bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Understanding risks and consequences of pathogen infections on the physiological performance of outmigrating Chinook salmon
Authors: Mauduit F , Segarra A , Mandic M , Todgham A E , Baerwald M R , Schreier A D , Fangue N A , Connon R E
Published: December 2021

The greatest concentration of at-risk anadromous salmonids is found in California (USA)—the populations that have been negatively impacted by the degradation of freshwater ecosystems. While climate-driven environmental changes threaten salmonids directly, they also change the life cycle dynamics and geographic distribution of pathogens, their resulting host-pathogen interactions and potential for disease progression. Recent studies have established the correlation between pathogen detection and salmonid smolt mortality during their migration to the ocean. The objective of the present study was to screen for up to 47 pathogens in juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) that were held in cages at two key sites of the Sacramento River (CA, USA) and measure potential consequences on fish health. To do so, we used a combination of transcriptomic analysis, enzymatic assays for energy metabolism and hypoxia and thermal tolerance measures. Results revealed that fish were infected by two myxozoan parasites: Ceratonova shasta and Parvicapsula minibicornis within a 2-week deployment. Compared to the control fish maintained in our rearing facility, infected fish displayed reduced body mass, depleted hepatic glycogen stores and differential regulation of genes involved in the immune and general stress responses. This suggests that infected fish would have lower chances of migration success. In contrast, hypoxia and upper thermal tolerances were not affected by infection, suggesting that infection did not impair their capacity to cope with acute abiotic stressors tested in this study. An evaluation of long-term consequences of the observed reduced body mass and hepatic glycogen depletion is needed to establish a causal relationship between salmon parasitic infection and their migration success. This study highlights that to assess the potential sublethal effects of a stressor, or to determine a suitable management action for fish, studies need to consider a combination of endpoints from the molecular to the organismal level.
Obesity increases heart failure incidence and mortality: observational and Mendelian randomization studies totalling over 1 million individuals
Authors: Benn Marianne , Marott Sarah C W , Tybjærg-Hansen Anne , Nordestgaard Børge G
Published: December 2021

Aims

Whether high body mass index (BMI) causally influences development and prognosis of heart failure has implications for clinical practice. We tested the hypotheses that high BMI causally influences heart failure incidence and mortality.

Methods and results

Using observational and Mendelian randomization causal, genetic analyses, we studied 106 121 individuals from the Copenhagen General Population Study, 18 407 from the Copenhagen City Heart Study, and 977 323 from publicly available databases. In observational analyses in the Copenhagen studies with 10 years of median follow-up, multivariable adjusted hazard ratios per 1 kg/m2 increment of BMI were 1.06 (95% confidence interval: 1.05–1.07; P < 0.001; n = 124 528; events = 6589) for heart failure incidence, 1.04 (1.03–1.06; P < 0.001; n = 124 528; events = 1237) for heart failure mortality, and 1.01 (1.00–1.01; P < 0.001; n = 124 528; events = 24 144) for all-cause mortality. In genetic analyses in the Copenhagen studies, the age and sex adjusted causal risk ratios per 1 kg/m2 increment of BMI were 1.19 (1.05–1.36; P = 0.008; n = 118 200; events = 6541) for heart failure incidence, 1.27 (0.82–1.98; P = 0.28; n = 118 200; events = 889) for heart failure mortality, and 1.11 (1.02–1.22; P = 0.022; n = 118 200; events = 16 814) for all-cause mortality. Finally, combining genetic data from the Copenhagen studies, the Genetic Investigation of ANthropometric Traits, the Heart Failure Molecular Epidemiology for Therapeutic Targets, and the UK Biobank, the unadjusted causal risk ratios per 1 kg/m2 increment of BMI were 1.39 (1.27–1.52; P < 0.001; n = 1 095 523; events = 53 850) for heart failure incidence, 1.18 (1.00–1.38; P = 0.05; n = 576 853; events = 2373) for heart failure mortality, and 1.02 (1.00–1.04; P = 0.03; n = 576 853; events = 44 734) for all-cause mortality.

Conclusion

High BMI causally increases the risk of both heart failure incidence and mortality.
Suppression of the Sugarcane Aphid, Melanaphis sacchari (Hemiptera: Aphididae), by Resident Natural Enemies on Susceptible and Resistant Sorghum Hybrids
Authors: Faris Ashleigh M , Elliott Norman C , Brewer Michael J
Published: December 2021

The sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is an invasive sorghum pest that has threatened over 90% of North American sorghum production. Resident parasitoids, coccinellids, syrphids, and lacewings prey on this aphid. Our objective was to compare and estimate parasitoid and predator suppression of sugarcane aphids placed on resistant and susceptible hybrids in a field setting using natural enemy exclusion cages. During 2018 and 2019 along the Texas Gulf Coast and Central Oklahoma, three natural enemy exclusion treatments—no exclusion (full access for parasitoids and predators), partial exclusion (access limited to parasitoids), and complete exclusion (excludes parasitoids and predators)—were used. The parasitoid Aphelinus nigritus Howard (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) accounted for 90% of recovered natural enemies. In 2018, aphid suppression attributable to A. nigritus was ca. 95% on the resistant hybrids and 80% on the susceptible hybrids when comparing aphid counts from complete and partial exclusion treatments, while few predators were observed. In 2019, aphid suppression was attributed to a combination of predation and parasitism. Relatively more predators were recorded at both sites, accounting for 14% to 33% of specimens recovered in the no exclusion treatment. Aphid suppression attributed to predators and parasitoids ranged from 85% on aphid-resistant hybrids and 27% on susceptible hybrids in south Texas and >95% on both hybrids in Oklahoma when comparing aphid abundance in the complete and no exclusion treatments. Parasitism and predation contributed to aphid regulation on both hybrids, which may accrue multiple benefits leading to a more resilient sugarcane aphid management system.
Intersecting single-cell transcriptomics and genome-wide association studies identifies crucial cell populations and candidate genes for atherosclerosis
Authors: Slenders Lotte , Landsmeer Lennart P L , Cui Kai , Depuydt Marie A C , Verwer Maarten , Mekke Joost , Timmerman Nathalie , van den Dungen Noortje A M , Kuiper Johan , de Winther Menno P J , Prange Koen H M , Ma Wei Feng , Miller Clint L , Aherrahrou Redouane , Civelek Mete , de Borst Gert J , de Kleijn Dominique P V , Asselbergs Folkert W , den Ruijter Hester M , Boltjes Arjan , Pasterkamp Gerard , van der Laan Sander W , Mokry Michal
Published: December 2021

Aims

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have discovered hundreds of common genetic variants for atherosclerotic disease and cardiovascular risk factors. The translation of susceptibility loci into biological mechanisms and targets for drug discovery remains challenging. Intersecting genetic and gene expression data has led to the identification of candidate genes. However, previously studied tissues are often non-diseased and heterogeneous in cell composition, hindering accurate candidate prioritization. Therefore, we analysed single-cell transcriptomics from atherosclerotic plaques for cell-type-specific expression to identify atherosclerosis-associated candidate gene–cell pairs.

Methods and results

We applied gene-based analyses using GWAS summary statistics from 46 atherosclerotic and cardiovascular disease, risk factors, and other traits. We then intersected these candidates with single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data to identify genes specific for individual cell (sub)populations in atherosclerotic plaques. The coronary artery disease (CAD) loci demonstrated a prominent signal in plaque smooth muscle cells (SMCs) (SKI, KANK2, and SORT1) P-adj. = 0.0012, and endothelial cells (ECs) (SLC44A1, ATP2B1) P-adj. = 0.0011. Finally, we used liver-derived scRNA-seq data and showed hepatocyte-specific enrichment of genes involved in serum lipid levels.

Conclusion

We discovered novel and known gene–cell pairs pointing to new biological mechanisms of atherosclerotic disease. We highlight that loci associated with CAD reveal prominent association levels in mainly plaque SMC and EC populations. We present an intuitive single-cell transcriptomics-driven workflow rooted in human large-scale genetic studies to identify putative candidate genes and affected cells associated with cardiovascular traits. Collectively, our workflow allows for the identification of cell-specific targets relevant for atherosclerosis and can be universally applied to other complex genetic diseases and traits.
NanoLuc luciferase as a quantitative yeast two-hybrid reporter
Authors: Heintz Veronica J , Wang Ling , LaCount Douglas J
Published: December 2021

The yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assay is a powerful technique to identify protein-protein interactions. However, the auxotrophic markers that are the most common Y2H reporters take several days to yield data and require subjective assessment of semiquantitative data to identify interactions. Several reporters have been developed to overcome these disadvantages, but there is still a need for a Y2H reporter that is objective, fast and able to be performed with common laboratory equipment. In this report, we replaced the ADE2 reporter in BK100 with NanoLuc luciferase to yield BK100Nano. We developed an optimized assay to measure NanoLuc activity in 96-well plates and analyzed a set of 74 pairs identified in Y2H library screens, which revealed 44 positive interactions using an unbiased cutoff based on the mean luminescence of negative control samples. The same set was also tested for growth on Y2H selection medium via expression of the HIS3 reporter. We found 91% agreement between the two assays, with discrepancies attributed to weak interactions that displayed variable growth on Y2H medium. Overall, the new BK100Nano strain establishes a quantitative and convenient method to identify Y2H interactions and has potential to be applied to a high throughput manner.
Long-read isoform sequencing reveals tissue-specific isoform expression between active and hibernating brown bears (Ursus arctos)
Authors: Tseng Elizabeth , Underwood Jason G , Evans Hutzenbiler Brandon D , Trojahn Shawn , Kingham Brewster , Shevchenko Olga , Bernberg Erin , Vierra Michelle , Robbins Charles T , Jansen Heiko T , Kelley Joanna L
Published: December 2021

Understanding hibernation in brown bears (Ursus arctos) can provide insight into some human diseases. During hibernation, brown bears experience periods of insulin resistance, physical inactivity, extreme bradycardia, obesity, and the absence of urine production. These states closely mimic aspects of human diseases such as type 2 diabetes, muscle atrophy, as well as renal and heart failure. The reversibility of these states from hibernation to active season enables the identification of mediators with possible therapeutic value for humans. Recent studies have identified genes and pathways that are differentially expressed between active and hibernation seasons in bears. However, little is known about the role of differential expression of gene isoforms on hibernation physiology. To identify both distinct and novel mRNA isoforms, full-length RNA-sequencing (Iso-Seq) was performed on adipose, skeletal muscle, and liver from three individual bears sampled during both active and hibernation seasons. The existing reference genome annotation was improved by combining it with the Iso-Seq data. Short-read RNA-sequencing data from six individuals were mapped to the new reference annotation to quantify differential isoform usage (DIU) between tissues and seasons. We identified differentially expressed isoforms in all three tissues, to varying degrees. Adipose had a high level of DIU with isoform switching, regardless of whether the genes were differentially expressed. Our analyses revealed that DIU, even in the absence of differential gene expression, is an important mechanism for modulating genes during hibernation. These findings demonstrate the value of isoform expression studies and will serve as the basis for deeper exploration into hibernation biology.
Expanding the Menu: Are Polyphagy and Gene Family Expansions Linked across Lepidoptera?
Authors: Breeschoten Thijmen , van der Linden Corné F H , Ros Vera I D , Schranz M Eric , Simon Sabrina
Published: December 2021

Evolutionary expansions and contractions of gene families are often correlated with key innovations and/or ecological characteristics. In butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera), expansions of gene families involved in detoxification of plant specialized metabolites are hypothesized to facilitate a polyphagous feeding style. However, analyses supporting this hypothesis are mostly based on a limited number of lepidopteran species. We applied a phylogenomics approach, using 37 lepidopteran genomes, to analyze if gene family evolution (gene gain and loss) is associated with the evolution of polyphagy. Specifically, we compared gene counts and evolutionary gene gain and loss rates of gene families involved in adaptations with plant feeding. We correlated gene evolution to host plant family range (phylogenetic diversity) and specialized metabolite content of plant families (functional metabolite diversity). We found a higher rate for gene loss than gene gain in Lepidoptera, a potential consequence of genomic rearrangements and deletions after (potentially small-scale) duplication events. Gene family expansions and contractions varied across lepidopteran families, and were associated to host plant use and specialization levels. Within the family Noctuidae, a higher expansion rate for gene families involved in detoxification can be related to the large number of polyphagous species. However, gene family expansions are observed in both polyphagous and monophagous lepidopteran species and thus seem to be species-specific in the taxa sampled. Nevertheless, a significant positive correlation of gene counts of the carboxyl- and choline esterase and glutathione-S-transferase detoxification gene families with the level of polyphagy was identified across Lepidoptera.
Destructive outbreaks of the corallivorous starfish Acanthaster cf. solarisspare coral assemblages in the shallowest reef flat areas in New Caledonia
Authors: Dumas Pascal , Peignon Christophe , Dumas Mahé , Bourgeois Bertrand , Gossuin Hugues , Fiat Sylvie
Published: December 2021

Outbreaks of the corallivorous starfish Acanthaster cf. solaris (COTS) are not fully understood, especially in the shallowest areas behind the reef crests where limited COTS impacts are often reported. Here, we investigated the outbreak occurrence and compared post-outbreak habitat impacts in reef flats vs. upper fore reefs at 13 sites in New Caledonia. In this Pacific territory so far considered marginally affected by COTS, we documented wide occurrences of aggregations, combining massive population increases (maximum 605 COTS per swim, abundances >100 COTS recorded in 46% of the sites) with limited spatiotemporal boundaries. Abundance levels met the highest values in the literature, but were restricted to relatively small, isolated mid-shelf reefs. Typical residence time was short (< two years), with at least one site where COTS seemingly disappeared within seven months. The spread of COTS population and subsequent impacts appeared self-contained, and never affected the reef flats (0.5–1.5 m). The transition to severely affected fore reefs was abrupt, with live coral cover divided by nine and morphological diversity halved within a very few meters (3–5 m). We suggest that these differential impacts likely result from harsh environmental conditions making shallow, coral-rich areas less suitable for COTS, thereby pushing predation pressure further downwards.
Incorporating spatial heterogeneity and environmental impacts into stock-recruitment relationships for Gulf of Maine lobster
Authors: Mazur Mackenzie D , Tanaka Kisei R , Shank Burton , Chang Jui-Han , Hodgdon Cameron T , Reardon Kathleen M , Friedland Kevin D , Chen Yong
Published: December 2021

Functional stock-recruitment relationships (SRRs) are often difficult to quantify and can differ over space. Additionally, climate change adds to the complexity of recruitment dynamics. This paper's aim was to incorporate spatial heterogeneity and environmental effects on productivity in SRRs with American lobster in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) as a case study. GOM lobster recruitment has substantially increased since the mid-2000s,  due to improved survival rates of pre-recruits and increased spawning stock biomass (SSB). GOM bottom water temperatures have increased at a rate of 0.2ºC per decade, which caused lobster settlement area to expand and improved survival rates. We first estimated local SSB using bottom trawl survey data and a geostatistical model. Using estimated SSB, recruitment data from a ventless trap survey, and an interpolated bottom water temperature field, we developed modified Ricker stock-recruitment models accounting for spatial heterogeneity and temperature impacts with varying coefficient generalized additive models. Results showed that temperature significantly impacted recruitment. Changes in temperature mediated productivity differed between the eastern and western GOM. Our study demonstrated that the incorporation of spatial heterogeneity and environmental effects impacts our understanding of SRRs. These methods can be applied to other species to understand recruitment dynamics influenced by climate change.
Validation of the 3M™ Molecular Detection Assay 2 - STEC Gene Screen (stx) for the Detection of Shiga Toxin Gene (stx1 and/or stx2) in Fresh Raw Ground Beef and Fresh Spinach: AOAC Performance Tested MethodSM 071903
Authors: Rosauer Micki L , Barnes Christina , Silbernagel Karen M , Koch Kateland M
Published: December 2021

Background

The 3M™ Molecular Detection Assay 2 - STEC Gene Screen (stx) method is based on gene amplification by the use of real time loop-mediated isothermal amplification when used with the 3M Molecular Detection System for the rapid and specific detection of Shiga toxin gene (stx1 and/or stx2) from Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in enriched foods. The stx assay does not differentiate between stx1 and stx2 but detects the presence of stx1 and/or stx2.

Objective

The 3M Molecular Detection Assay 2 - STEC Gene Screen (stx) method was evaluated for AOAC®  Performance Tested MethodsSM certification.

Methods

Matrix studies, inclusivity/exclusivity, robustness testing, product stability, and lot-to-lot variability testing were conducted to assess the method’s performance.

Results

The 3M Molecular Detection Assay 2 - STEC Gene Screen (stx) demonstrated equivalent results to the United States Department of Agriculture/Food Safety and Inspection Service Microbiology Laboratory Guidebook Chapter 5C.00 reference method for fresh raw ground beef, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Bacteriological Analytical Manual Chapter 4A reference method for fresh spinach. The 3M Molecular Detection Assay 2 - STEC Gene Screen (stx) detected all STEC E. coli strains (E. coli strains with stx1 and/or stx2 genes) and did not detect any of the 45 strains from the exclusivity panel. Robustness testing indicated that small variations in critical test parameters did not adversely affect the assay’s performance. Product consistency and stability testing demonstrated no differences between the lots evaluated.

Conclusion

The data collected in these studies demonstrate that the 3M Molecular Detection Assay 2 - STEC Gene Screen (stx) is a reliable method for the rapid and specific detection of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli in raw ground beef and spinach.

Highlights

The 3M Molecular Detection Assay 2 - STEC Gene Screen (stx) method is suitable for the rapid and specific detection of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli in fresh raw ground beef, and spinach.
Electronically controlled cooling pads can improve litter growth performance and indirect measures of milk production in heat-stressed lactating sows
Authors: Johnson Jay S , Jansen Taylor L , Galvin Michaiah , Field Tyler C , Graham Jason R , Stwalley Robert M , Schinckel Allan P
Published: December 2021

Heat stress (HS) decreases lactation output in sows due to an attempt to reduce metabolic heat production. However, this negatively affects litter growth performance. Therefore, the study objective was to determine whether electronically controlled cooling pads (ECP) would improve indirect measures of lactation output (e.g., total heat production [THP]) and litter growth performance in HS exposed sows. Over two repetitions, 12 multiparous (2.69 ± 0.85) lactating sows (265.4 ± 26.1 kg body weight [BW]) and litters were assigned to either an ECP (n = 3/repetition) or a non-functional ECP (NECP; n = 3/repetition) and placed into farrowing crates within indirect calorimeters from days 3.7 ± 0.5 to 18.7 ± 0.5 of lactation. Litters were standardized across all sows (11.4 ± 0.7 piglets/litter), and sows were provided ad libitum feed and water. All sows were exposed to cyclical HS (28.27 ± 0.26 °C nighttime to 33.09 ± 0.19°C daytime). On days 4, 8, 14, and 18 of lactation, indirect calorimetry was performed on each individual sow and litter to determine THP and THP/kg BW0.75. Body temperature (TB) was measured hourly using vaginal implants, and respiration rate (RR; breaths per minute [bpm]) was measured daily at 0700, 1100, 1300, 1500, and 1900 h. Sow feed intake (FI) was assessed daily. Litter weights were obtained at birth, on days 4, 8, 14, and 18 of lactation, and at weaning. Data were analyzed using PROC GLIMMIX with sow and/or litter as the experimental unit. An overall decrease (P < 0.01; 25 bpm) in RR and maximum daily TB (P = 0.02; 0.40 °C) was observed in ECP vs. NECP sows. An increase in THP (P < 0.01; 20.4%) and THP/kg BW0.75 (P < 0.01; 23.1%) was observed for ECP when compared with NECP sows and litters. Litter average daily gain and weaning weight were increased (P < 0.05; 25.0 and 19.2%, respectively) for ECP vs. NECP litters. No FI differences were observed (P = 0.40) when comparing ECP (5.66 ± 0.31 kg/d) and NECP (5.28 ± 0.31 kg/d) sows. In summary, ECPs improve litter growth, thermoregulatory measures, and bioenergetic parameters associated with greater milk production in lactating sows exposed to cyclical HS.
Survival rates of children and young adolescents with CNS tumors improved in the Netherlands since 1990: A population-based study
Authors: Hoogendijk Raoull , van der Lugt Jasper , van Vuurden Dannis , Kremer Leontien , Wesseling Pieter , Hoving Eelco , Karim-Kos Henrike E
Published: December 2021

Introduction

Survival of children with central nervous system (CNS) tumors varies largely between countries. For the Netherlands, detailed population-based estimation of incidence, survival, and mortality of pediatric CNS tumors are lacking but are needed to evaluate progress.

Methods

All CNS tumors diagnosed in patients <18 years during 1990-2017 were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Other than pilocytic astrocytomas, nonmalignant tumors were included since 2000. Incidence and mortality trends were evaluated by average annual percentage change (AAPC). Changes over time in the five-year observed survival (5-year OS) were evaluated by Poisson regression models adjusted for follow-up time.

Results

Between 1990 and 2017, 2057 children were diagnosed with a malignant CNS tumor and 885 with a pilocytic astrocytoma. During 2000-2017, 695 children were diagnosed with other nonmalignant CNS tumors. Incidence rates of malignant tumors remained stable, while pilocytic astrocytomas and other nonmalignant tumors increased by 2.0% and 2.4% per year, respectively. The 5-year OS rates improved for all groups; however, improvement for malignant tumors was not constant over time. The contribution of malignant tumors located at the optic nerve tumors was 1% in 2000-2009. However, shifting from pilocytic astrocytomas, increased to 6% in 2010-2017, impacting survival outcomes for malignant tumors.

Conclusion

Survival rates of CNS tumors improved over time but were not accompanied by a decreasing mortality rate. The observed temporary survival deterioration for malignant tumors appears to be related to changes in diagnostics and registration practices. Whether differences in treatment regimens contribute to this temporary decline in survival needs to be verified.
PR for the Public Interest
Authors: Aronczyk Melissa , Espinoza Maria I.
Published: December 2021

Chapter 4, PR for the “Public Interest,” reviews the endeavors which allowed industrial interests to promote their anti-environmental agenda as rational and reasonable. It also allowed them to advocate against the passage of further legislation. By advancing a rhetoric of “compromising for the common good,” PR actors helped diffuse the appearance of adversity in a 1970s and 1980s context of public concern over environmental damage, and cemented public relations as a legitimate profession with specialized skills of negotiation and dispute resolution. Throughout the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, as intensified battles over environmental futures were waged between environmental groups and business associations, PR actors found ways to create and manage influence in political contexts. PR consultants developed single-issue coalitions, public-private partnerships, green business networks, and other multiple-member groups, along with multi-pronged media strategies, to advance the idea of plurality.
The Climate of Publicity
Authors: Aronczyk Melissa , Espinoza Maria I.
Published: December 2021

Chapter 6, The Climate of Publicity, examines the media plans, mobilization efforts, and marketing devices that climate advocates use to promote “the planet” to various publics as an object of concern. While PR appears in the world as a neutral technology of legitimation, this chapter demonstrates the degree to which the practice is culturally determined and the way its conception of publics as situational, contingent, and self-interested plays out. Drawing on interviews with environmental advocates, movement leaders, NGOs, and climate communication teams, we show how PR, conceptualized by environmentalists as a strategic resource against established systems of power, ultimately reproduces those systems of power, leaving unchanged the substance of response to the “super wicked” problem of climate change.
The Radical Reformation, Paracelsian Networks, and Pseudo-Weigelian Alchemy
Authors: Zuber Mike A.
Published: December 2021

This chapter sketches theological and intellectual developments of the Reformation era that allowed rebirth to emerge as something distinct from baptism, after which it proceeds to show how rebirth came to be strongly associated with alchemy. Drawing on the legacy of Paracelsus, the spiritualist theologies of Caspar Schwenckfeld and Valentin Weigel sharply contrasted inward rebirth with the outward ritual of baptism. Particularly Weigel and his followers departed from the conception of forensic justification dominant in Lutheran orthodoxy. They posited rebirth as an alternative account of how believers could attain salvation. Pseudepigraphic texts attributed to Weigel first closely associated this understanding of rebirth with alchemy in the late sixteenth century.
Georg Lorenz Seidenbecher, Franckenberg’s Spiritual and Philosophical Son
Authors: Zuber Mike A.
Published: December 2021

This chapter documents how Abraham von Franckenberg actively apprenticed some of his contacts and correspondents as spiritual alchemists, most notably Georg Lorenz Seidenbecher. In his later years, Franckenberg became increasingly interested in alchemical literature. Exiled in Danzig due to the Thirty Years’ War, he encountered the young Seidenbecher in the summer of 1649. They met frequently, and Franckenberg gave Seidenbecher letters and manuscript texts to copy and internalise. Two letters to Tobias König and other texts that survive in an edition from the eighteenth century show how Franckenberg pointed his associates towards spiritual alchemy without giving it away too easily. Having left Danzig, Seidenbecher corresponded with Franckenberg until the latter’s death in 1652.
Dionysius Andreas Freher, Boehme’s Apostle to the English
Authors: Zuber Mike A.
Published: December 2021

This chapter details how Dionysius Andreas Freher brought the spiritual alchemy of rebirth from the Low Countries to England and thus served as the most important link for transmitting it to the nineteenth century. Freher arrived in Amsterdam in late 1685 and soon joined a religious commune near Leiden, led by Johann Georg Gichtel’s disciple Johann Wilhelm Überfeld. In this context, Freher immersed himself into the writings of Jacob Boehme for almost ten years. Eventually, his conflicts with Überfeld and news of Jane Leade’s Philadelphian Society in London prompted him to go to England. Not much is known about Freher’s life there, yet he seems to have acted as a Boehme expert who explained the theosopher’s opaque writings to an English audience. Freher’s main work on Boehme, Fundamenta mystica, also described the spiritual alchemy of rebirth. In shortened form, one of Freher’s treatises found inclusion in an influential nineteenth-century volume on alchemy.
Mary Anne Atwood and Her First Readers
Authors: Zuber Mike A.
Published: December 2021

This chapter shows how the earliest readers of the Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery perceived its mystical bent and distinguished it from other interpretations of alchemy that denied its laboratory operations. Initially, Mary Anne South closely managed the circulation of the few remaining copies of her work. After she was widowed as Mrs Atwood in 1885, she became more forthcoming and shared exemplars with several London-based occultists, most of them associated with the Theosophical Society. Early readers such as Arthur Edward Waite and Patience Sinnett esteemed the Suggestive Inquiry more highly than the moral interpretation of alchemy proposed by Ethan Allen Hitchcock in the United States and other alternatives. Isabelle de Steiger became Atwood’s closest friend and guardian of her intellectual legacy. To her dying day, Atwood herself insisted on the importance of the spiritual alchemy of rebirth.
A Race to Save Everything
Authors: Taillant Jorge Daniel
Published: December 2021

This chapter describes the origins of cryoactivism, a term the author coined to describe environmental activism to protect the world’s cryosphere (its frozen surfaces). It provides examples of how people around the world are adapting to climate change and helping protect, restore, and even create glaciers. The chapter also focuses on mitigation actions that people, governments, organizations, commerce, and industry can take to confront the causes of anthropogenic climate change, including passing laws to protect glaciers, but more importantly, taking actions to reduce emissions of super pollutants (such as methane, black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons) that can achieve significant global cooling results in the near term. The chapter also reviews the key global climate agreements such as the Paris Agreement.
Why for COVID but Not for Climate?
Authors: Taillant Jorge Daniel
Published: December 2021

This chapter is a reproduction of a previously published opinion piece examining the similarities of the challenges the global community faced during the COVID-19 crisis and the dynamics faced by catastrophic climate change trends. The chapter considers why the global community acted so quickly to address COVID-19 but seems not so pressed to tackle an even greater problem, irreversible climate change. It provides insights on the characteristics of these crises and the reactions of society to them and compares and contrasts these different but similar existential crises. The chapter also contrasts the views of the two authors, who are aged 52 and 20, and their different approaches to the solutions, which may offer insight and clues about how future generations will tackle and strive to resolve the climate crisis.
“A Farewell to Peace?”
Authors: Waller James
Published: December 2021

The risk factors discussed in the previous three chapters are a creeping, erosive rot that continue to undermine the structural integrity and stability of Northern Irish society. If left unaddressed, they can drag this deeply divided “post-conflict” society back into the abyss of violent conflict. There are a range of internal and external accelerants, some of which could metastasize into triggers, that further threaten the stability of peace in contemporary Northern Ireland and increase the risk of violent conflict. Among these are (1) acute economic deterioration, (2) outbreaks of limited paramilitary violence, and (3) a vote on a united Ireland. These three accelerants are cross-cutting and intersecting. In the context of these accelerants further undermining the structural integrity and stability of Northern Irish society, there are a soberingly wide range of triggering factors that can make the return of violent conflict in contemporary Northern Ireland likely or imminent.
Creating an Early Colonial Order
Authors: Sehgal Manu
Published: December 2021

This book explains the origins of colonial rule and its dependence on large-scale military violence in eighteenth-century South Asia. By the final quarter of the long eighteenth century, war-making was not incidental to the elaboration of an infrastructure of extractive domination. The changing capacity of the early colonial regime to organize conquest with increasing efficiency was originative of a complex of laws, ideas, conception of sovereign authority, bureaucratic innovations enmeshed in a political economy of conquest that formed a distinctive early colonial order for South Asia. Colonialism—familiar to historians of the British Raj as coercive authoritarian domination—did not emerge fully formed in early nineteenth-century South Asia. Colonial conquest raised a series of important questions which are at the heart of this book: How was territory to be conquered? How was conquest to be explained and understood? How was the weight assigned to the military in colonial societies justified as an ideology of rule? In answering these questions this early colonial order cast a long shadow across the colonial and the postcolonial periods.
‘Stranger to Relate yet Wonderfully True’
Authors: Sehgal Manu
Published: December 2021

Building on the preceding chapter’s effort to study war and territorial conquest from the vantage point of peninsular India, this chapter focuses on the Madras presidency at war against the sultans of Mysore (1780–4). In stark contrast to the muted resistance offered by the civilian government of Bombay, when confronted with a vastly expanded military challenge, the Madras civilian power completely imploded. The belligerent Governor George Macartney struggled to wrest control against encroachments over his civilian authority from military commanders, an overweening Bengal administration and the inveterate hostility of the rulers of Mysore. These fissiparous struggles were not merely confined to the high politics of colonial administration. Ideologues like Henry Malcolm argued for the complete inversion of the ideology of civilian control of the military, especially for the local administration in Madras presidency. Taken together—the complete breakdown of civil–military relations at the highest levels of the Madras presidency and the view from the margins of local administration—the experiment of placing the military well above and beyond the civilian components of early colonial rule had taken deep roots in peninsular India.
Globalizing Sportscapes
Authors: Parthasarathy D.
Published: December 2021

D Parthasarathi’s paper centres global sportscapes as indicative of global-local linkages and transnational flows of investment in clubs across nations and the spread of viewership and consumption across continents, but offers a different scope and perspective, through football within the political economy of leisure as it is played in the streets of Mumbai, Singapore and Bangkok. The changing politics of class, ethnicity, aspirations, and leisure among the urban working classes in these cities is illustrated using the lens of globalizing football. Heterotopic uses of public spaces through the sport of football, served as a counterstrategy of the urban poor, migrants, minorities and working classes against the dehumanizing and disciplining effects of alienating work and urban spatial exclusion. Some of these are also channeled into sport consumption cultures.
Sherpas in Himalayan Mountaineering
Authors: Marwah Vrinda
Published: December 2021

Vrinda Marwah’s chapter presents a deeply perceptive exploration of the play of labour, identity, power and modernity in the lives of Sherpas in Himalayan mountaineering. The economy of mountaineering tourism and role of Sherpas’ labour forms the base for a further exploration using the lens of the sociology of sport. Reviewing three key Western texts on the Sherpas, the author unearths the why and how of Sherpas’ relationship to climbing, power dynamics of representation, the racial and gendered connotations of labour. Moving beyond these discussions, the sporting lens offers an enquiry into identity, advancement and labour within contemporary polity and society for the Sherpas as a community.
Local Clubs and Sports Culture in Kerala
Authors: Mohammed Irshad S.
Published: December 2021

S.Mohammed Irshad’s essay describes the crumbling of a local sports club in Kerala that was once the heart of a vibrant sports culture and deliberates upon the reasons for the decay. Being a symbol of community ownership and sustaining political mobilization, the local sports club promoted a civic culture within the community through local training and competition. However, the newly-emerging stadium-based sports and emergent cultures of party politics have slowly replaced the community-based sports clubs of old representing sports commons in nurturing talent to new institutions like the gymnasium and sports associations.
Sports, Celebrity, and the Sports Biopici
Authors: Nayar Pramod K.
Published: December 2021

The biopic is integral to the sportsculture industry, and to celebrity cultures. It documents lives, and draws attention to the processes through which lives become spectacles and aspirational models for a country. This essay merges two domains of analysis: the sports celebrity and the biopic. It examines M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (MSD 2016), Sachin: A Billion Dreams (S 2016) and the older Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (BMB 2013) Pramod K Nayar describes the fashioning of the celebrity through the cinematic medium, unpacks the factors that make a sports celebrity worthy of a biopic and thereby expanding his/her marketability. Sports celebrities and cultures may once have been local, but today the very articulation of national pride demands the cooperation of global media forces and personalities. The transnationalization of local/regional/national celebrities enhances their local values, and implies a two-way process between the national and the global.
Breaking into the Press Box and After
Authors: Ugra Sharda
Published: December 2021

Who are the people who create the images and reportage we consume? What ‘makes’ a journalist in the sporting field? More specifically, what drives a woman to break into the all-male citadel of sports media? Sharda Ugra’s perceptive and illuminating first person account of her journey through the media boxes of cricket fields is not just fascinating, but opens up a Pandora’ box where intersecting entities of gender, sports and media interact. Her account brings into the discourse on sports in society the tensions at play among those who report on a sport, the sportspersons, the editors and the constraints of deadlines and media demands. This autobiographical account offers scholars an opportunity to explore sports in the context of those who communicate sports to society.
Outsiders in the Village
Authors: Killmer Jocelyn
Published: December 2021

A shortage of women doctors in Rajasthan’s rural government sector has left sizeable gaps in the provision of women’s healthcare. This chapter explores how, in their narratives, women doctors position themselves as outsiders in the village, unable to create successful careers and lives in rural spaces. Medical graduates considering a rural career must contend with the hierarchy of medical prestige that places cities above villages and the timescale that frames villages as ‘backwards’ spaces. In doctors’ narratives of the village, doctors used the village as code for low educational and class status—and by separating themselves from the geographical space of the village, they also put metaphorical distance between themselves and their subaltern Other. Women doctors’ reluctance to occupy rural space illuminates the ways that class, space, and gender overlap to shape the practice of healthcare, with impacts felt far beyond the careers of doctors.
Politics of Childbirth in Nepal
Authors: Sharma Jeevan R , Adhikari Radha
Published: December 2021

Nepal has been hailed as a global success in reducing the maternal mortality ratio from around 540 women dying per 100,000 births in 1996 to about 240 in 2016. The chapter will critically analyse two interventions implemented around 2005. First, we will look at the USAID-funded Nepal Family Health Program, through which oral misoprostol (to control bleeding after delivery) was launched across Nepal. Second, we will look at Aama Surakshya Karyakram (or mother programme), which was implemented to promote institutional delivery. These two programmes, despite aiming to address high maternal mortality ratio in Nepal, adopted very different approaches, reflecting ideological struggles on women’s agency and the politics of childbirth. The chapter concludes that the costs of these changes (such as the lack of resources or the commercialization of healthcare) have been overlooked in the claims of Nepal’s ‘success’.
Digitalizing Community Health
Authors: Al Dahdah Marine , Kumar Alok
Published: December 2021

Through the study of ‘Motech’—a global mHealth programme on maternal health implemented in Ghana and India—this chapter offers the first analysis of the use of mobile phones as a tool in such programmes. This chapter focuses on the particular role of community health workers in establishing this programme. It questions the competing strategies to enhance or substitute these workers that are linked to the expansion of these new technical artefacts. This vision—of the health worker assisted by the mobile—is twofold: on the one hand, it would make the health worker efficient and omniscient; on the other hand, it calls into question the knowledge of health workers and their autonomy through an automated system of communication. This research provides a better understanding of the special status of mobile phones and mHealth applications for community health workers and how their use changes the practice of community health.
The Ocean Constitution
Authors: Bosco David
Published: December 2021

As national claims to ocean space proliferated, diplomats tried to set new rules for the oceans. The idea of the oceans as humanity’s “common heritage” gained support as an alternative to freedom of the seas. The negotiations featured divisions between the leading maritime powers, who were most concerned about preserving open access to the oceans, and many coastal countries more concerned with protecting regional waters. The diplomats eventually crafted an elaborate compromise that expanded the territorial sea to 12 miles and created a large new economic zone within which coastal states would have the right to regulate marine resources. A host of other provisions dealt with questions including passage through international straits, regulation of ice-covered areas, and the ocean rights of archipelagic countries. The United States, the leading maritime power, ultimately turned against the agreement, primarily because of concerns about how the treaty would regulate seabed mining.
The Convention in Operation
Authors: Bosco David
Published: December 2021

Post–Cold War ocean diplomacy appeared promising, particularly in the Arctic. Countries in the region negotiated maritime boundaries and cooperated on environmental concerns. Globally, several new maritime organizations took shape, including a tribunal and an organization to manage the deep seabed. Many countries proved eager to get more undersea territory, and they assembled legal claims to large areas of the continental shelf. These developments were accompanied by increased tension in the South China Sea, where China asserted special rights. Its moves provoked tension with other countries, including the United States. A collision between US and Chinese military aircraft highlighted the risks. The new legal framework for the oceans was tested in other ways, including through boarding operations and moves by countries to keep dangerous vessels far away from their coasts. The effort to control fishing activities continued and featured both dramatic high-seas chases and quiet negotiations by regional organizations.
Reconstructing the University
Authors: Tribe Keith
Published: December 2021

The ‘modern university’—research-based, in which teaching and research are pursued by academic specialists organised departmentally—was created in the United States in the later nineteenth century in a productive misunderstanding of the organisation of knowledge and teaching in contemporary German universities. While the latter enjoyed international recognition, academic careers remained in thrall to an apprenticeship structure in which senior staff represented their entire discipline, supported by their juniors. The American structure, fostered by endowments and grants, presumed that departments would be composed of specialists who advanced their careers by developing their specialism. This was decisive for the disciplinary development of universities around the world. In London, the university was a federal, administrative body whose degree courses could be followed both within Britain and in the wider Empire. As a component part of this structure, the London School of Economics shared in this reach, and so came to dominate the teaching of the social sciences in Britain and the Empire.
The Cambridge Tripos in Economic and Political Science
Authors: Tribe Keith
Published: December 2021

This chapter outlines the final phases of Alfred Marshall’s campaign to expand the teaching of economics in Cambridge by creating a three-year bachelor’s degree as the exclusive vehicle for the teaching of economics. Detailing the university politics and arguments employed for and against the teaching of economics, it shows why the particular content and structure of the curriculum took the form that it did. Some of this is a familiar story; but the founding of the new Tripos was only a new starting point, and too often it has simply been assumed that there is no need to consider how this new Tripos actually functioned in the ensuing years—the ‘success’ in creating the degree is read across to its subsequent history. By examining a database of student results over the first 50 years, a more nuanced picture is obtained. In particular, Marshall had laid great stress on a three-year programme. However, the degree was divided into a two-year Part I and a one-year Part II (revised to a one-year Part I/two-year Part II after 1930) and it can be shown that for some time a minority of students of economics completed three years: some just studied Part I, some just Part II. Furthermore, it can also be demonstrated that for most of the interwar years, students studying for three years were less successful in the final classification than those who had studied for Part II only.