bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pre-Revolutionary Mexican Armed Forces: 1810–1910
Authors: Neufeld Stephen
Published: June 2024

In the turbulent 19th century, bookended by revolutions in 1810 and 1910, Mexicans experienced myriad civil wars, foreign invasions, indigenous rebellions, barracks mutinies, murky conflicts, and precious little peace. These coincided with and influenced the formation of nationhood and set historical trajectories into the next century. The historiography naturally has focused on the origins of the new society and republic, with the army as a key player. Compared to other contexts, in Mexico the army featured prominently in politics, but also appears in writings on the armed forces as an institution and in the histories of the devastating wars against foreign invaders and occupiers. Six larger strains organize these works and their chief concerns including: political involvements, local wars, foreign assaults, the military itself, soldiers and family, and specific elements (e.g., the navy). Many histories have addressed the political role of the military in society, nationalism, populism, citizenship, and as political actors (providing presidents until the 1940s). The early history depended on military men and institutions as the republic took shape. The ideas around military service especially lay at the heart of how would-be citizens engaged with their new country. Expanding on this, armed conflicts at local levels plagued security and stability throughout the era. Whether mutinies, Indigenous rebellion, or civil wars, these fights highlighted differences in race and class, and the development of state formation. At times, they also saw full-out war against foreign invasions, which have their own separate literature (US-Mexico War, French Intervention). Outside the realm of incessant warfare, studies of the military itself have sought to explain the ways that soldiers and society experienced not just official campaigns, but the armed forces as an institution and in practice. This included military lore, recruitment, education, and rituals. It also included professionalizing the military and how the army spread literacy over time. Other works have explored important facets of the armed forces including the nascent navy and the biographies of officers and generals. A smaller set of more recent scholarship has also addressed the military in terms of gender, race, and class both in context of active campaigns and in peacetime functions and have focused on the human experience. In these histories, the subjectivity of soldiers, families, and the victims of war shine light on broader society and as means to better understand Mexico through military related themes.
Classical Antiquity
Authors: Hurst Isobel
Published: June 2024

References to ancient Greece and Rome abound in Victorian literature and culture. Although classical studies are often associated with the elite, there is evidence in sources from textbooks to periodicals to the popular stage that Greek epic and tragedy, Roman history, and artifacts and accounts of archaeological discoveries reached a wide audience. Fascination with Greek culture developed in the Romantic period as a reaction against Augustanism and remained strong throughout the century, with cultural critics such as Matthew Arnold insisting on the relevance of Hellenism to the concerns of the present day. Victorian authors also found new significance in the Roman inheritance. Writers such as Matthew Arnold, W. M. Thackeray, Alfred Tennyson, A. H. Clough, Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, and A. C. Swinburne, among others, studied Latin and Greek for years at school or university and reworked their classical learning in poetry and fiction. A distinctive feature of the Oxford Greats syllabus was that it encouraged students to compare Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and history with the work of modern thinkers, and to comment on parallels between the ancient and modern worlds. The classical curriculum shaped public life: politicians and imperial administrators interpreted the challenges facing modern Britain in terms of Athenian or Roman examples. Largely self-taught Hellenists such as Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and George Eliot achieved a remarkable degree of proficiency in Greek with little assistance, since Greek literature, philosophy, and history seemed to offer them tantalizing access to unparalleled sources of truth and knowledge. A wider readership also shared in the richness of the classical inheritance through translations and adaptations of classical literature, history, and myth. Greek epics and tragedy were appropriated by the authors of dramatic monologues, novels, and theatrical burlesques to engage with contemporary concerns about marriage and divorce, the role of women, and the idea of heroism in the modern world. The predominance of Latin and Greek in formal education was beginning to be questioned toward the end of the century, as debates about issues such as the applicability of Greek culture to education in an industrialized society stimulated controversy; in the late Victorian period classical culture was increasingly scrutinized using new approaches based on anthropology, archaeology, and sociology, which broadened the disciplinary base of classics and informed transgressive tendencies in the Hellenism of aesthetic and decadent writers.
Kinetics and mechanism of esterification of palmitic acid with ethanol in the presence of Brønsted acidic ionic liquids as catalyst
Authors: Chandrika Beula , Muraleedharan Srilekshmi , Chandran Gokul
Published: June 2024

The present work is focused on the kinetics and mechanisms of palmitic acid and ethanol esterification reaction using Brønsted acidic ionic liquids (BAILs) as catalysts. The experiments were performed in an isothermal batch reactor and progress of reaction has been monitored by measuring the water content using Karl Fischer Titrator. The experimental data has been investigated by integral method of data analysis to determine the kinetics. The kinetics from the experimental data revealed that the reaction is non-elementary, and a suitable mechanism was proposed. The importance of activity coefficients was also studied using UNIFAC and modified UNIFAC programme.
From Molecules to Computational Modeling
Authors: Zhang Yili , Smolen Paul , Byrne John H.
Published: June 2024

Invertebrates have provided key insights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying different types of learning and memory. However, although many details of molecular processes are known, the ways in which they quantitatively account for memory are not well understood due, in part, to the nonlinearity and complexity of these molecular processes. Computational modeling of these complex process can provide valuable insights into their role in memory processes. This chapter reviews computational modeling developed to describe long-term synaptic plasticity associated with a simple form of learning called sensitization in a model invertebrate, the marine mollusk Aplysia. It also reviews how these models have successfully led to the development of strategies for enhancing synaptic plasticity and rescuing deficits in synaptic plasticity. Finally, the relevance of these findings to memory systems in other animals will be discussed.
Introduction
Authors: Fung C. Victor , Tan Leonard
Published: June 2024

This chapter outlines the rationale for addressing Asian philosophies in music education. A brief overview of the philosophy of music education reveals the lack of coverage of non-Western philosophies in the field. A premise of this book is a multicultural approach to the philosophy of music education, in which the various authors recognize the profound richness, distinctiveness, diversity, and potential for development of Asian philosophies, which are beyond the scope of any single volume. The chapter proposes charting a New Silk Road in music education by sharing valuable Asian treatises on philosophy and music, and provides an overview of the rest of the book.
Taksu in Balinese Music
Authors: Dibia I Wayan
Published: June 2024

In Bali, Indonesia, musicians strongly believe in the impact of taksu in their arts. Taksu, a divine power and supreme energy, is a profound traditional concept in the Balinese cultural system, essential especially in all forms of local performing arts. In this chapter, the author discusses the importance of taksu in Balinese gamelan music. The three main questions raised in this chapter are: (1) What is taksu to the Balinese? (2) Where does this divine power reside in Balinese music? and (3) How do local musicians obtain this spiritual power? This chapter shows that taksu is the soul and power of Balinese arts. Only a music or dance performance with taksu can show “lightning” on stage that can deeply touch everyone in the audience. The author concludes that taksu is a special power and energy essential to all art forms, including both traditional and contemporary music.
Trading Ideas on a New Silk Road
Authors: Tan Leonard , Fung C. Victor
Published: June 2024

This chapter is a recap and synthesis of ideas presented by the various culture bearers of the philosophies to which they attest in this volume. It contains a synopsis of each of its four main sections (Chinese, Japanese and Korean, South and Southeast Asian, and Islamic and Middle Eastern), followed by a discussion relating them to major philosophies in the English-speaking world. The authors then argue for the need for music educators to continue trading ideas on a New Silk Road, emphasizing how a multicultural approach to music education, one that celebrates multiplicities and pluralities, must be undergirded by a multiphilosophical underpinning. It concludes with the themes of continuity, interaction, intersection, value, and philosophical openness.
Hebrews, the Catholic Epistles, and the “Delay of the Parousia”
Authors: Gathercole Simon
Published: June 2024

This essay considers the scholarly theory of the imminence and delay of the parousia as it relates to Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles. According to some, the first Christians viewed Christ’s return as immediately impending, and when this did not take place, they experienced disappointment and then recalibrated the timing of the end to factor in delay. This chapter finds little evidence for the delay theory in Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles; there is nothing specific about the timing of Christ’s return. Additionally, scholars can exaggerate the evidence for imminent expectation in these letters, with insufficient accounting for the elasticity of nearness. Positively, the letters evince fruitful theological ideas of temporality, such as the incommensurability of divine and human time, the unrepeatability of the end, the relative extents of time before the end now and everlasting glory in the future, and the meshing of the present age and eternity.
Hebrews
Authors: Schenck Kenneth
Published: June 2024

This essay focuses on the Letter to the Hebrews and surveys a number of the perennial issues scholars have debated concerning its interpretation, including authorship, provenance and date, audience, literary questions such as structure and the use of sources, the letter’s relationship to Judaism, and its contributions to Christian theology. Scholarly trends are in part a function of context, with sociological and historical factors playing a larger role than scholars themselves often realize. Hebrews is no exception. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, for example, it is no surprise that biblical scholars might emphasize the continuity of Hebrews with Judaism and reject the notion of a “parting of the ways” within the Jesus movement. By the end of the century, postmodernist theory and the methodological concerns of thinkers like Hans-Georg Gadamer would increasingly focus the attention of interpreters on hermeneutical issues. Approaches often characterized as theological interpretation, by contrast, as well as efforts at reading Hebrews through the lens of Christian doctrine have become more pronounced over the past two decades. Whether or in what form scholars will return to historical-critical questions that occupied previous generations or seek out new areas of research, and in response to which new developments, is yet to be determined.
The Reception History of 1–2 Peter and Jude
Authors: Gray Patrick , Booth Adam
Published: June 2024

This essay surveys a selection of themes in the reception history of 1–2 Peter and Jude. Topics examined include the doctrine of theōsis, developing notions of the parousia, the “priesthood of all believers,” understandings of persecution and martyrdom, slavery, the perspicuity of Scripture, the Descent into Hades, Christian attitudes toward civil authorities, slavery, the hermeneutical concerns reflected in 2 Pet 1:20–21, and assessments of the relationship between canonical and noncanonical writings. Later texts and traditions examined include medieval hymns, Thomas Aquinas, William Tyndale, John Calvin, Martin Luther, the seventeenth-century Dutch Martyrs’ Mirror, the Westminster Confession of Faith, eighteenth-century antislavery writings from Southern abolitionist Angelina Grimké, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants, evangelical worship music, and Young Earth Creationism.
Pathology
Authors: Devinant Julien
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Galen’s ideas concerning human ailments, their classification and etiology, and how they relate to entities from earlier medical traditions. It shows that Galen has set the scene for later developments by combining two approaches to disease: the classical notion of imbalance and the popular idea of functional damage. First, it outlines the status of pathology in Galen’s project and presents the context of its development. Next, the various concepts involved in it are defined. The structure of Galen’s nosology is then described and its meaning examined. Finally, it provides an account of the multiple levels of causation in play and how they inform the diagnostic procedure.
Galen on the Pulse
Authors: Lewis Orly
Published: June 2024

This chapter sets out Galen’s theory and method concerning the pulse. It walks the reader through the clinical and diagnostic process related to the pulse, as Galen perceived it and following the path he set in his instruction of “the art of the pulse”: from physiology, through the classification of the different pulses, to the practical method of taking the pulse, identifying its characteristics and drawing diagnostic conclusions from it. The core of this chapter focuses on his pulse works and his teachings there; the penultimate section explores the extent to which those teachings are reflected in the rest of the Galenic corpus. The conclusion offers some overarching observations concerning Galen’s pulse works and the difference between the handbook style of other pulse works of the time and Galen’s extensive polemical and discursive treatises.
Galen beyond Baghdad
Authors: Das Aileen R.
Published: June 2024

This chapter argues that Galen gave medieval Islamicate authors an autobiographical discourse on which to draw to position themselves as more uniquely qualified than their peers and predecessors, including Galen himself, to improve their respective sciences. Focusing on individuals born outside of Baghdad, the chapter first investigates how the mathematician Ibn al-Haytham (d. 1039) and the theologian al-Ghazālī (1058–1111) appropriated Galen’s narrative about his youthful search for knowledge to distinguish Aristotelian philosophy and Sufism, rather than geometry, as the surest path to truth. The second half highlights how the doctors Ibn Riḍwān (988–1061) and al-Rāzī (d. 925) utilized Galen’s tactics of self-presentation—specifically, the link that he establishes between himself and Hippocrates and his claims of doctrinal independence—to supplant his medical authority.
Galen in Renaissance and Early Modern Debates
Authors: Hirai Hiro
Published: June 2024

The substantial body of Galen’s writings was made available in Europe thanks to the Aldine Greek edition (Venice, 1525) along with a flood of Latin translations of individual treatises. This chapter explores the impact of some key texts of Galen (embryology, physiology, and pharmacology) in the initial shaping of early modern science and philosophy. To that end, it focuses on the particular use of Galen’s texts and ideas by Jean Fernel (1497–1558) of Paris, one of the most influential physician-philosophers of the Renaissance. It then addresses the major debates launched by Fernel and driven by his followers and critics in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Galenic Anatomy in the Long Renaissance
Authors: Nutton Vivian
Published: June 2024

The arrival of the Greek Galen in Quattrocento Italy brought Galenic anatomical texts to scholarly notice, although their major impact followed the Latin translations of 1529 and 1531. Early work concentrated on establishing a coherent vocabulary, soon followed by a surge of interest in dissection. Several writers noted discrepancies between Galen and what could be seen, but it was Vesalius in 1543 who emphasized that these errors were systematic, the result of reliance on animal dissections. His views were often opposed, but by 1580 his corrections were generally accepted as within the Galenic tradition, and Harvey saw his discovery of the circulation of the blood as supporting Galenic therapeutics. In Spain and elsewhere there was also a return to Galenic anatomical texts as providing a more relevant, functional anatomy for physicians.
Galen’s Legacy in Jewish and Muslim Medical Traditions in Europe
Authors: Caballero-Navas Carmen
Published: June 2024

The aim of this chapter is to present a brief overview of the influence of Galen on the medical traditions of Muslims and Jews in medieval Europe, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula and the south of France. To that end, it will account for the impact of Galen’s understanding of medicine on both the textual production and the medical practice of members of the Jewish and Muslim communities in two distinct geopolitical and cultural contexts, the Islamicate areas of the above-mentioned region, that is, al-Andalus, and the territories under Christian rule. The chapter explores the modes in which Jews and Muslims of the European southwest acquired, accommodated, and transmitted Galenic medical knowledge and integrated it into their actual practice of medicine in a multicultural context.
Galen in Premodern Tibet and China
Authors: Weil Dror , Yoeli-Tlalim Ronit
Published: June 2024

Galen’s name appears in several contexts of Asian medical traditions, and while those references do not come with much substantial medical input, their existence and contexts are important to delineate. Galen comes to Asia through mediating languages, primarily Arabic, Persian, and Syriac. The conduits that caused this knowledge to traverse Asia were a combination of empire and religion: translation projects between Greek, Syriac, and Arabic during the Abbasid dynasty, the movement of Islam and Eastern Christianity through Asia, the Mongol Empire and its lingering effects, followed by transmissions facilitated by Western (Christian and Muslim) missionaries. These were underlying causes with which we can explain how, when, and where we find Galen in pre-modern Tibet and China.
Galen and Hellenistic Medicine
Authors: Leith David
Published: June 2024

This chapter will consider Galen’s engagement with the most significant Hellenistic doctors and sects in turn (Herophileans, Erasistrateans, Asclepiadeans, Pneumatists, and Empiricists), showing how the continuing influence of Hellenistic medicine, especially through contemporary disputes, shaped various aspects of his thought and self-presentation. In certain crucial respects, the Hellenistic period saw developments that established the general framework within which Galen’s medical system operated. Galen’s anatomy, physiology, pathology, epistemology, and psychology were all firmly grounded in discoveries and debates that occurred during the early Hellenistic period. Perhaps even more fundamentally, the image of Hippocrates that Galen inherited and further elaborated was essentially a Hellenistic construct. On the other hand, Galen was responding first and foremost to the state of theoretical medicine as it was in his own day, and similarly this was profoundly shaped by the continuing influence of the major Hellenistic doctors through their later adherents.
Jezebel and Jehu
Authors: Wray Beal Lissa M.
Published: June 2024

This chapter examines the narrative characterization of Jezebel and Jehu in 1 Kgs 16:29–2 Kgs 10:36. The pairing of Jehu and Jezebel reveals them as complex characters who move beyond stereotypical roles of hero or villain. Despite Jezebel’s association with Baal worship, she is also depicted as faithful and attentive to her prophets and her house; despite Jehu’s fulfillment of the prophetic word, his use of it suggests self-serving attempts at legitimation. Both Jezebel and Jehu are portrayed in differing ways as seeking to eliminate, subvert, or control prophets and prophetic ministry. In the end, the prophetic ministry remains free of such control, and each character is undone, prophesied to death, and brought to judgment for non-Yahwistic worship practices. This is realized in the death of Jezebel and the overthrow of Jehu’s dynasty.
The Reception of the Books of Kings in Islam
Authors: Azaiez Mehdi
Published: June 2024

This chapter offers an overview of the traces left by the books of Kings in the most significant Islamic corpora, i.e., the Qurʾan, ḥadīṯ, taʾrīkh, qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā’, and adab. It shows how the Qurʾanic corpus and Islamic tradition give a very limited place to the books of Kings. Although minor, connections are revealed through three major figures: David, Solomon and Elijah. Their characteristics are drawn not only from the Bible but also and mostly from Jewish and Christian postbiblical texts. While the books of Kings present a history of salvation (Israel’s disobedience and its punishment, which is accompanied by messianic hope), Islam presents the action of God through the sending of prophets.
Postcolonial\Native Readings of Kings
Authors: Havea Jione
Published: June 2024

The books of Kings decolonize themselves. They open with a (c)old and dysfunctional King David, and Solomon comes next to enslave Israel to carry out his empire building projects in order to fulfill Yhwh’s covenant with David. Yet Solomon is praised as a wise, peacemaking king. After Solomon, the divide between Israel and Judah dominates the rest of the narrative, ending with two exiles: Israel, to Assyria, and Judah, to Babylon. Those left behind ran to Egypt. Postcolonial readings of Kings draw attention to the colonization of land, the power of scripturalization, and the afterlife of biblical images; this chapter offers native readings that celebrate the presence and wisdom of natives and that expose the dispossession and abjectification of natives. The native readings “lean on” postcolonial readings and on Kings—a collection that shows its own agendas, e.g., kingship, and afterlife, e.g., coloniality, to be cold and dysfunctional.
Realism and the Visual Arts in France and Japan
Authors: Knowles Marika Takanishi
Published: June 2024

Recent developments in the field of art history have chipped away at the preeminence of the “Western” narrative of realism, in which European and American realisms play a central role. Acknowledging artistic traditions from across the world has drawn attention to varieties of realism in a host of artistic traditions, many of which had little to no contact with European artistic production. While it is extremely difficult to generalize about the character of realism in the visual arts, some common subjects are the representation of contemporary urban life; the social life of the working classes, with a particular focus on agricultural workers and sex workers; and the politics of consumption. Separated by two centuries and several continents, the French impressionist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) and the Japanese woodblock artist Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694) both represented female sex workers soliciting clients while sitting on a terrace overlooking an urban street. The similarities and differences between these two approaches suggest that realism in the visual arts, while globally practiced, is not a uniform phenomenon. Subjects may remain the same, but beliefs about what constitutes the real can be very different.
Peripheral Realisms, War, and Catastrophe in Contemporary Iraqi Fiction
Authors: Roy Modhumita
Published: June 2024

This chapter contributes to the ongoing debates about realism’s efficacy to textualize environmental and other catastrophes at the present time. While Amitav Ghosh (among others) has announced the demise of realism, by using Absent, Betool Khedairi’s 2004 novel about the Iraq wars as an exemplary instance, the author argues for a need to look beyond familiar textual archives to properly assess the vitality and importance of realism. Set in the context of the US invasion of and subsequent war with Iraq, Khedairi catalogues the profound costs—to city, ecology, sociality, and body—of relentless and indiscriminate bombings and prolonged sanctions. The novel provides a counternarrative to the representational density engineered by Western media of a war being conducted via “smart bombs” and “surgical strikes,” which implied a war causing minimal damage. Khedairi challenges such obfuscatory language with a strategic realism that meticulously indexes the everyday destruction of a country and a culture. Realism in Khedairi’s novel remains—to borrow an apt description from Fredric Jameson—“an active, curious, experimental, subversive” form.
Hindu-Buddhist Conversion in Nepal
Authors: Warner Cameron David
Published: June 2024

The members of the Byoma Kusuma Sangha, a branch of the Sakyapa Tibetan Buddhist lineage in Kathmandu, Nepal, consists primarily of former Hindus who have converted to Tibetan Buddhism under the leadership of their two chief teachers, Śrīdhar Rāṇā and Nārāyaṇ Prasād Rijāl. Together they have developed a course of study and pedagogical materials to translate Tibetan Buddhism into a set of practices and a philosophical worldview appropriate for their community. These teachers set out to describe why they advocate Tibetan Buddhism over contemporary Hinduism or Newari Vajrayāna Buddhism. To do so, they address the similarities of ritual practice among Hinduism, Newari Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism, while also articulating the differences in “Right View,” by which they mean philosophical outlook and key concepts. Their epistemological choices challenge preconceived notions and dominant paradigms in the study of religion in Nepal and the field of lived religion generally.
Techno-Scientific Truth-Making
Authors: Wagner Sarah , Lopez-Cerquera Maria Alexandra , Richardson Sarah L.
Published: June 2024

This chapter looks into the key concepts of forensic science and the politics of recognition and argues that technoscientific truth must be understood through larger frameworks of justice and recognition. As the role of forensic science has expanded and its forms of expertise circulate, its application in post-conflict settings has gradually gained traction within the larger enterprise of transitional justice. At the same time, forensic intervention is often construed as operating outside of or beyond politics. The chapter argues, however, that forensic science is anything but apolitical since it produces and privileges particular kinds of truths. The analysis delineates three interlocking technologies of knowledge production—identification, recognition, and remembrance (or forgetting)—that underwrite a premise that finding and returning remains can stitch societies back together. Drawing on the originary case of Argentina and the politically fraught example of postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina, the chapter discusses how forensic scientific intervention in Colombia is not only politicized, but slow, incomplete, and distressingly dissatisfying as impunity festers in the very spaces marked as reparative and responsive.
The Cistercians and the Victorines
Authors: Coolman Boyd Taylor
Published: June 2024

The twelfth-century Cistercian and Victorine traditions assumed that the goal of Christian existence, begun in this life, completed in the next, is the deification of human beings. Perhaps distinctively, both traditions specify the will (voluntas), or in their preferred terminology, the affectus, i.e., the anthropological capacity to receive and to respond to divine love in kind, as the site for such deification. In short, for Cistercians like Bernard of Clairvaux and William of Saint-Thierry, and for Victorines, such as Hugh of St. Victor and Thomas Gallus, to be deified is to love as God loves. This is to possess as much as possible the image and especially the likeness (similitudo) of God. For both the Cistercian and Victorine traditions, deification has a final dimension, best described as being so identified with God as to share in God’s own loving relationship with all that is not God.
Western Vernacular Mystics
Authors: Arblaster John , Faesen Rob , Nelstrop Louise
Published: June 2024

This chapter explores deification in the writings of Western vernacular mystics. Although vernacular mysticism in the medieval West was never firmly delineated from Latin mysticism, it does constitute a new phase in the development of Western discussions of deification. Indeed, the sources are extensive. To illustrate the depth and complexity of this development, the chapter focuses on authors from within three vernaculars, all of whom make significant contributions to the theme of deification: Hadewijch and John of Ruusbroec (both writing in Middle Dutch), Marguerite Porete (writing in Picard/Old French), and Richard Rolle and Julian of Norwich (both writing in Middle English). Diverse geographically, all bear witness to the central importance of the theme of deification in the West into the Later Middle Ages.
The Pauline and Petrine Letters
Authors: Blackwell Ben C.
Published: June 2024

The Pauline and Petrine letters provide some of the earliest descriptions of Christian theology related to the divine-human encounter. Framing this encounter in terms of participation in God and likeness to God, these letters have been interpreted as early witnesses to the doctrine of deification. Participation in God is framed as by means of Christ and the Spirit, expressed through language like communion but also directly through personal presence. Likeness to God is often framed in terms of expressing divine attributes like incorruption, knowledge, life, and holiness, not simply in generic terms but as an embodiment of Jesus’ death and suffering and through the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit. This transformation, best described as attributive deification, is often addressed individually (in the present noetically and morally and in the future somatically), but corporate elements, particularly through the practices of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, mediate these realities.
Cosmic very small dust grains as a natural laboratory of mesoscopic physics: Modeling thermal and optical properties of graphite grains
Authors: Amazaki Kenji , Nashimoto Masashi , Hattori Makoto
Published: June 2024

Cosmic very small dust grains (VSGs) contain 100 to 10000 atoms, making them a mesoscopic system with specific thermal and optical characteristics due to the finite number of atoms within each grain. This paper focuses on graphite VSGs which contain free electrons. The energy level statistics devised by Kubo (1962, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn., 17, 975) are used for the first time to understand the thermal properties of free electrons in graphite VSGs. We show that the shape irregularity of the grains allows graphite VSGs to absorb or emit photons at submillimeter wavelengths or longer; otherwise, the frequency is limited to above a few THz. Additionally, we consider the decrease in Debye temperature due to the surface effect. VSGs have an extremely small volume, resulting in limited thermal energy storage, especially at low temperatures. Since a VSG is able to emit a photon with energy smaller than its internal energy, this determines the maximum frequency of the emitted photon. We develop a Monte Carlo simulation code to track the thermal history of a dust grain, considering the stochastic heating from the absorption of ambient photons and radiative cooling. This approach is applied to the interstellar environment to compute the spectral energy distributions from the interstellar graphite dust grains. The results show that graphite VSGs emit not only the mid-infrared excess emission, but also a surplus emission from submillimeter to millimeter wavelengths.
Policing child abuse in Kenya—Perspectives from the frontline
Authors: Davenport Lydia , Mutisya Mueni
Published: June 2024

Child abuse in Kenya continues to present a prominent and ongoing concern. Complicated by challenges of cultural rationalization, leading to an unclear understanding of its prevalence and typologies. This study produces insights from interviews with 20 police child protection officers in Kenya to gain previously unexplored police practitioner perspectives on the typologies and underlying causes of child abuse. Notably types of child abuse identified included intra-familial sexual abuse, exploitation, and female genital mutilation (FGM) and escalating online child abuse. Identifiable causes encompassed poverty, cultural practices, and ineffectiveness and corruption within the criminal justice system—the same areas where we are not seeing enough change. Recommendations arising as a result of the study include the necessity for intensified focus and prioritization of child abuse within Kenyan policing and wider government strategies, NGO programs that aim to alleviate poverty through life-based necessities, increased cultural sensitization, and tackling corruption.
Promotion of cardiac microtissue assembly within G-CSF-enriched collagen I-cardiogel hybrid hydrogel
Authors: Khodayari Hamid , Khodayari Saeed , Rezaee Malihe , Rezaeiani Siamak , Alipour Choshali Mahmoud , Erfanian Saiedeh , Muhammadnejad Ahad , Nili Fatemeh , Pourmehran Yasaman , Pirjani Reihaneh , Rajabi Sarah , Aghdami Naser , Nebigil-Désaubry Canan , Wang Kai , Mahmoodzadeh Habibollah , Pahlavan Sara
Published: June 2024

Tissue engineering as an interdisciplinary field of biomedical sciences has raised many hopes in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases as well as development of in vitro three-dimensional (3D) cardiac models. This study aimed to engineer a cardiac microtissue using a natural hybrid hydrogel enriched by granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), a bone marrow-derived growth factor. Cardiac ECM hydrogel (Cardiogel: CG) was mixed with collagen type I (ColI) to form the hybrid hydrogel, which was tested for mechanical and biological properties. Three cell types (cardiac progenitor cells, endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts) were co-cultured in the G-CSF-enriched hybrid hydrogel to form a 3D microtissue. ColI markedly improved the mechanical properties of CG in the hybrid form with a ratio of 1:1. The hybrid hydrogel demonstrated acceptable biocompatibility and improved retention of encapsulated human foreskin fibroblasts. Co-culture of three cell types in G-CSF enriched hybrid hydrogel, resulted in a faster 3D structure shaping and a well-cellularized microtissue with higher angiogenesis compared to growth factor-free hybrid hydrogel (control). Immunostaining confirmed the presence of CD31+ tube-like structures as well as vimentin+ cardiac fibroblasts and cTNT+ human pluripotent stem cells-derived cardiomyocytes. Bioinformatics analysis of signaling pathways related to the G-CSF receptor in cardiovascular lineage cells, identified target molecules. The in silico-identified STAT3, as one of the major molecules involved in G-CSF signaling of cardiac tissue, was upregulated in G-CSF compared to control. The G-CSF-enriched hybrid hydrogel could be a promising candidate for cardiac tissue engineering, as it facilitates tissue formation and angiogenesis.
Early adolescent perceived friendship quality aids affective and neural responses to social inclusion and exclusion in young adults with and without adverse childhood experiences
Authors: Dauvermann Maria R , Moreno-Lopéz Laura , Vai Benedetta , González-García Nadia , Orellana Sofia , Jones Peter B , Bullmore Ed , Goodyer Ian M , van Harmelen Anne-Laura
Published: June 2024

Friendships increase mental wellbeing and resilient functioning in young people with childhood adversity (CA). However, the mechanisms of this relationship are unknown. We examined the relationship between perceived friendship quality at age 14 after the experience of CA and reduced affective and neural responses to social exclusion at age 24. Resilient functioning was quantified as psychosocial functioning relative to the degree of CA severity in 310 participants at age 24. From this cohort, 62 young people with and without CA underwent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to assess brain responses to social inclusion and exclusion. We observed that good friendship quality was significantly associated with better resilient functioning. Both friendship quality and resilient functioning were related to increased affective responses to social inclusion. We also found that friendship quality, but not resilient functioning, was associated with increased dorsomedial prefrontal cortex responses to peer exclusion. Our findings suggest that friendship quality in early adolescence may contribute to the evaluation of social inclusion by increasing affective sensitivity to positive social experiences and increased brain activity in regions involved in emotion regulation to negative social experiences. Future research is needed to clarify this relationship with resilient functioning in early adulthood.
Impact of pelvic floor muscle training on sexual function in women affected by stress urinary incontinence
Authors: Lau Hui-Hsuan , Su Tsung-Hsien , Hwang Jiun-Chyi
Published: June 2024

Background

Pelvic floor muscle training can effectively improve pelvic floor muscle strength and activities; however, its impact on sexual function in women with stress urinary incontinence remains unclear.

Aim

The study sought to investigate the impact of pelvic floor muscle training on pelvic floor muscle and sexual function in women with stress urinary incontinence.

Methods

This was a retrospective observational study involving women who visited a urogynecologic clinic at a tertiary medical center. Patients with stress urinary incontinence without pelvic organ prolapse underwent pelvic floor muscle training programs that included biofeedback and intravaginal electrostimulation. Other evaluations included pelvic floor manometry, electromyography, and quality-of-life questionnaires, including the short forms of the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire, Urogenital Distress Inventory, and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire.

Outcomes

Clinical characteristics, vaginal squeezing and resting pressure, maximal pelvic floor contraction, duration of sustained contraction, quality-of-life scores, and sexual function were compared between baseline and after the pelvic floor muscle training programs.

Results

There were 61 women included in the study. The mean number of treatment sessions was 12.9 ± 6.3, and the mean treatment duration was 66.7 ± 32.1 days. The short forms of the Urogenital Distress Inventory (7.7 ± 3.8 vs 1.8 ± 2.1; P < .001) and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (5.9 ± 4.3 vs 1.8 ± 2.0; P < .001) scores significantly improved after the pelvic floor muscle training program. In addition, all pelvic floor muscle activities significantly improved, including maximal vaginal squeezing pressure (58.7 ± 20.1 cmH2O vs 66.0 ± 24.7 cmH2O; P = .022), difference in vaginal resting and maximal squeezing pressure (25.3 ± 14.6 cmH2O vs 35.5 ± 16.0 cmH2O; P < .001), maximal pelvic muscle voluntary contraction (24.9 ± 13.8 μV vs 44.5 ± 18.9 μV; P < .001), and duration of contraction (6.2 ± 5.7 s vs 24.9 ± 14.6 s; P < .001). Nevertheless, the short form of the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire score demonstrated no significant improvement (28.8 ± 9.7 vs 29.2 ± 12.3; P = .752).

Clinical Implications

Pelvic floor muscle training programs may not improve sexual function in women with stress urinary incontinence.

Strengths and Limitations

The strength of this study is that we evaluated sexual function with validated questionnaires. The small sample size and lack of long-term data are the major limitations.

Conclusion

Pelvic floor muscle training can improve pelvic floor muscle activities and effectively treat stress urinary incontinence; however, it may not improve sexual function.
Portugal: Overview of foundations under Portuguese tax law
Authors: Barnabé Nuno Cunha , Assis Maria Inês , Monteiro de Oliveira Joana
Published: June 2024

Portuguese Foundations are relatively new in Portuguese legal history. In this article, the authors provide an overview of the main characteristics of Portuguese Foundations as well as their legal and tax framework. The fact that Portuguese law requires foundations to necessarily have a social or public interest purpose makes these legal entities unattractive and thus, in Portugal, they are rarely used for wealth protection purposes and in family estate planning (apart from bequests for charitable purposes). However, with the increase in the number of foreigners who have become tax residents in Portugal in recent years and who are either founders or beneficiaries of foreign foundations, Portugal had inevitably to adapt and in 2015 introduced specific provisions on the taxation of income from this type of legal entity.
The potential Association of Bisphenol A exposure and type 1 diabetes mellitus among Dakahlia Governorate’s children sample, Egypt
Authors: El-Degwi Basma Ahmed Ali , Awad Mahmoud El-Sayed , Laimon Wafaa , Askar Samar A , El-Morsi Doaa Abdel Wahab , Ahmed Dalia Alsaied Moustafa
Published: June 2024

Background

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine disrupter affecting glucose homeostasis.

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate BPA’s relationship with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) in Dakahlia Governorate’s children, in Egypt.

Subjects, materials and methods

The study had two parts: clinical and experimental. Clinical Study was conducted on 200 children, equally divided into control and T1DM groups. They underwent: demographic data, height, weight, body mass index, glycosylated HbA1C, random blood glucose, and urinary BPA measurements. Experimental Study was conducted on 60 adult albino rats. Rats were randomly divided into three equal groups: control group: received 0.5 mL of pure olive oil, group 1: received 20 mg/kg/day BPA, and group 2: received 100 mg/kg/day BPA orally for 6 weeks. Fasting and two hours postprandial glucose levels were measured at the beginning and end of the study. Histopathological examination and imaging study of the pancreas were done.

Results

In clinical study: HbA1C and random blood glucose levels in diabetic children showed a significant increase compared to control. Children in control group showed controlled HbA1C, while the T1DM group showed 86% with poor diabetic control. There was a significant increase in BPA level in the T1DM group compared to the control. Rats that received BPA showed a marked increase in fasting and two hours postprandial glucose levels, histopathological changes in the pancreas with more changes determined in the high dose group, and a significant decrease in the islets of Langerhans diameters with group 2 more affected.

Conclusion

So, BPA exposure could be considered a risk factor for T1DM in children.
Association between Alzheimer's disease and Toxocara infection/exposure: a case–control study
Authors: Khatir Ali Alizadeh , Mousavi Fariborz , Sepidarkish Mahdi , Arshadi Mahdi , Arjmandi Delaram , Aldaghi Maryam , Rostami Ali
Published: June 2024

Background

Infections may contribute to Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. Limited evidence suggests Toxocara spp. infection/exposure could influence AD development.

Methods

We investigated Toxocara seropositivity and AD in Iranian adults using a matched case–control study. Our sample included 90 AD cases and 91 healthy older adults. Anti-Toxocara immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies were assessed via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We computed the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) through univariable and multivariable analyses, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

There were 33/90 (36.67% [95% CI 26.75 to 47.48]) anti-Toxocara IgG seropositive individuals identified among the AD cases and 21/91 (23.07% [95% CI 14.89 to 33.09]) among the healthy controls. In univariable analysis, a significant association was identified between anti-Toxocara IgG seropositivity and AD (OR 1.93 [95% CI 1.01 to 3.69], p<0.001). Moreover, the association remained significant (OR 2.18 [95% CI 1.05 to 4.49], p<0.001) in multivariable analysis after adjustment for covariates. There was no association between anti-Toxocara IgG seropositivity and the severity of AD (OR 0.75 [95% CI 0.21 to 2.61], p=0.47).

Conclusions

Our findings indicated that Toxocara exposure/infection could be a potential risk factor for development of AD. To better understand a real causality between Toxocara exposure/infection and AD and related dementias, follow-up designed and adequately powered studies are needed.
Evolution of spider- and ant-eating habits in crab spiders (Araneae: Thomisidae)
Authors: Pekár Stano , Šoltysová Vladimíra , Booysen Ruan , Arnedo Miquel
Published: June 2024

Spiders and ants are infrequent types of prey in the diet of spiders. Both spider- and ant-eating were found in thomisid (crab) spiders but their origin remains unclear. Our goal was to gather data on spider- and ant-eating habits in thomisid spiders, construct a family-level phylogeny, and estimate when these habits evolved. Using prey acceptance experiments, we found 21 spider- and 18 ant-eating genera; based on photographic evidence there were 14 spider- and 20 ant-eating genera; and based on literature there were six spider- and seven ant-eating genera. Altogether we found evidence for 28 spider- and 30 ant-eating genera. We performed the most extensive molecular phylogenetic analysis of Thomisidae to date, using representatives of 75 nominal genera. The resulting topology was congruent with previous studies: Thomisidae were shown to be monophyletic; the genus Borboropactus was identified as a sister group to the remaining thomisids; the current subfamilies emerged as para- or polyphyletic, and Aphantochilinae was monophyletic and rendered Strophiinae paraphyletic within the ‘Thomisus clade’. Ancestral state reconstruction estimated both spider- and ant-eating as ancestral states, suggesting that common ancestors of Thomisidae were euryphagous predators that included spiders but also ants in their diet.