bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Caecilians (Gymnophiona)
Authors: Gower David J , Wilkinson Mark
Published: November 2023

Caecilians are a monophyletic group of elongate, snakeor wormlike amphibians lacking all trace of limbs and girdles, and with tails reduced or absent (Fig. 1). 7ey are one of the three orders of the extant Lissamphibia, the Gymnophiona (naked snakes), and are most likely the closest relatives of the more familiar frogs and salamanders (1, 2). All caecilians possess a distinctive cranial sensory organ, the tentacle, and have a unique dual jaw closing mechanism (3). Males have an eversible cloaca used in copulation, and fertilization is internal (4). Some groups retain the ancestral trait of an aquatic larval stage, but direct development and viviparity are common (5). theskin is externally segmented, with scales present in dermal pockets in many species. Most of the 170 known species, grouped into three to six families (1, 6), inhabit soils as adults and, associated with burrowing, have reduced visual systems and heavily ossiAed skulls. thegroup has a primarily tropical (Gondwanan) distribution. Here we review the inferred phylogenetic relationships and estimated divergence times of the major lineages of caecilians. theclassification used here follows the most recent review (6).
Birds (Aves)
Authors: Tuinen Marcel van
Published: November 2023

Living birds are grouped in the Subclass Neornithes, and currently divided into three Superorders: the Paleognathae (ratites and tinamous), Galloanserae (waterfowl and gamefowl), and Neoaves (all other birds; Fig. 1). Based on morphological classification, Neornithes and archaic birds are grouped together in the Class Aves, a subgroup of theropod dinosaurs. theevolution of archaic avians to neornithine birds shows progressive loss of teeth, reduction in tail length, and modification of feathers and limbs for powered Pight. thesecombined characteristics are not yet seen in the oldest lineage of birds, Archaeopteryx. However, several nonmodern birds also displayed remarkable Pight adaptations, particularly the Cretaceous enantiornithines. Between 9000 and 10,000 living species of birds have been described, and they have been placed in 20–28 orders (1, 2). Here, the relationships and divergence times of the three superorders of living birds are reviewed.
Owls (Strigiformes)
Authors: Browna Joseph W , Mindell David P
Published: November 2023

Owls (Order Strigiformes) are grouped into two cosmopolitan families: the species-rich Strigidae (typical owls, 187 species; Fig. 1) and the relatively depauperate Tytonidae (barn owls and bay owls, 15 species). Owls are broadly characterized by adaptations to predation (strong zygodactyl feet, raptorial bill and talons, and soJ-fringed edges of some Pight feathers enabling quiet Pight) and adaptations to a predominantly nocturnal or crepuscular lifestyle (large eyes and highly developed auditory system, facilitated by feathers arranged in a distinctive “facial disc”). Here, we review the relationships and divergence times of the strigiform families. Owls form a morphologically homogeneous group that is easily distinguishable from other avian orders. Since the earliest classifications there has been no question that owls form a natural group (1). Recent studies of DNA–DNA hybridization data (1), mitochondrial (mt) (2), nuclear (2–4), and combined (2) DNA sequences, and morphology (5–7) support the monophyletic status of this large avian order. Equally supported is the division of owls into two families, Arst identified 160 years ago (8). In addition to the character data establishing monophyly of each family, karyological (9), allozyme (10), and mtDNA restriction fragment (11) data reveal a deep split between the two families.
Mammals (Mammalia)
Authors: Madsen Ole
Published: November 2023

Mammals (Mammalia) comprise a diverse class of vertebrates characterized by three morphological characters: mammary glands, hair, and three middle ear bones. Mammals are divided into three well-established groups: the Subclass Prototheria (Fig. 1) (Ave species, e.g., platypus and echidnas); the Infraclass Metatheria (seven orders, 330 species, e.g., kangaroos and opossums); and the Infraclass Eutheria (18–20 orders, 5080 species, e.g., elephants, bats, anteaters, and humans) (1). themosaic appearance of monotremes, with reptilian (e.g., egglaying) and mammalian (e.g., mammary glands) characteristics, has placed them as remnants of an ancestral stock of mammals, classiAed into their own subclass, basal to 7eria (marsupials and eutherians) (2). Here, the phylogenetic relationships and times of divergence of these three most basal mammalian groups are briePy reviewed.
Marsupials (Metatheria)
Authors: Springer Mark S , Krajewskib Carey W , Mereditha Robert W
Published: November 2023

Marsupialia is a diverse group comprising 330 living species that occur in North America, South America, and Australasia (1). Metatheria includes marsupials as well as stem fossils that are more closely related to Marsupialia than to Placentialia. Marsupials, like placentals, are viviparous mammals with mammary nipples. Marsupials generally lack the chorioallantoic placenta that occurs in placental mammals, have a very short gestation period, and give birth to young that are at an early stage of development. Neonates make their way from the mother’s urogential aperture to a nipple, usually enclosed within an abdominal marsupium, where they begin suckling and continue development through an extended period of pouch life. Living marsupial species are placed in seven orders and 16–22 families (1–4). Here we review the phylogenetic relationships and divergence times among the living families of marsupials.
Placental mammals (Eutheria)
Authors: Murphy William J , Eizirikb,C Eduardo
Published: November 2023

Eutherians form a monophyletic group of taxa that are distinguished from other mammals by a number of characters, the most prominent among these being their extended gestation period, faster overall growth, and higher reproductive rates than marsupials and monotremes (1). Fossil evidence indicates that eutherians originated in the early Cretaceous 125 Ma (2). All extant eutherians are members of the crown-group Placentalia, which we refer to henceforth as placentals. 7ere is still debate about the phylogenetic placement of many fossil eutherians; whether they are stem or crown placentals is controversial (3, 4). Living placental mammals have traditionally been divided into 18 orders based on morphological data (5). As discussed later, molecular data accumulated in the past 15 years have led to revisions in the composition of several orders, resulting in as many as 20 currently recognized orders of placental mammals (6, 7).
An unfamiliar proportional quantifier
Authors: Matthewson Lisa
Published: November 2023

This chapter investigates an element in St’át’imcets (Lillooet Salish) which appears to straddle the divide between weak and strong quantifiers. This element, nukw, is described by Eijk (1997: 131, 263) as being an indefinite quantifier meaning ‘some’ or ‘other’. Many thanks to St’át’imcets consultants Gertrude Ned, Laura Thevarge, Rose Agnes Whitley and the late Beverley Frank.
Dislocation Effects, Uninterpretable Features, Functional Heads, and Parametric Variation: Consequences of Conflicting Interface Conditions
Authors: Zeijlstra Hedde
Published: November 2023

In current minimalist reasoning language is assumed to be a “perfect” solution to the task of relating sound and meaning (Chomsky 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008; Lasnik 2002). This perspective takes language to be an optimal solution to conditions that are imposed on the faculty of language by its neighboring mental modules, the Sensorimotor system and the Conceptual-Intentional systems.
Non-Simultaneous Spell-Out in the Clausal and Nominal Domain ∗
Authors: MarušiCˇ Franc Lanko
Published: November 2023

Phases have interface realities, that is, they are propositional elements at the LF interface and have certain phonetic independence at the PF interface (Chomsky 2004a, 2005). These interface units are created by Spell-Out, the operation shipping syntactic structure to the two interfaces. Spell-Out applies cyclically and as a result we get multiple interface units. Whatever gets shipped to the interfaces at one go is a unit at the relevant interface. By looking at the PF and LF properties of various syntactic objects and checking what kind of units they are, we can determine their phasal composition (cf. Matushansky 2003).
Living with muscular dystrophy
Authors: Emery Alan E H
Published: November 2023

The coping process, following a stressful event, occurs in five stages: (1) shock and denial; (2) anxiety; (3) anger and guilt; (4) depression; (5) psychological homeostasis.

The emotional and psychological effects of dystrophy on the affected person as well as on the family are often suppressed and ignored. Individuals vary in their response. Some adapt very well but others may withdraw and become isolated and depressed. The relationship between the parents of an affected child may suffer. They have to learn to share responsibilities and often need time for each other so that their own relationship does not deteriorate. When there is already a family history of the disorder, relatives may well be able to provide additional support and comfort.
Professional and voluntary support
Authors: Emery Alan E H
Published: November 2023

One of the most important problems in muscular dystrophy is a feeling of isolation. Help can, however, be obtained through local groups or various national organizations.

Professional help is obviously important and is nowadays often based in specialist centres and units. Here the emphasis is on the comprehensive management of the disease, ideally with all the various medical, genetic, and surgical expertise being available in the one centre. Out of such centres can develop ‘hospital groups’ of patients and relatives.
Molinism
Authors: Fischer John Martin
Published: November 2023

In the last few decades, much has been written about Luis De Molina’s views about God’s omniscience and also the relationship between God’s omniscience and such ideas as God’s providential powers and human freedom and moral responsibility. The literature is enormous, and the issues can be complex. In this paper I do not set myself the (daunting) task of fitting my views into an overall framework that captures the broad sweep of the discussions of the various components of Molinism. Rather, I shall focus on what I take to be the kernel set of ideas in Molina’s theory of God’s omniscience, and I intend to show that, although they can profitably be employed in seeking to understand God’s providence over the world, they (contrary to what many philosophers apparently think) cannot be invoked to provide a solution to the problem posed by the relationship between God’s omniscience and human freedom. In a nutshell, Molinism does not provide such an answer— it presupposes it. I shall explain why this is so.
Leibniz: Naturalism And Eudaemonism
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: November 2023

Leibniz defends some aspects of the naturalist position against voluntarism. His defence is worth comparing with the arguments of Suarez, Grotius, and Pufendorf. His naturalism in theology and in the foundations of ethics is part of an overall outlook that revives an Aristotelian and Scholastic point of view, by combining naturalism with eudaemonism and with a teleological conception of morality. Modern philosophers were too hasty, according to Leibniz, in rejecting the Scholastic outlook. ‘The incomparable Grotius’ was right to say that there is gold in the rubbish of the monks’ barbarous Latin (Theod., Prelim. Disc. = G vi 53 = H 77). Modern critics have unjustly attacked Aristotelian teleology, and Aristotelian attempts to understand human nature with reference to the natural and immanent ends of human beings.
Consonant Reduction in Faroese Noncompound Wordforms
Authors: Rischel Jørgen
Published: November 2023

In recent years Faroese phonology has attracted the attention of several linguists. A series of analyses has appeared which, interestingly enough, display a wide range of assumptions about the goals and methods of linguistic description. It may be expedient to mention some of the more complete analyses. Werner has given an Autonomous Phonemic description of the consonant system (1963) and more recently of the vowel system (1968). The former part of his analysis is remarkable for its insistence on phonetic sequentiality among the entities that are assigned a phonemic status. By applying the linearity principle very rigorously, Werner arrives at a phoneme system that is widely different from others that have been proposed (see below). Also within an essentially autonomous phonemic framework, Hagström (1967) has set up the phoneme system more in agreement with the type of analysis demonstrated for Icelandic by Einar Haugen (1958). O’Neil (1964b), McCawley (1968), and Anderson (1968) have approached the sound pattern, especially the vowels, in terms of Generative Phonological theory. Particularly the last-mentioned contribution seems to me to lead to significant new insights into the matter. The present paper is based on some of the same assumptions concerning the nature of the rules that operate in Faroese phonology.
A Note on Diachronic Data, Universals, and Research Strategies
Authors: Rischel Jørgen
Published: November 2023

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the formulation of universal phonological tendencies or ‘laws’, and in the application of such universals to synchronic and diachronic research on specific languages. The term ‘universal’ is used in a variety of senses and often rather loosely. It may have an empirical content or an axiomatic status. It may represent a claim about some absolute condition on language(s), or a claim about what is normal and expected. Strictly speaking, the term ‘universal’ makes sense in the latter context only if one posits a principled and truly universal preference for certain features of structure or processes, not just a high frequency of occurrence. One may further consider it an important task to explain why there is such a universal preference.
A Unified Theory of Nordic i-umlaut
Authors: Rischel Jørgen
Published: November 2023

This paper comments on the interrelations between three major issues in early Nordic language history, viz. i-umlaut, syncope, and the genesis of st0d. The ‘unified theory’ I propose is deliberately provocative and meant to invite discussion. It is unified in the sense that I attempt to explain all three phenomena in terms of a particular model of early Nordic word prosody. That model is mora-based, i.e. it refers to the occurrence, within each wordform, of weight units of less-than-syllable size (in contradistinction to the bulk of Nordic philological literature, which refers to full syllables in attempting to account for the way umlaut and syncope worked).
The Role of a ‘Mixed’ Language in Linguistic Reconstruction
Authors: Rischel Jørgen
Published: November 2023

Long after Bloomfield’s well-publicized success in applying the comparative method of Indo-European studies to mutually related North American languages, numerous oral (non-written) languages of the World still await rigorous genetic comparison, being at most classified tentatively (typically on a lexicostatistic and/or a typological basis). Several of these languages (particularly in Oceania) give comparativists a very hard time because the demographic and cultural situation of the language communities has invited confusing variation and change.
The Mlabri Enigma: Is Mlabri a Primary Hunter-Gatherer Language or the Result of an Ethnically and Socially Complex Founder Event?
Authors: Rischel Jørgen
Published: November 2023

The ethnic group that call themselves ‘forest-people’, Mlabri, have recently attracted considerable attention because of a paper in Public Library of Science (‘PLoS’, Oota et al. 2005). It suggests, on the basis of biological evidence, that this particular hunter-gatherer group came into existence by a founder event probably no more than 800 years ago and has an old agricultural background. If that is true, we have here a case of cultural reversion.
Oh nćc! : a bewilderingly multifunctional Saramaccan word teaches us how a creole language develops complexity
Authors: Whorter John MC
Published: November 2023

I have argued (cf. McWhorter 2005)2 that creole language grammars exhibit less complexity than grammars of older languages, as the result of creoles’ origins as radically reduced pidgin varieties. It is natural to human languages to accrete complexity as a matter of course over the millennia. Creoles, born as radically reduced pidgins and having existed as full languages for only a few centuries, have not had time to accrete the volume of complexity that Russian or Navajo has.
Answerable and Unanswerable Questions
Authors: Thomasson Amie L
Published: November 2023

While fights about ontology rage on in the ring, there long been a suspicion whispered in certain corners of the stadium that some of the fights aren real. Granted, the disputants all think they are really disagreeing — it’s not the sincerity of the serious ontologists that in question, but rather their judgment that they are engaged in a real debate about genuine issues of substance.
International collaboration in promoting shared decision-making: A history and prospects
Authors: Holmes-Rovner Margaret , Rovner David
Published: November 2023

Evidence-based patient choice is closely allied with shared decision-making, both conceptually and as a social movement. In this chapter, we trace the development of an international network, The International Shared Decision Making Meeting (ISDM) and ‘listserv’, and reflect on how the focus of research has evolved over 8 years.
Medical-legal aspects of evidence-based choice and shared decision-making
Authors: Mazur Dennis J
Published: November 2023

Evidence-based patient choice and shared decision-making may begin to have medical – legal consequences as they enter into the patient care arena. These two emerging contemporary approaches to information in patient care will have to face the long history of the judge-made law of consent and informed consent that has evolved in the high courts around the world. In this chapter, I will describe the different ways shared decision-making may be viewed medico – legally, using particular examples available from the courts of Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia in relation to the patient – physician relationship and the duties of care and disclosure owed by physicians to their patients.
Helping consumers with their information needs
Authors: Kinnersley Paul , Edwards Adrian
Published: November 2023

When people are ill or feel unwell, they want good information from their doctors and nurses about what is wrong and what needs to be done to help them feel better. However, as health care becomes more complex, providing patients with the information they want at the time they want remains a challenge. Clinicians may underestimate patients’ needs for information or may overestimate the amount they provide. Alternatively, they may use jargon and not allow sufficient opportunity for patients’ questions. In addition, patients themselves may be reluctant or otherwise feel unable to ask questions, particularly if they are suffering from serious or life threatening diseases.
Helping consumers to know their chances
Authors: Schwartz Lisa M , Woloshin, Steven , Welch H Gilbert
Published: November 2023

People face a bewildering array of medical decisions: for example, should I have the genetic test for BRCA1 breast cancer gene? Should I be screened for prostate cancer? Should I take a medication to lower my cholesterol? Should I have chemotherapy to treat my breast cancer? If people are to make informed decisions, they need to understand their chances: What is my chance of a health outcome if I undergo this intervention and what is my chance of a health outcome if I forgo it? There are many ways to describe the ‘chance of a health outcome’. We believe (Schwartz, 1997) – as do many other experts (Elwyn, 2006) – that the best way is to use ‘absolute risks’. But using absolute risks means lots of numbers: twice as many numbers as using the corresponding relative risk. And the numbers quickly multiply as the number of outcomes grows. The result is often unreadable: long blocks of text containing number after number. The solution is to use tables – structured displays of data, typically organized into columns for the intervention and controls and rows for the outcome.
The International patient decision aids standards (IPDAS) collaboration: The checklist, the instrument, and next steps
Authors: Elwyn Glyn , O’Connor Annette
Published: November 2023

The growth in the development of decision aids for patients and others who need support to make wise health care decisions has been one of the most important health communication innovations over the last decade, given that they make a difference to the way patients are treated (O’Connor et al., 2007b). We will not rehearse here the evidence base for their effectiveness, merely point to the relevant literature (Coulter and Ellins, 2007; O’Connor et al., 2004b) and summarize by saying that these decision support technologies have important effects on decisions (Godlee F, 2007; Holmes-Rovner M et al., 2007; O’Connor AM et al., 2004a; O’Connor AM et al., 2007b). For example, they reduce the use of some procedures (such as fewer mastectomies in favour of breast conservation surgery or a reduction in hysterectomy rates (Kennedy ADM et al., 2002; Whelan T et al., 2004), and increasing the use of others (such as the uptake of colon cancer screening (O’Connor et al., 2004b). These effects are desirable when decision aids are unbiased and the motivation is to rectify variations in practice due to poor comprehension or disregarding of patients’ preferences. However, concerns will emerge if decision aids affect uptake rates because of bias or inaccuracy.
Decision support in the treatment of prostate conditions
Authors: Barry Michael J
Published: November 2023

BPH is common among older men worldwide. For unclear reasons, as men age, the tissues of the prostate gland expand and coalesce, eventually causing prostate enlargement, bladder outlet obstruction, and secondary detrusor (bladder muscle) instability. The morbidity of BPH is largely due to its associated lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), including urgency, frequency, nocturia, incomplete emptying, straining, intermittency, and a weak stream. Men with BPH may also develop acute urinary retention, the inability to urinate at all; urinary tract infections; and rarely, renal insufficiency (Barry, 2006). Not all LUTS are attributable to BPH; and conversely, many men with BPH never develop bothersome symptoms.
Supporting decisions in clinical genetics
Authors: Gaff Clara L , Meiser Bettina
Published: November 2023

Genetic conditions as a group have little in common beyond their familial nature – the fact that they can be passed through generations, potentially affecting multiple family members. This characteristic is a central aspect of decision-making in clinical genetics and one that adds complexity. A family member’s decision impacts on the entire family and family considerations impact on the decision of that person.
Convergent Trends in Modern Medical Ethics: Medicine-Based Ethics and Human Rights
Authors: Delden Johannes J M van
Published: November 2023

The chapter by Dr. Emanuel describes the evolving norms of medical ethics over the centuries, with a special focus on the decades after World War II. It gives examples of the presumed chaos in the last and present phase by elaborating on the standard of care debate in research ethics, by discussing the problem of multiple ethical review of research and by commenting on the ethics of health policy. It is especially the first part, in which the different phases and their paradigms are described, which cause me problems. These originate from the fact that it is not clear whether the postulated paradigms really dominated the given period and whether the shifts from one paradigm to the other really occurred. Since it is not clear on what grounds we can assume a paradigm to be present or changed, the theory of the chapter I am asked to comment on is hard to verify and equally hard to falsify. My problem is augmented by the fact that Dr. Emanuel knows all this and has inserted several caveats in his text: we are not to assume rigid distinctions between the phases, nor to take paradigm shifts as radical changes, nor should we take decades too literally, he warns us.
Global Norms in Bioethics: Problems and Prospects
Authors: Baylis∗ Francoise
Published: November 2023

John Harris deplores the uncritical acceptance and validation of ethics data from public consultations and, in ‘ ‘Global Norms, Informed Consensus, and Hypocrisy in Bioethics, ‘ ‘ he argues at length against the mistaken view that ethics opinions espoused by experts of various sorts or simply members of the public qualify as sound ethics judgments. Harris also bemoans the absence of philosophical analysis, evidence, and argument in international ethics policy documents, and on these grounds argues against undue deference to the ethics conclusions of international organizations. In his opinion, only moral judgments that are supported by evidence and reasoned argument and are available for analysis and critique are deserving of our attention and respect. Nothing else should hold sway.
The Contribution of Species Distribution Modelling to Conservation Prioritization
Authors: Elith Jane , Leathwick John
Published: November 2023

This chapter provides information on species distribution models (SDMs) and their use in conservation prioritization. In it we aim to give readers an understanding of the breadth of methods and applications of SDM, and to equip them to identify and resolve key decisions in creating a robust model. Our primary objectives are to describe the main methodological steps required to fit and evaluate an SDM, and to summarize the most common problems with SDMs in the context of spatial prioritization, pointing to methods for dealing with these problems or alternative approaches that might be more suitable. Note that in terms of scope, we ignore the wider use of SDMs to make inferences about ecological relationships only because this broader application is tangential to the particular focus of this volume.

To provide a context for these objectives we begin in sections 6.1 and 6.2 by outlining what SDMs are, their ecological bases, what they are commonly used for, and the benefits they offer for spatial prioritization. In Section 6.3 we then outline the broad classes of models, and provide a commentary on their relative utility so that a newcomer can understand how to choose a method and set of analyses appropriate for their particular data and prioritization problem. Details on evaluation and on methodological steps and problems in building SDMs are treated in Sections 6.4 and 6.5. We then provide an illustrative example of fitting and evaluating SDMs in Section 6.6. Finally, Section 6.7 includes brief comment on limitations and future directions.
Aristotle’s Categories in the Latin Fathers
Authors: Kenny Anthony
Published: November 2023

The Latin Church Fathers of the fourth century had reason to be interested in Aristotle ‘s categories, or at least in the category of substance, in the period between the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), which formulated the relationship between the Son and the Father in the Christian Trinity. Nicaea (in the Latin version of Hilary of Poitiers) declared that the Son was ‘natum ex patre unigenitum, hocest de substantia patris, deum ex deo, lumen ex lumine, deum verum de deo vero, natum, non factum, unius substantiae cum Patre (quod Graece dicunt homoousion) ‘. Constantinople (in the version of Dionysius Exiguus) described the Son as ‘natum ex patre ante omnia saecula, deum verum de deo vero, natum non factum, consubstantialem Patri ‘.
Aquinas on the Beginning of Individual Human Life
Authors: Kenny Anthony
Published: November 2023

When did I begin? When does any individual human being begin? At what stage of its development does a human organism become entitled to the moral and legal protection which we give to the life of human adults? Is it at conception, or at birth, or somewhere between the two? In this chapter I will discuss the question in general terms, but I will pay particular attention to Aquinas ‘s account. I will contrast his position with the one currently adopted by most Catholics, and then I will present my own answer to the question, which is midway between the Catholic one and the Thomist one.
Knowledge, Belief, and Faith
Authors: Kenny Anthony
Published: November 2023

The nature of knowledge and its relation to certainty, belief, and doubt has been a philosophical topic ever since philosophy began. Philosophers in ancient Greece established a number of truths about knowledge. (1) Knowledge can only be of what is true. (2) A belief is only knowledge if it can appeal to some kind of warrant. (3) One who claims knowledge must have a resolute commitment to the proposition claimed to be known. If I claim to know something, then I exclude the possibility of being at some later time rightly converted to a different view.
Hysteria
Authors: Scull Andrew
Published: November 2023

The nineteenth century seems to have been full of hysterical women - or so they were diagnosed. Where are they now? The very disease no longer exists. In this fascinating account, Andrew Scull tells the story of Hysteria - an illness that disappeared not through medical endeavour, but through growing understanding and cultural change. More generally, it raises the question of how diseases are framed, and how conceptions of a disease change through history. The lurid history of hysteria makes fascinating reading. Charcot's clinics showed off flamboyantly 'hysterical' patients taking on sexualized poses, and among the visiting professionals was one Sigmund Freud. Scull discusses the origins of the idea of hysteria, the development of a neurological approach by John Sydenham and others, hysteria as a fashionable condition, and its growth from the 17th century. Some regarded it as a peculiarly English malady, 'the natural concomitant of England's greater civilization and refinement'. Women were the majority of patients, and the illness became associated with female biology, resulting in some gruesome 'treatments'. Charcot and Freud were key practitioners defining the nature of the illness. But curiously, the illness seemed to swap gender during the First World War when male hysterics frequently suffering from shell shock were also subjected to brutal 'treatments'. Subsequently, the 'disease' declined and eventually disappeared, at least in professional circles, though attenuated elements remain, reclassified for instance as post-traumatic stress disorder. Hysteria: the biography is part of the Oxford series, Biographies of Diseases, edited by William and Helen Bynum. In each individual volume an expert historian or clinician tells the story of a particular disease or condition throughout history - not only in terms of growing medical understanding of its nature and cure, but also shifting social and cultural attitudes, and changes in the meaning of the name of the disease itself.
What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do
Authors: Sepielli Andrew
Published: November 2023

You and I are limited beings, and must therefore make our decisions under uncertainty. There are two types of uncertainty with which we must contend. One is non-normative uncertainty—uncertainty about matters of non-normative fact. Non-normative facts may include everything from the age of the universe to the gross domestic product of India to the health effects of drinking four gallons of Mountain Dew in one night. The other is normative uncertainty—uncertainty about the reasons those facts give us. For example, someone might be uncertain about the permissibility of abortion, even if she were certain about the science of fetal development, the kind of life a child born to her would lead, and so on.
Aristophanes and the Socrates of the Phaedo
Authors: Rashed Marwan
Published: November 2023

How far, we may wonder, is the Pythagorean Socrates, the Socrates for whom the afterlife of the soul is a matter of crucial importance, Plato’s own invention? For Theodor Ebert, that is entirely what he is.1 In other words, in the Phaedo Plato has, for his own philosophical purposes, created a character that bears little or no relation to the historical Socrates.
Socrates’ New Aitia:Causal and Metaphysical Explanations in plato’s Phaedo
Authors: Sharma Ravi
Published: November 2023

The section of the Phaedo that recounts Socrates’ intellectual ‘autobiography’ and culminates in his turn to the theory of Forms (95 e“102 b) has long been considered a key passage for understanding Plato’s mature philosophy. Besides offering explicit commentary on various themes of Presocratic thought, it is one of the few Platonic texts purporting to explain some of the considerations that motivate the theory of Forms.
What is lung cancer?
Authors: Falk Stephen , Williams Chris
Published: November 2023

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the Western world. Cancer is defined as an abnormal growth of cells which tend to divide and grow in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread). Treatment is determined by which of the two commonest types of lung cancer is present: small cell lung cancer or non-small cell lung cancer.
Tests used to stage lung cancer
Authors: Falk Stephen , Williams Chris
Published: November 2023

The extent of the disease is known as the ‘stage’, and this helps to plan treatment and indicate likely prognosis. The extent of investigation varies according to general health and possible treatments but is likely to include a computed tomography (CT) scan. Measures of patients’ fitness help to select treatments that can be tolerated.
Treatment of non-small cell lung cancer
Authors: Falk Stephen , Williams Chris
Published: November 2023

The treatment is planned according to the extent of the disease and general fitness. The major curative treatment is surgery. Radiotherapy can cure lung cancer and also help the common symptoms. Chemotherapy either adds to radiotherapy or surgery for cure or is used to prolong the quantity and quality of life. Newer targeted treatments offer the hope of improving treatment outcomes with fewer side-effects.
Living with lung cancer
Authors: Falk Stephen , Williams Chris
Published: November 2023

It’s best to talk openly about your cancer. A good diet and exercise seem to help deal with the illness and may prolong the length of life. Beware of dangerous claims for drugs and other approaches on the internet. More people are alive after successful treatment for cancer. Their needs are increasingly recognized and called survivorship.
Looking ahead
Authors: Harper Peter S
Published: November 2023

Once a person has been diagnosed as having myotonic dystrophy and has accepted that they have a medical condition, it is common that the following questions arise and need answering: How much worse will my muscle weakness get? And how rapidly? Will it spread to other muscles that are normal at present?
‘Type 2’ myotonic dystrophy
Authors: Harper Peter S
Published: November 2023

The gene for ‘type 2’ myotonic dystrophy was discovered in 2000, and this has proved very important for our understanding of myotonic dystrophy as a whole. This condition is often relatively mild and only slowly progressive. In particular, it rarely occurs in childhood and never in a severe congenital form as may happen in type 1 myotonic dystrophy.
Family aspects and genetic risks
Authors: Harper Peter S
Published: November 2023

In type 1 myotonic dystrophy (the usual form), just one specific gene is altered. In the much less frequent type 2 myotonic dystrophy, a different gene is altered. The genes that cause myotonic dystrophy can be detected by a genetic test. Both type 1 and type 2 myotonic dystrophy are inherited. Therefore, a number of family members are likely to be affected. There is a 50% chance that a child will inherit myotonic dystrophy from an affected parent.
Conclusion
Authors: Harper Peter S
Published: November 2023

I have reached the end of this book and am conscious that there is a lot more that I could have included and that much of what I have said may not be altogether clearly written. I also recognize that people will be looking for what neither I nor anyone else can give at present—a promise of effective treatment in the immediate future.
Divine Will Theory: Intentions or Desires?
Authors: Miller Christian
Published: November 2023

Due largely to the work of Mark Murphy and Philip Quinn, divine will theory has emerged as a legitimate alternative to divine command theory in recent years.¹ As an initial characterization, divine will theory is a view of deontological properties according to which, for instance, an agent S’s obligation to perform action A in circumstances C is grounded in God’s will that S A in C. Characterizing this abstractly, divine will theory does not specify which kind of mental state is supposed to ground S’s obligation; it could be God’s desires, beliefs, intentions, or emotions. My purpose here is not to challenge this view. Rather, I want to examine the decision by Murphy and Quinn to base their version of divine will theory on God’s intentions, and argue that this may have been an unwise move. As an alternative, I suggest that those who are initially attracted to divine will theory would be better served to develop the view with a focus on God’s desires rather than intentions.
Summary of Legislation in Radiological Protection in the United Kingdom
Authors: Prime David
Published: November 2023

The use of equipment or materials which emit radiations is governed by two pieces of legislation: the Radioactive Substances Act (1960) and the Ionizing Radiations Regulations (1985). This legislation imposes a system of radio logical protection which is more or less the same in all premises using radio active materials or radiation emitting equipment. This system will be outlined in two sections dealing with the respective items of legislation.
The use of the Filtration Technique in in Vitro Radioligand Binding Assays for Membrane-Bound and Solubilized Receptors
Authors: Wang Jian-xin , Yamamura Henry I , Wang Wan , Roeske william R
Published: November 2023

It has been nearly a century since the receptor hypothesis was first proposed for the mechanism of the effects of drug and toxins on biosystems (1,2). In 1926, A. J. Clark established his receptor occupation theory (3) describing a quantitative interaction between drugs and their receptors. For a period of almost 40 years putative drug receptors were detected by measuring the functional response elicited by drugs. This method must make assumptions that relate the drug-receptor binding properties to the function measured. The first attempt to directly measure the receptors with radiolabelled ligand can be traced back to the 1960s when [3H]atropine (4) and [3H]propranolol (5) were used to label the muscarinic uptake sites in the intestinal smooth muscle and the adrenergic uptake site in atria, respectively. In 1970, radioiso tope labelled adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) (6), angiotensin (7) and o.-bungarotoxin (8) were used to measure ACTH, angiotensin, and nicotinic cholinergic receptors, respectively. These pioneering experiments demon strated that radioisotopically labelled hormones or toxins could be used to study directly the interaction of hormones or toxins with their specific membrane sites. However, some of these studies were limited by technical difficulties such as a low signal-to-noise ratio.
Centrifugation Binding Assays
Authors: Hulme E C
Published: November 2023

Centrifugation assays are best applied to assaying the labelling of receptors in membrane preparations using radioligands. The principle is elementary. At the end of the assay period, the membranes bearing the labelled receptors are sedimented, and thus physically removed from the supernatant, containing the bulk of the unbound radioligand. After pouring off the supernatant, and subjecting the pellet to washing procedures of greater or less rigour, the amount of bound ligand is assayed, typically by liquid scintillation spectroscopy, or γ-counting.
Purification of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors
Authors: Weed Sigrid Hertling-Ja , Bandini Giampiero , Hucho Ferdinand
Published: November 2023

Receptors are membrane proteins receiving extracellular signals-hormones, growth factors, neurotransmitters-and transducing them to the interior of receiving cells (1). Despite their diversity they have many properties in common, some of which have been discovered through pioneering work on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), which therefore has become a model for much of the present-day receptor research (2). All membrane-bound receptors are glycoproteins embedded in and partially protruding from the plasma membrane. All are composed of one or several polypeptide chains threaded through the lipid bilayer of the membrane by means of one, four, or seven possibly α-helical hydrophobic sequences. The growth-factor receptors have one membrane-spanning helix; receptors rigidly coupled to ion channels have four, and the receptors transiently coupled to effector enzymes via G-proteins have seven putative transmembrane helices. Most, if not all, receptors can be phosphorylated at sites located on sequences oriented towards the cytoplasm. Receptors exist in inter convertible functional states. They can be considered to be allosterically regulated proteins (3).
Interactions of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) with G-proteins
Authors: Haga T , Haga k.
Published: November 2023

The responses induced by mAChRs are considered to occur in the following order (for a review, see reference 1):

(a) the binding of acetylcholine (ACh) to mAChRs:

(b) the activation by the ACh-mAChR complex of G-proteins (G), i.e. facilitation of the dissociation of GDP from G and the subsequent association of GTP with G;

(c) the activation or inhibition by G-GTP of effectors, which include adenylate cyclase (inhibition), polyphosphoinositide phosphodiesterase, and ion channels.

Evidence for a direct interaction between mAChRs and G-proteins has been provided by reconstituting purified mAChRs and purified G-proteins into phospholipid vesicles, and then observing the effect of guanine nucleotides on acetylcholine binding and the effect of acetylcholine on guanine nucleotide binding (2-6).
Mechanism of action of hormone antagonists
Authors: Dauvois S , Parker M G
Published: November 2023

Steroid hormone antagonists are compounds that compete with steroid hormones for receptor binding but fail to trigger the normal response and thereby inhibit the action of the hormone. They have a number of important clinical applications, particularly in the control of fertility and for the treatment of hormone-dependent cancer, and are also useful for elucidating the role of steroid hormones in the regulation of a wide range of physiological responses. The advantage of using anti-hormones to suppress hormone action compared with other approaches such as endocrine gland ablation is their greater degree of specificity: in general, their effects are restricted to target tissues for the hormone. Thus, while endocrine gland ablation is being used successfully to treat a number of clinical syndromes, specific hormone antagonists are now available which in certain circumstances are used as the preferred treatment.
Mutations in steroid hormone receptors causing clinical disease
Authors: Mcphaul Michael J
Published: November 2023

The syndromes of hormone resistance have been of interest to scientists for decades. Following the detection of specific receptors for thyroid hormone, vitamin D, and steroid hormones, substantial effort was made to study patients affected with these disorders using assays of hormone binding. Although interesting patterns often emerged from such studies, the pathogenesis of the diseases remained obscure.
Techniques For Studying Mitosis In Drosophila
Authors: Gonzalez Cayetano , Glover David M
Published: November 2023

Of all mctazoans, Drosophila melanogaster is perhaps best suited for a genetic analysis of cell division. In this chapter, we cannot hope to cover all the experimental techniques needed to study Drosophila. However, we aim to supplement existing texts by concentrating on techniques to characterize mitotic mutants. Ashburner has recently undertaken the Herculean task of producing an excellent laboratory handbook (1) which together with a laboratory manual (2) provide an essential reference guide for Drosophila research. In addition, we refer to another volume in this series Drosophila: a practical approach, edited by David Roberts (3).
Prediction and experitnental investigation of RNA secondary and tertiary foldings
Authors: Westhof Eric , Michel Francois
Published: November 2023

Through folding of the polynucleotide sugar-phosphate backbone, the ribonucleic acid bases interact and form hydrogen-bonded double-stranded helices separated by single-stranded regions forming hairpin loops, bulges, and internal or multiple loops (Figure 1). The main secondary structural element, the antiparallel double stranded helix, is maintained via hydrogen bonds involving atoms of the bases, that is, atoms of the side chains and not of the polynucleotide backbone (in contrast to proteins where secondary structure elements such as sheets or helices are held through hydrogen bonds involving atoms of the polypeptide backbone). The establishment of the secondary structure of an RNA molecule is thus feasible either directly from its base sequence on the basis of solution data (chemical and enzymatic probing) coupled with theoretical free energy minimizations or by sequence comparisons of functionally similar molecules across phylogeny.
PFGE in physical mapping
Authors: Ho M F , Monaco A P
Published: November 2023

The development of pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), which allows the separation of DNA molecules as large as 10 Mb, has enabled large regions of genomic DNA to be mapped and analysed without cloning the DNA (1–3). Its wide separation range has bridged the size gap between cytogenetic methods (>5 Mb) and conventional gel electrophoresis (up to 50 kb). Prior to this, genetic mapping has been the primary method for mapping genes responsible for inherited disorders. Genetic maps relate the apparent distance between genes or other detectable markers to the relative frequency of genetic events, such as recombination; hence its resolution is dependent on the number of available meiotic events and recombination frequency. The latter not only differs between male and female but varies for different regions of the genome. In contrast, physical maps reflect the actual structure of the DNA, its range as well as resolution can be adjusted within wide limits by choosing the appropriate rare-cutting restriction enzymes and electrophoretic conditions. The combination of genetic and physical mapping strategies has been essential for the isolation of genes responsible for many human genetic disorders including cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease.
Functional analysis of mammalian genomes using yeast artificial chromosomes
Authors: Larin Z
Published: November 2023

Methods for isolating genes by positional cloning have been enhanced by using yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) as mapping tools. However, YACs may also be used to isolate genes by functional complementation of a mutant phenotype (1) following transfer of YACs containing the respective region into cultured cells (2, 3) or mice (4, 5, 6). This approach is particularly attractive for isolating murine genes where large regions containing mutant loci have been mapped by genetic markers. Once a YAC is known to encompass a particular gene, further localization of the gene can be obtained by re-introducing a series of YAC deletions, constructed by telomere fragmentation (7) (see Chapter 6), into mammalian cells, and testing for complementation of the mutant phenotype.