bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction
Authors: Ross Anna
Published: February 2019

This chapter introduces the Prussian governments of the post-revolutionary period, situating them within a divided political landscape. The Brandenburg–Manteuffel and Manteuffel Ministries of State promoted ambitious reforms to bring stability after years of revolutionary upheaval in Prussia. These ranged from restructurings of criminal justice to the adoption of press management. Similar initiatives could also be seen in other German states in the 1850s and 1860s. Indeed, across Europe, this was a period of innovative state action. The chapter draws our attention to what reform in Prussia can tell us about government and state-building in the post-revolutionary period. It also places the post-revolutionary period within a longer history of transition away from lingering feudal structures, thereby encouraging us to turn back and to turn forward in our analysis of Prussian restructurings.
Impeccability and Temptation
Authors: Pawl Timothy
Published: February 2019

The scriptures and the councils teach that Christ was tempted. One common extension to Conciliar Christology, the extension discussed in this chapter, is the claim that Christ not only did not sin, but in fact Christ was unable to sin. Some thinkers see a contradiction looming here. For to be genuinely tempted, they argue, requires having the ability to sin. If Christ was unable to sin, then he could not be tempted, contrary to scripture and council. And so this particular extension of Conciliar Christology, the extension produced by conjoining Conciliar Christology with the thesis that Christ was unable to sin, is false. This chapter responds to this argument against Extended Conciliar Christology.
Reformation Tragedy and Revelation
Authors: Leo Russ
Published: February 2019

Chapter 1 explores how Reformed dramatists and theologians alike turned to tragedy to comprehend escalating tensions in Reformation Europe. Dramatic experiments like Thomas Naogeorgus’ Pammachius, Francesco Negri’s Tragedia intitolata Libero Arbitrio, and John Foxe’s Christus Triumphans reframed the events depicted in the book of Revelation in deliberately tragic terms; the influential Heidelberg theologian David Pareus, in turn, described Revelation itself as a tragedy, tracing the origins of the genre to Scripture itself, laying claim to tragedy’s prophetic and literary resources in the process. Pareus not only recruited poetic concepts for exegetical purposes, he asserted the fundamental relationship between Scripture, tragedy, and the shape of human history. Across these works tragedy is crucial to the experience of Reformation—requiring, for the tragedians, flexible and experimental notions of form and performance and, for Pareus, supple approaches to tragedy and typology.
Introduction
Authors: Leo Russ
Published: February 2019

The Introduction illustrates how humanists like Desiderius Erasmus, Philipp Melanchthon, and Martin Bucer imported the study of drama into theology, mining antique poetics for exegetical and philosophical tools, recruiting tragedy in particular to pedagogical, theological, and devotional ends. Tracing the simultaneous development of Reformed poetics and original works of tragoedia sacra across the first half of the sixteenth century, the Introduction also foregrounds the emergence of a precise philosophical idea of tragedy under the influence of Aristotle’s Poetics. The Introduction illustrates just how important tragedy had become to diverse reformers and Reformers by 1550, underscoring the theological and philosophical purchase of tragedy and the Poetics in and beyond dramatic practice.
Aristotle's Lost Homeric Problems
Authors: Mayhew Robert
Published: February 2019

This volume consists of a set of studies focused on various aspects of a relatively neglected subject: a lost work of Aristotle entitled Homeric Problems. Most of the evidence for this lost work consists mainly of ‘fragments’ surviving in the Homeric scholia (comments in the margins of the medieval manuscripts of the Homeric epics, mostly coming from lost commentaries on these epics). But other sources have been neglected. The book has three parts. The first deals with preliminary issues: the relationship of this lost work to the Homeric scholarship that came before it, and to Aristotle’s comments on the Homeric epics in his extant Poetics; the evidence concerning the possible titles of this work; a neglected early edition of these fragments. In the second part, our knowledge of the Homeric Problems is expanded through an examination in context of quotations from (or allusions to) Homer in Aristotle’s extant works, and specifically in the History of Animals, the Rhetoric, and Poetics 21 (to each of which a chapter is devoted). Part III consists of four studies on select (and in most cases neglected) fragments. The volume intends to show (inter alia) that Aristotle in the Homeric Problems aimed to defend Homer against his critics, but not slavishly and without employing allegorical interpretation.
The Titles (and Subtitles) of Aristotle’s Lost Work on Homer
Authors: Mayhew Robert
Published: February 2019

I examine four types of evidence for the titles of the lost work that is the focus of this book: (1) the three most reliable ancient biographies of Aristotle, which contain lists of Aristotle’s works; (2) passages from three other, less reliable, ancient biographies of Aristotle; (3) the only three fragments from the Homeric Problems which refer to a title; (4) the incipit (i.e. opening words) of Poetics 25. Of the two most likely titles (Προβλήματα Ὁμηρικά‎ and Ἀπορήματα Ὁμηρικά‎), I have a preference for the latter. I also discuss the possible explanations for the variation in the number of books attributed to this work (six and ten), and I speculate about the possibility of subtitles (that is, separate titles for each of its six or ten books).
Sociological Description and the Forensics of Sexuality
Authors: Mitra Durba
Published: February 2019

This chapter analyses how typologies of deviant female sexuality shaped medico-legal narratives of abortion in colonial eastern India. I argue that forensic medicine shaped normative understandings of Indian women through a circular logic that united sociological categories—including Hindu widow, child-bride, and prostitute—with detailed assessments of women’s physical anatomy. Medico-legal texts on abortion extended beyond claims to legal veracity, constituting new authoritative forms of knowledge that brought together sociological and scientific methods to comprehend the potential dangers of women’s sexuality. I explore how the medico-legal science of abortion shaped the rise of invasive colonial practices that mandated involuntary genital examinations of women. Medico-legal narratives of abortion characterized a wide range of women outside of the domain of companionate marriage as socially deviant, unchaste, and potentially criminal.
Confessions of the Unfriendly Spleen
Authors: Sen Sudipta
Published: February 2019

This essay traces the genealogy of humors and diseases of the spleen that originated in England and became a common subject of study in imperial and tropical medicine, reinforcing deep-seated notions about the physical weakness of Indians and the unusual pathology of native bodies and organs. It explores how forensic notions of a weaker and vulnerable Indian body emerged in colonial India through theories of miasma and the practice of dissection, and how such ideas contributed to the notorious 'spleen theory' defense in the law courts of the late nineteenth-century Raj, where Europeans charged with assault and murder of Indian servants were frequently acquitted on the grounds of their distended spleens being ruptured during routine acts of physical correction.
Absence, Abundance, and Excess
Authors: Blaikie Calum
Published: February 2019

This chapter examines the ways in which changing patterns of materia medica circulation have shaped Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan medicine) pharmacy, practice and social organization in Ladakh since the 1960s. It argues that rapid growth in the availability of formerly limited raw materials was key to the emergence of larger scales of drug production and to the proliferation, complexification and commodification of medicines. These phenomena, in turn, allowed for the emergence of professionalized forms of medical practice, the enfranchisement of certain groups, ideas and practices, and the marginalisation of others. By charting the shifting material, social, economic and pharmaceutical dimensions of Ladakhi Sowa Rigpa in relation to one another, the chapter questions the constitution and boundaries of ‘the medical realm’.
Technology and Health in Late Colonial India
Authors: Arnold David
Published: February 2019

In order to move beyond the familiar ‘epidemic–institutional nexus’ in studies of disease and medicine in modern India, this chapter argues for the importance of examining the health of the subaltern classes through three largely social and spatial arenas—the street, the factory, and the home. While these locations offered some health benefits and facilities, they also presented substantial threats to health – through the creation of novel disease environments, through accidents and pollution in the home, the workplace and on the street, and through deficient diets and new food-processing techniques. Indians faced further danger from modern machines and novel forms of technology. Taken together, these locations require a fresh understanding of what constituted health in modern Indian society.
Afterword
Authors: Harrison Mark
Published: February 2019

This Afterword reflects on the creation of the category of ‘the medical’ and how it came to be inscribed in India during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It argues that the main factors involved in this process were the needs of the state, the professionalization of medicine and the emergence of a commodity culture which encouraged people to think about their health and lifestyles in medical terms.
From Representing Gods to Representing the Telugu People
Authors: Bhrugubanda Uma Maheswari
Published: February 2019

This chapter focuses on the film and political career of N.T. Rama Rao to discuss the ways in which the mythological film was central to the emergence of the male star into the position of a populist leader, one who appears capable of representing the interests of the Telugu people. Through the mythological and the socio-fantasy genres, NTR emerges both as the embodiment of Telugu heritage as well as the pre-eminent modern citizen–subject. In this chapter, I draw upon Ernesto Laclau’s idea of populist reason as well as recent anthropological work on affect to think through the relation between politics and affect and also to point to the fact that there are spill-overs between the fields of politics, popular entertainment, and religion which need our critical attention.
The Exemplary Citizen–Devotee and the Other
Authors: Bhrugubanda Uma Maheswari
Published: February 2019

Chapter 2 begins with a theoretical discussion of majorities and minorities within a secular liberal nation. Later it examines two saint films, Bhakta Ramadasu (1964) and Sri Ramadasu (2006) in which the story of a seventeenth century devotee-poet who was an administrative official under the Muslim Qutub Shahi rulers of Golconda, is mobilized at different moments in Indian history to deal with the question of difference both within Hinduism and outside it. More specifically it demonstrates the ways in which Muslims and the Urdu language are ‘made minor’ in mainstream cinema and thereby in the Telugu cultural imaginary. The first film is representative of the syncretic approach to the Muslim presence while the later film reflects the majoritarian Hindutva logic. Despite this crucial difference, both films are unable to imagine modes of toleration that overcome the limitations of liberal secularism.
The Good Wife and the Goddess
Authors: Bhrugubanda Uma Maheswari
Published: February 2019

Chapter 3 examines the question of gender in the cinematic conceptions of the citizen–devotee. The contradictions that traverse the nationalist ideal of femininity manifest themselves in the cinema of the 1950s and 1960s in the form of a conflict between two figures which have been central to the Telugu devotional genre—the sati and sakti—the good wife and the goddess. Hindu mythic characters of ideal wives provided the role models for imagining the ethics of good wifehood. In many of these films the goddess in her fierce and terrifying aspects, whose worship is usually associated with the superstitious lower castes, is dismissed as a sign of primitive nature. In later decades, however, there are perceptible shifts and lower caste village goddesses begin to make an appearance. Drawing on feminist film theory and anthropology of embodiment, I examine the implications of these thematic and generic shifts.
Hindi Publishing in Colonial Lucknow
Authors: Nijhawan Shobna
Published: February 2019

Investigating the emergence of Hindi publishing in colonial Lucknow, long a stronghold of Urdu and Persian literary culture, Shobna Nijhawan offers a detailed study of literary activities emerging out of the publishing house Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā in the first half of the twentieth century. Closely associated with it was the Hindi monthly Sudhā, a literary, socio-political, and illustrated periodical, in which Hindi writings were promoted and developed for the education and entertainment of the reader. In charting the literary networks established by Dularelal Bhargava, the proprietor of Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā and chief editor of Sudhā, this volume sheds light on his role in the development of Hindi language and literature, creation of canonical literature, and commercialization and nationalization of books and periodicals in the north Indian Hindi public sphere. Using vernacular primary sources and drawing on scholarship on periodicals and publishing houses as well as editor-publishers that has emerged over the past two decades, Nijhawan shows how one publishing house singlehandedly impacted the role of Hindi in the public sphere.
‘Canon’ Formation (Part I)
Authors: Nijhawan Shobna
Published: February 2019

The proprietor of Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā relied on an impressive network of scholar-writers, journalists, and educationalists who were involved with the publishing house and the periodical. Their contributions to Sudhā are introduced in Chapter 3 with the intention to demonstrate what in the eyes of the editors of Sudhā and the Hindi public constituted useful knowledge for the middle-class reader. Poetry, fiction, and prose essays were three major publication genres of the time, which underwent transformations while being written in. The discussion of these genres takes place in the context of the developments within the pages of Sudhā, the publishing house, and the Hindi literary sphere that witnessed a number of literary movements in the early twentieth century.
Conclusion
Authors: Nijhawan Shobna
Published: February 2019

The conclusion addresses the question revolving around literature, visuals, and visibility as well as acts of reading and seeing. Offering knowledge did not mean that Sudhā (and other periodicals) was read and digested as intended by the contributors, editors, and publishers. Similarly, the increased number of women’s depictions does not allow for conclusions concerning the actual role of middle-class Hindu women in the early twentieth century. Text and image combined, however, significantly contributed to the imagining and the making of the Hindi public sphere in the early twentieth century by Sudhā and Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā.
Provincializing the Anthropocene
Authors: Morrison Kathleen D.
Published: February 2019

The proposal that we have entered a new geological period, the Anthropocene, has gained currency both inside and outside of scientific circles. It is, therefore, worth understanding where this idea comes from and how the science behind it has developed. This article discusses both the nature of empirical support for the Anthropocene proposal as well as the analytical apparatus supporting and surrounding it. To a surprising extent, the notion of an Anthropocene represents an effort to expand homogenized European historical experiences, frameworks and chronologies onto the rest of the world. This focus has serious consequences, for example in the carbon budgets calculated to accompany early agricultural transitions. Not only that deciding whether or not a new geological period is called for is, at present, unnecessary, but even more that there is something very troubling about earth system science built out so fundamentally from the history and ecology of one small part of the world.
South Asia’s Coastal Frontiers
Authors: Amrith Sunil
Published: February 2019

This chapter explores the environmental history of coastal South Asia. The coast has been a liminal zone—ecologically, culturally, and economically. This chapter argues that the social and ecological history of coastal South Asia, over the longue durée, allows us to reintegrate histories of oceanic commerce, with terrestrial histories of the state’s expanding power over nature. The chapter explores two intertwined strands of coastal environmental history under colonial rule: the history of coastal fisheries, and the expanding environmental footprint of coastal India in an age of imperial globalization. The chapter concludes by examining the acceleration of coastal transformation from the 1970s, accompanied by rising environmental consciousness.
Image-Inspired Poetry and the Art of Compromise
Authors: Mody Sujata S.
Published: February 2019

Chapter 3 further examines Dwivedi’s visually oriented strategies to establish literary authority amidst resistance, especially from critics who publicly decried his brand of poetry as crude, and from poets who continued to publish in Braj Bhasha. Dwivedi’s response was pragmatic: he attempted to bring sophistication to Khari Boli poetry through a cultivated association with art; and he modelled poetry that adhered to a modified agenda. He authored and commissioned a series of image-poems, poetry inspired by and published alongside paintings by Ravi Varma (1848–1906) as well as other contemporary artists. Dwivedi’s limited use and sanction of Braj Bhasha’s linguistic and literary influence in these image-poems did not match his agenda in cartoons and prose. Such maneuvers defined the very substance of modern Hindi poetry in the early twentieth century and established Khari Boli as the language of modern Hindi literature.
Introduction
Authors: Mandala Vijaya Ramadas
Published: February 2019

The introductory chapter opens the debate on why there is a need to write a book on shikar in South Asia. It makes a compelling case for taking the symbolism and practice of big-game hunting as central to the expression of rule and making of authority in colonial India. The reader would learn about the historical developments of hunting as a political practice, and an enactment of ritual authority and masculine identity from ancient societies down to medieval and modern ones. In discussing these developments, the chapter charts out the framework of big-game hunting and conservation in relation to the historical literature in the field, often drawing comparisons and juxtaposing the same with Britain and other parts of the colonial world.
Hunting as ‘Sport’ in Colonial India
Authors: Mandala Vijaya Ramadas
Published: February 2019

This chapter is concerned with the development of hunting as ‘sport’, whereby colonial hunters from the late nineteenth century began to carefully shape the idiom of the hunt, gradually distancing themselves from indigenous hunting methods. By systematically showcasing their skill and sportsmanship, British hunters portrayed their methods and practices as more sophisticated than the older native traditions. This study also elaborates on how different terrains and environments determined the planning and organization of hunts by the British hunters across the presidencies. Rank, authority, and privilege not only operated between the colonizers and colonized, but also within the world of British hunting communities. In contrast to the Company period, hunting became a microcosm of imperial society in late nineteenth-century India, and different sorts of hunts and clubs were open to people of various ranks. In addition, the making of hunting into a ‘sport’ was heavily linked to a discourse of class and race, drawing upon ideas of chivalry and with only the most acceptable hunting practices encoded into sportsmanship. The development of a class-based regime of hunting is evident in the way pig-sticking came to be regarded as the most superior kind of hunt, because it required great skill in horse-riding and horsemanship, presented added danger and utilized the spear rather than the gun. The chapter also explains how technological change in firearms took place and the way in which such changes were related to the transformation of hunting mores in nineteenth-century India.
The Literary and the Political in the Fifteenth Century
Authors: Jha Pankaj
Published: February 2019

Historians rarely write about the fifteenth century in north India. When they do, it is within certain set frames, for instance, as an interregnum, or as part of ‘regional’ histories. Occasionally, they write about the ferment of the bhakti ‘movement’ during the period. Tracing the narrow lanes of this historiography, the chapter also points to recent researches that raise some interesting questions. These relate to military labour, literary cultures, vernacularization, multilingualism, and so on. Apart from taking a critical stock of this historiography, the chapter explores how literary history might be fruitfully linked to ‘mainstream’ political history. It analyses meanings of, and the relationship between, literature, history, and power. Texts are not just innocent sources and repository of information. They are also seen as interventions in an ongoing conversation with other texts in the same and related themes and areas.
Dividing Relics
Authors: Wiśniewski Robert
Published: February 2019

It is commonly believed that the practice of dividing corporeal relics had begun as early as the fourth century and that it was initiated in the eastern Mediterranean, to appear in the West at a much later date. This chapter challenges both these views. It demonstrates that there is no early description of dismembering a saint’s physical remains, and the evidence of the veneration of specific body parts is extremely scarce. Testimonies to the deposition of the same saint’s relics in several places can be better explained by transfers of relics, their independent discoveries, or the production of contact relics than by the actual division of relics. If this practice really existed in Late Antiquity, it was probably extremely rare in either part of the empire before the sixth century.
Introduction
Authors: Freiberger Oliver
Published: February 2019

The introduction explains the objectives of the present book and summarizes its major arguments. Comparison has been conducted in religious studies since the early days of the discipline, and scholars have often reflected upon its problems and merits. But very few bridged the gap between actual comparative work and theoretical reflection. Against the backdrop of recent substantial criticism of the comparative method, this book holds that comparison is indispensable for the study of religion and that the comparative method can be described and analyzed more comprehensively than in past scholarship. This introduction outlines the problem and the book’s argument and provides short summaries of the subsequent chapters.
The Comparative Method in the Study of Religion
Authors: Freiberger Oliver
Published: February 2019

This chapter breaks down the common phrase “comparative method in the study of religion” and seeks to clarify the scholarly contexts in which comparativists of religion operate. It argues that religious studies ought to be recognized as an academic discipline—and as one that is grounded in comparison. Speaking of disciplinarity helps to acknowledge the scholarly discourses and goals of other comparative disciplines and to engage in productive interdisciplinary conversations. The chapter also suggests three different ways in which comparison is used in religious studies and argues that it makes sense to speak of “the comparative method.” Finally, it proposes two primary goals of comparison in religious studies and argues that with its particular configuration of goals, comparative method, and disciplinarity, religious studies makes a unique contribution to scholarship.
Discourse Comparison: An Approach and a Case Study
Authors: Freiberger Oliver
Published: February 2019

This chapter introduces a comparative approach that the author calls discourse comparison. The approach focuses on the discursive context of the comparands and highlights the plurality of voices, tensions, and conflicts, or simply the heterogeneity of opinions that are expressed in the sources about the studied phenomenon. To exemplify this approach the chapter presents, as a case study, the author’s earlier work on ascetic discourses in early Brahmanical and early Christian texts. At the same time, it analyzes this study along the lines of the methodological framework proposed in Chapter 3 in order to demonstrate the ways in which the terminology of the framework can be applied to a concrete comparative study. A concluding section recapitulates the argument of the book and summarizes what the author regards as the contribution that it makes to the methodological discourse in the study of religion.
Association between socioeconomic status and comorbidities among patients with rheumatoid arthritis: results of a nationwide cross-sectional survey
Authors: Shin Anna , Shin Seunghwan , Kim Ji Hyoun , Ha You-Jung , Lee Yun Jong , Song Yeong Wook , Kang Eun Ha
Published: February 2019

Objectives

We examined the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and comorbidity distribution among patients with RA.

Methods

Information on comprehensive health status of 1088 RA patients (weighted n = 612 303) was obtained from the 2007–2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey database. SES components were household equivalence income, education and area of residence. To minimize confounding by age, patients were stratified by median age (63 years). Age-adjusted odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was estimated, comparing weighted prevalence of individual comorbidities between low and high SES groups in each age stratum.

Results

Among RA patients aged <63 years (mean 49 years, 70% female), we observed age-adjusted associations of depression (OR 2.13, 95% CI 1.01, 4.53), depressive mood (OR 2.68, 95% CI 1.54, 4.65), suicide ideation (OR 3.01, 95% CI 1.79, 5.07), diabetes (OR 3.09, 95%CI 1.31, 7.29), obesity (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.30, 3.20), hypertriglyceridemia (OR 2.36, 95% CI 1.28, 4.34) and osteoarthritis (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.13, 3.99) with low income, of suicide ideation with low education (OR 2.25, 95% CI 1.14, 4.44), but no association of any comorbidities with area of residence. Unhealthy behavior patterns were comparable between low- and high-income groups but patients with low income reported a numerically higher rate of failed access to necessary healthcare services. We did not find any association between SES and comorbidities among those aged ⩾63 years (mean 72 years, 83% female).

Conclusion

Among Korean RA patients aged <63 years, socioeconomic inequalities of multiple comorbidities in mental, cardiometabolic and musculoskeletal systems were found.
Using Historical Biogeography Models to Study Color Pattern Evolution
Authors: Eliason Chad M , Andersen Michael J , Hackett Shannon J
Published: February 2019

Color is among the most striking features of organisms, varying not only in spectral properties like hue and brightness, but also in where and how it is produced on the body. Different combinations of colors on a bird’s body are important in both environmental and social contexts. Previous comparative studies have treated plumage patches individually or derived plumage complexity scores from color measurements across a bird’s body. However, these approaches do not consider the multivariate nature of plumages (allowing for plumage to evolve as a whole) or account for interpatch distances. Here, we leverage a rich toolkit used in historical biogeography to assess color pattern evolution in a cosmopolitan radiation of birds, kingfishers (Aves: Alcedinidae). We demonstrate the utility of this approach and test hypotheses about the tempo and mode of color evolution in kingfishers. Our results highlight the importance of considering interpatch distances in understanding macroevolutionary trends in color diversity and demonstrate how historical biogeography models are a useful way to model plumage color pattern evolution. Furthermore, they show that distinct color mechanisms (pigments or structural colors) spread across the body in different ways and at different rates. Specifically, net rates are higher for structural colors than pigment-based colors. Together, our study suggests a role for both development and selection in driving extraordinary color pattern diversity in kingfishers. We anticipate this approach will be useful for modeling other complex phenotypes besides color, such as parasite evolution across the body.
Evolution of a sensory cluster on the legs of Opiliones (Arachnida) informs multi-level phylogenetic relationships
Authors: Gainett Guilherme , Sharma Prashant P , Fernandes Nathália , Pinto-Da-Rocha Ricardo , Giribet Gonzalo , Willemart Rodrigo Hirata
Published: February 2019

Phylogenetic relationships in Opiliones (Arachnida) at the suborder level have greatly stabilized in recent years, largely due to advances in molecular systematics. Nonetheless, identifying morphological characters in the context of well-resolved phylogenies is essential for testing new systematic hypotheses and establishing diagnostic markers. Here, we investigate with SEM a promising character system across Opiliones: the sensilla on the distalmost article of legs I and II. We identified four discrete characters and scored species of nearly all families of Laniatores (28 families, 44 species), three Dyspnoi, two Eupnoi and two Cyphophthalmi. Using a phylogenetic backbone compiled from recent and ongoing phylogenomic studies, we trace the evolution of these sensilla using ancestral state reconstruction. We discover a widespread occurrence of three sensilla (a pair of sensilla basiconica and one hooded sensillum) on the anterior legs of all families of Laniatores studied, and that comparable structures occur in the other suborders of Opiliones. Our analysis shows that this sensory field provides diagnostic information at different levels of phylogenetic relationships. We discuss the implications of the widespread occurrence of these sensilla in Opiliones, which have recently been hypothesized as hygro-/thermoreceptors and their putative homology with tarsal organs in Arachnida.
Population genomics of pneumococcal carriage in Massachusetts children following introduction of PCV-13
Authors: Mitchell Patrick K. , Azarian Taj , Croucher Nicholas J. , Callendrello Alanna , Thompson Claudette M. , Pelton Stephen I. , Lipsitch Marc , Hanage William P.
Published: February 2019

The 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) was introduced in the United States in 2010. Using a large paediatric carriage sample collected from shortly after the introduction of PCV-7 to several years after the introduction of PCV-13, we investigate alterations in the composition of the pneumococcal population following the introduction of PCV-13, evaluating the extent to which the post-vaccination non-vaccine type (NVT) population mirrors that from prior to vaccine introduction and the effect of PCV-13 on vaccine type lineages. Draft genome assemblies from 736 newly sequenced and 616 previously published pneumococcal carriage isolates from children in Massachusetts between 2001 and 2014 were analysed. Isolates were classified into one of 22 sequence clusters (SCs) on the basis of their core genome sequence. We calculated the SC diversity for each sampling period as the probability that any two randomly drawn isolates from that period belong to different SCs. The sampling period immediately after the introduction of PCV-13 (2011) was found to have higher diversity than preceding (2007) or subsequent (2014) sampling periods {Simpson’s D 2007: 0.915 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.901, 0.929]; 2011:  0.935 [0.927, 0.942]; 2014 :  0.912 [0.901, 0.923]}. Amongst NVT isolates, we found the distribution of SCs in 2011 to be significantly different from that in 2007 or 2014 (Fisher’s exact test P=0.018, 0.0078), but did not find a difference comparing 2007 to 2014 (Fisher’s exact test P=0.24), indicating greater similarity between samples separated by a longer time period than between samples from closer time periods. We also found changes in the accessory gene content of the NVT population between 2007 and 2011 to have been reduced by 2014. Amongst the new serotypes targeted by PCV-13, four were present in our sample. The proportion of our sample composed of PCV-13-only vaccine serotypes 19A, 6C and 7F decreased between 2007 and 2014, but no such reduction was seen for serotype 3. We did, however, observe differences in the genetic composition of the pre- and post-PCV-13 serotype 3 population. Our isolates were collected during discrete sampling periods from a small geographical area, which may limit the generalizability of our findings. Pneumococcal diversity increased immediately following the introduction of PCV-13, but subsequently returned to pre-vaccination levels. This is reflected in the distribution of NVT lineages, and, to a lesser extent, their accessory gene frequencies. As such, there may be a period during which the population is particularly disrupted by vaccination before returning to a more stable distribution. The persistence and shifting genetic composition of serotype 3 is a concern and warrants further investigation.
The Role of Emotions in Moral Judgments: Time-resolved evidence from event-related brain potentials
Authors: Demel Ronja , Waldmann Michael , Schacht Annekathrin
Published: February 2019

The influence of emotion on moral judgments has become increasingly prominent in recent years. While explicit normative measures are widely used to investigate this relationship, event-related potentials (ERPs) offer the advantage of a preconscious method to visualize the modulation of moral judgments. Based on Gray and Wegner’s (2009) Dimensional Moral Model, the present study investigated whether the processing of neutral faces is modulated by moral context information. We hypothesized that neutral faces gain emotional valence when presented in a moral context and thus elicit ERP responses comparable to those established for the processing of emotional faces. Participants (N= 26, 13 female) were tested with regard to their implicit (ERPs) and explicit (morality rating) responses to neutral faces, shown in either a morally positive, negative, or neutral context. Higher ERP amplitudes in early (P100, N170) and later (EPN, LPC) processing stages were expected for harmful/helpful scenarios compared to neutral scenarios. Agents and patients were expected to differ for moral compared to neutral scenarios. In the explicit ratings neutral scenarios were expected to differ from moral scenarios. In ERPs, we found indications for an early modulation of moral valence (harmful/helpful) and an interaction of agency and moral valence after 80-120 ms. Later time sequences showed no significant differences. Morally positive and negative scenarios were rated as significantly different from neutral scenarios. Overall, the results indicate that the relationship of emotion and moral judgments can be observed on a preconscious neural level at an early processing stage as well as in explicit judgments.
Traces of transposable elements in genome dark matter co-opted by flowering gene regulation networks
Authors: Baud Agnès , Wan Mariène , Nouaud Danielle , Francillonne Nicolas , Anxolabéhère Dominique , Quesneville Hadi
Published: February 2019

Abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile, repetitive DNA sequences that make the largest contribution to genome bulk. They thus contribute to the so-called “dark matter of the genome”, the part of the genome in which nothing is immediately recognizable as biologically functional.

We developed a new method, based on k-mers, to identify degenerate TE sequences. With this new algorithm, we detect up to 10% of the A. thaliana genome as derived from as yet unidentified TEs, bringing the proportion of the genome known to be derived from TEs up to 50%. A significant proportion of these sequences overlapped conserved non-coding sequences identified in crucifers and rosids, and transcription factor binding sites. They are overrepresented in some gene regulation networks, such as the flowering gene network, suggesting a functional role for these sequences that have been conserved for more than 100 million years, since the spread of flowering plants in the Cretaceous.
Pathogen-induced pH changes regulate the growth-defense balance of plants
Authors: Kesten Christopher , Gámez-Arjona Francisco M. , Scholl Stefan , Menna Alexandra , Dora Susanne , Huerta Apolonio Ignacio , Huang Hsin-Yao , Tintor Nico , Kinoshita Toshinori , Rep Martijn , Krebs Melanie , Schumacher Karin , Sánchez-Rodríguez Clara
Published: February 2019

Environmental adaptation of organisms relies on fast perception and response to external signals, which lead to developmental changes. Plant cell growth is strongly dependent on cell wall remodeling. However, little is known about cell wall-related sensing of biotic stimuli and the downstream mechanisms that coordinate growth and defense responses. We generated genetically encoded pH sensors to determine absolute pH changes across the plasma membrane in response to biotic stress. A rapid apoplastic acidification by phosphorylation-based proton pump activation was followed by an acidification of the cortical side of the plasma membrane in response to the fungus Fusarium oxysporum. The proton chemical gradient modulation immediately reduced cellulose synthesis and cell growth and, furthermore, had a direct influence on the pathogenicity of the fungus. All these effects were dependent on the COMPANION OF CELLULOSE SYNTHASE proteins that are thus at the nexus of plant growth and defense. Hence, our discoveries show a remarkable connection between plant biomass production, immunity, and pH control, and advance our ability to investigate the plant growth-defense balance.
A brain network supporting social influences in human decision-making
Authors: Zhang Lei , Gläscher Jan P.
Published: February 2019

Humans learn from their own trial-and-error experience and from observing others. However, it remains unanswered how brain circuits compute expected values when direct learning and social learning coexist in an uncertain environment. Using a multi-player reward learning paradigm with 185 participants (39 being scanned) in real-time, we observed that individuals succumbed to the group when confronted with dissenting information, but increased their confidence when observing confirming information. Leveraging computational modeling and fMRI we tracked direct valuation through experience and vicarious valuation through observation, and their dissociable, but interacting neural representations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex, respectively. Their functional coupling with the right temporoparietal junction representing instantaneous social information instantiated a hitherto uncharacterized social prediction error, rather than a reward prediction error, in the putamen. These findings suggest that an integrated network involving the brain’s reward hub and social hub supports social influence in human decision-making.
Paralog dependency indirectly affects the robustness of human cells
Authors: Dandage Rohan , Landry Christian R
Published: February 2019

Gene duplicates provide protection against loss-of-function mutations. This protective redundancy partly relies on the fact that paralogs carry their functions independently, i.e. the inactivation of one gene copy does not impair the function of the other copy. However, a significant fraction of paralogous proteins may form functionally dependent pairs, for instance through heteromerization. As a consequence, one could expect these heteromeric paralogs to be less protective against deleterious mutations. To test this hypothesis, we examined the fitness landscape of gene loss-of-function by CRISPR-Cas9 in more than 450 human cell lines. Our analysis revealed a robustness landscape of human cells showing regions of higher vulnerability to gene inactivation as a function of key paralog properties. We find that heteromerizing paralogs are indeed less protective than non-heteromeric ones, but this association is largely due to their higher abundance and their larger number of protein-protein interaction partners.
Motor cortex signals corresponding to the two arms are shared across hemispheres, mixed among neurons, yet partitioned within the population response
Authors: Cora Ames K. , Churchland Mark M.
Published: February 2019

Primary motor cortex (M1) has lateralized outputs, yet M1 neurons can be active during movements of either arm. What is the nature and role of activity in the two hemispheres? When one arm moves, are the contralateral and ipsilateral cortices performing similar or different computations? When both hemispheres are active, how does the brain avoid moving the “wrong” arm? We recorded muscle and neural activity bilaterally while two male monkeys (Macaca mulatta) performed a cycling task with one or the other arm. Neurons in both hemispheres were active during movements of either arm. Yet response patterns were arm-dependent, raising two possibilities. First, the nature of neural signals may differ (e.g., be high versus low-level) depending on whether the ipsilateral or contralateral arm is used. Second, the same population-level signals may be present regardless of the arm being used, but be reflected differently at the individual-neuron level. The data supported this second hypothesis. Muscle activity could be predicted by neural activity in either hemisphere. More broadly, we failed to find signals unique to the hemisphere contralateral to the moving arm. Yet if the same signals are shared across hemispheres, how do they avoid impacting the wrong arm? We found that activity related to the two arms occupied distinct, orthogonal subspaces of population activity. As a consequence, a linear decode of contralateral muscle activity naturally ignored signals related to the ipsilateral arm. Thus, information regarding the two arms is shared across hemispheres and neurons, but partitioned at the population level.
Comparing 3D genome organization in multiple species using Phylo-HMRF
Authors: Yang Yang , Zhang Yang , Ren Bing , Dixon Jesse , Ma Jian
Published: February 2019

Recent developments in whole-genome mapping approaches for the chromatin interactome (such as Hi-C) have offered new insights into 3D genome organization. However, our knowledge of the evolutionary patterns of 3D genome structures in mammalian species remains surprisingly limited. In particular, there are no existing phylogenetic-model based methods to analyze chromatin interactions as continuous features across different species. Here we develop a new probabilistic model, named phylogenetic hidden Markov random field (Phylo-HMRF), to identify evolutionary patterns of 3D genome structures based on multi-species Hi-C data by jointly utilizing spatial constraints among genomic loci and continuous-trait evolutionary models. The effectiveness of Phylo-HMRF is demonstrated in both simulation evaluation and application to real Hi-C data. We used Phylo-HMRF to uncover cross-species 3D genome patterns based on Hi-C data from the same cell type in four primate species (human, chimpanzee, bonobo, and gorilla). The identified evolutionary patterns of 3D genome organization correlate with features of genome structure and function, including long-range interactions, topologically-associating domains (TADs), and replication timing patterns. This work provides a new framework that utilizes general types of spatial constraints to identify evolutionary patterns of continuous genomic features and has the potential to reveal the evolutionary principles of 3D genome organization.
The human non-visual opsin OPN3 regulates pigmentation of epidermal melanocytes through interaction with MC1R
Authors: Ozdeslik Rana N. , Olinski Lauren E. , Trieu Melissa M. , Oprian Daniel D. , Oancea Elena
Published: February 2019

Opsins form a family of light-activated, retinal-dependent G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that serve a multitude of visual and non-visual functions. Opsin3 (OPN3 or encephalopsin), initially identified in the brain, remains one of the few members of the mammalian opsin family with unknown function and ambiguous light-absorption properties. We recently discovered that OPN3 is highly expressed in human epidermal melanocytes—the skin cells that produce melanin. The melanin pigment is a critical defense against ultraviolet radiation and its production is mediated by the Gαs-coupled melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R). The physiological function and light-sensitivity of OPN3 in melanocytes is yet to be determined. Here we show that in human epidermal melanocytes OPN3 acts as a negative regulator of melanin production by interacting with MC1R and modulating its cAMP signaling. OPN3 negatively regulates the cAMP response evoked by MC1R via activation of the Gαi subunit of G-proteins, thus decreasing cellular melanin levels. In addition to their functional relationship, OPN3 and MC1R colocalize at both the plasma membrane and in intracellular structures and form a physical complex. Remarkably, OPN3 can bind retinal, but does not mediate light-induced signaling in melanocytes. Our results identify a novel function for OPN3 in the regulation of the melanogenic pathway in epidermal melanocytes. Our results reveal a light-independent function for the poorly characterized OPN3 and a novel pathway that greatly expands our understanding of melanocyte and skin physiology.

Significance

Our data reveals a novel function for the non-visual opsin OPN3 in regulating the pigmentation of human melanocytes by interacting with and modulating the activity of MC1R.
Dynamic clustering regulates activity of mechanosensitive membrane channels
Authors: Paraschiv Alexandru , Hegde Smitha , Ganti Raman , Pilizota Teuta , Šarić Anđela
Published: February 2019

Mechanosensitive channels regulate the flux of solutes between the cell and its environment in response to mechanical stimuli. Recent in vitro experiments have suggested that bacterial mechanosensitive channels separate into 2D liquid-like clusters, exhibiting cooperative activity. To understand the functional role of the process and its physical mechanism, we develop a coarse-grained model of mechanosensitive channels embedded in a membrane, exposed to an osmotic shock. We find that the channel aggregation into liquid-like clusters promotes the closure of individual channels. The extent of clustering is highly dependent on the channel concentration and membrane stress. We show that this behaviour yields a tightly regulated gating system, whereby at high tensions channels gate individually, and at lower tensions the channels spontaneously aggregate and inactivate. We suggest that this positive feedback protects the cell against excessive loss of cytoplasmic content. Our results point to a novel role of functional micro-phase separation in the cell membrane.