bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rapid progression of CD8 and CD4 T cells to cellular exhaustion and senescence during SARS-CoV2 infection
Authors: Pedroso Rodrigo Balsinha , Torres Lícia , Ventura Lucas Araújo , Camatta Giovanna Caliman , Mota Catarina , Mendes Ana Catarina , Ribeiro Filipa , Guimarães Henrique Cerqueira , Barbuto Rafael Calvão , Caixeta Felipe , Nascimento Leandro Souza , Oliveira Mariana Almeida , Martins Vinícius Dantas , Silveira-Nunes Gabriela , Tupinambás Unaí , Teixeira-Carvalho Andrea , Graça Luis , Faria Ana Maria Caetano
Published: September 2024

Risk factors for the development of severe COVID-19 include several comorbidities, but age was the most striking one since elderly people were disproportionately affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among the reasons for this markedly unfavorable response in the elderly, immunosenescence and inflammaging appear as major drivers of this outcome. A finding that was also notable was that hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 have an accumulation of senescent T cells, suggesting that immunosenescence may be aggravated by SARS-CoV-2 infection. The present work was designed to examine whether these immunosenescence changes are characteristic of COVID-19 and whether it is dependent on disease severity using cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Our cross-sectional data show that COVID-19, but not other respiratory infections, rapidly increased cellular senescence and exhaustion in CD4 and CD8 T cells during early infection. In addition, longitudinal analyses with patients from Brazil and Portugal provided evidence of increased frequencies of senescent and exhausted T cells over a 7-d period in patients with mild/moderate and severe COVID-19. Altogether, the study suggests that accelerated immunosenescence in CD4 and especially CD8 T-cell compartments may represent a common and unique outcome of SARS-CoV2 infection.
Strength of evidence underlying the CMS-FDA parallel review of comprehensive genomic profiling tests in the cancer setting
Authors: Stackland Sydnie , Schnabel Dominic , Dinan Michaela A , Presley Carolyn J , Gross Cary P
Published: September 2024

Background

Although use of comprehensive genomic profiling was approved by a novel Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services–US Food and Drug Administration parallel review process, the quality of the supporting evidence is unclear. We evaluated the rigor of the peer-reviewed literature cited in the National Coverage Determination Memorandum for the FoundationOneCDx (Foundation Medicine, Inc, Cambridge, MA).

Methods

We identified studies cited in the memorandum. Two independent researchers evaluated each study and applied a modified version of the Fryback and Thornbury hierarchy, an established framework for evaluating the efficacy of diagnostic tests. Studies focused on clinical outcomes were then categorized by study design, guided by recommendations from the Center for Medical Technology Policy.

Results

The sample included 113 scientific studies. The majority (60/113 [53.1%]) used comprehensive genomic profiling outside the course of clinical care, and there was substantive heterogeneity in the cancer types assessed and the sequencing depth. We found 8 (7.1%) studies that assessed whether clinical care had changed due to comprehensive genomic profiling testing, and 38 (33.6%) assessed clinical outcomes. After excluding studies that tested for 5 or fewer genomic alterations, 25 remained in the clinical outcomes sample: Of these, only 1 included a comparator group that did not receive comprehensive genomic profiling testing. Only 4 studies used FoundationOneCDx as the primary genomic test, none of which compared the outcomes of patients who did vs did not receive the test.

Conclusions

The findings indicate gaps in the supporting evidence for broad comprehensive genomic profiling use in patients with solid tumors. More rigorous studies that assess clinical utility would better inform the approval process for novel diagnostic tests.
Fast stomatal kinetics in sorghum enable tight coordination with photosynthetic responses to dynamic light intensity and safeguard high water use efficiency
Authors: Battle Martin W , Vialet-Chabrand Silvere , Kasznicki Piotr , Simkin Andrew J , Lawson Tracy
Published: September 2024

In this study, we assessed 43 accessions of sorghum from 16 countries across three continents. Our objective was to identify stomatal and photosynthetic traits that could be exploited in breeding programmes to increase photosynthesis without increasing water use under dynamic light environments. Under field conditions, sorghum crops often have limited water availability and are exposed to rapidly fluctuating light intensities, which influences both photosynthesis and stomatal behaviour. Our results highlight a tight coupling between photosynthetic rate (A) and stomatal conductance (gs) even under dynamic light conditions that results in steady intrinsic water use efficiency (Wi). This was mainly due to rapid stomatal responses, with the majority of sorghum accessions responding within ≤5 min. The maintenance of the ratio of the concentration of CO2 inside the leaf (Ci) and the surrounding atmospheric concentration (Ca) over a large range of accessions suggests high stomatal sensitivity to changes in Ci, that could underlie the rapid gs responses and extremely close relationship between A and gs under both dynamic and steady-state conditions. Therefore, sorghum represents a prime candidate for uncovering the elusive mechanisms that coordinate A and gs, and such information could be used to design crops with high A without incurring significant water losses and eroding Wi.
How Cryo-EM Revolutionized the Field of Bioenergetics
Authors: Sottatipreedawong Muratha , Kazmi Ahad Ali , Vercellino Irene
Published: September 2024

Ten years ago, the term “resolution revolution” was used for the first time to describe how cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) marked the beginning of a new era in the field of structural biology, enabling the investigation of previously unsolvable protein targets. The success of cryo-EM was recognized with the 2017 Chemistry Nobel Prize and has become a widely used method for the structural characterization of biological macromolecules, quickly catching up to x-ray crystallography. Bioenergetics is the division of biochemistry that studies the mechanisms of energy conversion in living organisms, strongly focused on the molecular machines (enzymes) that carry out these processes in cells. As bioenergetic enzymes can be arranged in complexes characterized by conformational heterogeneity/flexibility, they represent challenging targets for structural investigation by crystallography. Over the last decade, cryo-EM has therefore become a powerful tool to investigate the structure and function of bioenergetic complexes; here, we provide an overview of the main achievements enabled by the technique. We first summarize the features of cryo-EM and compare them to x-ray crystallography, and then, we present the exciting discoveries brought about by cryo-EM, particularly but not exclusively focusing on the oxidative phosphorylation system, which is a crucial energy-converting mechanism in humans.
Imaging fermionic dark matter cores at the centre of galaxies
Authors: Pelle J , Argüelles C R , Vieyro F L , Crespi V , Millauro C , Mestre M F , Reula O , Carrasco F
Published: September 2024

Current images of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) candidates at the centre of our Galaxy and M87 have opened an unprecedented era for studying strong gravity and the nature of relativistic sources. Very-long-baseline interferometry data show images consistent with a central SMBH within General Relativity (GR). However, it is essential to consider whether other well-motivated dark compact objects within GR could produce similar images. Recent studies have shown that dark matter (DM) haloes modelled as self-gravitating systems of neutral fermions can harbour very dense fermionic cores at their centres, which can mimic the space–time features of a black hole (BH). Such dense, horizonless DM cores can satisfy the observational constraints: they can be supermassive and compact and lack a hard surface. We investigate whether such cores can produce similar observational signatures to those of BHs when illuminated by an accretion disc. We compute images and spectra of the fermion cores with a general-relativistic ray tracing technique, assuming the radiation originates from standard $\alpha$ discs, which are self-consistently solved within the current DM framework. Our simulated images possess a central brightness depression surrounded by a ring-like feature, resembling what is expected in the BH scenario. For Milky Way-like haloes, the central brightness depressions have diameters down to ${\sim} 35\, \mu \text{as}$ as measured from a distance of approximately $8\,$ kpc. Finally, we show that the DM cores do not possess photon rings, a key difference from the BH paradigm, which could help discriminate between the models.
The thesan project: galaxy sizes during the epoch of reionization
Authors: Shen Xuejian , Vogelsberger Mark , Borrow Josh , Hu Yongao , Erickson Evan , Kannan Rahul , Smith Aaron , Garaldi Enrico , Hernquist Lars , Morishita Takahiro , Tacchella Sandro , Zier Oliver , Sun Guochao , Eilers Anna-Christina , Wang Hui
Published: September 2024

We investigate galaxy sizes at redshift $z\gtrsim 6$ with the cosmological radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulation suite thesan(-hr). These simulations simultaneously capture reionization of the large-scale intergalactic medium and resolved galaxy properties. The intrinsic sizes ($r^{\ast }_{1/2}$) of simulated galaxies increase moderately with stellar mass at $M_{\ast } \lesssim 10^{8}{\, \rm M_\odot}$ and decrease fast at larger masses, resulting in a hump feature at $M_{\ast }\sim 10^{8}{\, \rm M_\odot}$ that is insensitive to redshift. Low-mass galaxies are in the initial phase of size growth and are better described by a spherical shell model with feedback-driven outflows competing with the cold inflowing gas streams. In contrast, massive galaxies fit better with the disc formation model. They generally experience a phase of rapid compaction and gas depletion, likely driven by internal disc instability rather than external processes. We identify four compact quenched galaxies in the $(95.5\, {\rm cMpc})^{3}$ volume of thesan-1 at $z\simeq 6$ and their quenching follows reaching a characteristic stellar surface density akin to the massive compact galaxies at cosmic noon. Compared to observations, we find that the median ultraviolet effective radius ($R^{\rm UV}_{\rm eff}$) of simulated galaxies is at least three times larger than the observed ones at $M_{\ast }\lesssim 10^{9}{\, \rm M_\odot}$ or $M_{\rm UV}\gtrsim -20$ at $6 \lesssim z \lesssim 10$. The population of compact galaxies ($R^{\rm UV}_{\rm eff}\lesssim 300\, {\rm pc}$) galaxies at $M_{\ast }\sim 10^{8}{\, \rm M_\odot}$ is missing in our simulations. This inconsistency persists across many other cosmological simulations with different galaxy formation models and demonstrates the potential of using galaxy morphology to constrain physics of galaxy formation at high redshifts.
Low surface brightness dwarf galaxies and their globular cluster populations around the low-density environment of our closest S0 NGC 3115
Authors: Canossa-Gosteinski Marco A , Chies-Santos Ana L , Furlanetto Cristina , Bonatto Charles J , Flores-Freitas Rodrigo , Schoenell William , Beasley Michael A , Overzier Roderik , Santiago Basilio X , Pieres Adriano , Zanatta Emílio J B , Alamo-Martinez Karla A , Balbinot Eduardo , Queiroz Anna B A , Alves-Brito Alan
Published: September 2024

Understanding faint dwarf galaxies is fundamental to the development of a robust theory of galaxy formation on small scales. Since the discovery of a population of ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs) rich in globular clusters (GCs) in Coma, an increasing number of studies on low surface brightness dwarf galaxies (LSBds) have been published in recent years. The most massive LSBds have been observed predominantly in groups and clusters, with properties displaying dependence on the environment. In this work, we use deep DECam imaging to systematically identify LSBds and their GC populations around the low-density environment of NGC 3115. We carefully analyse the structure and morphology of 24 candidates, 18 of which are reported for the first time. Most candidates exhibit red colours suggesting a connection between their colour and distance to NGC 3115. We followed up with Gemini GMOS imaging 9 LSBds to properly identify their GC populations. We derive lower limits for the number of GCs associated with each galaxy. Our analysis reveals that they occur around of the same loci of Fornax LSB dwarf GC systems. The relationship between the number of GCs and total mass provides a tool in which, by counting the GCs in these galaxies, we estimate an upper limit for the total mass of these LSB dwarfs, obtaining the mean value of $\sim 3.3\times 10^{10}$ M$_{\odot }$. Our results align with expectations for dwarf-sized galaxies, particularly regarding the distribution and specific frequency of their GC systems.
Periodicity search in the timing of the 25 millisecond pulsars from the second data release of the European Pulsar Timing Array
Authors: Niţu Iuliana C , Keith Michael J , Champion David J , Cognard Ismaël , Desvignes Gregory , Guillemot Lucas , Guo Yanjun , Hu Huanchen , Jang Jiwoong , Jawor Jedrzej , Karuppusamy Ramesh , Keane Evan F , Kramer Michael , Lackeos Kristen , Liu Kuo , Main Robert A , Perrodin Delphine , Porayko Nataliya K , Shaifullah Golam M , Theureau Gilles
Published: September 2024

In this work, we investigated the presence of strictly periodic, as well as quasi-periodic signals, in the timing of the 25 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) from the European Pulsar Timing Array Second Data Release data set. This is especially interesting in the context of the recent hints of a gravitational wave background in these data, and the necessary further study of red noise timing processes, which are known to behave quasi-periodically in some normal pulsars. We used Bayesian timing models developed through the run_enterprise pipeline: a strict periodicity was modelled as the influence of a planetary companion on the pulsar, while a quasi-periodicity was represented as a Fourier-domain Gaussian process. We found that neither model would clearly improve the timing models of the 25 MSPs in this data set. This implies that noise and parameter estimates are unlikely to be biased by the presence of a (quasi-)periodicity in the timing data. Nevertheless, the results for PSRs J1744−1134 and J1012$+$5307 suggest that the standard noise models for these pulsars may not be sufficient. We also measure upper limits for the projected masses of planetary companions around each of the 25 pulsars. The data of PSR J1909−3744 yielded the best mass limits, such that we constrained the 95 percentile to $\sim \! 2 \times 10^{-4}\, \mathrm{M}_{\oplus }$ (roughly the mass of the dwarf planet Ceres) for orbital periods between 5 d and 17 yr. These are the best pulsar planet-mass limits to date.
The Relative Reinforcing Value of Menthol Among Young Adult Cigarette Smokers: Results From a Behavioral Choice Task
Authors: Cohn Amy M , Elmasry Hoda , Ashare Rebecca , Pickworth Wallace , Murphy James G , Villanti Andrea C , Hedeker Donald , Dunn Delaney , Wyatt Riley , Niznik Taylor , Margaritis Whitney D , Smith Michael A , Ehlke Sarah J , Audrain-McGovern Janet
Published: September 2024

Introduction

Menthol cigarettes are associated with experimentation and progression to regular use. Although reinforcement processes likely underlie menthol’s appeal, the reinforcing value of menthol cigarettes remains unknown.

Aims and Methods

This study examined the relative reinforcing value (RRV) of menthol versus nonmenthol cigarettes in young adult menthol (n = 54) and nonmenthol (n = 53) smokers, and differences in menthol’s RRV by race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Overnight abstinent participants completed a choice task assessing willingness to “work” to click targets on a computer screen to earn menthol or nonmenthol cigarette puffs. A progressive ratio schedule was used where the menthol target had to be clicked progressively more times, over 10 trials, to earn a menthol cigarette puff, while clicks for the nonmenthol target were fixed across trials. RRV for menthol was defined by the breakpoint, or the highest trial (out of to 10) completed for a menthol cigarette puff. Number of clicks for menthol and nonmenthol puffs were also examined.

Results

Menthol smokers worked harder for menthol versus nonmenthol cigarette puffs (breakpoint = 9.17; ~1236 clicks vs. 24 clicks). Breakpoint was higher among Hispanic (6.49) versus NH White (4.83) and NH non-White smokers (4.43). In exploratory analyses of interactions of menthol preference with race and ethnicity, nonmenthol Hispanic smokers worked harder for menthol cigarette puffs versus NH non-White and NH White nonmenthol smokers.

Conclusions

Menthol cigarettes are highly reinforcing for young adult menthol and Hispanic smokers. A menthol ban may reduce addiction risk among younger individuals and some minoritized groups of smokers.

Implications

This study provides evidence of the greater relative reinforcing value of menthol compared to nonmenthol cigarettes among young adults who had a cigarette flavor preference, suggesting increased addiction risk of menthol cigarettes. Young adult menthol smokers and Hispanic (vs. non-Hispanic) smokers worked harder to earn menthol (vs. nonmenthol) cigarette puffs. Findings add to the evidence base supporting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) intent to ban menthol in cigarettes. Further, prevention messaging campaigns and cessation programs should take into account the reinforcing value of menthol in cigarettes, especially in vulnerable and at-risk populations.
Michaēl Damaskēnos and the Poetics of Difference
Authors: Barber Charles
Published: September 2024

At the end of his career, Michaēl Damaskēnos painted a series of six panels. These are conceptually and formally complex, and they offer a remarkable and inventive response to the colonial culture of Venetian Crete. They present a quite distinct yet open vision of some key Christian theological concepts and their liturgical manifestations. Notably, Damaskēnos did not seek to unify the disparate iconographic and stylistic traits he employed in his paintings. Rather, in leaving them unresolved, he opens these images to two, if not three, separate audiences: Latin Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, and the Uniates who tried to bridge these communities. Damaskēnos’s great achievement was to allow his works to appear familiar to each of these groups.
Time Foreseen
Authors: Barber Charles
Published: September 2024

Confronted by the plague and the imminent capture of Crete by the Ottomans, Geōrgios Klontzas created a remarkable manuscript that wove together multiple visual and verbal sources into a coherent text that promised its reader that a restored Christian empire would imminently arise and defeat the Ottomans, preparing the world for the Second Coming. The manuscript speaks to broad social, visual, and intellectual issues within Crete’s Renaissance colonial society. The history that Klontzas writes is one framed by apocalyptic and oracular texts, thereby adding a conception of divine time to the experience of human time.
Sex Differences in the Risk for Substance Use Disorders and Compulsive Overeating
Authors: Davis Caroline A. , Bonder Revi
Published: September 2024

This chapter provides an overview of sex-related differences in the risk for, and progression of, addictive behaviors—particularly those related to substance use disorders and compulsive overeating. There is also discussion of hormonal mechanisms that appear to regulate these differences. Overall, there is substantial and convincing evidence of sex-related parallels between the risks for substance use disorders and compulsive overeating. With only a relatively small proportion of studies using sex as a possible moderator variable in biomedical research, this chapter highlights the need to focus on sex differences in the field of addiction research.
Food Addiction and Comorbidity
Authors: Brewerton Timothy D.
Published: September 2024

The association between food addiction (FA) and several comorbid psychiatric and non-psychiatric medical conditions is briefly reviewed. These include eating disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance-related and addictive disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, autism spectrum disorders, personality disorders, and non-psychiatric disorders, particularly those associated with obesity. The importance of comorbidities for the assessment, etiology, and treatment of FA is emphasized. Given that effective integrated treatments are emerging for the treatment of conditions with multiple interrelated comorbidities, treatments for FA would do well to simultaneously target a wide-ranging variety of co-occurring disorders and their symptoms.
Interactions between Alcohol Use, Eating Behaviors, and Weight
Authors: Cummings Jenna R.
Published: September 2024

Research at the intersection of alcohol use and eating behaviors, particularly reward-related and addictive-like eating of highly processed foods (e.g., chocolate, pizza), has improved scientific knowledge on the etiology and modification of these behaviors. This chapter briefly reviews the scientific literature on (a) shared risk factors for alcohol use and eating behaviors, (b) co-occurrence of the behaviors, (c) bidirectional relations between the behaviors, and (d) implications for behavior change, providing suggestions for future research throughout. While alcohol use and eating behaviors may have shared risk factors and co-occur, the bidirectional influences of one behavior on the other are complex. Future research should determine the efficacy of interventions that target alcohol use and eating behaviors simultaneously versus independently, and that are behavior-general versus behavior-specific.
Endocannabinoid Signaling and Food Addiction
Authors: Bassir Nia Anahita , D’souza Deepak Cyril
Published: September 2024

Cannabis is well-known for its stimulating effects on appetite. Anecdotal reports suggest that cannabis induces hunger and increases food consumption, especially sweet and high-fat foods, a phenomenon commonly referred to as the “munchies.” Accumulating evidence from preclinical and clinical studies confirm that exocannabinoids (e.g., cannabis and its principal active constituent tetrahydrocannabinol [THC]) stimulate appetite. There are also converging lines of evidence that the endogenous cannabinoid (endocannabinoid, eCB) system plays a central role in homeostatic and hedonic aspects of food intake.1 Therefore, the potential role of the eCB system in food addiction has attracted great attention. Here, we provide a brief introduction to the eCB system in relation to food reward processing and review the current evidence on the eCB alterations in food addiction and related psychopathologies.
An Investigation of Brain-Gut-Microbiome Interactions in Food Addiction and Obesity
Authors: Sood Riya , Ravichandran Soumya , Gupta Arpana
Published: September 2024

Altered ingestive behaviors such as food addiction (i.e., compulsive consumption of highly palatable foods primarily for pleasure, beyond the homeostatic needs) are strong drivers for increased obesity rates, especially with limited effective treatments and prevention strategies currently available. We describe the underlying mechanisms associated with food addiction via the influence of environmental factors on the bidirectional interactions between the brain-gut microbiome (BGM) system. We highlight how signals from the brain modulate gut homeostasis, control secretion of hormones, influence gut microbiota composition, as well as how the gut microbiome influences brain functions by modulating the levels of various neurotransmitters (e.g., serotonin) that are closely linked to mood, food intake, and impulse control. We go into depth describing how food addiction is based on the tight regulation between the homeostatic pathway and the hedonic or reward-based pathway within the BGM system. We also attempt to explain how environmental factors such as psychosocial stressors, food, and diet can perpetuate maladaptive changes at all levels of the BGM, disrupting the intricate balance between homeostatic and hedonic regulatory mechanisms of food intake. We also summarize how these factors are associated with future opportunities for research, nutrition education, and development of new targeted therapeutic strategies. We provide examples of some of the current therapies targeting the BGM system related to impacting food addiction and obesity.
Epigenetics of Addiction and Eating Disorders
Authors: Hayek Samer El , Eid Mario , Cherro Michele , Gold Mark S. , Bizri Maya , Kobeissy Firas H.
Published: September 2024

The role of epigenetics in psychiatric disorders has been a major scientific focus in recent years. There is convincing evidence that various epigenetic mechanisms mediate the development and evolution of different psychiatric disorders, including substance use and eating disorders. These epigenetic processes include DNA methylation, histone modifications, and microRNA-mediated gene regulatory changes. The interaction between genomic DNA elements, epigenetic modifiers, and environmental factors determines the expression state of genes. This subsequently impacts the individual’s phenotype and expression of illness. This article gives a particular overview of epigenetic changes associated with drug use and eating disorders. Further understanding of the impact of epigenetic changes on the evolution of illness in addiction and disordered eating habits could lead to novel treatment avenues.
Hormones, Hunger, and Food and Addiction
Authors: Sun Guang , Pedram Pardis
Published: September 2024

Food intake regulation is based on an intricate feedback system coordinated by hunger, satiation, and satiety signals. This chapter discusses the hormonal regulation of food intake (homeostatic and hedonic), focusing mainly on peripheral hormones and briefly on the central nervous system (CNS). Fourteen regulatory peptides and hormones secreted from the gastrointestinal tract (gut) and three adipokines secreted from adipose tissues are considered given available data, describing locations of synthesis, secretion, and major roles in digestion, food intake, appetite, or addiction. Major hormones from the gastrointestinal tract are important in shorter-term regulation of food intake, and adipokines are more related to longer-term energy depots. Some of these hormones are either able to enter the CNS to bind to corresponding receptors or can be synthesized in the CNS. Although some data suggest that multiple peripheral hormones are associated with traditional drug and food addictions in animals or humans, solid data are still largely lacking in terms of the individual role in addiction, especially in the development of food addiction. This relationship of neuropeptides in the CNS with gut hormones and adipokines and their synergistic effects are essential for understanding regulation of food intake and addiction.
Biological Contributors of Stress as a Common Factor across Overeating and Substance Use Disorders
Authors: Sinha Rajita
Published: September 2024

There are a multitude of social, neurobiological, and metabolic factors that guide the stress response and impact behavioral responses such as overeating and substance misuse. This chapter provides a brief update on the effects of cumulative stress, trauma, and adversity in increasing risk for weight gain and substance misuse. Some of the stress neurobiological processes that increase rewarding food and substance intake, and also the overlapping neurobiological and metabolic processes that are altered by overeating and substance misuse, are presented. For example, the stress hormone cortisol and metabolic hormones such as insulin and ghrelin have effects on brain motivational pathways that promote both food and drug craving, and thus facilitate risk of overeating and substance misuse. Critically, recent evidence is reviewed on weight-related and substance misuse-related adaptations on stress processes that alter brain self-control mechanisms and further promote overeating and substance misuse. Finally, implications of such adaptations in brain addiction and stress pathways, and their effects on excessive food intake and risk of weight gain, are discussed.
Ultra-processed Foods and Food Addiction
Authors: Monteiro Carlos A. , Cannon Geoffrey
Published: September 2024

Not all food, of course, is addictive. Nor is most processed food. Indeed, it has never been seriously suggested that fresh or minimally processed food made into meals together with processed culinary ingredients is addictive. The foods most often identified as addictive are usually soda and other sweetened drinks (or SSBs, “sugar-sweetened beverages”) and foods that are energy-dense, high in fat as well as sugar and/or salt (or HFSS, short for “high in fat, sugar and/or salt”). Both SSBs and HFSS are ultra-processed as defined by the Nova food classification. Ultra-processed foods are typically chemical concoctions, often combining fats and sugars, a combination not found in nature, and use additives whose functions include achievement of “bliss-points.” Worldwide production and consumption of ultra-processed foods has increased, notably since the 1980s, as has prevalence of obesity. Tests of the addictive potential of ultra-processed foods, including changes in brain function analogous with that for cocaine, show diminished control over intake, intense cravings, and inability to cut down. This is no surprise. Many ultra-processed foods are formulated by manufacturers using ingredients and additives designed not merely to be hyper-palatable but also to induce craving, and they have often been publicized as such. Studies on food addiction should focus on ultra-processed foods as such. The already compelling evidence is an additional reason to institute statutory policies and actions designed to make fresh and minimally processed foods more available, attractive, and affordable, to promote fresh meals, and to reduce production and consumption of ultra-processed foods.
Sugar Addiction in Animal Models
Authors: Simkus Julia , Avena Nicole M.
Published: September 2024

Hyper-palatable foods that are rich in added sugars are pervasive in our modern food environment, and consumption of them has been linked to obesity. It has also been suggested that these foods may have qualities that can promote addiction. In this chapter, we discuss evidence for sugar as an addictive substance, including behavioral evidence of bingeing, withdrawal, and craving. We also discuss the neurochemical changes that are seen in sugar-addicted rats in response to bingeing on sugar. In the model described, animals on an intermittent feeding schedule will display an increase in their motivation to consume sugar after a period of abstinence and will consume copious amounts of it when it is made available again, suggesting craving. How the addiction model contributes to our understanding of the biological basis of obesity and eating disorders is also discussed.
Non-nutritive Sweeteners and Reward Mechanisms
Authors: Page Kathleen A. , Yunker Alexandra G.
Published: September 2024

Over the past several decades, rates of diet-related chronic diseases have risen dramatically, posing a significant public health concern. In an effort to reduce sugar intake and promote weight management, non-nutritive sweeteners are increasingly utilized as a dietary substitute for nutritive sugar consumption, to satiate the desire for sweet taste while simultaneously reducing caloric intake. Although non-nutritive sweeteners are widely consumed, there is little agreement on whether they are helpful, neutral, or detrimental toward weight maintenance and risk for chronic disease, with many studies reporting equivocal or conflicting findings. This chapter highlights the latest research investigating neuroendocrine processing of non-nutritive sweeteners. Emerging preclinical findings suggest that by uncoupling sweet taste from calories, non-nutritive sweeteners may interfere with evolved neurophysiological responses that regulate feeding behavior, thereby paradoxically stimulating food intake. To that end, a small but growing body of literature demonstrates that heightened exposure to non-nutritive sweeteners, particularly during early stages of the life-course, might influence hedonic preference for sweet taste and associated craving for sweet foods. Moreover, consuming non-nutritive sweeteners in combination with carbohydrates can undermine normal metabolic and neural processing of sugar. Of note, recent findings demonstrate that individual factors, including body weight and sex, predict heightened neural reward signaling in response to non-nutritive sweeteners compared to sugar ingestion, underscoring the need to utilize personalized nutrition approaches when considering dietary non-nutritive sweetener recommendations.
Legal Implications of Food Addiction
Authors: Pomeranz Jennifer L.
Published: September 2024

In the United States, both the federal and state governments have authority over food and beverages. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the primary authority over the safety and labeling of both food and added ingredients, such as sugar, caffeine, and chemicals to enhance shelf-life. State governments can regulate the retail sale of consumer products through zoning and licensing. Federal and state regulation of nicotine-containing tobacco products and alcoholic beverages has attempted to moderate consumption by requiring package warning labels, instituting excise taxes, and restricting youth access. However, addictive foods and non-alcoholic beverages may provide a more difficult challenge for government regulation because no single product or ingredient has emerged as the definitive trigger for an addictive response. Further, even food ingredients of known concern, such as high levels of caffeine delivered through energy drinks, have little regulation. Additional evidence and political will is likely necessary to encourage government regulation of foods associated with addiction. As a result of outdated FDA regulations and lax enforcement, litigation may be an alternative strategy. As the science evolves and evidence comes to light, the FDA may consider revisiting some of its earlier conclusions and evaluating additional strategies to ensure a safe food supply, and the state attorneys general may consider bringing actions against food companies to address addictive foods or additives.
Material Crossings/Fire
Authors: Pintchman Tracy
Published: September 2024

This chapter examines the material theology of the Parashakthi Temple in Pontiac, Michigan. Temple discourse maintains that the Goddess uses material objects in deliberate ways for a variety of reasons, including to communicate her wishes and bring her divine potency, her shakti, to human devotees. Extending the availability of divine power to the temple community and the larger community beyond temple confines requires the coordination of three kinds of agents: the Goddess; human brokers who, as beings embodied in the gross, material realm, can act in ways the Goddess cannot; and specific objects and structures well-suited to and carefully prepared for their intended tasks. This chapter focuses on some of the objects and structures that came to reside at the temple from the time it was constructed until the time it was destroyed in a fire in 2018.
Mother Refound and Rejected
Authors: Roberts Michèle
Published: September 2024

This chapter considers the novel Chéri, thought by many to be Colette's masterpiece, and rereads it through the prism of the Christian myth of Paradise Lost that Colette’s text evokes. A short novel, it is a bittersweet comedy, and finally, for some readers, a tragedy. Léa, a beautiful, wealthy, ageing courtesan, relinquishes the young lover, Chéri, whom she keeps and educates, once he has married a wealthy young woman, the daughter of a rival courtesan. Much of the action takes place inside Léa's opulent house in the outer Parisian suburbs, inside her luxurious bedroom, where the two protagonists make love, talk, quarrel, make love again, and finally yield to the reality outside the house. A hothouse world of hypocrisy, paid-for sex, subtle cruelty, passion. Set just before the First World War. In my rereading I consider class and the demi-monde, the role of the mistress as maternal being, the fifficulties of femal friendship in a male-controlled culture.
Pride and Gluttony in Washington Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’
Authors: Eastman Christine A.
Published: September 2024

This chapter seeks to make a link between the sins of pride and gluttony—those ever-present yet all-too-often unnamed human vices—and the topic of leadership. It brings to life an early nineteenth-century ghost story set in a sleepy New York village. Exploring the sins of pride and gluttony, the chapter demonstrates the ways in which literary representations of these sins can help hone our sensitivity to the ills of the contemporary workplace. Washington Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ of 1820 portrays the destructiveness of pride and gluttony. The chapter examines how the story can be used to open up a discussion of leadership in the contemporary workplace. It demonstrates not only how quaint notions of forgotten generations are pervasive in our contemporary lives but that their pervasiveness has profound implications for leadership today. Irving’s story provides leaders with a fresh perspective on their roles and a recognition of the need to be engaged in meaning and purpose. The chapter also examines the deadly rivalry portrayed in Truman Capote’s 1970 novella ‘Hand-Carved Coffins’ and the biography of Lyndon B. Johnson to examine how the outlines of a life can illuminate the motivations behind human behaviour and dynamics of our relationships. To survive and even thrive in organizational life, we need space for discussion. We must deepen the connections between ourselves and others so that we can think and act effectively in an ever-changing world.
Envy and Greed in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and ‘Wakefield’
Authors: Eastman Christine A.
Published: September 2024

This chapter explores two texts in which Hawthorne’s examination of sin is most insightful. The discussion centres on Hawthorne’s representation of envy in The Scarlet Letter (1850) and of greed in the short story ‘Wakefield’ (1835). In their dissection of human psychology and their portrayal of characters who grapple with the dark forces of human nature that influence our decisions and actions, Hawthorne’s texts offer a point of entry in coaching dialogues on the topics of envy and greed, these ubiquitous and yet often invisible perils of corporate life. ‘Wakefield’ is a story about the perversity of human motivation. Ultimately, the story prompts us to consider the obscure nature of our own motivations. The Scarlet Letter also deals with the dark underside of human motivation. It is a story about social stigma set in Puritan Boston, in which a young woman is forced to struggle with the legacy of her sin and against the moral legalism of Puritan society. The society that shuns and persecutes the protagonist of Hawthorne’s novel is driven by envy. ‘Wakefield’ and The Scarlet Letter re-create worlds that are vastly different from the realities of contemporary business, but in their anatomy of the sins of greed and envy and in their deft treatment of themes such as monomania, organizational surveillance, voice, symbolism, and groupthink, they offer an arresting analysis of the ills that continue to afflict human society and the contemporary organization.
Lust in Herman Melville’s Redburn
Authors: Eastman Christine A.
Published: September 2024

This chapter examines how the concept of leadership is elucidated by Herman Melville in his thinly disguised autobiography, Redburn (1849). It explores what Melville’s novel tells us about leadership and work. The chapter posits that work in today’s organizations mirrors the labour aboard a nineteenth-century merchant ship, a microcosm of the capitalistic workplace with its sabotage, bullying, and mutinous squabbles, which allows only the most mentally and physically tough individuals to survive. The chapter makes a link between the sin of lust and the topic of leadership, as exemplified by the experience of 15-year-old first-time sailor Wellingborough Redburn. Melville’s novel dissects the dark side of leadership as a lust for control and domination over others. The novel can be read on one level as a quest for acceptance. Yet, below this surface reading, Redburn can be interpreted as an enquiry into the practices and ethics of organizational conduct. As the protagonist is initiated into the community of work onboard the Highlander, he is forced to consider the ethical stakes of participating in a ruthless hierarchy. The novel offers a valuable perspective on the question of how a conceptual enquiry can contribute to a practical leadership strategy. Ultimately the chapter demonstrates how leadership can be enhanced by an encounter with a skilled adjudicator of human emotions such as Melville.
Sloth in Willa Cather’s ‘Ardessa’
Authors: Eastman Christine A.
Published: September 2024

This chapter uses Willa Cather’s short story ‘Ardessa’ (1918) to tease out the complexities of organizational sloth. Cather’s Ardessa is a character who elevates personal ease above any achievement or challenge; she embodies non-committal inertia and is the scourge of those who strive to challenge the status quo, to root out the rottenness that lurks in the depths of many establishments, and to embrace risk as they endeavour to do their jobs as effectively as they can. The chapter shows how sloth is a wicked problem and sets out to demonstrate that the act of reflecting on our emotional reactions to characters facing difficult decisions or wicked problems helps us to engage with the concepts, beliefs, values, and practices that underpin leadership. The absent colleague is one of the most vexing situations for leaders. Absence saps the potency of the team, drains productivity, and erodes morale. Cather’s subtle depiction of office politics affords deep insights into an environment that has changed very little in the past hundred years. The politics of the office in which Ardessa is employed are at root indistinguishable from those that govern most contemporary companies. ‘Ardessa’ illustrates the perils of not working to one’s potential, or of feigning hard work and allowing others to pick up the pieces. These understated—sometimes barely perceptible—modes of organizational sabotage yield significant results, to which the wise leader needs to be attuned when forming and growing a team.
Reasoning with Conditionals
Authors: Mandelkern Matthew
Published: September 2024

This chapter explores in greater depth the bounded theory’s predictions about how we reason with conditionals: how the combination of conditionals’ truth-conditions and bounds together can account for an array of complex reasoning patterns involving conditionals. The chapter explores the verdicts of the bounded theory on various inference patterns, in particular Modus Ponens and Import-Export, with attention to three degrees of variation: (i) whether a conditional embeds other modals or conditionals; (ii) whether the conditional in question is in the indicative or subjunctive mood; and (iii) whether we are concerned with whether the inference in question preserves truth or rational certainty.
Probabilities of Conditionals
Authors: Mandelkern Matthew
Published: September 2024

This chapter develops a theory of the probabilities of conditionals in the context of the bounded theory, showing that the bounded theory has the right combination of freedom (via context sensitivity) and constraint (via bounds) to account for a wide variety of patterns involving the probabilities of conditionals. The chapter in particular shows that the bounded theory can account for judgments that (i) the probability of simple conditionals is, as a default matter, the probability of their consequents conditional on their antecedents, but that (ii) there are systematic exceptions to that generalization in the right kinds of contexts; and that (iii) the probability of ‘If A, then if B, then C’ is equal to the probability of ‘If A and B, then C’, not the probability of ‘If B, then C’ conditional on A.
Poetry and the Built Environment
Authors: Fowler Elizabeth
Published: September 2024

This new approach to criticism recognizes poetry as one among the many arts of the built environment. The premise is that poems are—like sculptures, paintings, gardens, and architecture—cultural artifacts designed for human bodies. The phrase “the flesh of art” signifies the sphere of interaction between our bodies and such artifacts; it signals the phenomenological nature of the approach. Providing models for the practical criticism of poems that are both phenomenologically alert and comparative across media, Poetry and the Built Environment: A Theory of the Flesh of Art demonstrates art’s ability to illuminate and alter our understandings and practices of spatiality, movement, sensation, emotion, genre, relation, and presence. A series of case studies explores a range of works by poets from Geoffrey Chaucer and John Milton to Seamus Heaney and Tracy K. Smith and by sculptors and architects from Jean de Touyl and Nicholas Stone to Antonin Mercié and Kara Walker, discovering how art strives to develop the habitus of those who encounter it—how it offers to enflesh, acculturate, and orient us within social space. This book about poetics takes place, in short, at the juncture between aesthetics and politics. It concludes with 43 theses in manifesto. It includes 35 images and many whole poems. In poetry, it is argued, we see how, especially when the transparency and sensibleness of the world is under stress, art equips us with strategies for transformation.
Standing in the Historical Space of Injury
Authors: Fowler Elizabeth
Published: September 2024

Part Five, Virtual Injuries and Rewards, elucidates the kinds of diminishments and aggrandizements that art’s actions effect in us, exposing their social consequences, and then returns us to the topic of art’s relation to habitus. The virtual emotions, actions, and ideas we grapple with in art (such as the grief considered in Chapters 7 and 8) are not inert but move and shape us in consequential ways, influencing our health, social standing, prospects, and ability to affiliate with or disentangle ourselves from social forms. The insults and rewards perpetuated by the racist structures we inherit from the transatlantic slave trade, which arguably moved the medieval world into modernity, are the occasion of two final chapters. Chapter 9 considers a colonial photograph of Jamaican sugar laborers and a Tracy K. Smith poem about the photograph that draws on Milton’s postural politics (Chapter 4). In these worrisome artifacts, ductus is powerful in savory and unsavory ways that reveal how profoundly art engages our proprioception, stimulates contradictory responses, and makes us aware of what we can choose and what we can’t among the meanings of our sensations. The flesh of art engages us by means of its ductility and intervenes in the hierarchies of social subordination and elevation that place us with respect to one another in social space.