bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The limiting behavior of global minimizers in non-reflexive Orlicz-Sobolev spaces
Authors: Ercole Grey , Figueiredo Giovany , Magalhães Viviane , Pereira Gilberto
Published: February 2022

Let

Ω
\Omega

be a smooth, bounded

N
N

-dimensional domain. For each

p
>
N

p>N

, let

Φ

p

\Phi _{p}

be an N-function satisfying

p

Φ

p

(
t
)
≤
t

Φ

p

′

(
t
)

p\Phi _{p}(t)\leq t\Phi _{p}^{\prime }(t)

for all

t
>
0

t>0

, and let

I

p

I_{p}

be the energy functional associated with the equation

−

Δ

Φ

p

u
=
f
(
u
)

-\Delta _{\Phi _{p}}u=f(u)

in the Orlicz-Sobolev space

W

0

1
,

Φ

p

(
Ω
)

W_{0}^{1,\Phi _{p}}(\Omega )

. We prove that

I

p

I_{p}

admits at least one global, nonnegative minimizer

u

p

u_{p}

which, as

p
→
∞

p\rightarrow \infty

, converges uniformly on

Ω
¯

\overline {\Omega }

to the distance function to the boundary

∂
Ω

\partial \Omega

.
On realization of isometries for higher rank quadratic lattices over number fields
Authors: Chan Wai Kiu , Li Han
Published: February 2022

Let

F
F

be a number field, and

n
≥
3

n\geq 3

be an integer. In this paper we give an effective procedure which (1) determines whether two given quadratic lattices on

F
n

F^n

are isometric or not, and (2) produces an invertible linear transformation realizing the isometry provided the two given lattices are isometric. A key ingredient in our approach is a search bound for the equivalence of two given quadratic forms over number fields which we prove using methods from algebraic groups, homogeneous dynamics and spectral theory of automorphic forms.
Lives and Data
Authors: Rodrigues Elizabeth
Published: February 2022

Although frequently associated with the digital era, data is an epistemological concept and representational form that has intersected with the narration of lives for centuries. With the rise of Baconian empiricism, methods of collecting discrete observations became the predominant way of knowing the physical world in Western epistemology. Exhaustive data collection came to be seen as the precursor to ultimate knowledge, theorized to have the potential to reveal predictive patterns without the intervention of human theory. Lives came to be seen as potential data collections, on the individual and the social level. As individuals have come to see value in collecting the data of their own lives, practices of observing and recording the self that characterize spiritual and diaristic practices have been inflected by a secular epistemology of data emphasizing exhaustivity in collection and self-improvement goals aimed at personal wellness and economic productivity. At the social level, collecting data about human lives has become the focus of a range of academic disciplines, governmental structures, and corporate business models.

Nineteenth-century social sciences turned toward data collection as a method of explanation and prediction in earnest, and these methods were especially likely to be focused on the lives of minoritized populations. Theories of racial identity and difference emerging from such studies drew on the rhetoric of data as unbiased to enshrine white supremacist logic and law. The tendency to use data to categorize and thereby direct human lives has continued and manifests in 21st-century practices of algorithmic identification. At both the individual and social scales of collection, though, data holds the formal and epistemological potential to challenge narrative singularity by bringing the internal heterogeneity of any individual life or population into view. Yet it is often used to argue for singular revelation, the assignment of particular narratives to particular lives. Throughout the long history of representing lives as data in Western contexts, life writers have engaged with data conceptually and aesthetically in multiple ways: experimenting with its potential for revelation, critiquing its abstraction and totalization, developing data collection projects that are embodied and situated, using data to develop knowledge in service of oppressed communities, calling attention to data’s economic and political power, and asserting the narrative multiplicity and interpretive agency inherent in the telling of lives.
Literature of the Mexican Revolution
Authors: Pineda Franco Adela
Published: February 2022

Summing up the literature of the Mexican Revolution involves the challenge of defining, assessing, and comparing an extensive and heterogeneous corpus of novels, chronicles, testimonial accounts, and short stories under a set of organizing principles, which cannot be thought of as static and invariable. It is important to consider the connection of this literary corpus with the historical event known as the Mexican Revolution; the defining role of this literature in forging a postrevolutionary national culture in Mexico; and the aesthetic and cultural significance of its main practitioners in and beyond Mexico. Besides fictionalizing events related to the revolution’s armed phase, the literature of the Mexican Revolution provides myriad interpretations on the revolution’s outcome and legacy. Hence, as historical inheritance, these literary works were intricately linked to the sociopolitical and cultural struggles of their own time, during the 20th century. Yet, even novels that were published in the 19th century, such as La bola (1887) by Emilio Rabasa, La parcela (1898) by José López-Portillo y Rojas, and Tomochic (1893) by Heriberto Frías, have been included in this corpus, since they foreshadowed the revolution’s outbreak. Los de abajo by Mariano Azuela is considered the foundational novel of the Mexican Revolution. Originally published in 1915, it set the precedent of approaching the revolution as a potentially emancipatory movement gone awry. Its second edition (1920) marked the beginning of the revolution’s literary historiography, a process of selection, exclusion, and reinterpretation of myriad works under the influx of postrevolutionary nationalism. Many literary works of the Mexican Revolution exceed simple classifications. This is the case of José Vasconcelos’s four-volume autobiography; Nellie Campobello’s enigmatic collection of tales Cartucho: Relatos de la lucha en el Norte de México (1931); and novels, such as El águila y la serpiente (1928) and La sombra del caudillo (1929) by Martín Luis Guzmán, Se llevaron el cañón para Bachimba (1941) and ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! by Rafael F. Muñoz, Al filo del agua (1947) by Agustín Yáñez, and El luto humano (1943) by José Revueltas. Such works entail inventive intersections of life-writing and experimental fiction, mordant critiques of power relations; self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and intermediality, among other formal and thematic features. A revisionist overview of this literature sheds light on the significant role that underrepresented actors played in the history of the revolution and its literature. It also brings forward the actuality of the literature of the Mexican Revolution in the 21st century, prompting a reflection on the role of literature as a lens, capable of turning history into a meaningful dimension of the present.
Early Modern Literature and the Occult
Authors: White Rachel
Published: February 2022

The occult has been a source of fascination for writers and scholars over the centuries. It is often associated with magic, the macabre, spectacle, the diabolical, and the unknown, but it also encompasses aspects of science and new understandings of the world. The occult shadows the boundaries of legitimate and illegitimate knowledge, belief, and practice. The word “occult” comes from the Latin occultus meaning secret or hidden, though it became associated with esoteric knowledge and magic during the early modern period. Those who sought out new knowledge needed to frame their work within legitimate boundaries, and curiosity needed to be curtailed to avoid excessive intellectual inquiry. Printing enhanced the circulation of occult ideas, and contemporary writers such as Agrippa became representative of the early modern occult tradition as well as the more ancient sources such as the hermetic texts. Indeed, the critical history of the occult also bears out its varied role in the early modern period in terms of its extremes and indeterminate nature. Fascination with the secret and hidden provides perfect material for writers and scholars. Writers of the early modern period exploited the gap between legitimate knowledge and the perceived nefarious, illegitimate practices of individuals. The trope of the overreaching figure, encapsulated in Doctor Faustus, provided spectacle as well as a moral lesson, while the hidden qualities of words and signs added an extra dimension to any performance: would those hidden qualities be accidently unleashed by the actors? The theater played upon the occult as spectacle but was also prepared to parody it as figures such as John Dee are recognizably caricatured and referred to in plays of the period. Magi and powerful figures with knowledge of the occult also occupy prominent positions in prose and poetry. Like its theatrical counterpart, writers of printed works were also wary of the power of signs and written words to be harnessed by their readers. The debates around the occult are wide-ranging and encompassing of different beliefs and practices, from what 21st-century readers might recognize as scientific to the magical, beliefs and practices that were contemporaneously coded as legitimate and illegitimate.
International Justice
Authors: Hjorthen Fredrik Dybfest
Published: February 2022

International justice is about the principles of justice that set out what states may and must do in relation to other states and with respect to the people that inhabit them. Theories of international justice often assume that states are the most central agents for justice beyond the domestic realm. Even if the moral value of states is ultimately reducible to that of their inhabitants, states are the most central agents through which individuals act when it comes to international questions. Questions of international justice often involve one or more of the following justice concerns: distributive justice, rectificatory justice, and remedial justice. This is clearly seen in some of the most central topics of international justice, such as trade, climate change, colonialism, and war. International justice provides a framework for thinking about the rights and duties of states with respect to these topics.

The principles that set out the rights and duties of states with respect to these issues sometimes come into conflict. This raises a question whether it is better to treat topics in isolation or whether an integrated approach is preferable. Moreover, there is a question about the extent to which states are permitted to give greater weight to its own interests. Finally, there are questions about the extent to which principles of international justice should be action guiding—that is, to what extent they should take into account the feasibility constraints that state leaders face when making decisions.
The History of the Comoro Islands
Authors: Walker Iain
Published: February 2022

The Comoro Islands were first settled toward the middle of the 1st millennium ce by Arab or Austronesian traders and navigators and their African slaves. Strategically located in the southwestern Indian Ocean between Madagascar and the African mainland, the islands were well embedded in regional trading networks and served as an entrepôt for goods, particularly slaves, as well as producing livestock and foodstuffs for export. The islands continued to prosper following the arrival of Europeans in the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century, and developed a niche supplying ships, particularly those of the East India Company (EIC), on their way east. During the 19th century, however, shipping declined and the islands fell within the French sphere of influence. Cut off from their trading partners and suffering from a lackluster plantation economy, the islands stagnated, and were a neglected corner of the French colonial empire for much of the 20th century.

In 1975 the three westernmost islands attained independence, while the fourth, Mayotte, remained a French possession. The newly independent state was plagued by a string of coups d’état, lurching from one crisis to another as a socialist revolution that bankrupted the country was followed by a mercenary-led dictatorship aligned with South African interests. Toward the end of the 20th century, and despite (or perhaps because of) the restoration of democracy, the country fell apart: two of the three islands not only declared independence, but also called for recolonization by France. A new constitution in 2001 provided for a renewed, if fragile, stability founded on principles of equality between the islands and greater decentralization; but the economy remains weak, based on vanilla, spices and perfume oils, remittances, and foreign aid, while a steady flow of undocumented migrants to Mayotte continues to foment discontent on the latter island, a French department since 2011.
Sources for the History of the Copperbelt
Authors: Money Duncan
Published: February 2022

The Central African Copperbelt is among the most closely studied regions on the African continent and has been of enduring interest to successive generations of scholars. This mining region stretched out across the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and Zambia and was transformed by the onset of industrial mining in the early 20th century, which brought about rapid urbanization and wide-ranging social change. The type and location of some of the major available sources on the Copperbelt’s modern history vary widely and include those produced by the state, companies, international organizations, missionaries, and scholars, along with newspapers and photographs. Knowledge production about the region has been shaped by the mining industry and the state and this has consequences for the kinds of sources available about the past, which are primarily state and company archives.
Women in African Philosophy
Authors: Angelo Anaïs
Published: February 2022

Since the emergence of modern written African philosophy, African female and feminist philosophers have struggled for recognition. Writing from the margins in a field shaped by allegedly sexually neutral or universal philosophical concepts, they have argued that the lack of knowledge about women’s issues limits the development of African philosophy. Some female and feminist philosophers argue that the deprecation women philosophers experience in the field is connected to a much wider marginalization of women in African colonial and postcolonial societies. Conceptualizing a truly inclusive African feminist philosophy, these scholars call for further decolonization of African philosophy from Western philosophical canons. At the same time, they seek to reconnect philosophical questioning to various social, political, and economic issues, thereby reflecting on a wide spectrum of themes and often resorting to interdisciplinarity to give significance to their reasoning. African female and feminist philosophers explore women’s voices, ideas, and bodies not only to speak for and with women, but also to challenge the definition, purposes, and mission of African philosophy.
Women in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Authors: Toungara Jeanne Maddox
Published: February 2022

In the first two decades after independence, Ivoirian leadership had to confront the illusion of the miracle of economic development. Thriving agricultural production and cash crop exports led to misperceptions and unsubstantiated assessments of the economy. Two decades into the 21st century, attitudes toward women and their roles in developing economies have changed globally, forcing the leadership to deal with myths of women’s empowerment based on a couple of brief historical moments and take measures in the national interest to improve its deplorable ratings on gender equity. The international community’s demand for gender equity comes on the heels of a civil war that challenged Ivoirian leadership, inflicted physical and psychological damages on the population, and resulted in thousands of deaths. The nation’s inability to accept its responsibilities to women was intercepted by global demands for gender equity as reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, international protocols, and World Bank ratings that were taken into account for external financing. The Ivoirian state has included gender equality as a principle in the 2016 Constitution and family law reforms. The implementation of gender policies and gendered investments in education, healthcare, employment, agriculture, land reform, and security are needed to make progress toward women’s empowerment.
Trans-Atlantic Trade in African Captives, Enslaved Africans in the Americas, and the Industrial Revolution in England
Authors: Inikori Joseph
Published: February 2022

The Industrial Revolution in England has remained the most debated subject in economic history. The debate has moved in a circle—the growth of trade (the “commercial revolution”), especially overseas trade, occupied the center stage of explanations from the nineteenth century to World War II; the pendulum shifted to inward-looking explanations between 1950 and the mid-1980s; the circle was completed in the late 1980s, when overseas trade began to be the dominant causal factor, once again. There was hardly any room for the contribution of the trans-Atlantic trade in African captives and the enslavement of Africans in the Americas in inward-looking explanations. Once it was convincingly demonstrated that inward-looking explanations are not consistent with historical reality, the contribution of enslaved Africans in the Americas to the growth of the Atlantic economy and the central role of the latter in the Industrial Revolution became realistically demonstrable. However, more recently, a fascinating argument based on British high wages and cheap energy (coal) appears to bring in a variant of the inward-looking arguments of decades ago through the back door. Comparative study of the evidence from England’s counties makes it abundantly clear the counties where the Industrial Revolution occurred (Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, in particular) exploited their general poverty and initial low wages to capture the rapidly growing slave-based Atlantic economy (initially secured by British naval power and protected with mercantilist policies) at the expense of the erstwhile more developed southern counties, whose initial high wages may have worked against them. Cheap energy was not important in the eighteenth-century developments in the leading counties; its importance was to help sustain continuing growth in the nineteenth century.
Comparative Advantage in Contemporary Trade Models
Authors: Morrow Peter M.
Published: February 2022

Models of comparative advantage in international trade explain specialization using differences in autarky relative prices. This literature has traditionally focused on the Heckscher–Ohlin and Ricardian models. The former emphasizes differences in factor abundance across countries and in factor intensity across goods; the latter focuses on relative productivity differences across countries and goods. However, unrealistic assumptions and stark assumptions have hindered empirical assessment of these models. Contemporary models now allow researchers to overcome these hurdles. New models of Ricardian comparative advantage incorporate realistic geography and multiple countries. Similar advances have freed the Heckscher–Ohlin model from some of its theoretical straightjackets. In addition, researchers have started to provide microfoundations for the Ricardian model and to formalize how institutions and factor market distortions might generate patterns of comparative advantage. Trade economists have also started to think about magnitudes in a different way; that is, through general equilibrium counterfactual experiments.
Population Issues in Welfare Economics, Ethics, and Policy Evaluation
Authors: Kuruc Kevin , Budolfson Mark , Spears Dean
Published: February 2022

Nearly all large policy decisions influence not only the quality of life for existing individuals but also the number—and even identities—of yet-to-exist individuals. Accounting for these effects in a policy evaluation framework requires taking difficult stances on concepts such as the value of existence. These issues are at the heart of a literature that sits between welfare economics and philosophical population ethics. Despite the inherent challenges of these questions, this literature has produced theoretical insights and subsequent progress on variable-population welfare criteria. A surprisingly bounded set of coherent alternatives exists for practitioners once a set of uncontroversial axioms is adopted from the better-studied welfare criteria for cases where populations are assumed to be fixed. Although consensus has not yet been reached among these remaining alternatives, their recommendations often agree. The space has been sufficiently restricted and well explored that applications of the theoretical insights are possible and underway in earnest.

For reasons both theoretical and empirical, the applied literature studying optimal policy and its robustness to welfare criteria has documented a surprising degree of convergence between recommendations under quite different ethical stances on existence value. This convergence has appeared even in cases where population size itself is the choice variable. Although it may not always be the case that policy recommendations are invariant to population welfare criteria, tools have been developed that allow researchers to easily and transparently move between such criteria to study the robustness in their context of interest. The broader point is that the remaining theoretical uncertainties need not prevent population ethics from playing a role in policy evaluation—the tools are available for determining whether and which policies are broadly supported among a range of ethical views.
The Economic and Political Effects of Immigration: Evidence from the Age of Mass Migration
Authors: Tabellini Marco
Published: February 2022

Between 1850 and 1920, during the Age of Mass Migration, more than 30 million Europeans moved to the United States. European immigrants provided an ample supply of cheap labor as well as specific skills and know-how, contributing to American economic growth. These positive effects were not short-lived, but are still evident in the 21st century: areas of the United States that received more European immigrants during the Age of Mass Migration have higher income per capita, a more educated population, and lower poverty rates. Despite its economic benefits, immigration triggered hostile political reactions, which were driven by cultural differences between immigrants and natives, and culminated in the introduction of country-specific quotas. In contrast to the concerns prevailing at the time, European immigrants eventually assimilated. The process was facilitated by the inflow of 1.5 million African Americans who left the rural South to move to northern and western cities between 1915 and 1930. Black in-migration increased the salience of skin color, as opposed to that of religion and nativity, as a defining feature of in- and out-groups of the society. This reduced the perceived distance between native whites and European immigrants, thereby facilitating the integration of the latter. European immigrants also had long-lasting effects on American ideology. Parts of the country that hosted more immigrants during the Age of Mass Migration have a more liberal ideology and stronger preferences for redistribution well into the 21st century. This resulted from the transmission of political ideology from (more left-leaning) immigrants to natives.
Formation, Composition, and Evolution of the Earth’s Core
Authors: Nimmo Francis
Published: February 2022

The Earth’s core formed by multiple collisions with differentiated protoplanets. The Hf-W (hafnium-tungsten) isotopic system reveals that these collisions took place over a timescale of tens of megayears (Myr), in agreement with accretion simulations. The degree to which the iron and silicates re-equilibrated during each collision is uncertain and affects the apparent core age derived from tungsten isotopic measurements. Seismological data reveal that the core contains light elements in addition to Fe-Ni, and the outer core is more enriched in such elements than the inner core. Because O is excluded efficiently from solid iron, O is almost certainly an important constituent of the outer core. The identity of other elements is less certain, despite intensive measurements of their effects on seismic velocities, densities, and partitioning behavior at appropriate pressures and temperatures. Si and O are very likely present, with perhaps some S; C and H are less likely. Si and Mg may have exsolved over time, potentially helping to drive the geodynamo and producing a low-density layer at the top of the core. Radioactive elements (U, Th, K) are unlikely to be present in important concentrations. The cooling of the core is controlled by the mantle’s ability to extract heat. The geodynamo has existed for at least 3.5 gigayears (Gyr), placing a lower bound on the heat flow out of the core. Because the thermal conductivity of the core is uncertain by a factor of ~3, the lower bound on this heat flow is similarly uncertain. Once the inner core started to crystallize, additional sources of energy were available to power the geodynamo. Inner core crystallization likely started in the time range 0.5 to 2.0 Gyr Before Present (BP); paleomagnetic arguments have been advanced for inner core growth starting at several different epochs within this time range.
Megalithism and Territoriality in Eastern Adamawa Plateau
Authors: Zangato Etienne
Published: February 2022

The megaliths of the northwestern part of the Central African Republic consist of monuments built with numerous large knapped stones crested on a mound. They appear at the beginning of the first millennium cal bc underlining a socioeconomic change that needs to be better characterized. During the following millennia, the archaeological record attests to an intensification of the building of monuments, together with a diversification of their form and function. Appendages such as funeral chambers begin to appear at this stage. These features have led scholars to explore the relationship of these monuments in the social dynamics and symbolic systems of their communities. The emergence of megalithism in a society marks major shifts in their cultural, economic, and political development, as the scale of these works requires significant coordination of materials and resources. In the Eastern Adamawa Plateau, these massive stoneworks allow the excavation and pinpointing of the development iron metallurgy, the diversification of funerary practices, the political development of villages and of the centers of ceramic production.
Digital Resources: Latin American Independence
Authors: Chambers Sarah
Published: February 2022

Between 1808 and 1825, political movements and warfare resulted in independence for the colonies of Spain and Portugal in the Americas, except for Cuba and Puerto Rico. The bicentennials of those events accelerated the availability of digital resources about Latin American independence. Libraries, archives, museums, and other educational institutions have created websites and mounted digital exhibits that provide overviews of the history for the general public, students, and researchers in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Many of the same institutions are in the process of digitizing collections of primary sources from the period. Particularly abundant are open-access digital editions of newspapers and periodicals as well as other printed material from the early 19th century such as proclamations, edicts, speeches, broadsides, and constitutions. Some digitized archival manuscripts relevant to research on the independence period are also accessible online, especially from archives in Spain, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. Although the vast majority of primary sources have not been converted to digital formats, many archives and libraries do have digital finding aids and catalogs that can be consulted prior to research trips. Transcriptions of primary sources are also available online, some created specifically for web portals and others as digitized editions of earlier published document collections. The availability of digital resources on the history of independence varies by country, with more material for Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina while Central America, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay are underrepresented.
Spaniards and Spanish Music in the Mexican Movie Industry
Authors: Fraile Teresa
Published: February 2022

Throughout the 20th century, a constant exchange of artists and film coproductions took place between Spain and Mexico. Prominent names such as the Spaniard Luis Buñuel were linked to the history of the Mexican big screen, but there were also numerous producers, cameramen, and actors, among them Antonio Moreno, Jorge Mistral, and Armando Calvo, who, since the beginning of the 20th century, worked for the Mexican industry. At the same time, Mexican cinema reflected the reality of Spanish emigration, and several Mexican actors played Spanish characters, recreating stereotypes such as that of poor Spaniards in search of a fortune.

The presence of Spaniards was especially remarkable during the 1940s and 1950s when some Mexican films introduced Spanish musical genres (copla, flamenco) and included Spanish singers such as Paquita la de Ronda in the 1940s and Lola Flores and Carmen Sevilla in the 1950s. In addition, some 1960s films starred the Spanish twins Pili and Mili in the company of the Mexican singers Alberto Vazquez (Vestidas y alborotadas, 1968) or Enrique Guzmán (La princesa hippie, 1969). From then on, in the context of the construction of a progressively transnational cinema, many of these Mexican films continued to recreate stereotypes of the imaginary of Spain while contributing to the spread of Spanish musical genres such as the copla and the tonada andaluza.
John Stuart Mill: A Very Short Introduction
Authors: Claeys Gregory
Published: February 2022

John Stuart Mill: A Very Short Introduction surveys the life and key ideas of the influential writer John Stuart Mill. He is widely known as the leading philosopher, economist, and political theorist of Victorian Britain and is chiefly identified with the piece On Liberty (1859). This philosophical essay is considered the definitive statement of liberal attitudes and an important work of modern political thought. This VSI outlines the personal and wider philosophical background out of which Mill developed. It also covers the role of his childhood and marriage in his intellectual development, and explores his lasting impact on political philosophy.
6. Mill today
Authors: Claeys Gregory
Published: February 2022

‘Mill today’ refers to philosopher John Gray, who described John Stuart Mill as the paradigm liberal thinker and reviews Mill’s central achievement as a paradigm-breaking visionary who refused to let the prejudices of his age obstruct humanity’s progress towards a superior society. Mill considers maximizing both liberty and equality without each endangering the other as the greatest problem in modern politics. It is interesting that Mill is identified ‘paradigmatically’ with liberty today and became distinguished from other liberals by his philosophy on equality, encompassing feminism, socialism, and co-operation. Mill’s combination of liberty and equality was a unique and compelling achievement during his time.
4. Darwin and evolution
Authors: Dixon Thomas , Shapiro Adam R.
Published: February 2022

‘Darwin and evolution’ discusses the theory of biological evolution, the idea that living species descended from a common ancestor through a sequence of modification and natural selection. Though ideas about evolution pre-date the 19th century, this theory is most commonly associated with English naturalist Charles Darwin and his 1859 book The Origin of Species. The publication of the Origin and the publicity of Darwin’s ideas prompted a diversity of theological responses, ranging from rejection on biblical grounds to belief that evolution demonstrated a greater and more powerful vision of a Creator. Religious responses to ‘Darwinism’, or to subsequent theories of evolution that became refined over the 20th and 21st centuries, were often deeply influenced by political and cultural events. From debates over compulsory education and immigration during the 1920s, when an American schoolteacher was put on trial for teaching evolution, to the use of evolutionary theories about race and intelligence used to justify colonialism and other social policies, the theory of evolution has never been far from controversy. Religious communities have responded to evolution in many ways over the past 250 years, and continuing today.
5. Mind, brain, and morality
Authors: Dixon Thomas , Shapiro Adam R.
Published: February 2022

‘Mind, brain, and morality’ examines how beliefs about the soul and an afterlife have been challenged and reshaped by modern science and medicine. Neuroscience has offered new ways to think about the relationship between mind and brain, and about how spiritual experiences might be explained neurologically. In the moral realm, traditional religious ideas about good and evil, heaven and hell, have come into conversation with evolutionary theories about the origins of altruism and selfishness. Science and medicine also provide us with frightening new visions of the future which policy-makers and political leaders use to try to persuade us to repent and change our ways before it is too late, in a way which can echo prophetic religious warnings in the past. Looking to the future, there is every reason to believe that science and religion will both continue to flourish, to enlighten, to inspire; as well as to frustrate, to obfuscate, and to oppress.
A Bayesian Spatiotemporal Nowcasting Model for Public Health Decision-Making and Surveillance
Authors: Kline David , Hyder Ayaz , Liu Enhao , Rayo Michael , Malloy Samuel , Root Elisabeth
Published: February 2022

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread through the United States in 2020, states began to set up alert systems to inform policy decisions and serve as risk communication tools for the general public. Many of these systems included indicators based on an assessment of trends in numbers of reported cases. However, when cases are indexed by date of disease onset, reporting delays complicate the interpretation of trends. Despite a foundation of statistical literature with which to address this problem, these methods have not been widely applied in practice. In this paper, we develop a Bayesian spatiotemporal nowcasting model for assessing trends in county-level COVID-19 cases in Ohio. We compare the performance of our model with the approach used in Ohio and the approach included in decision support materials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We demonstrate gains in performance while still retaining interpretability using our model. In addition, we are able to fully account for uncertainty in both the time series of cases and the reporting process. While we cannot eliminate all of the uncertainty in public health surveillance and subsequent decision-making, we must use approaches that embrace these challenges and deliver more accurate and honest assessments to policy-makers.
CobraMod: a pathway-centric curation tool for constraint-based metabolic models
Authors: Camborda Stefano , Weder Jan-Niklas , Töpfer Nadine
Published: February 2022

COnstraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis of genome-scale metabolic models has become a widely used tool to understand metabolic network behavior at a large scale. However, existing reconstruction tools lack functionalities to address modellers' common objective to study metabolic networks on the pathway level. Thus, we developed CobraMod—a Python package for pathway-centric modification and extension of genome-scale metabolic networks. CobraMod can integrate data from various metabolic pathway databases as well as user-curated information. Our tool tests newly added metabolites, reactions and pathways against multiple curation criteria, suggests manual curation steps and provides the user with records of changes to ensure high quality metabolic reconstructions. CobraMod uses the visualization tool Escher for pathway representation and offers simple customization options for comparison of pathways and flux distributions. Our package enables coherent and reproducible workflows as it can be seamlessly integrated with COBRApy and Escher.

Availability and implementation

The source code can be found at https://github.com/Toepfer-Lab/cobramod/ and can be installed with pip. The documentation including tutorials is available at https://cobramod.readthedocs.io/.
Ventricular assist devices in transposition and failing systemic right ventricle: role of tricuspid valve replacement
Authors: Gonzalez-Fernandez Oscar , De Rita Fabrizio , Coats Louise , Crossland David , Nassar Mohamed S , Hermuzi Antony , Santos Lopes Bruno , Woods Andrew , Robinson-Smith Nicola , Petit Thibault , Seller Neil , O’Sullivan John , McDiarmid Adam , Schueler Stephan , Hasan Asif , MacGowan Guy , Jansen Katrijn
Published: February 2022

OBJECTIVES

Ventricular assist device (VAD) for systemic right ventricular (RV) failure patients post-atrial switch, for transposition of the great arteries (TGA), and those with congenitally corrected TGA has proven useful to reduce transpulmonary gradient and bridge-to-transplantation. The purpose of this study is to describe our experience of VAD in systemic RV failure and our move towards concomitant tricuspid valve replacement (TVR).

METHODS

This is a single-centre retrospective study of consecutive adult patients receiving HeartWare VAD for systemic RV failure between 2010 and 2019. From 2017, concomitant TVR was performed routinely. Demographic, clinical variables and echocardiographic and haemodynamic measurements pre- and post-VAD implantation were recorded. Complications on support, heart transplantation and survival rates were described.

RESULTS

Eighteen patients underwent VAD implantation. Moderate or severe systemic tricuspid regurgitation was present in 83.3% of patients, and subpulmonic left ventricular impairment in 88.9%. One-year survival was 72.2%. VAD implantation was technically feasible and successful in all but one. Post-VAD, transpulmonary gradient fell from 16 (15–22) to 10 (7–13) mmHg (P = 0.01). Patients with TVR (n = 6) also demonstrated a reduction in mean pulmonary and wedge pressures. Furthermore, subpulmonic left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (44.3 vs 39.6 mm; P = 0.03) and function improved in this group. After 1 year of support, 72.2% of patients were suitable for transplantation.

CONCLUSIONS

VAD is an effective strategy as bridge-to-candidacy and bridge-to-transplantation in patients with end-stage systemic RV failure. Concomitant TVR at the time of implant is associated with better early haemodynamic and echocardiographic results post-VAD.
Screening for potential mycoherbicides within the endophyte community of Phelipanche ramosa parasitizing tobacco
Authors: Gibot-Leclerc Stéphanie , Guinchard Lucie , Edel-Hermann Véronique , Dessaint Fabrice , Cartry Dïnia , Reibel Carole , Gautheron Nadine , Bernaud Eric , Steinberg Christian
Published: February 2022

Branched broomrape (Phelipanche ramosa (L.) Pomel) is an achlorophyllous root parasitic plant with a wide host range. Its complex management is leading to the abandonment of tobacco or oilseed rape cultivation in the most affected regions in France. Among broomrape regulation factors, soil microorganisms such as fungi seem to be a relevant biocontrol lever. The aim of this work was to detect potential mycoherbicides among fungal endophytic colonizers of P. ramosa parasitizing tobacco. Our hypothesis was that both the inhibitory of broomrape seed germination and the necrotic activities are characteristic of the fungal isolates whatever their taxonomic position. To test this hypothesis, we analysed the taxonomic and functional diversity of fungal isolates of symptomatic P. ramosa collected from infested tobacco-growing regions in France in order to identify one or more fungal strains for future biocontrol. The fungal isolates were characterized using morphological and molecular identification tools and tested for their ability to inhibit the germination of P. ramosa seeds, their necrotic activity on the stems of the pest and their non-pathogenicity to the host plant. We highlighted the specific richness of fungal colonizers associated with symptomatic P. ramosa. Among the 374 collected isolates, nearly 80% belonged to 19 Fusarium species. Eighty-seven isolates representative of this diversity also showed functional diversity by inhibiting seed germination of the parasite. The 20 best-performing isolates showed differences in germination inhibition of P. ramosa at the intraspecific level. Among these 20 fungal isolates, a set of 15 randomly selected isolates was tested for their necrotic activity on the parasite stems. Fusarium venenatum isolates showed dual competence, i.e. germination inhibition and necrotic activity, and were non-pathogenic to tobacco. This led us to discuss the potential mycoherbicidal effect of this fungal species on P. ramosa.
Eliciting critical hope in community-based HIV research with transgender women in Toronto, Canada: methodological insights
Authors: Logie Carmen H , Kinitz David J , Gittings Lesley , Persad Yasmeen , Lacombe-Duncan Ashley , Poteat Tonia
Published: February 2022

Critical hope centres optimism and possibilities for change in the midst of struggles for social justice. It was a central tenet of early participatory pedagogy and HIV research. However, critical hope has been overlooked in contemporary HIV research that largely focuses on risk and biomedical interventions in ways that obscure collective agency and community strengths. We conducted a community-based study with transgender (trans) women of colour in Toronto, Canada to adapt an evidence-based HIV prevention intervention. Participants resisted a focus on HIV, instead calling researchers to centre journeys to self-love in contexts of social exclusion. In response, we piloted three arts-based, participatory methods generated with community collaborators: (i) affirmation cards sharing supportive messages with other trans women, (ii) hand-held mirrors for reflecting and sharing messages of self-acceptance and (iii) anatomical heart images to visualize coping strategies. Participants generated solidarity and community through shared stories of self-acceptance within contexts of pain, exclusion and loss. Narratives revealed locating agency and self-acceptance through community connectedness. Critical hope was a by-product of this participatory process, whereby participants shared personal and collective optimism. Participatory and arts-based methods that centre self-acceptance and solidarity can nurture resistance to pathologizing discourses in HIV research. Centring critical hope and participant-generated methodologies is a promising approach to transformative health promotion and intervention research. These methodological insights can be engaged in future participatory work with other marginalized groups facing dominant biomedical risk discourses. Critical hope holds potential as a participatory health promotion strategy for envisioning possibilities for sustainable change.
Strings of Memory: Memory Transfer and Moral Accountability through Strings in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated
Authors: Carroll Anna
Published: February 2022

This essay explores the unavoidable transfer of ethical accountability to Holocaust perpetrator descendants, as seen in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated. Building upon Maurice Halbwachs’s theory of collective memory and Marianne Hirsch’s theory of postmemory, this essay hypothesizes that Foer uses physical, metaphorical, and structural strings to transfer memories across generations and transmit repercussions such as judgment, guilt, and accountability to perpetrator descendants, a group frequently neglected in Holocaust research. This analysis expands the current scholarly conversation regarding post-Holocaust moral responsibility and demonstrates its transmission to later generations.
‘People are fed up; don’t mess with them.’ Non-quantificational Arguments and Polarity Reversals
Authors: Chierchia Gennaro
Published: February 2022

The first sentence in the title means roughly: All the people around are tired. The second means: Do not mess with any of them. Even though the second sentence looks just like a negative counterpart of the first, it doesn’t have the expected compositional meaning: it doesn’t mean “do not mess with all the people”. This phenomenon is extremely general. It takes place with Bare Plurals, as in the title. It figures prominently in the behavior of Plural Definites (I spoke to the students in trouble ≅ ∀/I didn’t speak to the students in trouble ≅ ¬∃). It also takes place with Donkey pronouns (Every farmer who had a donkey sold it ≅ ∀/No man who had a donkey sold it ≅ ¬∃). These switches of quantificational force under polarity reversals call to mind Free Choice phenomena. In particular, a determiner like any is interpreted as a narrow scope existential in a sentence like I didn’t talk to any student in trouble ≅ ¬ ∃; however, in positive environments, the existential meaning of any emerges as strengthened to universal I spoke to any student in trouble ≅ ∀. It is tempting to conjecture that the source of this uniform behavior is a uniform mechanism. While these constructions (Free Choice any, Bare Plurals, Plural Definites, and Donkey pronouns) have been studied extensively, and insightful approaches to Plural Definites in terms of Free Choice mechanisms have also been proposed (Bar Lev 2018, 2021), a unitary analysis has not been attempted to the best of my knowledge. In spite of the many challenges that a unified analysis faces, it is worth a try, for, if successful, it would considerably push forward our understanding of a wide range of very diverse constructions.
A new option for laparoscopic spleen-preserving distal pancreatectomy: three cases with splenic artery preservation and resection of the splenic vein
Authors: Okuno Masataka , Shimizu Yasuhiro , Senda Yoshiki , Natsume Seiji , Kawakatsu Shoji , Ito Seiji , Komori Koji , Abe Tetsuya , Misawa Kazunari , Ito Yuichi , Kinoshita Takashi , Higaki Eiji , Fujieda Hironori , Sato Yusuke , Ouchi Akira , Nagino Masato , Hara Kazuo
Published: February 2022

There are two techniques for a spleen-preserving distal pancreatectomy (SPDP): SPDP with splenic vessel preservation, and SPDP with splenic vessel resection. In some cases, although the splenic artery (SpA) can be preserved, the splenic vein (SpV) must be resected. We report the short- and long-term outcomes of three patients who underwent a new technique of laparoscopic SPDP with SpA preservation and SpV resection (SPDP-VRes). A grade B pancreatic fistula, which occurred in two patients, was successfully treated with drainage tube management. In all cases, the omental branches of the left gastroepiploic vein functioned as a drainage vein, and there was no splenomegaly, thrombocytopenia, or varix formation during the follow-up period (19 months to 5 years). Patients undergoing laparoscopic SPDP-VRes had no severe complications during the follow-up period; preserving the left omental branch is a key to this procedure. Laparoscopic SPDP-VRes might be a useful treatment option for patients undergoing SPDP.