bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cross-sectional Association Between Plasma Biomarkers and Multimorbidity Patterns in Older Adults
Authors: Vázquez-Fernández Aitana , Lana Alberto , Struijk Ellen A , Vega-Cabello Verónica , Cárdenas-Valladolid Juan , Salinero-Fort Miguel Ángel , Rodríguez-Artalejo Fernando , Lopez-Garcia Esther , Caballero Francisco Félix
Published: October 2023

Multimorbidity is the simultaneous presence of 2 or more chronic conditions. Metabolomics could identify biomarkers potentially related to multimorbidity. We aimed to identify groups of biomarkers and their association with different multimorbidity patterns. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted within the Seniors-ENRICA-2 cohort in Spain, with information from 700 individuals aged ≥65 years. Biological samples were analyzed using high-throughput proton nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics. Biomarker groups were identified with exploratory factor analysis, and multimorbidity was classified into 3 types: cardiometabolic, neuropsychiatric, and musculoskeletal. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between biomarker groups and multimorbidity patterns, after adjusting for potential confounders including sociodemographics, lifestyle, and body mass index. Three factors were identified: the “lipid metabolism” mainly reflected biomarkers related to lipid metabolism, such as very-low-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; the “high-density lipoprotein cholesterol” mainly included high-density lipoprotein cholesterol subclasses and other lipids not included in the first factor; and the “amino acid/glycolysis/ketogenesis,” composed of some amino acids, glycolysis-related metabolites, and ketone bodies. Higher scores in the “lipid metabolism” factor were associated with a higher likelihood of cardiometabolic multimorbidity, odds ratio for tertile 3 versus tertile 1 was 1.79 (95% confidence interval: 1.17–2.76). The “high-density lipoprotein cholesterol” factor was associated with lower odds of cardiometabolic multimorbidity [0.51 (0.32–0.82)], and the “amino acid/glycolysis/ketogenesis” factor was associated with more frequent cardiometabolic multimorbidity [1.85 (1.18–2.90)].

Different metabolomic biomarkers are associated with different multimorbidity patterns; therefore, multiple biomarker measurements are needed for a complete picture of the molecular mechanisms of multimorbidity.
Time Use and Well-Being in Family and Other Unpaid Caregivers of Older Adults
Authors: Baik Sol , Lehning Amanda J , Sacco Paul
Published: October 2023

Objectives

Caregivers report limited freedom to engage with others, participate in physical activities, pursue leisure activities, and sleep. Few studies have focused on caregivers’ time use across different activities, particularly how different patterns of time use are associated with well-being. This study aimed to (a) identify time-use profiles of family caregivers of older adults and (b) examine associations between identified time-use profiles and caregiver well-being.

Methods

We analyzed data from 1,640 family caregivers of community-dwelling older adults from Round 7 (2017) of the National Study of Caregiving and the National Health and Aging Trends Study. Latent profile analysis was used to estimate time-use profiles based on 4 indicators (i.e., regenerative time, discretionary time, eldercare-related committed time, non-eldercare committed time). We conducted regressions to examine the relationship between the latent profiles and well-being outcomes.

Results

Three profiles of caregivers emerged based on time-use patterns. The Overloaded profile (20%) spent the greatest time in non-eldercare committed activities, such as household activities and paid work. The Flexible profile (49%) spent the most amount of time in social activities and physical activities, and the least amount of non-eldercare committed time compared to the other 2 caregiver types. Lastly, the Occupied profile (31%) allocated time relatively evenly in all activities. When comparing well-being outcomes, caregivers in the Flexible profile had lower levels of anxiety than the Occupied profile.

Discussion

The profiles acknowledge the diverse experiences of caregivers, underscoring the significance of granting them greater latitude in balancing eldercare responsibilities and personal life for enhanced well-being.
Diversification as an adaptive learning process: an empirical study of general-purpose and market-specific technological know-how in new market entry
Authors: Randle Dominika Kinga , Pisano Gary Paul
Published: October 2023

An enduring trait of modern corporations is their propensity to diversify into multiple lines of business. Penrosian theories conceptualize diversification as a strategy to exploit a firm’s fungible, yet “untradeable,” resources and point to the redeployment of technological know-how as an important driver thereof. However, less understood are the characteristics of technological assets that underlie firms’ diversification decisions and the impact that diversification has on firms’ subsequent development of technologies. In this paper, we expand the existing theories in two ways. First, we argue that central to understanding firms’ diversification decisions is a distinction between their technological assets that are applicable to many markets and ones that are useful in only a limited number of contexts. To this end, we develop a novel way to characterize technologies along a continuum from highly general-purpose to highly market-specific. Second, we explore empirically the idea that diversification is an adaptive learning process involving both the exploitation of existing capabilities and the creation of novel ones. Using data on three decades of patenting and diversification histories of 28,376 firms, we find that (i) a firm’s possession of general-purpose technological assets is positively associated with its decision to diversify and (II) firms that enter a new industry through diversification develop technologies that are specialized to the target industry. Our findings have implications for understanding firm growth, diversification, and evolution.
Central Support for Triangulated Categories
Authors: Krause Henning
Published: October 2023

For any essentially small triangulated category, the centre of its lattice of thick subcategories is introduced; it is a spatial frame and yields a notion of central support. A relative version of this centre recovers the support theory for tensor triangulated categories and provides a universal notion of cohomological support. Along the way, we establish Mayer–Vietoris sequences for pairs of commuting subcategories.
(En)Gendering the Dead Terrorist: (De)Constructing Masculinity in Terrorist Media Obituaries
Authors: Jarvis Lee , Whiting Andrew
Published: October 2023

This article contributes to contemporary scholarship on gender, violence, and global politics by exploring how the figure of the terrorist is produced within mainstream media obituaries. It offers three arguments. First, the genre overwhelmingly positions the terrorist as a masculine figure. This positioning takes place, we demonstrate, in a variety of ways including through constructions of the character, family life, and “career” of those designated terrorist. Second, this masculinized figure is, importantly, a heterogenous one that negotiates “fighter,” “strategist,” and “leader” archetypes. These templates can co-exist, we argue, because of their common structural differentiation to the feminine: a position inhabited by supporting characters including wives and other male terrorists. The article's third argument is that the stability of this dominant figuration of the terrorist is also disrupted in obituaries via juxtaposition to more masculine figures, and through feminization of the deceased through constructions of cowardice, passivity, and vanity. In making these arguments, the article offers the first analysis of the masculinized storying of terrorism and terrorists in this almost entirely neglected genre. In so doing, it sheds new light on the obituary as an important mnemonic site for the everyday reproduction and problematization of global politics.
An Update on Anti-TNF Biosimilar Switching—Real-World Clinical Effectiveness and Safety
Authors: Meade Susanna , Squirell Elizabeth , Hoang Thomas Tam , Chow James , Rosenfeld Gregory
Published: October 2023

Background

Biological medications for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) account for a significant burden on provincial budgets. In an effort to curb these rising costs, nationwide switching to biosimilars is expected to be complete in Canada before the end of 2023. Biosimilar products do not require the same rigor for licensing as the originator and therefore there has been appropriate scepticism as to how biosimilars will perform in real-world practice.

Methods

We have performed a systematic review including real-world observational studies of adult patients with IBD. The primary outcome was clinical effectiveness and/or safety in patients who had switched from originator to biosimilar anti-TNF. Secondary outcomes included loss of response (LOR), treatment persistence or cessation and immunogenicity.

Results

We included 43 studies (7,462 patients [70 percent Crohn’s disease: 30 percent ulcerative colitis]; 32 infliximab studies, and 11 adalimumab studies). For infliximab, 75 percent patients were in clinical remission at the time of switch and 75 percent maintained clinical remission beyond 12 months, compared to 78 percent of patients who continued originator. For adalimumab, 86 percent patients were in remission at the time of switch with 82 percent maintaining remission at 6 months follow-up. Injection site pain was higher in patients who switched to a citrate containing adalimumab biosimilar, compared with those who continued originator. All other outcomes (LOR, treatment cessation or persistence and serious adverse events) were similar to patients who continued originator (in comparator cohorts or the available literature).

Conclusion

Whilst ongoing vigilance is required, these data are reassuring to both patients and clinicians and will significantly help to reduce health-care costs across Canada.
Genomic analysis of wolves from Pakistan clarifies boundaries among three divergent wolf lineages
Authors: Hennelly Lauren M , Sarwar Ghulam , Fatima Hira , Werhahn Geraldine , Abbas Fakhar I , Khan Abdul M , Mahmood Tariq , Kachel Shannon , Kubanychbekov Zairbek , Waseem Muhammad T , Zahra Naqvi Rubab , Hamid Abdul , Abbas Yasir , Aisha Hamera , Waseem Muhammad , Farooq Muhammad , Sacks Benjamin N
Published: October 2023

Among the three main divergent lineages of gray wolf (Canis lupus), the Holarctic lineage is the most widespread and best studied, particularly in North America and Europe. Less is known about Tibetan (also called Himalayan) and Indian wolf lineages in southern Asia, especially in areas surrounding Pakistan where all three lineages are thought to meet. Given the endangered status of the Indian wolf in neighboring India and unclear southwestern boundary of the Tibetan wolf range, we conducted mitochondrial and genome-wide sequencing of wolves from Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan. Sequences of the mitochondrial D-loop region of 81 wolves from Pakistan indicated contact zones between Holarctic and Indian lineages across the northern and western mountains of Pakistan. Reduced-representation genome sequencing of eight wolves indicated an east-to-west cline of Indian to Holarctic ancestry, consistent with a contact zone between these two lineages in Pakistan. The western boundary of the Tibetan lineage corresponded to the Ladakh region of India’s Himalayas with a narrow zone of admixture spanning this boundary from the Karakoram Mountains of northern Pakistan into Ladakh, India. Our results highlight the conservation significance of Pakistan’s wolf populations, especially the remaining populations in Sindh and Southern Punjab that represent the highly endangered Indian lineage.
Comparison of clinical and laboratory parameters of primary vs secondary dengue fever in travellers
Authors: Avrami Sharon , Hoffman Tomer , Meltzer Eyal , Lustig Yaniv , Schwartz Eli
Published: October 2023

Background

Dengue fever (DF), caused by the dengue virus (DENV), is the most common arboviral disease in travellers worldwide. It is hypothesized that compared with primary DF, secondary DF may result in antibody-dependent enhancement of the immune response, resulting in more severe disease. We aimed to compare clinical and laboratory parameters in travellers with primary and secondary DF to determine whether secondary DF is associated with markers of severe disease.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study, which included all patients diagnosed with DF at the Central Virology Laboratory of the Israeli Ministry of Health during 2008–19. Clinical, laboratory and virological data were extracted from laboratory and patient records. A diagnosis of DENV infection was based on a positive nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) test, polymerase chain reaction or serology testing for immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG). Primary and secondary infections were classified based on travel history, NS1 result and IgM/IgG ratio. Severe DF was defined according to WHO classification.

Results

We identified 245 DF cases: 210 (86%) primary and 35 (14%) secondary. Whilst fever duration was significantly longer in secondary compared with primary infections (6.4 vs 5.3 days, P = 0.027), mean Aspartate aminotransferase levels were significantly higher in primary compared with secondary cases (146 vs 65 U/L, P < 0.001), and no other clinical or laboratory parameter differed significantly between the groups. Of note, only four patients had severe DF, all had primary infections and none died.

Conclusions

In a cohort of returning travellers with DF, secondary infection, compared with primary infection, was not associated with a consistent trend towards greater severity of the clinical and laboratory markers examined in this study.
Unveiling the complexity of strigolactones: exploring structural diversity, biosynthesis pathways, and signaling mechanisms
Authors: Nomura Takahito , Seto Yoshiya , Kyozuka Junko
Published: October 2023

Strigolactone is the collective name for compounds containing a butenolide as a part of their structure, first discovered as compounds that induce seed germination of root parasitic plants. They were later found to be rhizosphere signaling molecules that induce hyphal branching of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and, finally, they emerged as a class of plant hormones. Strigolactones are found in root exudates, where they display a great variability in their chemical structure. Their structure varies among plant species, and multiple strigolactones can exist in one species. Over 30 strigolactones have been identified, yet the chemical structure of the strigolactone that functions as an endogenous hormone and is found in the above-ground parts of plants remains unknown. We discuss our current knowledge of the synthetic pathways of diverse strigolactones and their regulation, as well as recent progress in identifying strigolactones as plant hormones. Strigolactone is perceived by the DWARF14 (D14), receptor, an α/β hydrolase which originated by gene duplication of KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE 2 (KAI2). D14 and KAI2 signaling pathways are partially overlapping paralogous pathways. Progress in understanding the signaling mechanisms mediated by two α/β hydrolase receptors as well as remaining challenges in the field of strigolactone research are reviewed.
A novel fluorescent protein pair facilitates FLIM-FRET analysis of plant immune receptor interaction under native conditions
Authors: Petutschnig Elena Kristin , Pierdzig Leon , Mittendorf Josephine , Niebisch Jule Meret , Lipka Volker
Published: October 2023

Elucidating protein–protein interactions is crucial for our understanding of molecular processes within living organisms. Microscopy-based techniques can detect protein–protein interactions in vivo at the single-cell level and provide information on their subcellular location. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM)-Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is one of the most robust imaging approaches, but it is still very challenging to apply this method to proteins which are expressed under native conditions. Here we describe a novel combination of fluorescence proteins (FPs), mCitrine and mScarlet-I, which is ideally suited for FLIM-FRET studies of low abundance proteins expressed from their native promoters in stably transformed plants. The donor mCitrine displays excellent brightness in planta, near-mono-exponential fluorescence decay, and a comparatively long fluorescence lifetime. Moreover, the FRET pair has a good spectral overlap and a large Förster radius. This allowed us to detect constitutive as well as ligand-induced interaction of the Arabidopsis chitin receptor components CERK1 and LYK5 in a set of proof-of-principle experiments. Due to the good brightness of the acceptor mScarlet-I, the FP combination can be readily utilized for co-localization studies. The FP pair is also suitable for co-immunoprecipitation experiments and western blotting, facilitating a multi-method approach for studying and confirming protein–protein interactions.
Study of the fastest classical nova, V1674 Her: photoionization and morpho-kinemetic model analysis
Authors: Habtie Gesesew R , Das Ramkrishna , Pandey Ruchi , Ashok N M , Dubovsky Pavol A
Published: October 2023

We present the results of the investigation of the nova V1674 Her (2021), recognized as the swiftest classical nova, with t2 ∼ 0.90 d. The distance to the nova is estimated to be 4.97 kpc. The mass and radius of the WD are calculated to be ∼1.36 M⊙ and ∼0.15 R⊕, respectively. Over the course of 1 month following the outburst, V1674 Her traversed distinct phases – pre-maxima, early decline, nebular, and coronal – displaying a remarkably swift transformation. The nebular lines emerged on day 10 making it the classical nova with the earliest observed commencement to date. We modelled the observed optical spectrum using the photoionization code cloudy. From the best-fitting model we deduced different physical and chemical parameters associated with the system. The temperature and luminosity of the central ionizing sources are found in the range of 1.99–2.34 × 105 K and 1.26–3.16 × 1038  erg s−1, respectively. Elements such as He , O , N , and Ne  are found to be overabundant compared to solar abundance in both the nebular and coronal phases. According to the model, Fe ii abundance diminishes while Ne abundance increases, potentially elucidating the rare hybrid transition between Fe and He/N nova classes. The ejected mass across all epochs spanned from 3.42 to 7.04 × 10−5 M⊙. Morpho-kinematic modelling utilizing shape revealed that the nova V1674 Her possesses a bipolar structure with an equatorial ring at the centre and an inclination angle of i = 67 ± 1.5°.
PhylteR: Efficient Identification of Outlier Sequences in Phylogenomic Datasets
Authors: Comte Aurore , Tricou Théo , Tannier Eric , Joseph Julien , Siberchicot Aurélie , Penel Simon , Allio Rémi , Delsuc Frédéric , Dray Stéphane , de Vienne Damien M
Published: October 2023

In phylogenomics, incongruences between gene trees, resulting from both artifactual and biological reasons, can decrease the signal-to-noise ratio and complicate species tree inference. The amount of data handled today in classical phylogenomic analyses precludes manual error detection and removal. However, a simple and efficient way to automate the identification of outliers from a collection of gene trees is still missing. Here, we present PhylteR, a method that allows rapid and accurate detection of outlier sequences in phylogenomic datasets, i.e. species from individual gene trees that do not follow the general trend. PhylteR relies on DISTATIS, an extension of multidimensional scaling to 3 dimensions to compare multiple distance matrices at once. In PhylteR, these distance matrices extracted from individual gene phylogenies represent evolutionary distances between species according to each gene. On simulated datasets, we show that PhylteR identifies outliers with more sensitivity and precision than a comparable existing method. We also show that PhylteR is not sensitive to ILS-induced incongruences, which is a desirable feature. On a biological dataset of 14,463 genes for 53 species previously assembled for Carnivora phylogenomics, we show (i) that PhylteR identifies as outliers sequences that can be considered as such by other means, and (ii) that the removal of these sequences improves the concordance between the gene trees and the species tree. Thanks to the generation of numerous graphical outputs, PhylteR also allows for the rapid and easy visual characterization of the dataset at hand, thus aiding in the precise identification of errors. PhylteR is distributed as an R package on CRAN and as containerized versions (docker and singularity).
Cold-Driven Hemoglobin Evolution in Antarctic Notothenioid Fishes Prior to Hemoglobin Gene Loss in White-Blooded Icefishes
Authors: Desvignes Thomas , Bista Iliana , Herrera Karina , Landes Audrey , Postlethwait John H
Published: October 2023

Expression of multiple hemoglobin isoforms with differing physiochemical properties likely helps species adapt to different environmental and physiological conditions. Antarctic notothenioid fishes inhabit the icy Southern Ocean and display fewer hemoglobin isoforms, each with less affinity for oxygen than temperate relatives. Reduced hemoglobin multiplicity was proposed to result from relaxed selective pressure in the cold, thermally stable, and highly oxygenated Antarctic waters. These conditions also permitted the survival and diversification of white-blooded icefishes, the only vertebrates living without hemoglobin. To understand hemoglobin evolution during adaptation to freezing water, we analyzed hemoglobin genes from 36 notothenioid genome assemblies. Results showed that adaptation to frigid conditions shaped hemoglobin gene evolution by episodic diversifying selection concomitant with cold adaptation and by pervasive evolution in Antarctic notothenioids compared to temperate relatives, likely a continuing adaptation to Antarctic conditions. Analysis of hemoglobin gene expression in adult hematopoietic organs in various temperate and Antarctic species further revealed a switch in hemoglobin gene expression underlying hemoglobin multiplicity reduction in Antarctic fish, leading to a single hemoglobin isoform in adult plunderfishes and dragonfishes, the sister groups to icefishes. The predicted high hemoglobin multiplicity in Antarctic fish embryos based on transcriptomic data, however, raises questions about the molecular bases and physiological implications of diverse hemoglobin isoforms in embryos compared to adults. This analysis supports the hypothesis that the last common icefish ancestor was vulnerable to detrimental mutations affecting the single ancestral expressed alpha- and beta-globin gene pair, potentially predisposing their subsequent loss.
African American Humor
Authors: Edmonds Brittney
Published: October 2023

The sophistication of the African American humor tradition testifies to its centrality in African American culture. Since its initial emergence in the contexts of enslavement, where humorous expression, especially humor at the expense of whites, carried great consequence, African Americans have turned to humor as an instrument of social, political, and moral sensemaking. African Americans use humor to make collective claim on the social world around them, to foster bonds of social and political solidarity, to make judgments about the material conditions of their lives, to express and encode feelings of contempt, aggression, and dissatisfaction, and to approach and mollify the emotionally challenging conditions of their everyday lives. Despite the culturally dominant tendency to depict African Americans as unlettered and foolish, African Americans developed a distinct strain of humor over and against traditions that targeted them as the butt of all jokes. This resulted in at least two dominant strains of African American humor: one reserved for private in-group expression, and one, a more public form, that engaged with and often departed from dominant distortions of Black personality. Despite such popular distortions, African American humor flourished and developed into a sophisticated modality for navigating the contradictions catalyzed by Black life in the United States. In the nineteenth century, African Americans flexed their comedic muscles in folktales, songs, stories, speeches, sermons, lies, and more. They satirized dominant misunderstandings of Black culture and combated the pervasive stereotyped image of African Americans that was popularized by the United States’ first, national mass cultural form, Blackface minstrelsy. But even private forms of Black humor had to contend with the image of African Americans as happy-go-lucky simpletons. By the latter half of the nineteenth century, African American performers donned the minstrel mask themselves, creating a complicated legacy—and an enduring strain of vicious irony—for the reception and development of African American humor in public. Across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, African American humorists flourished across expressive cultures, creating novels, films, plays, music, and visual artworks that represented the complexity of African American life. African Americans used humor to communicate the truth of African American life in public, transforming the racial mask into a comic mask that used racist assumptions to their own advantageous ends. Toward the close of the twentieth century, African American humor offered a crucial site from which to articulate an autonomous African American identity and helped spur innovation across Black expressive cultures.
Grounded Theory
Authors: Oktay Julianne
Published: October 2023

Widely used in social work, grounded theory is one of the oldest and best-known qualitative research methods. Even so, it is often misunderstood. Created at a time when positivism reigned supreme, it has survived through several major paradigm shifts in the social sciences. The result is many models of grounded theory reflecting these different understandings of the nature of knowledge and knowing, with lively debates and controversies. This has resulted in conflicting advice that can be confusing for researchers and students new to the field. It is essential for those learning about grounded theory (or “grounded theory method”/GTM) to focus on the central tenants of the method, which are common to all of the grounded theory models. The most important of these is that the goal of grounded theory studies is to develop theories. In this respect, grounded theory differs from other qualitative methods in its goals and its methodology. In fact, all aspects of grounded theory methods, from problem identification to sampling to coding and analysis, are shaped by this goal. To develop these theories, grounded theory uses the following processes: theoretical sensitivity, constant comparison, theoretical sampling, and theoretical saturation. The theory is developed in the process of memo writing throughout the study. These components are used in an iterative process that includes both inductive and deductive logic. Like other qualitative methods, it begins with immersion in data and uses induction to develop concepts. Unlike other methods, grounded theory researchers use these concepts to begin theory development. They return to the real-world environment to a test the emerging theory, and then further develop and refine it. This is a deductive stage of theory development. This process, called “abductive,” continues until the theory has a good fit in the real-world environment. Although there are many different models of grounded theory, all of them have theory development as their primary goal. This bibliography includes sections on the value of grounded theory in social work, beginning-level textbooks in grounded theory, reference works, history of grounded theory, dissemination of grounded theory, classic grounded theory, constructivist grounded theory and situational analysis, and finally, grounded theory examples from social work literature and journals.
Buddhist Talismans
Authors: Kim Su Jung
Published: October 2023

Talismans are ubiquitous across time and space in Buddhist Asia. With its long history and a wide range of variations, several other terms such as “amulets,” “charms,” and “seals” have been interchangeably and uncritically used. One recognizable pattern in the recent scholarship, however, is that those scholars of the East Asian tradition tend to prefer “talismans” (as a translation of the Chinese word “fu” or “fuyin”), whereas those scholars of the South Asian tradition favor “amulets.” Due to the convoluted and contentious usages of these terms, throughout this piece, on a broader level, I use the term “Buddhist talismans” as the heuristic category that includes both Indian and Sinitic heritages of these ritually charged and culturally conferred power objects. On a more concrete level, Buddhist talismans can be defined as any tangible objects believed to hold magical powers and apotropaic properties meant to be activated when they are ritually consecrated and physically contacted with the beholder, all of which were designed to intervene in the law of karma. The Buddhist use of talismans has its origins in ancient India. Printed dhāraṇī-amulets from Dunhuang, Tibet, and central Asian regions show strong Indian diagram-based and sonic components while fu-talismans from the Sinitic realm tend to be more letter-based signs, often exhibiting strong affinities with the Daoist use of talismans. Strickmann 2002 (cited under Chinese Talismans with a Broader Framework) suggests that the Buddhist use of talismans in China may have begun as early as the beginning of the 4th century although the imperial, bureaucratic use of “contracting document” or “tally” at the imperial court can be traced back to the late Western Han (206 bce–24 ce). But it was not until the Tang period that this talisman-seal (fuyin) practice spread more widely among the Buddhists as Copp 2014 (cited under Chinese Talismans with a Broader Framework) illustrates. With the constant interplay with Daoism, the ancient Indian practice of talismans (e.g., yantra) also found newer forms and functions over time in the Sinitic Buddhist world. Certain markers, such as using the character “the Buddha” on the talismans or featuring other Buddhist divinities or requiring Buddhist mudra often carried the hallmark of “Buddhist” practices. Also, Buddhist dhāraṇī texts (written in Siddhaṃ letters and other Buddhist languages) were prominently used as talismans. Although Buddhist talismans were created in Buddhist ritual settings often at the Buddhist monastery by the monastics for the monastics and the laity, other religious elements (e.g., Daoism, Bon, Shinto, shamanic tradition, folk beliefs, etc.) and local-specific cultural components morphed in the production, consumption, circulation, and interpretation of the Buddhist talismans. For a holistic understanding of Buddhist talismans in the future, a deeply inter-religious, inter-regional, and interdisciplinary approach would be desirable.
Middle English Lyric
Authors: Kuczynski Michael P.
Published: October 2023

Middle English lyrics (c 1200–1500) are short, emotive poems that take up sacred or profane topics, usually in relation to themes of love and death. Some scholars widen the genre to involve shorter historical and political poems. This widening, however, is problematic: it ignores the density of emotional expression that for most readers is typical of lyric poetry and renders the term “lyric” unnecessarily vague. The term derives from a Greek word for a stringed musical instrument and was not applied to medieval poetry until the sixteenth century. Only a few Middle English lyrics survive with musical accompaniment, although some were written to be sung. Many of the poems exhibit musical qualities—for example, lively or incantatory rhythms. They acquire these from ingenious combinations of simple sound effects, such as alliteration, assonance, and rhyme, as well as from repetition, including regular patterns of stresses in short lines and stanzas that end in refrains. Such features make the poems memorable, if not singable. By numbers, lyric is the largest genre of Middle English writing. Over two thousand lyrics survive, in single and multiple versions, across all the Middle English dialects and primarily in manuscript copies. Lyrics survive less often in other material contexts, too—as inscriptions on walls, in stained glass, or on pottery. New lyrics continue to be discovered by scholars. By a ratio of about five to one, the vast majority of lyrics are religious rather than secular. Their poets, who are learned, emphasize feelings about ideas rather than ideas themselves, although some religious lyrics engage points of theology in sophisticated ways. There are more named authors of religious than of secular lyrics, but most lyrics are anonymous. This circumstance lends an air of mystery to their verses and encourages sometimes conflicting interpretations of unambiguous poems. Several canonical Middle English authors wrote lyrics of distinction: for instance, the Yorkshire hermit Richard Rolle (d. 1349) and the author of the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400). Whether anonymous or named, the poets adopt personas whose moods become the focus of their poems. These are subtle in lyrics where superior poets master the challenge of using conventional meters, diction, and imagery in distinctive ways. Overall, the quality of the Middle English lyric corpus is highly uneven. The best lyrics command attention because they sustain an impression of affective immediacy that exceeds the constraints of simple verse. Accomplished lyrics suggest a reflective interiority and deep engagement with oft-pondered subjects. Middle English lyrics cover a wide stylistic range, from plain through decorated verse. Dating of the poems is approximate: the lyrics themselves provide scant internal evidence of when they were composed. Manuscript date, where this is known, should not be mistaken for date of composition.
Siena
Authors: Nevola Fabrizio
Published: October 2023

Unusual in Italy for being a city that has very little evidence of classical origins, scholarly attention for the history of Siena has tended to focus on the late-medieval period, when it was stably governed by a group of elected officials known as the “Nine” (1287–1355). The century leading up to the Black Death (1348) was characterized by the establishment of sophisticated civic institutions, significant demographic growth, the expansion of its territorial base (contado), and the city’s rapid development as a commercial center with a strong banking sector. More recent scholarship has re-evaluated the importance of this independent city state through the Renaissance period, until it was conquered by the Imperial forces of Emperor Charles V (1555), who then ceded the city to Duke Cosimo de’ Medici to form part of the Medici dominions (1557). Until this time, Sienese politics were marked by complex wrangling between rival factions, although the republican system prevailed—with an intermission during the ascendancy of the quasi-prince Pandolfo Petrucci (c. 1503–1512) and his heirs (to 1525)—until its loss of independence. With Medici control imposed by external governors, local institutions lost much of their significance and the city’s cultural and ritual life became rather more isolated and inward-looking. Siena was positioned between the papal state (south) and Florence (north), and the via Francigena trade and pilgrimage axis toward Rome ran through the state, providing an important reason for through traffic of passing dignitaries as well as the major route to markets in northern Europe. A lasting rivalry with neighboring Florence marked Siena’s political, commercial, and cultural life, and at least some scholarship has dwelt on comparison between the two centers. While the larger neighbor has certainly drawn much more research activity, Siena’s banking families (e.g., Spannocchi and Chigi), religious élites (e.g., popes Pius II and Pius III Piccolomini), and holy people (e.g., Sts. Bernardine and Catherine) provide some indication of the degree to which the city deserves further attention, likely to be rewarded from the rich seams of evidence in its well-ordered archives.
Cosimo I de’ Medici
Authors: Moyer Ann E.
Published: October 2023

Cosimo de’ Medici (b.1519–d. 1574), son of the condottiere Giovanni delle Bande Nere (Ludovico de’ Medici [b. 1498–d. 1526]) and Maria Salviati (b. 1499–d. 1543), grew up without expectation of assuming political leadership. Upon the assassination of the first duke of Florence, Alessandro de’ Medici (r. 1530–1537), Cosimo, then aged seventeen, was identified as next in the line of succession and put in place as head (capo) of the city by a committee representing mainly papal and imperial interests. Cosimo survived a nearly immediate revolt led by exiles (fuorusciti), whom he defeated at the Battle of Montemurlo (August 1537), winning recognition as duke from Charles V. Cosimo continued to balance papal and imperial politics to build a virtually independent state. The conquest of Siena and its territories was complete by 1559, ending both the Italian wars and French influence in Italy. He acquired the papal title Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1569. In 1539, Cosimo married Eleonora of Toledo (b. 1522–d. 1562), daughter of the Spanish viceroy of Naples; together they had eleven children. Alessandro’s widow had retained ownership of the Palazzo Medici; thus, in 1540 they moved into the refurbished apartments at the Palazzo Vecchio that had been used by the priors. In 1549 Eleonora’s dowry money purchased the Palazzo Pitti; it too required extensive renovations, still incomplete when Eleonora, already weakened by tuberculosis, died of malaria with sons Giovanni and Garzia. Cosimo handed over his duties officially to his son Francesco in 1564, although he still retained authority in a range of matters; in his last years he was incapacitated by illness. Scholarly assessments of Cosimo’s career have changed significantly over time. Older interpretations that had valorized Florence’s earlier republican governments often cast the city’s transition to the Medicean state in terms of moral failure, and the Medici rulers themselves as simply absolutists. More recent scholarship has shed new light on the nature of those earlier “republican” governments and also to a fuller understanding of the Medicean state as it developed in a European and Mediterranean context. These studies have revealed the continuities of administrative control among elite families throughout the century, tempering notions of absolutist rule in favor of the “mixed constitution” favored by many contemporaries. They have examined Cosimo’s infrastructure projects across Tuscany; the nature of economic planning; his role in promoting universities and education; and, of course, Cosimo’s interest in the city’s continuing excellence in the visual arts, letters, and scholarship.
Kumbh Mela
Authors: Penciuc Traian
Published: October 2023

Kumbh Mela, the most famous and visited Hindu religious gathering, is held four times every twelve consecutive years on the riversides in Haridwar, Allahabad (Prayag), Nashik, and Ujjain. Pilgrims go primarily to purify their karma through ritual ablutions at auspicious moments, but, as any Hindu religious fair, Kumbh Mela is also an opportunity to receive holy men’s teachings and blessings, or at least to see them and be in their presence. More, pilgrims are involved in various ritual activities: processions, feasts (prasād), sermons (pūjās), religious performances, and so on. The communion of the crowd of pilgrims seeking self-realization, the sadhus’ presence, some of them descending directly from Himalayan retreats, and the specificity of the sites create a unique atmosphere in which the believer can experience the encounter with the sacred. For many, Kumbh Mela has been a turning point toward asceticism in their lives. Several factors confer the sacredness of the four sites: First is the spiritual quality of the water because it is the body of the deified rivers, Godāvarī at Nashik and Viṣṇu’s blood in the Kṣiprā River at Ujjain. Gaṅgā empowers Haridwar and participates in the threefold magical power of Prayag Triveni Sangham (triple confluence) together with Yamunā and Sarasvatī, whose river is invisible. Second, being placed on riverbanks, the four Kumbh Mela sites are tīrtha (fords), exceptional places where prayers are heard, and one’s spirituality is more radiant. Tīrthas are also passages to the spiritual world, part of a large network on the Indian subcontinent. Third, there is a multilayered mythology that supports the sacredness of these pilgrimage sites. There are, as James Lochtefeld in God’s Gateway: Identity and Meaning in a Hindu Pilgrimage Place and Kama McLean in Pilgrimage and Power mention, charter myths specific to each mela, but less known to pilgrims, who are more familiar with the Myth of the Churning the Ocean. According to a latter version of this myth, accepted by all Hindu sects, during the battle between devas and asuras for the vessel (kumbh) with amṛta, four drops of the mixture of immortality fell into the four melas’ sites giving them magical powers.
Critical Race Theory and Communication
Authors: Hodge Danielle , Flores Lisa A.
Published: October 2023

Critical race theory (CRT) is an intellectual, epistemological, and activist-oriented movement that emerged from an urgency to understand the nuances of race and racism and the embeddedness of oppression in law, legal institutions, and legal reasoning. As an intellectual movement, CRT is concerned with how white supremacist values, beliefs, and attitudes have been instituted and preserved in our social, cultural, political, and economic landscape and structures. As an epistemology, CRT posits race and racism as pervasive and enduring and centers marginalized voices, lived experiences, and thought. As an activist-oriented theoretical framework, CRT identifies, recognizes, and addresses racism and its relationship to power and seeks to interrupt, disrupt, challenge, and change these conditions. Each of these commitments is in strong opposition to the ways that current public discourse has (mis)characterized CRT as divisive, anti-American, and propaganda that threatens the stability of the United States of America. In fact, these misrepresentations starkly undermine the countless contributions of the movement that are preoccupied with justice, freedom, and change through realistic and honest assessments of our societies. Introduced in the 1980s and informed by critical legal studies (CLS), CRT questions the marginalization and depoliticization of race in discussions of law, reimagines how race and racism are understood in American society by disrupting notions of color-evasion, neutrality, and objectivity, and requires a view of race and racism that critiques ideologies of the former as aberrational and unique phenomena. Considering these concerns, it is no surprise that CRT is a transdisciplinary movement that has intellectual origins in the work of African American, Latinx, and Indigenous scholars and intellectual alignments with Black feminist thought, decolonial theories, and critical ethnic studies. With the help of some of CRT’s most notable scholars, including Derrick Bell and Kimberlé Crenshaw, CRT has transformed the way we study law, been taken up in disciplines such as African American studies, education, and communication, and proves to be a durable intellectual, epistemological, and activist-oriented movement that will continue to inform how we study and understand oppression, and how we seek to deconstruct and reconstruct our current conditions. Naming these histories alongside current debates offers an opportunity to reexamine and revisit the ways that CRT continues to impact our sociopolitical landscape while simultaneously shaping our scholarly endeavors. Moreover, it creates space to illustrate how CRT and communication intellectually complement each other through their transdisciplinary pursuits of interrogating domination and demanding liberation.
Brazilian Popular Music, Performance, and Culture
Authors: Perrone Charles A.
Published: October 2023

The study of music involves three types: art music (classical, concert, erudita in Portuguese), folkloric music (rural, anonymous, traditional, learned face-to-face), and popular music (largely urban, composed, subject to fashion, and transmitted by mechanical/electronic means, from sheet music to modern vehicles). Brazil has one of the most diverse and admired systems of popular music worldwide, and a music industry to match. Song genres, dance music, and instrumental forms emerged principally from the encounter of European and African heritages; there is also some Indigenous contribution to the popular sphere. The country’s five regions—North, Northeast, Southeast, Center-West, South—have popular styles that evolved from folk traditions, but the main hubs of activity are the longtime capital Rio de Janeiro and metropolitan São Paulo. Performance here signifies live singing/playing (shows or informal settings), studio recordings, and transmission by electronic means (phonograph, radio, film, television, VHS-DVD, LP-CD-audio file, Internet). Culture is employed in a broad sense, encompassing the meaningful practices of everyday life, learned behavior, expressive activities, and the arts. Publications on popular music appear across disciplines: ethno/musicology, history, anthropology, sociology, language-literature, cultural studies, communications, geography, political science. Since pedagogy can be a subject of research, textbooks and curriculum guides are included. In the early nineteenth century, the Afro-Brazilian lundu was foundational; it was a form of dance music and song alike. The modinha was a ubiquitous sentimental song practice that lasted well into the twentieth century. One of several European imports, the polka was a prime input into the national genre maxixe, a forerunner of samba, the best-known Brazilian form. Around 1870, musicians in Rio created choro, a mode of instrumental music that has endured. Besides the samba, the marcha was a defining genre during carnaval, which became an institution in Rio in the 1930s. Samba-canção (song) was the popular vocal version of what came to be regarded as the “national music.” In the 1940s, music of the Northeast became fashionable. In 1958, the internationally known style bossa nova began its ascension. The next generation was socially conscious, leading to the formation of a domain called “MPB,” original creation with a native focus. National rock was prominent in the 1980s. Afro-diasporic sounds appeared in the 1970s, alongside compelling neo-Afro-Bahian manifestations. Since 1990, popular music reflects greater diversification, with a series of pop fads as well as continual artistry. Throughout, a dialectic of national/international obtains in practice and criticism.