bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using action space clustering to constrain the recent accretion history of Milky Way-like galaxies
Authors: Wu Youjia , Valluri Monica , Panithanpaisal Nondh , Sanderson Robyn E , Freese Katherine , Wetzel Andrew , Sharma Sanjib
Published: November 2021

In the currently favoured cosmological paradigm galaxies form hierarchically through the accretion of satellites. Since a satellite is less massive than the host, its stars occupy a smaller volume in action space. Actions are conserved when the potential of the host halo changes adiabatically, so stars from an accreted satellite would remain clustered in action space as the host evolves. In this paper, we identify recently disrupted accreted satellites in three Milky Way-like disc galaxies from the cosmological baryonic FIRE-2 simulations by tracking satellites through simulation snapshots. We try to recover these satellites by applying the cluster analysis algorithm Enlink to the orbital actions of accreted star particles in the z = 0 snapshot. Even with completely error-free mock data we find that only 35 per cent (14/39) satellites are well recovered while the rest (25/39) are poorly recovered (i.e. either contaminated or split up). Most (10/14 ∼70 per cent) of the well-recovered satellites have infall times <7.1 Gyr ago and total mass >4 × 108M⊙ (stellar mass more than 1.2 × 106 M⊙, although our upper mass limit is likely to be resolution dependent). Since cosmological simulations predict that stellar haloes include a population of in situ stars, we test our ability to recover satellites when the data include 10–50 per cent in situ contamination. We find that most previously well-recovered satellites stay well recovered even with 50 per cent contamination. With the wealth of 6D phase space data becoming available we expect that cluster analysis in action space will be useful in identifying the majority of recently accreted and moderately massive satellites in the Milky Way.
The magnetic field and magnetosphere of Plaskett’s star: a fundamental shift in our understanding of the system
Authors: Grunhut J H , Wade G A , Folsom C P , Neiner C , Kochukhov O , Alecian E , Shultz M , Petit V ,   MiMeS BinaMIcS Collaborations
Published: November 2021

Plaskett’s ‘star’ appears to be one of a small number of short-period binary systems known to contain a hot, massive, magnetic star. We combine an extensive spectropolarimetric (Stokes V) data set with archival photometry and spectropolarimetry to establish the essential characteristics of the magnetic field and magnetosphere of the rapidly rotating, broad-line component of the system. We apply least-squares deconvolution (LSD) to infer the longitudinal magnetic field from each Stokes V spectrum. Using the time series of longitudinal field measurements, in combination with CoRoT photometry and equivalent width measurements of magnetospheric spectral lines, we infer the rotation period of the magnetic star to be equal to $1.21551^{+0.00028}_{-0.00034}$ d. Modelling the Stokes V LSD profiles with Zeeman–Doppler Imaging, we produce the first reliable magnetic map of an O-type star. We find a magnetic field that is predominantly dipolar, with an obliquity near 90° and a polar strength of about 850 G. We update the calculations of the theoretical magnetospheric parameters, and in agreement with their predictions we identify clear variability signatures of the H α, H β, and He ii λ4686 lines confirming the presence of a dense centrifugal magnetosphere surrounding the star. Finally, we report a lack of detection of radial velocity (RV) variations of the observed Stokes V profiles, suggesting that historical reports of the large RV variations of the broad-line star’s spectral lines may be spurious. This discovery may motivate a fundamental revision of the historical model of the Plaskett’s star as a near-equal mass O + O binary system.
HIT 2.0: an enhanced platform for Herbal Ingredients' Targets
Authors: Yan Deyu , Zheng Genhui , Wang Caicui , Chen Zikun , Mao Tiantian , Gao Jian , Yan Yu , Chen Xiangyi , Ji Xuejie , Yu Jinyu , Mo Saifeng , Wen Haonan , Han Wenhao , Zhou Mengdi , Wang Yuan , Wang Jun , Tang Kailin , Cao Zhiwei
Published: November 2021

Literature-described targets of herbal ingredients have been explored to facilitate the mechanistic study of herbs, as well as the new drug discovery. Though several databases provided similar information, the majority of them are limited to literatures before 2010 and need to be updated urgently. HIT 2.0 was here constructed as the latest curated dataset focusing on Herbal Ingredients’ Targets covering PubMed literatures 2000–2020. Currently, HIT 2.0 hosts 10 031 compound-target activity pairs with quality indicators between 2208 targets and 1237 ingredients from more than 1250 reputable herbs. The molecular targets cover those genes/proteins being directly/indirectly activated/inhibited, protein binders, and enzymes substrates or products. Also included are those genes regulated under the treatment of individual ingredient. Crosslinks were made to databases of TTD, DrugBank, KEGG, PDB, UniProt, Pfam, NCBI, TCM-ID and others. More importantly, HIT enables automatic Target-mining and My-target curation from daily released PubMed literatures. Thus, users can retrieve and download the latest abstracts containing potential targets for interested compounds, even for those not yet covered in HIT. Further, users can log into ‘My-target’ system, to curate personal target-profiling on line based on retrieved abstracts. HIT can be accessible at http://hit2.badd-cao.net.
The Human Proteoform Atlas: a FAIR community resource for experimentally derived proteoforms
Authors: Hollas Michael A R , Robey Matthew T , Fellers Ryan T , LeDuc Richard D , Thomas Paul M , Kelleher Neil L
Published: November 2021

The Human Proteoform Atlas (HPfA) is a web-based repository of experimentally verified human proteoforms on-line at http://human-proteoform-atlas.org and is a direct descendant of the Consortium of Top-Down Proteomics’ (CTDP) Proteoform Atlas. Proteoforms are the specific forms of protein molecules expressed by our cells and include the unique combination of post-translational modifications (PTMs), alternative splicing and other sources of variation deriving from a specific gene. The HPfA uses a FAIR system to assign persistent identifiers to proteoforms which allows for redundancy calling and tracking from prior and future studies in the growing community of proteoform biology and measurement. The HPfA is organized around open ontologies and enables flexible classification of proteoforms. To achieve this, a public registry of experimentally verified proteoforms was also created. Submission of new proteoforms can be processed through email vianrtdphelp@northwestern.edu, and future iterations of these proteoform atlases will help to organize and assign function to proteoforms, their PTMs and their complexes in the years ahead.
Revealing A-T and G-C Hoogsteen base pairs in stressed protein-bound duplex DNA
Authors: Shi Honglue , Kimsey Isaac J , Gu Stephanie , Liu Hsuan-Fu , Pham Uyen , Schumacher Maria A , Al-Hashimi Hashim M
Published: November 2021

Watson–Crick base pairs (bps) are the fundamental unit of genetic information and the building blocks of the DNA double helix. However, A-T and G-C can also form alternative ‘Hoogsteen’ bps, expanding the functional complexity of DNA. We developed ‘Hoog-finder’, which uses structural fingerprints to rapidly screen Hoogsteen bps, which may have been mismodeled as Watson–Crick in crystal structures of protein–DNA complexes. We uncovered 17 Hoogsteen bps, 7 of which were in complex with 6 proteins never before shown to bind Hoogsteen bps. The Hoogsteen bps occur near mismatches, nicks and lesions and some appear to participate in recognition and damage repair. Our results suggest a potentially broad role for Hoogsteen bps in stressed regions of the genome and call for a community-wide effort to identify these bps in current and future crystal structures of DNA and its complexes.
Evaluation of a DNA demethylating agent in combination with all-trans retinoic acid for IDH1-mutant gliomas
Authors: da Costa Rosa Marina , Yamashita Alex Shimura , Riggins Gregory J
Published: November 2021

Background

Isocitrate Dehydrogenase 1/2 (IDH1/2) mutations are diagnostic for Astrocytoma or Oligodendroglioma, IDH-mutant. In these IDH-mutant gliomas, retinoic acid-related gene expression is commonly silenced by DNA hypermethylation. DNA demethylating agents can epigenetically reprogram IDH-mutant cells and reduce proliferation, likely by re-expression of silenced tumor suppressor pathways. We hypothesized that DNA demethylation might restore the retinoic acid pathway and slow tumor growth. This was the rationale for a preclinical evaluation combining the DNA demethylating agent, 5-Azacytidine (5-Aza), and retinoic acid pathway activation with all-trans retinoic acid (atRA) in IDH-mutant glioma.

Methods

In this study, we evaluated the effect of 5-Aza and atRA combination on cell proliferation, apoptosis, and gene expression in human glioma cells. In addition, the efficacy of this combination was tested in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) bearing the IDH1R132H mutation, utilizing subcutaneous and orthotopic models.

Results

5-Aza reduced the DNA methylation profile and increased the gene expression of retinoic acid-related genes. Combination of 5-Aza and atRA reduced cell growth, increased differentiation marker expression, and apoptosis in IDH1R132H glioma cells. Mechanistically, 5-Aza sensitized IDHIR132H glioma cells to atRA via upregulation of the retinoic acid pathway. Importantly, the drug combination reduced significantly the growth rate of subcutaneous tumors, but in an orthotopic mouse model, the combination did not improve survival and 5-Aza alone provided the best survival benefit.

Conclusion

Use of DNA demethylating agent in combination with retinoids shows promise, but further optimization and preclinical studies are required for treatment of intracranial IDH-mutant gliomas.
Effects of Bifidobacterium animalis subspecies lactis supplementation on gastrointestinal symptoms: systematic review with meta-analysis
Authors: Araújo Maísa Miranda , Vogado Carolina de Oliveira , Mendes Marcela Moraes , Gonçalves Vivian Siqueira Santos , Botelho Patrícia Borges
Published: November 2021

Context

The effects of probiotics on gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms have been increasingly investigated, particularly that of Bifidobacterium animalis. Clinical trials so far have shown differing evidence regarding these effects in healthy adults.

Objective

To synthesize the published evidence on the effects of B. animalis subspecies lactis on GI symptoms (GIS) in healthy adults.

Data Source

A search of the Medline, Embase, Lilacs, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, and Google Scholar databases was conducted for reports on randomized controlled trials published up to October 2021.

Data Extraction

Population characteristics and data on colonic transit time (CTT), stool consistency, defecation frequency, abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence, volunteer compliance, and adverse events were extracted. A random-effects model was used to estimate the effect of probiotic treatment on these variables.

Data Synthesis

In total, 1551 studies were identified, of which 14 were included in the qualitative synthesis and 13 in the meta-analysis. Overall, probiotic supplementation increased defecation frequency (standardized mean difference [SMD], 0.26; 95%CI, 0.13–0.39). Subgroup analysis revealed a decrease in CTT (SMD, −0.34; 95%CI, −0.62 to −0.07) in short-term treatment (≤14 d) and an improvement in stool consistency (SMD, 0.76; 95%CI, 0.44–1.08) in individuals without GIS. No improvement in abdominal pain and bloating was found.

Conclusions

B. animalis subspecies lactis supplementation may increase defecation frequency and, in short-term treatment, may reduce CTT in healthy adults and improve stool consistency in individuals without GIS. More high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to develop a clinical protocol for the use of this strain to improve these symptoms.

Systematic Review Registration

PROSPERO registration no. CRD42020154060.
Chronic fatigue syndrome and occupational status: a retrospective longitudinal study
Authors: Stevelink S A M , Mark K M , Fear N T , Hotopf M , Chalder T
Published: November 2021

Background

Few studies into chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) have emphasized work-related consequences, including return to work after illness.

Aims

This paper explores socio-demographic, work and clinical characteristics that are associated with occupational status among patients who were assessed at baseline and a follow-up point.

Methods

Longitudinal data were assessed from patients affected by CFS who attended an outpatient CFS treatment service between 2007 and 2014. Employment status at baseline and follow-up was available for 316 patients. Data were also included on gender, age, duration of CFS, fatigue severity, type and number of treatment sessions, coping strategies, functional impairment, common mental disorders and physical functioning.

Results

Most patients were female (73%) and had been affected by CFS for longer than 2 years (66%). Patients were followed up for an average of 285 days and over this period 53% of patients who were working remained in employment. Of the patients who were not working at baseline, 9% had returned to work at follow-up. However, of those working at baseline, 6% were unable to continue to work at follow-up. Age, fatigue severity, functional impairment, cognitive and behavioural responses, and depressive symptoms impacted on a patients’ work status at follow-up.

Conclusions

The findings indicated that it is possible for people with CFS to remain in work or return to work, despite having had a disabling illness. Work-related outcomes should be targeted in all people of working age.
Glitching the Gendered Voice
Authors: Geffen Sasha
Published: November 2021

Since recording technology first severed the human voice from its originating body, the uncanniness of the sourceless voice has coincided with theoreticizations of queerness. The concept of homosexuality and the proliferation of home phonographs emerged at around the same point in history, and both interventions confounded traditional imaginings of domesticity, intimacy, and communion. As playback technology has grown more responsive and complex, so have defections from normative gender and heterosexuality. Electronic voice processing furthers the confusion of source presented by playback, making electronic music an especially rich field of expression for queer and transgender musicians in particular. This chapter traces the technologically mutated voice through the past century of recording, focusing on its relationship to unruly expressions of gender from electronic music’s origins to its present iterations. Though not only queer artists have participated in this evolutionary process, this chapter highlights the ways trans musicians in particular have used glitch and distortion to rupture the habit of listening for normative gender, sounding new ways of moving and being in their wake.
Why Is(n’t) Ambient so White?
Authors: Szabo Victor
Published: November 2021

This chapter investigates why white and light-skinned artists have long dominated representations of ambient music, a popular (sub)genre of electronic music and style of EDM, within anglophone EDM scenes and media discourses. It explores how early discourses on ambient implicitly shaped the genre’s aesthetics around idealizations of hip highbrow and high-middlebrow white masculinity. Starting in the 1970s and 80s, these discourses tacitly disregarded the relevance of genres racialized as non-white to ambient’s ideals of aesthetic experimentation, affective detachment, cerebral introspection, and physical ease. EDM-oriented discourses reified the putative whiteness of this formation in the early 1990s by repeatedly attaching the ambient label to the expressions of white men while describing the music, by way of a racialized and gendered mind-body binary, as the “beatless” emanation of disembodied mind(s), rather than of individuals. This history illuminates how popular genres become racialized through feedback loops of musical production and discursive categorization. In the course of tracing this history, the author proposes that a discursive framework of “strategic anti-genre-essentialism,” which positions genres as processes rather than categories, may help to undermine essentialist assumptions about music and race without dismissing them.
Vocal music in medieval Ireland
Authors: Kelly Fergus
Published: November 2021

This chapter considers the evidence of medieval Irish vocal music which can be found in surviving Old and Middle Irish texts. The texts contain many references to public singing in secular contexts and indicate that the normal practice was for songs to be sung by a single man or woman or by groups of either men or women. A prestigious type of chant or song called aidbsiu ‘poetic recitation’ is distinguished from a martial singing mode described as dord (or andord), the basic meaning of which is ‘humming, buzzing’ and which has the capacity to mesmerize those who hear it. In the Fenian tales, the phrase dord fiansa ‘the hum of the war-band’ is used of a type of singing practised by young warriors, accompanied by the rhythmic banging of the shafts of their spears. Extempore group-singing by women is described as cepóc; another category of singing is coíniud ‘keening of the dead’, which regularly incurred the disapproval of the Church, but continued to be practised into modern times.
Fearless song
Authors: Ní Shíocháin Tríona
Published: November 2021

Máire Bhuí Ní Laeire, a farmer’s wife who could neither read nor write, gained great acclaim in the oral tradition from the late eighteenth century due to her exceptional abilities at song making and the uncompromising disdain for the colonial establishment expressed therein. Her compositions are most closely associated with the period from the 1820s onward when the Rockite agrarian movement was at its strongest, and when millenarian belief was widespread among members of that agrarian secret society. Her songs represent an alternative tradition of thought that lived in the elusive moment of performance itself, fostered by a rich oral culture that existed parallel to official written accounts. In this unofficial, though highly influential, sphere of idea-making, the illiterate female song poet would engage with the most pressing political concerns of her community and society, demonstrating the sheer power of song for political engagement and thought formation. Three key elements of Ní Laeire’s work and legacy will be considered herein: oral aesthetics, oral composition, and training; representations of prophecy and parrhesia in the songs themselves; and a re-appraisal of the role of the illiterate Irish-speaking female song poet in the history of anti-colonial thought and activism.
Aspects of Irish-language song transmission in Munster, 1700–1850
Authors: Ó Gealbháin Ciarán
Published: November 2021

This chapter looks at Irish-language song transmission in the Munster region in the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. As musical airs were ascribed to written poetry with greater and greater frequency in manuscript sources throughout the eighteenth century, the suggested airs to which this sung poetry circulated will be discussed, and reference made to the oeuvre of the most prominent of the eighteenth-century Munster poets, who often set their poetry to the popular tunes of their day. Aspects of oral and literary transmission of song will be given consideration, before focusing on two important collections of Irish song, taken from the field in the mid-nineteenth century.
‘Out of a reverie, and as if giving unconscious expression to a deep internal feeling’
Authors: Nic Lochlainn Sorcha
Published: November 2021

This chapter discusses the songs which were performed to accompany the labour of clothmaking in Gaelic-speaking areas of Ireland and Scotland. Clothmaking was predominantly women’s work, and these songs provide us with an insight into the preoccupations of song-poets whose compositions are unlikely to have been preserved elsewhere in the tradition. There are deep underlying similarities between the Irish and Scottish clothmaking corpora which have not been discussed in any detail to date; there are also indications that the liminal context of clothmaking songs demonstrates a degree of overlap with other elements of Gaelic tradition, particularly in the contexts of matchmaking and fertility and in the reassertion of physical boundaries seen, for example, in traditional May Day celebrations.
‘Their lamentable hone’
Authors: Coolahan Marie-Louise , Hamrick Wes
Published: November 2021

This chapter examines the sounds and voices of caoineadh (keen), an Irish Gaelic form of lament, associated with performance by women as part of the burial process and with the female expression of political protest. It opens with a study of the sounds of caoineadh, setting non-Gaelic, often travellers’ accounts, from the 1570s through to the 1770s, in context with the genre’s long-established formal conventions of metre, rhyme, and theme. This is grounded in a critical history of the genre and illustrated with examples from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Questions of oral transmission, performance, textual authority, and authenticity are crucial to the history of the surviving texts and, therefore, central to the discussion.
The Bible and American Empire
Authors: Newman Judith H.
Published: November 2021

The influence of the Bible in the shaping of American empire is rooted in the colonial era but is most clearly in evidence in the nineteenth century. In the spirit of postcolonial frameworks, this chapter seeks to lay bare some of the ways in which scriptural discourse undergirded the religious, political, and cultural power of Anglo-American settlers that legitimated the land dispossession of Native Americans and enslavement of African Americans. The first part of the chapter contrasts some alternative epistemologies about mapping land by colonial settlers, Native Americans, and Mormons. The second half of the chapter evaluates the racialized interpretations of the myth of Ham that supported the southern plantation “slaveocracy” and some alternative scriptural interpretations offered by African Americans in their aspirations for liberation from slavery and equal treatment in society.
Theoretical Problems of Soviet Underground Culture
Authors: Lipovetsky Mark , Glanc Tomáš , Engström Maria , Kukuj Ilja , Smola Klavdia
Published: November 2021

This article presents a spectrum of theoretical problems associated with the Soviet artistic underground as a historical and cultural phenomenon. The central focus is on constellating issues of terminology and definition around the borders of underground culture in the USSR, within scholarship about it. As a theoretical hypothesis of the handbook, the chapter introduces the concept of the lifeworld, which the volume editors and contributors interpret as a synthetic multimedia nexus of a given nonconformist circle’s activities, both artistic and cultural. The underground lifeworld manifests the aesthetic discourse idiosyncratic for each artistic circle and serves as the source of semi-spontaneous “relational art” that absorbs and generates artworks, along with performative and communicative practices. Through the concept of the aestheticized lifeworld, the authors of this article define the historical specificity of the Soviet artistic underground in relation to the Russian historical avant-garde and Western neo-avant-garde.
OBERIU and the Conversations of the Lipavsky Circle
Authors: Ostashevsky Eugene
Published: November 2021

This article distinguishes the avant-garde group OBERIU and its predecessors, led by the poets Daniil Kharms, Alexander Vvedensky, and Nikolai Zabolotsky and performing openly in Leningrad between 1925 and 1930, from the informal circle of the 1930s, which also included the poet Nikolai Oleinikov and the philosophers Leonid Lipavsky and Yakov Druskin. Prevented from making their writings public, in 1933–1934 members of this underground circle of friends documented their interactions in Lipavsky’s Conversations. A history of the two overlapping groups, emphasizing their social aspects, is followed by a synopsis of the philosophy of the circle. The article argues that the montage-based composition paradigms of the avant-garde, replacing determinism, causality, and rationality with contiguity and the non sequitur, are reflected in Kharmsian play with numbers and in his concept of the “real,” as well as in the phenomenological methods of Druskin and Lipavsky, which seek perspectival, qualitative, and embodied knowledge that science cannot grant.
Mikhail Kuzmin and the Underground
Authors: Bogomolov Nikolai
Published: November 2021

This article focuses on the role of the poet, playwright, and novelist Mikhail Kuzmin as one of the first underground authors, whose circle in the 1920s–1930s became a prototype for analogous communities in the 1960s–1970s. Kuzmin had been associated with OBERIU and Nikolai Kliuev during his lifetime. The posthumous influences of Kuzmin’s poetry and drama are detected and discussed in the works of such underground authors as Vsevolod Petrov, Andrei Egunov, Joseph Brodsky, and Evgenii Rein, as well as such “in-betweeners” as Aleksandr Kushner and Oleg Chukhontsev.
The Urbanites and the New Existentialism
Authors: Osipova Anastasiya
Published: November 2021

The Gorozhane (The Urbanites) was the first independent literary association to seek official recognition since the early 1930s. As such, the group represents the emergence of a transitional social sphere in the Soviet Union. While insisting on their autonomy and non-engagement with Soviet cultural and political life, the Urbanites nevertheless were not content to remain underground and sought recognition from official Soviet institutions. The group is also an example of the simultaneous adaptation and depoliticization of early revolutionary culture in the 1960s. Actively modeling themselves on the literary collectives of the early post-revolutionary period and drawing on the arsenal of literary tools developed by Russian and Soviet modernists (Andrey Platonov, Isaac Babel, Yuri Olesha, and others), the Urbanites nevertheless viewed literature as a radically autonomous sphere, existing outside of politics, history, and ideology, and adopted modernist literary devices without regard for the historical circumstances and ideological conflicts that shaped them.
Tamizdat as a Literary Practice and Political Institution
Authors: Klots Yasha
Published: November 2021

The article seeks to define tamizdat as a literary practice and political institution of the late Soviet era. Comprising manuscripts rejected, censored, or never submitted for publication at home but smuggled through various channels out of the country and printed elsewhere, with or without their authors’ knowledge or consent, tamizdat contributed to the formation of the twentieth-century Russian literary canon. Tamizdat thus mediated the relationships of authors in Russia with the Soviet literary establishment on the one hand and with the underground on the other, while the very prospect of having their works published abroad, let alone the consequences of such a transgression, affected these authors’ choices and ideological positions in regard to both fields. The article argues, along these lines, that tamizdat was as emblematic of the literary scene after Stalin as its more familiar and better researched domestic counterparts, samizdat and gosizdat, whereby the traditional notion of late Soviet culture as a binary opposition between the official and underground fields is reinvented, instead, as a transnationally dynamic three-dimensional model.
A = 440
Authors: McMakin Patrick , Snodgrass Jennifer
Published: November 2021

This chapter discusses the music theory and aural skills practiced daily by an important and influential segment of the public: the session musicians, engineers, songwriters, and producers in the recording studios and publishing houses of Nashville’s Music Row. Through interviews with leading engineers and studio musicians, the chapter reveals that particular kinds of music theoretical knowledge and aural skills are valued in these contexts. Efficiency and accuracy are prized during recording sessions, and there are high expectations for the fluid and immediate application of practical knowledge and skills to writing, recording, producing, and performing music. While some in these situations have had formal, academic training in music theory, that is not true of everyone. Some terminology from academic music theory is valuable, but there is also the need for additional terminology and systems in order to develop a common language for all participants. This chapter provides detailed information about an important aspect of this common language, the Nashville Number System, a musical shorthand developed within the studios of Music Row that now has currency among musicians around the world, bringing music theory to an ever-expanding public.
Hans Keller and the Media of Analysis
Authors: O’Hara William
Published: November 2021

Developed in the late 1950s, Hans Keller’s method of “functional analysis” (FA) sought to analyze music in audible form, without verbal argument or conceptual labels. Keller composed analytical interludes which repeated, recontextualized, and recomposed recognizable thematic and rhythmic elements from the compositions he studied, and placed them in between the movements of those works in live performances or radio broadcasts. Drawing on early twentieth-century music analysis, mid-century media theory, and recent studies of analysis for performance, this chapter reads Keller’s early analyses against a series of annual updates he published, chronicling FA’s development from a polemical philosophy of music criticism to a dynamic mode of wordless musical argument.
The Moral Risks of Online Shaming
Authors: Thomason Krista K.
Published: November 2021

Shaming behaviour on social media has been the cause of concern in recent public discourse. Supporters of online shaming argue that it is an important tool in helping to make social media and online communities safer and more welcoming to traditionally marginalized groups. Objections to shaming often sound like high-minded calls for civility, but this chapter argues that shaming behaviour poses serious risks. It identifies the moral and political risks of online shaming. In particular, shaming threatens to undermine our commitment to the co-deliberative practices of morality. As a result, online shaming can undermine the very goals it is supposed to accomplish.
Newton’s Matter Theory
Authors: Kochiras Hylarie
Published: November 2021

This chapter focuses on Newton’s ideas about matter and bodies in connection with traditional questions about nature and structure, also examining an important crossover into his quantitative approach. It begins with his early proclivity for ontologically prior parts and atomism itself, then considering their effect upon his ideas about natural kinds; his composition theory; and his explanatory shift from the aether to forces. His most metaphysical account of body, articulated in De gravitatione and belonging to a broader account of substance, is then examined. Rather than employing a substratum, the account reduces bodies solely to powers and attributes, which themselves establish material dimensionality. The penultimate section examines a crossover of some matter-theoretic ideas into the Principia’s very different theoretical context, where they threaten his argument for universal gravitation. It shows that his unjustified assumption of matter’s inertial homogeneity derives from his old atomist commitments.
Alterations in amperometric cholinergic signals accompanied by synaptic plasticity and γ oscillations in the hippocampus-medial prefrontal cortex pathway
Authors: Chen XiaoYu , Li Li , Sui Li
Published: November 2021

Objective

Neural projections from the ventral hippocampal CA1 (vCA1) to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and from the posterior dorsal hippocampal CA1 (pdCA1) to the mPFC are important for information processing. Previous studies have revealed that two forms of long-term synaptic plasticity, long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), and γ oscillations, which are all believed to be neural bases for learning and memory in the vCA1-mPFC and the pdCA1-mPFC pathways, exhibited distinct profiles. However, the underlying mechanism is unclear.

Methods

In the present study, amperometric cholinergic signals were monitored during in-vivo electrophysiological recordings of evoked extracellular postsynaptic potentials and spontaneous local field potentials.

Results

The results demonstrated that in the vCA1-mPFC pathway, increased cholinergic currents and γ power of the amperometric cholinergic signals were accompanied by the induction of LTD and increased γ power of local field potentials, whereas, in the pdCA1-mPFC pathway, decreased cholinergic currents and increased γ power of the amperometric cholinergic signals were accompanied by the induction of LTP and increased γ power of local field potentials.

Conclusion

These findings indicated that some correlations may exist between amperometric cholinergic signals and synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus-mPFC pathway. The pattern of alterations in cholinergic signals may help to illustrate the specific properties of synaptic plasticity and γ oscillations in the vCA1-mPFC and the pdCA1-mPFC pathways.
The
bouba/kiki
effect is robust across cultures and writing systems
Authors: Ćwiek Aleksandra , Fuchs Susanne , Draxler Christoph , Asu Eva Liina , Dediu Dan , Hiovain Katri , Kawahara Shigeto , Koutalidis Sofia , Krifka Manfred , Lippus Pärtel , Lupyan Gary , Oh Grace E. , Paul Jing , Petrone Caterina , Ridouane Rachid , Reiter Sabine , Schümchen Nathalie , Szalontai Ádám , Ünal-Logacev Özlem , Zeller Jochen , Perlman Marcus , Winter Bodo
Published: November 2021

The
bouba/kiki
effect—the association of the nonce word
bouba
with a round shape and
kiki
with a spiky shape—is a type of correspondence between speech sounds and visual properties with potentially deep implications for the evolution of spoken language. However, there is debate over the robustness of the effect across cultures and the influence of orthography. We report an online experiment that tested the
bouba/kiki
effect across speakers of 25 languages representing nine language families and 10 writing systems. Overall, we found strong evidence for the effect across languages, with
bouba
eliciting more congruent responses than
kiki
. Participants who spoke languages with Roman scripts were only marginally more likely to show the effect, and analysis of the orthographic shape of the words in different scripts showed that the effect was no stronger for scripts that use rounder forms for
bouba
and spikier forms for
kiki
. These results confirm that the
bouba/kiki
phenomenon is rooted in crossmodal correspondence between aspects of the voice and visual shape, largely independent of orthography. They provide the strongest demonstration to date that the
bouba/kiki
effect is robust across cultures and writing systems.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.
Peer audience effects on children's vocal masculinity and femininity
Authors: Cartei Valentina , Reby David , Garnham Alan , Oakhill Jane , Banerjee Robin
Published: November 2021

Existing evidence suggests that children from around the age of 8 years strategically alter their public image in accordance with known values and preferences of peers, through the self-descriptive information they convey. However, an important but neglected aspect of this ‘self-presentation’ is the medium through which such information is communicated: the voice itself. The present study explored peer audience effects on children's vocal productions. Fifty-six children (26 females, aged 8–10 years) were presented with vignettes where a fictional child, matched to the participant's age and sex, is trying to make friends with a group of same-sex peers with stereotypically masculine or feminine interests (rugby and ballet, respectively). Participants were asked to impersonate the child in that situation and, as the child, to read out loud masculine, feminine and gender-neutral self-descriptive statements to these hypothetical audiences. They also had to decide which of those self-descriptive statements would be most helpful for making friends. In line with previous research, boys and girls preferentially selected masculine or feminine self-descriptive statements depending on the audience interests. Crucially, acoustic analyses of fundamental frequency and formant frequency spacing revealed that children also spontaneously altered their vocal productions: they feminized their voices when speaking to members of the ballet club, while they masculinized their voices when speaking to members of the rugby club. Both sexes also feminized their voices when uttering feminine sentences, compared to when uttering masculine and gender-neutral sentences. Implications for the hitherto neglected role of acoustic qualities of children's vocal behaviour in peer interactions are discussed.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.
Perception of group membership from spontaneous and volitional laughter
Authors: Kamiloğlu Roza G. , Tanaka Akihiro , Scott Sophie K. , Sauter Disa A.
Published: November 2021

Laughter is a ubiquitous social signal. Recent work has highlighted distinctions between spontaneous and volitional laughter, which differ in terms of both production mechanisms and perceptual features. Here, we test listeners' ability to infer group identity from volitional and spontaneous laughter, as well as the perceived positivity of these laughs across cultures. Dutch (
n
= 273) and Japanese (
n
= 131) participants listened to decontextualized laughter clips and judged (i) whether the laughing person was from their cultural in-group or an out-group; and (ii) whether they thought the laughter was produced spontaneously or volitionally. They also rated the positivity of each laughter clip. Using frequentist and Bayesian analyses, we show that listeners were able to infer group membership from both spontaneous and volitional laughter, and that performance was equivalent for both types of laughter. Spontaneous laughter was rated as more positive than volitional laughter across the two cultures, and in-group laughs were perceived as more positive than out-group laughs by Dutch but not Japanese listeners. Our results demonstrate that both spontaneous and volitional laughter can be used by listeners to infer laughers’ cultural group identity.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.
Chimpanzee vowel-like sounds and voice quality suggest formant space expansion through the hominoid lineage
Authors: Grawunder Sven , Uomini Natalie , Samuni Liran , Bortolato Tatiana , Girard-Buttoz Cédric , Wittig Roman M. , Crockford Catherine
Published: November 2021

The origins of human speech are obscure; it is still unclear what aspects are unique to our species or shared with our evolutionary cousins, in part due to a lack of a common framework for comparison. We asked what chimpanzee and human vocal production acoustics have in common. We examined visible supra-laryngeal articulators of four major chimpanzee vocalizations (hoos, grunts, barks, screams) and their associated acoustic structures, using techniques from human phonetic and animal communication analysis. Data were collected from wild adult chimpanzees, Taï National Park, Ivory Coast. Both discriminant and principal component classification procedures revealed classification of call types. Discriminating acoustic features include voice quality and formant structure, mirroring phonetic features in human speech. Chimpanzee lip and jaw articulation variables also offered similar discrimination of call types. Formant maps distinguished call types with different vowel-like sounds. Comparing our results with published primate data, humans show less F1–F2 correlation and further expansion of the vowel space, particularly for [i] sounds. Unlike recent studies suggesting monkeys achieve human vowel space, we conclude from our results that supra-laryngeal articulatory capacities show moderate evolutionary change, with vowel space expansion continuing through hominoid evolution. Studies on more primate species will be required to substantiate this.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.
The shallow of your smile: the ethics of expressive vocal deep-fakes
Authors: Guerouaou Nadia , Vaiva Guillaume , Aucouturier Jean-Julien
Published: November 2021

Rapid technological advances in artificial intelligence are creating opportunities for real-time algorithmic modulations of a person’s facial and vocal expressions, or ‘deep-fakes’. These developments raise unprecedented societal and ethical questions which, despite much recent public awareness, are still poorly understood from the point of view of moral psychology. We report here on an experimental ethics study conducted on a sample of
N
= 303 participants (predominantly young, western and educated), who evaluated the acceptability of vignettes describing potential applications of expressive voice transformation technology. We found that vocal deep-fakes were generally well accepted in the population, notably in a therapeutic context and for emotions judged otherwise difficult to control, and surprisingly, even if the user lies to their interlocutors about using them. Unlike other emerging technologies like autonomous vehicles, there was no evidence of social dilemma in which one would, for example, accept for others what they resent for themselves. The only real obstacle to the massive deployment of vocal deep-fakes appears to be situations where they are applied to a speaker without their knowing, but even the acceptability of such situations was modulated by individual differences in moral values and attitude towards science fiction.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.
Phenotypic and molecular evaluation of biofilm formation in Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) isolates obtained from a hospital of Pelotas, RS, Brazil
Authors: Stallbaum Letícia Roloff , Pruski Beatriz Bohns , Amaral Suelen Cavalheiro , de Freitas Stella Buchhorn , Wozeak Daniela Rodriguero , Hartwig Daiane Drawanz
Published: November 2021

Introduction. A significant cause of mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU) is multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria, such as

Klebsiella pneumoniae

carbapenemase (KPC). Biofilm production is a key factor in KPC colonization and persistence in the host, making the treatment difficult.

Gap Statement. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibiotic resistance, molecular and phenotypic biofilm profiles of 12 KPC isolates associated with nosocomial infection in a hospital in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Methodology. Clinical isolates were obtained from different sources, identified and characterized by antibiotic resistance and carbapenemase synthesis following the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to evaluate the presence of carbapenemase (blaKPC
) and biofilm formation-associated genes (fimA, fimH, rmpA, ecpA, mrkD and wabG). Additionally, phenotypic evaluation of in vitro biofilm formation capacity was evaluated by Congo red agar (CRA) assay and the crystal violet staining method.

Results. The 12 isolates evaluated in this study presented the blaKPC
gene and were positive for synthesizing carbapenemases in vitro. In the carbapenem class, 83.3 % isolates were resistant and 16.7 % intermediately resistant to imipenem and meropenem. Molecular analyses found that the fimA and wabG genes were detected in 75 % of isolates, while fimH and ecpA were detected in 42 % and mrkD were detected in 8.3 % (1). The CRA assay demonstrated that all isolates were slime producers and 91.7 % (11) of isolates were classified as strong and 8.3 % (1) as moderate biofilm producers by the crystal violet staining method. The optical density (OD540nm) for strong biofilm formers ranged from 0.80±0.05 to 2.47±0.28 and was 0.55±0.12 for moderate biofilm formers.

Conclusion. Our study revealed a high level of antibiotic resistance and biofilm formation in KPC isolates obtained from a hospital in Pelotas, RS, Brazil.
Finger stick blood test to assess post vaccination SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody response against variants
Authors: Lim Sing Mei , Cheng Hoi Lok , Jia Huan , Kongsuphol Patthara , D/O Shunmuganathan Bhuvaneshwari , Chen Ming Wei , Ng Say Yong , Gao Xiaohong , Turaga Shuvan Prashant , Heussler Sascha P. , Somani Joyti , Sengupta Sharmila , Tay Dousabel MY , McBee Megan E. , Young Barnaby E. , MacAry Paul A. , Sikes Hadley D. , Preiser Peter R.
Published: November 2021

There is clinical need for a quantifiable point-of-care (PoC) SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody (nAb) test that is adaptable with the pandemic’s changing landscape. Here, we present a rapid and semi-quantitative nAb test that uses finger stick or venous blood to assess the nAb response of vaccinated population against wild-type, alpha, beta, gamma, and delta variant receptor binding domains. It captures a clinically relevant range of nAb levels, and effectively differentiates pre-vaccination, post 1st dose and post 2nd dose vaccination samples within 10 minutes. The data observed against alpha, beta, gamma, and delta variants agrees with published results evaluated in established serology tests. Finally, our test revealed a substantial reduction in nAb level for beta, gamma, and delta variants between early BNT162b2 vaccination group (within 3 months) and later vaccination group (post 3 months). This test is highly suited for PoC settings and provides an insightful nAb response in a post-vaccinated population.