bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Final report, ongoing key comparison BIPM.QM-K1, ozone at ambient level, comparison with DHMZ, July 2022
Authors: Viallon Joële , Idrees Faraz , Moussay Philippe , Wielgosz Robert , Norris James , Trask Peter , Zobaj Eugen , Lepri Petra
Published: July 2023

Main text

As part of the ongoing key comparison BIPM.QM-K1, a comparison has been performed between the ozone national standard of Croatia maintained by the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ) and the common reference standard of the key comparison, maintained by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). The instruments have been compared over a nominal ozone amount fraction range of 0 nmol mol-1 to 500 nmol mol-1.

To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database https://www.bipm.org/kcdb/.

The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCQM, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).
Stochastic Resonance in a Single-Ion Nonlinear Mechanical Oscillator
Authors: Cui Tai-Hao , Li Ji , Yuan Quan , Wei Ya-Qi , Dai Shuang-Qing , Li Pei-Dong , Zhou Fei , Zhang Jian-Qi , Chen Liang , Feng Mang
Published: July 2023

Stochastic resonance is a counterintuitive phenomenon amplifying the weak periodic signal by application of external noise. We demonstrate the enhancement of a weak periodic signal by stochastic resonance in a trapped-ion oscillator when the oscillator is excited to the nonlinear regime and subject to an appropriate noise. Under the full control of the radio-frequency drive voltage, this amplification originates from the nonlinearity due to asymmetry of the trapping potential, which can be described by a forced Duffing oscillator model. Our scheme and results provide an interesting possibility to make use of controllable nonlinearity in the trapped ion, and pave the way toward a practical atomic sensor for sensitively detecting weak periodic signals from real noisy environment.
Pipeline leakage aperture identification method based on pseudolabel learning
Authors: Yuan Li , Lang Xianming , Zhang Zhouhua , Liu Qiang , Cao Jiangtao
Published: July 2023

Aiming at the problem of insufficient label data in the pipeline leak detection field, this paper proposes a pseudolabel (PL) adaptive learning method based on multiscale convolutional neural network (MSCNN) with the idea of transfer learning for pipeline leak aperture identification. First, the convolutional and pooling layers for transfer learning feature extraction are improved by using a dual-channel MSCNN. Second, the KL divergence function after dimensionality reduction is used to calculate the distribution distance between the source domain and the target domain to improve the robustness of distribution alignment in high-noise environments. In addition, considering the interference of PL noise, this paper develops a pseudolabel (PL) dynamic threshold to achieve the purpose of PL adaptive updating. Compared with the fixed threshold, the improved PL learning (PLL) can effectively improve the prediction accuracy of the model. The effectiveness of the method proposed in this paper is verified by predicting pipeline leakage conditions at different distances and under different pressures. The comparative analysis results show that the method in this paper is superior to other transfer learning methods in terms of prediction accuracy, stability, and convergence speed.
Lasing in Zn-doped GaAs nanowires on an iron film
Authors: Aman Gyanan , Lysevych Mykhaylo , Tan Hark Hoe , Jagadish Chennupati , Schmitzer Heidrun , Fränzl Martin , Cahay Marc , Wagner Hans Peter
Published: July 2023

In this work, we demonstrate optically pumped lasing in highly Zn-doped GaAs nanowires (NWs) lying on an iron film. The conically shaped NWs are first covered with an 8 nm thick Al2O3 film to prevent atmospheric oxidation and mitigate band-bending effects. Multimode and single-mode lasing have been observed for NWs with a length greater or smaller than 2 μm, respectively. Finite difference time domain calculations reveal a weak electric field enhancement in the Al2O3 layer at the NW/iron film interface for the lasing modes. The high Zn acceptor concentration in the NWs provides enhanced radiative efficiency and enables lasing on the iron film despite plasmonic losses. Our results open avenues for integrating NW lasers on ferromagnetic substrates to achieve new functionalities, such as magnetic field-induced modulation.
Optimisation of an elastomeric pre-buckled honeycomb helmet liner for advanced impact mitigation
Authors: Adams Rhosslyn , Soe Shwe , Theobald Peter
Published: July 2023

Advances in computational modelling now offer an efficient route to developing novel helmet liners that could exceed contemporary materials’ performance. Furthermore, the rise of accessible additive manufacturing presents a viable route to achieving otherwise unobtainable material structures. This study leverages an established finite element-based approach to the optimisation of cellular structures for the loading conditions of a typical helmet impact. A novel elastomeric pre-buckled honeycomb structure is adopted and optimised, the performance of which is baselined relative to vinyl nitrile foam under direct and oblique loading conditions. Results demonstrate that a simplified optimisation strategy is scalable to represent the behaviour of a full helmet. Under oblique impact conditions, the optimised pre-buckled honeycomb liner exceeds the contemporary material performance when considering computed kinematic metrics head and rotational injury criterion, by up to 49.9% and 56.6%. Furthermore, when considering tissue-based severity metrics via finite element simulations of a human brain model, maximum principal strain and cumulative strain density measures are reduced by 14.9% and 66.7% when comparing the new material, to baseline.
Effects of manufacturing errors and micro-groove surfaces on the static and dynamic characteristics of water-lubricated bearings
Authors: Li Peng , Li Jiayu , Shi Zhanqun , Zhang Hao , Xiao Sen , Li Xin , Gu Fengshou
Published: July 2023

In this paper, the effects of manufacturing error and micro-groove on the static, dynamic and stability characteristics of water-lubricated journal bearings (WLJBs) are investigated. Mathematical expressions of manufacturing errors and surface micro-groove are presented, and the Reynolds equations with steady and unsteady states are calculated by using the linear perturbative method and the finite difference technology. According to the developed model, the effects of the waviness magnitude, spatial number, and phase angle for circumferential errors, as well as the concavity, convexity, and taper for axial errors on the film thickness distribution, fluid pressure distribution, bearing capacity, coefficient of friction, side leakage flow rate, attitude angle, stiffness coefficient, damping coefficient, threshold speed and whirl frequency ratio of WLJBs are evaluated. Simulation results demonstrate that fluid film thickness distribution and fluid pressure distribution are significantly affected by manufacturing errors and micro-groove. Compared with axial manufacturing errors, circumferential manufacturing errors cause an inhomogeneous distribution of fluid pressure and morphological transformation in the high-pressure zone. The variation rules for the lubrication performance of bearings with circumferential waviness, concavity, convexity, and taper errors are not consistent at various eccentricity ratios. The magnitude of the concavity and taper errors may have an improving effect on the bearing performance, whereas circumferential waviness and convexity error play a negative role. Moreover, the micro-groove with partial distribution enhances the hydrodynamic effect in the bearing clearance. Numerical simulations can provide a valuable reference for the manufacturing and design of bearing systems.
Structural, mechanical and optoelectronic properties of B6X (X = Se, S) chalcogenides under hydrostatic pressure
Authors: León-Flores J , Antonio J E , Muñoz-González H , Rosas-Huerta J L , Escamilla R
Published: July 2023

Structural, mechanical and optoelectronic properties of B6Se and B6S chalcogenides under hydrostatic pressure were studied by the HSE06 hybrid functional in the DFT approach. The calculation results show that both materials preserve a high hardness behavior with a slight decrease of around 11% in the Vickers hardness, from zero to 100 GPa of external hydrostatic pressure. The electronic band structures show that B6Se and B6S chalcogenides have a semiconductor behavior with an electronic bandgap of 3.89 eV and 3.77 eV at zero GPa, respectively; decreasing 30% when 100 GPa of external pressure is applied. The optoelectronic properties evidence the possible modulation of the electronic band gap by the appliance of pressure as well as the refractive index in the visible region from

n

ω

=
2.8

to

n

ω

=
4.4

while the absorption coefficient suggest the potential applicability of both chalcogenides under extreme pressure conditions as UV sensors in an interval from 7.5 eV to 30 eV.
Inferring cognitive state underlying conflict choices in verbal Stroop task using heterogeneous input discriminative-generative decoder model
Authors: Rezaei Mohammad R , Jeoung Haseul , Gharamani Ayda , Saha Utpal , Bhat Venkat , Popovic Milos R , Yousefi Ali , Chen Robert , Lankarany Milad
Published: July 2023

Objective. The subthalamic nucleus (STN) of the basal ganglia interacts with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and shapes a control loop, specifically when the brain receives contradictory information from either different sensory systems or conflicting information from sensory inputs and prior knowledge that developed in the brain. Experimental studies demonstrated that significant increases in theta activities (2–8 Hz) in both the STN and mPFC as well as increased phase synchronization between mPFC and STN are prominent features of conflict processing. While these neural features reflect the importance of STN-mPFC circuitry in conflict processing, a low-dimensional representation of the mPFC–STN interaction referred to as a cognitive state, that links neural activities generated by these sub-regions to behavioral signals (e.g. the response time), remains to be identified. Approach. Here, we propose a new model, namely, the heterogeneous input discriminative-generative decoder (HI-DGD) model, to infer a cognitive state underlying decision-making based on neural activities (STN and mPFC) and behavioral signals (individuals’ response time) recorded in ten Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients while they performed a Stroop task. PD patients may have conflict processing which is quantitatively (may be qualitative in some) different from healthy populations. Main results. Using extensive synthetic and experimental data, we showed that the HI-DGD model can diffuse information from neural and behavioral data simultaneously and estimate cognitive states underlying conflict and non-conflict trials significantly better than traditional methods. Additionally, the HI-DGD model identified which neural features made significant contributions to conflict and non-conflict choices. Interestingly, the estimated features match well with those reported in experimental studies. Significance. Finally, we highlight the capability of the HI-DGD model in estimating a cognitive state from a single trial of observation, which makes it appropriate to be utilized in closed-loop neuromodulation systems.
Oxytocin response to food intake in avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder
Authors: Aulinas Anna , Muhammed Maged , Becker Kendra R , Asanza Elisa , Hauser Kristine , Stern Casey , Gydus Julia , Holmes Tara , Murray Helen Burton , Breithaupt Lauren , Micali Nadia , Misra Madhusmita , Eddy Kamryn T , Thomas Jennifer J , Lawson Elizabeth A
Published: July 2023

Objective

To investigate the response of anorexigenic oxytocin to food intake among adolescents and young adults with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), a restrictive eating disorder characterized by lack of interest in food or eating, sensory sensitivity to food, and/or fear of aversive consequences of eating, compared with healthy controls (HC).

Design

Cross-sectional.

Methods

A total of 109 participants (54 with ARFID spectrum and 55 HC) were instructed to eat a ∼400-kcal standardized mixed meal. We sampled serum oxytocin at fasting and at 30-, 60-, and 120-min postmeal. We tested the hypothesis that ARFID would show higher mean oxytocin levels across time points compared with HC using a mixed model ANOVA. We then used multivariate regression analysis to identify the impact of clinical characteristics (sex, age, and body mass index [BMI] percentile) on oxytocin levels in individuals with ARFID.

Results

Participants with ARFID exhibited greater mean oxytocin levels at all time points compared with HC, and these differences remained significant even after controlling for sex and BMI percentile (P = .004). Clinical variables (sex, age, and BMI percentile) did not show any impact on fasting and postprandial oxytocin levels among individuals with ARFID.

Conclusions

Consistently high oxytocin levels might be involved in low appetite and sensory aversions to food, contributing to food avoidance in individuals with ARFID.
Populist resentments and identities and their repercussions on firms and regions. The example of East Thuringia
Authors: Henn Sebastian , Hannemann Matthias
Published: July 2023

Right-wing populism and related geographies of discontent have become central subjects in the recent debate on regional inequalities. The present contribution seeks to complement existing, predominantly synoptic approaches by looking at specific economic practices of local actors. We argue that exclusionary regional political identities are transferred to firms and shape corporate practices. Using 65 semi-structured interviews with representatives from firms in East Thuringia, we analyze these processes and how they affect recruitment, customer-relations and local business networks in different types of firms. Furthermore, we show that these practices can have a negative impact on the business location and thus contribute to the consolidation of existing regional inequalities.
Computational Reproducibility of Molecular Phylogenies
Authors: Kumar Sudhir , Tao Qiqing , Lamarca Alessandra P , Tamura Koichiro
Published: July 2023

Repeated runs of the same program can generate different molecular phylogenies from identical data sets under the same analytical conditions. This lack of reproducibility of inferred phylogenies casts a long shadow on downstream research employing these phylogenies in areas such as comparative genomics, systematics, and functional biology. We have assessed the relative accuracies and log-likelihoods of alternative phylogenies generated for computer-simulated and empirical data sets. Our findings indicate that these alternative phylogenies reconstruct evolutionary relationships with comparable accuracy. They also have similar log-likelihoods that are not inferior to the log-likelihoods of the true tree. We determined that the direct relationship between irreproducibility and inaccuracy is due to their common dependence on the amount of phylogenetic information in the data. While computational reproducibility can be enhanced through more extensive heuristic searches for the maximum likelihood tree, this does not lead to higher accuracy. We conclude that computational irreproducibility plays a minor role in molecular phylogenetics.
Domain acquisition by class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase urzymes coordinated the catalytic functions of HVGH and KMSKS motifs
Authors: Tang Guo Qing , Elder Jessica J H , Douglas Jordan , Carter Charles W
Published: July 2023

Leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS) is a Class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) that synthesizes leucyl-tRNAleu for codon-directed protein synthesis. Two signature sequences, HxGH and KMSKS help stabilize transition-states for amino acid activation and tRNA aminoacylation by all Class I aaRS. Separate alanine mutants of each signature, together with the double mutant, behave in opposite ways in Pyrococcus horikoshii LeuRS and the 129-residue urzyme ancestral model generated from it (LeuAC). Free energy coupling terms, Δ(ΔG‡), for both reactions are large and favourable for LeuRS, but unfavourable for LeuAC. Single turnover assays with 32Pα-ATP show correspondingly different internal products. These results implicate domain motion in catalysis by full-length LeuRS. The distributed thermodynamic cycle of mutational changes authenticates LeuAC urzyme catalysis far more convincingly than do single point mutations. Most importantly, the evolutionary gain of function induced by acquiring the anticodon-binding (ABD) and multiple insertion modules in the catalytic domain appears to be to coordinate the catalytic function of the HxGH and KMSKS signature sequences. The implication that backbone elements of secondary structures achieve a major portion of the overall transition-state stabilization by LeuAC is also consistent with coevolution of the genetic code and metabolic pathways necessary to produce histidine and lysine sidechains.
Enhanced frequency of transcription pre-initiation complexes assembly after exposure to UV irradiation results in increased repair activity and reduced probabilities for mutagenesis
Authors: Liakos Anastasios , Synacheri Anna-Chloe , Konstantopoulos Dimitris , Stefos Georgios C , Lavigne Matthieu D , Fousteri Maria
Published: July 2023

In addition to being essential for gene expression, transcription is crucial for the maintenance of genome integrity. Here, we undertook a systematic approach, to monitor the assembly kinetics of the pre-initiating RNA Polymerase (Pol) II at promoters at steady state and different stages during recovery from UV irradiation-stress, when pre-initiation and initiation steps have been suggested to be transiently shut down. Taking advantage of the reversible dissociation of pre-initiating Pol II after high salt treatment, we found that de novo recruitment of the available Pol II molecules at active promoters not only persists upon UV at all times tested but occurs significantly faster in the early phase of recovery (2 h) than in unexposed human fibroblasts at the majority of active genes. Our method unveiled groups of genes with significantly different pre-initiation complex (PIC) assembly dynamics after UV that present distinct rates of UV-related mutational signatures in melanoma tumours, providing functional relevance to the importance of keeping transcription initiation active during UV recovery. Our findings uncover novel mechanistic insights further detailing the multilayered transcriptional response to genotoxic stress and link PIC assembly dynamics after exposure to genotoxins with cancer mutational landscapes.
India
Authors: Khurana Saloni , Mahajan Kannika
Published: July 2023

This chapter examines data for urban workers in the non-agricultural sector across three decades, 1983–2017, and finds that earnings inequality increased during 1983–2004, was largely stable during 2004–11, and decreased during 2011–17. Whether the decline in routine jobs and change in demand for skills has shaped the evolution of earnings inequality in India is explored, ruling out earnings polarization as an explanation for rising earnings inequality during 1983–2004. The chapter then uses Shapley and recentred influence functions (RIF) decomposition methods to decompose the change in Gini into the contribution from change in worker demographics and routine-task intensity and the accompanying changes in returns to these characteristics. The results show that changes in returns to education and routine-task intensity explain a small part of the trends in wage inequality. Hence, in the Indian context, institutional factors may have played a bigger role in shaping wage inequality.
Argentina
Authors: Maurizio Roxana , Monsalvo Ana Paula
Published: July 2023

The aim of this chapter is to identify the scope and patterns of the structural transformation as evidenced by changes in occupations and their task content, and their impact on employment, earnings, and income distribution in Argentina during the new millennium (polarization effect). Results show that the changes in jobs did not follow the same pattern as those in earnings. In particular, earnings grew but employment shares fell in low-paying occupations. The macroeconomic conditions, production structure, and labour market institutions seem to shape the impact of technology on job demand and on earnings distribution. Overall, the findings point at the need for a broader perspective with a view to achieving a better understanding of the extent to which these factors may have affected the adoption of technology and the composition of employment in a country characterized by high economic instability and dramatic changes in its productive structure.
Chile
Authors: Zapata-Román Gabriela
Published: July 2023

Using decomposition methods, this chapter analyses the role of the changing nature of work in explaining changes in earning inequality and job polarization in Chile from 2000 to 2017. Changes in occupational structure confirm a displacement of workers from low-skill occupations towards jobs demanding non-routine higher skills (professionals and technicians), and jobs requiring routine manual and cognitive tasks (services and sales). Changes in occupational earnings have had an equalizing effect, with more substantial gains favouring lower-skill occupations, although without evidence of job polarization. Inequality reductions since the 2000s are explained by a fall in earnings in the top percentiles of the distribution, reallocated most noticeably around the median (2000–06) and the bottom 30 per cent (2006–17). The routine content of tasks explains an important part of changes in earnings variability, and it has contributed to improving wages. Average earnings across occupations have become less unequal over time, contributing to the overall decline in inequality.
Enriched Causalism
Authors: Sartorio Carolina
Published: July 2023

This chapter discusses the question of how the bare causalist view could be enriched by exploiting potential grounds of the relevant causal facts. Specifically, it discusses the role that powers (dispositions and abilities) could play in a causalist conception of action and free action. It discusses both manifested and unmanifested powers, and two corresponding forms of enriched causalism: “manifested-powers causalism” and “unmanifested-powers causalism.” It is argued that the former is better suited for action and the latter for free action; however, this divergence is not a problem for the big-picture causalist view but a friendly result.
ESG Investing: Financial Materiality and Social Objectives
Authors: Lee Linda-Eling
Published: July 2023

Interest in measuring companies’ behavior along environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria reflects two important objectives: social values and financial performance. Nevertheless, measuring these has been difficult, leading to confusion about ESG investing’s effectiveness. New data and analytical innovations have supported efforts to separate material factors driving investment risk and return from those relevant primarily to social objectives. This chapter reviews evidence on the effectiveness of social value-based versus financially relevant measures and identifies financially material factors, so as to guide pension fiduciaries and other investors on using ESG factors to meet investment objectives. We focus on recent advances in measuring ESG, new evidence on the relationship between ESG and the financial performance of equities and corporate bonds, and approaches that funds have used to implement their ESG policies in light of these advances.
George Orwell and Left-Libertarianism
Authors: Barry Peter Brian
Published: July 2023

Orwell identified as a man of the left. He is often regarded by his readers as a libertarian. Is he therefore well regarded as a left-libertarian? He did, for some time, identify as a “Tory anarchist,” and anarchism has historically been understood as a leftist conception of libertarianism. But left-libertarians endorse two constitutive theses: first, persons have at least a robust right of self-ownership, and, second, persons are entitled to an equal share of natural resources. The best reason to doubt that Orwell is a left-libertarian is that he doesn’t clearly share either commitment: he too often defends positions inconsistent with a robust right of self-ownership and never quite endorses equal access to natural resources for reasons that left-libertarians do.
Factory Girl
Authors: Dorsey Bruce
Published: July 2023

Maria Cornell begins working in a cotton factory in Jewett City, Connecticut, in 1822, amid Americans’ ambiguous attitudes toward manufacturing and the new role of the working woman known as the “factory girl.” She experiences the insecurity of employment in the Rhode Island industrial system, pioneered by Samuel Slater, while her temptations with new urban consumer fashions, crime, and a sisters’ rivalry propel her to move from one factory town to the next. When Maria is caught shoplifting, she does not become simply a helpless victim of gossip and rumor; rather than a temptation that ruins her life, this petty crime may have been a willful act of independence.
Fornication and Lying
Authors: Dorsey Bruce
Published: July 2023

When Avery is posted as the Methodist minister in Lowell, he sets his sights on enforcing discipline in the church. Cornell is accused of fornication and excommunicated from the Lowell Methodist church. She moves to New Hampshire to seek new employment and a new start with the Methodists, only to find that her reputation and Avery’s interventions impede those aspirations. She writes letters of confession and seeks forgiveness and reinstatement, but to no avail. After Cornell returns to her family in Connecticut, she meets Avery at a camp meeting, where she claims he coerced her into sex. Believing she is pregnant, she moves to Fall River to seek a private settlement with Avery, now working in nearby Bristol.
Manhunt
Authors: Dorsey Bruce
Published: July 2023

After the preliminary hearing concerning Maria Cornell’s death concludes in Bristol in January 1833, Justices John Howe and Levi Haile declare that there is no probable cause to suspect Avery of murdering Cornell, believing instead that she had committed suicide. John Howe’s opinion is a ten-page, 5,000-word journey through his imagined interpretation of the evidence. His decision ultimately rests on the differences in the respective characters of Cornell and Avery. Once Avery is released, he goes into hiding. A constable from Fall River, Harvey Harnden, then embarks on a week-long manhunt for the fugitive preacher across three states, culminating in Avery’s arrest and the publication by Harnden of a detective tale, in which he poses as a self-made man and hero. The publication becomes a local bestseller before Avery’s trial.
Sex Talk
Authors: Dorsey Bruce
Published: July 2023

Avery’s defense attorneys shift their strategy toward putting Cornell’s moral character on trial, adding to a long history of criminal trials in which the sexual behavior and morality of the female victim rather than the actions of the accused man, take center stage. Dozens of mill town residents and factory workers bring everyday gossip and storytelling into the courtroom. Their collective testimony offers a picture of the courtship and sexual behavior of young women and men in America’s earliest industrial cities. Maria understood the power men exerted in her sexual encounters, and it was men’s sex talk, not women’s, that ultimately led to her downfall in Lowell.
Vindication
Authors: Dorsey Bruce
Published: July 2023

The Methodists hurl their own accusations of conspiracy back at their opponents as the print battles intensify over Avery’s guilt or innocence. Methodist leaders are eager to sustain, even escalate, the character assaults begun at Avery’s trial, emphasizing the stark contrast between the reputations of Cornell and Avery. Prominent Methodist ministers publish A Vindication to proclaim Avery’s innocence and, just as important, to show the church as a target of its enemies’ conspiratorial behavior. The Vindication allows Avery to present his side of the story, but his account conveys more about his faith and feelings than facts to support his defense.
Fake News
Authors: Dorsey Bruce
Published: July 2023

A fake pamphlet purporting to be the confessions of Avery is published before the Methodists can release their Vindication. The literary forgery is one of many false stories that accompany the broader scandal. New sensational publication genres—trial reports and penny press newspapers—become intertwined with the Avery scandal and its reporters. Yet the American public, as the Avery murder case reveals, has already begun to embrace a popular culture of rumors, gossip, hoaxes, and printed falsities—fake news—even before the birth of the penny press. It is the ready and willing audience who demand sensational news that far too often crosses the line between fact and fiction. American readers long for mysteries as much as certainties, and they find hoaxes and fakes to be pleasurable entertainment that helps them navigate a sometimes overwhelming new world.
Seduction
Authors: Dorsey Bruce
Published: July 2023

Rather than confronting the crime of rape at the heart of Cornell’s accusation against Avery, Americans prefer to explain this scandal with the familiar plot of a seduction story, like the contemporary novels they voraciously read. Seduction becomes the catch-all term to explain any form of deceitful or coerced sexual liaisons. Seduction also touches Americans’ deeper anxieties about the changing world around them, especially the problem of how to live a moral life in an economic and political environment in which deceit and hypocrisy prevail. In most people’s minds, Maria Cornell had in fact been seduced, but who or what was the author of her seduction remains uncertain. Even so, the notion of Avery as a seducer returns once more in a post-trial controversy over an artistic rendering of the Methodist preacher.
Rethinking Meditation
Authors: McMahan David L.
Published: July 2023

Rethinking Meditation provides a new theoretical and historical approach to Buddhist and Buddhist-derived meditative practices. It shows how, rather than coming down to us unchanged from the time of the Buddha, the standard articulation of mindfulness as bare, nonjudgmental attention to the present moment is a distillation of particular strands of classical Buddhist thought that have combined with western ideas to create a unique practice tailored to modern forms of thought and ways of life. Part genealogical study and part philosophical argument, it inquires into some of the widespread assumptions about how meditation works and what it does, presenting a view of meditative practices as technologies of the self embedded in cultural forms of life. It shows that the relationship between meditative practices and cultural context is much more crucial than is suggested in typical contemporary articulations, which often emphasize transcendence of cultural conditioning and achieving “objective” internal access to the contents of consciousness. Meditation, McMahan argues, is always situated in social contexts and draws from repertoires of cultural categories, concepts, and values, sometimes accommodating them and sometimes resisting them. Rethinking Meditation also considers the scientific study of meditation and meditation in relation to modern articulations of secularism, freedom, authenticity, appreciation, and interdependence. It also examines the potential for meditation to enhance autonomy and addresses recent attempts to bring meditative practices to bear on social, political, and environmental issues.
Introduction
Authors: McMahan David L.
Published: July 2023

Among the vast variety of meditation practices that have been developed in the Buddhist tradition, one has become ubiquitous: the nonjudgmental attention to the present moment, which this chapter calls the Standard Version of meditation. This chapter lays out some of the themes of the book, introducing this practice as something that, rather than going unambiguously back to the time of the Buddha, has been shaped by modern cultural “magnets,” which draw particular compelling elements of the Buddhist tradition, and “filters,” which sift out elements less compatible with modern and contemporary assumptions. It lays out the theoretical argument for the importance of cultural context in meditative practices and anticipates some of the historical precedents for the Standard Version and how it came to be against the backdrop of secularism and other dominant ways of thinking today.
Neural Maps and Enlightenment Machines
Authors: McMahan David L.
Published: July 2023

The scientific study of meditation often contains implicit views of the human being as a free, autonomous subject who can be trained to neutralize biases, presuppositions, and cultural conditioning to attain judgment-free access to the raw data of the mind. It combines a “theater-of-the-mind” model of the mind with a concept of human beings as “cerebral subjects” whose internal mental states can be modeled by brain-imaging technologies. Both of these perspectives tend to neglect the crucial role of cultural and social context. Rather than seeing meditation primarily in terms of interior mental states that can be mapped in neural imaging technologies, meditation or mindfulness might be better understood as a set of situated, embodied skills involving the cultivation of attitudes, ethical orientations, values, judgments, strategies, and behaviors in systemic relationship with particular cultural worlds.
What Difference Does Context Make?
Authors: McMahan David L.
Published: July 2023

This chapter develops the idea of meditative practices as technologies or practices of self within particular social imaginaries constituted by repertoires of concepts, attitudes, social practices, customs, ethical dispositions, institutions, power relations, and structures of authority. Such practices are not only a matter of self-awareness but also self-cultivation and self-formation as an ethical subject. Meditation within particular social imaginaries means pursuing particular ethical goals and acting according to culturally available concepts and values. Seeing meditative practices this way makes it harder to assert that they will have the same effects on people in radically different social imaginaries. Imagining the stark contrast between the lived worlds of an ancient Buddhist monk and a contemporary businesswoman illustrates the different kinds of subjectivity that similar meditation practices can be called on to help cultivate.
Meditation in the Pali Social Imaginary I
Authors: McMahan David L.
Published: July 2023

This chapter brings early Buddhist meditation literature—especially the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta—into conversation with ideas in phenomenology and cognitive science that address the distinction between conscious, effortful activity and habitual activity rooted in the tacit assumptions, dispositions, and categories of a particular cultural context. Some meditation practices disrupt the tacit level of experience in order to bring it to explicit cognition and intentional direction. Part of their original purpose was to help consciously cultivate particular ways of being in the world for Buddhist monastics and to habituate them to the categories, orientations, and sensibilities recommended for monastic life, fostering explicit awareness of the habitual flow of experience and activity in order to reconfigure this activity and reinterpret its significance. Meditation in this sense entails training desires, aesthetic sensibilities, and categories through which to interpret one’s experience, creating an alternative habitus—a habitual, embodied way of being in the world.
Affordances, Disruption, and Activism
Authors: McMahan David L.
Published: July 2023

Thinking of meditative practices as providing opportunities to put a variety of affordances into play while resisting or rejecting other affordances allows us to think with more precision about the Situated Autonomy model of meditation. On this interpretation, autonomy contains a dynamic tension between denial, affirmation, and reinterpretation of features of the internal affordance landscape brought into greater focus by reflexive, introspective practice. Such practices create a sense of greater autonomy in that they bring about a level of heightened, thematic awareness, inducing explicit consciousness of what is normally implicit, and offering expanded opportunities to refuse, pursue, and reinterpret cultural, moral, and interpretive affordances according to a particular ethical or philosophical vision. The ethical dimensions of contemporary forms of meditation have recently been extended beyond the search for interior liberation and brought to bear on external barriers to autonomy, such as oppressive social structures or environmental threats.
Natural variation in OsSEC13 HOMOLOG 1 modulates redox homeostasis to confer cold tolerance in rice
Authors: Gu Shuang , Zhang Zhe , Li Jinquan , Sun Jian , Cui Zhibo , Li Fengcheng , Zhuang Jia , Chen Wanchun , Su Chang , Wu Lian , Wang Xiaoliang , Guo Zhifu , Xu Hai , Zhao Minghui , Ma Dianrong , Chen Wenfu
Published: July 2023

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a cold-sensitive species that often faces cold stress, which adversely affects yield productivity and quality. However, the genetic basis for low-temperature adaptation in rice remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that 2 functional polymorphisms in O. sativa SEC13 Homolog 1 (OsSEH1), encoding a WD40-repeat nucleoporin, between the 2 subspecies O. sativa japonica and O. sativa indica rice, may have facilitated cold adaptation in japonica rice. We show that OsSEH1 of the japonica variety expressed in OsSEH1MSD plants (transgenic line overexpressing the OsSEH1 allele from Mangshuidao [MSD], cold-tolerant landrace) has a higher affinity for O. sativa metallothionein 2b (OsMT2b) than that of OsSEH1 of indica. This high affinity of OsSEH1MSD for OsMT2b results in inhibition of OsMT2b degradation, with decreased accumulation of reactive oxygen species and increased cold tolerance. Transcriptome analysis indicates that OsSEH1 positively regulates the expression of the genes encoding dehydration-responsive element-binding transcription factors, i.e. OsDREB1 genes, and induces the expression of multiple cold-regulated genes to enhance cold tolerance. Our findings highlight a breeding resource for improving cold tolerance in rice.
Identifying a Lung Stem Cell Subpopulation by Combining Single-Cell Morphometrics, Organoid Culture, and Transcriptomics
Authors: Fujimura Takashi , Enomoto Yasunori , Katsura Hiroaki , Ogawa Taisaku , Baba Saori , Ogata Akira , Yamaoka Akira , Shiroguchi Katsuyuki , Morimoto Mitsuru
Published: July 2023

Single-cell RNA sequencing is a valuable tool for dissecting cellular heterogeneity in complex systems. However, it is still challenging to estimate the proliferation and differentiation potentials of subpopulations within dormant tissue stem cells. Here, we established a new single-cell analysis method for profiling the organoid-forming capacity and differentiation potential of tissue stem cells to disclose stem cell subpopulations by integrating single-cell morphometrics, organoid-forming assay, and RNA sequencing, a method named scMORN. To explore lung epithelial stem cells, we initially developed feeder-free culture system, which could expand all major lung stem cells, including basal, club, and alveolar type 2 (AT2) cells, and found that club cells contained a subpopulation, which showed better survival rate and high proliferation capacity and could differentiate into alveolar cells. Using the scMORN method, we discovered a club cell subpopulation named Muc5b+ and large club (ML-club) cells that efficiently formed organoids than other club or AT2 cells in our feeder-free organoid culture and differentiated into alveolar cells in vitro. Single-cell transcriptome profiling and immunohistochemical analysis revealed that ML-club cells localized at the intrapulmonary proximal airway and distinct from known subpopulations of club cells such as BASCs. Furthermore, we identified CD14 as a cell surface antigen of ML-club cells and showed that purified CD14+ club cells engrafted into injured mouse lungs had better engraftment rate and expansion than other major lung stem cells, reflecting the observations in organoid culture systems. The scMORN method could be adapted to different stem cell tissues to discover useful stem-cell subpopulations.
Cytomegalovirus in biliary atresia is associated with increased pretransplant death, but not decreased native liver survival
Authors: Kemme Sarah , Canniff Jennifer D. , Feldman Amy G. , Garth Krystle M. , Li Shaobing , Pan Zhaoxing , Sokol Ronald J. , Weinberg Adriana , Mack Cara L.
Published: July 2023

Background:

Biliary atresia (BA) is likely caused by a common phenotypic response to various triggers; one proposed trigger, cytomegalovirus (CMV), may lead to worse outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the severity of disease and pretransplant outcomes of infants with BA, who have evidence of CMV (CMV+) at diagnosis compared with CMV-negative (CMV−) infants.

Methods:

The study used data and biospecimens from the Childhood Liver Disease Research Network PROBE study of cholestatic infants. Plasma obtained at the time of hepatic portoenterostomy (HPE) of 249 infants with BA was tested for CMV by DNA-PCR and CMV-IgM. Comparisons between CMV+ and CMV− infants were made using Wilcoxon rank sum, Student t test, chi-square, or Fisher exact test. Native liver survival (NLS) outcomes were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression adjusting for age at HPE; pretransplant patient survival outcomes were analyzed using a competing risk model and adjusting for age at HPE.

Results:

CMV+ infants (n = 29, 12%) underwent HPE later (67.8±13.6 d vs. 55.1±18.5 d, p = 0.0005) and had higher baseline alkaline phosphatase and aminotransferases. There was no difference between groups in jaundice clearance or NLS. The subdistribution HR of pretransplant death for CMV+ infants adjusted for age at HPE was 3.8 (p = 0.034).

Conclusions:

CMV infection at the time of HPE in infants with BA is not associated with worse NLS despite the association with worse liver injury, older age at HPE, and increased risk of pretransplant death adjusted for age at HPE. Continued evaluation of the consequences of CMV infection and the effects of antiviral treatment should be explored.
The Current Role of Human Papillomavirus Circulating Tumor DNA in Oropharynx Cancer
Authors: Regan Samuel N. , Mierzwa Michelle L.
Published: July 2023

Human papillomavirus infection is currently implicated in the majority of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma cases diagnosed in the United States. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a potential biomarker for human papillomavirus–related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and has the opportunity to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance of patients with this disease. Changes in ctDNA levels during and after primary therapy may be related to disease response, which can possibly have implications for treatment intensification or de-escalation strategies. Further, ctDNA seems to be sensitive and specific for disease recurrence and may improve upon current methods for assessing both treatment response and failure. In this review, we examine the relevant literature on the use of ctDNA for oropharyngeal cancer treatment and surveillance and discuss current limitations and future directions for this promising biomarker.
Circulating Tumor DNA in Human Papillomavirus–Mediated Oropharynx Cancer
Authors: Heft Neal Molly E. , Walline Heather M. , Haring Catherine T.
Published: July 2023

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has become an area of intense study in many solid malignancies including head and neck cancer. This is of particular interest for human papillomavirus–mediated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma as this cohort of patients has excellent survival and is undergoing current clinical trials aimed at treatment de-escalation. Recent studies have demonstrated the prognostic implications of pretreatment ctDNA and the utility of monitoring ctDNA during and posttreatment; however, there is a need for a more critical understanding of ctDNA as it is beginning to be incorporated into clinical trials. This review discusses the current state of ctDNA in oropharynx cancer focusing on ctDNA kinetics and minimal residual disease detection and ends with a discussion of future applications.
Calcium-permeable AMPA receptors govern PV neuron feature selectivity
Authors: Hong Ingie , Kim Juhyun , Hainmueller Thomas , Kim Dong Won , Johnson Richard C. , Park Soo Hyun , Limjunyawong Nathachit , Yang Zhuonan , Cheon David , Hwang Taeyoung , Agarwal Amit , Cholvin Thibault , Krienen Fenna M. , McCarroll Steven A. , Dong Xinzhong , Leopold David A. , Blackshaw Seth , Bergles Dwight E. , Bartos Marlene , Brown Solange P. , Huganir Richard L.
Published: July 2023

The brain helps us survive by forming internal representations of the external world1,2. Excitatory cortical neurons are often precisely tuned to specific external stimuli3,4. However, inhibitory neurons, such as parvalbumin-positive (PV) interneurons, are generally less selective5. PV interneurons differ from excitatory cells in their neurotransmitter receptor subtypes, including AMPA receptors6,7. While excitatory neurons express calcium-impermeable AMPA receptors containing the GluA2 subunit, PV interneurons express receptors that lack the GluA2 subunit and are calcium-permeable (CP-AMPARs). Here we demonstrate a causal relationship between CP-AMPAR expression and the low feature selectivity of PV interneurons. We find a low expression stoichiometry of GluA2 mRNA relative to other subunits in PV interneurons which is conserved across ferrets, rodents, marmosets, and humans, causing abundant CP-AMPAR expression. Replacing CP-AMPARs in PV interneurons with calcium-impermeable AMPARs increased their orientation selectivity in the visual cortex. Sparse CP-AMPAR manipulations demonstrated that this increase was cell-autonomous and could occur well beyond development. Interestingly, excitatory-PV interneuron connectivity rates and unitary synaptic strength were unaltered by CP-AMPAR removal, suggesting that the selectivity of PV interneurons can be altered without drastically changing connectivity. In GluA2 knockout mice, where all AMPARs are calcium-permeable, excitatory neurons showed significantly reduced orientation selectivity, suggesting that CP-AMPARs are sufficient to drive lower selectivity regardless of cell type. Remarkably, hippocampal PV interneurons, which usually exhibit low spatial tuning, became more spatially selective after removing CP-AMPARs, indicating that CP-AMPARs suppress the feature selectivity of PV interneurons independent of modality. These results reveal a novel role of CP-AMPARs in maintaining a low-selectivity sensory representation in PV interneurons and suggest a conserved molecular mechanism that distinguishes the unique synaptic computations of inhibitory and excitatory neurons.