bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play
Authors: Nicosia Marissa
Published: October 2023

Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures, 1590–1660 argues that dramatic narratives about monarchy and succession codified speculative futures in the early modern English cultural imaginary. This book considers chronicle plays—plays written for the public stage and play pamphlets composed when the playhouses were closed during the civil wars—in order to examine the formal and material ways that playwrights imagined futures in dramatic works that were purportedly about the past. Through close readings of William Shakespeare’s 1&2 Henry IV, Richard III, Shakespeare and John Fletcher’s All is True, Samuel Rowley’s When You See Me, You Know Me, John Ford’s Perkin Warbeck, and the anonymous play pamphlets The Leveller’s Levelled, 1 & 2 Craftie Cromwell, Charles I, and Cromwell’s Conspiracy, this book shows that imaginative treatments of history in plays that we would normally associate with the past also had purchase on the future. While of course plays about the nation’s past retell history, these plays are not restricted by their subject matter to merely document what happened: Playwrights projected possible futures in their accounts of verifiable historical events.
The Sentient Cell
Authors: Reber Arthur S. , Baluska Frantisek , Miller William
Published: October 2023

This volume is the natural follow-up to Arthur Reber’s 2019 book, The First Minds: Caterpillars, ‘Karyotes, and Consciousness (TFM). In that earlier work, the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) theory was developed based on a number of earlier efforts published in a variety of journals between 1997 and 2019 as well as in talks, colloquia, and presentations at conferences. The core proposition in TFM was that life and mind are co-terminous. All organisms, all species extant and extinct, are sentient. All have an existentially secure consciousness—without which they would have been evolutionary dead-ends, unable to survive in the chaotic, dangerous environment in which life first appeared. And, importantly, all forms of sentience, all forms of cognitive functioning right up to and including those expressed by humans, evolved from the original expression of consciousness at the birth of life in prokaryotes. The proposition that all life forms evolved from those first unicellular species is a widely accepted, foundational principle of the biological and social sciences. The CBC simply applies that same proposition to sentience.
Animal Behavior, Cognition, and Human–Wildlife Interactions in Urban Areas
Authors: Stanton Lauren A. , Wilkinson Christine E. , Angeloni Lisa , Benson-Amram Sarah , Schell Christopher J. , Young Julie K.
Published: October 2023

Behavioral change is frequently identified as quintessential in facilitating urban living, yet simultaneously linked to human–wildlife conflict. Changes to behaviors (e.g., boldness, movement, dietary flexibility), cognition, and learning can be near-instantaneous, enabling urban animals to effectively deal with novel environmental stressors. However, behavioral innovations that increase the likelihood of human–wildlife conflict potentially jeopardize fitness gains. Moreover, some species in urban areas are behaviorally inflexible or intolerant of humans, presenting a different set of challenges to conserving such species in cities. This work explains how the principles of conservation behavior and cognition present a multifaceted toolkit for bolstering urban biodiversity while minimizing the detrimental impacts of human–wildlife conflict. Management and conservation strategies will also vary according to the perceived threat and valuation of certain wildlife species. As such, this work additionally explores how social and urban heterogeneity coalesce to influence the spatial and temporal nature of human–wildlife interactions in cities. Tolerance of certain wildlife species by people creates invisible “human shields,” in which species perceived as benign (e.g., eastern grey squirrels or eastern cottontail) in turn demonstrate increased human tolerance relative to those considered high threat (e.g., mountain lions, coyotes). The combination of participatory surveys and conservation behavior allows us to build models that predict and prevent impending conflicts based on: (1) how various wildlife utilize urban space in human-dominated environments; and (2) how human residents vary in their perceptions of those wildlife.
Developing a Toolbox for Urban Biodiversity Conservation
Authors: Spotswood Erica , Lambert Max R. , Pang Selena , Young Jonathan , Stringer Lewis
Published: October 2023

Cities and suburbs are functioning ecosystems, but they are unique in their processes and structure. Urban biodiversity conservation in some cases can rely on tools and frameworks from conservation in nonurban areas. But because cities are unique, there is a need to modify, innovate, or invent approaches for urban conservation. This work begins to outline a toolbox for urban biodiversity conservation that draws on classic tools and which provides new approaches to managing species in cities. Such tools are not restricted to biophysical approaches but also leverage the value of urban infrastructure and alternative forms of financing and planning. This work illustrates the use of these tools and approaches with diverse case studies, particularly from the San Francisco Bay Area. Refining this toolkit can ensure that urban biodiversity conservation can advance social equity goals and broader regional and global conservation efforts.
WHAT IS A QUANTUM FIELD?
Authors: Steane Andrew
Published: October 2023

Quantum field theory, and the physical picture it offers, is described, mainly through analogy and metaphor. The fields are like a complex but precise multi-faceted ocean. What we call particles are disturbances in this ocean. What we call vacuum is where the ocean is undisturbed.
RUBBLE AND RANDOMNESS
Authors: Steane Andrew
Published: October 2023

This chapter looks at the nature of the very early universe, especially concerning whether it was random or ordered. It is argued that it was in fact extremely highly ordered. But the terminology of ‘quantum fluctuation’, and misconceptions about the quantum vacuum, have largely obscured this.
COULD IT SIMPLY BE?
Authors: Steane Andrew
Published: October 2023

It is asked whether the physical world could simply be, with no underlying cause, or what it means to ask a question like that. Then the difference between contingent and non-contingent is discussed. Theorems in mathematics can be non-contingent in the sense that they could not be otherwise. By contrast, many aspects of the physical world could be otherwise. And it appears that the universe does not exist out of logical necessity. But values can be non-contingent because one cannot conceive of it being otherwise. For example, there is no possible world where bitterness and revenge are better than kindness and generosity. Such reflections lead us to the edge of issues about the nature of reality which we cannot be certain of, but which challenge us deeply, calling upon us as whole people.
STEPPING OUT
Authors: Steane Andrew
Published: October 2023

An attempt at a balanced and well-reasoned ‘reading’ of evolution is presented. Such a reading enables us to step into the role and the freedom (within boundaries) which is our inheritance. The chapter briefly restates the non-random and non-simple character of evolution, and then discusses what it can say about moral and aesthetic judgement in humans. It is not logical to claim that natural processes (such as variation and natural selection) imply that moral values arrived at in human culture are not objective. One can use mathematics to illustrate this. Mathematical logic is neither a cultural artefact nor a reproductive strategy; it is rather a set of patterns which we can discern if we have the requisite mental apparatus. A similar claim can be maintained about ethics and moral value: we perceive them because we have been furnished, via evolution, with the requisite mental and spiritual capacity.
FROM SONAR RESEARCH TO THE DISCOVERY OF SHARP ELECTRIC RESONANCE
Authors: Katzir Shaul
Published: October 2023

The invention of the piezoelectric sonar led to large-scale research and development efforts by allied scientists and engineers. To reach their practical goal, their work included both research into phenomena deemed relevant to the design of better devices, and development of the technology itself. The combination made it possible to develop practical sonar systems by the end of World War I. Sonar also required research into hitherto unexamined states like that of crystals under high-frequency oscillations, which led to peculiar observations. With the war’s end, physicist Walter Cady felt relieved from the obligations of sonar research (utilitarian regime), and began studying peculiar results that he had observed earlier but had not pursued since they were irrelevant to ultrasonics. His research notebooks show how he discovered within a few weeks the unforeseen phenomenon of piezoelectric resonance, which would reshape the study and the technological application of piezoelectricity.
DEVELOPMENT OF QUARTZ CLOCK TECHNICS OUTSIDE AT&T
Authors: Katzir Shaul
Published: October 2023

The quartz clock originated out of research conducted to meet the needs of telecommunication and the interests of its users. Its construction required that methods be invented for accurately dividing known high-frequency electric oscillations. This chapter examines how, in 1927, seven groups, in the USA, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan, created such a method almost simultaneously. National laboratories needed to connect ‘standard’ frequency measurement units to a clock to ensure its accuracy. Other groups needed to measure, control, and manipulate with frequencies for other aims that originated in the interests of the industrial, government, and academic institutes to which they belonged. Suggesting diverse solutions, they all relied on a shared vibrant field of radio-electronics and methods of crystal frequency control. By comparing their works, the chapter examines their incentives, the technological and scientific resources they utilized, and the kind of research carried out in the various institutional settings.
The Great Celestial Cover-Up
Authors: Littmann Mark , Espenak Fred
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores the nuances of a total eclipse of the Sun. It starts with the simple definition of the eclipse wherein the Moon blocks the Sun from view. However, the eclipse holds more stories to tell with its dark shadows, oblong orbits, tilts, danger zones, and amazing coincidences. Moreover, the Moon's elliptical orbit around the Earth affects the total eclipses of the Sun. The chapter also elaborates on the concept of nodes, referring to the Moon's tilted orbit crossing the plane of the Earth’s orbit at two places. It discusses the discovery of the saros and other eclipse cycles that allowed the prediction of future eclipses.
Observing a Total Eclipse
Authors: Littmann Mark , Espenak Fred
Published: October 2023

This chapter considers the experience of observing a total eclipse. It highlights how special the first contact with a total eclipse is by referencing the narrative of astronomer Jay Pasachofft. The partial phase of a total eclipse has a power all its own, as the Moon steadily encroaches upon the Sun, covering more and more of its face. Every eclipse veteran urges newcomers to pause as totality approaches to look around at the landscape and notice the changes in light levels and color. The chapter also details how colors and temperature change minutes and shadow bands before the event of totality. It clarifies that a totality can never last longer than 7 minutes 32 seconds.
The Strange Behavior of Man and Beast—Modern Times
Authors: Littmann Mark , Espenak Fred
Published: October 2023

This chapter covers the behavior of people and animals during the eclipse amidst modern times. It explores different animal responses to nightfall amid the day, such as crickets singing or livestock going to sleep. Meanwhile, lunar and solar eclipses caused desperate fear and bizarre behaviour in humans in ancient times. The chapter mentions how superstitions about eclipses seldom result in tragedy, most of which are either colorful or humorous. It elaborates on how total eclipses bring out strong emotions in both animals and humans, especially when people’s behavior during a total eclipse is out of the ordinary even if it was understandable.
Coming Back to America—The Total Eclipse of 2024
Authors: Littmann Mark , Espenak Fred
Published: October 2023

This chapter explains the expected total eclipse in the United States in 2024. It details the path and duration of the total solar eclipse across the American region. The totality of the 2024 eclipse first touches Earth south of the equator about halfway between Australia and Mexico. Moreover, the 2024 eclipse is expected to last for more than four minutes above Texas. The final landfall of the 2024 eclipse is Newfoundland as it moves across the island for around three minutes before traversing faster eastward across the Atlantic to fall off the edge of the Earth at sundown before it can reach Europe.
Conclusion
Authors: Obert Julia C.
Published: October 2023

This chapter summarizes some of the preceding arguments, focusing on the question “why study cities?” and noting the importance of translocal analysis. The chapter then takes on an ecological focus, noting that although people clearly suffer deeply in the grip of colonial power, the land itself is also stifled by violent assertions of imperial and neo-imperial will. And while an individual can subversively claim a street corner for informal labor or paint a liberation slogan on a colonial monument, it is far more difficult to combat the devastating droughts or rising tides of climate change—environmental catastrophes that are already disproportionately affecting the urban poor. The chapter looks briefly at significant ecological problems, and at some local efforts to address these problems, in each of the four cities under study. It concludes with a reminder that the book’s argument is anti-imperialist in the broadest sense: it highlights the deleterious effects of direct conquest, of cultural and economic neo-imperialism, and of anthropocentrism’s colonizing vantage on the “vibrant matter” (Bennett 1) that surrounds us, and it examines the intimate interconnections between these forms of violence—and between the animal, vegetable, and mineral acts of insubordination that resist them.
The Uncommon through the Common
Authors: Rao D. Venkat
Published: October 2023

Indian traditions preferred the communicational modes of speech and gesture in generating and disseminating their cultural memories; divergent cultural communities spread these cultural forms across time and space. The Ramayanas live on in performing traditions in the cultures of memory of the subcontinent. Performing traditions are composed of visual and verbal cultural media and put the body to work in articulating cultural memories. The efficacy of mnemocultural forms cannot be measured by the textualist strategies institutionalized in the colonial epoch; these strategies derive from inscriptional technologies and invest in fortifying external retentional systems of memory; in contrast, mnemocultures generate lively archives—embodied repositories of memory enlivened in performances. The encounter between the mnemocultural and inscriptional cultural technologies skewed the receptive responses to cultural memories of India. Textualist technologies dominate intellectual reflection through the universities today and determine the understanding of Indian cultural forms and practices. Therefore, there is a need to explore different ways of reflecting on these lively traditions beyond the inscriptional frames of European interpretations. While focusing on some of the verbal (song, musical-poem, pravachana, parayana) and visual (dance-drama, plastic-iconic, film and television) cultural forms in which the Ramayana disseminated itself, this chapter inquires into the ends envisaged in the itihasic, puranic, kavya, and natya cultural mediations. In the process, the chapter configures the mnemocultural force that enlivens the Ramayanas of India.
What Bahena Saw
Authors: Wakankar Milind
Published: October 2023

In drawing a link between Kashmir Shaiva thought (tenth–twelfth century ce) and the poetry of the seventeenth-century Marathi Bhakti poet Bahena, the paper juxtaposes subject formation and power, not in the language of social science but that of religion. Moving between Bahena and the later Hegel, the paper’s comparatism operates not in the domain of cultural difference (Indian versus Western) but at the level of the internal movement of ‘the concept’ itself, the point at which freedom, negativity, and the will cohere. Finally, it is a matter of what is integral in Bahena’s ‘sadhana-penance’; here the force of Shiva helps her relocate her ‘I’ in the eternal ‘being-there’ of the south-western Indian deity Vitthala-Krishna. A new kind of will is born here, but in the ‘unfree’ conditions of self-surrender.
Othering the Same
Authors: George Siby K.
Published: October 2023

The attempt to ethicize and politicize advaita vedānta in the twentieth century had to contend with the criticism that its difference-blind obsession with self-love is an obstruction to conceptualize concrete ethical relations with the Other. In contrast, for contemporary philosophy of alterity, being a self involves exposure to otherness rather than self-coinciding immediacy of identity. In this regard, the advaitic tropes motivating the writings and reformist activities of the twentieth-century poet-reformer Nārāyaṇa Guru can be interpreted in relation to the philosophy of the Other as a form of ‘self-othering’ for two reasons. First, the Self that he is concerned with is other than the Other, or non-dual awareness of moral-ontological connectedness of all beings. Second, in matters of social action, he manifests a distinctive manner of de-emphasizing the self, welcoming and identifying with the Other, and correcting oppressive social practices through peaceful and dialogical encounters without resorting to hostile confrontation.
Beyond Binaries Sreenarayana and the Political
Authors: Raj Dileep
Published: October 2023

This article is an attempt to explore a couple of apparent paradoxes in connection with Sreenarayana Guru and his life and works. Karuna or compassion encapsulates the essence of Guru’s politics and life. One cannot teach others to be compassionate. Compassion erupts into existence when one acts compassionately. The chief interest in this exploration is to see how political action is possible without assuming a pre-formed political subject. It also tries to imagine the ways in which the politics of compassion might be reinvented in contemporary times without assuming the existence of Guru-like persons. Though Guru was instrumental in the making of Modern Kerala, his own self-understanding acknowledged no doer behind the deeds. Thus, the very modern habit of ascribing agency to Guru (when thinking, for instance, of renaissance or modernity) becomes problematic. By examining these paradoxes, I wish to further problematize Guru’s allegiance to Advaita. It is argued that his critique of caste was based less on philosophical doctrines than ontological alertness.
Women and Irony in Molière's Comedies of Marriage
Authors: Lyons John D.
Published: October 2023

This is a book about how Molière, France’s most celebrated author of comedies, made something strikingly new out of the traditional comedy plot of thwarted courtship. Though justly celebrated for his mastery of physical comedy and farce, one of Molière’s key moves was to pay attention to the way women could use language. Seventeenth-century France was a time when speaking well became exceptionally important. And in this arena women were the trend-setters. Among the most important places to display taste and social skills were the salons, gatherings presided over by women. Yet women still enjoyed little in the way of rights, particularly regarding a central decision in their lives: the choice of a husband. French regulations of marriage contracts became increasingly restrictive, largely to the detriment of women. To draw attention to their plight, women novelists and essayists presented case studies in how men and women misunderstood one another, how women were coerced to wed, how marriages could become nightmares, and how courtships could fail. Against this fraught social background Molière showed women using one of the few assets they had, their mastery of words, and in particular the rhetoric of irony, to frustrate the plans of fathers, guardians, and other authority figures. The comedies discussed here include very well-known plays such as The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, The Learned Ladies, The School for Wives, and Don Juan, and also less known but revealing and thought-provoking works such as The School for Husbands, George Dandin, and Monsieur de Pourceaugnac.
Introduction
Authors: Lyons John D.
Published: October 2023

The two major themes of this book are: first, women’s revolt against restrictions on their right to choose a spouse in seventeenth-century France; second, Molière’s choice of dramatic and verbal irony as a way of representing this struggle by women characters in his major comedies. The introduction first provides historical context about the French state’s increasingly restrictions on spousal choice as the background against which Molière’s comedies appear as timely social critique. And a second part of the introduction describes the forms of irony—verbal, situational, and dramatic—that appear in the eleven comedies discussed in the following chapters. Although these forms of irony can usefully be distinguished, they all depend on context, and this study offers these theoretical and historical considerations only as preparation for the close reading of the comedies.
L’École des femmes
Authors: Lyons John D.
Published: October 2023

As in the earlier School for Husbands, in the School for Wives a man hopes to marry a girl who has been his ward since infancy. Convinced that intelligent women often are unfaithful to their husbands, the male protagonist devises an educational plan to reduce his ward to a state of idiocy. His remarks clearly indicate an attack on real advances in women’s literacy in Molière’s day, specifically in the contemporary salons presided over by women. His ward falls in love with a young man and devises a way to write and transmit a love note right in front of her guardian.
Les Femmes savantes
Authors: Lyons John D.
Published: October 2023

This is the first of four chapters concerning women’s struggles to marry. This theme is treated in the previous chapters on the ‘school’ comedies (The School for Husbands and The School for Wives), where the paternal authority figure wished to marry his ward. The Learned Ladies depicts a mother who attempts to impose an unwanted husband on her daughter. This comedy is usually seen as an attack by Molière on attempts by his female contemporaries to claim their right to an education and to a voice in intellectual matters. However, we also find here a thought experiment on parental tyranny. What happens when a daughter’s freedom to marry is hampered by a mother rather than a father?
Conclusion
Authors: Lyons John D.
Published: October 2023

In conclusion we ponder the implications of the present study’s contention that Molière mocks and thus subverts the institution of marriage as it was enforced by Church and state. Two of the comedies are especially telling in this regard. The Misanthrope stands out in the Western tradition of comedy by not ending with the marriage of the man and woman protagonists. And Molière’s protagonist in Le Festin de pierre (Don Juan) makes a mockery of marriage by ‘marrying’ any woman who takes his fancy, thus emptying the institution (and religious sacrament) of all significance and power. Don Juan may be seen as a man exploiting women, and thus to be the antithesis of a ‘feminist’ hero. But another reading invites the question of whether in Molière’s play the character may represent a convergence of interests between the group labelled ‘libertines’ (and predominantly associated with historically male groups) and those seventeenth-century women who also protested against the institution of marriage. Does the Célimène of The Misanthrope not share with Don Juan a critique of marriage? And does she not seek to make courtship and free amorous interaction of men and women possible? Don Juan is also similar to many of Molière’s women characters in his use of irony to elude what he feels is the oppression of an institution enforced by males, here represented by the brothers of one of the women he has ‘married’.
Evaluation of National Anaesthetics Teaching in Undergraduate Medicine (ENATUM)
Authors: Kumar Prakrit R , Wicks Saskia K , Kumar Ranya V , Rottenberg Augustus , Mostafa Omar , Gavalas Manolis
Published: October 2023

Background

During a global pandemic where anaesthetists play a pertinent role in treating coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), it is crucial to inspire medical students to consider a career in anaesthetics and perioperative care. Where anaesthetic skills are vital for all surgical foundation doctors, regardless of whether they have a rotation in anaesthetics, this study seeks to establish the current level of exposure to anaesthetics in the UK medical schools’ curriculum and evaluate if the current anaesthetic undergraduate curriculum is sufficient to prepare students to pass their exams and perform the duties expected of them as future junior doctors.

Methods

A 35-item structured questionnaire, registered at University College London Hospital Research & Development (R&D), was distributed amongst foundation doctors who had graduated from UK universities within the previous 3 years between August and October 2020.

Results

In total, 239 participants completed the questionnaire from 34 UK medical schools. Despite 90.0% of participants being allocated an ‘anaesthesia’ placement, 54.0% spent <15 hours shadowing an anaesthetist throughout their medical school. Of participants, 38.5% agreed that their anaesthetic teaching was sufficient compared to teaching of other specialities, with 48.6% of students not satisfied with the teaching provided to meet anaesthetic learning outcomes set by The Royal College of Surgeons of England; 72.4% said they would have benefited from additional anaesthetic teaching, with 80.7% stating it would have increased understanding into the speciality; and 71.5% stated a short course in anaesthetics alongside undergraduate training would have been beneficial.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate that there is a lack of standardization in undergraduate anaesthetics teaching nationally and an additional undergraduate anaesthetic teaching programme is required to increase understanding and provide further insight into anaesthetics.

Key messages:  The emergence of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has halted undergraduate medical education, in particular perioperative medicine and surgery.Exposure to anaesthesia is already limited in the medical undergraduate curriculum, with a limited number of anaesthesia-themed foundation rotations available for junior doctors.Recent UK graduates feel that undergraduate anaesthetics education is inadequate at medical school, reporting a lack of confidence in applying undergraduate anaesthesia learning outcomes.Additional anaesthetic teaching and online teaching methods are suggested ways of improving the delivery of undergraduate anaesthetic education.Can a national, standardized anaesthetics teaching curriculum improve the undergraduate knowledge base of anaesthesia?
Development of photoreactive demineralized bone matrix 3D printing colloidal inks for bone tissue engineering
Authors: Hogan Katie J , Öztatlı Hayriye , Perez Marissa R , Si Sophia , Umurhan Reyhan , Jui Elysa , Wang Ziwen , Jiang Emily Y , Han Sa R , Diba Mani , Jane Grande-Allen K , Garipcan Bora , Mikos Antonios G
Published: October 2023

Demineralized bone matrix (DBM) has been widely used clinically for dental, craniofacial and skeletal bone repair, as an osteoinductive and osteoconductive material. 3D printing (3DP) enables the creation of bone tissue engineering scaffolds with complex geometries and porosity. Photoreactive methacryloylated gelatin nanoparticles (GNP-MAs) 3DP inks have been developed, which display gel-like behavior for high print fidelity and are capable of post-printing photocrosslinking for control of scaffold swelling and degradation. Here, novel DBM nanoparticles (DBM-NPs, ∼400 nm) were fabricated and characterized prior to incorporation in 3DP inks. The objectives of this study were to determine how these DBM-NPs would influence the printability of composite colloidal 3DP inks, assess the impact of ultraviolet (UV) crosslinking on 3DP scaffold swelling and degradation and evaluate the osteogenic potential of DBM-NP-containing composite colloidal scaffolds. The addition of methacryloylated DBM-NPs (DBM-NP-MAs) to composite colloidal inks (100:0, 95:5 and 75:25 GNP-MA:DBM-NP-MA) did not significantly impact the rheological properties associated with printability, such as viscosity and shear recovery or photocrosslinking. UV crosslinking with a UV dosage of 3 J/cm2 directly impacted the rate of 3DP scaffold swelling for all GNP-MA:DBM-NP-MA ratios with an ∼40% greater increase in scaffold area and pore area in uncrosslinked versus photocrosslinked scaffolds over 21 days in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Likewise, degradation (hydrolytic and enzymatic) over 21 days for all DBM-NP-MA content groups was significantly decreased, ∼45% less in PBS and collagenase-containing PBS, in UV-crosslinked versus uncrosslinked groups. The incorporation of DBM-NP-MAs into scaffolds decreased mass loss compared to GNP-MA-only scaffolds during collagenase degradation. An in vitro osteogenic study with bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells demonstrated osteoconductive properties of 3DP scaffolds for the DBM-NP-MA contents examined. The creation of photoreactive DBM-NP-MAs and their application in 3DP provide a platform for the development of ECM-derived colloidal materials and tailored control of biochemical cue presentation with broad tissue engineering applications.
A linear energy transfer distributions computation method for inhomogeneous medium by using the water equivalent ratio approximation
Authors: Yan Nan , Wu Chao , Zhou Yun , Liao Wentao , Liu Junya , Pu Yuehu
Published: October 2023

Dose-averaged linear energy transfer (LET), LETd is widely used in proton therapy. Compared with analytical models, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are more accurate in obtaining LETd distributions, but they are time-consuming. This study used the 3D LETd distributions of proton beam spots in water by MC simulations as a benchmark data set. Subsequently, by combining the water equivalent ratio of various human tissues, the 3D LETd distributions of clinical cases could be quickly obtained. Our method was applied to a single spot of 160 MeV proton beam in a water-bone phantom and a pelvic case. We also computed the 3D LETd distributions for multiple proton beam spots in the pelvic case and a lung case. The results of our method were compared with the results of MC simulations, demonstrating that our method can rapidly provide 3D LETd distributions of clinical cases with acceptable differences from MC simulations.
Digital creatives and digital engineers: entrepreneurial firms, institutional context, and the organization of innovation
Authors: Miozzo Marcela , Storz Cornelia , Casper Steven
Published: October 2023

The comparative capitalisms literature has developed an increasingly dynamic approach to conceptualizing capitalism variety, and has suggested mechanisms to explain shifts in institutional practices under the surface of formal stability of the institutional context. Less is known, however, about how new entrepreneurial firms engage with institutions to develop organizational arrangements needed to support their innovation activities. Such engagement with institutions can represent sources of heterogeneity within and across national institutional contexts, with incremental changes in practices resulting, in some instances, in major transformations in institutions over time. We draw on a study of fifty-three independent mobile games firms in the USA and Japan and the structures and processes used by these firms to develop innovative activities in their institutional context. Our research advances our understanding of organizational diversity and institutional change in two ways. First, our study identifies two new ‘variants’ of how entrepreneurial firms organize their innovation activities in their institutional context—digital creatives and digital engineers. Second, we characterize the mechanisms through which entrepreneurial firms engage and respond to institutions that support the establishment of these variants—defecting, intensifying, and positioning vis-à-vis large firms.
Fiscal Impoverishment in Rich Democracies
Authors: Schechtl Manuel , O’Brien Rourke L
Published: October 2023

This article introduces fiscal impoverishment as a framework for comparative poverty research. We invert standard analyses of welfare state policy and household poverty by focusing not on poverty alleviation but poverty creation and exacerbation. Using harmonized household survey data, we show how the income and payroll taxes most rich countries rely on to finance the public sector serve to push households (further) into poverty. We estimate that across rich democracies on average about one in four households in poverty are made poorer on net after taxes and transfers; with fiscal impoverishment levels ranging from <10% in some countries to more than 70% in others, revealing extreme cross-national variation in how the pocketbooks of poor households are impacted by national tax and transfer policy. We go on to show that fiscal impoverishment does not track with standard measures of welfare state generosity but is instead largely determined by design of income tax systems, particularly a country’s relative reliance on (regressive) payroll taxes versus (progressive) income taxes. We consider the implications of fiscal impoverishment for assessing welfare state performance and for comparative poverty research.
Revisiting the Measurement of Digital Inclusion
Authors: Sharp Matthew
Published: October 2023

As it becomes increasingly clear how central digital transformation is to development, the need for clarifying concepts and for coming up with standardized and accurate measures for digital inclusion becomes more urgent. Focusing on the internet as a foundational technology, this paper sets out a framework of core components of digital inclusion—including access/use, quality of access/use, affordability, and digital skills. The paper then surveys the ways these components are currently measured in household and firm surveys and by international organizations. Building on simple descriptive analysis of data from a wide range of sources, the paper highlights some of the often-overlooked weaknesses of current measures, and suggests possible improvements. The paper argues that (a) metrics for certain core components of digital inclusion—including quality of access/use and digital skills—are relatively underdeveloped, (b) some questions on technology use and skills may need to be adapted to developing country settings, (c) more attention should be paid to within-country inequalities in statistics reported by international organizations, (d) currently available digital inclusion indices are not very useful, and (e) there is much potential in using big data methods to measure digital inclusion.
Tetraploidy in the Boettger’s dwarf clawed frog (Pipidae: Hymenochirus boettgeri) from the Congo indicates non-conspecificity with the captive population
Authors: Gvoždík Václav , Knytl Martin , Zassi-Boulou Ange-Ghislain , Fornaini Nicola R , Bergelová Barbora
Published: October 2023

Cytogenetics can be used as a tool to study the evolution of polyploidy and taxonomy. Here we focus on aquatic African pipids, dwarf clawed frogs (Hymenochirus). Our study reveals that dwarf clawed frogs, present for decades in captivity, are best referred to as Hymenochirus sp. instead of the commonly used name ‘H. boettgeri’ or sometimes ‘H. curtipes’. We present the first karyotype from a morphologically identified specimen of H. boettgeri with a known locality in the north-western Congo, which is tetraploid with 2n = 36. The captive Hymenochirus species has been found diploid in previous studies with different reported chromosome numbers; here we reveal 2n = 20A + 1B chromosomes. Our findings suggest that the tetraploid H. boettgeri karyotype evolved through fusion of two biarmed chromosomes and subsequent allotetraploidization, and is functionally diploid, similar to the origin of tetraploid clawed frogs in the subgenus Xenopus. We observed the stable presence of a single B chromosome in both sexes of our individuals from the captive population of Hymenochirus sp. However, additional investigation is necessary to clarify whether there is variation in the number of A and B chromosomes among populations, individuals, and/or tissues. Further research is also needed to understand the evolution and taxonomy of the genus Hymenochirus.
Are Histidine Kinases of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Involved in the Response to Ethylene and Cytokinins?
Authors: Mongès Ayla , Yaakoub Hajar , Bidon Baptiste , Glévarec Gaëlle , Héricourt François , Carpin Sabine , Chauderon Lucie , Drašarová Lenka , Spíchal Lukáš , Binder Brad M. , Papon Nicolas , Rochange Soizic
Published: October 2023

Signals are exchanged at all stages of the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis between fungi and their host plants. Root-exuded strigolactones are well-known early symbiotic cues, but the role of other phytohormones as interkingdom signals has seldom been investigated. Here we focus on ethylene and cytokinins, for which candidate receptors have been identified in the genome of the AM fungus Rhizophagus irregularis. Ethylene is known from the literature to affect asymbiotic development of AM fungi, and in the present study, we found that three cytokinin forms could stimulate spore germination in R. irregularis. Heterologous complementation of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant strain with the candidate ethylene receptor RiHHK6 suggested that this protein can sense and transduce an ethylene signal. Accordingly, its N-terminal domain expressed in Pichia pastoris displayed saturable binding to radiolabeled ethylene. Thus, RiHHK6 displays the expected characteristics of an ethylene receptor. In contrast, the candidate cytokinin receptor RiHHK7 did not complement the S. cerevisiae mutant strain or Medicago truncatula cytokinin receptor mutants and seemed unable to bind cytokinins, suggesting that another receptor is involved in the perception of these phytohormones. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that AM fungi respond to a range of phytohormones and that these compounds bear multiple functions in the rhizosphere beyond their known roles as internal plant developmental regulators. Our analysis of two phytohormone receptor candidates also sheds new light on the possible perception mechanisms in AM fungi.

[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
Access to Prenatal Care Among Patients With Opioid Use Disorder in Florida
Authors: Fryer Kimberly , Reid Chinyere N. , Elmore Amanda L. , Mehra Saloni , Carr Caitlynn , Salemi Jason L. , Cogle Christopher R. , Pelletier Claire , Pacheco Garrillo Maria , Sappenfield William S. , Marshall Jennifer
Published: October 2023

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate access to prenatal care for pregnant patients receiving medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) under Medicaid coverage in Florida.

METHODS:

A cross-sectional, secret shopper study was conducted in which calls were made to randomly selected obstetric clinicians' offices in Florida. Callers posed as a 14-week-pregnant patient with Medicaid insurance who was receiving MOUD from another physician and requested to schedule a first-time prenatal care appointment. Descriptive statistics were used to report our primary outcome, the callers' success in obtaining appointments from Medicaid-enrolled physicians' offices. Wait time for appointments and reasons the physician offices refused appointments to callers were collected.

RESULTS:

Overall, 2,816 obstetric clinicians are enrolled in Florida Medicaid. Callers made 1,747 attempts to contact 1,023 randomly selected physicians' offices from June to September 2021. Only 48.9% of medical offices (n=500) were successfully reached by phone, of which 39.4% (n=197) offered a prenatal care appointment to the caller. The median wait time until the first appointment was 15 days (quartile 1: 7; quartile 3: 26), with a range of 0–55 days. However, despite offering an appointment, 8.6% of the medical offices stated that they do not accept Medicaid insurance payment or would accept only self-pay. Among the 60.6% of callers unable to secure an appointment, the most common reasons were that the clinician was not accepting patients taking methadone (34.7%) or was not accepting any new patients with Medicaid insurance (23.8%) and that the pregnancy would be too advanced by the time of the first available appointment (7.3%).

CONCLUSION:

This secret shopper study found that the majority of obstetric clinicians' offices enrolled in Florida Medicaid do not accept pregnant patients with Medicaid insurance who are taking MOUD. Policy changes are needed to ensure access to adequate prenatal care for patients with opioid use disorder.
Physiologic Effects of the Awake Prone Position Combined With High-Flow Nasal Oxygen on Gas Exchange and Work of Breathing in Patients With Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia: A Randomized Crossover Trial
Authors: Lehingue Samuel , Allardet-Servent Jérôme , Ferdani Anne , Hraeich Sami , Forel Jean-Marie , Arnal Jean-Michel , Prud’homme Eloi , Penaranda Guillaume , Bourenne Jeremy , Monnet Olivier , Gainnier Marc , Cantais Emmanuel
Published: October 2023

OBJECTIVES:

To determine the effect of the awake prone position (APP) on gas exchange and the work of breathing in spontaneously breathing patients with COVID-19–associated acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF) supported by high-flow nasal oxygen.

DESIGN:

Prospective randomized physiologic crossover multicenter trial.

SETTINGS:

Four ICUs in Marseille, France.

PATIENTS:

Seventeen patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and Pao
2/Fio
2 less than or equal to 300 mm Hg while treated with high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy.

INTERVENTIONS:

Periods of APP and semirecumbent position (SRP) were randomly applied for 2 hours and separated by a 2-hour washout period.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:

Arterial blood gases, end-tidal CO2. and esophageal pressure were recorded prior to and at the end of each period. Inspiratory muscle effort was assessed by measuring the esophageal pressure swing (∆PES) and the simplified esophageal pressure–time product (sPTPES). The other endpoints included physiologic dead space to tidal volume ratio (VD/VT) and the transpulmonary pressure swing. The APP increased the Pao
2/Fio
2 from 84 Torr (61–137 Torr) to 208 Torr (114–226 Torr) (p = 0.0007) and decreased both the VD/VT and the respiratory rate from 0.54 (0.47–0.57) to 0.49 (0.45–0.53) (p = 0.012) and from 26 breaths/min (21–30 breaths/min) to 21 breaths/min (19–22 breaths/min), respectively (p = 0.002). These variables remained unchanged during the SRP. The ∆PES and sPTPES per breath were unaffected by the position. However, the APP reduced the sPTPES per minute from 225 cm H2O.s.m–1 (176–332 cm H2O.s.m–1) to 174 cm H2O.s.m–1 (161–254 cm H2O.s.m–1) (p = 0.049).

CONCLUSIONS:

In spontaneously breathing patients with COVID-19–associated AHRF supported by high-flow nasal oxygen, the APP improves oxygenation and reduces the physiologic dead space, respiratory rate, and work of breathing per minute.
Second Hematologic Malignancies Associated With Primary Mediastinal Germ Cell Tumors
Authors: Aguiar-Bujanda David , Croissier-Sánchez Laura , Pérez-Cabrera Daniel , Galván-Ruiz Saray
Published: October 2023

Background:

Studies addressing second hematologic malignancies (SHMs) in patients with primary mediastinal germ cell tumors (PMGCTs) are scarce. To better describe this phenomenon, we analyzed a large case series from a population-based registry.

Methods:

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database was used to report the clinical characteristics and incidence of SHMs in patients with PMGCT.

Results:

Among 1297 PMGCTs, 27 cases (2.08%) of SHM were found, with a median latency period of 12 months (95% CI: 5-41). All SHM occurred in males, 20 of whom (74.1%) had a previous nonseminomatous tumor. Acute myeloid leukemia was the most frequent SHM, accounting for 13 cases, 4 of which were acute megakaryoblastic leukemia that occurred within 5 months of diagnosis. The median survival after the diagnosis of SHM was 6 months (95% CI: 2-41). The risk of SHM was significantly higher than expected for the reference population, with a standardized incidence ratio of 6.21 (95% CI: 3.31-10.62) and an absolute excess risk of 19.19 per 10,000 person-years.

Conclusions:

Patients with PMGCT are at a higher risk of developing SHMs than the general population, particularly acute myeloid leukemia. This risk ranges from synchronous diagnosis of acute megakaryoblastic leukemia to the later onset of other hematological disorders that might be related to PMGCT therapies. Our findings may help create follow-up schedules for patients with PMGCT and raise the level of suspicion surrounding this association.
The Concerning Disaggregation of Gender and Racial/Ethnicity Disparity Investigation at Recent ASCO Annual Meetings
Authors: Gardner Ulysses G. , McClelland Shearwood
Published: October 2023

Objectives:

There has been a recent emphasis in the peer-reviewed oncology literature on examining disparities by gender. Such emphasis provides an excellent opportunity to simultaneously examine race/ethnicity disparities in the same cohort. The degree to which gender disparities research has been performed concomitantly with racial disparities research at prominent oncologic societies has yet to be investigated.

Methods:

ABSTRACTs presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting were reviewed. Abstracts selected for the oral abstract or clinical science symposium sessions at the 2020, 2021, and 2022 annual meetings were evaluated to determine the amount of gender disparities research presented. Such research was further assessed to determine whether racial/ethnicity disparities were examined simultaneously.

Results:

From 2020 to 2022, 1219 abstracts were presented at the ASCO annual meetings, oral abstract or clinical science symposium sessions. Of these, 7 involved gender disparities examination, of which only 2 (29%) concomitantly examined race/ethnicity. No study since 2020 concomitantly examined gender and racial disparities.

Conclusions:

More than 70% of gender disparities work presented at ASCO has been disaggregated from concomitant racial disparities examination, with complete disaggregation since 2021. Gender disparities work remains a miniscule aspect of the overall research landscape. Future work in examining gender disparities may be best aggregated with racial/ethnicity disparities to optimize timely solutions in both areas; such work could potentially be incentivized from the inclusion criteria of future funding mechanisms.