bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The DOMINO web-server for active module identification analysis
Authors: Levi Hagai , Rahmanian Nima , Elkon Ran , Shamir Ron
Published: February 2022

Motivation

Active module identification (AMI) is an essential step in many omics analyses. Such algorithms receive a gene network and a gene activity profile as input and report subnetworks that show significant over-representation of accrued activity signal (‘active modules’). Such modules can point out key molecular processes in the analyzed biological conditions.

Results

We recently introduced a novel AMI algorithm called DOMINO and demonstrated that it detects active modules that capture biological signals with markedly improved rate of empirical validation. Here, we provide an online server that executes DOMINO, making it more accessible and user-friendly. To help the interpretation of solutions, the server provides GO enrichment analysis, module visualizations and accessible output formats for customized downstream analysis. It also enables running DOMINO with various gene identifiers of different organisms.

Availability and implementation

The server is available at http://domino.cs.tau.ac.il. Its codebase is available at https://github.com/Shamir-Lab.
A Time for Action on Climate Change and a Time for Change in Economics
Authors: Stern Nicholas
Published: February 2022

The case for action on climate change with urgency and at scale rests on the immense magnitude of climate risk, the very rapid emissions reductions which are necessary, and that there is a real opportunity to create a new and attractive form of growth and development. The analysis must be based on a dynamic approach to the economics of public policy, set in a complex, imperfect and uncertain world. The economics of climate change, and further, economics more broadly, must change to respond to the challenge of how to foster rapid transformation. It is time for economics and economists to step up.
Listening in interaction: reconceptualizing a core skill
Authors: Ryan Jonathon
Published: February 2022

For many language learners, listening represents a major source of anguish, with apparent success in the confines of the classroom failing to be mirrored in the ordinary interactions of daily life. One contributing factor may be the continued reliance on listening texts and activities that position the learner as a bystander rather than a participant. In response, the concept of interactive listening has drawn considerable attention in ELT. What has been largely missing, however, is the application of principles drawn from the last twenty years or so of empirical research in fields such as conversation analysis which reveal how interactions actually unfold for listeners. This article identifies five core concepts that may be fundamental to further developing a robust approach to listening in interaction: participation status, meaning as action, projection, participatory listenership, and recipient design.
Campylobacter infection and the link with Irritable Bowel Syndrome:on the pathway towards a causal association
Authors: Takakura Will , Kudaravalli Praneeth , Chatterjee Chandrima , Pimentel Mark , Riddle Mark S
Published: February 2022

Objectives: proving causality between an exposure and outcome can be difficult in humans. Here, we utilize the Bradford Hill (BH) criteria to summarize the causal relationship between Campylobacter infection and the development of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Methods: we utilized the BH criteria to assess the strength, consistency, specificity, temporality, biological gradient, plausibility, coherence, experiment, and analogy of the current evidence linking Campylobacter to IBS. Through a consensus amongst all authors, the confidence of each criterion was graded as high, moderate, low, or very low. Results: a total of four criteria (strength, temporality, plausibility, and analogy) were graded as high; four criteria (consistency, biological gradient, coherence, and experiment) were graded as moderate; and one criterion (specificity) was graded as low. Large-scale epidemiological studies report a risk ratio of 2.7–5.6 for developing IBS after campylobacter. In rodent models, Campylobacter jejuni 81–176 can cause loose stool months after the infection is cleared and share common pathophysiology as IBS patients such as elevated intestinal TLR-4 and IL-8, antibodies to CdtB and vinculin, increased intraepithelial lymphocytes, and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Conclusions: Campylobacter infection appear to cause IBS in a subset of patients. This may hold implication in risk factor identification, public health policy, and possibly treatment.
Auricular Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation Diminishes Alpha-Band–Related Inhibitory Gating Processes During Conflict Monitoring in Frontal Cortices
Authors: Konjusha Anyla , Colzato Lorenza , Mückschel Moritz , Beste Christian
Published: February 2022

Background

Pursuing goals is compromised when being confronted with interfering information. In such situations, conflict monitoring is important. Theoretical considerations on the neurobiology of response selection and control suggest that auricular transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (atVNS) should modulate conflict monitoring. However, the neurophysiological-functional neuroanatomical underpinnings are still not understood.

Methods

AtVNS was applied in a randomized crossover study design (n = 45). During atVNS or sham stimulation, conflict monitoring was assessed using a Flanker task. EEG data were recorded and analyzed with focus on theta and alpha band activity. Beamforming was applied to examine functional neuroanatomical correlates of atVNS-induced EEG modulations. Moreover, temporal EEG signal decomposition was applied to examine different coding levels in alpha and theta band activity.

Results

AtVNS compromised conflict monitoring processes when it was applied at the second appointment in the crossover study design. On a neurophysiological level, atVNS exerted specific effects because only alpha-band activity was modulated. Alpha-band activity was lower in middle and superior prefrontal regions during atVNS stimulation and thus lower when there was also a decline in task performance. The same direction of alpha-band modulations was evident in fractions of the alpha-band activity coding stimulus-related processes, stimulus-response translation processes, and motor response–related processes.

Conclusions

The combination of prior task experience and atVNS compromises conflict monitoring processes. This is likely due to reduction of the alpha-band–associated inhibitory gating process on interfering information in frontal cortices. Future research should pay considerable attention to boundary conditions affecting the direction of atVNS effects.
The ‘Open System’ and Its Gatekeepers: From Complexity in International Law, a Seminar in Honour of James Crawford
Authors: Grant Thomas D
Published: February 2022

No account of international law in the modern era would be intelligible without an account of the non-State actor in international law. However, States in no small part continue to set the terms by which others now share the stage. How States set the terms—and how to address the problems arising from the terms they set—are central questions for international law and the organs that apply it. The roles that non-state actors play have been routinized, for example in treaty arbitration. As a result, we sometimes forget that the starting point for what James Crawford called international law’s ‘open system’ is still the State. Non-State actors enter the system more readily than before, but, if we are to understand the continuing limitations on their rights, duties and functions in international law, then we should keep sight of how it is they enter: States are the gatekeepers of the open system, and, even if the terms of access are more liberal and more parties seek access than ever, States still decide who gets in.
Parental Relationships, Patient-Centered Communication With Healthcare Providers, and Diabetes Management Across Emerging Adulthood
Authors: Berg Cynthia A , Campbell MaryJane Simms , Kent de Grey Robert G , Butner Jonathan E , Murray Mary , Wiebe Deborah J
Published: February 2022

Objective

To examine whether yearly fluctuations in acceptance from and disclosure to parents were associated with fluctuations in perceptions of patient-centered communication (PCC) with the healthcare provider and whether fluctuations in PCC were associated with self-efficacy, type 1 diabetes self-care, and HbA1c across four annual assessments during early emerging adulthood (EA).

Methods

A total of 228 high school seniors (M age = 17.76 years at time 1) reported on mothers’ and fathers’ acceptance and diabetes-related disclosure to parents, diabetes self-care, and PCC once per year for 4 years. HbA1c was collected from assay kits.

Results

Multilevel models revealed within-person associations such that in years when individuals reported greater maternal acceptance than their average, they reported higher PCC. In addition, between-person differences indicated that individuals who reported more maternal acceptance on average relative to others also perceived greater PCC. Similar associations were found for EAs’ reports of fathers. No significant effects were found for disclosure to either mother or father. Yearly fluctuations in PCC were associated with self-efficacy such that in years when perceived PCC was higher, self-efficacy was higher. Between person-effects were found for self-efficacy, self-care, and HbA1c such that individuals who reported more PCC on average relative to others reported higher self-efficacy, better self-care, and lower HbA1c.

Conclusions

Aspects of EA’s relationships with parents fluctuate with perceptions of PCC with healthcare providers. Perceived PCC with the healthcare provider may be important in higher self-efficacy, diabetes self-care, and lower HbA1c across the early EA years.
International Trauma Capacity Building Programs: Modernizing Capabilities, Enhancing Lethality, Supporting Alliances, Building Partnerships, and Implementing Reform
Authors: Licina Derek , Taylor Jackson
Published: February 2022

The Military Health System directly supports the National Security and Defense Strategy priorities of modernizing capabilities, enhancing lethality, supporting alliances, building partnerships, and implementing reform. Trauma medicine training programs with partner nations is a key lever that can be pulled, using a risk-based decision-making process, to scale up efforts toward these national priorities.
Low X-ray surface brightness clusters: implications on the scatter of the M–T and L–T relations
Authors: Andreon S , Trinchieri G , Moretti A
Published: February 2022

We aim at studying scaling relations of a small but well-defined sample of galaxy clusters that includes the recently discovered class of objects that are X-ray faint for their mass. These clusters have an average low X-ray surface brightness, a low gas fraction, and are underrepresented (by a factor of 10) in X-ray surveys or entirely absent in Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) surveys. With the inclusion of these objects, we find that the temperature–mass relation has an unprecedentedly large scatter, 0.20 ± 0.03 dex at fixed mass, as wide as allowed by the temperature range, and the location of a cluster in this plane depends on its surface brightness. Clusters obey a relatively tight luminosity–temperature relation independently of their brightness. We interpret the wide difference in scatter around the two relations as due to the fact that X-ray luminosity and temperature are dominated by photons coming from small radii (in particular for T we used a 300 kpc aperture radius) and strongly affected by gas thermodynamics (e.g. shocks and cool cores), whereas mass is dominated by dark matter at large radii. We measure a slope of 2.0 ± 0.2 for the L500–T relation. Given the characteristics of our sample, this value is free from collinearity (degeneracy) between evolution and slope and from hypothesis on the undetected population, which both affect the analysis of X-ray-selected samples, and can therefore be profitably used both as reference and to break the aforementioned degeneracy of X-ray-selected samples.
Baryon-driven decontraction in Milky Way-mass haloes
Authors: Forouhar Moreno Victor J , Benítez-Llambay Alejandro , Cole Shaun , Frenk Carlos
Published: February 2022

We select a sample of Milky Way (MW) mass haloes from a high-resolution version of the EAGLE simulation to study their inner dark matter (DM) content and how baryons alter it. As in previous studies, we find that all haloes are more massive at the centre compared to their dark matter-only (DMO) counterparts at the present day as a result of the dissipational collapse of baryons during the assembly of the galaxy. However, we identify two processes that can reduce the central halo mass during the evolution of the galaxy. First, gas blowouts induced by active galactic nuclei feedback can lead to a substantial decrease of the central DM mass. Secondly, the formation of a stellar bar and its interaction with the DM can induce a secular expansion of the halo; the rate at which DM is evacuated from the central region by this process is related to the average bar strength, and the time-scale on which it acts determines how much the halo has decontracted. Although the inner regions of the haloes we have investigated are still more massive than their DMO counterparts at z = 0, they are significantly less massive than in the past and less massive than expected from the classic adiabatic contraction model. Since the MW has both a central supermassive black hole and a bar, the extent to which its halo has contracted is uncertain. This may affect estimates of the mass of the MW halo and of the expected signals in direct and indirect DM detection experiments.
Characterizing Pandemic-Related Changes in Smoking Over Time in a Cohort of Current and Former Smokers
Authors: Nagawa Catherine S , Ito Fukunaga Mayuko , Faro Jamie M , Liu Feifan , Anderson Ekaterina , Kamberi Ariana , Orvek Elizabeth A , Davis Maryann , Pbert Lori , Cutrona Sarah L , Houston Thomas K , Sadasivam Rajani S
Published: February 2022

Introduction

We used a longitudinal cohort of US adults who were current or former smokers to explore how three participant-reported factors—general stress, coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) distress, and perceived risk of complications from COVID-19 related to smoking—were associated with changes in smoking status.

Methods

Smoking status was assessed at three time points. Timepoint 1 status was assessed at a prior study completion (2018–2020). Timepoint 2 (start of the pandemic), and Timepoint 3 (early phase of the pandemic) statuses were assessed using an additional survey in 2020. After classifying participants into eight groups per these time points, we compared the means of participant-reported factors and used a linear regression model to adjust for covariates.

Results

Participants (n = 392) were mostly female (73.9%) and non-Hispanic White (70.1%). Between Timepoints 2 and 3, abstinence rates decreased by 11%, and 40% of participants reported a smoking status change. Among those reporting a change and the highest general stress levels, newly abstinent participants had higher perceived risk of complications from COVID-19 related to smoking than those who relapsed during pandemic (mean (SD): 14.2 (3.3) vs. 12.6 (3.8)). Compared to participants who sustained smoking, those who sustained abstinence, on average, scored 1.94 less on the general stress scale (βeta Coefficient (β): −1.94, p-value < .01) and 1.37 more on the perceived risk of complications from COVID-19 related to smoking scale (β: 1.37, p-value .02).

Conclusions

Decreased abstinence rates are concerning. Patterns of reported factors were as expected for individuals who sustained their smoking behavior but not for those who changed.

Implications

We observed an increase in smoking rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. In exploring how combinations of general stress levels, COVID-19 distress levels, and perceived risk of complications from COVID-19 related to smoking were associated with changes in smoking, we observed expected patterns of these factors among individuals who sustained abstinence or smoking. Among individuals who changed smoking status and reported high stress levels, those who reported a higher perceived risk of complications from COVID-19 related to smoking abstained from smoking. In contrast, those who reported a lower perceived risk of complications from COVID-19 related to smoking, started smoking. An intersectional perspective may be needed to understand smokers’ pandemic-related behavior changes.
Automated bird sound classifications of long-duration recordings produce occupancy model outputs similar to manually annotated data
Authors: Cole Jerry S , Michel Nicole L , Emerson Shane A , Siegel Rodney B
Published: February 2022

Occupancy modeling is used to evaluate avian distributions and habitat associations, yet it typically requires extensive survey effort because a minimum of 3 repeat samples are required for accurate parameter estimation. Autonomous recording units (ARUs) can reduce the need for surveyors on-site, yet their utility was limited by hardware costs and the time required to manually annotate recordings. Software that identifies bird vocalizations may reduce the expert time needed if classification is sufficiently accurate. We assessed the performance of BirdNET—an automated classifier capable of identifying vocalizations from >900 North American and European bird species—by comparing automated to manual annotations of recordings of 13 breeding bird species collected in northwestern California. We compared the parameter estimates of occupancy models evaluating habitat associations supplied with manually annotated data (9-min recording segments) to output from models supplied with BirdNET detections. We used 3 sets of BirdNET output to evaluate the duration of automatic annotation needed to approach manually annotated model parameter estimates: 9-min, 87-min, and 87-min of high-confidence detections. We incorporated 100 3-s manually validated BirdNET detections per species to estimate true and false positive rates within an occupancy model. BirdNET correctly identified 90% and 65% of the bird species a human detected when data were restricted to detections exceeding a low or high confidence score threshold, respectively. Occupancy estimates, including habitat associations, were similar regardless of method. Precision (proportion of true positives to all detections) was >0.70 for 9 of 13 species, and a low of 0.29. However, processing of longer recordings was needed to rival manually annotated data. We conclude that BirdNET is suitable for annotating multispecies recordings for occupancy modeling when extended recording durations are used. Together, ARUs and BirdNET may benefit monitoring and, ultimately, conservation of bird populations by greatly increasing monitoring opportunities.
The Falling Star
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

Then came the night of the first falling star. It was seen early in the morning rushing over Winchester eastward, a line of flame, high in the atmosphere. Hundreds must have seen it, and taken it for an ordinary falling star. Albin described it as leaving a greenish streak behind it that glowed for some seconds. Denning, our greatest authority on meteorites, stated that the height of its first appearance was about ninety or one hundred miles. It seemed to him that it fell to earth about one hundred miles east of him.
The Heat-Ray
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

After the glimpse I had had of the Martians emerging from the cylinder in which they had come to the earth from their planet, a kind of fascination paralyzed my actions. I remained standing knee-deep in the heather, staring at the mound that hid them. I was a battle-ground of fear and curiosity.
Friday Night
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

The most extraordinary thing to my mind, of all the strange and wonderful things that happened upon that Friday, was the dovetailing of the commonplace habits of our social order with the first beginnings of the series of events that was to topple that social order headlong. If on Friday night you had taken a pair of compasses and drawn a circle with a radius of five miles round the Woking sand-pits, I doubt if you would have had one human being outside it, unless it was some relation of Stent or of the three or four cyclists or London people who lay dead on the common, whose emotions or habits were at all affected by the new-comers. Many people had heard of the cylinder, of course, and talked about it in their leisure, but it certainly did not make the sensation an ultimatum to Germany would have done.
How I Fell in with the Curate
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

After giving this sudden lesson in the power of terrestrial weapons, the Martians retreated to their original position upon Horsell Common, and in their haste, and encumbered with the débris of their smashed companion, they no doubt overlooked many such a stray and unnecessary victim as myself. Had they left their comrade, and pushed on forthwith, there was nothing at that time between them and London but batteries of twelve-pounder guns, and they would certainly have reached the capital in advance of the tidings of their approach; as sudden, dreadful and destructive their advent would have been as the earthquake that destroyed Lisbon a century ago.
Under Foot
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

In the first book I have wandered so much from my own adventures to tell of the experiences of my brother, that all through the last two chapters I and the curate have been lurking in the empty house at Halliford, whither we fled to escape the Black Smoke. There I will resume. We stopped there all Sunday night and all the next day—the day of the panic—in a little island of daylight, cut off by the Black Smoke from the rest of the world. We could do nothing but wait, in an aching inactivity, during those two weary days.
The Death of the Curate
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

It was on the sixth day of our imprisonment that I peeped for the last time, and presently found myself alone. Instead of keeping close to me and trying to oust me from the slit, the curate had gone back into the scullery. I was struck by a sudden thought. I went back quickly and quietly into the scullery. In the darkness I heard the curate drinking. I snatched in the darkness, and my fingers caught a bottle of burgundy.
In the Dingey of the Lady Vain
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

I do not propose to add anything to what has already been written concerning the loss of the Lady Vain. As every one knows, she collided with a derelict when ten days out from Callao. The long-boat with seven of the crew was picked up eighteen days after by HM gun-boat Myrtle, and the story of their privations has become almost as well known as the far more terrible Medusa case.* I have now, however, to add to the published story of the Lady Vain another as horrible, and certainly far stranger. It has hitherto been supposed that the four men who were in the dingey perished, but this is incorrect. I have the best of evidence for this assertion—I am one of the four men.
The Man Alone
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

In the evening I started and drove out to sea before a gentle wind from the south-west, slowly and steadily, and the island grew smaller and smaller, and the lank spire of smoke dwindled to a finer and finer line against the hot sunset. The ocean rose up around me, hiding that low dark patch from my eyes. The daylight, the trailing glory of the sun, went streaming out of the sky, was drawn aside like some luminous curtain, and at last I looked into that blue gulf of immensity that the sunshine hides, and saw the floating hosts of the stars. The sea was silent, the sky was silent; I was alone with the night and silence.
Mr Teddy Henfrey’s First Impressions
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

At four o’clock, when it was fairly dark, and Mrs Hall was screwing up her courage to go in and ask her visitor if he would take some tea, Teddy Henfrey, the clock-jobber,* came into the bar.
Mr Marvel Discusses His Resignation
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

When the dusk was gathering, and Iping was just beginning to peep timorously forth again upon the shattered wreckage of its Bank Holiday, a short, thickset man in a shabby silk hat was marching painfully through the twilight behind the beechwoods on the road to Bramblehurst. He carried three books, bound together by some sort of ornamental elastic ligature, and a bundle wrapped in a blue tablecloth. His rubicund face expressed consternation and fatigue, he appeared to be in a spasmodic sort of hurry. He was accompanied by a Voice other than his own, and ever and again he winced under the touch of unseen hands.
At the House in Great Portland Street
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

For a moment Kemp sat in silence, staring at the back of the headless figure at the window. Then he started, struck by a thought, rose, took the Invisible Man’s arm, and turned him away from the outlook.
In Drury Lane
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

‘But you begin now to realise,’ said the Invisible Man, ‘the full disadvantage of my condition. I had no shelter — no covering — to get clothing was to forego all my advantage, to make of myself a strange and terrible thing. I was fasting; for to eat, to fill myself with unassimilated matter, would be to become grotesquely visible again.’
The Hunting of the Invisible Man
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

For a space Kemp was too inarticulate to make Adye understand the swift things that had just happened. They stood on the landing, Kemp speaking hurriedly, the grotesque swathings of Griffin still on his arm. But presently Adye began to grasp something of the situation.
The Hunter Hunted
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

Mr Heelas, Mr Kemp’s nearest neighbour among the villa holders, was asleep in his summer-house when the siege of Kemp’s house began. Mr Heelas was one of the sturdy majority who refused to believe in ‘all this nonsense’ about an Invisible Man. His wife, however, as he was subsequently to be reminded, did. He insisted upon walking about his garden just as if nothing was the matter, and he went to sleep in the afternoon, in accordance with the custom of years. He slept through the smashing of the windows, and then woke up suddenly, with a curious persuasion of something wrong. He looked across at Kemp’s house; rubbed his eyes, and looked again. Then he put his feet to the ground and sat listening. He said he was damned, but still the strange thing was visible. The house looked as though it had been deserted for weeks — after a violent riot. Every window was broken, and every window, save those of the belvedere study, was blinded by internal shutters.
Mr Bedford Meets Mr Cavor at Lympne
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

As I sit down to write here amidst the shadows of vine-leaves under the blue sky of southern Italy, it comes to me with a certain quality of astonishment that my participation in these amazing adventures of Mr Cavor was, after all, the outcome of the purest accident. It might have been any one. I fell into these things at a time when I thought myself removed from the slightest possibility of disturbing experiences. I had gone to Lympne because I had imagined it the most uneventful place in the world. ‘Here, at any rate,’ said I, ‘I shall find peace and a chance to work!’
Lost Men in the Moon
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

His face caught something of my dismay. He stood up and stared about him at the scrub that fenced us in and rose about us, straining upward in a passion of growth. He put a dubious hand to his lips. He spoke with a sudden lack of assurance. ‘I think,’ he said slowly, ‘we left it . . . somewhere . . . about there.’
The Mooncalf Pastures
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

So we two poor terrestrial castaways, lost in that wild-growing moon jungle, crawled in terror before the sounds that had come upon us. We crawled, as it seemed, a long time before we saw either Selenite or mooncalf, though we heard the bellowing and gruntulous noises of these latter continually drawing nearer to us. We crawled through stony ravines, over snow slopes, amidst fungi that ripped like thin bladders at our thrust, emitting a watery humour, over a perfect pavement of things like puff-balls, and beneath interminable thickets of scrub. And ever more hopelessly our eyes sought for our abandoned sphere. The noise of the mooncalves would at times be a vast flat calf-like sound, at times it rose to an amazed and wrathy bellowing, and again it would become a clogged bestial sound, as though these unseen creatures had sought to eat and bellow at the same time.
The Selenite’s Face
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

I found myself sitting crouched together in a tumultuous darkness. For a long time I could not understand where I was, nor how I had come to this perplexity. I thought of the cupboard into which I had been thrust at times when I was a child, and then of a very dark and noisy bedroom in which I had slept during an illness. But these sounds about me were not the noises I had known, and there was a thin flavour in the air like the wind of a stable. Then I supposed we must still be at work upon the sphere, and that somehow I had got into the cellar of Cavor’s house. I remembered we had finished the sphere, and fancied I must still be in it and travelling through space.
In the Sunlight
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

Presently we saw that the cavern before us opened on a hazy void. In another moment we had emerged upon a sort of slanting gallery, that projected into a vast circular space, a huge cylindrical pit running vertically up and down. Round this pit the slanting gallery ran without any parapet or protection for a turn and a half, and then plunged high above into the rock again. Somehow it reminded me then of one of those spiral turns of the railway through the Saint Gothard.* It was all tremendously huge. I can scarcely hope to convey to you the Titanic proportion of all that place, the Titanic effect of it. Our eyes followed up the vast declivity of the pit wall, and overhead and far above we beheld a round opening set with faint stars, and half of the lip about it well-nigh blinding with the white light of the sun. At that we cried aloud simultaneously.
The Natural History of the Selenites
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

The messages of Cavor from the sixth up to the sixteenth are for the most part so much broken, and they abound so in repetitions, that they scarcely form a consecutive narrative. They will be given in full, of course, in the scientific report, but here it will be far more convenient to continue simply to abstract and quote as in the former chapter. We have subjected every word to a keen critical scrutiny, and my own brief memories and impressions of lunar things have been of inestimable help in interpreting what would otherwise have been impenetrably dark. And, naturally, as living beings our interest centres far more upon the strange community of lunar insects in which he was living, it would seem, as an honoured guest than upon the mere physical condition of their world.
The Machine
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

The thing the Time Traveller held in his hand was a glittering metallic framework, scarcely larger than a small clock, and very delicately made. There was ivory in it, and some transparent crystalline substance. And now I must be explicit, for this that follows—unless his explanation is to be accepted—is an absolutely unaccountable thing. He took one of the small octagonal tables that were scattered about the room, and set it in front of the fire, with two legs on the hearthrug. On this table he placed the mechanism. Then he drew up a chair, and sat down. The only other object on the table was a small shaded lamp, the bright light of which fell full upon the model. There were also perhaps a dozen candles about, two in brass candlesticks upon the mantel and several in sconces, so that the room was brilliantly illuminated. I sat in a low arm-chair nearest the fire, and I drew this forward so as to be almost between the Time Traveller and the fireplace. Filby sat behind him, looking over his shoulder.
When The Night Came
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

‘Now, indeed, I seemed in a worse case than before. Hitherto, except during my night’s anguish at the loss of the Time Machine, I had felt a sustaining hope of ultimate escape, but that hope was staggered by these new discoveries. Hitherto I had merely thought myself impeded by the childish simplicity of the little people, and by some unknown forces which I had only to understand to overcome; but there was an altogether new element in the sickening quality of the Morlocks—a something inhuman and malign. Instinctively I loathed them. Before, I had felt as a man might feel who had fallen into a pit: my concern was with the pit and how to get out of it. Now I felt like a beast in a trap, whose enemy would come upon him soon.
The Trap of the White Sphinx
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

‘About eight or nine in the morning I came to the same seat of yellow metal from which I had viewed the world upon the evening of my arrival. I thought of my hasty conclusions upon that evening, and could not refrain from laughing bitterly at my confidence. Here was the same beautiful scene, the same abundant foliage, the same splendid palaces and magnificent ruins, the same silver river running between its fertile banks. The gay robes of the beautiful people moved hither and thither among the trees. Some were bathing in exactly the place where I had saved Weena, and that suddenly gave me a keen stab of pain. And like blots upon the landscape rose the cupolas above the ways to the under-world. I understood now what all the beauty of the overworld people covered. Very pleasant was their day, as pleasant as the day of the cattle in the field. Like the cattle, they knew no enemies and provided against no needs. And their end was the same.
Chapter VI
Authors: Zola Émile
Published: February 2022

One autumn afternoon, after delivering some washing to a customer in the Rue des Portes-Blanches,* Gervaise found herself at the bottom of the Rue des Poissonniers just before dusk. It had rained that morning, the air was very mild, and a smell was rising from the damp cobbles. Struggling with her big basket and breathing hard, Gervaise slackened her pace and let her body relax as she walked up the street, feeling a vague sensual craving, made stronger still by her tiredness. She’d have loved something nice to eat. Looking up and seeing the sign of the Rue Marcadet, she suddenly had the idea of dropping in on Goujet at the forge. He’d said many times that she should stop by some day if she felt like seeing how they worked with iron. Of course, in front of the other workmen, she’d ask for Étienne and make it look as if she’d come just to see the boy.
Chapter VII
Authors: Zola Émile
Published: February 2022

Gervaise’s saint’s day was the nineteenth of June. On these occasions the Coupeaus put on a real spread, the sort of binge you’d come away from as round as a barrel, your belly full for the rest of the week. All their spare cash was scraped together. As soon as the couple had a few sous, they blew them on food. They added imaginary saint’s days to the calendar just as an excuse for a good feed. Virginie was all in favour of Gervaise stuffing herself with tasty little treats. When you’ve got a man who drinks it all away, it’s only fair, isn’t it, not to let the whole caboodle go down his throat, but to fill your own stomach first? Since the money was going to disappear anyway, it might as well go to the butcher as well as the wine merchant. Gervaise, her love of food increasing, was only too happy to use this excuse. Too bad! If they couldn’t save a single bloody sou it was Coupeau’s fault. Meanwhile, she’d put on more weight and her limp was worse, because her leg seemed to be getting shorter as it grew fatter.
Letter 2
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

Lady Susan to Mrs Johnson.

langford
Letter 7
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

Lady Susan to Mrs Johnson.

churchill

My dear Alicia

You are very good in taking notice of Frederica, & I am grateful for it as a mark of your friendship; but as I cannot have a doubt of the warmth of that friendship, I am...
Letter 18
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

From the same to the same.

churchill
Letter 24
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

From the same to the same.

churchill
Letter 26
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

Mrs Johnson to Lady Susan.

edward st.
Letter 29
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

Lady Susan to Mrs Johnson.

upper seymour st.
Letter 34
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

Mr De Courcy to Lady Susan.

hotel
Letter 36
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

Mr De Courcy to Lady Susan.

hotel
The Watsons
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

The first winter assembly* in the Town of D. ——  in Surry* was to be held on Tuesday October the 13th,* & it was generally expected to be a very good one; a long...
Sanditon
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

A Gentleman & Lady travelling from Tunbridge towards that part of the Sussex Coast which lies between Hastings & E. Bourne,* being induced by Business to quit the high road, & attempt a very rough Lane, were overturned in toiling up it’s long...
Chapter 5
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

When they met before dinner, Mr P. was looking over Letters. — ‘Not a Line from Sidney!’ said he. — ‘He is an idle fellow. — I sent him an account of my accident from Willingden, & thought he would have vouchsafed me an Answer. — But perhaps it implies that he is...
Chapter 10
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

It was not a week, since Miss Diana Parker had been told by her feelings, that the Sea Air would probably in her present state, be the death of her, and now she was at Sanditon, intending to make some Stay, & without appearing to...
Opinions of Emma
Authors: Austen Jane
Published: February 2022

Captain Austen.* — liked it extremely, observing that though there might be more Wit in P & P — & an higher Morality in MP — yet altogether, on account of it’s peculiar air of Nature throughout, he preferred it to either.

Mrs F. A.* — liked & admired...
Chapter IV
Authors: de Sade Marquis
Published: February 2022

As his first plan of attack posed some risks, Théodore sensed that it was essential to launch the second sooner rather than later, and the next day he visited the Marquis in his quarters.
‘I am glad, my dear Abbé, that you stole a march on me,’ Alphonse told him. ‘I have something to tell you which weighs heavily on my heart.’
‘I cannot imagine so,’ Alphonse told him. ‘That is why I shall take you into my confidence. Until recently, my dear brother, I always thought myself the most fortunate and the most tranquil of husbands, but I fear now my happiness is under threat.’
Chapter VIII
Authors: de Sade Marquis
Published: February 2022

The watchful Abbé realized that, just as the mother knew her daughter was at the castle, it would become very difficult to prevent the daughter hearing of her mother’s arrival. Could he really count on Rose to keep such a secret? Are criminal accomplices not always dangerous? There were signs that Rose had a kind heart and affection for her mistress. Nothing could be more alarming than these hints of virtue to someone plotting a crime; and the imperious manner in which Nature thus reasserts its laws should be enough to stop all those who seek to break them.
The wants of him that wants nothing
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

On the next day his old instructor, imagining that he had now made himself acquainted with his disease of mind,* was in hope of curing it by counsel, and officiously sought an opportunity of conference, which the prince, having long considered him as one whose intellects were exhausted, was not very willing to afford: ‘Why, said he, does this man thus intrude upon me; shall I be never suffered to forget those lectures which pleased only while they were new, and to become new again must be forgotten?’ He then walked into the wood, and composed himself to his usual meditations; when, before his thoughts had taken any settled form, he perceived his persuer at his side, and was at first prompted by his impatience to go hastily away; but, being unwilling to offend a man whom he had once reverenced and still loved, he invited him to sit down with him on the bank.
The prince continues to grieve and muse
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

At this time the sound of musick proclaimed the hour of repast, and the conversation was concluded. The old man went away sufficiently discontented to find that his reasonings had produced the only conclusion which they were intended to prevent. But in the decline of life shame and grief are of short duration; whether it be that we bear easily what we have born long, or that, finding ourselves in age less regarded, we less regard others; or, that we look with slight regard upon afflictions, to which we know that the hand of death is about to put an end.
The prince finds a man of learning
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

The prince was not much afflicted by this disaster, having suffered himself to hope for a happier event, only because he had no other means of escape in view. He still persisted in his design to leave the happy valley by the first opportunity.
The history of Imlac
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

The close of the day is, in the regions of the torrid zone, the only season of diversion and entertainment, and it was therefore mid-night before the musick ceased, and the princesses retired. Rasselas then called for his companion and required him to begin the story of his life.
Imlac’s history continued. A dissertation upon poetry
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

‘Wherever I went, I found that Poetry was considered as the highest learning,* and regarded with a veneration somewhat approaching to that which man would pay to the Angelick Nature. And it yet fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the most ancient poets are considered as the best:* whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the first poetry of every nation surprised them as a novelty, and retained the credit by consent which it received by accident at first: or whether, as the province of poetry is to describe Nature and Passion, which are always the same,* the first writers took possession of the most striking objects for description, and the most probable occurrences for fiction, and left nothing to those that followed them, but transcription of the same events, and new combinations of the same images. Whatever be the reason, it is commonly observed that the early writers are in possession of nature, and their followers of art: that the first excel in strength and invention, and the latter in elegance and refinement.
The story of Imlac continued
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

‘I am not yet willing, said the prince, to suppose that happiness is so parsimoniously distributed to mortals; nor can believe but that, if I had the choice of life,* I should be able to fill every day with pleasure. I would injure no man, and should provoke no resentment: I would relieve every distress, and should enjoy the benedictions of gratitude. I would choose my friends among the wise, and my wife among the virtuous; and therefore should be in no danger from treachery, or unkindness. My children should, by my care, be learned and pious, and would repay to my age what their childhood had received. What would dare to molest him who might call on every side to thousands enriched by his bounty, or assisted by his power? And why should not life glide quietly away in the soft reciprocation of protection and reverence?* All this may be done without the help of European refinements, which appear by their effects to be rather specious than useful. Let us leave them and persue our journey.’
Rasselas discovers the means of escape
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

The prince now dismissed his favourite to rest, but the narrative of wonders and novelties filled his mind with perturbation. He revolved all that he had heard, and prepared innumerable questions for the morning.
The happiness of solitude. The hermit’s history
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

They came on the third day, by the direction of the peasants, to the hermit’s cell: it was a cavern in the side of the mountain, over-shadowed with palm-trees; at such a distance from the cataract, that nothing more was heard than a gentle uniform murmur, such as composed the mind to pensive meditation, especially when it was assisted by the wind whistling among the branches. The first rude essay of nature had been so much improved by human labour, that the cave contained several apartments, appropriated to different uses, and often afforded lodging to travellers, whom darkness or tempests happened to overtake.
The happiness of a life led according to nature
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

Rasselas went often to an assembly of learned men, who met at stated times to unbend their minds, and compare their opinions. Their manners were somewhat coarse, but their conversation was instructive, and their disputations acute, though sometimes too violent, and often continued till neither controvertist remembered upon what question they began. Some faults were almost general among them: every one was desirous to dictate to the rest, and every one was pleased to hear the genius or knowledge of another depreciated.
The prince and his sister divide between them the work of observation
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

Rasselas returned home full of reflexions, doubtful how to direct his future steps. Of the way to happiness he found the learned and simple equally ignorant; but, as he was yet young,* he flattered himself that he had time remaining for more experiments, and further enquiries. He communicated to Imlac his observations and his doubts, but was answered by him with new doubts, and remarks that gave him no comfort. He therefore discoursed more frequently and freely with his sister, who had yet the same hope with himself, and always assisted him to give some reason why, though he had been hitherto frustrated, he might succeed at last.
The Princess hears news of Pekuah
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

In seven months, one of the messengers, who had been sent away upon the day when the promise was drawn from the princess, returned, after many unsuccessful rambles, from the borders of Nubia,* with an account that Pekuah was in the hands of an Arab chief, who possessed a castle or fortress on the extremity of Egypt. The Arab, whose revenue was plunder, was willing to restore her, with her two attendants, for two hundred ounces of gold.
The astronomer discovers the cause of his uneasiness
Authors: Johnson Samuel
Published: February 2022

‘At last the time came when the secret burst his reserve. We were sitting together last night in the turret of his house, watching the emersion of a satellite of Jupiter. A sudden tempest clouded the sky, and disappointed our observation. We sat a while silent in the dark, and then he addressed himself to me in these words: ‘Imlac, I have long considered thy friendship as the greatest blessing of my life. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. I have found in thee all the qualities requisite for trust, benevolence, experience, and fortitude. I have long discharged an office which I must soon quit at the call of nature, and shall rejoice in the hour of imbecility and pain to devolve it upon thee.’