bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Complexity of STG signals and linguistic rhythm: a methodological study for EEG data
Authors: Silva Pereira Silvana , Özer Ege Ekin , Sebastian-Galles Nuria
Published: January 2024

The superior temporal and the Heschl’s gyri of the human brain play a fundamental role in speech processing. Neurons synchronize their activity to the amplitude envelope of the speech signal to extract acoustic and linguistic features, a process known as neural tracking/entrainment. Electroencephalography has been extensively used in language-related research due to its high temporal resolution and reduced cost, but it does not allow for a precise source localization. Motivated by the lack of a unified methodology for the interpretation of source reconstructed signals, we propose a method based on modularity and signal complexity. The procedure was tested on data from an experiment in which we investigated the impact of native language on tracking to linguistic rhythms in two groups: English natives and Spanish natives. In the experiment, we found no effect of native language but an effect of language rhythm. Here, we compare source projected signals in the auditory areas of both hemispheres for the different conditions using nonparametric permutation tests, modularity, and a dynamical complexity measure. We found increasing values of complexity for decreased regularity in the stimuli, giving us the possibility to conclude that languages with less complex rhythms are easier to track by the auditory cortex.
Rapid Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy With Coformulated Bictegravir, Emtricitabine, and Tenofovir Alafenamide Versus Efavirenz, Lamivudine, and Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate in HIV–Positive Men Who Have Sex With Men in China: Week 48 Results of the Multicenter, Randomized Clinical Trial
Authors: Wang Ran , Sun Lijun , Wang Xi , Zhai Yuanyi , Wang Lijing , Ma Ping , Wu Cuisong , Zhou Yingquan , Chen Renfang , Wang Rugang , Zhang Fengchi , Hua Wei , Li Aixin , Xia Wei , Gao Yue , Li Rui , Lv Shiyun , Shao Ying , Cao Yu , Zhang Tong , Wu Hao , Cai Chao , Dai Lili
Published: January 2024

Background

Most international treatment guidelines recommend rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for people newly diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection, but experiences with rapid ART initiation remain limited in China. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of efavirenz (400 mg) plus lamivudine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (EFV + 3TC + TDF) versus coformulated bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide (BIC/FTC/TAF) in rapid ART initiation among men who have sex with men (MSM) who have been diagnosed with HIV.

Methods

This multicenter, open-label, randomized clinical trial enrolled MSM aged ≥18 years to start ART within 14 days of confirmed HIV diagnosis. The participants were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive EFV (400 mg) + 3TC + TDF or BIC/FTC/TAF. The primary end point was viral suppression (<50 copies/mL) at 48 weeks per US Food and Drug Administration Snapshot analysis.

Results

Between March 2021 and July 2022, 300 participants were enrolled; 154 were assigned to receive EFV + 3TC + TDF (EFV group) and 146 BIC/FTC/TAF (BIC group). At week 48, 118 (79.2%) and 140 (95.9%) participants in the EFV and BIC group, respectively, were retained in care with viral suppression, and 24 (16.1%) and 1 (0.7%) participant in the EFV and BIC group (P < .001), respectively, discontinued treatment because of adverse effects, death, or lost to follow-up. The median increase of CD4 count was 181 and 223 cells/μL (P = .020), respectively, for the EFV and BIC group, at week 48. The overall incidence of adverse effects was significantly higher for the EFV group (65.8% vs 37.7%, P < .001).

Conclusions

BIC/FTC/TAF was more efficacious and safer than EFV (400 mg) + 3TC + TDF for rapid ART initiation among HIV-positive MSM in China.
Refreshing the positive: bridging positive organizational communication and critical scholarship with Buddhist philosophies
Authors: Leach Rebecca B , Tracy Sarah J , Wong Terrie
Published: January 2024

This article makes a case for the productive synergy between positive organizational communication scholarship (POCS) and critical scholarship, which have been often viewed as incompatible. The article opens with an overview of POCS and its key critiques from critical audiences, which allows us to unpack the metatheoretical assumptions driving each research tradition. Next, the article discusses the limits of relying only on a Eurocentric definition of the “positive.” Notably, this article delineates how Buddhist philosophies refresh our understanding of the “positive” and challenge existing ways of thinking and problem-solving in organizational communication. We apply the Buddhist-inspired people-conditions-goals framework to a case study on the 2022 University of California system strikes.
Introducing a praxeological framework for studying disinformation
Authors: Lelo Thales
Published: January 2024

This article introduces a praxeological framework for studying disinformation grounded on French pragmatism and American ethnomethodology. It underscores the relevance of looking upon the communicative setting where individuals must be engaged to tell deceptive stories. In addition, it foregrounds participants’ attitudinal commitment to an ongoing interaction that may drive them to believe in disinformation in particular circumstances. This study adds to the scholarly work on disinformation by extending individual-level explanations for the appeal of deceptive messages. It also presents the concept of situations of disinformation as a heuristic notion that draws attention to the instances where falsehoods sound relevant. Last, it advances an empirical-driven framework with several methodological recommendations for further research. The praxeological approach also has practical implications for fact-checking and media literacy programs.
Merging machine learning and patient preference: a novel tool for risk prediction of percutaneous coronary interventions
Authors: Hamilton David E , Albright Jeremy , Seth Milan , Painter Ian , Maynard Charles , Hira Ravi S , Sukul Devraj , Gurm Hitinder S
Published: January 2024

Background and Aims

Predicting personalized risk for adverse events following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remains critical in weighing treatment options, employing risk mitigation strategies, and enhancing shared decision-making. This study aimed to employ machine learning models using pre-procedural variables to accurately predict common post-PCI complications.

Methods

A group of 66 adults underwent a semiquantitative survey assessing a preferred list of outcomes and model display. The machine learning cohort included 107 793 patients undergoing PCI procedures performed at 48 hospitals in Michigan between 1 April 2018 and 31 December 2021 in the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Cardiovascular Consortium (BMC2) registry separated into training and validation cohorts. External validation was conducted in the Cardiac Care Outcomes Assessment Program database of 56 583 procedures in 33 hospitals in Washington.

Results

Overall rate of in-hospital mortality was 1.85% (n = 1999), acute kidney injury 2.51% (n = 2519), new-onset dialysis 0.44% (n = 462), stroke 0.41% (n = 447), major bleeding 0.89% (n = 942), and transfusion 2.41% (n = 2592). The model demonstrated robust discrimination and calibration for mortality {area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve [AUC]: 0.930 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.920–0.940]}, acute kidney injury [AUC: 0.893 (95% CI 0.883–0.903)], dialysis [AUC: 0.951 (95% CI 0.939–0.964)], stroke [AUC: 0.751 (95%CI 0.714–0.787)], transfusion [AUC: 0.917 (95% CI 0.907–0.925)], and major bleeding [AUC: 0.887 (95% CI 0.870–0.905)]. Similar discrimination was noted in the external validation population. Survey subjects preferred a comprehensive list of individually reported post-procedure outcomes.

Conclusions

Using common pre-procedural risk factors, the BMC2 machine learning models accurately predict post-PCI outcomes. Utilizing patient feedback, the BMC2 models employ a patient-centred tool to clearly display risks to patients and providers (https://shiny.bmc2.org/pci-prediction/). Enhanced risk prediction prior to PCI could help inform treatment selection and shared decision-making discussions.
Adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights for ethnic minority girls in Vietnam
Authors: Burns Lia , Pitt Hannah , Ngoc Thuy Luu
Published: January 2024

There has been significant progress in improved adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (ASRHR) for girls across low- to- middle-income countries (LMICs). However, progress has been uneven, and disparities persistent across and within countries. For example, Vietnam is one of only nine countries to have achieved the 2015 maternal mortality rate (MMR) target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a nation, but for some sub-populations, progress has been much slower, and MMR is more than twice that the national average. Ensuring equity is a current focus of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda that seeks to Leave No One Behind. This paper explores some of these inequities and potential drivers for ethnic minority adolescent girls in Vietnam, with a specific focus on the Tay community, the largest ethnic minority group in Vietnam. This paper highlights the challenges to progress, including areas where there is still limited evidence about the range of socio-cultural factors that may determine sexual and reproductive health outcomes for Tay adolescent girls. In the era of the SDGs, Vietnam’s national policy platforms and current aid architecture provide a solid basis on which to build research, policy and practice investments that improve the health of adolescent ethnic minority girls in Vietnam.
Experimental target strength measurements of pteropods and shrimp emphasize the importance of scattering model inputs
Authors: Lucca Brandyn M , Warren Joseph D
Published: January 2024

Shrimp and shelled pteropods are ecologically important organisms that can produce significant amounts of water column backscatter. Few studies have experimentally measured both target strength (TS) and scattering model inputs for individual shrimp and shelled pteropods, especially from the meso- and bathypelagic. We captured animals from net trawls throughout the northeast Pacific and northwest Atlantic continental shelves between 2016 and 2020. We measured morphology, density and sound speed contrasts, and broadband TS (35–75, 110–230 kHz) from tethered individuals at sea and on land in scientific aquaria. Experimentally measured TS was used to test scattering model performance. Differences in measured mean length-to-radius ratios and density contrasts of epipelagic shrimp (10–13 and 1.02–1.03) were statistically greater than for mesopelagic species (8–9 and 1.04–1.05). Differences between predicted and measured shrimp TS averaged over measurement bandwidths were <2 dB, which is similar to previous studies. Conversely, pteropod TS model predictions differed from measurements by >4 dB, with species with elongated shapes having larger differences, likely due to shell shape and uncertainty surrounding material properties. Widely used physics-based acoustic scattering models may significantly underestimate uncertainty in TS predictions for these animals.
Prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Transgender Women With and Without HIV in the Eastern and Southern United States
Authors: Brown Erin E , Patel Eshan U , Poteat Tonia C , Mayer Kenneth , Wawrzyniak Andrew J , Radix Asa E , Cooney Erin E , Laeyendecker Oliver , Reisner Sari L , Wirtz Andrea L
Published: January 2024

Background

Data on the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among transgender women (TGW) with and without human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are limited.

Methods

We analyzed baseline data collected from a cohort of adult TGW across 6 eastern and southern US cities between March 2018 and August 2020 (n = 1018). Participants completed oral HIV screening, provided self-collected rectal and urogenital specimens for chlamydia and gonorrhea testing, and provided sera specimens for syphilis testing. We assessed associations with ≥1 prevalent bacterial STI using modified Poisson regression.

Results

Bacterial STI prevalence was high and differed by HIV status: 32% among TGW with HIV and 11% among those without HIV (demographic-adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.91; 95% confidence interval = 1.39–2.62). Among TGW without HIV, bacterial STI prevalence differed by geographic region, race and ethnicity, and gender identity, and was positively associated with reporting >1 sexual partner, hazardous alcohol use, homelessness, having safety concerns regarding transit to health care, and no prior receipt of gender-affirming health services. Among TGW with HIV, older age was inversely associated with bacterial STI.

Conclusions

TGW had a high prevalence of bacterial STIs. The prevalence and correlates of bacterial STI differed by HIV status, highlighting the unique needs and risks of TGW with and without HIV. Tailored interventions may reduce sexual health-related inequities.
Characteristic Profiling of Soluble Factors in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Patients With Neurosyphilis
Authors: Xu Dongmei , Jiang Yu , Lun Wenhui , Cao Yu , Xu Xiaoxue , Wang Beibei , Li Rui , Chen Chen , Huang Yuming , Zeng Hui
Published: January 2024

Background

Soluble inflammatory factors in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with neurosyphilis have been investigated with low-throughput technology. This study aimed to illustrate the characteristics of soluble factor profiles in CSF of patients with neurosyphilis.

Methods

We measured the concentrations of 45 cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors in CSF from 112 untreated syphilis cases, including latent syphilis (LS), asymptomatic neurosyphilis (ANS), meningeal neurosyphilis (MNS), meningovascular neurosyphilis (MVNS), paralytic dementia (PD), and ocular syphilis (OS).

Results

Thirty-three differentially expressed soluble factors (DeSFs) were categorized into 3 clusters. DeSF scores of clusters 1 and 2 (DeSFS1 and DeSFS2) were positively correlated with elevated neopterin and neurofilament light subunit (NF-L) concentration, respectively. DeSF scores of cluster 3 were positively correlated with white blood cells, protein, NF-L, and neopterin. Patients with LS, ANS, and OS exhibited an overall lower abundance of DeSFs. Patients with PD exhibited significantly increased levels of clusters 1 and 3, and the highest total DeSF score, whereas patients with MNS and MVNS showed enhanced levels of cluster 2. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that DeSFS1 effectively discriminated PD, and DeSFS2 discriminated MNS/MVNS with high accuracy.

Conclusions

Patients with neurosyphilis at different stages have distinctive patterns of soluble factors in CSF, which are correlated with immune status and neuronal damage.
How Do You Solve a Problem like DALL-E 2?
Authors: Wojtkiewicz Kathryn
Published: January 2024

The arrival of image-making generative artificial intelligence (AI) programs has been met with a broad rebuke: to many, it feels inherently wrong to regard images made using generative AI programs as artworks. I am skeptical of this sentiment, and in what follows I aim to demonstrate why. I suspect AI generated images can be considered artworks; more specifically, that generative AI programs are, in many cases, just another tool artists can use to realize their creative intent. I begin with an overview of how generative AI programs, like OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, work. Then, leveraging work by Claire Anscomb, I argue that generative AI programs are a new technique of automatic image-making that affords creative agency to its users, thereby qualifying the images they create as artworks. Finally, I show many of the objections brought against AI artworks—including accusations of plagiarism and artistic devaluation—are due to the social backdrop in which we currently find them, rather than the technology itself. In the end, I aim to open the door to further aesthetic debate concerning AI generated images and art.
Inclusion of guanidinoacetic acid in a low metabolizable energy diet improves broilers growth performance by elevating energy utilization efficiency through modulation serum metabolite profile
Authors: Cao Sumei , He Weizhen , Qi Guanghai , Wang Jing , Qiu Kai , Ayalew Habtamu , Zhang Haijun , Wu Shugeng
Published: January 2024

This study was aimed to explore the elevating energy utilization efficiency mechanism for the potentially ameliorative effect of guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) addition on growth performance of broilers fed a low metabolizable energy (LME) diet. A total of 576 d old broilers were randomly allocated to one of the six treatments: a basal diet (normal ME, positive control, PC), or an LME diet (50 kcal/kg reduction in ME, negative control, NC) supplemented with 0.02%, 0.04%, 0.06%, and 0.08% GAA from 1 to 42 d of age, respectively. The GAA fortification in LME diet linearly or quadratically dropped (P < 0.05) the feed conversion ratio (FCR) from 22 to 42 and 1 to 42 d of age, abdominal fat rate on day 42, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) on day 21, and serum creatinine (CREAN) on days 21 and 42, elevated (P < 0.05) breast muscle rate and leg muscle rate on day 42, serum creatine kinase (CK) on days 21 and 42, as well as alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) on day 21. The dietary optimal GAA levels were 0.03%-0.08% based on the best-fitted quadratic models (P < 0.03) of the above parameters. Thus, the PC, LME, and 0.04% GAA-LME groups were selected for further analysis. Serum essential amino acids (EAA) tryptophan, histidine and arginine, non-essential amino acids (NEEA) serine, glutamine and aspartic acid were significantly decreased (P < 0.05), compared to PC diet by LME or 0.04% GAA-LME diet. 0.04% GAA-LME group reversed (P < 0.05) the reduction of arginine, 3-methyhistidine, and 1-methylhistidine by LME diet. Besides, six birds at 28 d of age from LME and 0.04% GAA-LME groups were selected for energy utilization observation in calorimetry chambers. The results demonstrated that 0.04% GAA-LME group significantly improved (P < 0.05) the ME intake (MEI) and net energy (NE) compared to the LME diet. Overall, these findings suggest that 0.04% GAA is the ideal dose of broilers fed the LME diet, which can significantly improve the growth performance and carcass characteristics by modulation of creatine metabolism through elevating serum CK activity and arginine concentration.
A skeleton in a huff: insights in etiologies of osteosclerosis
Authors: Chen Zhaozhao , Akanbi Folake , Lucas David R , Walton David M , Benavides Erika , Soki Fabiana N , Siegel Geoffrey W , McCauley Laurie K , Clines Gregory A
Published: January 2024

A 30-yr-old man developed right lower leg pain and a palpable solid mass. Radiographic imaging revealed a periosteal reaction with an exostotic mass arising from the right distal fibula. Generalized skeletal osteosclerosis with periosteal reaction was discovered on a radiographic skeletal survey. A biopsy of the right fibular mass revealed reactive woven bone. The patient was referred to a metabolic bone disease clinic, where laboratory values were consistent with secondary hyperparathyroidism and increased bone turnover. A DXA bone density scan revealed high bone density, with an L1–4 spine Z-score of +9.3, a left femoral neck Z-score of +8.5, and a total hip Z-score of +6.5. A dental exam revealed generalized gingival inflammation, teeth mobility, generalized horizontal alveolar bone loss and widening of the periodontal ligament space, increased bone density around the teeth, and thickening of the radicular lamina dura. An extensive evaluation was performed, with the result of a single test revealing the diagnosis. The differential diagnoses of osteosclerosis affecting the skeleton, teeth, and oral cavity are discussed.
An enhanced dynamic differential annealed algorithm for global optimization and feature selection
Authors: Hussien Abdelazim G , Kumar Sumit , Singh Simrandeep , Pan Jeng-Shyang , Hashim Fatma A
Published: January 2024

Dynamic differential annealed optimization (DDAO) is a recently developed physics-based metaheuristic technique that mimics the classical simulated annealing mechanism. However, DDAO has limited search abilities, especially when solving complicated and complex problems. A unique variation of DDAO, dubbed as mDDAO, is developed in this study, in which opposition-based learning technique and a novel updating equation are combined with DDAO. mDDAO is tested on 10 different functions from CEC2020 and compared with the original DDAO and nine other algorithms. The proposed mDDAO algorithm performance is evaluated using 10 numerical constrained functions from the recently released CEC 2020 benchmark suite, which includes a variety of dimensionally challenging optimisation tasks. Furthermore, to measure its viability, mDDAO is employed to solve feature selection problems using fourteen UCI datasets and a real-life Lymphoma diagnosis problem. Results prove that mDDAO has a superior performance and consistently outperforms counterparts across benchmarks, achieving fitness improvements ranging from 1% to 99.99%. In feature selection, mDDAO excels by reducing feature count by 23% to 79% compared to other methods, enhancing computational efficiency and maintaining classification accuracy. Moreover, in lymphoma diagnosis, mDDAO demonstrates up to 54% higher average fitness, 18% accuracy improvement, and 86% faster computation times.
From denoising diffusions to denoising Markov models
Authors: Benton Joe , Shi Yuyang , De Bortoli Valentin , Deligiannidis George , Doucet Arnaud
Published: January 2024

Denoising diffusions are state-of-the-art generative models exhibiting remarkable empirical performance. They work by diffusing the data distribution into a Gaussian distribution and then learning to reverse this noising process to obtain synthetic datapoints. The denoising diffusion relies on approximations of the logarithmic derivatives of the noised data densities using score matching. Such models can also be used to perform approximate posterior simulation when one can only sample from the prior and likelihood. We propose a unifying framework generalizing this approach to a wide class of spaces and leading to an original extension of score matching. We illustrate the resulting models on various applications.
Autophagy: a key player in the recovery of plants from heat stress
Authors: Sedaghatmehr Mastoureh , Balazadeh Salma
Published: January 2024

Plants can be primed to withstand otherwise lethal heat stress (HS) through exposure to a preceding temporary and mild HS, commonly known as the ‘thermopriming stimulus’. Plants have also evolved mechanisms to establish ‘memories’ of a previous stress encounter, or to reset their physiology to the original cellular state once the stress has ended. The priming stimulus triggers a widespread change of transcripts, proteins, and metabolites, which is crucial for maintaining the memory state but may not be required for growth and development under optimal conditions or may even be harmful. In such a scenario, recycling mechanisms such as autophagy are crucial for re-establishing cellular homeostasis and optimizing resource use for post-stress growth. While pivotal for eliminating heat-induced protein aggregates and protecting plants from the harmful impact of HS, recent evidence implies that autophagy also breaks down heat-induced protective macromolecules, including heat shock proteins, functioning as a resetting mechanism during the recovery from mild HS. This review provides an overview of the latest advances in understanding the multifaceted functions of autophagy in HS responses, with a specific emphasis on its roles in recovery from mild HS, and the modulation of HS memory.
Abnormal adipose tissue-derived microbes drive metabolic disorder and exacerbate postnatal growth retardation in piglet
Authors: Song Tongxing , Qi Ming , Zhu Yucheng , Wang Nan , Liu Zhibo , Li Na , Yang Jiacheng , Han Yanxu , Wang Jing , Tao Shiyu , Ren Zhuqing , Yin Yulong , Zheng Jinshui , Tan Bie
Published: January 2024

Postnatal growth retardation (PGR) frequently occurs during early postnatal development of piglets and induces high mortality. To date, the mechanism of PGR remains poorly understood. Adipose tissue-derived microbes have been documented to be associated with several disorders of metabolism and body growth. However, the connection between microbial disturbance of adipose tissue and pig PGR remains unclear. Here, we investigated piglets with PGR and found that the adipose tissue of PGR piglets was characterized by metabolism impairment, adipose abnormality, and specific enrichment of culturable bacteria from Proteobacteria. Gavage of Sphingomonas paucimobilis, a species of Sphingomonas genus from the alphaproteobacteria, induced PGR in piglets. Moreover, this bacterium could also lead to metabolic disorders and susceptibility to acute stress, resulting in weight loss in mice. Mechanistically, multi-omics analysis indicated the changes in lipid metabolism as a response of adipose tissue to abnormal microbial composition. Further experimental tests proved that one of the altered lipids phosphatidylethanolamines could rescue the metabolism disorder and growth retardation, thereby suppressing the amount of Sphingomonas in the adipose tissue. Together, these results highlight that the microbe–host crosstalk may regulate the metabolic function of adipose tissue in response to PGR.
Massive red spiral galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA survey
Authors: Cui Jiantong , Gu Qiusheng , Shi Yong
Published: January 2024

Massive red spiral galaxies (MRSGs) are supposed to be the possible progenitors of lenticular galaxies (S0s). We select a large sample of MRSGs ($M_*\gt 10^{10.5}\rm {\rm M}_{\odot }$) from Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) DR17 using the g − r colour versus stellar mass diagram, along with control samples of blue spirals and S0s. Our main results are as follows: (1) After comparing the Sérsic index, concentration parameter, asymmetry parameter distribution, size–mass relation, and Σ1 (stellar mass surface density within the central 1 kpc)−mass relation, we find MRSGs are similar to S0s and have more compact and symmetric structures than blue spirals. MRSGs also resemble S0s in Dn4000, metallicity, Mgb/$\rm \left\langle Fe \right\rangle$, and V/σ radial profile. (2) By using MaNGA 2D spectra data, we separate the spatial regions into inner (R < 0.8Re) and outer (0.8 < R  < 1.5Re) regions, and detect residual star formation in the outer regions of MRSGs. (3) When we select a sub-sample of MRSGs with NUV − r  >  5, we find that they are completely star formation quenched in both inner and outer regions. Compared to optically selected MRSGs, NUV − r selected MRSGs appear to be more concentrated and have more massive dark matter haloes. The similarities between S0s and MRSGs suggest the possible evolutionary trend between MRSGs and S0s.
Aman novi/Heu Fortuna/Heu me
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

Aman novi/Heu Fortuna/Heu me is the third motet in ‘Marigny’ order, the first in Fauvel order, of the group of which the first two (Garrit gallus/In nova and Tribum/Quoniam) are the subject of Chapter 4. Editions of text and music propose solutions to textual corruptions. Fauvel’s metaphorical death from Fortuna’s rejection of his suit is dramatically aligned with the real deaths of Christ, Marigny and the biblical Haman, his rise and fall with the fates of the Ovidian Icarus and Phaeton, which in turn are linked by Dante with Haman, suggesting a possible knowledge of the Commedia by the Fauvel authors in the 1310s. The chapter is adapted from the author’s part of a joint article with Kevin Brownlee, of which his contribution develops the literary Dantean connection.
Floret/Florens: Intended forFauvel?
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

The motet Floret/Florens is not in the Fauvel compilation, but its triplum text and music were adapted there, topped and tailed as a ‘fauvelised’ monophonic prose, Carnalitas, luxuria. Table 6.1 shows verbal correspondences between the two versions. The motetus text names Haman and Mordecai, thus linking it with Aman novi (see Chs. 3 and 5), where Haman stands for Marigny and Fauvel. The present chapter proposes that the motet’s many affinities with the tone and subject-matter of Fauvel might indicate that at some stage it was planned for inclusion, either in addition to or instead of Garrit gallus, the final motet in the ‘forwards’ Fauvel narrative, and the first in the ‘backwards’ Marigny sequence. The motets share a tenor, and may also have contributed to an alphabetical sequence.
Text–Music Relationships in Motets 4 and 8
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

The previously unpublished musical analyses in this chapter are expanded from seminars given jointly with Kevin Brownlee’s commentaries on the texts, which he summarised in a separate publication. It complements more recent work by others on these motets. In Motet 4 the Latin liturgical tenor (Speravi, I hoped) was chosen to fit the material of the vernacular upper voices on that subject. Distinctive melodic and rhythmic motives are associated with key words (‘love’ and ‘desire’); melodic cells and palindromic elements of the tenor melody are played out in the upper parts. Voice crossing, and distribution of the verbal text over the music, reinforce the overall message. Motet 8 employs some similar strategies; upper-part motives are again derived from the disjunct tenor, and the instability of Fortune is vividly depicted in the music.
Apollinis eclipsatur, its Progeny and their Sources
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

This chapter introduces the five central related motets that between them name over sixty musicians. They are Apollinis eclipsatur/Zodiacum signis (now attested in fifteen sources and some citations in treatises), Musicalis sciencia/Sciencie laudabili, Musicorum collegio/In templo Dei posita, Alma polis religio/Axe poli cum artica (all unica) and Sub Arturo plebs/Fons citharizancium with three sources. It reviews their order, authorship, relationships between them, and differentiates them from other earlier and later motets that list musicians. It sets out in detail their manuscript sources and citations in theory treatises. The testimony of Heinrich Eger von Kalkar, invoked by others in connection with this group, is assessed and judged to be unreliable.
Musicalis sciencia/Sciencie laudabiliand the Musicians Named inApollinisandMusicalis
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

Musicalis sciencia, addressed to twenty living musicians, is chronologically the second motet in the group of musician motets, probably dating soon after 1330 and preserved in a single source. It is cast as an exchange between music and rhetoric, including an injunction not to break words with rests. It shares musical allusions (including its opening rhythm and other motifs), talea length, and some named musicians with the twelve of Apollinis. Text and music are analysed. The upper parts are strictly isorhythmic, corresponding to the tenor periods, each talea ending with six breves of wordless hocket with minim rests. Identifications are reviewed, both firm and conjectural, that have been proposed for musicians named in one or both motets. Some of the musicians unique to Musicalis have Arras associations.
The Motet Collection of San Lorenzo 2211 (SL2211) and the Composer Hubertus de Salinis
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

The palimpsest Florentine manuscript SL2211 is the only Italian trecento anthology to include a section of motets. This chapter (a slightly modified version of a conference contribution published in 2020) assesses the selection, and the possible reasons for their choice; international favourites outnumber Italian motets, of which there are only two. All three known motets by Hubertus de Salinis are present, as are some previously unknown songs in a straightforward style, all ascribed to him. A review of his biography associates him with Liège, and makes it unlikely that he composed the very different ballade En la saison, attributed to him in Chantilly.
Trémoïlle Revisited
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

This chapter revises an earlier essay on the ‘Trémoïlle index’. Just one bifolio survives of this large and important royal manuscript, whose lost contents are listed on its first page, permitting a partial reconstruction of the repertory. An updated inventory includes several new identifications, including testimony to Denis le Grant as a composer. Although referred to as an index, its status is closer to a partly classified table of contents, with later additions (and songs as page-fillers), and listed as they were copied. Some of the songs are numerically out of order, presumably listed in order of copying where space had been found for them on an earlier opening.
The Trap
Authors: Sharone Ofer
Published: January 2024

This chapter explores the surprising finding that highly qualified jobseekers, including those with advanced degrees from prestigious universities like Harvard, may get trapped in long-term unemployment. We learn from the recruiters who review job applications how the assumptions and stigmas applied to unemployed and older jobseekers can often lead to their exclusion from consideration. The stigma of unemployment means that jobseekers who had previously been successful in their careers and had held coveted, good jobs, are no longer considered competitive for such jobs. But they are also excluded from consideration for lower-level jobs in their field due to perceived over-qualification, and they are not considered for jobs in other fields due to lack of experience. They cannot go straight, they cannot go down, and they cannot go sideways. Is there a way out? Recruiters suggest the most likely path is networking, which is explored in Chapter 3.
Disorders of Fluid, Electrolytes, and Acid Base
Authors: Malik Shafi
Published: January 2024

This chapter covers acid–base disorders and discusses the diagnosis, pathophysiology, and management pathway for common conditions such as syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion, hypernatraemia, hyponatraemia, hypokalaemia, hypomagnesaemia, and renal tubular acidosis. In addition, hypokalaemia tubulopathies, Bartter and Gitelman syndromes, and the resulting electrolyte abnormalities are also included.
Nutrition, Safe Prescribing, and Conservative Management
Authors: Malik Shafi
Published: January 2024

This chapter addresses the complex pathogenesis of protein–energy wasting and malnutrition in chronic kidney disease and renal replacement therapy patients. Methods of nutritional status evaluation, protein requirements in individuals with impaired renal function and additional influence of catabolic stress and dialysis are explored. Safe prescribing in renal disease is subject to additional considerations: reduced elimination of drugs or drug metabolites, decreased effectivity, increased drug sensitivity, and side effects. The role of renal replacement therapies in removal of toxins is also covered. Conservative care encompasses the management of individuals with advanced chronic kidney disease and end stage renal disease receiving supportive care, including appropriate identification and treatment of pruritus and pain. The palliative care section covers the dying patient and symptom management in the dying phase of life for end stage renal disease patients.
The Dispersion of Power
Authors: Bagg Samuel Ely
Published: January 2024

The Dispersion of Power is an urgent call to rethink centuries of conventional wisdom about what democracy is, why it matters, and how to make it better. Drawing from history, social science, psychology, and critical theory, it explains why elections do not and cannot realize the classic ideal of popular rule, and why prevailing strategies of democratic reform often make things worse. Instead, Bagg argues, we should see democracy as a way of protecting public power from capture—an alternative vision that is at once more realistic and more inspiring. Despite their many shortcomings, real-world elections do prevent the most extreme forms of tyranny, and are therefore indispensable. In dealing with the vast inequalities that remain, however, we cannot rely on standard solutions such as electoral reform, direct democracy, deliberation, and participatory governance. Instead, Bagg shows, protecting and enriching democracy requires addressing underlying inequalities of power directly. In part, this entails substantive policies attacking the advantages of wealthy elites. Even more crucially, deepening democracy requires the organization of oppositional, countervailing power among ordinary people. Neither task is easy, but historical precedents exist in both cases—and if democracy is to survive contemporary crises, leaders and citizens alike must find ways to revive and reinvent these essential democratic practices for the twenty-first century.
The Dynamics of Plant Growth
Authors: Ford E. David
Published: January 2024

Answers to practical questions about plant growth are sought with increasing urgency. Climate change is affecting the stability of vegetation and the yield of many important crops, and there is a continual need for ever more productive varieties to feed a growing global population. Answering questions posed by these problems requires a more integrated understanding of how plants function in producing growth. This book shows how this understanding can be achieved. First and foremost, plant growth must be defined as a dynamic system with developmental, morphological, and physiological processes responding to fluctuations in the environment due to weather, changes in the architecture of the plant as it grows, and the effects of plants on their environment: connecting these processes in a complete system is the essential integration. Part I shows, for contrasting plant types, that developmental, morphological, and physiological processes must all be considered to explain differences in growth and survival; Part II defines the types of control processes occurring in plants and their different functions; Part III illustrates the importance of plant morphology in controlling growth; Part IV shows how, and to what extent, the effects of environmental factors are controlled by plant processes particularly as plants grow in size. A final chapter defines how a theory for growth of a particular plant must be based on its characteristics as a dynamic system.
Variation in architectural dynamics and its effects on growth
Authors: Ford E. David
Published: January 2024

The diversity of plant architectures has presented difficulties in understanding how architecture may affect growth. A theory for this relationship developed by Hallé et al. (1978), derived primarily for tropical tree species, is discussed particularly with regard to convergent evolution for proposed models. Recent research with conifers has shown evolutionary transitions between architectural models in different families. The causes of variation in above ground architecture, both within and between species, are discussed as a result of interactions between organogenesis, extension, and plasticity and the controls involved in these processes are described. The standpoint is advanced that morphological variation and plasticity should be considered as integral parts of architecture as a dynamic process.
Growth in a fluctuating environment
Authors: Ford E. David
Published: January 2024

Plants are adapted to both utilize and at least partly tolerate regular and irregular variation in the physical–chemical system, but their responses to change are not constant—the same environmental change can produce different responses at different times, controlled by the genetics and physiology of the plant itself. This is illustrated using a sequence of continuous measurements of hourly shoot extension and environmental variables and where cell expansion and contraction are important. Interlocking active controls produce responses that maintain growth during conditions that may otherwise be considered as restrictive; however, these controls may only function during particular conditions, i.e. they have domains of operation. Typically the response to changing conditions is not instantaneous and there are conditions when the adjustments have only limited effectiveness.
Statistics and Dynamics of Urban Populations
Authors: Barthelemy Marc , Verbavatz Vincent
Published: January 2024

In this book, we describe all aspects of quantitative approaches to urban population growth, ranging from measures and empirical results such as the famous Zipf law, to the mathematical description of their evolution. We will follow the historical development of these approaches, starting with the Gibrat law to modern stochastic equations. This book will be of interest to researchers working on quantitative aspect of cities and from many different disciplines such as quantitative geography, spatial economics, geomatics, urbanism and transportation, physics, or applied mathematics. Researchers working in complex systems and statistical physics will also constitute an important part of its general readership. This book will also be of potential interest to graduate students and researchers entering the field or interested in quantitative studies of urban systems.
Why and how to engage beneficiaries as co-(social) entrepreneurs?
Authors: Hueske Anne-Karen , Willems Willemine , Hockerts Kai
Published: January 2024

Social entrepreneurship is typically thought of as the pursuit of a commercial activity with the primary goal to achieve societal impact. The European school of thought on social entrepreneurship emphasizes one more constituent element of social entrepreneurship namely, stakeholder engagement, especially beneficiary engagement, through organizing the decision-making as a participatory process to foster local democracy. However, there is limited research on engagement through social entrepreneurship, and this is mostly published in practitioner-oriented journals. Engaging with literature about citizen engagement in science and technology shows that these findings regarding hardware (methods, tools), software (mindset), and orgware (embedding in organizational structures and processes) can stimulate social entrepreneurship research. Both engagement processes share similar aims. The normative argument values democracy and empowerment and aims to nurture it through engagement. Instrumental and substantial arguments claim that engagement leads to better fitting and accepted innovations. In addition, implementing engagement faces similar barriers in both fields. Following the three lenses of hardware, software, and orgware, we analyse engagement in social entrepreneurship research. Concluding, we identify avenues for future research on the process of engagement and its contribution to the societal impact of the social enterprise. Future research is needed to understand how engagement practices influence the societal impact, especially local democracy, of social enterprises, and how this relationship is influenced by engagement competences of the social entrepreneur and engagement experiences of the beneficiary as well as the degree to which engagement practices are embedded in the social enterprise.
Inside the UN Security Council
Authors: Gifkins Jess
Published: January 2024

UN Security Council decisions impact billions of people and yet its formal rules are minimal and tell us little about how decisions are made. Instead, informal, and often unwritten practices, form the basis of negotiations. This book introduces and develops the concept of legitimation practices to analyse the UN Security Council’s decision-making. Legitimation practices shape the process and outcome of negotiations. Internal legitimation practices, which relate to the legitimation of Security Council decisions such as prioritizing unanimity, constrain and enable the text of resolutions. External legitimation practices such as ‘doing something’, even if it cannot be implemented, relate to the legitimation of actors in the negotiations and shape whether decisions can be reached at all. This book demonstrates the impact of legitimation practices within Security Council decision-making, both in general and focused on the case of Darfur in the west of Sudan. Security Council negotiations on Darfur are analysed in depth to show how legitimation practices shape decision-making across issue areas of agenda-setting, sanctions, referral to the International Criminal Court, and peacekeeping. Foregrounding legitimation practices sheds light on seemingly contradictory moments within Security Council decision-making, such as the United States enabling the referral of the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court, despite long-standing objections to the court and the capacity to veto the decision. The book draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, including original interviews with key decision makers, to show that legitimation practices are an integral aspect of Security Council negotiations.
On the Ground in Darfur
Authors: Gifkins Jess
Published: January 2024

This chapter provides background on the conflict in Darfur, setting the context for subsequent chapters on the Security Council’s negotiations over Darfur. It begins with precursors and escalation, and then establishes the trajectory and impacts of the conflict. It analyses two prominent international debates on whether genocide occurred in Darfur, and on the application of the responsibility to protect. It argues that the debate over whether genocide was occurring took place after the height of the violence had passed and at times detracted much-needed resources from the humanitarian effort. The development of the responsibility to protect occurred in parallel with the escalation of the Darfur conflict and generated expectations for action among Western states. Large coordinated civil society movements developed, which advocated for the Security Council to take specific actions. This meant that Darfur had unusually high domestic salience, especially in the US, and there was greater potential for external legitimation practices to feature because of the significant domestic interest.
Inching towards Sanctions
Authors: Gifkins Jess
Published: January 2024

This chapter analyses Security Council negotiations towards four key resolutions on sanctions between 2004 and 2006. It demonstrates that the external legitimation practice of ‘doing something’, even if it cannot be implemented, was central to these negotiations. Two years of intense negotiations over sanctions resulted in a partial arms embargo and targeted sanctions against only four individuals. The first two sanctions resolutions in 2004 were facilitated by text-based agreements, where Security Council members did not agree on the substance of the decision and instead found language they could agree on. This left Council members with divergent interpretations of what they had agreed to, and difficulties in following through on the threat of sanctions for non-compliance. It took until 2005 to authorize sanctions infrastructure in the form of a Sanctions Committee and a Panel of Experts. When issuing its report, the Panel of Experts recommended targeted sanctions against seventeen individuals, however, Security Council members could only agree on four individuals. China demonstrated audience sensitivity by blocking targeted sanctions in the Sanctions Committee but enabling them to pass in the Security Council where its actions had public scrutiny. A diplomatic cable from the time reports that China said it would be ‘unthinkable’ to block an otherwise unanimous resolution. Western states attempted to ‘do something’, however, the combined impact of sanctions resolutions on Darfur was minimal.