bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Neighborhood Demographics and Post-Buyout Land Use Development in Harris County, Texas, USA
Authors:   , Niazi Sumaira
Published: December 2023

Recent research suggests that race and ethnicity influence post-buyout land management in Harris County, Texas, yet lacked systematic empirical evidence to fully understand the relationship between management and demographics. To address this gap, this study analyzes post-buyout land use management practices and compares them with the socio-economic characteristics of the adjacent neighborhood at the block level in Harris County, Texas, an area with a long buyout history. I first identified post-buyout land use management practices in Harris County through county records and photo documentation of approximately 2000 buyout sites through fieldwork from 2017-2022. Second, using Ode and colleagues' framework for identifying visual characteristics on the landscape, I developed an index and evaluated post-buyout land use management practices for aesthetics, utility, and function. Finally, I spatially analyzed the socio-demographic composition of buyout neighborhoods using U.S. Census American Community Survey 5-year data (2017-2021) and compared it with post-buyout land use management practices in ArcGIS. From this spatial analysis, I identified differences in post-buyout land management that homeownership status, race, and ethnicity affected post-buyout land management. Most buyout properties in Harris County are managed as mowed, vacant lots regardless of socio-demographics; however, litter and debris were more prominent in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Of note, higher utility land uses were more frequent in predominantly white neighborhoods, but buyout sites developed into parks were located in lower-income and predominantly Hispanic areas suggesting variance in land use by socio-demographics.
The Role of Social Media Influencers in Saudis' Domestic Destination Choice
Authors:   , Alamer Mohammed Abdullah I
Published: December 2023

This study aims to find out the impact of the credibility and content quality of social media influencers on the various stages of the customer's journey and the intention to choose a destination for the Saudi tourist. The target segment was Saudis in general, who are 18 years or above. To conduct this study, 618 usable questionnaires were collected. This study tested twenty-two hypotheses. The result of this study showed that the relationship between content quality, expertise, and similarity was significantly positive with the tourist's desire and information searching. As well, the relationship between the tourist's desire and information searching was significantly positive with the intention of choosing a destination. Conservatism, engagement, and gender were tested as moderators. Conservatism was not significant while the engagement was significant. Gender was only significant in the relationship between content quality and the tourist's desire. This study contributes to information and knowledge in the fields of tourism, hospitality, travel, marketing, tourist behavior, information science, and social media. Researchers and those interested in tourist and customer behavior can benefit from the results of this study. In the industrial field, this study will be very useful to the Saudi government, which has recently begun to rely on tourism and hospitality as a main source of income. As well, the study can be beneficial for tourism, hospitality and travel companies, hotels, restaurants, marketers of tourist destinations, and workers in the field of tourism and hospitality in general to know the best ways to attract tourists through social media influencers.
The Mentorship Experiences of Black Masters Students in CACREP-Accredited Counselor Education Programs
Authors:   , Smith Hailey Brierre
Published: December 2023

Within this research study, a qualitative phenomenological approach was used to explore the lived experiences of Black master's students (n = 10) who engage in mentorship in CACREP-accredited counselor education programs. The participants in this study represent different ACES regions in the United States, including SACES, NARACES, and NCACES. Six themes were discovered as a result of participants' experiences: (a) impact of mentorship, (b) benefits of mentorship, (c) qualities within mentoring relationships, (d) composition of mentoring relationships, (e) saliency and influence of identity, and (f) barriers to mentorship and program satisfaction. Furthermore, I offer suggestions for increasing support for Black master's students in counseling programs as well as recommendations for supporting the professional and personal development of this population.
Exploring the Synergistic Effects of MXene-based Nanocomposites for Superlubricity and Friction/Wear Reduction on Rough Steel Surfaces
Authors:   , Macknojia Ali Zayaan
Published: December 2023

The aim of this thesis is to advance the field of solid lubrication science by developing coatings that provide reliable performance in ambient conditions, work on rough surfaces, and are amenable to industrial size and design complexities. Two different coating systems, Ti3C2Tx-MoS2 and Ti3C2Tx-Graphene Oxide blends, were studied in this work. The Ti3C2Tx-MoS2 nanocomposites were spray-coated onto rough 52100-grade steel surfaces, and their tribological performance was evaluated in a ball-on-disk configuration in a unidirectional sliding mode. The test results indicate that Ti3C2Tx-MoS2 coatings achieved superlubricity, which has not been previously reported for either pristine material under macroscale sliding conditions. The observed synergistic mechanism enabled the superlative performance, which was explained by the in-situ formation of a robust tribolayer responsible for sustained lubricity even at high contact pressures (>1.1 GPa) and sliding speeds (0.1 m/s). Processing, structure, and property correlation studies were conducted to understand the underlying phenomena. Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were used to reveal the formation of the tribolayer. The Ti3C2Tx-Graphene Oxide blends were also spray-coated onto rough-bearing steel surfaces, and their tribological assessment was carried out in ambient environmental conditions and high contact pressures in a ball-on-disc experimental setup. The coatings led to substantial friction reduction compared to uncoated and single-component-coated surfaces, with a friction coefficient as low as 0.065 at 1 GPa contact pressure and 100 mm/s sliding speed, surpassing the state-of-the-art. The coatings also provided excellent protection against wear loss of the substrate and counter-face. The results were explained based on the observations from Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and nanoindentation measurements. The in-operando formation of a dense, hard, and stiff tribolayer was observed, which was responsible for the sustained lubricity even at high test loads and sliding speeds. This thesis presents a holistic exploration and correlation of structure-property-processing for the advancement of solid lubrication science. It provides insights into the development of solid lubricant materials and their tribological performance, which can be useful for various industrial applications.
An Assessment of Digital Stimulus Prompts to Teach Conditional Discriminations to Children with Autism
Authors:   , Niland Haven Sierra
Published: December 2023

Effective and efficient skill-acquisition procedures must be identified to support individualized behavioral programming for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To do this, practitioners and researchers may use assessment-based instruction. Prompts are a common teaching strategy to promote skill acquisition. The purpose of this applied study was to use assessment-based instruction to evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of within- and extra-stimulus prompts to teach conditional discriminations to two children with ASD. We identified stimulus prompts using a survey of popular children's games and conducted a tablet-based instruction readiness assessment. Stimulus prompts involved motion (within-stimulus) and pointing (extra-stimulus) to evoke correct responses in the presence of a discriminative stimulus. We used an adapted alternating treatments design with a no-treatment control condition to evaluate the effects of both prompt types across multiple sets of stimuli. Both stimulus prompt types were efficacious in facilitating skill acquisition for two of three participants. Little difference was observed in the time to mastery with either prompt. Neither stimulus prompt was efficacious for the third participant. Assessment results will be used to inform clinical programming to teach conditional discriminations to participants and contribute to research on designing and implementing assessments of skill-acquisition procedures.
Behavioral Transportation: The Role of Psychological, Cognitive, and Social Factors in Distracted Driving Behavior
Authors:   , Gabaldon Janeth
Published: December 2023

Logistics 4.0 suggests that increased automation can enhance performance, while Logistics 5.0 emphasizes the advantages of a modern workforce that combines humans and emerging technologies. However, the logistics industry needs a deeper understanding of human factors, an area that has been overlooked so far. To bridge this research gap, this dissertation investigated distracted driving behavior among individuals involved in transportation and logistics-based applications. This investigation employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Essay 1 focuses on a systematic literature review (SLR) that comprehensively analyzes published research on self-response studies regarding distracted driving behavior. The study identifies five overarching categories of distractions: (a) cell phone-related, (b) technology-related, (c) nontechnology-related, (d) psychological, and (e) personality. The findings underscore the substantial research conducted on self-reported distractions associated with cell phones and technology. Essay 2 employs the protection motivation theory (PMT) to develop hypotheses that predict the engagement of young drivers in texting while driving (TWD). In addition to TWD, the survey also included cognitive failure to examine the indirect effects of PMT on TWD within a mediation framework. The results, obtained through structural equation modeling with 674 respondents aged 18-25, indicate that several factors including response cost, threat vulnerability, cognitive failure, self-efficacy, and threat severity influence TWD behavior. Essay 3 investigates the influence of young drivers' respect for safety, neutralization techniques, and polychronicity on distracted driving behavior (DDB), based on the cognitive dissonance theory (CDT). The findings, drawn from 326 respondents aged 22-29 years, indicate that drivers who prioritize safety (respect for safety) are less likely to engage in DDB. Lastly, Essay 4 takes a survey-based approach to explore how factors such as respect for safety, polychronicity, and cognitive failure influence the likelihood of engagement in distractions among industrial operators, specifically forklift drivers, in warehouse and distribution centers (WDCs). The study's results indicate that cognitive failure has a negative impact on forklift drivers' distracted driving behavior, while polychronic tendencies help drivers avoid engaging in distracted behavior.
The University for Who? Student Narratives of Native Identity, Belonging, and Navigating a Racialized Organization
Authors:   , Gaston Emilia Morgan
Published: December 2023

This qualitative case study aims to understand the ways in which students identifying as Native American, American Indian, and Indigenous navigate attending a university informed by their identities. Through semi-structured interviews with Indigenous students and participant observation with a Native American student organization, this study identified how this demographic of students navigate and conceptualize their identities as Native and Indigenous peoples, the benefits of joining a Native American student organization on their university campus, and how they experience the university as a racialized organization. One overarching and three nuanced research questions were examined to illustrate how students' identities inform how they experience university life with themes surrounding Native and Indigenous identity construction informed by federal policy and Indigenous community practices, collective identity and student involvement, sense of belonging at college, and understanding universities as racial organizations that participate in racial capitalism. The study findings indicated that students' identities are regularly negotiated, engaged with, and leveraged throughout their college experiences and recommendations were made for how colleges and universities can more adequately and equitably serve this student demographic.
The experiences, views and beliefs of emerging adults and their carers of receiving adult mental health services in the UK: a systematic review and meta-ethnography
Authors: Long Louisa , McGarry Julie , Carter Tim , Roberts Sinead , Aubeeluck Aimee
Published: December 2023

Background/Aims

Media coverage has highlighted the difficulties encountered by young people in the UK in accessing appropriate mental health care after turning 18 years old. Little appears to be known about the experiences of 18–25-year-olds and their carers of receiving adult mental health services. This systematic review aimed to synthesise the qualitative evidence on the experiences, views and beliefs of emerging adults and their carers of using mental health services in the UK, using meta-ethnographic methods to identify the current research, any gaps in research and directions of future research.

Methods

A systematic review and meta-ethnographic synthesis of nine qualitative studies was conducted. Three overarching themes were found: locus of control, embarking into adulthood, and accessibility and engagement.

Results

Emerging adults view embarking into adulthood as an essential part of their recovery. A reappraisal of the balance between confidentiality and collaboration with family, for this age group, is suggested. Emerging adults perceive stigma from service providers, which creates a barrier to accessibility and engagement with services. A coaching approach to care could support social inclusion, facilitate choice and promote self-determination for this cohort

Conclusions

Addressing embarking needs, the locus of control and the accessibility of services may improve emerging adults’ experience of using mental health services. There is an impetus for mental health nurses to consider a coaching approach to care planning.
Respecting an autonomous decision to refuse life-saving treatment: a case study
Authors: Moore Emma
Published: December 2023

Autonomy is a key principle in biomedical ethics, giving patients the right to be involved in their own care. Professional autonomy allows paramedics to make critical decisions around patient care in an emergency, enabling them to provide life-saving treatment. A patient's autonomy can conflict with that of a paramedic, leading to complex ethical challenges, which can affect the way a paramedic performs their duty of care. An autonomous patient has the right to refuse treatment, creating ethical challenges for paramedics. An autonomous patient's decision to refuse treatment, even if it may seem unwise, must be respected in accordance with the Human Rights Act 1998.
Research progress on the relationship between Paneth cells-susceptibility genes, intestinal microecology and inflammatory bowel disease
Authors: Zhou Qi-Ming , Zheng Lie
Published: December 2023

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a disorder of the immune system and intestinal microecosystem caused by environmental factors in genetically susceptible people. Paneth cells (PCs) play a central role in IBD pathogenesis, especially in Crohn's disease development, and their morphology, number and function are regulated by susceptibility genes. In the intestine, PCs participate in the formation of the stem cell microenvironment by secreting antibacterial particles and play a role in helping maintain the intestinal microecology and intestinal mucosal homeostasis. Moreover, PC proliferation and maturation depend on symbiotic flora in the intestine. This paper describes the interactions among susceptibility genes, PCs and intestinal microecology and their effects on IBD occurrence and development.
Efficacy and safety of tenofovir alafenamide in patients with chronic hepatitis B exhibiting suboptimal response to entecavir
Authors: Yuan Gui-Cai , Chen Ai-Zhen , Wang Wei-Xin , Yi Xu-Lan , Tu Long , Peng Fang , Qiu Zhi-Hong
Published: December 2023

BACKGROUND

Entecavir (ETV) is a potent and safe antiviral agent for patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB); however, some patients may exhibit suboptimal response or resistance to ETV. Tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) is a novel tenofovir prodrug with improved pharmacokinetics and reduced renal and bone toxicity compared with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate.

AIM

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of switching from ETV to TAF in patients with CHB exhibiting suboptimal response to ETV.

METHODS

A total of 60 patients with CHB who had been treated with ETV for at least 12 mo and had persistent or recurrent viremia [Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA ≥ 20 IU/mL] or partial virologic response (HBV DNA < 20 IU/mL, but detectable) were enrolled in the study. The patients were randomly assigned to either continue ETV (0.5 mg) daily or switch to TAF (25 mg) daily for 48 wk. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients who achieved a virologic response (HBV DNA level < 20 IU/mL) at week 48. Secondary endpoints included changes in serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg), and anti-HBe levels, and renal and bone safety parameters.

RESULTS

At week 48, the proportion of patients who achieved a virologic response was significantly higher in the TAF group than in the ETV group (93.3% vs 66.7%, P = 0.012). The mean reduction in HBV DNA from baseline was also significantly greater in the TAF group than in the ETV group (-3.8 vs -2.4 Log10 IU/mL, P < 0.001). The rates of ALT normalization, HBeAg loss, HBeAg seroconversion, and HBsAg loss were not found to significantly differ between the two groups. None of the patients developed genotypic resistance to ETV or TAF. Both drugs were well tolerated, with no serious adverse events or discontinuations caused by adverse events. No significant changes were observed in the estimated glomerular filtration rate, serum creatinine level, or urine protein-to-creatinine ratio in either group. The TAF group had a significantly lower decrease in bone mineral density at the lumbar spine and hip than the ETV group (-0.8% vs -2.1%, P = 0.004; -0.6% vs -1.8%, P = 0.007, respectively).

CONCLUSION

Switching from ETV to TAF is effective and safe for patients with CHB exhibiting a suboptimal response to ETV and may prevent further viral resistance and reduce renal and bone toxicity.
Intra-arterial lipo-prostaglandin E1 infusion for arterial spasm in liver transplantation: A case report
Authors: Kim Moonhwan , Lee Hae Won , Yoon Chang Jin , Lee Boram , Jo Yeongsoo , Cho Jai Young , Yoon Yoo-Seok , Lee Jun Suh , Han Ho-Seong
Published: December 2023

BACKGROUND

Hepatic artery obstruction is a critical consideration in graft outcomes after living donor liver transplantation. We report a case of diffuse arterial vasospasm that developed immediately after anastomosis and was managed with an intra-arterial infusion of lipo-prostaglandin E1 (PGE1).

CASE SUMMARY

A 57-year-old male with hepatitis B virus-related liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma underwent ABO-incompatible living donor liver transplant. The grafted hepatic artery was first anastomosed to the recipient’s right hepatic artery stump. However, the arterial pulse immediately weakened. Although a new anastomosis was performed using the right gastroepiploic artery, the patient’s arterial pulse rate remained poor. We attempted angiographic intervention immediately after the operation; it showed diffuse arterial vasospasms like ‘beads on a string’. We attempted continuous infusion of lipo-PGE1 overnight via an intra-arterial catheter. The next day, arterial flow improved without any spasms or strictures. The patient had no additional arterial complications or related sequelae at the time of writing, 1-year post-liver transplantation.

CONCLUSION

Angiographic evaluation is helpful in cases of repetitive arterial obstruction, and intra-arterial infusion of lipo-PGE1 may be effective in treating diffuse arterial spasms.
Comprehensive treatment of deep frostbite of multiple fingers after trauma: A case report
Authors: Wang Xi-Hua , Li Min , Cheng Yue , Wang Guang-Jian , Lin Guo-Le , Liu Wei-Nan
Published: December 2023

BACKGROUND

Frostbite is becoming increasingly common in urban environments, and severe cases can lead to tissue loss. The treatment goal is to preserve tissue and function; the sooner appropriate treatment is administered, the more tissue can be saved. However, not every patient with deep frostbite seeks medical care promptly.

CASE SUMMARY

We report the case of a 73-year-old male patient who was lost in the wilderness for 2 d due to trauma and confusion. He experienced deep frostbite on multiple fingers. Treatment should not be discontinued for patients with deep frostbite who present after the optimum treatment timing. Bullae that no longer form (bloody) blisters within 24 h of aspiration should be removed. Mucopolysaccharide polysulfate cream has clinical value in frostbite treatment. The patient was transferred to Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Hospital 12 h after being rescued. The patient had contraindications for thrombolysis, the most effective treatment, due to intracranial hemorrhage and presenting past the optimum treatment timing. We devised a comprehensive treatment plan, which involved delayed use vasodilators and high-pressure oxygen therapy at day 49 post-injury. We experimented with mucopolysaccharide polysulfate cream to treat the frostbite. The aim of the treatment was to safeguard as much tissue as possible. In the end, the fingers that suffered from frostbite were able to be partially preserved.

CONCLUSION

The case indicated that patients with severe frostbite who missed the optimal treatment time and had contraindications for thrombolysis could still partially preserve the affected limbs through comprehensive treatment.
Critique and Critical Social Work: a meta-theoretical perspective
Authors: Houston Stan
Published: December 2023

It is self-evident that critique lies at the heart of Critical Social Work. Even so, more attention should be given to clarifying the meaning of this form of evaluation, particularly when it is applied in the social sciences and social professions. More precisely, it is necessary to explain the meta-theoretical conceptualisation of critique and, crucially, note its different expressions. Through gaining such clarity, the contention is that Critical Social Work sharpens its appreciation of social injustice and how to tackle it. This article describes and augments one meta-theoretical conception of critique involving a typology delineating interconnected forms of evaluation. The indelible bond between this paradigmatic outline of critique, critical theory and Critical Social Work is subsequently considered, highlighting some possibilities for social transformation. Adopting these precepts, by way of conclusion, leads to a critical cosmopolitan orientation within Critical Social Work, making it relevant to the pressing challenges of today’s world.
Feeling Right, Doing Wrong: Poe, Perversity, and the Cunning of Unreason
Authors: Sbriglia Russell
Published: December 2023

This article interprets Poe’s tales of perversity as Hegelian critiques of the antebellum culture of sentiment. Whereas progressive author-activists like Emerson and Stowe honored the benign impulses of the moral sentiment theorized by eighteenth-century philosophers, Poe, in such tales as The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym , “The Black Cat,” and “The Imp of the Perverse,” ventriloquized this discourse of “sensus communis” to insist instead upon the malignity of the so-called “sixth sense.” Replacing Adam Smith’s sympathetic “man within the breast” with Descartes’s “evil genius,” Poe held that the man within the breast is an agonistic “Arch-Fiend,” a demonic “imp” who prompts us to do violence to both self and other. Thus, although Poe was in many respects sympathetic to contemporaneous sentimental critiques of reason—critiques that challenged Kant’s association of morality with reason alone—he also sought to complicate their frequently monological understanding of affective morality. In so doing, Poe not only articulated a conservative skepticism regarding the putatively benign nature of humans; he also posited that liberal subjectivity is, paradoxically, self-annihilating—a point that renders the “imp of the perverse” a poetical correlative of the Hegelian process of “tarrying with the negative,” one illustrative of the cunning of un reason.
Superego Evil and Poe’s Revenge Tales
Authors: Ki Magdalen Wing-Chi
Published: December 2023

This essay analyzes the differences between traditional and Kantian retributivism. Poe’s revenge tales not only highlight the intricate links between the Law and superego evil but also lay bare the agenda of the perverse subjects of the Law. Vengeance is often justified on legal grounds: law-preserving violence, law-making violence, and law-bending violence. And the avenger can hide behind the Law to reap surplus enjoyment in practicing evil and executing boundless revenge.
Pym’s Games
Authors: Messner Craig
Published: December 2023

This essay argues that the critical focus on gaming and computation that often crops up in studies of such Poe texts as “The Purloined Letter” and “The Gold-Bug” should also extend to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym . Pym draws on the rhetoric of gaming and computation in a manner less straightforward than in Poe’s mystery tales. By conflating racial ambiguity with the question of the computability of certain games, Poe uses Pym to tread the philosophical line between the determinist model of a clockwork universe and the vision of a world overflowing with the continuous foment of new creation. I propose that attending to this philosophical issue allows Poe to experiment with a type of fiction that plays in the gap between the closure of the novel and the potentially infinite iterability of gaming. While Pym retains the formal (and physical) completeness typical of the novel, it also employs the character of Dirk Peters as a lacuna that keeps the novel’s promise of self-contained meaning from being fully realized.
American Racial Dystopia: Expansion and Extinction in Poe and Hawthorne
Authors: Karafilis Maria
Published: December 2023

It is a critical commonplace to read the short fiction of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne in terms of blackness, whether such blackness signifies the writer’s engagement with nineteenth-century racial discourse and anxieties over the instability of racial categories or suggests a more universalized moral stain, corruption, or despair. This essay examines what happens when we analyze these writers’ engagements with redness—the ways in which their creative production both responds and contributes to the development of redness as a fraught and complex category of meaning in the early nineteenth century. While this essay reads Poe’s and Hawthorne’s preoccupation with redness to signify primarily an engagement with the “Indian question,” that is only part of a broader network of meaning. Triangulating their fiction, contemporaneous speeches on Indian removal, and utopic discourses of progress and expansion, Karafilis analyzes Poe’s and Hawthorne’s resistance to a utopic vision that, while presented as timeless, depends on repressing, recoding, and aestheticizing anti-indigenous violence in favor of a historically specific, dystopic vision of white annihilation that ultimately and inevitably issues from racial violence.
Scribblers and Scriveners: Poe, Melville’s Bartleby, and Antebellum Literary New York
Authors: Gruesser John , Montgomery Travis
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: Critics have variously read “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” a tale about the death of a legal copyist and putative Dead Letter Office worker, as Melville’s statement about failed attempts at communication, the lack of an audience for the American literary artist, and his own increasingly futile search for readers. As he penned “Bartleby,” Melville probably had in mind another author of serious and significant literature compelled to eke out a living by writing for magazines. That author was Edgar Allan Poe, who, from late 1844 to early 1845, labored at hackwork a mere seven blocks away from Wall Street to support himself and his family. Drawing on the recollections of friends, acquaintances, and business associates who knew the ill-fated writer, Melville describes his scrivener in terms that recall contemporary accounts of Poe during his New York years, and he includes in “Bartleby” allusions to “Some Secrets of the Magazine Prison-House” and “The Cask of Amontillado.” Undoubtedly aware that Poe’s dreams for sustained editorial and artistic independence had failed to materialize, Melville created a narrative about a man whose skills cannot secure for him the life he desires—a story about a thwarted writer, a figure whom Melville, in 1853, very likely feared he had become.
“Alcoholic and Epileptic Nightmares”: Cesare Lombroso, Poe, and the Pathology of Genius
Authors: Dahlkvist Tobias
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: In the second half of the nineteenth century, European scientists began investigating genius as a psychopathological phenomenon. The most important representative of this genre of medical literature was the Italian criminal anthropologist Cesare Lombroso, for whom genius and inborn criminality were closely interconnected; in his view, studying the special intuition of the genius, arising though it does from a pathological condition (a form of epilepsy), might advance the work of science. Edgar Allan Poe was one of Lombroso’s key examples: he discussed Poe in all four of his books on genius, arguing that dipsomania had brought about an undiagnosed case of epilepsy that manifested itself as genius. Drawing on French, Italian, and German sources, this article examines Lombroso’s interpretation of Poe as well as the interpretations put forward by his followers and opponents in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It seeks to demonstrate that, although psychiatrists and other scientists trying to understand the genius of Poe did so in the name of science and of positivism, they actually reinforced the Poe myth established by Charles Baudelaire and R. W. Griswold.
Poe, the Portrait, and the Daguerreotype: Poe’s Living Dead and the Visual Arts
Authors: Miyazawa Naomi
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT:
This essay contributes to existing scholarly research on Poe’s relationship with photography by focusing on his metaphorical references to daguerreotypy. While Poe’s essays on this art and his personal sessions with daguerreotypists have inspired numerous articles, his tales about daguerreotypy have not been studied closely as such because they allude to it figuratively. After the daguerreian discovery in 1839, Poe’s fictional works repeatedly depicted an anxious urge in antebellum society to use the art as a rationalized magic for visually preserving the dead in a lifelike manner. His literary interests in reincarnation and the living dead manifest as portraits in a daguerreian discourse, with singular, lifelike, and even grotesquely real effects—precisely like postmortem photographs. Poe’s daguerreian technique can be seen not only in “The Oval Portrait” but also in “The Oblong Box” and “The Black Cat”—works that are representative of nineteenth-century society’s desire to prolong life or preserve the dead.
"Gaze On!": The Transformations of Pygmalion and Galatea in the Poe-Osgood Affair
Authors: Vogelius Christa Holm
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: This article focuses on some of the intertextual poems and stories that Edgar Allan Poe and Frances Sargent Osgood published in the Broadway Journal and Graham's Magazine throughout 1845 and 1846, in a literary conversation that hinted broadly at romantic relationship. The works of the Poe-Osgood exchange—which I construe to include a number of well-known stories reprinted during the same period—are self-conscious about their transformation of supposed biography into art for mass consumption. This self-consciousness is, I argue, publicly enacted through the Pygmalion trope. In texts that center on the transformation of a work of art into life—or its reversal, the transformation of a living being into art—Poe and Osgood construct a public literary exchange that considers the era's blurring of the lines between literary celebrity, biographical reality, and art.
Peirce, Poe, and Protoplasm
Authors: Elmer Jonathan
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: This article interprets a series of aborted transcriptions of "The Raven" undertaken by Charles Sanders Peirce and named by him "Art Chirography" as a species of re-mediation of Poe's poem. Attending to Peirce's knowledge of Poe's works (real and faked), the relation between sound and inscription, the power of handwriting as media phenomenon in the nineteenth century, and Peirce's evolutionary metaphysics, the essay concludes that Peirce's "art chirography" is an attempt to image the play of chance and habit-taking that lies at the heart of both Poe's poem and Peirce's metaphysics.
"Mere Formula—Nothing More": The Poetics of Profanity in "Never Bet the Devil Your Head"
Authors: Ostrowski Carl
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: As a critic, Edgar Allan Poe chastised novelist William Gilmore Simms for writing a main character with the habit of using variants of the word damn . Yet in "Never Bet the Devil Your Head," Poe provocatively named his main character Toby Dammit, forcing readers to encounter the profane pun more than a score of times. After surveying usage of vulgar language in Poe's fiction and attitudes toward profanity in his criticism, this article attempts to resolve the apparent hypocrisy by calling upon an interdisciplinary body of scholarship on the subject of profanity. "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" turns out to present an unexpectedly subtle and sustained analysis of the workings of profanity. In considering the effects of such language on those who read or hear it, Poe proffered an analogy between profanity and the gothic: both are figurative forms of language that reliably provoke arousal. Poe would have found this relevant to his longstanding critical investment in an author's ability to inspire an emotional response in readers through conscious manipulation of language. Relying in part upon the insights of cognitive science and related disciplines, this article partakes of the affective turn in Poe studies.
Poe's Fluid, Terraqueous Landscapes: An Archipelagic Rereading of "The Journal of Julius Rodman"
Authors: Donohue Micah
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: In this article, I reread Edgar Allan Poe's "The Journal of Julius Rodman" in an archipelagic mode (Roberts and Stephens). The novel reimagines and remaps American space as a "fluid" and island-studded landscape (Dimock) of shifting identities, blurring timelines, and uncertain boundaries. An archipelagic rereading of "Rodman" extends backwards in time the critical purchase of Roberts and Stephens's ideas to the moment when the continental identity of the United States solidified. But the significance of this rereading goes beyond bringing new materials into—and consequently expanding the interpretive range of—the terraqueous perspective of archipelagic American studies. "Rodman" forms part of a hemispheric archive that must be read archipelagically and continentally. Poe's novel applies this continental-insular doubling dissolutionally and dis-illusionally to the nineteenth-century expansionism of the United States. "Rodman" calls attention to the land- and seascapes (the Glissantian paysages ) of the Americas. Poe narrates American history in "Rodman" as a fluid and terraqueous landscape of coursing rivers that interconnect continents and seas. I conclude the piece by reflecting on the symbolic importance of rivers within the archipelagic Americas.
Islands in the Dream: Edgar Allan Poe and Archipelagic Studies
Authors: Rowe John Carlos
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: Poe's Eureka (1848) represents the universe as a process of the dispersal of energy into matter that will eventually reach a point of entropy in which the material cosmos will collapse back into an energetic center. The cosmology of Eureka is actually a poetic theory of how the otherwise disparate parts of nature and human experience are secretly related. As Poe returned to poetry in his later years, he wrote several prose works that aspired to the poetic expression of this cosmic unity. Often considered merely technical exercises in ut pictura poesis , "The Domain of Arnheim" and "Landor's Cottage: A Pendant to 'The Domain of Arnheim'" offer poetic landscapes of this ideal unity. Particularly concerned with the relations among land, sea, and air and between nature and culture, these sketches anticipate the ecological analyses of more recent "oceanic" and "archipelagic" theories. This article investigates the connections and distinctions between Poe's theory of poetic unity and archipelagic studies.
Echoes of Ventriloquism in Poe's Tales
Authors: Sweeney Susan Elizabeth
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT
: Distant-voice ventriloquism was a wildly popular entertainment in the 1830s and 40s, featuring
performers who staged conversations with invisible speakers or imitated the noises of unseen animals
and objects. Poe knew about voice-throwing from reading Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland
, Henry Cockton's Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist ,
and David Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic ; he probably also attended
ventriloquists' shows; and he frequently mentioned Signor Blitz, a performer in Philadelphia. Poe's
stories were profoundly influenced by ventriloquial techniques and effects. Sometimes he referred
explicitly to characters' mimicry of sounds. More often, he constructed his tales around the kinds
of auditory illusions that appeared in ventriloquists' acts. To demonstrate how ventriloquism shaped
Poe's storytelling, I cite over a dozen tales, particularly "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The
Fall of the House of Usher." In these tales, Poe adapted techniques that his antebellum audience
would have recognized—controlling the breath; employing different parts of the vocal apparatus to
create guttural, resonant, wheezy, hollow, or shrill tones; using mechanical devices to facilitate
speech; uttering words without moving the lips; orchestrating various noises, sometimes in concert;
and placing sounds in hidden or enclosed spaces—all to guide readers toward the final effect he had
in mind. Such techniques shaped Poe's construction of tales in every genre: horror, detective
fiction, hoax, and humor. Ventriloquism let him represent, in a tale's plot, narration, imagery, or
theme, the very process of using sounds to create an effect. It also enabled him to explore
unsettling connections between the voice and identity, imposture, masculine power, and death. But
even as he alluded to distant-voice ventriloquism, Poe surpassed it by depicting noises that readers
never actually hear: each tale hints that no matter where a sound seems to come from, its ultimate
source is the audience's imagination.
La Reproduction interdite: Magritte's Reproduction of Pym
Authors: Weinstein Cindy
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: This essay links the representation of faces in Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym —their disfigurement, unrecognizability, self-estrangement—with the absent face in René Magritte's La Reproduction interdite . A triadic relation exists among three figures in the painting: Poe, Magritte, and the (unseen) man in the mirror, Edward James. For example, Poe's writings inspired Magritte, whose oeuvre includes several versions of Le Domaine d'Arnheim ; Magritte's interest in language, particularly apparent in Ceci n'est pas une pipe and La Clef des songes , intersects with Poe's linguistic sleights of hand; and James, who supported many Surrealist artists and writers, including Magritte, Dalí, and Breton, was himself a Surrealist author. Little is written about the enormously wealthy James, but recovering available biographical details and using them to interpret the painting, especially the irreproducibility of his face, is one of this article's key contributions. I explain how the presence of Pym in Magritte's painting is an invitation to examine how Poe's semantic wordplay, aesthetic predispositions, and deconstructive tendencies ("Poe" is fictional in Pym , Pym is real) anticipate many of the artistic foundations of Surrealism, which James, through his patronage, ensured would find an audience.
Epidemics, Abjection, and the Tubercular Body in Edgar Allan Poe's Tales
Authors: Galbo Sebastian C.
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: This article situates Poe's two short stories, "Ligeia" and "The Fall of the House of Usher," within the broader historical context of nineteenth-century disease aesthetics that celebrated and romanticized the physical symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis. Read alongside a range of primary sources—specifically U.S. periodicals, magazines, editorials, poems, and medical literature—as well as building on related literary and historical scholarship, this article argues that Poe was deeply influenced by the culture's consumption-related aesthetics and drew on their conventions to construct these stories' diseased characters. Close readings of these narratives, however, are informed by Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection to complicate Poe's seemingly straightforward appropriation of disease aesthetics. While Poe adopted the era's tropes of consumptive beauty, he was ultimately invested in underscoring their futility and false solace, for his diseased female characters succumb inevitably to the inexorable progress of tuberculosis. In this way, Poe's outright rejection of conventions that sentimentalized and obscured the realities of human suffering (or corporeal abjection) signals to his readers that only through an unfaltering acceptance of mortality can one overcome the tragedy of losing a beloved.
Frances Osgood's Connections to Edgar Allan Poe's Couplet and the Stuart Manuscript of "Eulalie"
Authors: Barger Andrew
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT: General notions regarding Edgar Allan Poe and Frances Sargent Osgood are that an intertextual relationship between the poets lasted approximately one year before the infamous letter scandal broke them apart. Antithetical to these notions, it now appears that Osgood attempted to renew her relationship with Poe in summer of 1847 by publishing a pseudonymous effusion to him. "To — — —," provocatively signed "Anna F. Allan," calls out to Poe to strike his "wild lyre once more" for her. Given no apparent response, the following month another uncharacteristic Osgood poem, titled "Zarifa," was published. From this poem, Poe appears to have adapted a line for an unpublished couplet written on the back of the Stuart manuscript of "Eulalie." "Zarifa" demonstrates the manuscript was in Poe's possession at the time of the poem's publication, and it gives—with some confidence—an earliest date for Poe's couplet.
Polarization-artifact reduction and accuracy improvement of Jones-matrix polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography by multi-focus-averaging based multiple scattering reduction
Authors: Zhu Lida , Makita Shuichi , Tamaoki Junya , Zhu Yiqiang , Mukherjee Pradipta , Lim Yiheng , Kobayashi Makoto , Yasuno Yoshiaki
Published: December 2023

Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) is a
promising biomedical imaging tool for the differentiation of various
tissue properties. However, the presence of multiple-scattering (MS)
signals can degrade the quantitative polarization measurement
accuracy. We demonstrate a method to reduce MS signals and increase
the measurement accuracy of Jones matrix PS-OCT. This method
suppresses MS signals by averaging multiple Jones matrix volumes
measured using different focal positions. The MS signals are
decorrelated among the volumes by focus position modulation and are
thus reduced by averaging. However, the single scattering signals are
kept consistent among the focus-modulated volumes by computational
refocusing. We validated the proposed method using a scattering
phantom and a postmortem medaka fish. The results showed reduced
artifacts in birefringence and degree-of-polarization uniformity
measurements, particularly in deeper regions in the samples. This
method offers a practical solution to mitigate MS-induced artifacts in
PS-OCT imaging and improves quantitative polarization measurement
accuracy.
Prediction-model-assisted reinforcement learning algorithm for handover decision-making in hybrid LiFi and WiFi networks
Authors: Frometa Fonseca Dayrene , Genoves Guzman Borja , Luca Martena Giovanni , Bian Rui , Haas Harald , Giustiniano Domenico
Published: December 2023

The handover process in hybrid light fidelity (LiFi) and wireless fidelity (WiFi) networks (HLWNets) is very challenging due to the short area covered by LiFi access points and the coverage overlap between LiFi and WiFi networks, which introduce frequent horizontal and vertical handovers, respectively. Different handover schemes have been proposed to reduce the handover rate in HLWNets, among which handover skipping (HS) techniques stand out. However, existing solutions are still inefficient or require knowledge that is not available in practice, such as the exact user’s trajectory or the network topology. In this work, a novel machine learning-based handover scheme is proposed to overcome the limitations of previous HS works. Specifically, we have designed a classification model to predict the type of user’s trajectory and assist a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm to make handover decisions that are automatically adapted to new network conditions. The proposed scheme is called RL-HO, and we compare its performance against the standard handover scheme of long-term evolution (STD-LTE) and the so-called smart handover (Smart HO) algorithm. We show that our proposed RL-HO scheme improves the network throughput by 146% and 59% compared to STD-LTE and Smart HO, respectively. We make our simulator code publicly available to the research community.