bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Utilization of Agricultural Waste as Low-Cost Adsorbents in Dye Wastewater Treatment: Kinetic and Thermodynamic Study
Authors: Abbas Afiaa Hussein , AlJaberi Forat Yasir
Published: July 2023

In recent years, the treatment of dye wastewater has attracted more attention because of its harmful impact on the environment. Therefore, dye wastewater should be treated using effective treatment methods, such as adsorption, which is widely employed to remediate many dyes from wastewater. This work studied the use of Laurus Nobilis Leaves (LNL) and sawdust (SD) as low-cost natural adsorbents to remediate reactive blue (RB) dye from synthetic wastewater under the influence of their dosages (0.5-5.5 g) for each, pH (3-9), and contact time (10-190 min). The experimental design, analysis of results, and optimization were conducted using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on Box-Behnken method (BBM) and the Minitab-Statistical program. The BET and FT-IR tests have been used to characterize these adsorbents, which show that SD-adsorbent includes more pore volume and surface area than LNL-adsorbent. The adsorption isotherms study revealed that Langmuir isotherm was a more fitted model than Freundlich model. Adsorption kinetic shows that the current adsorption process obeys the pseudo-second order model (R2=0.998) compared to the pseudo-first order model (R2=0.973) and the intraparticle diffusion model (R2=0.915). Thermodynamics study revealed that the present adsorption is endothermic, random irregularity at the solid-liquid, and a spontaneous nature. More than 60% of RB-dye removal efficiency was achieved at the optimal conditions, which were 5.5 g of SD-adsorbent, 0.8 g of LNL-adsorbent, pH 3, and 141 min of the contact time. The core results proved that the interaction effect of using multi-natural adsorbents was significant and cost-effective, providing considerable removal of dye from wastewater.
Design of a Test to Identify Mutagenic Effects of Hair Dye using Proteus mirabilis
Authors: Hezam Abbas Mayar , Yousif Maitham Ghaly , Mohammed Ghaidaa Jihadi
Published: July 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine the possible mutagenicity of hair dye using the auxotroph’s methionine Proteus Mirabilis as a test. The Ames test was employed to identify reverse mutations in auxotroph’s P. Mirabilis treated with hair dyes. The results demonstrated a significant increase (P< 0.05) in reverse colonies of auxotroph’s P. mirabilis treated with 250 and 500 mg/mL of hair dyes in comparison to the negative control. Reverse mutations in the metE gene of the auxotroph’s P. Mirabilis were identified using DNA sequencing and polymerase chain reaction. The results confirmed the presence of the metE gene at a percentage of (100%) in all isolates treated with hair dyes at 250 and 500 mg/mL. Using BLAST software, the metE gene’s sequence was compared to the gene sequence of a standard isolate. Point mutations in the DNA of the metE gene altered protein translation, according to a genetic study of metE gene isolates treated with hair dyes. Finally, point mutations in the metE genes were identified using amino acid translation analysis of auxotroph’s P. mirabilis isolates treated with hair dyes. Point mutations in the metE gene cause many amino acids to be converted to methionine, which enables auxotroph’s P. mirabilis to grow without the need for methionine from an external source. The study found that the test for identifying mutagens in hair dyes was simple to use and cheap. It has also shown high efficacy in altering the amino acid and nitrogenous base sequences in the metE genes, thus their effect on methionine synthesis.
Efficacy and Safety of Ocedurenone: Subgroup Analysis of the BLOCK-CKD Study
Authors: Bakris George L , Yang Y Fred , McCabe James M , Liu Jin Rong , Tan Xiaojuan J , Benn Vincent J , Pitt Bertram
Published: July 2023

BACKGROUND

Ocedurenone (KBP-5074), a nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, is documented to lower blood pressure in patients with stage 3b/4 chronic kidney disease (CKD) with uncontrolled or resistant hypertension (BLOCK-CKD study). However, the efficacy and safety of Ocedurenone in subgroups such as Hispanic patients or those with stage 4 CKD, diabetes, or very high albuminuria have not been reported.

METHODS

A total of 162 patients were enrolled in the BLOCK-CKD study. The primary endpoint of these analyses was change in systolic blood pressure (SBP) from baseline to day 84. Prespecified subgroup analysis of SBP focused on demographic (e.g., ethnicity, age) and medical (e.g., CKD stage, diabetes, albuminuria, baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]). The safety analysis focused on changes in serum potassium levels from baseline.

RESULTS

SBP reductions were consistent across subgroups compared with the overall study cohort. Placebo-adjusted SBP reductions were observed in Hispanic patients (−8.1 and −9.9 mm Hg for 0.25 and 0.5 mg, respectively, total n = 35) and patients with CKD stage 4 (−9.3 and −10.4 mm Hg for 0.25 and 0.5 mg, respectively, total n = 64), diabetes (−6.9 and −11.6 mm Hg for 0.25 and 0.5 mg, respectively, total n = 51), and very high albuminuria (−13.1 and −12.3 mm Hg for 0.25 and 0.5 mg, respectively, total n = 85). Changes in serum potassium were similar across all patient subgroups regardless of baseline eGFR, diabetes status, or degree of proteinuria. No cases of hyperkalemia required intervention or resulted in study discontinuation.

CONCLUSIONS

Ocedurenone consistently reduced in SBP in all patient subgroups. Moreover, while small elevations in serum potassium occurred, they were not associated with Ocedurenone or study discontinuation.
Comprehensive profiling identifies tumour and immune microenvironmental differences in clinical subsets of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Thai Alesha A , Young Richard J , Bressel Mathias , Angel Christopher , McDowell Lachlan , Tiong Albert , Bucknell Nicholas W , Fellowes Andrew , Xu Huiling , Trigos Anna , Rischin Danny , Solomon Benjamin J
Published: July 2023

Background

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (cSCCs) are the second most diagnosed skin cancer worldwide; however, little is known about the pathobiological factors that contribute to the diverse clinical outcomes seen.

Objectives

To profile cSCCs comprehensively and identify the pathological processes that contribute to the disparities seen in their clinical behaviour.

Methods

We characterized the genomic, transcriptomic and immunohistochemical profiles of 211 cSCC tumours, including 37 cSCCs from immunocompromised patients.

Results

cSCCs from immunocompromised patients were characterized by a lack of B cells in the peritumoral stroma compared with immunocompetent patients. Further, an abundance of a memory B-cell-like population in the peritumoral stroma was associated with a better prognosis in all patients (immunocompetent and immunocompromised), as well as only immunocompetent patients. No differences in genetic ­variants, tumour mutational burden or mutational signatures were observed between cSCCs from immunocompetent and immunocompromised patients. Thus, differences in survival between cSCCs from immunocompromised patients and immunocompetent patients are not likely to be driven by tumour genomic factors, but may be associated with differential host immune response. cSCC not from a primary head and neck site had lower tumour mutational burden and exhibited upregulation of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition programme compared with head and neck cSCC. Both factors were implicated with poorer responses to immune checkpoint inhibition, and the latter with poorer survival.

Conclusions

We identified tumour and host immune factors that contribute to the disparate clinical behaviour of cSCC, with broad translational application, including prognostication, treatment prediction to current therapies and the identification of novel anticancer therapy approaches in cSCC.
Major improvement of very severe alopecia areata in patients treated with the combination of baricitinib and low doses of corticosteroids: an eight-case series
Authors: Hébert Vivien , Joly Pascal
Published: July 2023

Alopecia areata (AA), especially very severe types, causes patients severe psychological and social distress. Although baricitinib alone has been shown to be effective in conferring complete hair regrowth (HR) in severe AA [Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) score 50–94], it gave poor therapeutic results in very severe AA (SALT score ≥ 95). Methotrexate alone is similarly ineffective, but in a recent study of patients with areata totalis or universalis, low-dose prednisone with methotrexate gave a 20% rate of HR, and was effective and well tolerated. In our study of baricitinib 4 mg + prednisone 20 mg per day tapered over 3 months to treat eight women with very severe AA, seven of eight achieved complete HR (SALT score 0) and one had partial HR (SALT score 30).
Habit-reversal training: a psychotherapeutic approach in treating body-focused repetitive behaviour disorders
Authors: Rahman Syed Minhaj , Jafferany Mohammad , Barkauskaite Ruta
Published: July 2023

Body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs) are recurrent, compulsive, destructive behaviours directed towards the body. Although studies have demonstrated a 12–14% prevalence rate, researchers found that dermatologists and psychiatrists show a lack of knowledge regarding psychodermatology resources and information about BFRB disorders (BFRBDs) such as trichotillomania (TTM). There is limited research about treatments including ones investigating the clinical applications of various self-help training such as decoupling (DC) and DC in sensu (DC-is) as well as about habit-reversal training (HRT). HRT is a five-component behavioural intervention that aims to develop a competing response to a specific unwanted behaviour. Studies have found substantial support for HRT’s efficacy in treating a variety of maladaptive repetitive behaviours including onychotillomania, TTM, skin-picking disorder and chronic cheek biting. Additionally, many psychotherapies can augmented HRT. Psychotherapies include acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, mindfulness mediation and the cognitive psychophysiological model. A recently investigated variant of HRT, DC-is, resulted in consistently satisfactory objective and subjective improvement for treating BFRBDs, and HRT showed good subjective but poor objective improvement compared with standard DC. HRT and HRT variants are effective therapeutic treatments for BFRBDs; however, further randomized double-blinded and placebo-controlled trials are required to examine HRT’s therapeutic profile.
Long noncoding RNAs contribute to DNA damage resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana
Authors: Durut Nathalie , Kornienko Aleksandra E , Schmidt Heiko A , Lettner Nicole , Donà Mattia , Nordborg Magnus , Mittelsten Scheid Ortrun
Published: July 2023

Efficient repair of DNA lesions is essential for the faithful transmission of genetic information between somatic cells and for genome integrity across generations. Plants have multiple, partially redundant, and overlapping DNA repair pathways, probably due to the less constricted germline and the inevitable exposure to light including higher energy wavelengths. Many proteins involved in DNA repair and their mode of actions are well described. In contrast, a role for DNA damage-associated RNA components, evident from many other organisms, is less well understood. Here, we have challenged young Arabidopsis thaliana plants with two different types of genotoxic stress and performed de novo assembly and transcriptome analysis. We identified three long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) that are lowly or not expressed under regular conditions but up-regulated or induced by DNA damage. We generated CRISPR/Cas deletion mutants and found that the absence of the lncRNAs impairs the recovery capacity of the plants from genotoxic stress. The genetic loci are highly conserved among world-wide distributed Arabidopsis accessions and within related species in the Brassicaceae group. Together, these results suggest that the lncRNAs have a conserved function in connection with DNA damage and provide a basis for mechanistic analysis of their role.
Optimal allocation method of hybrid energy storage capacity of multi-energy system under low-carbon background
Authors: Wang Xiran , Sun Ke , Yang Xuan , Yang Kai , Chen Jiaxi
Published: July 2023

The energy dispatching and distribution ability is improved by optimizing the configuration of hybrid energy storage capacity of multi-energy system in low-carbon background, and an optimal configuration method of hybrid energy storage capacity of multi-energy system in low-carbon background based on equilibrium control and dynamic optimization algorithm is proposed. The data structure model of hybrid energy storage capacity distribution of multi-energy system is constructed. Under the condition that the energy storage optimal allocation model based on cost analysis meets the system performance index, the energy storage optimal allocation model is established with the objective function of minimizing the cost of configuring energy storage system, and with the objective of minimizing the fluctuation of active power of distributed power sources, such as wind and light. Taking the penalty cost of wind energy storage combined output power exceeding the fluctuation limit as the objective function, low-pass filtering method is adopted to stabilize the fluctuation of new energy power, and the optimal configuration capacity of energy storage system is determined according to the allowable frequency deviation and voltage stability of the system. Balanced control and dynamic optimization algorithm are adopted to realize the optimal configuration of hybrid energy storage capacity of multi-energy system under low-carbon background by combining different wind and solar energy combinations, different sampling intervals and different number of power stations. The simulation results show that the hybrid energy storage capacity allocation of multi-energy system has strong adaptability and high environmental adaptability, which effectively improves the transient stability of power grid system and further promotes the safe and stable operation of power grid system.
Research on the factors influencing college students’ energy-use behavior in dormitories: group-level factors and time factors
Authors: Liu Xiaodan , Yang Yanping , Guo Liang , Liao Ling , Xiao Lin
Published: July 2023

Promoting energy-saving behavior among college students in dormitories is conducive to improving the energy efficiency of college buildings. As students in the same dormitory need to share the energy-using equipment and expenses, they will inevitably influence each other by their energy-use behaviors, and this interaction process will gradually reach a certain stable state with the passing of the time spent with roommates. However, the existing research on the influencing factors of energy-use behaviors often focuses on individual subjective characteristics while overlooking the influence of group and time factors. Therefore, this paper incorporates interpersonal relationship and group identity into the theory of planned behavior, and considers the time spent with roommates as the moderating variable to build a model of factors influencing college students’ energy-use behaviors in their dormitories. Empirical data were collected by a questionnaire survey with 768 respondents, and generalized ordered logit regression was used to analyze the research model. The results reveal that the factors that influence students’ energy-use behaviors will change with the time spent with roommates. When the time spent with roommates is 0–1 year, interpersonal relationships, group identity, comfort, individual norms, and environmental concerns are significant influences. When the time spent with roommates is 1–2 years, environmental concerns will no longer have an effect; however, energy-use costs and energy-use habits will be added. When the time spent with roommates is 2–3 years, interpersonal relationships, individual norms, group identity, and energy-use costs will no longer have any influence, but subjective norm will be added.
On the reduction in accuracy of finite difference schemes on manifolds without boundary
Authors: Hamfeldt Brittany Froese , Turnquist Axel G R
Published: July 2023

We investigate error bounds for numerical solutions of divergence structure linear elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs) on compact manifolds without boundary. Our focus is on a class of monotone finite difference approximations, which provide a strong form of stability that guarantees the existence of a bounded solution. In many settings including the Dirichlet problem, it is easy to show that the resulting solution error is proportional to the formal consistency error of the scheme. We make the surprising observation that this need not be true for PDEs posed on compact manifolds without boundary. We propose a particular class of approximation schemes built around an underlying monotone scheme with consistency error $O(h^{\alpha })$. By carefully constructing barrier functions, we prove that the solution error is bounded by $O(h^{\alpha /(d+1)})$ in dimension $d$. We also provide a specific example where this predicted convergence rate is observed numerically. Using these error bounds, we further design a family of provably convergent approximations to the solution gradient.
The impact of thiamethoxam on the feeding and behavior of 2 soybean herbivore feeding guilds
Authors: Lee Scott T , Davis Jeffrey A
Published: July 2023

Over the past few decades, inadvertent consequences have stemmed from the intensified use of neonicotinoids in agroecosystems. Neonicotinoid applications can result in both positive (e.g., reduced persistent virus transmission) and negative (e.g., increased host susceptibility) repercussions exhibiting ambiguity for their use in crop production. In soybean, aspects of neonicotinoid usage such as the impact on nonpersistent virus transmission and efficacy against nontarget herbivores have not been addressed. This study evaluated the interaction between the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam and soybean variety and the impact on different pest feeding guilds. Feeding and behavioral bioassays were conducted in the laboratory to assess the effect of thiamethoxam on the mortality and weight gain of the defoliator, Chrysodeixis includens (Walker). Bioassays evaluated impacts dependent and independent of soybean tissue, in addition to both localized and systemic efficacy within the soybean plant. Additionally, using the electrical penetration graph technique (EPG), the probing behavior of 2 piercing-sucking pests, Aphis gossypii Glover and Myzus persicae (Sulzer), was observed. Results from defoliator bioassays revealed thiamethoxam had insecticidal activity against C. includens. Distinctions in thiamethoxam-related mortality between bioassays dependent and independent of soybean tissue (~98% versus ~30% mortality) indicate a contribution of the plant towards defoliator-related toxicity. Observations of defoliator feeding behavior showed a preference for untreated soybean tissue relative to thiamethoxam-treated tissue, suggesting a deterrent effect of thiamethoxam. EPG monitoring of probing behavior exhibited a minimal effect of thiamethoxam on piercing-sucking herbivores. Findings from this study suggest neonicotinoids like thiamethoxam may provide some benefit via insecticidal activity against nontarget defoliators.
Helium as a signature of the double detonation in Type Ia supernovae
Authors: Collins Christine E , Sim Stuart A , Shingles Luke J , Gronow Sabrina , Röpke Friedrich K , Pakmor Rüdiger , Seitenzahl Ivo R , Kromer Markus
Published: July 2023

The double detonation is a widely discussed mechanism to explain Type Ia supernovae from explosions of sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs. In this scenario, a helium detonation is ignited in a surface helium shell on a carbon/oxygen white dwarf, which leads to a secondary carbon detonation. Explosion simulations predict high abundances of unburnt helium in the ejecta, however, radiative transfer simulations have not been able to fully address whether helium spectral features would form. This is because helium can not be sufficiently excited to form spectral features by thermal processes, but can be excited by collisions with non-thermal electrons, which most studies have neglected. We carry out a full non-local thermodynamic equilibrium radiative transfer simulation for an instance of a double detonation explosion model, and include a non-thermal treatment of fast electrons. We find a clear He i λ10830 feature which is strongest in the first few days after explosion and becomes weaker with time. Initially this feature is blended with the Mg ii λ10927 feature but over time separates to form a secondary feature to the blue wing of the Mg ii λ10927 feature. We compare our simulation to observations of iPTF13ebh, which showed a similar feature to the blue wing of the Mg ii λ10927 feature, previously identified as C i. Our simulation shows a good match to the evolution of this feature and we identify it as high velocity He i λ10830. This suggests that He i λ10830 could be a signature of the double detonation scenario.
An emerging and enigmatic spectral class of isolated DAe white dwarfs
Authors: Elms Abbigail K , Tremblay Pier-Emmanuel , Gänsicke Boris T , Swan Andrew , Melis Carl , Bédard Antoine , Manser Christopher J , Munday James , Hermes J J , Dennihy Erik , Nitta Atsuko , Zuckerman Ben
Published: July 2023

Two recently discovered white dwarfs, WD J041246.84 + 754942.26 and WD J165335.21 − 100116.33, exhibit Hα and Hβ Balmer line emission similar to stars in the emerging DAHe class, yet intriguingly have not been found to have detectable magnetic fields. These white dwarfs are assigned the spectral type DAe. We present detailed follow-up of the two known DAe stars using new time-domain spectroscopic observations and analysis of the latest photometric time-series data from TESS and ZTF. We measure the upper magnetic field strength limit of both stars as B < 0.05 MG. The DAe white dwarfs exhibit photometric and spectroscopic variability, where in the case of WD J041246.84 + 754942.26 the strength of the Hα and Hβ emission cores varies in antiphase with its photometric variability over the spin period, which is the same phase relationship seen in DAHe stars. The DAe white dwarfs closely cluster in one region of the Gaia Hertzsprung–Russell diagram together with the DAHe stars. We discuss current theories on non-magnetic and magnetic mechanisms which could explain the characteristics observed in DAe white dwarfs, but additional data are required to unambiguously determine the origin of these stars.
Epimeric vitamin D and cardiovascular structure and function in advanced CKD and after kidney transplantation
Authors: Arroyo Eliott , Leber Cecilia A , Burney Heather N , Li Yang , Li Xiaochun , Lu Tzong-shi , Jones Glenville , Kaufmann Martin , Ting Stephen M S , Hiemstra Thomas F , Zehnder Daniel , Lim Kenneth
Published: July 2023

Background

25-hydroxyvitamin D can undergo C-3 epimerization to produce 3-epi-25(OH)D3. 3-epi-25(OH)D3 levels decline in chronic kidney disease (CKD), but its role in regulating the cardiovascular system is unknown. Herein, we examined the relationship between 3-epi-25(OH)D3, and cardiovascular functional and structural endpoints in patients with CKD.

Methods

We examined n = 165 patients with advanced CKD from the Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in Renal Failure and After Kidney Transplantation (CAPER) study cohort, including those who underwent kidney transplant (KTR, n = 76) and waitlisted patients who did not (NTWC, n = 89). All patients underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing and echocardiography at baseline, 2 months and 12 months. Serum 3-epi-25(OH)D3 was analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Results

Patients were stratified into quartiles of baseline 3-epi-25(OH)D3 (Q1: <0.4 ng/mL, n = 51; Q2: 0.4 ng/mL, n = 26; Q3: 0.5–0.7 ng/mL, n = 47; Q4: ≥0.8 ng/mL, n = 41). Patients in Q1 exhibited lower peak oxygen uptake [VO2Peak = 18.4 (16.2–20.8) mL/min/kg] compared with Q4 [20.8 (18.6–23.2) mL/min/kg; P = .009]. Linear mixed regression model showed that 3-epi-25(OH)D3 levels increased in KTR [from 0.47 (0.30) ng/mL to 0.90 (0.45) ng/mL] and declined in NTWC [from 0.61 (0.32) ng/mL to 0.45 (0.29) ng/mL; P < .001]. Serum 3-epi-25(OH)D3 was associated with VO2Peak longitudinally in both groups [KTR: β (standard error) = 2.53 (0.56), P < .001; NTWC: 2.73 (0.70), P < .001], but was not with left ventricular mass or arterial stiffness. Non-epimeric 25(OH)D3, 24,25(OH)2D3 and the 25(OH)D3:24,25(OH)2D3 ratio were not associated with any cardiovascular outcome (all P > .05).

Conclusions

Changes in 3-epi-25(OH)D3 levels may regulate cardiovascular functional capacity in patients with advanced CKD.
Integrated molecular analysis reveals hypermethylation and overexpression of HOX genes to be poor prognosticators in isocitrate dehydrogenase mutant glioma
Authors: Mamatjan Yasin , Voisin Mathew R , Nassiri Farshad , Moraes Fabio Y , Bunda Severa , So Jonathan , Salih Mira , Shirahata Mitsuaki , Ono Takahiro , Shimizu Hiroaki , Schrimpf Daniel , von Deimling Andreas , Aldape Kenneth D , Zadeh Gelareh
Published: July 2023

Background

Diffuse gliomas represent over 80% of malignant brain tumors ranging from low-grade to aggressive high-grade lesions. Within isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-mutant gliomas, there is a high variability in survival and a need to more accurately predict outcome.

Methods

To identify and characterize a predictive signature of outcome in gliomas, we utilized an integrative molecular analysis (using methylation, mRNA, copy number variation (CNV), and mutation data), analyzing a total of 729 IDH-mutant samples including a test set of 99 from University Health Network (UHN) and 2 validation cohorts including the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

Results

Cox regression analysis of methylation data from the UHN cohort identified CpG-based signatures that split the glioma cohort into 2 prognostic groups strongly predicting survival that were validated using 2 independent cohorts from TCGA and DKFZ (all P-values < .0001). The methylation signatures that predicted poor outcomes also exhibited high CNV instability and hypermethylation of HOX gene probes. Integrated multi-platform analyses using mRNA and methylation (iRM) showed that parallel HOX gene overexpression and simultaneous hypermethylation were significantly associated with increased mutational load, high aneuploidy, and worse survival (P-value < .0001). A 7-HOX gene signature was developed and validated using the most significantly associated HOX genes with patient outcome in both 1p/19q codeleted and non-codeleted IDHmut gliomas.

Conclusions

HOX gene methylation and expression provide important prognostic information in IDH-mutant gliomas that are not captured by current molecular diagnostics. A 7-HOX gene signature of outcome shows significant survival differences in both 1p/19q codeleted and non-codeleted IDH-mutant gliomas.
Evolution of the G-matrix on a Stationary Adaptive Landscape
Authors: Arnold Stevan J.
Published: July 2023

Existing analytical theory reveals little about the dynamics of G, because the problem is regarded to be too complex to be mathematically tractable. Computer simulations and empirical comparisons of G-matrices, however, provide useful guidelines. Simulations show that the G-matrix tends to evolve towards alignment with the M-matrix and the adaptive landscape. Simulations also show that the orientation of the G-matrix is stabilized by large population size and between-trait correlations in mutation and stabilizing selection. An evolving M-matrix promotes the evolution of a triple alignment between the matrices that characterize mutation, inheritance, and selection. Empirical comparisons of G-matrices often reveal common principal components, suggesting that G-matrices have been shaped by a shared orientation of adaptive landscapes.
What's Wrong with Lookism?
Authors: Mason Andrew
Published: July 2023

People are treated differently as a result of their looks. But when is appearance discrimination, or ‘lookism’ as it is often called, morally objectionable? This issue is important for at least two reasons. First, the benefits that flow to people who are regarded as visually attractive are sizeable and are enjoyed in a number of contexts, including employment, personal relationships, education, politics, and the criminal justice system. Second, appearance discrimination is of moral interest not only in its own right, but also in terms of its connection to other forms of discrimination. Appearance norms, that is, norms concerning how we should look, often place greater burdens on disadvantaged groups. As a result, discrimination on the basis of appearance, when it rewards people who conform to these norms, may involve, or interact with, the effects of, wrongful discrimination on the basis of features other than appearance, in a way that aggravates existing injustices. This book examines the morality of appearance discrimination in three contexts: employment decisions; the choice of friends or romantic partners; and the everyday practice of judging and commenting upon people’s looks. It develops a pluralist theory of what makes discrimination wrong that identifies three wrong-making features, namely, disrespect, deliberative unfairness, and contributing to unjust consequences, and demonstrates how the presence of one or more of these features in each of these contexts problematises the lookism that takes place in it.
Hierarchies of Idiocy
Authors: Parkes Adam
Published: July 2023

This chapter considers how hereditary and intellectual forms of aristocracy become associated with stupidity in the inter-war fiction of D.H. Lawrence and Aldous Huxley. These authors satirize what they see as the intellectual vacancy of the rich and titled and the vaunted expertise of the modern expert. They satirize each other in the process. But they also resist the idealization of stupidity in romantic and post-romantic poetry and philosophy. Dissolving some of the expected distinctions between rich and poor, high and low, stupid and intelligent, Lawrence and Huxley work in their distinctive ways against entrenched notions of social and intellectual hierarchy. Consequently, the chapter argues, these writers unravel some of the hierarchical thinking with which they are often identified in modernist studies.
Contract
Authors: Liau Timothy
Published: July 2023

This chapter demonstrates the doctrinal plausibility and justifiability of the reform alternative introduced in the previous chapter—third-party standing—the road not taken by English law. It is shown how third-party standing would have elegantly solved the main problem cases motivating enactment of the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999: (i) debts; (ii) exemption clauses; and (iii) damages. In each these of cases, simply giving the third party a power to enforce the promisee’s rights would have sufficed. So, if one party to a contract has agreed to pay a third party a sum of money, simply giving them a power of enforcement will enable them to compel payment of this sum to them. Similarly, if one party has promised not to sue a third party or has promised to limit their liability to suit to a specified sum, all the third party needs to stop or limit that suit is a power to enforce that promise. Upon breach of contract, a third-party beneficiary might suffer consequential losses. To recover a sum representing that loss, all the third party needs is a power to enforce the promisee’s right to damages for the third-party’s consequential loss under the doctrine of ‘transferred loss’, which he can simultaneously enforce alongside the promisee’s duty to account to him in respect of its proceeds. It is also argued that the justifications raised for privity reform are better treated as justifications for extending standing, rather than rights, to third parties.
That Difference is Different From Being
Authors: Wiitala Michael
Published: July 2023

The argument by which the Eleatic Stranger differentiates the kinds being and different (255 c 9–e 2) is one of the most controversial in Plato’s Sophist. In it the Stranger introduces the vexed distinction between beings that are auta kath’ hauta, ‘themselves according to themselves’, and those that are pros alla, ‘relative to others’ (255 c 13–14). Although commentators have developed many interpretations of the argument, there is a key, yet hitherto unrecognized ambiguity in the syntax of the counterfactual conditional at 255 d 4–6 concerning whether the adjunct comparative clause, hōsper to on, should be adjoined to the protasis or apodosis. Editors from Heindorf to Robinson adjoin hōsper to on to the protasis. This paper argues that this construal is mistaken. Adjoining hōsper to on to the apodosis instead allows for a more straightforward interpretation of the argument and offers a resolution to the controversies over the ‘according to themselves’/‘relative to others’ distinction.
Women in Translation
Authors: Orr Leah
Published: July 2023

Through a survey of women writers published in translation, this chapter begins by showing that some of the most popular and prominent women writers in England in this period were French women published in translation. There were legal and commercial advantages to publishing translations over original new works in English in genres like fiction and poetry. Some women writers, such as Haywood and Behn, also translated texts by other writers, and they tended to select works in genres similar to their own published works. This chapter concludes with a case study of the marketing of Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy in England. One of the most popular and prominent fiction writers from the late seventeenth century, Aulnoy was marketed by her publishers first as a young, aristocratic writer of key novels about European courts and later as a matronly writer of fairy tales when readers’ tastes changed.
Money and Revolution—the Case of England
Authors: Blaazer David
Published: July 2023

This chapter argues that England underwent a monetary revolution during the 1690s. The foundation of the Bank of England (1694) and the silver recoinage (1696) jointly transformed the nature of money and transferred significant monetary power from the state to mercantile interests, in particular the government’s creditors. The revolution also cemented monetary ideas and myths that were to endure for centuries. That some of these were imposed by force on an unwilling population is shown by the government’s aggressive judicial attack on currency crime at the height of the crisis, which failed because male juries refused to convict, and plebeian ‘juries of matrons’ effectively secured pardons for those women who had been capitally convicted. The outcome of the monetary revolution cemented more strongly than ever the belief that an unchanging monetary standard was essential to England’s prestige and honour. At the same time, it brought economic misery to the masses and further widened the gulf between the monetary worlds of the elite and the rest of society.
Wrestling with Ghosts
Authors: Ross Stephen
Published: July 2023

In stark contrast to Conrad and Forster, spectrality in Mary Butts’s works surrounds the fear of a utopian alternative to tradition. It turns inward, away from both history and futurity. Butts’s use of myth provides the escape route here, affording her a means by which to short-circuit history itself, leaping out of the present, bypassing profane temporality, and going directly to the sacred. And yet, apparently despite Butts’s own intentions, the ghosts return. They proliferate and subvert her reactionary project. The Taverner novels instantiate this tension in large part by embedding symptoms of various historical traumas upon whose repression Butts’s magisterial ethics depends, and by which it is ultimately exposed as a grand abdication of responsibility. Those traumas range from the relatively punctual and specific (World War I, the 1917 Russian Revolution) to the extended and diffuse (the Atlantic slave trade and global capitalism’s increasing displacement of the old imperialist order). The end result, it is argued, is a record of Butts’s attempted flight from history itself, accompanied by a hybrid ethico-politics that depends completely upon abdicating any sense of responsibility for the other. The political side of this hybrid is profoundly anti-progressive and the ethics what can only be described as magisterial: noblesse without the oblige.
George Eliot’s Biological Media
Authors: Hildebrand Jayne
Published: July 2023

This chapter focuses on the notion of an all-encompassing biological “medium” that emerged in the writings of George Eliot, Auguste Comte, G.H. Lewes, and Herbert Spencer in the mid-nineteenth century. Examining The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Middlemarch (1872), this chapter argues that Eliot’s descriptions of landscapes and weather imagine the physical environment or “medium” as a dynamic entity that plays a vital role in the ethical and emotional lives of her characters. In The Mill on the Floss, Eliot’s descriptions of landscape evoke what this chapter terms “environmental desire”—a diffuse longing for a formative environment that competes with erotic attachments to particular objects and persons. In Middlemarch, Eliot’s evocative descriptions of weather and atmospherics provide the basis for a new environmental model of sympathy, in which a person’s ability to connect sympathetically with another depends on a recognition of a shared medium or environment.
Humean Disillusion
Authors: Ismael Jenann
Published: July 2023

The great divide in the metaphysics of scientific modality is that between Humean and anti-Humean accounts. Pragmatists tend to like the anti-metaphysical character of Humeanism, but there is a tension at the heart of Humeanism. The tension is that between the Humean account of what laws and chances are and what they do. According to the Humean account, laws and chances are distributed patterns in the Humean mosaic, knowable fully only from a God’s-eye view, i.e. from the perspective of one who sees the full mosaic. But what laws and chances are supposed to do is guide action and belief for situated observers who only have very incomplete knowledge of those patterns, and for whom that knowledge is always limited to the past. Someone who knows what the laws and chances are, on a Humean account, wouldn’t need them to do what the laws and chances do. And someone that needs them to do what the laws and chance do wouldn’t know what the laws and chances are. This chapter argues that the tension can be resolved, but not without giving up the reductive ambitions of Humeanism and the metaphysical commitment to recombination at the level of local matters of particular fact.
Knowing the Powers
Authors: Schwarz Wolfgang
Published: July 2023

If the world contains primitive modal elements—irreducible laws, powers, potentialities, or propensities—how could we know about them? Humeans have long worried that we could not. If modal phenomena are reducible to facts about occurrent events, then it is no surprise that observing occurrent events can give us information about modality. By contrast, knowledge of primitive modality seems to require an inexplicable leap from observations of one kind of fact to conclusions about an entirely different kind of fact. Let’s call this the access problem for non-Humean accounts of (natural) modality. In its blunt formulation, the access problem is easy to resist. Arguably, some modal facts can be directly observed. In other cases, inference to the best explanation might be hoped to get us from, say, an observation of frequencies to hypotheses about chance. Like many Humeans, this chapter’s author is not convinced by these replies, thinking they do not get to the heart of the access problem. The aim of the chapter is to explain why.
Best-System Laws, Explanation, and Unification
Authors: Blanchard Thomas
Published: July 2023

In recent years, an active research program has emerged that aims to develop a Humean Best Systems Account (BSA) of laws of nature that improves on Lewis’s canonical articulation of the view. Its guiding idea is that the laws are cognitive tools tailored to the specific needs and limitations of creatures like us. While current versions of this “pragmatic Humean” research program fare much better than Lewis’s account along many dimensions, this chapter argues that they have trouble making sense of certain key features of the practice of fundamental physics. In the author’s view, Humeans can address these issues by paying more attention to the explanatory role of laws. Following this idea, the chapter proposes an account on which what makes a systematization the best is a kind of explanatory power, understood along the lines of the unificationist theory of explanation.
Social Media and Mental Health
Authors: Meier Adrian , Reinecke Leonard
Published: July 2023

Considerable research investigates effects of social media use on hedonic well-being (e.g., affect, life satisfaction), psychopathology (e.g., depressive symptoms), or psychosocial risk/resilience factors (e.g., loneliness, self-esteem). Yet, the public is often more concerned with social media’s long-term outcomes, which may be better captured by eudaimonic well-being. Eudaimonia is both conceptually and empirically distinct and may be uniquely affected by social media. However, a synthesis of how social media use relates to eudaimonia is currently missing. The authors fill this gap with a narrative review, synthesizing both theoretical and empirical links between three social media uses (active, passive, screen time) and three indicators of eudaimonic well-being (meaningfulness, authenticity, self-actualization). The results suggest plausible theoretical links yet scarce and inconsistent evidence, allowing no definitive conclusion. The authors discuss how future research can investigate whether social media afford or constrain opportunities to find meaning, live authentically, and grow as a person.
Introduction
Authors: Nedecky Jason
Published: July 2023

This chapter offers a definition for lyric diction and outlines the important role it plays in the effective interpretation of French vocal music. Background information is provided on the elevated style of the French language heard in opera and in mélodie. The style soutenu is examined, identifying its roots in the Comédie-Française. Comparisons and contrasts between the style soutenu of sung French and everyday spoken French, or ‘parler courant’, are drawn. Several evolving French pronunciation trends not typically considered part of the singing style are enumerated.
The International Phonetic Alphabet in French
Authors: Nedecky Jason
Published: July 2023

This chapter describes in detail the phonemic inventory of the French language. The style soutenu as it is heard in French opera and mélodie provides the basis for International Phonetic Association (IPA) transcription in lyric diction. Phonetic representation as it is encountered throughout the text is listed and described. Tables are provided with the IPA representations for vowel, semiconsonant, and consonant phonemes, plus diacritics, additional and foreign phonemes, and extra markings, along with explanations for each character or symbol.
French Vowel Sounds
Authors: Nedecky Jason
Published: July 2023

French vowel sounds and semiconsonants are studied in detail in this chapter. With an inventory of sixteen distinct vocalic phonemes, the French language contains more vowel sounds than English, Italian, or German. The most commonly encountered French spellings for the eight primary cardinal vowels, four nasal vowels, three mixed vowels, three semiconsonants, and the mute e are provided alongside remarks about key characteristics for each phoneme. The well-known vowel diagram is used to show tongue and lip positions, as well as front, back, open, and closed vowel designations. The formations for mixed vowels are broken down into front tongue positions and back vowel lip-rounding. Explanations and tips are provided for the nasal vowels that are unique to French, and present specific challenges in terms of formation and correct execution. The all-important French schwa—the so-called mute e—is introduced in this chapter, with several musical examples, and indications about when the vowel should be elided in singing. The description of semiconsonants includes an account of the /j/ glide, which can follow a vowel in certain spellings. A treatment of vocalic aperture in the French language and an examination of ‘in-between’ vowels are included.
French Consonant Sounds
Authors: Nedecky Jason
Published: July 2023

A consonant is classified in linguistic terms by three criteria: place of articulation (dental, velar, etc.), manner of articulation (plosive, fricative, affricate, etc.), and whether it is voiced or unvoiced. In this chapter, each French consonant phoneme is examined by these criteria. Remarks are given for all French consonant phonemes, and include comparisons between English, Italian, and German near-equivalents. The regular French spellings of each consonant sound are listed, as well as details about the phonemes, which include narrow transcriptions using diacritics. Three particularly challenging concepts are treated: mute h vs. aspirated h, pronounced vs. silent consonants, and how to handle the French r: the flipped/rolled apical variant vs. the uvular variant (known in French as r grasseyé).
The ‘Consonant-Vowel Flow’ of the French Phrase
Authors: Nedecky Jason
Published: July 2023

Prosody differs greatly between French and English. Syllabication itself is fundamentally different, since in French, syllables typically end in vowel sounds. So strong is this feature, that a word-final consonant sound is drawn into the next word that begins with a vowel. Consonant linking (enchaînement consonantique), vocalic elision (élision vocalique), and liaison ensure that this ‘consonant-vowel flow’ of the language is maintained. Only rarely does hiatus (back-to-back in adjacent syllables) occur in French. The delineation of words by the spaces on the page has little bearing on the actual pronunciation of the French phrase. Instead, in French the phrase is delivered as a series of consonant-vowel syllables known as the phonetic group (le groupe phonétique). Each French word stress (l’accent d’intensité), which predictably falls on the last syllable, is minimized in the phonetic group, so that only the final syllable of the entire group is stressed. This is known as primary phrasal stress (l’accent tonique). These features affect French pronunciation a great deal—both in everyday speech, as well as in vocal music. They also govern the conventional setting of French text as recitative. These concepts are all treated in this chapter, with the aid of musical examples.
Mute e in French Poetry and Vocal Music
Authors: Nedecky Jason
Published: July 2023

The e muet carries much importance in French. Realized as a lip-rounded schwa, this so-called mute e accounts for up to a quarter of the vowel sounds in a lyric setting. Its significance in poetry goes beyond the fact that it is so prevalent. With an absence of true metre in French, carefully constructed rhyme is of prime concern. French rhyme is governed not only by a repetition of sounds, but also in the use of word-final mute e. When it is found at the end of a verse, word-final mute e constitutes what is known as feminine rhyme. The contrasting use of masculine and feminine rhyme is a key feature of French poetry. Composers pay a great deal of attention to mute e and feminine rhyme in French vocal music. This chapter examines the unique treatment of mute e in poetry, and the way it is typically set in opera and mélodie. Analysis is provided on both conventional musical notation, as well as the treatment of mute e in post-Romantic composition. Comment on French editions is offered, and musical examples illustrate the concepts.