bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Initializing Crusades
Authors: Nicholson Helen J.
Published: January 2023

Contemporaries sometimes depicted women opposing their menfolk’s involvement in crusading, holding back would-be recruits; but they also described them enthusiastically promoting crusading and urging their husbands, brothers, and sons to join crusade expeditions and selling their own property to support their crusading relatives. Although women were not licensed to preach about the spiritual rewards for crusading, they could campaign in person to raise troops or promote crusading through their writings. Elite women were involved in promoting and leading crusades from the very beginning of the movement, as in the mid-1070s Pope Gregory VII enlisted the aid of Countess Matilda of Canossa and her mother Countess Beatrice for his proposed campaign to aid the Byzantine Greeks against the Seljuk Turks: they would have provided troops for his army, although in the event the expedition never took place. From the early twelfth century the queens of the Iberian kingdoms of Portugal, León-Castile and Aragon promoted and supported war against the neighbouring Muslim kingdoms, and on her deathbed in 1504 Queen Isabel of Castile urged her husband Ferdinand of Aragon to continue the conquest of Africa and ‘fight for the faith’. In addition to tracing family traditions of crusading among the ruling dynasties of Europe, this chapter looks at the influence of holy women such as Birgitta of Sweden, Catherine of Siena, and Joan of Arc in promoting crusading as a fit undertaking for Christian warriors.
Crusade Campaigns
Authors: Nicholson Helen J.
Published: January 2023

Crusade theoreticians ascribed three key roles to women in the crusades: accompanying their husbands on campaigns, caring for the sick, and diplomacy. The roles of caring for the sick and conducting diplomacy were prescribed by social and cultural tradition as acceptable roles for women. Many of the women who took part in crusade expeditions were indeed accompanying their husbands, but often out of necessity rather than religious devotion, as they would have been destitute if they had stayed behind. Some, however, took part in crusades on their own account. Noblewomen might lead their own troops, while non-elite women accompanied crusades as traders or as servants. Other roles that women took up during campaigns, such as wielding weapons in emergency situations, were commonplace roles for non-combatants in European armies although contemporary commentators presented them as exceptional. Like men, women were victims of crusade warfare as well as active participants. For everyone involved there was the constant danger of death or capture; some women killed their children and themselves to avoid falling into enemy hands. Clergy preaching to raise recruits for crusades dwelt on the cruel treatment that women suffered at the hands of the enemy, to encourage warriors to enlist. Honourable death could be more attractive than lifelong servitude with no hope of ransom; captors could be reluctant to release prisoners whom they saw as potential recruits to their faith and valuable negotiating counters, and some women’s captors refused to let them go.
Summing Up
Authors: Nicholson Helen J.
Published: January 2023

As crusading became an integral part of medieval Latin Christian society, women could not avoid being drawn into it in one way or another. For most women, as for most men, the crusade was an expression of faith which they supported but in which they were not personally involved. The most significant determining factor in the nature and extent of a woman’s involvement in crusading was her social status and economic position in society. Women of high social status had more opportunity to play a significant role in organization and recruitment to crusades than those of lower classes, as they had the resources and the authority to initiate crusades and to influence others to become involved. Not all women promoted crusading; some feared losing loved ones, personal suffering and family ruin, and the event often justified their fears. But the crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration.
Introduction
Authors: Butt Daniel , Fine Sarah , Stemplowska Zofia
Published: January 2023

This chapter introduces the volume and provides a summary of each of the fourteen subsequent chapters, by Anna Stilz, Avia Pasternak, Andrew Williams, Jonathan Quong, Christopher Heath Wellman, Jeremy Waldron, Daniel Butt and Zofia Stemplowska, Cécile Laborde, Patti Tamara Lenard, Alan Patten, Leslie Green, Sarah Fine, and David Miller. The chapters address a range of themes arising from the work of David Miller. The first three contributions, by Stilz, Pasternak, and Williams, are concerned with Miller’s work on national responsibility and global justice. Quong’s chapter engages with Miller’s writing on the conditionality of human rights. The chapters by Wellman, Waldron, and Butt and Stemplowska address Miller’s recent work on immigration. The contributions by Laborde and Lenard discuss Miller’s influential writing on citizenship and multiculturalism. Patten’s chapter addresses Miller’s treatment of the provision of public goods, and Green his discussion of the political thought of David Hume. Sarah Fine’s chapter employs an interview conducted with Miller to reflect on the role of autobiographical writing in political philosophy. The interview itself appears as Chapter 14 in the volume. The final chapter, by David Miller himself, aims to provide a ‘synoptic view’ of political philosophy: what it is and how it should be done.
Mobs, Firms, and Nations
Authors: Pasternak Avia
Published: January 2023

This chapter takes the form of a sympathetic critique of David Miller’s work on national collective responsibility. Pasternak’s argument seeks to provide a more secure foundation for the claim that members of a community share responsibility for what they do as a political collective. Miller’s position is framed in terms of two general accounts of collective responsibility, relating to ‘like-minded groups’ and ‘cooperative practices’. Pasternak argues that both accounts can be best understood within a single model, turning on the idea of ‘participatory intentions’. This revision is significant for Miller’s account of national responsibility for two reasons. First, it suggests that it is the intentional participation of people in their political community, rather than their like-mindedness, benefit, or democratic control, that grounds their political collective responsibility, and second, that collective responsibility typically arises not through membership of a nation but through participation in the project of a state.
Community, Democracy, and Immigration
Authors: Wellman Christopher Heath
Published: January 2023

This chapter seeks to defend David Miller’s approach to immigration in relation to that of Joseph Carens. Miller has critiqued arguments in favour of open borders and argued in favour of a state’s right to limit immigration. Carens’s work opposes Miller’s arguments, contesting the degree of discretion that states have over migration and giving a positive case in favour of open borders. Wellman argues that Miller’s account has the resources to resist Carens’s conclusions, depending on whether we are in the business of articulating principles to govern the existing world or an alternative, reformed reality. The chapter argues that Miller’s account is more plausible in both contexts: if we assume the status quo, then Miller’s concerns as to the costs of unrestricted free movement seem well grounded; but if we presume a significantly revised economic order, then Carens’s appeal to freedom of movement loses a good deal of its force.
Political Philosophy and Autobiography
Authors: Fine Sarah
Published: January 2023

This chapter reflects on the virtues and vices of ‘going autobiographical’ in political philosophy. Fine discusses three ways in which political philosophy can be autobiographical. First, there is work that explicitly looks back at the author’s life and career. Second, there is political philosophy that draws on the author’s experiences. Third, there are positions that seem to reveal something distinctive about the author’s own life. Fine argues that the mistake lies not in ‘going autobiographical’ but in failing to notice just how much of our enterprise is autobiographical. The result is a vision of political philosophy as an ongoing communal conversation, with different participants bringing something of themselves to the discussion.
Core Reasoning and Erotetic Equilibrium
Authors: Koralus Philipp
Published: January 2023

This chapter develops the first systematic fragment of the erotetic theory on which the rest of the book will build, covering reasoning with conjunctions, disjunctions, negations, and suppositions. The chapter also introduces the notion of erotetic equilibrium and discusses the rationality of certain invalid inferences.
Conditionals and Information Source Selection
Authors: Koralus Philipp
Published: January 2023

This chapter applies the fragment of the erotetic theory developed in the previous chapter to reasoning with conditionals. The chapter considers Wason’s famous card selection task against the background of the more general problem of selecting information sources.
Predicate Reasoning
Authors: Koralus Philipp
Published: January 2023

This chapter extends the erotetic theory to reasoning with predicates and relations, as well as generalizations as given voice to by “all”, “some”, and generics. This allows the consideration of a greater range of reasoning phenomena, including the famous “married people” puzzle. Key to this extension will be the notion of an arbitrary object.
The Nature of Science
Authors: Ostlie Dale A.
Published: January 2023

The Nature of Science is a short introduction to how the process of scientific inquiry operates, both as a process and as a human enterprise. Focus is placed on what a scientific theory is and is not, including its basis on a set of testable assumptions that must be falsifiable. A theory must also incorporate all known factual data rather than simply choosing those data that fit the narrative. When experimental or observational data cannot be reconciled in a self-consistent way with theory, that view of nature must ultimately be replaced by a more all-encompassing theory. The role that peer review plays in the self-correcting nature of science is also emphasized. The last portion of the chapter discusses pseudoscience, including astrology, and how it fails to be truly scientific.
The Heavens: Realm of Mystery
Authors: Ostlie Dale A.
Published: January 2023

The Heavens: A Realm of Mystery is comprised of two major sections. The first section gives an overview of what can be seen with the naked eye and by direct human experience, such as observations of the celestial motions of the stars over the course of a day, throughout the year, and at different latitudes, the changing of the Sun’s path across the sky according to the seasons; the phases of the Moon; the strange movements of the “wandering stars,” the arrival of comets and meteors, the sudden appearance of “new stars,” and the Milky Way. Section 2 presents a brief discussion of archaeoastronomy, including the native American Skidi Pawnee and their sky mythology. The Olmec, Maya, and Aztec of Mesoamerica, with their advanced observational and mathematical skills are also discussed. The astronomical alignments of Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids are presented, as are the astronomical accomplishments of the Chinese.
On the Path toward Modern Science
Authors: Ostlie Dale A.
Published: January 2023

On the Path Toward Modern Science traces the birth of science from Mesopotamia, through ancient Greece, India, and the Middle East. Mesopotamia developed writing for the first time, allowing for long-term study of the sky and the ability to study patterns. Mesopotamia also developed a base-60 number system reflected today in minutes, degrees, and circles. The philosopher-scientists of ancient Greece introduced ways of thinking that eventually led to the modern scientific process. Mathematics was cultivated, as was the need for empirical evidence. Elaborate geocentric models were developed that went largely unchallenged for nearly 1500 years. The first catalogs of stars were created that included positions and brightnesses, and precession was discovered. With the conquests of Alexander the Great and his expansive empire, India and the Middle East made significant contributions to mathematics. The chapter finishes with the celestial sphere, a model of the heavens based on a geocentric world view.
The Copernican Revolution
Authors: Ostlie Dale A.
Published: January 2023

The Copernican Revolution is a transitional chapter in the pivot from a geocentric worldview to a heliocentric one. This otherwise minor change in perspective by Copernicus led immediately to a profound simplification of our understanding of celestial motions, including the retrograde motions of the naked-eye planets and the phases of the Moon and Venus. Although the mechanical nature of the geocentric-to-heliocentric change was simple, its impact on society was not. Consequences of that altered worldview are explored. With the meticulous naked-eye observations of Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler came to realize that orbits must be elliptical rather than perfectly circular, resulting Kepler’s development of his three laws of planetary motion. Galileo’s use of a telescope to observe the heavens at nearly the same time resulted in major new discoveries and further challenged the geocentric world view and the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, ultimately leading to his home imprisonment.
Dwarf Planets and Small Bodies
Authors: Ostlie Dale A.
Published: January 2023

Dwarf Planets and Small Bodies explores Solar System objects much less massive than the planets. The dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, and meteorites are simultaneously intriguing and provide valuable information about the Solar System’s formation and evolution. Dwarf planets are considered first, focusing on Ceres in the asteroid belt, and the trans-Neptunian, ice-covered Pluto. Kuiper belt objects are also discussed, including the many plutinos that, like their namesake, are in 3:2 orbital resonances with Neptune. Characteristics of the members of the asteroid belt are also investigated. The Kirkwood gaps and the trojan asteroids at Lagrange points in Jupiter’s orbit further illustrate the importance of orbital resonances. Comets from the scattered disk and the distant Oort cloud, along with primitive meteorites, provide valuable information about the original solar nebula. Cratering throughout the Solar System attests to the frequency of impacts during its violent history.
Conclusion
Authors: Walsham Alexandra
Published: January 2023

The Conclusion draws together the thematic threads and central arguments of the preceding chapters. It contends that the English Reformations shaped and transformed the generations in significant ways and that in turn the generations were critical agents in the creation of England’s successive Reformations. In this context, families of blood and families of faith intersected and converged, and generations were both born and made. The generation as an imagined community was not solely a by-product of more recent revolutionary ruptures associated with modernity; it was a mode of subjectivity deeply rooted in the social universe of the early modern era. Intertwining ideas about age, ancestry, history, memory, and time, the concept of generation offers important insights into the religious upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Challenges and Contestations
Authors: Fredman FBA KC Sandra
Published: January 2023

This chapter examines four challenging issues in which the foundational principles have had to evolve towards a substantive understanding of equality. Section II—Pregnancy and Parenting—begins with the difficulty faced in applying the comparator principle to pregnancy, with jurisdictions first excluding protection, then seeking an ‘ill male comparator’ (still used in the US), then avoiding a comparator requirement, and eventually, in some jurisdictions, specifying pregnancy as a ground. The chapter argues that the best way forward is to distinguish between pregnancy and parenting. Section III, Equal Pay, examines the radical possibilities of equal value but demonstrates how these have been limited by the male comparator requirement; levelling down; absence of proportionate pay; and reliance on individual complaints. It investigates alternatives such as the Canadian pay equity schemes. Section IV, Sexual Harassment, examines steps taken to fashion discrimination to address sexual harassment, including hostile environment harassment. However, there remain several challenges, such as the risk that courts will regard workplace procedures as sufficient to discharge employers’ liability. More fundamentally, sexual harassment laws have failed to address its true foundations in patriarchal power, as reflected in the move away from law to social media in the form of #MeToo. Section V, Duty of Accommodation, examines the main challenges of the duty, including the extent to which it can address disabling effects of society; the ways in which the cost is and should be spread away from the disabled person; whether the duty is proactive or reactive; and whether it is individualized.
The Mental Disorder Defence
Authors: Ferguson Gerry
Published: January 2023

This chapter presents a critique of the nature and state of the Canadian mental disorder (insanity) defence and provides suggestions for its reform. The Canadian insanity defence remains a M’Naghten-style, two-branch cognitive test. It has no volitional impairment branch. The courts’ oscillation between wide and narrow interpretations of the test is described and critiqued, as well as the reverse onus on the accused and the unnecessary and unfair creation in 2014 of a special designation for some not criminally responsible due to mental disorder (NCRMD) persons as ‘high-risk accused’. The absence of annually collected data on the test’s application, the characteristics of NCRMD persons, and the length of their state confinement leads to an ill-informed public, and legislators who act on fear and misconceptions in regard to NCRMD verdicts and appropriate dispositions for NCRMD patients.
The Insanity Defence under Australian Law
Authors: Freckelton Ian
Published: January 2023

While Australia inherited its law on the defence of insanity from England, it has evolved extensively through serial legislative reforms. The law is now significantly disuniform among Australia’s federal, state, and territory jurisdictions in terms of the nomenclature of the defence, criteria for its invocation, and the bases upon which persons found not guilty are dealt with upon a finding of insanity, mental impairment, mental incompetence, or unsoundness of mind. While in most jurisdictions detention is no longer at the Governor’s pleasure, there is diversity in respect of which bodies have an ongoing decision-making role for permitting reintegration of the person who has been forensically detained after a finding of mental illness, and the criteria on the basis of which the release discretion should be exercised. However, considerable jurisprudence has evolved which is distinctive to Australia, especially as to the key predictive criteria. There has also been a succession of law reform inquiries, and controversies remain lively in relation to matters such as whether there should be a volitional component to the defence, how the criteria should be formulated, and whether courts or specialist tribunals should have responsibility for the difficult predictive exercise of determining when it is safe to release from detention a person who has been found not guilty of a serious crime by reason of the defence.
The Insanity Defence under International Criminal Law
Authors: Freckelton Ian , Karagiannakis Magda
Published: January 2023

The insanity defence was not provided for explicitly by the charter that set up the International Military Tribunal, which formed the basis for the Nuremberg trials, or by legislation underpinning the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) or Rwanda (ICTR). It was not formally recognized until the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which came into force in 2002. However, even under the Rome Statute the threshold criteria are extremely demanding, requiring destruction of the accused person’s capacity to appreciate the unlawfulness or nature of their conduct, or the person’s capacity to control their conduct to conform to the requirements of law. A consequence is that the defence is seldom invoked and is almost impossible to invoke successfully. The chapter reviews the role of the diminished responsibility partial defence in the Čelebići Trial Chamber of the ICTY in the Landžo case, and considers the precedent that this potentially creates for the use of the insanity defence. It reviews key decided cases, in particular the decision of the International Criminal Court Trial Chamber in the Ongwen case in 2021. It distinguishes between potentially relevant psychotic illnesses—especially those characterized by delusional ideation—personality disorders, and other mental health states that have been raised on behalf of defendants in international criminal law trials. It argues for modernization of both the criteria for mental state defences and of the custodial and treatment procedures that apply to persons found not guilty by reason of insanity by international criminal courts.
A Composite Christ?
Authors: Le Poidevin Robin
Published: January 2023

It seems contradictory to say that Christ is, by view of being both God and man, both omniscient (for example) and not omniscient. But at least the surface contradiction is avoided by the reduplicative formula, ‘Christ is omniscient qua God, and not omniscient qua man’. But the formula needs interpretation, and this chapter looks as a number of interpretations before focusing on one which takes the formula to ascribe different properties to different parts of Christ. We may, that is, see Christ as a composite being. Two compositional models are considered: one in which the Son is the divine part of Christ, and the other in which an initially partless Son becomes composite, having divine and human parts. The first fails to deliver the requirement that two natures be had by one person, and the second faces a version of a well-known paradox of identity.
Christ and the Ground of Goodness
Authors: Le Poidevin Robin
Published: January 2023

Divine Command Ethics, and related meta-ethical views, have it that God is the ground of moral value. What are the implications of this divine meta-ethics for the incarnation? Is God the Son a ground of goodness, by virtue of being divine? And is this property given up when the Son becomes a man subject to temptation? Can the ground of goodness shift? This chapter argues that we can make sense of such changes, and that God’s relation to moral value is not threatened by the Euthyphro dilemma. However, if the incarnation involves a change in meta-ethical status, what consequences does this have for Christ’s role in normative ethics? The answer is that Christ is a unique moral exemplar.
Rethinking Coal
Authors: Schobert Harold
Published: January 2023

This book addresses four aspects of present and future coal use. The first sets the stage by discussing how coals are formed, what they are made of, and how they are classified. The second addresses ways that we use coal now. The dominant one is for generation of electricity. Metallurgical applications are a distant second. Small amounts are used for synthetic gaseous and liquid fuels. The third aspects discusses factors that are putting pressure on the coal industry: the increasing availability and dropping price of natural gas, steadily decreasing costs of renewable energy forms such as solar and wind energy, and increasing public concerns about global climate change and the impact of human activity on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Then, an alternative future for the coal industry is envisioned, one based on the premise that the worst thing we can do with coal is to burn it. Rather, coal has great potential as a source of chemical products, especially helped by advances in molecular modeling and in the development of green chemistry. Coal also has possibly even greater potential as a source of carbon materials. These include activated carbons for environmental protection, graphite for battery electrodes, supercapacitors for energy storage, and carbon fiber composites for making such things as wind turbine blades. The infrastructure needed for the growing renewable energy industry could be made using carbon materials derived from coal.
Structure
Authors: Schobert Harold
Published: January 2023

The structures of coals depend on the scale at which we study them: macroscopic studies relate to coal geology; microscopic studies give highly useful information on the plant components that formed the coal; and molecular-scale studies lead to models for understanding chemical reactivity and physical properties. Coals are extremely difficult to study because they are heterogeneous, are not completely soluble, have no defined true melting point, cannot be distilled, and have no regular molecular structure. Molecular structural models of coals do not show the actual structure but instead provide insights and information for studying chemical reactions and estimating physical properties. As rank increases, more and more of the carbon atoms are incorporated in aromatic structures and the aromatic structures become increasingly large. This is consistent with the approach to the “ultimate coal,” graphite.
Gasification
Authors: Schobert Harold
Published: January 2023

When coals react with a mixture of steam and oxygen (or air), they are converted almost completely to a gaseous mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The process is known as gasification. The product is a useful fuel gas and can also be converted into a substitute natural gas or into liquid hydrocarbon products. These gaseous fuels are ash-free. Sulfur-containing products can be captured before the gas is used. Gases are easier to handle than solids. Products of coal gasification thus offer some advantages as fuels relative to using coals themselves. Several gasifier designs exist, usually relying on passing steam and oxygen through a bed of coal or entraining fine coal particles in a stream of oxygen and steam. Often the gas will be treated in one or more clean-up steps before being ready to use.
Liquefaction
Authors: Schobert Harold
Published: January 2023

To eliminate much of the hardware and many of the processing steps involved in indirect liquefaction, an alternative is to add hydrogen directly to coal, intending to make liquids in one step. Direct liquefaction is simpler in concept, but still involves high temperatures and pressures and the need to convert the primary liquid products to clean, usable fuels. When petroleum is in short supply or prices are high, there is great interest in direct liquefaction. Direct liquefaction has been demonstrated to be commercially feasible, beginning with the Bergius-Bosch plants in Germany during 1939–1945. Research and development were rekindled after the oil price shocks and embargo of the 1970s. When oil is widely available at low price, there is scant interest. A direct liquefaction plant in China seems currently to be the world’s only commercial direct liquefaction plant.
Climate
Authors: Schobert Harold
Published: January 2023

Coal yields more carbon dioxide (CO2) per unit of energy than any other fuel. The steadily rising concentration of atmospheric CO2 and increasing manifestations of global warming bring great pressure on the use of coal. Evidence for the contribution of fossil fuels to atmospheric CO2 comes from the Suess effect, which correctly predicts that atmospheric CO2 should have increasing amounts of 12C relative to 13C and, at the same time, reduced amounts of 14C. Dealing with CO2 emissions while continuing to use coal requires deploying strategies of carbon capture and storage. So far, we make CO2 at a far greater scale than our ability to capture and store it. CO2 does have potential applications in making chemicals used in large tonnages, such as urea, methanol, and sodium carbonate. Negative emissions technologies offer the prospect of removing more CO2 than we add to the atmosphere.
W(h)ither?
Authors: Schobert Harold
Published: January 2023

No technical barriers limit today’s commercial uses of coals. The future use of coal in current applications faces many issues, economic, environmental, and societal. Mining costs are increasing. Less coal is required to produce a given amount of electricity or steel. Natural gas is capturing much of the market share lost by coal. Costs of wind and solar are steadily dropping. Less energy of all kinds is required to achieve a given level of economic growth. Economic strategies for carbon capture and storage are badly needed. The burgeoning world population, combined with recognition that there is no “one size fits all” energy strategy for every country, suggest that we will eventually have to mobilize all forms of energy to satisfy everyone’s needs. The potential of chemical products and carbon materials from coal adds more to the argument that we should not burn coal—we can use it more wisely in other applications.
Policing Firearms Trafficking, Theft, and Illegal Diversion
Authors: Braga Anthony A. , Cook Philip J.
Published: January 2023

Most guns used in crime are not obtained by purchase from a licensed dealer but, rather, through informal transactions in underground markets supplied by guns diverted from legal commerce. Many major cities have units and specific police personnel investigating and curtailing criminal access to guns. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives works with state and local law enforcement agencies to interdict trafficking, straw purchases, and illicit manufacture. These efforts attempt to reduce gun violence by disrupting the illegal supply of guns to criminals. Supply-side interventions seek to further limit illegal transactions, and they enhance the incentive for prohibited persons to economize on gun possession and use. Unfortunately, few police departments are much invested in disrupting supply. Local police departments should take a problem-oriented approach to understand how criminals access guns in their jurisdictions and collaborate with federal and state law enforcement partners to implement interventions to shut down specific gun trafficking pathways.
Neutrino mass square ratio and neutrinoless double-beta decay in random neutrino mass matrices
Authors: Haba Naoyuki , Shimizu Yasuhiro , Yamada Toshifumi
Published: January 2023

We study neutrino mass anarchy in the Dirac neutrino, seesaw, and double-seesaw models. Assuming the anarchy hypothesis, the mass matrices are random and distributed in accordance with the Gaussian measure. We focus on the distributions of the mass square ratio of the light neutrinos and examine which of these models shows a peak in the probability distribution around the experimental value. We show that the peak position depends on the number of random matrix products. We find that the light neutrino mass hierarchy becomes larger as the number of random matrix products is increased and the seesaw model with the random Dirac and Majorana mass matrices is the most likely to realize the current experimental data. We also investigate the distributions of the effective Majorana mass for neutrinoless double-beta decay. We find that the effective Majorana mass is smaller than the experimental upper bound and tends to be smaller as the number of random matrix products increases because the light neutrino masses become more hierarchical. We argue that the tendency for lighter neutrino masses to become more hierarchical as the number of products in the random matrix increases can be understood from the probability distribution of singular values in random matrix theory.
Rehabilitation Therapy Allocation and Changes in Physical Function Among Patients Hospitalized Due to COVID-19: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis
Authors: Rauzi Michelle R , Ridgeway Kyle J , Wilson Melissa P , Jolley Sarah E , Nordon-Craft Amy , Stevens-Lapsley Jennifer E , Erlandson Kristine M
Published: January 2023

Objective

Limited staffing and initial transmission concerns have limited rehabilitation services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this analysis was to determine the associations between Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care (AM-PAC) mobility categories and allocation of rehabilitation, and in-hospital AM-PAC score change and receipt of rehabilitation services for patients with COVID-19.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of electronic health record data from 1 urban hospital, including adults with a COVID-19 diagnosis, admitted August 2020 to April 2021. Patients were stratified by level of medical care (intensive care unit [ICU] and floor). Therapy allocation (referral for rehabilitation, receipt of rehabilitation, and visit frequency) was the primary outcome; change in AM-PAC score was secondary. AM-PAC Basic Mobility categories (None [21–24], Minimum [18–21], Moderate [10–17], and Maximum [6–9]) were the main predictor variable. Primary analysis included logistic and linear regression, adjusted for covariates.

Results

A total of 1397 patients (ICU: n = 360; floor: n = 1037) were included. AM-PAC mobility category was associated with therapy allocation outcomes for floor but not patients in the ICU: the Moderate category had greater adjusted odds of referral (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 10.88; 95% CI = 5.71–21.91), receipt of at least 1 visit (aOR = 3.45; 95% CI = 1.51–8.55), and visit frequency (percentage mean difference) (aOR = 42.14; 95% CI = 12.45–79.67). The secondary outcome of AM-PAC score improvement was highest for patients in the ICU who were given at least 1 rehabilitation therapy visit (aOR = 5.31; 95% CI = 1.90–15.52).

Conclusion

AM-PAC mobility categories were associated with rehabilitation allocation outcomes for floor patients. AM-PAC score improvement was highest among patients requiring ICU-level care with at least 1 rehabilitation therapy visit.

Impact

Use of AM-PAC Basic Mobility categories may help improve decisions for rehabilitation therapy allocation among patients who do not require critical care, particularly during times of limited resources.
Self-completed online contact tracing for COVID-19 is associated with reporting fewer contacts: an observational study
Authors: Senior Steven L
Published: January 2023

Background

Contact tracing was central to England’s approach to controlling coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). England’s COVID-19 contact tracing system included a step where cases were invited to provide information through an online ‘self-service’ portal. It is important to understand whether this had any effect on the numbers of contacts reported.

Methods

This study analyses contact tracing data for one local authority in England for 2021. Univariable negative binomial and logistic regression models were used to test for associations between contact tracing tier and average numbers of contacts reported, and key demographic factors and date of reporting. The association between contact tracing tier and number of contacts reported adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, deprivation and the date on which the case was reported was estimated using a multivariable negative binomial generalized additive regression model with smooth terms for date of reporting and age.

Results

Controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, deprivation and date of reporting, self-completed contact tracing was associated with reporting 23% fewer contacts (95% confidence interval 20–25% fewer contacts).

Conclusion

The use of online self-completed contact tracing may contribute to under-reporting of close contacts. Unmeasured confounding is likely so caution is needed in assuming that the results reflect a causal relationship.
The impact of COVID-19 on mathematical entry competencies: 1 year on
Authors: Hodds Mark
Published: January 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way we learn, teach and support students in many different ways. In particular, the impact of the pandemic on the mathematical capabilities of students arriving at university is now starting to be seen and reported. Students arriving at UK universities in 2021, and having completed their A levels in 2021, had received disruption to almost all of their A level learning and it seemed likely that this might cause them to find the transition into higher education more difficult. Despite the disruption, the number of students achieving the top A level grade has more than doubled since 2019. In this paper, the data from a diagnostic test that has remained the same for the past 30 years are considered to measure the mathematical preparedness of students starting their courses at one UK university in September 2021, updating the work of Hodds (2021). Furthermore, an ordinal logistic regression model predicting A level grade based on test performance and other factors is developed to help determine if grades were perhaps inflated as suggested. The results show that students entering in 2021 are significantly less prepared for the mathematics on their courses than their colleagues who entered in 2020 and pre-pandemic. The regression model predicts a higher probability of being awarded an A*/A for students with A levels awarded in the pandemic, despite far lower scores on the diagnostic test, and in particular in 2021 when A levels were awarded through teacher assessment of the topics covered and not necessarily the whole A level syllabus.
Integrating Seeding Rates and Pesticide Programs for Managing Sclerotinia Stem Rot in Glycine max with Nitrogen Fertilizer Applications
Authors: Webster Richard W. , Mueller Brian D. , Chilvers Martin I. , Byrne Adam M. , Boyse John F. , Widdicombe William W. , Mueller Daren S. , Wiggs Stith , Kandel Yuba , Telenko Darcy E. P. , Ravellette Jeffrey , Shim Su , Smith Damon L.
Published: January 2023

Soybean production in the Upper Midwest region of the United States is consistently limited by the disease Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR). To control SSR, multiple management practices have been studied and implemented to reduce SSR development and preserve yield. This study examined the effects of integrating soybean seeding rates and pesticide programs under nitrogen fertilizer applications in the form of urea (46-0-0) that may occur due to management of other crops, such as corn. From 10 site-years between 2020 and 2021, low seeding rates decreased SSR development while also decreasing yields and partial profits. The effect of pesticide applications on SSR development was influenced by both seeding rates and nitrogen applications. Consistently, applications of the fungicide Endura reduced SSR to the lowest levels while also maintaining the highest yields and partial profits. Soybeans grown with nitrogen applications experienced increased SSR development and decreased yields and partial profits. Overall, this work suggests that using low seeding rates and fungicides improves the management of SSR, and using nitrogen fertilizer applications can result in greater SSR development and decreased economic returns, especially in fields with a history of SSR.
High-Sensitivity ITS Real-Time PCR Assays for Detection of Ceratocystis lukuohia and Ceratocystis huliohia in Soil and Air Samples
Authors: Heller Wade P. , Harrington Thomas C. , Brill Eva , Keith Lisa M.
Published: January 2023

Rapid Ohia Death (ROD) is caused by two pathogens, Ceratocystis lukuohia and Ceratocystis huliohia. The established species-specific real-time PCR assays targeting the single-copy cerato-platanin gene require DNA from between 2 and 16 spores per reaction for consistent detection, which is suitable for analysis of infected plant tissue but not sensitive enough to consistently detect low spore loads in environmental samples. Here, we present two redesigned qPCR assays targeting the first internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the multi-copy ribosomal DNA operon from the respective species, both capable of consistent detection of the pathogen at concentrations as low as 1 fg per reaction, less than the size of the haploid genome. Due to this increased sensitivity, these ITS qPCR assays are superior for analysis of DNA extracted from material collected in airborne particle samplers and from soil. Here, we demonstrate the utility of these qPCR assays for the characterization of windblown and soilborne dispersal of the pathogens, which is critical for the development of management practices that mitigate disease spread.

[Formula: see text] The author(s) have dedicated the work to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 “No Rights Reserved” license by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law, 2023.
How Does TIMELESS Training Impact Resident Motivation for Learning, Assessment, and Feedback? Evaluating a Competency-Based Time-Variable Training Pilot
Authors: Kinnear Benjamin , Santen Sally A. , Kelleher Matthew , Martini Abigail , Ferris Sarah , Edje Louito , Warm Eric J. , Schumacher Daniel J.
Published: January 2023

Purpose

As competency-based medical education has become the predominant graduate medical education training model, interest in time-variable training has grown. Despite multiple competency-based time-variable training (CBTVT) pilots ongoing in the United States, little is known about how this training approach impacts learners. The authors aim to explore how their CBTVT pilot program impacted resident motivation for learning, assessment, and feedback.

Method

The authors performed a qualitative educational case study on the Transitioning in Internal Medicine Education Leveraging Entrustment Scores Synthesis (TIMELESS) program at the University of Cincinnati from October 2020 through March 2022. Semistructured interviews were conducted with TIMELESS residents (n = 9) approximately every 6 months to capture experiences over time. The authors used inductive thematic analysis to develop themes and compared their findings with existing theories of learner motivation.

Results

The authors developed 2 themes: TIMELESS had variable effects on residents’ motivation for learning and TIMELESS increased resident engagement with and awareness of the program of assessment. Participants reported increased motivation to learn and seek assessment, though some felt a tension between performance (e.g., advancement through the residency program) and growth (e.g., improvement as a physician). Participants became more aware of the quality of assessments they received, in part due to TIMELESS increasing the perceived stakes of assessment, and reported being more deliberate when assessing other residents.

Conclusions

Resident motivation for learning, assessment, and feedback was impacted in ways that the authors contextualize using current theories of learner motivation (i.e., goal orientation theory and attribution theory). Future research should investigate how interventions, such as coaching, guided learner reflection, or various CBTVT implementation strategies, can help keep learners oriented toward mastery learning rather than toward performance.
Association Between Periviable Delivery and New Onset of or Exacerbation of Existing Mental Health Disorders
Authors: Bruno Ann M. , Horns Joshua J. , Allshouse Amanda A. , Metz Torri D. , Debbink Michelle L. , Smid Marcela C.
Published: January 2023

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate whether there is an association between periviable delivery and new onset of or exacerbation of existing mental health disorders within 12 months postpartum.

METHODS:

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of individuals with liveborn singleton neonates delivered at 22 or more weeks of gestation from 2008 to 2017 in the MarketScan Commercial Research Database. The exposure was periviable delivery, defined as delivery from 22 0/7 through 25 6/7 weeks of gestation. The primary outcome was a mental health morbidity composite of one or more of the following: emergency department encounter associated with depression, anxiety, psychosis, posttraumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder, self-harm, or suicide; new psychotropic medication prescription; new behavioral therapy visit; and inpatient psychiatry admission in the 12 months postdelivery. Secondary outcomes included components of the primary composite. Those with and without periviable delivery were compared using multivariable logistic regression adjusted for clinically relevant covariates, with results reported as adjusted incident rate ratios (aIRRs). Effect modification by history of mental health diagnoses was assessed. Incidence of the primary outcome by 90-day intervals postdelivery was assessed.

RESULTS:

Of 2,300,244 included deliveries, 16,275 (0.7%) were periviable. Individuals with periviable delivery were more likely to have a chronic health condition, to have undergone cesarean delivery, and to have experienced severe maternal morbidity. Periviable delivery was associated with a modestly increased risk of the primary composite outcome, occurring in 13.8% of individuals with periviable delivery and 11.0% of individuals without periviable delivery (aIRR 1.18, 95% CI 1.12–1.24). The highest-risk period for the composite primary outcome was the first 90 days in those with periviable delivery compared with those without periviable delivery (51.6% vs 42.4%; incident rate ratio 1.56, 95% CI 1.47–1.66).

CONCLUSION:

Periviable delivery was associated with a modestly increased risk of mental health morbidity in the 12 months postpartum.
Transosseous Cannula Suture Suspensionplasty for Thumb Basal Joint Arthritis: A Novel Technique
Authors: Carozzo Mattia , Pajardi Giorgio , Basso Morena A. , Cirillo Dario , Balato Giovanni , Smeraglia Francesco
Published: January 2023

The suture button (SB) suspension technique has become popular in the treatment of thumb basal joint arthritis, as it works as an internal mean for metacarpal stabilization, demonstrating good results with improvement in function and strength. The aim of our study is to describe a new transosseous suture suspensionplasty technique using a simple Ethibond #2 suture as a substitute for the suture button and to report the postoperative clinical outcomes. In this study, we included a total of 14 patients with 2 years follow-up. We evaluated patients with the use of the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire, the Visual Analog Scale, the Kapandji test, and the key pinch strength. Patients treated with transosseous suture suspensionplasty demonstrated clinical improvement at an average follow-up of 24 months. No complications were noted immediately after the procedure or during the 2-year follow-up period.