. As such, the project falls under the jurisdiction of the Antiquities Code of Texas. In addition, the project may require the use of Nationwide Permits (NWP) issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Galveston District, for construction within or adjacent to any water features that meet the criteria for designation as “waters of the US” under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and/or Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. As NWPs are federal permits, those portions of the overall project area located within the federal permit area would fall under the jurisdiction of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, as amended. As the proposed project represents a publicly sponsored undertaking, the project sponsor is required to provide the applicable federal agencies and the Texas Historical Commission (THC), which serves as the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for the state of Texas, with an opportunity to review and comment on the project’s potential to adversely affect historic properties listed on or considered eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and/or for designation as State Antiquities Landmarks (SAL). On April 1 to 2, 2020, Horizon archeologists Colene Knaub and Elizabeth Sefton, under the overall direction of Jeffrey D. Owens, Principal Investigator, performed an intensive cultural resources survey of the project area to locate any cultural resources that potentially would be impacted by the proposed undertaking. The survey was performed under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 9336. Horizon’s archeologists traversed the archeological survey area on foot and thoroughly inspected the modern ground surface for aboriginal and historic-age cultural resources. The survey area consisted of an existing gravity sewer ROW running along the western terraces of Stewarts Creek. Most of the sewer line ROW consisted of broad, cleared areas characterized by short, manicured grasses, though some segments of the ROW appear not to have been regularly maintained and had become heavily overgrown with tall grasses, weeds, and wildflowers. Large concrete manholes providing access to the existing sewer line are spaced at regular intervals along this utility corridor. The ROW crosses Silverdale Drive, Foster Drive, and an electrical transmission line, and four large stock ponds are present adjacent to the ROW that involved extensive earth-moving activities within the project corridor. Prior disturbances within the existing sewer line corridor associated with construction and maintenance of the existing sewer line, stock ponds, intersecting roadways, and the transmission line have been extensive. Overall, ground surface visibility was generally poor (<30%) due to dense vegetative ground cover. In addition to pedestrian walkover, the Texas State Minimum Archeological Survey Standards (TSMASS) require a minimum of 10 shovel tests per 1.0 kilometer (16 shovel tests per 1.0 mile) for linear projects per 30.5-meter (100.0-foot) width of ROW, or fraction thereof. As such, a minimum of 42 shovel tests would be required within the 2.1-kilometer- (1.3-mile-) long by 39.6-meter- (130.0-foot-) wide project area. Horizon excavated 44 shovel tests during the survey, thereby exceeding the TSMASS requirements for a project area of this size. Shovel tests were staggered along either side of the existing sewer line as evidenced by the locations of manholes in an effort to test sediments that potentially had been less disturbed by the original construction of the sewer line. Shovel testing typically revealed mixed brown to yellowish-brown sandy loam and sandy sediments with rare hematitic sandstone and oyster shell fragment inclusions. Mottling and mixing was observed in virtually every shovel test, suggesting that sediments within the survey corridor had been disturbed during the original construction of the sewer line. Given the extent of disturbance observed within the shovel tests excavated during the survey, it is Horizon’s opinion that sediments within the proposed disturbance zone associated with rehabilitation and replacement of the existing sewer line have been disturbed to the depth of the existing pipeline and have minimal potential to contain any intact archeological deposits. Furthermore, a prior survey was conducted for the City of Conroe in 2001 that included mechanical deep testing, though this survey did not result in the documentation of any cultural resources along this segment of Stewarts Creek. As such, it is Horizon’s opinion that the shovel testing was capable of evaluating the potential of the project area to contain prehistoric and historic-age cultural resources with the potential to meet the criteria of significance for inclusion in the NRHP and for designation as SALs. No cultural resources, prehistoric or historic-age, were observed on the modern ground surface or within any of the shovel tests excavated within the project area. As no cultural resources were observed during the survey, no cultural resources were collected. Following completion of the project, all project records will be prepared for permanent curation at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL). Based on the results of the survey-level investigations documented in this report, no potentially significant cultural resources would be affected by the proposed undertaking. In accordance with 36 CFR 800.4, Horizon has made a reasonable and good-faith effort to identify historic properties within the project area. No cultural resources were identified within the project area that meet the criteria for designation as SALs according to 13 TAC 26 or for inclusion in the NRHP under 36 CFR 60.4. Horizon recommends a finding of “no historic properties affected,” and no further archeological work is recommended in connection with the proposed undertaking. However, human burials, both prehistoric and historic, are protected under the Texas Health and Safety Code. In the event that any human remains or burial objects are inadvertently discovered at any point during construction, use, or ongoing maintenance in the project area, even in previously surveyed areas, all work should cease immediately in the vicinity of the inadvertent discovery, and the THC should be notified immediately.

Abstract:

Nine Inch Nails have just released a new single; In addition to the usual formats, “The Hand That Feeds” was available for free download in Garageband format. Trent Reznor explained, “For quite some time I’ve been interested in the idea of allowing you the ability to tinker around with my tracks – to create remixes, experiment, embellish or destroy what’s there” (MacMinute 15 April 2005). Reznor invites creativity facilitated by copying and transformation. “Copy” carries connotations of unsavoury notions such as piracy, stealing, fake, and plagiarism. Conversely, in some circ*mstances copying is acceptable, some situations demand copying. This article examines the treatment of “copy” at the intersection of musical creativity and copyright law with regard to cover versions and sampling. Waldron reminds us that copyright was devised first and foremost with a public benefit in mind (851). This fundamental has been persistently reiterated (H. R Rep. (1909); Sen. Rep. (1909); H. R. Rep. (1988); Patterson & Lindberg 70). The law grants creators a bundle of rights in copyrighted works. Two rights implicated in recorded music are located in the composition and the recording. Many potential uses of copyrighted songs require a license. The Copyright Act 1976, s. 115 provides a compulsory licence for cover versions. In other words, any song can be covered for a statutory royalty fee. The law curtails the extent of the copyright monopoly. Compulsory licensing serves both creative and business sides of the recording industry. First, it ensures creative diversity. Musicians are free to reinterpret cultural soundtracks. Second, it safeguards the composer’s right to generate an income from his work by securing royalties for subsequent usage. Although s. 115 permits a certain degree of artistic licence, it requires “the arrangement shall not change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work”. Notwithstanding this proviso, songs can still be transformed and their meaning reshaped. Johnny Cash was able to provide an insight into the mind of a dying man through covering such songs as Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” and Parker & Charles’ “We’ll Meet Again”. Compulsory licensing was introduced in response to a Supreme Court decision that deprived composers of royalties. Congress recognised: The main object to be desired in expanding copyright protection accorded to music has been to give to the composer an adequate return for the value of his composition, and it has been a serious and difficult task to combine the protection of the composer with the protection of the public, and to so frame an act that it would accomplish the double purpose of securing to the composer and at the same time prevent the formation of oppressive monopolies, which might be founded upon the very rights granted to the composer for the purpose of protecting his interests (H. R. Rep. (1909)). Composers exercise rights over the initial exploitation of a song. Once a recording is released, the right is curtailed to serve the public dimension of copyright. A sampler is a device that allows recorded (sampled) sounds to be triggered from a MIDI keyboard or sequencer. Samplers provide potent tools for transforming sounds – filters, pitch-shifting, time-stretching and effects can warp samples beyond recognition. Sampling is a practice that formed the backbone of rap and hip-hop, features heavily in many forms of electronic music, and has proved invaluable in many studio productions (Rose 73-80; Prendergast 383-84, 415-16, 433-34). Samples implicate both of the musical copyrights mentioned earlier. To legally use a sample, the rights in the recording and the underlying composition must be licensed. Ostensibly, acquiring permission to use the composition poses few obstacles due to the compulsory licence. The sound recording, however, is a different matter entirely. There is no compulsory licence for sound recordings. Copyright owners (usually record labels) are free to demand whatever fees they see fit. For example, SST charged Fatboy Slim $1000 for sampling a Negativland record (Negativland). (Ironically, the sample was itself an unlicensed sample appropriated from a 1966 religious recording.) The price paid by The Verve for sampling an obscure orchestral version of a Rolling Stones song was more substantial. Allan Klein owns the copyright in “The Last Time” released by The Andrew Oldham Orchestra in 1965 (American Hit Network, undated). Licence negotiations for the sample left Klein with 100% of the royalties from the song and The Verve with a bitter taste. To add insult to injury, “Bittersweet Symphony” was attributed to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards when the song was nominated for a Grammy (Superswell, undated). License fees can prove prohibitive to many musicians and may outweigh the artistic merit in using the sample: “Sony wanted five thousand dollars for the Clash sample, which … is one thousand dollars a word. In retrospect, this was a bargain, given the skyrocketing costs of sampling throughout the 1990s” (McLeod 86). Adam Dorn, alias Mocean Worker, tried for nine months to licence a sample of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. Eventually his persistent requests were met with a demand for $10,000 in advance with royalties of six cents per record. Dorn was working with an album budget of a mere $40 and was expecting to sell 2500 copies (Beaujon 25). Unregulated licensing fees stifle creativity and create a de facto monopoly over recorded music. Although copyright was designed to be an engine of free expression1 it still carries characteristics of its monopolistic, totalitarian heritage. The decision in Bridgeport Music v. Dimension Films supported this monopoly. Judge Guy ruled, “Get a license or do not sample. We do not see this stifling creativity in any significant way” (397). The lack of compulsory licensing and the Bridgeport decision creates an untenable situation for sampling musicians and adversely impacts upon the public benefit derived from creative diversity and transformative works (Netanel 288, 331). The sobering potential for lawsuits, ruinous legal costs, injunctions, damages (to copyright owners as well as master recordings), suppresses the creativity of musicians unwilling or unable to pay licence fees (Negativland 251.). I’m a big fan of David Bowie. If I wanted to release a cover version of “Survive”, Bowie and Gabrels (composers) and BMI (publishers) could not prevent it. According the Harry Fox Agency’s online licensing system, it would cost $222.50 (US) for a licence to produce 2500 copies. The compulsory licence demands fidelity to the character of the original. Although my own individual style would be embedded in the cover version, the potential for transformation is limited. Whilst trawling through results from a search for “acapella” on the Soulseek network I found an MP3 of the vocal acapella for “Survive”. Thirty minutes later Bowie was loaded into Sonar 4 and accompanied by a drum loop and bass line whilst I jammed along on guitar and tinkered with synths. Free access to music encourages creative diversity and active cultural participation. Licensing fees, however, may prohibit such creative explorations. Sampling technology offers some truly innovative possibilities for transforming recorded sound. The Roland VariOS can pitch-eliminate; a vocal sample can be reproduced to a melody played by the sampling musician. Although the original singer’s voice is preserved the melody and characteristic nuances can be significantly altered: V-Producer’s Phrase Scope [a system software component] separates the melody from the rest of the phrase, allowing users to re-construct a new melody or add harmonies graphically, or by playing in notes from a MIDI keyboard. Using Phrase Scope, you can take an existing vocal phrase or melodic instrument phrase and change the actual notes, phrasing and vocal gender without unwanted artefacts. Bowie’s original vocal could be aligned with an original melody and set to an original composition. The original would be completely transformed into a new creative work. Unfortunately, EMI is the parent company for Virgin Records, the copyright owner of “Survive”. It is doubtful licence fees could be accommodated by many inspired bedroom producers. EMI’s reaction to DJ Dangermouse’s “Grey Album“ suggests that it would not look upon unlicensed sampling with any favour. Threatening letters from lawyers representing one of the “Big Four” are enough to subjugate most small time producers. Fair use? If a musician is unable to afford a licence, it is unlikely he can afford a fair use defence. Musicians planning only a limited run, underground release may be forgiven for assuming that the “Big Four” have better things to do than trawl through bins of White Labels for unlicensed samples. Professional bootlegger Richard X found otherwise when his history of unlicensed sampling caught up to him: “A certain major label won’t let me use any samples I ask them to. We just got a report back from them saying, ‘Due to Richard’s earlier work of which we are well aware, we will not be assisting him with any future projects’” (Petridis). For record labels “copy” equals “money”. Allan Klein did very well out of licensing his newly acquired “Bittersweet Symphony” to Nike (Superswell). Inability to afford either licences or legal costs means that some innovative and novel creations will never leave the bedroom. Sampling masterpieces such as “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” are no longer cost effective (McLeod). The absence of a compulsory licence for sampling permits a de facto monopoly over recorded music. Tricia Rose notes the recording industry knows the value of “copy” (90). “Copy” is permissible as long as musicians pay for the privilege – if the resultant market for the sampling song is not highly profitable labels may decline to negotiate a licence. Some parties have recognised the value of the desire to creatively engage with music. UK (dis)band(ed) Curve posted component samples of their song “Unreadable Communication” on their website and invited fans to create their own versions of the song. All submissions were listed on the website. Although the band reserved copyright, they permitted me to upload my version to my online distribution website for free download. It has been downloaded 113 times and streamed a further 112 times over the last couple of months. The remix project has a reciprocal dimension: Creative engagement strengthens the fan base. Guitarist/programmer, Dean Garcia, states “the main reason for posting the samples is for others to experiment with something they love . . . an opportunity as you say to mess around with something you otherwise would never have access to2”. Umixit is testing the market for remixable songs. Although the company has only five bands on its roster (the most notable being Aerosmith), it will be interesting to observe the development of a market for “neutered sampling” and how long it will be before the majors claim a stake. The would-be descendants of Grand Master Flash and Afrika Bambaataa may find themselves bound by end-user licences and contracts. The notion of “copy” at the nexus of creativity and copyright law is simultaneously a vehicle for free expression and a vulgar infringement on a valuable economic interest. The compulsory licence for cover versions encourages musicians to rework existing music, uncover hidden meaning, challenge the boundaries of genre, and actively participate in culture creation. Lack of affirmative congressional or judicial interference in the current sampling regime places the beneficial aspects of “copy” under an oppressive monopoly founded on copyright, an engine of free expression. References American Hit Network. “Bittersweet Symphony – The Verve.” Undated. 17 April 2005 http://www.americanhitnetwork.com/1990/fsongs.cfm?id=8&view=detail&rank=1>. Beaujon, A. “It’s Not The Beat, It’s the Mocean.’ CMJ New Music Monthly, April 1999. EMI. “EMI and Orange Announce New Music Deal.” Immediate Future: PR & Communications, 6 January 2005. 17 April 2005 http://www.immediatefuture.co.uk/359>. H. R. Rep. No. 2222. 60th Cong., 2nd Sess. 7. 1909. H. R. Rep. No. 609. 100th Cong., 2nd Sess. 23. 1988. MacMinute. “NIN Offers New Single in GarageBand Format.” 15 April 2005. 16 April 2005 http://www.macminute.com/2005/04/15/nin/>. McLeod, K. “How Copyright Law Changed Hip Hop: An Interview with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Hank Shocklee.” Stay Free 2002, 23 June 2004 http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/public_enemy.html>. McLeod, K. Freedom of Expression: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity. United States: Doubleday Books, 2005. Negativland. “Discography.” Undated. 18 April 2005 http://www.negativland.com/negdisco.html>. Negativland (ed.). Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2. Concord: Seeland, 2005. Netanel, N. W. “Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society.” 106 Yale L. J. 283. 1996. Patterson, L.R., and S. Lindberg. The Nature of Copyright: A Law of Users’ Rights. Georgia: U of Georgia P, 1991. Petridis, A. “Pop Will Eat Itself.” The Guardian (UK) 2003. 22 June 2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/feature/0,1169,922797,00.html>. Prendergast, M. The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby – The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. London: Bloomsbury, 2003. Rose, T. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 2004. Sen. Rep. No. 1108, 60th Cong., 2nd Sess. 7. 1909. Superswell. “Horror Stories.” 17 April 2005 http://www.superswell.com/samplelaw/horror.html>. Waldron, J. “From Authors to Copiers: Individual Rights and Social Values in Intellectual Property.” 68 Chicago-Kent Law Review 842, 1998. Endnotes 1 Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises 471 U.S. 539, 558 (1985). 2 From personal correspondence with Curve dated 16 September 2004. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Collins, Steve. "Good Copy, Bad Copy: Covers, Sampling and Copyright." M/C Journal 8.3 (2005). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0507/02-collins.php>. APA Style Collins, S. (Jul. 2005) "Good Copy, Bad Copy: Covers, Sampling and Copyright," M/C Journal, 8(3). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0507/02-collins.php>.

Abstract:

Horizon Environmental Services, Inc. (Horizon) was selected by the City of Dripping Springs to conduct an intensive cultural resources inventory survey and assessment of the proposed Dripping Springs Wastewater System Improvements Project (EID 1) in Dripping Springs, Hays County, Texas (USACE Project No. SWF-2020-00075). This survey represents the first phase of a larger project involving the proposed construction of wastewater system improvements in Dripping Springs. The current phase of the project would involve three separate components—the West Interceptor segment, which extends approximately 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) in length along Onion Creek west of Farm-to-Market Road (FM) 12; the Reclaimed Water Line segment, which extends approximately 1.3 kilometers (0.8 mile) in length between Needham Road and the intersection of FM 12 and FM 150; an approximately 2.3-hectare (5.7-acre) effluent pond located south of an existing water reclamation facility south of FM 150; and the proposed expansion of the existing water reclamation facility adjacent to the proposed effluent pond, which together cover 3.3 hectares (8.0 acres). The linear rights-of-way (ROW) of proposed pipeline segments would measure a maximum of 30.5 meters (100.0 feet) in width, and the proposed project components would cover a combined area of approximately 18.5 hectares (45.6 acres). The proposed undertaking would be sponsored by the City of Dripping Springs, a public subdivision of the state of Texas. As a political subdivision of the state of Texas, the project would fall under the jurisdiction of the Antiquities Code of Texas (Natural Resources Code, Title 9, Chapter 191). In addition, the project would utilize funding provided by the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program, which is a federal-state partnership between the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the state of Texas. As the US EPA is a federal agency, the project would also fall under the jurisdiction of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, as amended. As the proposed project represents a publicly sponsored undertaking, the project sponsor is required to provide the Texas Historical Commission (THC), which serves as the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for the state of Texas, with an opportunity to review and comment on the project’s potential to adversely affect historic properties listed on or considered eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) under the NHPA and for designation as State Antiquities Landmarks (SAL) under the Antiquities Code of Texas. From October 1 to 3, on November 4, and on November 22, 2019, Horizon archeologists Jesse Dalton, McKinzie Froese, Amy Goldstein, Elizabeth Sefton, and Jared Wiersema conducted an intensive cultural resources survey of the project area, including pedestrian walkover with shovel testing and backhoe trenching. The survey was performed under the supervision of Jeffrey D. Owens, who served as Principal Investigator, under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 9114. The purpose of the survey was to locate any significant cultural resources that potentially would be impacted by the proposed undertaking. Horizon’s archeologists traversed the project area on foot and thoroughly inspected the modern ground surface for aboriginal and historic-age cultural resources. Overall, vegetation across the entire project area generally consisted of short- to medium-length grasses interspersed with mature live oak and cedar trees, which afforded fair to good ground surface visibility (30 to 60%). Within the riparian zone of Onion Creek, vegetation consisted of tall, dense grass and mature honey mesquite, cedar, live oak, and hackberry trees, which provided poor ground surface visibility (<30%). The West Interceptor segment runs along the gravelly terraces of Onion Creek. Topographically, this segment of the project area consists of steep limestone steps and rocky outcrops that give way to flat, open fields. The proposed interceptor crosses Onion Creek at three locations, and the lower stream terraces of the creek have extensive gravel bars and debris associated with high-energy flooding. Soil profiles typically consist of a shallow A horizon of hard, calcareous clay loam underlain by dense gravelly deposits; however, in the southeastern portion of the West Interceptor, deeper clayey loam alluvium underlain by limestone bedrock was encountered. The Reclaimed Water Line segment traverses the west-facing hillslopes of upland ridges east of Onion Creek. Approximately the southeastern half of this segment of the project area would be constructed within the existing ROW of FM 12 west of the roadway, and construction, use, and ongoing maintenance of the roadway and associated facilities has resulted in extensive prior disturbances. Evidence of ground disturbance resulting from land clearing for housing developments and a transmission line were also noted within the northwestern portion of the proposed Reclaimed Water Line segment. The far northwestern end of the proposed Reclaimed Water Line segment skims the edge of the floodplain associated with a tributary of Onion Creek. Sediments on the terraces of this stream channel consist of calcareous loamy alluvial deposits, while soils across the upland portions of the segment consist of shallow deposits of gravelly clay and clay loam underlain by naturally degrading limestone bedrock. The water reclamation facility expansion and effluent pond segment are located on the upper terraces northeast of Onion Creek. The water reclamation facility is an existing industrial facility surrounded by septic fields, and prior disturbances from construction, use, and ongoing maintenance of the facility are extensive. The proposed expansion area to the north of the existing facility is currently utilized as a septic field. Sediments within this segment of the project area consist of shallow, gravelly, calcareous loamy to clayey loam alluvium underlain by naturally degrading limestone bedrock. In addition to a pedestrian walkover, the Texas State Minimum Archeological Survey Standards (TSMASS) require a minimum of 16 subsurface shovel tests per 1.6 kilometers (1.0 mile) for each 30.5-meter- (100.0-foot-) wide transect (or fraction thereof) for linear surveys unless field conditions warrant more shovel tests (e.g., in cultural high-probability areas) or fewer shovel tests (e.g., on steep slopes, in areas with excellent ground surface visibility). For block-area surveys, the TSMASS require two shovel tests per 0.4 hectare (1.0 acre) for project areas between 1.2 and 4.0 hectares (3.0 and 10.0 acres) in size. As such, a minimum of 37 shovel tests would be required within the West Interceptor segment, 13 shovel tests would be required within the Reclaimed Water Line segment, and 16 shovel tests would be required within the proposed water reclamation facility expansion and effluent pond area, for a total of 66 shovel tests for the project area as a whole. Horizon excavated a total of 106 shovel tests during the survey, including 82 shovel tests within the West Interceptor segment, 13 shovel tests within the Reclaimed Water Line segment, and 11 shovel tests within the facility expansion and effluent pond area. The shovel tests within the proposed facility expansion and effluent pond area were not all excavated directly within the final proposed construction footprint as the boundaries of this portion of the project area had not been firmly determined at the time of the survey, and no shovel tests were excavated within the existing water reclamation facility due to the extent of observable prior disturbances within this area. Overall, Horizon exceeded the minimum number of shovel tests required for the project area as a whole, and it is Horizon’s opinion that shovel testing was capable of fully penetrating sediments with the potential to contain subsurface archeological deposits (with the exception noted below where backhoe trenches were excavated along a portion of the West Interceptor segment). In addition to shovel testing, Horizon excavated four backhoe trenches within the southeastern portion of the proposed West Interceptor segment. The trenches were excavated at roughly 100.0-meter (328.0-foot) intervals along the proposed centerline to depths ranging from 105.0 to 350.0 centimeters (41.3 to 137.8 inches) below surface. Sediments observed within trench profiles typically consisted of moderately deep deposits of grayish-brown fine clay loam over yellowish-brown fine sandy loam. Dense deposits of river cobbles and/or naturally degrading limestone bedrock were observed at the base of three of the four trenches, and it is Horizon’s opinion that backhoe trenching was capable of fully penetrating sediments with the potential to contain archeological deposits. One chert flake was recorded in a shovel test (ST AG30) at a depth of 0.0 to 30.0 centimeters (0.0 to 11.8 inches) below surface at the far northwestern end of the West Interceptor project segment. Supplemental delineation shovel tests excavated around this initial discovery failed to produce any additional evidence of prehistoric cultural activity at this location, so the chert flake was recorded as an isolated artifact occurrence but was not documented as an archeological site. No other cultural resources of prehistoric or historic age were recorded within the project area during the pedestrian survey, shovel testing, or backhoe trenching. Based on the results of the survey-level investigations documented in this report, no cultural resources would be affected by the proposed undertaking. In accordance with 36 CFR 800.4, Horizon has made a reasonable and good-faith effort to identify historic properties within the project area. No cultural resources were identified within the project area that meet the criteria for designation as SALs according to 13 TAC 26 or for inclusion in the NRHP according to 36 CFR 60.4. Horizon recommends a finding of “no historic properties affected,” and no further archeological work is recommended in connection with the proposed undertaking. However, human burials, both prehistoric and historic, are protected under the Texas Health and Safety Code. In the event that any human remains or burial objects are inadvertently discovered at any point during construction, use, or ongoing maintenance in the project area, even in previously surveyed areas, all work should cease immediately in the vicinity of the inadvertent discovery, and the THC should be notified immediately. Following completion of the project, all project records will be prepared for permanent curation at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL).

Abstract:

IntroductionThey shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.Recited at many Anzac and Remembrance Day services, ‘The Ode’, an excerpt from a poem by Laurence Binyon, speaks of a timelessness within the inexorable march of time. When we memorialise those for whom time no longer matters, time stands still. Whether those who died in service of their country have finally “beaten time” or been forced to acknowledge that “their time on earth was up”, depends on your preference for clichés. Time and death are natural bedfellows. War memorials, be they physical or digital, declare a commitment to “remember them”. This article will compare and contrast the purpose of, and community response to, virtual and physical war memorials. It will examine whether virtual war memorials are a sign of the times – a natural response to the internet era. If, as Marshall McLuhan says, the medium is the message, what experiences do we gain and lose through online war memorials?Physical War MemorialsDuring and immediately after the First World War, physical war memorials were built in almost every city, town and village of the Allied countries involved in the war. They served many purposes. One of the roles of physical war memorials was to keep the impact of war at the centre of a town’s consciousness. In a regional centre like Bathurst, in New South Wales, the town appears to be built around the memorial – the court, council chambers, library, churches and pubs gather around the war memorials.Similarly, in small towns such as Bega, Picton and Kiama, war memorial arches form a gateway to the town centre. It is an architectural signal that you are entering a community that has known pain, death and immense loss. Time has passed, but the names of the men and women who served remain etched in stone: “lest we forget”.The names are listed in a democratic fashion: usually in alphabetical order without their rank. However, including all those who offered their service to “God, King and Country” (not just those who died) also had a more sinister and divisive effect. It reminded communities of those “eligibles” in their midst whom some regarded as “shirkers”, even if they were conscientious objectors or needed to stay and continue vital industries, like farming (Inglis & Phillips 186).Ken Inglis (97) estimated that every second Australian family was in mourning after the Great War. Jay Winter (Sites 2) goes further arguing that “almost every family” in the British Commonwealth was grieving, either for a relative; or for a friend, work colleague, neighbour or lover. Nations were traumatised. Physical war memorials provided a focal point for that universal grief. They signalled, through their prominence in the landscape or dominance of a hilltop, that it was acceptable to grieve. Mourners were encouraged to gather around the memorial in a public place, particularly on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day each year. Grief was seen, observed, respected.Such was the industrial carnage of the Western Front, that about one third of Australia and New Zealand’s fatal casualties were not brought home. Families lost a family member, body and soul, in the Great War. For those people who subscribed to a Victorian view of death, who needed a body to grieve over, the war memorial took on the role of a gravesite and became a place where people would place a sprig of wattle, poke a poppy into the crevice beside a name, or simply touch the letters etched or embossed in the stone (Winter, Experience 206). As Ken Inglis states: “the statue on its pedestal does stand for each dead man whose body, identified or missing, intact or dispersed, had not been returned” to his home town (11).Physical war memorials were also a place where women could forge new identities over time. Women accepted, or claimed their status as war widows, grieving mothers or bereft fiancés, while at the same time coming to terms with their loss. As Joy Damousi writes: “mourning of wartime loss involved a process of sustaining both a continuity with, and a detachment from, a lost soldier” (1). Thus, physical war memorials were transitional, liminal spaces.Jay Winter (Sites 85) believes that physical war memorials were places to both honour and mourn the dead, wounded, missing and shell-shocked. These dual functions of both esteeming and grieving those who served was reinforced at ceremonies, such as Anzac or Remembrance Day.As Joy Damousi (156) and Ken Inglis (457, 463) point out, war memorials in Australia are rarely sites of protest, either for war widows or veterans campaigning for a better pension, or peace activists who opposed militarism. When they are used in this way, it makes headlines in the news (Legge). They are seldom used to highlight the tragedy, inhumanity or futility of war. The exception to this, were the protests against the Vietnam War.The physical war memorials which mushroomed in Australian country towns and cities after the First World War captured and claimed those cataclysmic four years for the families and communities who were devastated by the war. They provided a place to both honour and mourn those who served, not just once, but for as long as the memorial remained. They were also a place of pilgrimage, particularly for families who did not have a grave to visit and a focal point for the annual rituals of remembrance.However, over the past 100 years, some unmaintained physical war memorials are beginning to look like untended graves. They have become obstacles rather than sentinels in the landscape. Laurence Aberhart’s haunting photographs show that memorials in places like Dorrigo in rural New South Wales “go largely unnoticed year-round, encroached on by street signage and suburbia” (Lakin 49). Have physical war memorials largely fulfilled their purpose and are they becoming obsolete? Perhaps they have been supplanted by the gathering space of the 21st century: the Internet.Digital War MemorialsThe centenary of the Great War heralded a mushrooming of virtual war memorials. Online First World War memorials focus on collecting and amassing information that commemorates individuals. They are able to include far more information than will fit on a physical war memorial. They encourage users to search the digitised records that are available on the site and create profiles of people who served. While they deal in records from the past, they are very much about the present: the user experience and their connection to their ancestors who served.The Imperial War Museum’s website Lives of the First World War asks users to “help us build the permanent digital memorial to all who contributed during the First World War”. This request deserves scrutiny. Firstly, “permanent” – is this possible in the digital age? When the head of Google, Vint Cerf, disclosed in 2015 that software programming wizards were still grappling with how to create digital formats that can be accessed in 10, 100 or a 1000 years’ time; and recommended that we print out our precious digital data and store it in hard copy or risk losing it forever; then it appears that online permanency is a mirage.Secondly, “all who contributed” – the website administrators informed me that “all” currently includes people who served with Canada and Britain but the intention is to include other Commonwealth nations. It seems that the former British Empire “owns” the First World War – non-allied, non-Commonwealth nations that contributed to the First World War will not be included. One hundred years on, have we really made peace with Germany and Turkey? The armistice has not yet spread to the digital war memorial. The Lives of the First world War website missed an opportunity to be leaders in online trans-national memorialisation.Discovering Anzacs, a website built by the National Archives of Australia and Archives New Zealand, is a little more subdued and honest, as visitors are invited to “enhance a profile dedicated to the wartime journey of someone who served”.Physical and online war memorials can work in tandem. In 2015, the Supreme Court of Victoria created a website that provides background information on the military service of the 159 members of the legal profession who are named on their Memorial board. This is an excellent example of a digital medium expanding on and reinvigorating a physical memorial.It is noteworthy that all of these online memorial websites commemorate those who served in the First World War, and sometimes the Boer or South African War. There is no space for remembering those who served or died in more recent wars like Afghanistan or Iraq. James Brown and others discuss how the cult of Anzac is overshadowing the service and sacrifices of the men and women who have been to more recent wars. The proximity of their service mitigates against its recognition – it is too close for comfortable, detached remembrance.Complementary But Not ExclusiveA comparison of their functions indicates that online memorials which focus on the First World War complement, but will never replace the role of physical war memorials. As discussed, physical war memorials were sites for grieving, pilgrimage and collectively honouring the men and women who served and died. Online websites which allow users to upload scanned documents and photographs; transcribe diary entries or letters; post tribute poems, songs or video clips; and provide links to other relevant records online are neither places of pilgrimage nor sites for grieving. They are about remembrance, not memory (Scates, “Finding” 221).Ken Inglis describes physical war memorials as “bearers of collective memory” (7). In a sense, online war memorials are keepers of individual, user-enhanced archival records. It can be argued that online memorials to the First World War tap into the desire for hero-worship, the boom in family history research and what Scates calls the “cult of remembrance” (“Finding” 218). They provide a way for individuals, often two or three generations removed, to discover, understand and document the wartime experiences of individuals in their family. By allowing descendants to situate their family story within the larger, historically significant narrative of the First World War, online memorials encourage people to feel that the suffering and untimely death of their forbear wasn’t in vain – that it contributed to something worthwhile and worth remembering. At a collective level, this contributes to the ANZAC myth and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s attempt to use it as a foundational myth for Australia’s nationhood.Kylie Veale (9) argues that cyberspace has encouraged improvements on traditional memorial practices because online memorials can be created in a more timely fashion, they are more affordable and they are accessible and enable the sharing of grief and bereavement on a global scale. As evidence of this, an enterprising group in the USA has developed an android app which provides a template for creating an online memorial. They compete with Memorialsonline.com. Veale’s arguments remind us that the Internet is a hyper-democratic space where interactions and sites that are collaborative or contemplative exist alongside trolling and prejudice. Veale also contends that memorial websites facilitate digital immortality, which helps keep the memory of the deceased alive. However, given the impermanence of much of the content on the Internet, this final attribute is a bold claim.It is interesting to compare the way individual soldiers are remembered prior to and after the arrival of the Internet. Now that it is possible to create a tribute website, or Facebook page in memory of someone who served, do families do this instead of creating large physical scrapbooks or photo albums? Or do they do both? Garry Roberts created a ‘mourning diary’ as a record of his journey of agonising grief for his eldest son who died in 1918. His diary consists of 27 scrapbooks, weighing 10 kilograms in total. Pat Jalland (318) suggests this helped Roberts to create some sort of order out of his emotional turmoil. Similarly, building websites or digital tribute pages can help friends and relatives through the grieving process. They can also contribute the service person’s story to official websites such as those managed by the Australian Defence Forces. Do grieving family members look up a website or tribute page they’ve created in the same way that they might open up a scrapbook and remind themselves of their loved one? Kylie Veale’s research into online memorials created for anyone who has died, not necessarily those killed by war, suggests online memorials are used in this way (5).Do grieving relatives take comfort from the number of likes, tags or comments on a memorial or tribute website, in the same way that they might feel supported by the number of people who attend a memorial service or send a condolence card? Do they archive the comments? Garry Roberts kept copies of the letters of sympathy and condolence that he received from friends and relatives after his son’s tragic death and added them to his 27 scrapbooks.Both onsite and online memorials can suffer from lack of maintenance and relevance. Memorial websites can become moribund like untended headstones in a graveyard. Once they have passed their use as a focal point of grief, a place to post tributes; they can languish, un-updated and un-commented on.Memorials and PilgrimageOne thing that online memorials will never be, however, are sites of pilgrimage or ritual. One does not need to set out on a journey to visit an online memorial. It is as far away as your portable electronic device. Online memorials cannot provide the closure or sense of identity and community that comes from visiting a memorial or gravesite.This was evident in December 2014 when people felt the need to visit the Lindt Café in Sydney’s Martin Place after the terrorist siege and lay flowers and tributes. While there were also Facebook tribute pages set up for these victims of violence, mourners still felt the need to visit the sites. A permanent memorial to the victims of the siege has now opened in Martin Place.Do people gather around a memorial website for the annual rituals which take place on Anzac or Remembrance Day, or the anniversaries of significant battles? In 2013, the Australian War Memorial (AWM) saw a spike in people logging onto the Memorial’s Remembrance Day web page just prior to 11am. They left the site immediately after the minute’s silence. The AWM web team think they were looking for a live broadcast of the Remembrance Day service in Canberra. When that wasn’t available online, they chose to stay on the site until after the minute’s silence. Perhaps this helped them to focus on the reason for Remembrance Day. Perhaps, as Internet speeds get faster, it will be possible to conduct your own virtual ceremony in real time with friends and family in cyberspace.However, I cannot imagine a time when visiting dignitaries from other countries will post virtual wreaths to virtual war memorials. Ken Inglis argues that the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the AWM has become the ritual centre of the Australian nation, “receiving obligatory wreaths from every visiting head of state” (459).Physical and Online Memorials to the War in AfghanistanThere are only eight physical war memorials to the Afghanistan conflict in Australia, even though this is the longest war Australia has been involved in to date (2001-2015). Does the lack of physical memorials to the war in Afghanistan mean that our communities no longer need them, and that people are memorialising online instead?One grieving father in far north Queensland certainly felt that an online memorial would never suffice. Gordon Chuck’s son, Private Benjamin Chuck, was killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2010 when he was only 27 years old. Spurred by his son’s premature death, Gordon Chuck rallied family, community and government support, in the tiny hinterland town of Yungaburra, west of Cairns in Queensland, to establish an Avenue of Honour. He knocked on the doors of local businesses, the Returned Servicemen’s League (RSL), the Australian Defence Forces and every level of government to raise $300,000. His intention was to create a timeless memorial of world standard and national significance. On 21 June 2013, the third anniversary of his son’s death, the Chief of the Defence Force and the Prime Minister formally opened the Avenue of Honour in front of “thousands” of people (Nancarrow).Diggers from Afghanistan who have visited the Yungaburra Avenue of Honour speak of the closure and sense of healing it gave them (Nancarrow). The Avenue, built on the shores of Lake Tinaroo, features parallel rows of Illawarra flame trees, whose red blossoms are in full bloom around Remembrance Day and symbolise the blood and fire of war and the cycle of life. It commemorates all the Australian soldiers who have died in the Afghanistan war.The Avenue of Honour, and the memorial in Martin Place clearly demonstrate that physical war memorials are not redundant. They are needed and cherished as sites of grief, hope and commemoration. The rituals conducted there gather gravitas from the solemnity that falls when a sea of people is silent and they provide healing through the comfort of reverent strangers.ConclusionEven though we live in an era when most of us are online every day of our lives, it is unlikely that virtual war memorials will ever supplant their physical forebears. When it comes to commemorating the First World War or contemporary conflicts and those who fought or died in them, physical and virtual war memorials can be complementary but they fulfil fundamentally different roles. Because of their medium as virtual memorials, they will never fulfil the human need for a place of remembrance in the real world.ReferencesBinyon, Laurence. “For the Fallen.” The Times. 21 Sep. 1914. 7 Oct. 2019 <https://www.army.gov.au/our-history/traditions/for-the-fallen>.Brown, James. Anzac’s Long Shadow. Sydney: Black Inc., 2014.Damousi, Joy. The Labour of Loss. Great Britain: Cambridge UP, 1999.Hunter, Kathryn. “States of Mind: Remembering the Australian-New Zealand Relationship.” Journal of the Australian War Memorial 36 (2002). 7 Oct. 2019 <https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/journal/j36/nzmemorial>.Inglis, Ken. Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape. Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 1998.Inglis, Ken, and Jock Phillips. “War Memorials in Australia and New Zealand: A Comparative Survey.” Australian Historical Studies 24.96 (1991): 179-191.Jalland, Pat. Australian Ways of Death: A Social and Cultural History 1840-1918. London: Oxford University Press, 2002.Knapton, Sarah. “Print Out Digital Photos or Risk Losing Them, Google Boss Warns.” Telegraph 13 Feb. 2015. 7 Oct. 2019 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11410506/Print-out-digital-photos-or-risk-losing-them-Google-boss-warns.html>.Lakin, Shaune. “Laurence Aberhart ANZAC.” Artlink 35.1 (2015): 48-51.Legge, James. “Vandals Deface Two London War Memorials with ‘Islam’ Graffiti”. Independent 27 May 2013. 7 Oct. 2019 <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/vandals-deface-two-london-war-memorials-with-islam-graffiti-8633386.html>.Luckins, Tanya. The Gates of Memory. Fremantle, WA: Curtin University Books, 2004.McLuhan, Marshall. Understating Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: Mentor, 1964.McPhedran, Ian. “Families of Dead Soldiers Angered after Defence Chief David Hurley Donates Memorial Plinth to Avenue of Honour.” Cairns Post 7 June 2014. 7 Oct. 2019 <http://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/families-of-dead-soldiers-angered-after-defence-chief-david-hurley-donates-memorial-plinth-to-avenue-of-honour/story-fnjpusyw-1226946540125>.McPhedran, Ian. “Backflip over Donation of Memorial Stone from Afghanistan to Avenue of Honour at Yungaburra.” Cairns Post 11 June 2014. 7 Oct. 2019 <http://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/backflip-over-donation-of-memorial-stone-from-afghanistan-to-avenue-of-honour-at-yungaburra/story-fnkxmm0j-1226950508126>.Ministry for Culture and Heritage. “Interpreting First World War Memorials.” Updated 4 Sep. 2014. <http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/interpreting-first-world-war-memorials>.Nancarrow, Kirsty. “Thousands Attend Opening of Avenue of Honour, a Memorial to Diggers Killed in Afghanistan”. ABC News 7 Nov. 2014. 2 Oct. 2014 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-22/avenue-of-honour-remembers-fallen-diggers/4773592>.Scates, Bruce. “Finding the Missing of Fromelles: When Soldiers Return.” Anzac Legacies: Australians and the Aftermath of War. Eds. Martin Crotty and Marina Larsson. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2010. 212-231.Scates, Bruce. “Soldiers’ Journeys: Returning to the Battlefields of the Great War.” Journal of the Australian War Memorial 40 (2007): n.p.Scott, Ernest. Australia during the War: The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. Vol. XI. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1941.Stanley, Peter. “Ten Kilos of First World War Grief at the Melbourne Museum.” The Conversation 27 Aug. 2014. 10 Oct. 2019 <https://theconversation.com/ten-kilos-of-first-world-war-grief-at-the-melbourne-museum-30362>.Veale, Kylie. “Online Memorialisation: The Web as a Collective Memorial Landscape for Remembering the Dead.” Fibreculture Journal 3 (2004). 7 Oct. 2019 <http://three.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-014-online-memorialisation-the-web-as-a-collective-memorial-landscape-for-remembering-the-dead/>.Winter, Jay. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning. Cambrigde: Cambridge UP, 1995.———. The Experience of World War I. London: Macmillan, 1988.

Abstract:

Introduction With a deluge of mouthwatering pre-publicity, the opening of The Spotted Pig, the USA’s first self-identified British-styled gastropub, in Manhattan in February 2004 was much anticipated. The late Australian chef, food writer and restauranteur Mietta O’Donnell has noted how “taking over a building or business which has a long established reputation can be a mixed blessing” because of the way that memories “can enrich the experience of being in a place or they can just make people nostalgic”. Bistro Le Zoo, the previous eatery on the site, had been very popular when it opened almost a decade earlier, and its closure was mourned by some diners (Young; Kaminsky “Feeding Time”; Steinhauer & McGinty). This regret did not, however, appear to affect The Spotted Pig’s success. As esteemed New York Times reviewer Frank Bruni noted in his 2006 review: “Almost immediately after it opened […] the throngs started to descend, and they have never stopped”. The following year, The Spotted Pig was awarded a Michelin star—the first year that Michelin ranked New York—and has kept this star in the subsequent annual rankings. Writing Restaurant Biography Detailed studies have been published of almost every type of contemporary organisation including public institutions such as schools, hospitals, museums and universities, as well as non-profit organisations such as charities and professional associations. These are often written to mark a major milestone, or some significant change, development or the demise of the organisation under consideration (Brien). Detailed studies have also recently been published of businesses as diverse as general stores (Woody), art galleries (Fossi), fashion labels (Koda et al.), record stores (Southern & Branson), airlines (Byrnes; Jones), confectionary companies (Chinn) and builders (Garden). In terms of attracting mainstream readerships, however, few such studies seem able to capture popular reader interest as those about eating establishments including restaurants and cafés. This form of restaurant life history is, moreover, not restricted to ‘quality’ establishments. Fast food restaurant chains have attracted their share of studies (see, for example Love; Jakle & Sculle), ranging from business-economic analyses (Liu), socio-cultural political analyses (Watson), and memoirs (Kroc & Anderson), to criticism around their conduct and effects (Striffler). Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is the most well-known published critique of the fast food industry and its effects with, famously, the Rolling Stone article on which it was based generating more reader mail than any other piece run in the 1990s. The book itself (researched narrative creative nonfiction), moreover, made a fascinating transition to the screen, transformed into a fictionalised drama (co-written by Schlosser) that narrates the content of the book from the point of view of a series of fictional/composite characters involved in the industry, rather than in a documentary format. Akin to the range of studies of fast food restaurants, there are also a variety of studies of eateries in US motels, caravan parks, diners and service station restaurants (see, for example, Baeder). Although there has been little study of this sub-genre of food and drink publishing, their popularity can be explained, at least in part, because such volumes cater to the significant readership for writing about food related topics of all kinds, with food writing recently identified as mainstream literary fare in the USA and UK (Hughes) and an entire “publishing subculture” in Australia (Dunstan & Chaitman). Although no exact tally exists, an informed estimate by the founder of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards and president of the Paris Cookbook Fair, Edouard Cointreau, has more than 26,000 volumes on food and wine related topics currently published around the world annually (ctd. in Andriani “Gourmand Awards”). The readership for publications about restaurants can also perhaps be attributed to the wide range of information that can be included a single study. My study of a selection of these texts from the UK, USA and Australia indicates that this can include narratives of place and architecture dealing with the restaurant’s location, locale and design; narratives of directly food-related subject matter such as menus, recipes and dining trends; and narratives of people, in the stories of its proprietors, staff and patrons. Detailed studies of contemporary individual establishments commonly take the form of authorised narratives either written by the owners, chefs or other staff with the help of a food journalist, historian or other professional writer, or produced largely by that writer with the assistance of the premise’s staff. These studies are often extensively illustrated with photographs and, sometimes, drawings or reproductions of other artworks, and almost always include recipes. Two examples of these from my own collection include a centennial history of a famous New Orleans eatery that survived Hurricane Katrina, Galatoire’s Cookbook. Written by employees—the chief operating officer/general manager (Melvin Rodrigue) and publicist (Jyl Benson)—this incorporates reminiscences from both other staff and patrons. The second is another study of a New Orleans’ restaurant, this one by the late broadcaster and celebrity local historian Mel Leavitt. The Court of Two Sisters Cookbook: With a History of the French Quarter and the Restaurant, compiled with the assistance of the Two Sisters’ proprietor, Joseph Fein Joseph III, was first published in 1992 and has been so enduringly popular that it is in its eighth printing. These texts, in common with many others of this type, trace a triumph-over-adversity company history that incorporates a series of mildly scintillating anecdotes, lists of famous chefs and diners, and signature recipes. Although obviously focused on an external readership, they can also be characterised as an instance of what David M. Boje calls an organisation’s “story performance” (106) as the process of creating these narratives mobilises an organisation’s (in these cases, a commercial enterprise’s) internal information processing and narrative building activities. Studies of contemporary restaurants are much more rarely written without any involvement from the eatery’s personnel. When these are, the results tend to have much in common with more critical studies such as Fast Food Nation, as well as so-called architectural ‘building biographies’ which attempt to narrate the historical and social forces that “explain the shapes and uses” (Ellis, Chao & Parrish 70) of the physical structures we create. Examples of this would include Harding’s study of the importance of the Boeuf sur le Toit in Parisian life in the 1920s and Middlebrook’s social history of London’s Strand Corner House. Such work agrees with Kopytoff’s assertion—following Appadurai’s proposal that objects possess their own ‘biographies’ which need to be researched and expressed—that such inquiry can reveal not only information about the objects under consideration, but also about readers as we examine our “cultural […] aesthetic, historical, and even political” responses to these narratives (67). The life story of a restaurant will necessarily be entangled with those of the figures who have been involved in its establishment and development, as well as the narratives they create around the business. This following brief study of The Spotted Pig, however, written without the assistance of the establishment’s personnel, aims to outline a life story for this eatery in order to reflect upon the pig’s place in contemporary dining practice in New York as raw foodstuff, fashionable comestible, product, brand, symbol and marketing tool, as well as, at times, purely as an animal identity. The Spotted Pig Widely profiled before it even opened, The Spotted Pig is reportedly one of the city’s “most popular” restaurants (Michelin 349). It is profiled in all the city guidebooks I could locate in print and online, featuring in some of these as a key stop on recommended itineraries (see, for instance, Otis 39). A number of these proclaim it to be the USA’s first ‘gastropub’—the term first used in 1991 in the UK to describe a casual hotel/bar with good food and reasonable prices (Farley). The Spotted Pig is thus styled on a shabby-chic version of a traditional British hotel, featuring a cluttered-but-well arranged use of pig-themed objects and illustrations that is described by latest Michelin Green Guide of New York City as “a country-cute décor that still manages to be hip” (Michelin 349). From the three-dimensional carved pig hanging above the entrance in a homage to the shingles of traditional British hotels, to the use of its image on the menu, website and souvenir tee-shirts, the pig as motif proceeds its use as a foodstuff menu item. So much so, that the restaurant is often (affectionately) referred to by patrons and reviewers simply as ‘The Pig’. The restaurant has become so well known in New York in the relatively brief time it has been operating that it has not only featured in a number of novels and memoirs, but, moreover, little or no explanation has been deemed necessary as the signifier of “The Spotted Pig” appears to convey everything that needs to be said about an eatery of quality and fashion. In the thriller Lethal Experiment: A Donovan Creed Novel, when John Locke’s hero has to leave the restaurant and becomes involved in a series of dangerous escapades, he wants nothing more but to get back to his dinner (107, 115). The restaurant is also mentioned a number of times in Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell’s Lipstick Jungle in relation to a (fictional) new movie of the same name. The joke in the book is that the character doesn’t know of the restaurant (26). In David Goodwillie’s American Subversive, the story of a journalist-turned-blogger and a homegrown terrorist set in New York, the narrator refers to “Scarlett Johansson, for instance, and the hostess at the Spotted Pig” (203-4) as the epitome of attractiveness. The Spotted Pig is also mentioned in Suzanne Guillette’s memoir, Much to Your Chagrin, when the narrator is on a dinner date but fears running into her ex-boyfriend: ‘Jack lives somewhere in this vicinity […] Vaguely, you recall him telling you he was not too far from the Spotted Pig on Greenwich—now, was it Greenwich Avenue or Greenwich Street?’ (361). The author presumes readers know the right answer in order to build tension in this scene. Although this success is usually credited to the joint efforts of backer, music executive turned restaurateur Ken Friedman, his partner, well-known chef, restaurateur, author and television personality Mario Batali, and their UK-born and trained chef, April Bloomfield (see, for instance, Batali), a significant part has been built on Bloomfield’s pork cookery. The very idea of a “spotted pig” itself raises a central tenet of Bloomfield’s pork/food philosophy which is sustainable and organic. That is, not the mass produced, industrially farmed pig which produces a leaner meat, but the fatty, tastier varieties of pig such as the heritage six-spotted Berkshire which is “darker, more heavily marbled with fat, juicier and richer-tasting than most pork” (Fabricant). Bloomfield has, indeed, made pig’s ears—long a Chinese restaurant staple in the city and a key ingredient of Southern US soul food as well as some traditional Japanese and Spanish dishes—fashionable fare in the city, and her current incarnation, a crispy pig’s ear salad with lemon caper dressing (TSP 2010) is much acclaimed by reviewers. This approach to ingredients—using the ‘whole beast’, local whenever possible, and the concentration on pork—has been underlined and enhanced by a continuing relationship with UK chef Fergus Henderson. In his series of London restaurants under the banner of “St. John”, Henderson is famed for the approach to pork cookery outlined in his two books Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking, published in 1999 (re-published both in the UK and the US as The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating), and Beyond Nose to Tail: A Kind of British Cooking: Part II (coauthored with Justin Piers Gellatly in 2007). Henderson has indeed been identified as starting a trend in dining and food publishing, focusing on sustainably using as food the entirety of any animal killed for this purpose, but which mostly focuses on using all parts of pigs. In publishing, this includes Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book, Peter Kaminsky’s Pig Perfect, subtitled Encounters with Some Remarkable Swine and Some Great Ways to Cook Them, John Barlow’s Everything but the Squeal: Eating the Whole Hog in Northern Spain and Jennifer McLagan’s Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes (2008). In restaurants, it certainly includes The Spotted Pig. So pervasive has embrace of whole beast pork consumption been in New York that, by 2007, Bruni could write that these are: “porky times, fatty times, which is to say very good times indeed. Any new logo for the city could justifiably place the Big Apple in the mouth of a spit-roasted pig” (Bruni). This demand set the stage perfectly for, in October 2007, Henderson to travel to New York to cook pork-rich menus at The Spotted Pig in tandem with Bloomfield (Royer). He followed this again in 2008 and, by 2009, this annual event had become known as “FergusStock” and was covered by local as well as UK media, and a range of US food weblogs. By 2009, it had grown to become a dinner at the Spotted Pig with half the dishes on the menu by Henderson and half by Bloomfield, and a dinner the next night at David Chang’s acclaimed Michelin-starred Momof*cku Noodle Bar, which is famed for its Cantonese-style steamed pork belly buns. A third dinner (and then breakfast/brunch) followed at Friedman/Bloomfield’s Breslin Bar and Dining Room (discussed below) (Rose). The Spotted Pig dinners have become famed for Henderson’s pig’s head and pork trotter dishes with the chef himself recognising that although his wasn’t “the most obvious food to cook for America”, it was the case that “at St John, if a couple share a pig’s head, they tend to be American” (qtd. in Rose). In 2009, the pigs’ head were presented in pies which Henderson has described as “puff pastry casing, with layers of chopped, cooked pig’s head and potato, so all the lovely, bubbly pig’s head juices go into the potato” (qtd. in Rose). Bloomfield was aged only 28 when, in 2003, with a recommendation from Jamie Oliver, she interviewed for, and won, the position of executive chef of The Spotted Pig (Fabricant; Q&A). Following this introduction to the US, her reputation as a chef has grown based on the strength of her pork expertise. Among a host of awards, she was named one of US Food & Wine magazine’s ten annual Best New Chefs in 2007. In 2009, she was a featured solo session titled “Pig, Pig, Pig” at the fourth Annual International Chefs Congress, a prestigious New York City based event where “the world’s most influential and innovative chefs, pastry chefs, mixologists, and sommeliers present the latest techniques and culinary concepts to their peers” (Starchefs.com). Bloomfield demonstrated breaking down a whole suckling St. Canut milk raised piglet, after which she butterflied, rolled and slow-poached the belly, and fried the ears. As well as such demonstrations of expertise, she is also often called upon to provide expert comment on pork-related news stories, with The Spotted Pig regularly the subject of that food news. For example, when a rare, heritage Hungarian pig was profiled as a “new” New York pork source in 2009, this story arose because Bloomfield had served a Mangalitsa/Berkshire crossbreed pig belly and trotter dish with Agen prunes (Sanders) at The Spotted Pig. Bloomfield was quoted as the authority on the breed’s flavour and heritage authenticity: “it took me back to my grandmother’s kitchen on a Sunday afternoon, windows steaming from the roasting pork in the oven […] This pork has that same authentic taste” (qtd. in Sanders). Bloomfield has also used this expert profile to support a series of pork-related causes. These include the Thanksgiving Farm in the Catskill area, which produces free range pork for its resident special needs children and adults, and helps them gain meaningful work-related skills in working with these pigs. Bloomfield not only cooks for the project’s fundraisers, but also purchases any excess pigs for The Spotted Pig (Estrine 103). This strong focus on pork is not, however, exclusive. The Spotted Pig is also one of a number of American restaurants involved in the Meatless Monday campaign, whereby at least one vegetarian option is included on menus in order to draw attention to the benefits of a plant-based diet. When, in 2008, Bloomfield beat the Iron Chef in the sixth season of the US version of the eponymous television program, the central ingredient was nothing to do with pork—it was olives. Diversifying from this focus on ‘pig’ can, however, be dangerous. Friedman and Bloomfield’s next enterprise after The Spotted Pig was The John Dory seafood restaurant at the corner of 10th Avenue and 16th Street. This opened in November 2008 to reviews that its food was “uncomplicated and nearly perfect” (Andrews 22), won Bloomfield Time Out New York’s 2009 “Best New Hand at Seafood” award, but was not a success. The John Dory was a more formal, but smaller, restaurant that was more expensive at a time when the financial crisis was just biting, and was closed the following August. Friedman blamed the layout, size and neighbourhood (Stein) and its reservation system, which limited walk-in diners (ctd. in Vallis), but did not mention its non-pork, seafood orientation. When, almost immediately, another Friedman/Bloomfield project was announced, the Breslin Bar & Dining Room (which opened in October 2009 in the Ace Hotel at 20 West 29th Street and Broadway), the enterprise was closely modeled on the The Spotted Pig. In preparation, its senior management—Bloomfield, Friedman and sous-chefs, Nate Smith and Peter Cho (who was to become the Breslin’s head chef)—undertook a tasting tour of the UK that included Henderson’s St. John Bread & Wine Bar (Leventhal). Following this, the Breslin’s menu highlighted a series of pork dishes such as terrines, sausages, ham and potted styles (Rosenberg & McCarthy), with even Bloomfield’s pork scratchings (crispy pork rinds) bar snacks garnering glowing reviews (see, for example, Severson; Ghorbani). Reviewers, moreover, waxed lyrically about the menu’s pig-based dishes, the New York Times reviewer identifying this focus as catering to New York diners’ “fetish for pork fat” (Sifton). This representative review details not only “an entree of gently smoked pork belly that’s been roasted to tender goo, for instance, over a drift of buttery mashed potatoes, with cabbage and bacon on the side” but also a pig’s foot “in gravy made of reduced braising liquid, thick with pillowy shallots and green flecks of deconstructed brussels sprouts” (Sifton). Sifton concluded with the proclamation that this style of pork was “very good: meat that is fat; fat that is meat”. Concluding remarks Bloomfield has listed Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie as among her favourite food books. Publishers Weekly reviewer called Ruhlman “a food poet, and the pig is his muse” (Q&A). In August 2009, it was reported that Bloomfield had always wanted to write a cookbook (Marx) and, in July 2010, HarperCollins imprint Ecco publisher and foodbook editor Dan Halpern announced that he was planning a book with her, tentatively titled, A Girl and Her Pig (Andriani “Ecco Expands”). As a “cookbook with memoir running throughout” (Maurer), this will discuss the influence of the pig on her life as well as how to cook pork. This text will obviously also add to the data known about The Spotted Pig, but until then, this brief gastrobiography has attempted to outline some of the human, and in this case, animal, stories that lie behind all businesses. References Andrews, Colman. “Its Up To You, New York, New York.” Gourmet Apr. (2009): 18-22, 111. Andriani, Lynn. “Ecco Expands Cookbook Program: HC Imprint Signs Up Seven New Titles.” Publishers Weekly 12 Jul. (2010) 3 Sep. 2010 http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/cooking/article/43803-ecco-expands-cookbook-program.html Andriani, Lynn. “Gourmand Awards Receive Record Number of Cookbook Entries.” Publishers Weekly 27 Sep. 2010 http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/cooking/article/44573-gourmand-awards-receive-record-number-of-cookbook-entries.html Appadurai, Arjun. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspectives. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press, 2003. First pub. 1986. Baeder, John. Gas, Food, and Lodging. New York: Abbeville Press, 1982. Barlow, John. Everything But the Squeal: Eating the Whole Hog in Northern Spain. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. Batali, Mario. “The Spotted Pig.” Mario Batali 2010. 3 Sep. 2010 http://www.mariobatali.com/restaurants_spottedpig.cfm Boje, David M. “The Storytelling Organization: A Study of Story Performance in an Office-Supply Firm.” Administrative Science Quarterly 36.1 (1991): 106-126. 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Abstract:

Introduction When a text is said to be re-appropriated, it is at times unclear to what extent this appropriation is secondary, repeated, new; certainly, the difference between a reiteration and an iteration has more to do with emphasis than any (re)duplication. And at a moment in the development of crime fiction in France when the retranslation of now apparently dated French translations of the works of classic American hardboiled novels (especially those of authors like Dashiell Hammett, whose novels were published in Marcel Duhamel’s Série Noire at Gallimard in the decades following the end of the Second World War) is being undertaken with the ostensible aim of taking the French reader back (closer) to the American original, one may well ask where the emphasis now lies. In what ways, for example, is this new form of re-production, of re-imagining the text, more intimately bound to the original, and thus in itself less ‘original’ than its translated predecessors? Or again, is this more reactionary ‘re-’ in fact really that different from those more radical uses that cleaved the translation from its original text in those early, foundational years of twentieth-century French crime fiction? (Re-)Reading: Critical Theory and Originality My juxtaposition of the terms ‘reactionary’ and ‘radical’, and the attempted play on the auto-antonymy of the verb ‘to cleave’, are designed to prompt a re(-)read of the analysis that so famously took the text away from the author in the late-1960s through to the 1990s, which is to say the critical theory of poststructuralism and deconstruction. Roland Barthes’s work (especially 69–77) appropriated the familiar terms of literary analysis and reversed them, making of them perhaps a re-appropriation in the sense of taking them into new territory: the text, formerly a paper-based platform for the written word, was now a virtual interface between the word and its reader, the new locus of the production of meaning; the work, on the other hand, which had previously pertained to the collective creative imaginings of the author, was now synonymous with the physical writing passed on by the author to the reader. And by ‘passed on’ was meant ‘passed over’, achevé (perfected, terminated, put to death)—completed, then, but only insofar as its finite sequence of words was set; for its meaning was henceforth dependent on its end user. The new textual life that surged from the ‘death of the author’ was therefore always already an afterlife, a ‘living on’, to use Jacques Derrida’s term (Bloom et al. 75–176). It is in this context that the re-reading encouraged by Barthes has always appeared to mark a rupture a teasing of ‘reading’ away from the original series of words and the ‘Meaning’ as intended by the author, if any coherence of intention is possible across the finite sequence of words that constitute the written work. The reader must learn to re-read, Barthes implored, or otherwise be condemned to read the same text everywhere. In this sense, the ‘re-’ prefix marks an active engagement with the text, a reflexivity of the act of reading as an act of transformation. The reader whose consumption of the text is passive, merely digestive, will not transform the words (into meaning); and crucially, that reader will not herself be transformed. For this is the power of reflexive reading—when one reads text as text (and not ‘losing oneself’ in the story) one reconstitutes oneself (or, perhaps, loses control of oneself more fully, more productively); not to do so, is to take an unchanged constant (oneself) into every textual encounter and thus to produce sameness in ostensible difference. One who rereads a text and discovers the same story twice will therefore reread even when reading a text for the first time. The hyphen of the re-read, on the other hand, distances the reader from the text; but it also, of course, conjoins. It marks the virtual space where reading occurs, between the physical text and the reading subject; and at the same time, it links all texts in an intertextual arena, such that the reading experience of any one text is informed by the reading of all texts (whether they be works read by an individual reader or works as yet unencountered). Such a theory of reading appears to shift originality so far from the author’s work as almost to render the term obsolete. But the thing about reflexivity is that it depends on the text itself, to which it always returns. As Barbara Johnson has noted, the critical difference marked by Barthes’s understandings of the text, and his calls to re-read it, is not what differentiates it from other texts—the universality of the intertext and the reading space underlines this; instead, it is what differentiates the text from itself (“Critical Difference” 175). And while Barthes’s work packages this differentiation as a rupture, a wrenching of ownership away from the author to a new owner, the work and text appear less violently opposed in the works of the Yale School deconstructionists. In such works as J. Hillis Miller’s “The Critic as Host” (1977), the hyphenation of the re-read is less marked, with re-reading, as a divergence from the text as something self-founding, self-coinciding, emerging as something inherent in the original text. The cleaving of one from and back into the other takes on, in Miller’s essay, the guise of parasitism: the host, a term that etymologically refers to the owner who invites and the guest who is invited, offers a figure for critical reading that reveals the potential for creative readings of ‘meaning’ (what Miller calls the nihilistic text) inside the transparent ‘Meaning’ of the text, by which we recognise one nonetheless autonomous text from another (the metaphysical text). Framed in such terms, reading is a reaction to text, but also an action of text. I should argue then that any engagement with the original is re-actionary—my caveat being that this hyphenation is a marker of auto-antonymy, a link between the text and otherness. Translation and Originality Questions of a translator’s status and the originality of the translated text remain vexed. For scholars of translation studies like Brian Nelson, the product of literary translation can legitimately be said to have been authored by its translator, its status as literary text being equal to that of the original (3; see also Wilson and Gerber). Such questions are no more or less vexed today, however, than they were in the days when criticism was grappling with translation through the lens of deconstruction. To refer again to the remarkable work of Johnson, Derrida’s theorisation of textual ‘living on’—the way in which text, at its inception, primes itself for re-imagining, by dint of the fundamental différance of the chains of signification that are its DNA—bears all the trappings of self-translation. Johnson uses the term ‘self-différance’ (“Taking Fidelity” 146–47) in this respect and notes how Derrida took on board, and discussed with him, the difficulties that he was causing for his translator even as he was writing the ‘original’ text of his essay. If translation, in this framework, is rendered impossible because of the original’s failure to coincide with itself in a transparently meaningful way, then its practice “releases within each text the subversive forces of its own foreignness” (Johnson, “Taking Fidelity” 148), thereby highlighting the debt owed by Derrida’s notion of textual ‘living on’—in (re-)reading—to Walter Benjamin’s understanding of translation as a mode, its translatability, the way in which it primes itself for translation virtually, irrespective of whether or not it is actually translated (70). In this way, translation is a privileged site of textual auto-differentiation, and translated text can, accordingly, be considered every bit as ‘original’ as its source text—simply more reflexive, more aware of its role as a conduit between the words on the page and the re-imagining that they undergo, by which they come to mean, when they are re-activated by the reader. Emily Apter—albeit in a context that has more specifically to do with the possibilities of comparative literature and the real-world challenges of language in war zones—describes the auto-differentiating nature of translation as “a means of repositioning the subject in the world and in history; a means of rendering self-knowledge foreign to itself; a way of denaturalizing citizens, taking them out of the comfort zone of national space, daily ritual, and pre-given domestic arrangements” (6). In this way, translation is “a significant medium of subject re-formation and political change” (Apter 6). Thus, translation lends itself to crime fiction; for both function as highly reflexive sites of transformation: both provide a reader with a heightened sense of the transformation that she is enacting on the text and that she herself embodies as a reading subject, a subject changed by reading. Crime Fiction, Auto-Differention and Translation As has been noted elsewhere (Rolls), Fredric Jameson made an enigmatic reference to crime fiction’s perceived role as the new Realism as part of his plenary lecture at “Telling Truths: Crime Fiction and National Allegory”, a conference held at the University of Wollongong on 6–8 December 2012. He suggested, notably, that one might imagine an author of Scandi-Noir writing in tandem with her translator. While obvious questions of the massive international marketing machine deployed around this contemporary phenomenon come to mind, and I suspect that this is how Jameson’s comment was generally understood, it is tempting to consider this Scandinavian writing scenario in terms of Derrida’s proleptic considerations of his own translator. In this way, crime fiction’s most telling role, as one of the most widely read contemporary literary forms, is its translatability; its haunting descriptions of place (readers, we tend, perhaps precipitously, to assume, love crime fiction for its national, regional or local situatedness) are thus tensely primed for re-location, for Apter’s ‘subject re-formation’. The idea of ‘the new Realism’ of crime, and especially detective, fiction is predicated on the tightly (self-)policed rules according to which crime fiction operates. The reader appears to enter into an investigation alongside the detective, co-authoring the crime text in real (reading) time, only for authorial power to be asserted in the unveiling scene of the denouement. What masquerades as the ultimately writerly text, in Barthes’s terms, turns out to be the ultimate in transparently meaningful literature when the solution is set in stone by the detective. As such, the crime novel is far more dependent on descriptions of the minutiae of everyday life (in a given place in time) than other forms of fiction, as these provide the clues on which its intricate plot hinges. According to this understanding, crime fiction records history and transcribes national allegories. This is not only a convincing way of understanding crime fiction, but it is also an extremely powerful way of harnessing it for the purposes of cultural history. Claire Gorrara, for example, uses the development of French crime fiction plots over the course of the second half of the twentieth century to map France’s coming to terms with the legacy of the Second World War. This is the national allegory written in real time, as the nation heals and moves on, and this is crime fiction as a reaction to national allegory. My contention here, on the other hand, is that crime fiction, like translation, has at its core an inherent, and reflexive, tendency towards otherness. Indeed, this is because crime fiction, whose origins in transnational (and especially Franco-American) literary exchange have been amply mapped but not, I should argue, extrapolated to their fullest extent, is forged in translation. It is widely considered that when Edgar Allan Poe produced his seminal text “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) he created modern crime fiction. And yet, this was made possible because the text was translated into French by Charles Baudelaire and met with great success in France, far more so indeed than in its original place of authorship. Its original setting, however, was not America but Paris; its translatability as French text preceded, even summoned, its actualisation in the form of Baudelaire’s translation. Furthermore, the birth of the great armchair detective, the exponent of pure, objective deduction, in the form of C. Auguste Dupin, is itself turned on its head, a priori, because Dupin, in this first Parisian short story, always already off-sets objectivity with subjectivity, ratiocination with a tactile apprehension of the scene of the crime. He even goes as far as to accuse the Parisian Prefect of Police of one-dimensional objectivity. (Dupin undoes himself, debunking the myth of his own characterisation, even as he takes to the stage.) In this way, Poe founded his crime fiction on a fundamental tension; and this tension called out to its translator so powerfully that Baudelaire claimed to be translating his own thoughts, as expressed by Poe, even before he had had a chance to think them (see Rolls and Sitbon). Thus, Poe was Parisian avant la lettre, his crime fiction a model for Baudelaire’s own prose poetry, the new voice of critical modernity in the mid-nineteenth century. If Baudelaire went on to write Paris in the form of Paris Spleen (1869), his famous collection of “little prose poems”, both as it is represented (timelessly, poetically) and as it presents itself (in real time, prosaically) at the same time, it was not only because he was spontaneously creating a new national allegory for France based on its cleaving of itself in the wake of Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s massive programme of urbanisation in Paris in the 1800s; it was also because he was translating Poe’s fictionalisation of Paris in his new crime fiction. Crime fiction was born therefore not only simultaneously in France and America but also in the translation zone between the two, in the self-différance of translation. In this way, while a strong claim can be made that modern French crime fiction is predicated on, and reacts to, the auto-differentiation (of critical modernity, of Paris versus Paris) articulated in Baudelaire’s prose poems and therefore tells the national allegory, it is also the case, and it is this aspect that is all too often overlooked, that crime fiction’s birth in Franco-American translation founded the new French national allegory. Re-imagining America in (French) Crime Fiction Pierre Bayard has done more than any other critic in recent years to debunk the authorial power of the detective in crime fiction, beginning with his re-imagining of the solution to Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and continuing with that of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1998 and 2008, respectively). And yet, even as he has engaged with poststructuralist re-readings of these texts, he has put in place his own solutions, elevating them away from his own initial premise of writerly engagement towards a new metaphysics of “Meaning”, be it ironically or because he has fallen prey himself to the seduction of detectival truth. This reactionary turn, or sting-lessness in the tail, reaches new heights (of irony) in the essay in which he imagines the consequences of liberating novels from their traditional owners and coupling them with new authors (Bayard, Et si les œuvres changeaient d’auteur?). Throughout this essay Bayard systematically prefers the terms “work” and “author” to “text” and “reader”, liberating the text not only from the shackles of traditional notions of authorship but also from the terminological reshuffling of his and others’ critical theory, while at the same time clinging to the necessity for textual meaning to stem from authorship and repackaging what is, in all but terminology, Barthes et al.’s critical theory. Caught up in the bluff and double-bluff of Bayard’s authorial redeployments is a chapter on what is generally considered the greatest work of parody of twentieth-century French crime fiction—Boris Vian’s pseudo-translation of black American author Vernon Sullivan’s novel J’irai cracher sur vos tombes (1946, I Shall Spit on Your Graves). The novel was a best seller in France in 1946, outstripping by far the novels of the Série Noire, whose fame and marketability were predicated on their status as “Translations from the American” and of which it appeared a brazen parody. Bayard’s decision to give credibility to Sullivan as author is at once perverse, because it is clear that he did not exist, and reactionary, because it marks a return to Vian’s original conceit. And yet, it passes for innovative, not (or at least not only) because of Bayard’s brilliance but because of the literary qualities of the original text, which, Bayard argues, must have been written in “American” in order to produce such a powerful description of American society at the time. Bayard’s analysis overlooks (or highlights, if we couch his entire project in a hermeneutics of inversion, based on the deliberate, and ironic, re-reversal of the terms “work” and “text”) two key elements of post-war French crime fiction: the novels of the Série Noire that preceded J’irai cracher sur vos tombes in late 1945 and early 1946 were all written by authors posing as Americans (Peter Cheyney and James Hadley Chase were in fact English) and the translations were deliberately unfaithful both to the original text, which was drastically domesticated, and to any realistic depiction of America. While Anglo-Saxon French Studies has tended to overlook the latter aspect, Frank Lhomeau has highlighted the fact that the America that held sway in the French imaginary (from Liberation through to the 1960s and beyond) was a myth rather than a reality. To take this reasoning one logical, reflexive step further, or in fact less far, the object of Vian’s (highly reflexive) novel, which may better be considered a satire than a parody, can be considered not to be race relations in the United States but the French crime fiction scene in 1946, of which its pseudo-translation (which is to say, a novel not written by an American and not translated) is metonymic (see Vuaille-Barcan, Sitbon and Rolls). (For Isabelle Collombat, “pseudo-translation functions as a mise en abyme of a particular genre” [146, my translation]; this reinforces the idea of a conjunction of translation and crime fiction under the sign of reflexivity.) Re-imagined beneath this wave of colourful translations of would-be American crime novels is a new national allegory for a France emerging from the ruins of German occupation and Allied liberation. The re-imagining of France in the years immediately following the Second World War is therefore not mapped, or imagined again, by crime fiction; rather, the combination of translation and American crime fiction provide the perfect storm for re-creating a national sense of self through the filter of the Other. For what goes for the translator, goes equally for the reader. Conclusion As Johnson notes, “through the foreign language we renew our love-hate intimacy with our mother tongue”; and as such, “in the process of translation from one language to another, the scene of linguistic castration […] is played on center stage, evoking fear and pity and the illusion that all would perhaps have been well if we could simply have stayed at home” (144). This, of course, is just what had happened one hundred years earlier when Baudelaire created a new prose poetics for a new Paris. In order to re-present (both present and represent) Paris, he focused so close on it as to erase it from objective view. And in the same instance of supreme literary creativity, he masked the origins of his own translation praxis: his Paris was also Poe’s, which is to say, an American vision of Paris translated into French by an author who considered his American alter ego to have had his own thoughts in an act of what Bayard would consider anticipatory plagiarism. In this light, his decision to entitle one of the prose poems “Any where out of the world”—in English in the original—can be considered a Derridean reflection on the translation inherent in any original act of literary re-imagination. Paris, crime fiction and translation can thus all be considered privileged sites of re-imagination, which is to say, embodiments of self-différance and “original” acts of re-reading. References Apter, Emily. The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2006. Barthes, Roland. Le Bruissem*nt de la langue. Paris: Seuil, 1971. Baudelaire, Charles. Le Spleen de Paris. Trans. Louise Varèse. New York: New Directions, 1970 [1869]. Bayard, Pierre. Qui a tué Roger Ackroyd? Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1998. ———. L’Affaire du chien des Baskerville. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 2008. ———. Et si les œuvres changeaient d’auteur? Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 2010. Benjamin, Walter. “The Task of the Translator.” Illuminations. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1968. 69–82. Bloom, Harold, et al. Deconstruction and Criticism. New York: The Seabury Press, 1979. Collombat, Isabelle. “Pseudo-traduction: la mise en scène de l’altérité.” Le Langage et l’Homme 38.1 (2003): 145–56. Gorrara, Claire. French Crime Fiction and the Second World War: Past Crimes, Present Memories. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2012. Johnson, Barbara. “Taking Fidelity Philosophically.” Difference in Translation. Ed. Joseph F. Graham. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1985. 142–48. ———. “The Critical Difference.” Critical Essays on Roland Barthes. Ed. Diana Knight. New York: G.K. Hall, 2000. 174–82. Lhomeau, Frank. “Le roman ‘noir’ à l’américaine.” Temps noir 4 (2000): 5–33. Miller, J. Hillis. “The Critic as Host.” Critical Inquiry 3.3 (1977): 439–47. Nelson, Brian. “Preface: Translation Lost and Found.” Australian Journal of French Studies 47.1 (2010): 3–7. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Vintage Books, [1841]1975. 141–68. Rolls, Alistair. “Editor’s Letter: The Undecidable Lightness of Writing Crime.” The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 3.1 (2014): 3–8. Rolls, Alistair, and Clara Sitbon. “‘Traduit de l’américain’ from Poe to the Série Noire: Baudelaire’s Greatest Hoax?” Modern and Contemporary France 21.1 (2013): 37–53. Vuaille-Barcan, Marie-Laure, Clara Sitbon, and Alistair Rolls. “Jeux textuels et paratextuels dans J’irai cracher sur vos tombes: au-delà du canular.” Romance Studies 32.1 (2014): 16–26. Wilson, Rita, and Leah Gerber, eds. Creative Constraints: Translation and Authorship. Melbourne: Monash UP, 2012.

Abstract:

“Journalists have to begin a new type of journalism, sometimes being the guide on the side of the civic conversation as well as the filter and gatekeeper.” (Kolodzy 218) “In many respects, citizen journalism is simply public journalism removed from the journalism profession.” (Barlow 181) 1. Citizen Journalism — The Latest Innovation? New Media theorists such as Dan Gillmor, Henry Jenkins, Jay Rosen and Jeff Howe have recently touted Citizen Journalism (CJ) as the latest innovation in 21st century journalism. “Participatory journalism” and “user-driven journalism” are other terms to describe CJ, which its proponents argue is a disruptive innovation (Christensen) to the agenda-setting media institutions, news values and “objective” reportage. In this essay I offer a “contrarian” view, informed by two perspectives: (1) a three-stage model of theory-building (Carlile & Christensen) to evaluate the claims made about CJ; and (2) self-reflexive research insights (Etherington) from editing the US-based news site Disinformation between November 1999 and February 2008. New media theories can potentially create “cognitive dissonance” (Festinger) when their explanations of CJ practices are compared with what actually happens (Feyerabend). First I summarise Carlile & Christensen’s model and the dangers of “bad theory” (Ghoshal). Next I consider several problems in new media theories about CJ: the notion of ‘citizen’, new media populism, parallels in event-driven and civic journalism, and mergers and acquisitions. Two ‘self-reflexive’ issues are considered: ‘pro-ams’ or ‘professional amateurs’ as a challenge to professional journalists, and CJ’s deployment in new media operations and production environments. Finally, some exploratory questions are offered for future researchers. 2. An Evaluative Framework for New Media Theories on Citizen Journalism Paul Carlile and Clayton M. Christensen’s model offers one framework with which to evaluate new media theories on CJ. This framework is used below to highlight select issues and gaps in CJ’s current frameworks and theories. Carlile & Christensen suggest that robust theory-building emerges via three stages: Descriptive, Categorisation and Normative (Carlile & Christensen). There are three sub-stages in Descriptive theory-building; namely, the observation of phenomena, inductive classification into schemas and taxonomies, and correlative relationships to develop models (Carlile & Christensen 2-5). Once causation is established, Normative theory evolves through deductive logic which is subject to Kuhnian paradigm shifts and Popperian falsifiability (Carlile & Christensen 6). Its proponents situate CJ as a Categorisation or new journalism agenda that poses a Normative challenged and Kuhnian paradigm shift to traditional journalism. Existing CJ theories jump from the Descriptive phase of observations like “smart mobs” in Japanese youth subcultures (Rheingold) to make broad claims for Categorisation such as that IndyMedia, blogs and wiki publishing systems as new media alternatives to traditional media. CJ theories then underpin normative beliefs, values and worldviews. Correlative relationships are also used to differentiate CJ from the demand side of microeconomic analysis, from the top-down editorial models of traditional media outlets, and to adopt a vanguard stance. To support this, CJ proponents cite research on emergent collective behaviour such as the “wisdom of crowds” hypothesis (Surowiecki) or peer-to-peer network “swarms” (Pesce) to provide scientific justification for their Normative theories. However, further evaluative research is needed for three reasons: the emergent collective behaviour hypothesis may not actually inform CJ practices, existing theories may have “correlation not cause” errors, and the link may be due to citation network effects between CJ theorists. Collectively, this research base also frames CJ as an “ought to” Categorisation and then proceeds to Normative theory-building (Carlile & Christensen 7). However, I argue below that this Categorisation may be premature: its observations and correlative relationships might reinforce a ‘weak’ Normative theory with limited generalisation. CJ proponents seem to imply that it can be applied anywhere and under any condition—a “statement of causality” that almost makes it a fad (Carlile & Christensen 8). CJ that relies on Classification and Normative claims will be problematic without a strong grounding in Descriptive observation. To understand what’s potentially at stake for CJ’s future consider the consider the parallel debate about curricula renewal for the Masters of Business Administration in the wake of high-profile corporate collapses such as Enron, Worldcom, HIH and OneTel. The MBA evolved as a sociological and institutional construct to justify management as a profession that is codified, differentiated and has entry barriers (Khurana). This process might partly explain the pushback that some media professionals have to CJ as one alternative. MBA programs faced criticism if they had student cohorts with little business know-how or experiential learning (Mintzberg). Enron’s collapse illustrated the ethical dilemmas and unintended consequences that occurred when “bad theories” were implemented (Ghoshal). Professional journalists are aware of this: MBA-educated managers challenged the “craft” tradition in the early 1980s (Underwood). This meant that journalism’s ‘self-image’ (Morgan; Smith) is intertwined with managerial anxieties about media conglomerates in highly competitive markets. Ironically, as noted below, Citizen Journalists who adopt a vanguard position vis-a-vis media professionals step into a more complex game with other players. However, current theories have a naïve idealism about CJ’s promise of normative social change in the face of Machiavellian agency in business, the media and politics. 3. Citizen Who? Who is the “citizen” in CJ? What is their self-awareness as a political agent? CJ proponents who use the ‘self-image’ of ‘citizen’ draw on observations from the participatory vision of open source software, peer-to-peer networks, and case studies such as Howard Dean’s 2004 bid for the Democrat Party nominee in the US Presidential election campaign (Trippi). Recent theorists note Alexander Hamilton’s tradition of civic activism (Barlow 178) which links contemporary bloggers with the Federalist Papers and early newspaper pamphlets. One unsurfaced assumption in these observations and correlations is that most bloggers will adopt a coherent political philosophy as informed citizens: a variation on Lockean utilitarianism, Rawlsian liberalism or Nader consumer activism. To date there is little discussion about how political philosophy could deepen CJ’s ‘self-image’: how to critically evaluate sources, audit and investigation processes, or strategies to deal with elites, deterrence and power. For example, although bloggers kept Valerie Plame’s ‘outing’ as a covert intelligence operative highly visible in the issues-attention cycle, it was agenda-setting media like The New York Times who the Bush Administration targeted to silence (Pearlstine). To be viable, CJ needs to evolve beyond a new media populism, perhaps into a constructivist model of agency, norms and social change (Finnemore). 4. Citizen Journalism as New Media Populism Several “precursor trends” foreshadowed CJ notably the mid-1990s interest in “cool-hunting” by new media analysts and subculture marketeers (Gibson; Gladwell). Whilst this audience focus waned with the 1995-2000 dotcom bubble it resurfaced in CJ and publisher Tim O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 vision. Thus, CJ might be viewed as new media populism that has flourished with the Web 2.0 boom. Yet if the boom becomes a macroeconomic bubble (Gross; Spar) then CJ could be written off as a “silver bullet” that ultimately failed to deliver on its promises (Brooks, Jr.). The reputations of uncritical proponents who adopted a “true believer” stance would also be damaged (Hoffer). This risk is evident if CJ is compared with a parallel trend that shares its audience focus and populist view: day traders and technical analysts who speculate on financial markets. This parallel trend provides an alternative discipline in which the populism surfaced in an earlier form (Carlile & Christensen 12). Fidelity’s Peter Lynch argues that stock pickers can use their Main Street knowledge to beat Wall Street by exploiting information asymmetries (Lynch & Rothchild). Yet Lynch’s examples came from the mid-1970s to early 1980s when indexed mutual fund strategies worked, before deregulation and macroeconomic volatility. A change in the Web 2.0 boom might similarly trigger a reconsideration of Citizen Journalism. Hedge fund maven Victor Niederhoffer contends that investors who rely on technical analysis are practicing a Comtean religion (Niederhoffer & Kenner 72-74) instead of Efficient Market Hypothesis traders who use statistical arbitrage to deal with ‘random walks’ or Behavioural Finance experts who build on Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman’s Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky). Niederhoffer’s deeper point is that technical analysts’ belief that the “trend is your friend” is no match for the other schools, despite a mini-publishing industry and computer trading systems. There are also ontological and epistemological differences between the schools. Similarly, CJ proponents who adopt a ‘Professional Amateur’ or ‘Pro-Am’ stance (Leadbeater & Miller) may face a similar gulf when making comparisons with professional journalists and the production environments in media organisations. CJ also thrives as new media populism because of institutional vested interests. When media conglomerates cut back on cadetships and internships CJ might fill the market demand as one alternative. New media programs at New York University and others can use CJ to differentiate themselves from “hyperlocal” competitors (Christensen; Slywotzky; Christensen, Curtis & Horn). This transforms CJ from new media populism to new media institution. 5. Parallels: Event-driven & Civic Journalism For new media programs, CJ builds on two earlier traditions: the Event-driven journalism of crises like the 1991 Gulf War (Wark) and the Civic Journalism school that emerged in the 1960s social upheavals. Civic Journalism’s awareness of minorities and social issues provides the character ethic and political philosophy for many Citizen Journalists. Jay Rosen and others suggest that CJ is the next-generation heir to Civic Journalism, tracing a thread from the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention to IndyMedia’s coverage of the 1999 “Battle in Seattle” (Rosen). Rosen’s observation could yield an interesting historiography or genealogy. Events such as the Southeast Asian tsunami on 26 December 2004 or Al Qaeda’s London bombings on 7 July 2005 are cited as examples of CJ as event-driven journalism and “pro-am collaboration” (Kolodzy 229-230). Having covered these events and Al Qaeda’s attacks on 11th September 2001, I have a slightly different view: this was more a variation on “first responder” status and handicam video footage that journalists have sourced for the past three decades when covering major disasters. This different view means that the “salience of categories” used to justify CJ and “pro-am collaboration” these events does not completely hold. Furthermore, when Citizen Journalism proponents tout Flickr and Wikipedia as models of real-time media they are building on a broader phenomenon that includes CNN’s Gulf War coverage and Bloomberg’s dominance of financial news (Loomis). 6. The Mergers & Acquisitions Scenario CJ proponents often express anxieties about the resilience of their outlets in the face of predatory venture capital firms who initiate Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) activities. Ironically, these venture capital firms have core competencies and expertise in the event-driven infrastructure and real-time media that CJ aspires to. Sequoia Capital and other venture capital firms have evaluative frameworks that likely surpass Carlile & Christensen in sophistication, and they exploit parallels, information asymmetries and market populism. Furthermore, although venture capital firms such as Union Street Ventures have funded Web 2.0 firms, they are absent from the explanations of some theorists, whose examples of Citizen Journalism and Web 2.0 success may be the result of survivorship bias. Thus, the venture capital market remains an untapped data source for researchers who want to evaluate the impact of CJ outlets and institutions. The M&A scenario further problematises CJ in several ways. First, CJ is framed as “oppositional” to traditional media, yet this may be used as a stratagem in a game theory framework with multiple stakeholders. Drexel Burnham Lambert’s financier Michael Milken used market populism to sell ‘high-yield’ or ‘junk’ bonds to investors whilst disrupting the Wall Street establishment in the late 1980s (Curtis) and CJ could fulfil a similar tactical purpose. Second, the M&A goal of some Web 2.0 firms could undermine the participatory goals of a site’s community if post-merger integration fails. Jason Calacanis’s sale of Weblogs, Inc to America Online in 2005 and MSNBC’s acquisition of Newsvine on 5 October 2007 (Newsvine) might be success stories. However, this raises issues of digital “property rights” if you contribute to a community that is then sold in an M&A transaction—an outcome closer to business process outsourcing. Third, media “buzz” can create an unrealistic vision when a CJ site fails to grow beyond its start-up phase. Backfence.com’s demise as a “hyperlocal” initiative (Caverly) is one cautionary event that recalls the 2000 dotcom crash. The M&A scenarios outlined above are market dystopias for CJ purists. The major lesson for CJ proponents is to include other market players in hypotheses about causation and correlation factors. 7. ‘Pro-Ams’ & Professional Journalism’s Crisis CJ emerged during a period when Professional Journalism faced a major crisis of ‘self-image’. The Demos report The Pro-Am Revolution (Leadbeater & Miller) popularised the notion of ‘professional amateurs’ which some CJ theorists adopt to strengthen their categorisation. In turn, this triggers a response from cultural theorists who fear bloggers are new media’s barbarians (Keen). I concede Leadbeater and Miller have identified an important category. However, how some CJ theorists then generalise from ‘Pro-Ams’ illustrates the danger of ‘weak’ theory referred to above. Leadbeater and Miller’s categorisation does not really include a counter-view on the strengths of professionals, as illustrated in humanistic consulting (Block), professional service firms (Maister; Maister, Green & Galford), and software development (McConnell). The signs of professionalism these authors mention include a commitment to learning and communal verification, mastery of a discipline and domain application, awareness of methodology creation, participation in mentoring, and cultivation of ethical awareness. Two key differences are discernment and quality of attention, as illustrated in how the legendary Hollywood film editor Walter Murch used Apple’s Final Cut Pro software to edit the 2003 film Cold Mountain (Koppelman). ‘Pro-Ams’ might not aspire to these criteria but Citizen Journalists shouldn’t throw out these standards, either. Doing so would be making the same mistake of overconfidence that technical analysts make against statistical arbitrageurs. Key processes—fact-checking, sub-editing and editorial decision-making—are invisible to the end-user, even if traceable in a blog or wiki publishing system, because of the judgments involved. One post-mortem insight from Assignment Zero was that these processes were vital to create the climate of authenticity and trust to sustain a Citizen Journalist community (Howe). CJ’s trouble with “objectivity” might also overlook some complexities, including the similarity of many bloggers to “noise traders” in financial markets and to op-ed columnists. Methodologies and reportage practices have evolved to deal with the objections that CJ proponents raise, from New Journalism’s radical subjectivity and creative non-fiction techniques (Wolfe & Johnson) to Precision Journalism that used descriptive statistics (Meyer). Finally, journalism frameworks could be updated with current research on how phenomenological awareness shapes our judgments and perceptions (Thompson). 8. Strategic Execution For me, one of CJ’s major weaknesses as a new media theory is its lack of “rich description” (Geertz) about the strategic execution of projects. As Disinfo.com site editor I encountered situations ranging from ‘denial of service’ attacks and spam to site migration, publishing systems that go offline, and ensuring an editorial consistency. Yet the messiness of these processes is missing from CJ theories and accounts. Theories that included this detail as “second-order interactions” (Carlile & Christensen 13) would offer a richer view of CJ. Many CJ and Web 2.0 projects fall into the categories of mini-projects, demonstration prototypes and start-ups, even when using a programming language such as Ajax or Ruby on Rails. Whilst the “bootstrap” process is a benefit, more longitudinal analysis and testing needs to occur, to ensure these projects are scalable and sustainable. For example, South Korea’s OhmyNews is cited as an exemplar that started with “727 citizen reporters and 4 editors” and now has “38,000 citizen reporters” and “a dozen editors” (Kolodzy 231). How does OhmyNews’s mix of hard and soft news change over time? Or, how does OhmyNews deal with a complex issue that might require major resources, such as security negotiations between North and South Korea? Such examples could do with further research. We need to go beyond “the vision thing” and look at the messiness of execution for deeper observations and counterintuitive correlations, to build new descriptive theories. 9. Future Research This essay argues that CJ needs re-evaluation. Its immediate legacy might be to splinter ‘journalism’ into micro-trends: Washington University’s Steve Boriss proclaims “citizen journalism is dead. Expert journalism is the future.” (Boriss; Mensching). The half-lives of such micro-trends demand new categorisations, which in turn prematurely feeds the theory-building cycle. Instead, future researchers could reinvigorate 21st century journalism if they ask deeper questions and return to the observation stage of building descriptive theories. In closing, below are some possible questions that future researchers might explore: Where are the “rich descriptions” of journalistic experience—“citizen”, “convergent”, “digital”, “Pro-Am” or otherwise in new media? How could practice-based approaches inform this research instead of relying on espoused theories-in-use? What new methodologies could be developed for CJ implementation? What role can the “heroic” individual reporter or editor have in “the swarm”? Do the claims about OhmyNews and other sites stand up to longitudinal observation? Are the theories used to justify Citizen Journalism’s normative stance (Rheingold; Surowiecki; Pesce) truly robust generalisations for strategic execution or do they reflect the biases of their creators? How could developers tap the conceptual dimensions of information technology innovation (Shasha) to create the next Facebook, MySpace or Wikipedia? References Argyris, Chris, and Donald Schon. Theory in Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1976. Barlow, Aaron. The Rise of the Blogosphere. Westport, CN: Praeger Publishers, 2007. Block, Peter. Flawless Consulting. 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2000. Boriss, Steve. “Citizen Journalism Is Dead. Expert Journalism Is the Future.” The Future of News. 28 Nov. 2007. 20 Feb. 2008 http://thefutureofnews.com/2007/11/28/citizen-journalism-is-dead- expert-journalism-is-the-future/>. Brooks, Jr., Frederick P. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering. Rev. ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1995. Campbell, Vincent. Information Age Journalism: Journalism in an International Context. New York: Arnold, 2004. Carlile, Paul R., and Clayton M. Christensen. “The Cycles of Building Theory in Management Research.” Innosight working paper draft 6. 6 Jan. 2005. 19 Feb. 2008 http://www.innosight.com/documents/Theory%20Building.pdf>. Caverly, Doug. “Hyperlocal News Site Takes A Hit.” WebProNews.com 6 July 2007. 19 Feb. 2008 http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/07/06/hyperlocal-news- sites-take-a-hit>. Chenoweth, Neil. Virtual Murdoch: Reality Wars on the Information Superhighway. Sydney: Random House Australia, 2001. Christensen, Clayton M. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1997. Christensen, Clayton M., Curtis Johnson, and Michael Horn. Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Curtis, Adam. The Mayfair Set. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1999. Etherington, Kim. Becoming a Reflexive Researcher: Using Ourselves in Research. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2004. Festinger, Leon. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962. Feyerabend, Paul. Against Method. 3rd ed. London: Verso, 1993. Finnemore, Martha. National Interests in International Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996. Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973. Ghoshal, Sumantra. “Bad Management Theories Are Destroying Good Management Practices.” Academy of Management Learning & Education 4.1 (2005): 75-91. Gibson, William. Pattern Recognition. London: Viking, 2003. Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Cool-Hunt.” The New Yorker Magazine 17 March 1997. 20 Feb. 2008 http://www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_03_17_a_cool.htm>. Gross, Daniel. Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy. New York: Collins, 2007. Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer. New York: Harper, 1951. Howe, Jeff. “Did Assignment Zero Fail? A Look Back, and Lessons Learned.” Wired News 16 July 2007. 19 Feb. 2008 http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/07/assignment_ zero_final?currentPage=all>. Kahneman, Daniel, and Amos Tversky. Choices, Values and Frames. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. Keen, Andrew. The Cult of the Amateur. New York: Doubleday Currency, 2007. Khurana, Rakesh. From Higher Aims to Hired Hands. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2007. Kolodzy, Janet. Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting across the News Media. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Koppelman, Charles. Behind the Seen: How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain Using Apple’s Final Cut Pro and What This Means for Cinema. Upper Saddle River, NJ: New Rider, 2004. Leadbeater, Charles, and Paul Miller. “The Pro-Am Revolution”. London: Demos, 24 Nov. 2004. 19 Feb. 2008 http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/proameconomy>. Loomis, Carol J. “Bloomberg’s Money Machine.” Fortune 5 April 2007. 20 Feb. 2008 http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/04/16/ 8404302/index.htm>. Lynch, Peter, and John Rothchild. Beating the Street. Rev. ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Maister, David. True Professionalism. New York: The Free Press, 1997. Maister, David, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford. The Trusted Advisor. New York: The Free Press, 2004. Mensching, Leah McBride. “Citizen Journalism on Its Way Out?” SFN Blog, 30 Nov. 2007. 20 Feb. 2008 http://www.sfnblog.com/index.php/2007/11/30/940-citizen-journalism- on-its-way-out>. Meyer, Philip. Precision Journalism. 4th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. McConnell, Steve. Professional Software Development. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2004. Mintzberg, Henry. Managers Not MBAs. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2004. Morgan, Gareth. Images of Organisation. Rev. ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006. Newsvine. “Msnbc.com Acquires Newsvine.” 7 Oct. 2007. 20 Feb. 2008 http://blog.newsvine.com/_news/2007/10/07/1008889-msnbccom- acquires-newsvine>. Niederhoffer, Victor, and Laurel Kenner. Practical Speculation. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. Pearlstine, Norman. Off the Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007. Pesce, Mark D. “Mob Rules (The Law of Fives).” The Human Network 28 Sep. 2007. 20 Feb. 2008 http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/?p=39>. Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge MA: Basic Books, 2002. Rosen, Jay. What Are Journalists For? Princeton NJ: Yale UP, 2001. Shasha, Dennis Elliott. Out of Their Minds: The Lives and Discoveries of 15 Great Computer Scientists. New York: Copernicus, 1995. Slywotzky, Adrian. Value Migration: How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1996. Smith, Steve. “The Self-Image of a Discipline: The Genealogy of International Relations Theory.” Eds. Steve Smith and Ken Booth. International Relations Theory Today. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1995. 1-37. Spar, Debora L. Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Surowiecki, James. The Wisdom of Crowds. New York: Doubleday, 2004. Thompson, Evan. Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2007. Trippi, Joe. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. New York: ReganBooks, 2004. Underwood, Doug. When MBA’s Rule the Newsroom. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Wark, McKenzie. Virtual Geography: Living with Global Media Events. Bloomington IN: Indiana UP, 1994. Wolfe, Tom, and E.W. Johnson. The New Journalism. New York: Harper & Row, 1973. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Burns, Alex. "Select Issues with New Media Theories of Citizen Journalism." M/C Journal 10.6/11.1 (2008). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0804/10-burns.php>. APA Style Burns, A. (Apr. 2008) "Select Issues with New Media Theories of Citizen Journalism," M/C Journal, 10(6)/11(1). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0804/10-burns.php>.

Abstract:

“Journalists have to begin a new type of journalism, sometimes being the guide on the side of the civic conversation as well as the filter and gatekeeper.” (Kolodzy 218) “In many respects, citizen journalism is simply public journalism removed from the journalism profession.” (Barlow 181) 1. Citizen Journalism — The Latest Innovation? New Media theorists such as Dan Gillmor, Henry Jenkins, Jay Rosen and Jeff Howe have recently touted Citizen Journalism (CJ) as the latest innovation in 21st century journalism. “Participatory journalism” and “user-driven journalism” are other terms to describe CJ, which its proponents argue is a disruptive innovation (Christensen) to the agenda-setting media institutions, news values and “objective” reportage. In this essay I offer a “contrarian” view, informed by two perspectives: (1) a three-stage model of theory-building (Carlile & Christensen) to evaluate the claims made about CJ; and (2) self-reflexive research insights (Etherington) from editing the US-based news site Disinformation between November 1999 and February 2008. New media theories can potentially create “cognitive dissonance” (Festinger) when their explanations of CJ practices are compared with what actually happens (Feyerabend). First I summarise Carlile & Christensen’s model and the dangers of “bad theory” (Ghoshal). Next I consider several problems in new media theories about CJ: the notion of ‘citizen’, new media populism, parallels in event-driven and civic journalism, and mergers and acquisitions. Two ‘self-reflexive’ issues are considered: ‘pro-ams’ or ‘professional amateurs’ as a challenge to professional journalists, and CJ’s deployment in new media operations and production environments. Finally, some exploratory questions are offered for future researchers. 2. An Evaluative Framework for New Media Theories on Citizen Journalism Paul Carlile and Clayton M. Christensen’s model offers one framework with which to evaluate new media theories on CJ. This framework is used below to highlight select issues and gaps in CJ’s current frameworks and theories. Carlile & Christensen suggest that robust theory-building emerges via three stages: Descriptive, Categorisation and Normative (Carlile & Christensen). There are three sub-stages in Descriptive theory-building; namely, the observation of phenomena, inductive classification into schemas and taxonomies, and correlative relationships to develop models (Carlile & Christensen 2-5). Once causation is established, Normative theory evolves through deductive logic which is subject to Kuhnian paradigm shifts and Popperian falsifiability (Carlile & Christensen 6). Its proponents situate CJ as a Categorisation or new journalism agenda that poses a Normative challenged and Kuhnian paradigm shift to traditional journalism. Existing CJ theories jump from the Descriptive phase of observations like “smart mobs” in Japanese youth subcultures (Rheingold) to make broad claims for Categorisation such as that IndyMedia, blogs and wiki publishing systems as new media alternatives to traditional media. CJ theories then underpin normative beliefs, values and worldviews. Correlative relationships are also used to differentiate CJ from the demand side of microeconomic analysis, from the top-down editorial models of traditional media outlets, and to adopt a vanguard stance. To support this, CJ proponents cite research on emergent collective behaviour such as the “wisdom of crowds” hypothesis (Surowiecki) or peer-to-peer network “swarms” (Pesce) to provide scientific justification for their Normative theories. However, further evaluative research is needed for three reasons: the emergent collective behaviour hypothesis may not actually inform CJ practices, existing theories may have “correlation not cause” errors, and the link may be due to citation network effects between CJ theorists. Collectively, this research base also frames CJ as an “ought to” Categorisation and then proceeds to Normative theory-building (Carlile & Christensen 7). However, I argue below that this Categorisation may be premature: its observations and correlative relationships might reinforce a ‘weak’ Normative theory with limited generalisation. CJ proponents seem to imply that it can be applied anywhere and under any condition—a “statement of causality” that almost makes it a fad (Carlile & Christensen 8). CJ that relies on Classification and Normative claims will be problematic without a strong grounding in Descriptive observation. To understand what’s potentially at stake for CJ’s future consider the consider the parallel debate about curricula renewal for the Masters of Business Administration in the wake of high-profile corporate collapses such as Enron, Worldcom, HIH and OneTel. The MBA evolved as a sociological and institutional construct to justify management as a profession that is codified, differentiated and has entry barriers (Khurana). This process might partly explain the pushback that some media professionals have to CJ as one alternative. MBA programs faced criticism if they had student cohorts with little business know-how or experiential learning (Mintzberg). Enron’s collapse illustrated the ethical dilemmas and unintended consequences that occurred when “bad theories” were implemented (Ghoshal). Professional journalists are aware of this: MBA-educated managers challenged the “craft” tradition in the early 1980s (Underwood). This meant that journalism’s ‘self-image’ (Morgan; Smith) is intertwined with managerial anxieties about media conglomerates in highly competitive markets. Ironically, as noted below, Citizen Journalists who adopt a vanguard position vis-a-vis media professionals step into a more complex game with other players. However, current theories have a naïve idealism about CJ’s promise of normative social change in the face of Machiavellian agency in business, the media and politics. 3. Citizen Who? Who is the “citizen” in CJ? What is their self-awareness as a political agent? CJ proponents who use the ‘self-image’ of ‘citizen’ draw on observations from the participatory vision of open source software, peer-to-peer networks, and case studies such as Howard Dean’s 2004 bid for the Democrat Party nominee in the US Presidential election campaign (Trippi). Recent theorists note Alexander Hamilton’s tradition of civic activism (Barlow 178) which links contemporary bloggers with the Federalist Papers and early newspaper pamphlets. One unsurfaced assumption in these observations and correlations is that most bloggers will adopt a coherent political philosophy as informed citizens: a variation on Lockean utilitarianism, Rawlsian liberalism or Nader consumer activism. To date there is little discussion about how political philosophy could deepen CJ’s ‘self-image’: how to critically evaluate sources, audit and investigation processes, or strategies to deal with elites, deterrence and power. For example, although bloggers kept Valerie Plame’s ‘outing’ as a covert intelligence operative highly visible in the issues-attention cycle, it was agenda-setting media like The New York Times who the Bush Administration targeted to silence (Pearlstine). To be viable, CJ needs to evolve beyond a new media populism, perhaps into a constructivist model of agency, norms and social change (Finnemore). 4. Citizen Journalism as New Media Populism Several “precursor trends” foreshadowed CJ notably the mid-1990s interest in “cool-hunting” by new media analysts and subculture marketeers (Gibson; Gladwell). Whilst this audience focus waned with the 1995-2000 dotcom bubble it resurfaced in CJ and publisher Tim O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 vision. Thus, CJ might be viewed as new media populism that has flourished with the Web 2.0 boom. Yet if the boom becomes a macroeconomic bubble (Gross; Spar) then CJ could be written off as a “silver bullet” that ultimately failed to deliver on its promises (Brooks, Jr.). The reputations of uncritical proponents who adopted a “true believer” stance would also be damaged (Hoffer). This risk is evident if CJ is compared with a parallel trend that shares its audience focus and populist view: day traders and technical analysts who speculate on financial markets. This parallel trend provides an alternative discipline in which the populism surfaced in an earlier form (Carlile & Christensen 12). Fidelity’s Peter Lynch argues that stock pickers can use their Main Street knowledge to beat Wall Street by exploiting information asymmetries (Lynch & Rothchild). Yet Lynch’s examples came from the mid-1970s to early 1980s when indexed mutual fund strategies worked, before deregulation and macroeconomic volatility. A change in the Web 2.0 boom might similarly trigger a reconsideration of Citizen Journalism. Hedge fund maven Victor Niederhoffer contends that investors who rely on technical analysis are practicing a Comtean religion (Niederhoffer & Kenner 72-74) instead of Efficient Market Hypothesis traders who use statistical arbitrage to deal with ‘random walks’ or Behavioural Finance experts who build on Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman’s Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky). Niederhoffer’s deeper point is that technical analysts’ belief that the “trend is your friend” is no match for the other schools, despite a mini-publishing industry and computer trading systems. There are also ontological and epistemological differences between the schools. Similarly, CJ proponents who adopt a ‘Professional Amateur’ or ‘Pro-Am’ stance (Leadbeater & Miller) may face a similar gulf when making comparisons with professional journalists and the production environments in media organisations. CJ also thrives as new media populism because of institutional vested interests. When media conglomerates cut back on cadetships and internships CJ might fill the market demand as one alternative. New media programs at New York University and others can use CJ to differentiate themselves from “hyperlocal” competitors (Christensen; Slywotzky; Christensen, Curtis & Horn). This transforms CJ from new media populism to new media institution. 5. Parallels: Event-driven & Civic Journalism For new media programs, CJ builds on two earlier traditions: the Event-driven journalism of crises like the 1991 Gulf War (Wark) and the Civic Journalism school that emerged in the 1960s social upheavals. Civic Journalism’s awareness of minorities and social issues provides the character ethic and political philosophy for many Citizen Journalists. Jay Rosen and others suggest that CJ is the next-generation heir to Civic Journalism, tracing a thread from the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention to IndyMedia’s coverage of the 1999 “Battle in Seattle” (Rosen). Rosen’s observation could yield an interesting historiography or genealogy. Events such as the Southeast Asian tsunami on 26 December 2004 or Al Qaeda’s London bombings on 7 July 2005 are cited as examples of CJ as event-driven journalism and “pro-am collaboration” (Kolodzy 229-230). Having covered these events and Al Qaeda’s attacks on 11th September 2001, I have a slightly different view: this was more a variation on “first responder” status and handicam video footage that journalists have sourced for the past three decades when covering major disasters. This different view means that the “salience of categories” used to justify CJ and “pro-am collaboration” these events does not completely hold. Furthermore, when Citizen Journalism proponents tout Flickr and Wikipedia as models of real-time media they are building on a broader phenomenon that includes CNN’s Gulf War coverage and Bloomberg’s dominance of financial news (Loomis). 6. The Mergers & Acquisitions Scenario CJ proponents often express anxieties about the resilience of their outlets in the face of predatory venture capital firms who initiate Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) activities. Ironically, these venture capital firms have core competencies and expertise in the event-driven infrastructure and real-time media that CJ aspires to. Sequoia Capital and other venture capital firms have evaluative frameworks that likely surpass Carlile & Christensen in sophistication, and they exploit parallels, information asymmetries and market populism. Furthermore, although venture capital firms such as Union Street Ventures have funded Web 2.0 firms, they are absent from the explanations of some theorists, whose examples of Citizen Journalism and Web 2.0 success may be the result of survivorship bias. Thus, the venture capital market remains an untapped data source for researchers who want to evaluate the impact of CJ outlets and institutions. The M&A scenario further problematises CJ in several ways. First, CJ is framed as “oppositional” to traditional media, yet this may be used as a stratagem in a game theory framework with multiple stakeholders. Drexel Burnham Lambert’s financier Michael Milken used market populism to sell ‘high-yield’ or ‘junk’ bonds to investors whilst disrupting the Wall Street establishment in the late 1980s (Curtis) and CJ could fulfil a similar tactical purpose. Second, the M&A goal of some Web 2.0 firms could undermine the participatory goals of a site’s community if post-merger integration fails. Jason Calacanis’s sale of Weblogs, Inc to America Online in 2005 and MSNBC’s acquisition of Newsvine on 5 October 2007 (Newsvine) might be success stories. However, this raises issues of digital “property rights” if you contribute to a community that is then sold in an M&A transaction—an outcome closer to business process outsourcing. Third, media “buzz” can create an unrealistic vision when a CJ site fails to grow beyond its start-up phase. Backfence.com’s demise as a “hyperlocal” initiative (Caverly) is one cautionary event that recalls the 2000 dotcom crash. The M&A scenarios outlined above are market dystopias for CJ purists. The major lesson for CJ proponents is to include other market players in hypotheses about causation and correlation factors. 7. ‘Pro-Ams’ & Professional Journalism’s Crisis CJ emerged during a period when Professional Journalism faced a major crisis of ‘self-image’. The Demos report The Pro-Am Revolution (Leadbeater & Miller) popularised the notion of ‘professional amateurs’ which some CJ theorists adopt to strengthen their categorisation. In turn, this triggers a response from cultural theorists who fear bloggers are new media’s barbarians (Keen). I concede Leadbeater and Miller have identified an important category. However, how some CJ theorists then generalise from ‘Pro-Ams’ illustrates the danger of ‘weak’ theory referred to above. Leadbeater and Miller’s categorisation does not really include a counter-view on the strengths of professionals, as illustrated in humanistic consulting (Block), professional service firms (Maister; Maister, Green & Galford), and software development (McConnell). The signs of professionalism these authors mention include a commitment to learning and communal verification, mastery of a discipline and domain application, awareness of methodology creation, participation in mentoring, and cultivation of ethical awareness. Two key differences are discernment and quality of attention, as illustrated in how the legendary Hollywood film editor Walter Murch used Apple’s Final Cut Pro software to edit the 2003 film Cold Mountain (Koppelman). ‘Pro-Ams’ might not aspire to these criteria but Citizen Journalists shouldn’t throw out these standards, either. Doing so would be making the same mistake of overconfidence that technical analysts make against statistical arbitrageurs. Key processes—fact-checking, sub-editing and editorial decision-making—are invisible to the end-user, even if traceable in a blog or wiki publishing system, because of the judgments involved. One post-mortem insight from Assignment Zero was that these processes were vital to create the climate of authenticity and trust to sustain a Citizen Journalist community (Howe). CJ’s trouble with “objectivity” might also overlook some complexities, including the similarity of many bloggers to “noise traders” in financial markets and to op-ed columnists. Methodologies and reportage practices have evolved to deal with the objections that CJ proponents raise, from New Journalism’s radical subjectivity and creative non-fiction techniques (Wolfe & Johnson) to Precision Journalism that used descriptive statistics (Meyer). Finally, journalism frameworks could be updated with current research on how phenomenological awareness shapes our judgments and perceptions (Thompson). 8. Strategic Execution For me, one of CJ’s major weaknesses as a new media theory is its lack of “rich description” (Geertz) about the strategic execution of projects. As Disinfo.com site editor I encountered situations ranging from ‘denial of service’ attacks and spam to site migration, publishing systems that go offline, and ensuring an editorial consistency. Yet the messiness of these processes is missing from CJ theories and accounts. Theories that included this detail as “second-order interactions” (Carlile & Christensen 13) would offer a richer view of CJ. Many CJ and Web 2.0 projects fall into the categories of mini-projects, demonstration prototypes and start-ups, even when using a programming language such as Ajax or Ruby on Rails. Whilst the “bootstrap” process is a benefit, more longitudinal analysis and testing needs to occur, to ensure these projects are scalable and sustainable. For example, South Korea’s OhmyNews is cited as an exemplar that started with “727 citizen reporters and 4 editors” and now has “38,000 citizen reporters” and “a dozen editors” (Kolodzy 231). How does OhmyNews’s mix of hard and soft news change over time? Or, how does OhmyNews deal with a complex issue that might require major resources, such as security negotiations between North and South Korea? Such examples could do with further research. We need to go beyond “the vision thing” and look at the messiness of execution for deeper observations and counterintuitive correlations, to build new descriptive theories. 9. Future Research This essay argues that CJ needs re-evaluation. Its immediate legacy might be to splinter ‘journalism’ into micro-trends: Washington University’s Steve Boriss proclaims “citizen journalism is dead. Expert journalism is the future.” (Boriss; Mensching). The half-lives of such micro-trends demand new categorisations, which in turn prematurely feeds the theory-building cycle. Instead, future researchers could reinvigorate 21st century journalism if they ask deeper questions and return to the observation stage of building descriptive theories. In closing, below are some possible questions that future researchers might explore: Where are the “rich descriptions” of journalistic experience—“citizen”, “convergent”, “digital”, “Pro-Am” or otherwise in new media?How could practice-based approaches inform this research instead of relying on espoused theories-in-use?What new methodologies could be developed for CJ implementation?What role can the “heroic” individual reporter or editor have in “the swarm”?Do the claims about OhmyNews and other sites stand up to longitudinal observation?Are the theories used to justify Citizen Journalism’s normative stance (Rheingold; Surowiecki; Pesce) truly robust generalisations for strategic execution or do they reflect the biases of their creators?How could developers tap the conceptual dimensions of information technology innovation (Shasha) to create the next Facebook, MySpace or Wikipedia? References Argyris, Chris, and Donald Schon. Theory in Practice. 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New York: The Free Press, 2004. Mensching, Leah McBride. “Citizen Journalism on Its Way Out?” SFN Blog, 30 Nov. 2007. 20 Feb. 2008 < http://www.sfnblog.com/index.php/2007/11/30/940-citizen-journalism- on-its-way-out >. Meyer, Philip. Precision Journalism. 4th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. McConnell, Steve. Professional Software Development. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2004. Mintzberg, Henry. Managers Not MBAs. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2004. Morgan, Gareth. Images of Organisation. Rev. ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006. Newsvine. “Msnbc.com Acquires Newsvine.” 7 Oct. 2007. 20 Feb. 2008 < http://blog.newsvine.com/_news/2007/10/07/1008889-msnbccom- acquires-newsvine >. Niederhoffer, Victor, and Laurel Kenner. Practical Speculation. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. Pearlstine, Norman. Off the Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007. 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Abstract:

Cultural sociologists (Bourdieu; DiMaggio, “Cultural Capital”, “Classification”; Gans; Lamont & Foumier; Halle; Erickson) wrote about high culture and popular culture in an attempt to explain the growing social and economic inequalities, to find consensus on culture hierarchies, and to analyze cultural complexities. Halle states that this categorisation of culture into “high culture” and “popular culture” underlined most of the debate on culture in the last fifty years. Gans contends that both high culture and popular culture are stereotypes, public forms of culture or taste cultures, each sharing “common aesthetic values and standards of tastes” (8). However, this article is not concerned with these categorisations, or macro analysis. Rather, it is a reflection piece that inquires if opera, which is usually considered high culture, has become more equal to popular culture, and why some directors change the time and place of opera plots, whereas others will stay true to the original setting of the story. I do not consider these productions “adaptations,” but “post-modern morphologies,” and I will refer to this later in the paper. In other words, the paper is seeking to explain a social phenomenon and explore the underlying motives by quoting interviews with directors. The word ‘opera’ is defined in Elson’s Music Dictionary as: “a form of musical composition evolved shortly before 1600, by some enthusiastic Florentine amateurs who sought to bring back the Greek plays to the modern stage” (189). Hence, it was an experimentation to revive Greek music and drama believed to be the ideal way to express emotions (Grout 186). It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when stage directors started changing the time and place of the original settings of operas. The practice became more common after World War II, and Peter Brook’s Covent Garden productions of Boris Godunov (1948) and Salome (1949) are considered the prototypes of this practice (Sutcliffe 19-20). Richard Wagner’s grandsons, the brothers Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner are cited in the music literature as using technology and modern innovations in staging and design beginning in the early 1950s. Brief Background into the History of Opera Grout contends that opera began as an attempt to heighten the dramatic expression of language by intensifying the natural accents of speech through melody supported by simple harmony. In the late 1590s, the Italian composer Jacopo Peri wrote what is considered to be the first opera, but most of it has been lost. The first surviving complete opera is Euridice, a version of the Orpheus myth that Peri and Giulio Caccini jointly set to music in 1600. The first composer to understand the possibilities inherent in this new musical form was Claudio Monteverdi, who in 1607 wrote Orfeo. Although it was based on the same story as Euridice, it was expanded to a full five acts. Early opera was meant for small, private audiences, usually at court; hence it began as an elitist genre. After thirty years of being private, in 1637, opera went public with the opening of the first public opera house, Teatro di San Cassiano, in Venice, and the genre quickly became popular. Indeed, Monteverdi wrote his last two operas, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea for the Venetian public, thereby leading the transition from the Italian courts to the ‘public’. Both operas are still performed today. Poppea was the first opera to be based on a historical rather than a mythological or allegorical subject. Sutcliffe argues that opera became popular because it was a new mixture of means: new words, new music, new methods of performance. He states, “operatic fashion through history may be a desire for novelty, new formulas displacing old” (65). By the end of the 17th century, Venice alone had ten opera houses that had produced more than 350 operas. Wealthy families purchased season boxes, but inexpensive tickets made the genre available to persons of lesser means. The genre spread quickly, and various styles of opera developed. In Naples, for example, music rather than the libretto dominated opera. The genre spread to Germany and France, each developing the genre to suit the demands of its audiences. For example, ballet became an essential component of French opera. Eventually, “opera became the profligate art as large casts and lavish settings made it the most expensive public entertainment. It was the only art that without embarrassment called itself ‘grand’” (Boorstin 467). Contemporary Opera Productions Opera continues to be popular. According to a 2002 report released by the National Endowment for the Arts, 6.6 million adults attended at least one live opera performance in 2002, and 37.6 million experienced opera on television, video, radio, audio recording or via the Internet. Some think that it is a dying art form, while others think to the contrary, that it is a living art form because of its complexity and “ability to probe deeper into the human experience than any other art form” (Berger 3). Some directors change the setting of operas with perhaps the most famous contemporary proponent of this approach being Peter Sellars, who made drastic changes to three of Mozart’s most famous operas. Le Nozze di Figaro, originally set in 18th-century Seville, was set by Sellars in a luxury apartment in the Trump Tower in New York City; Sellars set Don Giovanni in contemporary Spanish Harlem rather than 17th century Seville; and for Cosi Fan Tutte, Sellars chose a diner on Cape Cod rather than 18th century Naples. As one of the more than six million Americans who attend live opera each year, I have experienced several updated productions, which made me reflect on the convergence or cross-over between high culture and popular culture. In 2000, I attended a production of Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague, the very theatre where Mozart conducted the world premiere in 1787. In this production, Don Giovanni was a fashion designer known as “Don G” and drove a BMW. During the 1999-2000 season, Los Angeles Opera engaged film director Bruce Beresford to direct Verdi’s Rigoletto. Beresford updated the original setting of 16th century Mantua to 20th century Hollywood. The lead tenor, rather than being the Duke of Mantua, was a Hollywood agent known as “Duke Mantua.” In the first act, just before Marullo announces to the Duke’s guests that the jester Rigoletto has taken a mistress, he gets the news via his cell phone. Director Ian Judge set the 2004 production of Le Nozze di Figaro in the 1950s. In one of the opening productions of the 2006-07 LA opera season, Vincent Patterson also chose the 1950s for Massenet’s Manon rather than France in the 1720s. This allowed the title character to appear in the fourth act dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Excerpts from the dress rehearsal can be seen on YouTube. Most recently, I attended a production of Ariane et Barbe-Bleu at the Paris Opera. The original setting of the Maeterlinck play is in Duke Bluebeard’s castle, but the time period is unclear. However, it is doubtful that the 1907 opera based on an 1899 play was meant to be set in what appeared to be a mental institution equipped with surveillance cameras whose screens were visible to the audience. The critical and audience consensus seemed to be that the opera was a musical success but a failure as a production. James Shore summed up the audience reaction: “the production team was vociferously booed and jeered by much of the house, and the enthusiastic applause that had greeted the singers and conductor, immediately went nearly silent when they came on stage”. It seems to me that a new class-related taste has emerged; the opera genre has shot out a subdivision which I shall call “post-modern morphologies,” that may appeal to a larger pool of people. Hence, class, age, gender, and race are becoming more important factors in conceptualising opera productions today than in the past. I do not consider these productions as new adaptations because the libretto and the music are originals. What changes is the fact that both text and sound are taken to a higher dimension by adding iconographic images that stimulate people’s brains. When asked in an interview why he often changes the setting of an opera, Ian Judge commented, “I try to find the best world for the story and characters to operate in, and I think you have to find a balance between the period the author set it in, the period he conceived it in and the nature of theatre and audiences at that time, and the world we live in.” Hence, the world today is complex, interconnected, borderless and timeless because of advanced technologies, and updated opera productions play with symbols that offer multiple meanings that reflect the world we live in. It may be that television and film have influenced opera production. Character tenor Graham Clark recently observed in an interview, “Now the situation has changed enormously. Television and film have made a lot of things totally accessible which they were not before and in an entirely different perception.” Director Ian Judge believes that television and film have affected audience expectations in opera. “I think audiences who are brought up on television, which is bad acting, and movies, which is not that good acting, perhaps require more of opera than stand and deliver, and I have never really been happy with someone who just stands and sings.” Sociologist Wendy Griswold states that culture reflects social reality and the meaning of a particular cultural object (such as opera), originates “in the social structures and social patterns it reflects” (22). Screens of various technologies are embedded in our lives and normalised as extensions of our bodies. In those opera productions in which directors change the time and place of opera plots, use technology, and are less concerned with what the composer or librettist intended (which we can only guess), the iconographic images create multi valances, textuality similar to Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of multiplicity of voices. Hence, a plurality of meanings. Plàcido Domingo, the Eli and Edyth Broad General Director of Los Angeles Opera, seeks to take advantage of the company’s proximity to the film industry. This is evidenced by his having engaged Bruce Beresford to direct Rigoletto and William Friedkin to direct Ariadne auf Naxos, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Gianni Schicchi. Perhaps the most daring example of Domingo’s approach was convincing Garry Marshall, creator of the television sitcom Happy Days and who directed the films Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries, to direct Jacques Offenbach’s The Grand duch*ess of Gerolstein to open the company’s 20th anniversary season. When asked how Domingo convinced him to direct an opera for the first time, Marshall responded, “he was insistent that one, people think that opera is pretty elitist, and he knew without insulting me that I was not one of the elitists; two, he said that you gotta make a funny opera; we need more comedy in the operetta and opera world.” Marshall rewrote most of the dialogue and performed it in English, but left the “songs” untouched and in the original French. He also developed numerous sight gags and added characters including a dog named Morrie and the composer Jacques Offenbach himself. Did it work? Christie Grimstad wrote, “if you want an evening filled with witty music, kaleidoscopic colors and hilariously good singing, seek out The Grand duch*ess. You will not be disappointed.” The FanFaire Website commented on Domingo’s approach of using television and film directors to direct opera: You’ve got to hand it to Plàcido Domingo for having the vision to draw on Hollywood’s vast pool of directorial talent. Certainly something can be gained from the cross-fertilization that could ensue from this sort of interaction between opera and the movies, two forms of entertainment (elitist and perennially struggling for funds vs. popular and, it seems, eternally rich) that in Los Angeles have traditionally lived separate lives on opposite sides of the tracks. A wider audience, for example, never a problem for the movies, can only mean good news for the future of opera. So, did the Marshall Plan work? Purists of course will always want their operas and operettas ‘pure and unadulterated’. But with an audience that seemed to have as much fun as the stellar cast on stage, it sure did. Critic Alan Rich disagrees, calling Marshall “a representative from an alien industry taking on an artistic product, not to create something innovative and interesting, but merely to insult.” Nevertheless, the combination of Hollywood and opera seems to work. The Los Angeles Opera reported that the 2005-2006 season was its best ever: “ticket revenues from the season, which ended in June, exceeded projected figures by nearly US$900,000. Seasonal attendance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stood at more than 86% of the house’s capacity, the largest percentage in the opera’s history.” Domingo continues with the Hollywood connection in the upcoming 2008-2009 season. He has reengaged William Friedkin to direct two of Puccini’s three operas titled collectively as Il Trittico. Friedkin will direct the two tragedies, Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. Although Friedkin has already directed a production of the third opera in Il Trittico for Los Angeles, the comedy Gianni Schicchi, Domingo convinced Woody Allen to make his operatic directorial debut with this work. This can be viewed as another example of the desire to make opera and popular culture more equal. However, some, like Alan Rich, may see this attempt as merely insulting rather than interesting and innovative. With a top ticket price in Los Angeles of US$238 per seat, opera seems to continue to be elitist. Berger (2005) concurs with this idea and gives his rationale for elitism: there are rich people who support and attend the opera; it is an imported art from Europe that causes some marginalisation; opera is not associated with something being ‘moral,’ a concept engrained in American culture; it is expensive to produce and usually funded by kings, corporations, rich people; and the opera singers are rare –usually one in a million who will have the vocal quality to sing opera arias. Furthermore, Nicholas Kenyon commented in the early 1990s: “there is suspicion that audiences are now paying more and more money for their seats to see more and more money spent on stage” (Kenyon 3). Still, Garry Marshall commented that the budget for The Grand duch*ess was US$2 million, while his budget for Runaway Bride was US$72 million. Kenyon warns, “Such popularity for opera may be illusory. The enjoyment of one striking aria does not guarantee the survival of an art form long regarded as over-elitist, over-recondite, and over-priced” (Kenyon 3). A recent development is the Metropolitan Opera’s decision to simulcast live opera performances from the Met stage to various cinemas around the world. These HD transmissions began with the 2006-2007 season when six performances were broadcast. In the 2007-2008 season, the schedule has expanded to eight live Saturday matinee broadcasts plus eight recorded encores broadcast the following day. According to The Los Angeles Times, “the Met’s experiment of merging film with live performance has created a new art form” (Aslup). Whether or not this is a “new art form,” it certainly makes world-class live opera available to countless persons who cannot travel to New York and pay the price for tickets, when they are available. In the US alone, more than 350 cinemas screen these live HD broadcasts from the Met. Top ticket price for these performances at the Met is US$375, while the lowest price is US$27 for seats with only a partial view. Top price for the HD transmissions in participating cinemas is US$22. This experiment with live simulcasts makes opera more affordable and may increase its popularity; combined with updated stagings, opera can engage a much larger audience and hope for even a mass consumption. Is opera moving closer and closer to popular culture? There still seems to be an aura of elitism and snobbery about opera. However, Plàcido Domingo’s attempt to join opera with Hollywood is meant to break the barriers between high and popular culture. The practice of updating opera settings is not confined to Los Angeles. As mentioned earlier, the idea can be traced to post World War II England, and is quite common in Europe. Examples include Erich Wonder’s approach to Wagner’s Ring, making Valhalla, the mythological home of the gods and typically a mountaintop, into the spaceship Valhalla, as well as my own experience with Don Giovanni in Prague and Ariane et Barbe-Bleu in Paris. Indeed, Sutcliffe maintains, “Great classics in all branches of the arts are repeatedly being repackaged for a consumerist world that is increasingly and neurotically self-obsessed” (61). Although new operas are being written and performed, most contemporary performances are of operas by Verdi, Mozart, and Puccini (www.operabase.com). This means that audiences see the same works repeated many times, but in different interpretations. Perhaps this is why Sutcliffe contends, “since the 1970s it is the actual productions that have had the novelty value grabbed by the headlines. Singing no longer predominates” (Sutcliffe 57). If then, as Sutcliffe argues, “operatic fashion through history may be a desire for novelty, new formulas displacing old” (Sutcliffe 65), then the contemporary practice of changing the original settings is simply the latest “new formula” that is replacing the old ones. If there are no new words or new music, then what remains are new methods of performance, hence the practice of changing time and place. Opera is a complex art form that has evolved over the past 400 years and continues to evolve, but will it survive? The underlining motives for directors changing the time and place of opera performances are at least three: for aesthetic/artistic purposes, financial purposes, and to reach an audience from many cultures, who speak different languages, and who have varied tastes. These three reasons are interrelated. In 1996, Sutcliffe wrote that there has been one constant in all the arguments about opera productions during the preceding two decades: “the producer’s wish to relate the works being staged to contemporary circ*mstances and passions.” Although that sounds like a purely aesthetic reason, making opera relevant to new, multicultural audiences and thereby increasing the bottom line seems very much a part of that aesthetic. It is as true today as it was when Sutcliffe made the observation twelve years ago (60-61). My own speculation is that opera needs to attract various audiences, and it can only do so by appealing to popular culture and engaging new forms of media and technology. Erickson concludes that the number of upper status people who are exclusively faithful to fine arts is declining; high status people consume a variety of culture while the lower status people are limited to what they like. Research in North America, Europe, and Australia, states Erickson, attest to these trends. My answer to the question can stage directors make opera and popular culture “equal” is yes, and they can do it successfully. Perhaps Stanley Sharpless summed it up best: After his Eden triumph, When the Devil played his ace, He wondered what he could do next To irk the human race, So he invented Opera, With many a fiendish grin, To mystify the lowbrows, And take the highbrows in. References The Grand duch*ess. 2005. 3 Feb. 2008 < http://www.ffaire.com/duch*ess/index.htm >.Aslup, Glenn. “Puccini’s La Boheme: A Live HD Broadcast from the Met.” Central City Blog Opera 7 Apr. 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.centralcityopera.org/blog/2008/04/07/puccini%E2%80%99s- la-boheme-a-live-hd-broadcast-from-the-met/ >.Berger, William. Puccini without Excuses. New York: Vintage, 2005.Boorstin, Daniel. The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination. New York: Random House, 1992.Bourdieu, Pierre. 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And Cue the Soprano.” The New York Times 4 Sep. 2005.Los Angeles Opera. “LA Opera General Director Placido Domingo Announces Results of Record-Breaking 20th Anniversary Season.” News release. 2006.Marshall, Garry. “Interview with Garry Marshall.” The KCSN Opera House, 88.5 FM. 31 Aug. 2005.National Endowment for the Arts. 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. Research Division Report #45. 5 Feb. 2008 < http://www.nea.gov/pub/NEASurvey2004.pdf >.NCM Fanthom. “The Metropolitan Opera HD Live.” 2 Feb. 2008 < http://fathomevents.com/details.aspx?seriesid=622&gclid= CLa59NGuspECFQU6awodjiOafA >.Opera Today. James Sobre: Ariane et Barbe-Bleue and Capriccio in Paris – Name This Stage Piece If You Can. 5 Feb. 2008 < http://www.operatoday.com/content/2007/09/ariane_et_barbe_1.php >.Rich, Alan. “High Notes, and Low.” LA Weekly 15 Sep. 2005. 6 May 2008 < http://www.laweekly.com/stage/a-lot-of-night-music/high-notes-and-low/8160/ >.Sharpless, Stanley. “A Song against Opera.” In E. O. Parrott, ed. How to Be Tremendously Tuned in to Opera. New York: Penguin, 1990.Shore, James. Opera Today. 2007. 4 Feb. 2008 < http://www.operatoday.com/content/2007/09/ariane_et_barbe_1.php >.Sutcliffe, Tom. Believing in Opera. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1996.YouTube. “Manon Sex and the Opera.” 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiBQhr2Sy0k >.