bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Novel Hybrid Deep Learning Model for Complex Systems: A Case of Train Delay Prediction
Authors: Wang Dawei , Guo Jingwei , Zhang Chunyang
Published: May 2024

Predicting the status of train delays, a complex and dynamic problem, is crucial for railway enterprises and passengers. This paper proposes a novel hybrid deep learning model composed of convolutional neural networks (CNN) and temporal convolutional networks (TCN), named the CNN + TCN model, for predicting train delays in railway systems. First, we construct 3D data containing the spatiotemporal characteristics of real‐world train data. Then, the CNN + TCN model employs a 3D CNN component, which is fed into the constructed 3D data to mine the spatiotemporal characteristics, and a TCN component that captures the temporal characteristics in railway operation data. Furthermore, the characteristic variables corresponding to the two components are selected. Finally, the model is evaluated by leveraging data from two railway lines in the United Kingdom. Numerical results show that the CNN + TCN model has greater accuracy and convergence performance in train delay prediction.
Estrogen Induces LCAT to Maintain Cholesterol Homeostasis and Suppress Hepatocellular Carcinoma Development
Authors: He Wenzhi , Wang Min , Zhang Xuechun , Wang Yilan , Zhao Dongli , Li Wenhua , Lei Fang , Peng Min , Zhang Zhonglin , Yuan Yufeng , Huang Zan
Published: May 2024

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive disease that occurs predominantly in men. Estrogen elicits protective effects against HCC development. Elucidation of the estrogen-regulated biological processes that suppress HCC could lead to improved prevention and treatment strategies. Here, we performed transcriptomic analyses on mouse and human liver cancer and identified lecithin cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) as the most highly estrogen-upregulated gene and a biomarker of favorable prognosis. LCAT upregulation inhibited HCC in vitro and in vivo and mediated estrogen-induced suppression of HCC in an ESR1-dependent manner. LCAT facilitated high-density lipoprotein cholesterol production and uptake via the LDLR and SCARB1 pathways. Consistently, high HDL-C levels corresponded to a favorable prognosis in HCC patients. The enhanced HDL-C absorption induced by LCAT impaired SREBP2 maturation, which ultimately suppressed cholesterol biosynthesis and dampened HCC cell proliferation. HDL-C alone inhibited HCC growth comparably to the cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin, and SREBF2 overexpression abolished the inhibitory activity of LCAT. Clinical observations and cross-analyses of multiple databases confirmed the correlation of elevated LCAT and HDL-C levels to reduced cholesterol synthesis and improved HCC patient prognosis. Furthermore, LCAT deficiency mimicked whereas LCAT overexpression abrogated the tumor growth–promoting effects of ovariectomy in HCC-bearing female mice. Most importantly, HDL-C and LCAT delayed the development of subcutaneous tumors in nude mice, and HDL-C synergized with lenvatinib to eradicate orthotopic liver tumors. Collectively, this study reveals that estrogen upregulates LCAT to maintain cholesterol homeostasis and to dampen hepatocarcinogenesis. LCAT and HDL-C represent potential prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers for targeting cholesterol homeostasis as a strategy for treating HCC.

Significance: Estrogen mediates the sex differences in hepatocellular carcinoma development by reducing cholesterol biosynthesis through activation of an LCAT/HDL-C axis, providing strategies for improving liver cancer prevention, prognosis, and treatment.
CDKN2A/B Homozygous Deletion Sensitizes IDH-Mutant Glioma to CDK4/6 Inhibition
Authors: Nasser Ali M. , Melamed Lisa , Wetzel Ethan A. , Chang Jenny Chia-Chen , Nagashima Hiroaki , Kitagawa Yosuke , Muzyka Logan , Wakimoto Hiroaki , Cahill Daniel P. , Miller Julie J.
Published: May 2024

Purpose:

Treatment paradigms for isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)–mutant gliomas are rapidly evolving. Although typically indolent and responsive to initial treatment, these tumors invariably recur at a higher grade and require salvage treatment. Homozygous deletion of the tumor suppressor gene CDKN2A/B frequently emerges at recurrence in these tumors, driving poor patient outcomes. We investigated the effect of CDK-Rb pathway blockade on IDH-mutant glioma growth in vitro and in vivo using CDK4/6 inhibitors (CDKi).

Experimental Design:

Cell viability, proliferation assays, and flow cytometry were used to examine the pharmacologic effect of two distinct CDKi, palbociclib and abemaciclib, in multiple patient-derived IDH-mutant glioma lines. Isogenic models were used to directly investigate the influence of CDKN2A/B status on CDKi sensitivity. Orthotopic xenograft tumor models were used to examine the efficacy and tolerability of CDKi in vivo.

Results:

CDKi treatment leads to decreased cell viability and proliferative capacity in patient-derived IDH-mutant glioma lines, coupled with enrichment of cells in the G1 phase. CDKN2A inactivation sensitizes IDH-mutant glioma to CDKi in both endogenous and isogenic models with engineered CDKN2A deletion. CDK4/6 inhibitor administration improves survival in orthotopically implanted IDH-mutant glioma models.

Conclusions:

IDH-mutant gliomas with deletion of CDKN2A/B are sensitized to CDK4/6 inhibitors. These results support the investigation of the use of these agents in a clinical setting.
MEK Inhibition Enhances the Antitumor Effect of Radiotherapy in NF1-Deficient Glioblastoma
Authors: Ioannou Maria , Lalwani Kriti , Ayanlaja Abiola A. , Chinnasamy Viveka , Pratilas Christine A. , Schreck Karisa C.
Published: May 2024

Individuals with neurofibromatosis type 1, an autosomal dominant neurogenetic and tumor predisposition syndrome, are susceptible to developing low-grade glioma and less commonly high-grade glioma. These gliomas exhibit loss of the neurofibromin gene [neurofibromin type 1 (NF1)], and 10% to 15% of sporadic high-grade gliomas have somatic NF1 alterations. Loss of NF1 leads to hyperactive RAS signaling, creating opportunity given the established efficacy of MEK inhibitors in plexiform neurofibromas and some individuals with low-grade glioma. We observed that NF1-deficient glioblastoma neurospheres were sensitive to the combination of an MEK inhibitor (mirdametinib) with irradiation, as evidenced by synergistic inhibition of cell growth, colony formation, and increased cell death. In contrast, NF1-intact neurospheres were not sensitive to the combination, despite complete ERK pathway inhibition. No neurosphere lines exhibited enhanced sensitivity to temozolomide combined with mirdametinib. Mirdametinib decreased transcription of homologous recombination genes and RAD51 foci, associated with DNA damage repair, in sensitive models. Heterotopic xenograft models displayed synergistic growth inhibition to mirdametinib combined with irradiation in NF1-deficient glioma xenografts but not in those with intact NF1. In sensitive models, benefits were observed at least 3 weeks beyond the completion of treatment, including sustained phosphor-ERK inhibition on immunoblot and decreased Ki-67 expression. These observations demonstrate synergistic activity between mirdametinib and irradiation in NF1-deficient glioma models and may have clinical implications for patients with gliomas that harbor germline or somatic NF1 alterations.
Evaluation of Copanlisib in Combination with Eribulin in Triple-negative Breast Cancer Patient-derived Xenograft Models
Authors: Guo Zhanfang , Luo Jingqin , Mashl R. Jay , Hoog Jeremy , Maiti Piyush , Fettig Nikki , Davies Sherri R. , Aft Rebecca , Held Jason M. , Govindan Ramaswamy , Ding Li , Li Shunqiang , von Morze Cornelius , Wulf Gerburg M. , Shoghi Kooresh I. , Ma Cynthia X.
Published: May 2024

The PI3K pathway regulates essential cellular functions and promotes chemotherapy resistance. Activation of PI3K pathway signaling is commonly observed in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However previous studies that combined PI3K pathway inhibitors with taxane regimens have yielded inconsistent results. We therefore set out to examine whether the combination of copanlisib, a clinical grade pan-PI3K inhibitor, and eribulin, an antimitotic chemotherapy approved for taxane-resistant metastatic breast cancer, improves the antitumor effect in TNBC. A panel of eight TNBC patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models was tested for tumor growth response to copanlisib and eribulin, alone or in combination. Treatment-induced signaling changes were examined by reverse phase protein array, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET (18F-FDG PET). Compared with each drug alone, the combination of eribulin and copanlisib led to enhanced tumor growth inhibition, which was observed in both eribulin-sensitive and -resistant TNBC PDX models, regardless of PI3K pathway alterations or PTEN status. Copanlisib reduced PI3K signaling and enhanced eribulin-induced mitotic arrest. The combination enhanced induction of apoptosis compared with each drug alone. Interestingly, eribulin upregulated PI3K pathway signaling in PDX tumors, as demonstrated by increased tracer uptake by 18F-FDG PET scan and AKT phosphorylation by IHC. These changes were inhibited by the addition of copanlisib. These data support further clinical development for the combination of copanlisib and eribulin and led to a phase I/II trial of copanlisib and eribulin in patients with metastatic TNBC.

Significance:

In this research, we demonstrated that the pan-PI3K inhibitor copanlisib enhanced the cytotoxicity of eribulin in a panel of TNBC PDX models. The improved tumor growth inhibition was irrespective of PI3K pathway alteration and was corroborated by the enhanced mitotic arrest and apoptotic induction observed in PDX tumors after combination therapy compared with each drug alone. These data provide the preclinical rationale for the clinical testing in TNBC.
Toxicity of CAR T-Cell Therapy for Multiple Myeloma
Authors: Afrough Aimaz , Abraham Pearl Rajan , Turer Laura , Kaur Gurbakhash , Sannareddy Aishwarya , Hansen Doris K. , Anderson Jr. Larry D.
Published: May 2024

Background: Idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel) and ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) are novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), and both have recently gained approval by the US Food Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). Summary: These therapies offer unprecedented responses in RRMM but present new challenges including cytokine release syndrome (CRS), immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), non-ICANS neurotoxicity, cytopenias, infections, and hypogammaglobulinemia. Key Messages: In the evolving CAR-T landscape, a primary objective is to develop innovative strategies for managing associated toxicities. Through meticulous exploration of underlying mechanisms and tailored interventions, we aim to enhance safety and enable broader outpatient utilization. Refinement of protocols, biomarker identification, and robust monitoring are imperative for sustained efficacy. This comprehensive approach guarantees the continuous advancement and optimization of CAR-T therapy.
Viral Hepatitis C: From Unraveling the Nature of Disease to Cure and Global Elimination
Authors: Basyte-Bacevice Viktorija , Kupcinskas Limas
Published: May 2024

Background: The discovery of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and direct-acting antiviral (DAA) drugs is one of the major milestones in the last 3 decades of medicine. These discoveries encouraged the World Health Organization (WHO) to set an ambitious goal to eliminate HCV by 2030, meaning “a 90% reduction in new cases of chronic HCV, a 65% reduction in HCV deaths, and treatment of 80% of eligible people with HCV infections.” Summary: This review summarizes the key achievements from the discovery of HCV to the development of effective treatment and global elimination strategies. A better understanding of HCV structure, enzymes, and lifecycle led to the introduction of new drug targets and the discovery of DAA. Massive public health interventions are required, such as screening, access to care, treatment, and post-care follow-up, to make the most of DAA’s potential. Screening must be supported by fast, accessible, sensitive, specific HCV diagnostic tests and noninvasive methods to determine the stage of liver disease. Linkage to care and treatment access are critical components of a comprehensive HCV elimination program, and decentralization plays a key role in ensuring their effectiveness. Key Messages: Effective and simple screening strategies, rapid diagnostic tools, linkage to health care, and accessible treatment are key elements to achieving the WHO’s goal. Incorporating treatment as prevention strategies into elimination programs together with preventive education and harm reduction interventions can have a profound and lasting impact on reducing both the incidence and prevalence of HCV. However, WHO’s goal can be challenging to implement because of the need for high financial resources and strong political commitment.
Expanding the Spectrum of Sarcoma with an Internal Tandem Duplication of BCOR: A Non-Pediatric Nasosinusal Case
Authors: Piques Florian , Penicaud Martin , Essamet Wassim , Cabello-Aguilar Simon , Trinquet Aude , Vendrell Julie A. , Costes Valérie , Solassol Jérôme
Published: May 2024

Introduction: Undifferentiated small round-cell sarcomas with BCL6 corepressor (BCOR) alterations, such as an internal tandem duplication (ITD) within exon 15, are typically described as a pediatric group of Ewing-like small round-cell sarcomas. Case Presentation: In contrast to this notion, we report the case of a 71-year-old woman with a nasosinusal sarcoma featuring a BCOR ITD. To the best of our knowledge, this presence had not been previously documented in a sarcoma of the nasal and sinus cavities in an elderly patient. The identified duplication shares a similar minimal critical region as described in clear-cell sarcomas of the kidney in children. This alteration, located within the PCGF1 binding domain, is believed to disrupt the activity of PRC1.1. Conclusion: This case underscores the need for in-depth research into the molecular biology of these rare tumors and explores potential alternative treatment options. The patient achieved remission after two cycles of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide chemotherapy, highlighting the promise of potential therapeutic options for BCOR ITD sarcomas.
Salve, Ananias!
Authors: Alvernaz Juliana Campos
Published: May 2024

Criação literária de Juliana C. Alvernaz.
Memória é tudo
Authors: Teixeira Gracinara
Published: May 2024

Criação literária de Gracinara Teixeira.
Antonio Candido e o “fim das utopias”
Authors: Otsuka Edu Teruki
Published: May 2024

In this paper I comment on topics related to O discurso e a cidade [Discourse and the city], by Antonio Candido, intending to point out connections among the conception of the book, the author’s critical project and his political vision. I discuss topics concerning the representation of social reality and its transfiguration in literary works, as well as Candido’s understanding of Socialism and utopia.
Sertão macabro: elementos fantásticos no conto “Os curiangos”
Authors: Coradini Bruna Martins
Published: May 2024

The fantastic is a common feature of the regionalist short story, which sought them as a way of trying to express the dualities between the modern and the archaic. The short story "Os curiangos", present in the book Os caboclos (1920), by Valdomiro Silveira, is analyzed in this article through the conceptions of literary critics Tzevetan Todorov (1970) and Remo Ceserani (1996), in terms of narrative procedures and themes found in this type of structure.
Entre a chuva e o sol: amor e sociedade em “Um dia de chuva”, de Eça de Queiroz
Authors: Gimenes Max Luiz
Published: May 2024

This article aims to analyze and interpret “A Rainy Day”, a posthumous short story by Eça de Queiroz, based on critical suggestions made by Antonio Candido. It is proposed that the polar images of rain and sun, whose competition was duly suggested by the critic as a structural principle of the narrative, symbolize the feelings of frustration and hope on two different levels. In this sense, these poles represent tensions relating to the theme of love, on the general level of human emotions, and relating to the process of modernization, on the particular level of the historical context of 19th century Portuguese society. And the unity between these two different levels would be provided by the worldview manifested in the author’s composition of the work, which is both romantic and progressive.
Balões
Authors: Pereira Carolina Pazos
Published: May 2024

Criação literária de Carolina Pazos.
Conduit Flow Compensates for Impaired Left Atrial Passive and Booster Functions in Advanced Diastolic Dysfunction
Authors: Aronson Doron , Sliman Hend , Abadi Sobhi , Maiorov Ida , Perlow Daniel , Mutlak Diab , Lessick Jonathan
Published: May 2024

BACKGROUND:

Quantification of left atrial (LA) conduit function and its contribution to left ventricular (LV) filling is challenging because it requires simultaneous measurements of both LA and LV volumes. The functional relationship between LA conduit function and the severity of diastolic dysfunction remains controversial. We studied the role of LA conduit function in maintaining LV filling in advanced diastolic dysfunction.

METHODS:

We performed volumetric and flow analyses of LA function across the spectrum of LV diastolic dysfunction, derived from a set of consecutive patients undergoing multiphasic cardiac computed tomography scanning (n=489). From LA and LV time-volume curves, we calculated 3 volumetric components: (1) early passive emptying volume; (2) late active (booster) volume; and (3) conduit volume. Results were prospectively validated on a group of patients with severe aortic stenosis (n=110).

RESULTS:

The early passive filling progressively decreased with worsening diastolic function (
P
<0.001). The atrial booster contribution to stroke volume modestly increases with impaired relaxation (
P
=0.021) and declines with more advanced diastolic function (
P
<0.001), thus failing to compensate for the reduction in early filling. The conduit volume increased progressively (
P
<0.001), accounting for 75% of stroke volume (interquartile range, 63–81%) with a restrictive filling pattern, compensating for the reduction in both early and booster functions. Similar results were obtained in patients with severe aortic stenosis. The pulmonary artery systolic pressure increased in a near-linear fashion when the conduit contribution to stroke volume increased above 60%. Maximal conduit flow rate strongly correlated with mitral E-wave velocity (r=0.71;
P
<0.0001), indicating that the increase in mitral E wave in diastolic dysfunction represents the increased conduit flow.

CONCLUSIONS:

An increase in conduit volume contribution to stroke volume represents a compensatory mechanism to maintain LV filling in advanced diastolic dysfunction. The increase in conduit volume despite increasing LV diastolic pressures is accomplished by an increase in pulmonary venous pressure.
Mao's Cambodian Legacy: An “Ideological Victory” and a Strategic Failure
Authors: Chenyi Wang
Published: May 2024

Drawing on untapped Chinese primary sources, including archival documents, the biographies and memoirs of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials involved in managing policy toward the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and, in particular, the memoirs of members of Huayun (an ethnic Chinese revolutionary movement) in Cambodia, this article shows that under Mao Zedong the CCP's policies toward the Khmer Rouge were subordinated to Mao's political needs and indistinguishable from his domestic policies. The Khmer Rouge's victory in Cambodia was significant to Mao in light of the bankrupt Cultural Revolution at home and isolation by the other Communist parties abroad. In 1973 and 1974, Chinese leaders rejected U.S. proposals to restore Prince Sihanouk to power in Cambodia and later refrained from any criticism of the mass slaughter perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, including the systematic killing of ethnic Chinese in Cambodia. As a result, the post-Mao leaders were unable to disengage from Cambodia or to restrain the Khmer Rouge. Mao's “ideological victory” eventually translated into a strategic debacle for the PRC.
The Unpublished Medicina contracta of Arnold Geulincx
Authors: Strazzoni Andrea
Published: May 2024

In this paper I provide a commentary on and edition of the unpublished and apparently incomplete Medicina contracta of the Flemish philosopher Arnold Geulincx (1624–1669). This short treatise, dating to c. 1668–1669, was not included in the edition of Geulincx’s works edited by J.P.N. Land, on the ground of its apparent unoriginality. However, it reveals the attempt, by Geulincx, to develop a medicine based on a new account of disease (intended in Cartesian-Platonic terms of the impossibility of the mind using the body through animal spirits), and integrating avant-garde solutions typical of iatrochemistry (in particular those of Franciscus Sylvius) and iatromechanics. The text, which I also consider in the light of Geulincx’s disputations in physiology, is moreover revelatory of his ongoing efforts in understanding the nature of respiration and its related diseases and conditions, such as apoplexy, and of his progressive, albeit not uncritical acceptance of Cartesianism.
3. From Eternity to Here
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

Being so little known, Saull and his trajectory towards Owenite evolution and mankind’s monkey-ancestry has to be tackled by following the money. We look at his bailing and funding of dissidents, leasing of venues, and the company he kept. First among the latter was the notorious Richard Carlile. By exploiting police spy reports, and by identifying an anonymous letter on fossils in Carlile’s Republican as Saull’s, we can see him already embedded in this circle by the mid-1820s. The anti-clerical Carlile re-cycled radical Enlightenment works for British dissidents, but what interests us is his response to evangelical taunts that only the Bible could explain human origins. Initially, following George Toulmin, whose books he reprinted, Carlile was to argue that the universe and humanity were eternal. This was eroded, however, by the knowledge, percolating down to street level, of Baron Cuvier’s unearthing of a progression of fossil animals, which implied origins. We examine what sources the dissidents trusted, what books they were reviving (including the much-maligned Telliamed), and why ‘blasphemous’ texts were favoured. Among the latter were the pirated books of the castigated surgeon William Lawrence and Lord Byron, which were churned out cheaply on back-street hand presses. With self-organizing matter (an idea spreading from republican France), and power lying inside nature, rather than in God’s hands to be dispensed through his priesthood, Saull’s anti-clericals had the justification for their attacks on financially-crippling tithes and intellectually-crippling priestly power.
4. From the Devil’s Chaplain to That Dirty Little Jacobin
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

Saull’s public debut was in court in 1828 on blasphemy charges. He was indicted as a backer of the infidel preacher, the Rev. Robert Taylor, in a show trial, that, as the spy said, was designed to threaten off such “men of property”. Here we discuss Taylor: his rise (and subsequent soubriquet, the “Devil’s Chaplain”, at the Rotunda in 1830); how his blasphemy, at the time of Reform Bill agitation, went hand-in-hand with radical sedition; Saull’s funding of a succession of venues and support for Taylor, in prison and out (on Saull’s bail); and the value of Taylor’s Bible-demystifying astro-theology to Saull’s anti-clerical campaigns. When Taylor was jailed in 1828, Saull (the spy revealed) set up a new blasphemy chapel in Grub Street for another deist, the Rev. Josiah Fitch, for his “burlesque of religious worship”. More importantly, Saull founded a discussion group behind the scenes in this chapel—the “Athenaeum”—where geology could be mined for its anti-Christian meaning. Materialism justified by science was now Saull’s major topic, as revealed in his talks at his friend Pierre Baume’s Optimist Chapel. Taylor’s further incarceration in 1831, his harsh treatment in Horsemonger-lane gaol, and the perennial threat of Saull’s own postponed case, meant that Saull now switched from frontal attacks on Christianity to more covert undermining in geology lectures. He also moved from Taylor’s astro-theology to the radical publisher (or to detractors, “filthy jacobinical dog”) Sir Richard Phillips’ astro-geology: planetary orbital explanations of the periodicity of the earth’s strata, to explain the alternating hot/cold and marine/terrestrial sediments. This promised a more mechanical explanation of life’s rise.
5. Perfectibility
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

With Reform Bill agitation leading to renewed labour activism, Richard Carlile showed his capitalist mettle by moving against the unions and co-operatives. Saull, supporting the co-operators, and acting as treasurer to the National Union of the Working Classes, became alienated from his old mentor. He was appalled at Carlile’s Malthusianism, which also sat ill with Sir Richard Phillips’ notion of the ‘pabulum’ providing adequately for all life at each geological revolution. Saull’s committee-work for co-operative associations are discussed as he developed his progressive palaeontology. When Robert Owen returned from America, a police spy reported that Saull was one of his best friends. The spy further revealed that in 1831 Saull leased Albion Hall as a platform for Owen to deliver his first London lectures. Saull’s relationship, as an Owenite, with his friend Henry Hetherington’s Owen-disdaining radicals is teased out, as is his mediating work with Hetherington’s NUWC fighting the “Taxes on Knowledge”. Saull’s reinvigorated Owenite, perfectibilist faith was now strengthening his geological understanding.
8. The Antichrist and the Shaven Monkey
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

The incoming editor of the Owenite house organ, the Crisis, was shocked by Saull’s monkey ancestry. The Rev. James Elishama Smith was a heretical Glaswegian millenarian, who had bathed in disreputable Southcottian waters before his arrival in London. Here he delivered his inflammatory “Antichrist” lectures at Borough’s blasphemy chapel in 1832-1833. So extreme were these (he made God and the Devil one) that the police kept tabs on him, and a spy thought him the greatest abuser of Christianity he had ever heard. His talks alternated with Saull’s at the chapel, so he knew the latter’s views well. He agreed with Saull on so much: life’s graduated scale, huge geological time spans, on mankind’s rise from savagery. And the two shared reformist views and worked together at Owen’s Institution. Smith took over the flagging Crisis just as Saull was delivering his Bristol lecture, and Smith’s first act was to print a transcript of the talk and attack its monkeying conclusion. This would be the start of Smith’s lifelong trend, through a series of publications, of spoofing Saull’s monkey man. The causes of the differences between the Owenite millenarians and materialists are dissected, and Smith’s unsettling transformation of the Crisis into a millenarian organ is analysed.
10. An Appeal to the Revolutionary Enemy
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

No prophet in his own land, “Citizen Saull” approached French savants. At home he had praised the July Revolution (1830), and would celebrate its anniversary yearly. And he introduced French-style funeral orations at radical funerals, as dissidents took over the last rites. He was known on the Continent, as a French-speaking wine importer, and as Robert Owen’s interlocutor in Paris. Unlike elite English geologists, the Parisians were more open to planetary explanations of stratal disposition. Republican geologists put him up for the Société Géologique de France and he was elected in 1834. His Essay on the Coincidence of Astronomical & Geological Phenomena (1836) was accordingly addressed to the Société. At home, marginal astrologers, looking to raise their status, extolled the book, not exactly the support Saull was looking for. Days after his induction into the Société, Saull was sending his coal-seam ferns to the fossil botanist Adolphe Brongniart, who made one a type species, Sigillaria saullii. Such immortalization raised Saul’s stock, and acted as a further imprimatur for his museum
12. Making Sense of the Museum
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

The scene shifts to Saull’s talks in his museum, which even the clergy evidently attended, causing them to bolster their anti-socialist geological advice to ordinands. But the museum impressed a reporter from Thackeray’s National Standard. Saull, the indicted blasphemer, lacking education or ‘character’, now found his free museum of rich fossil merchandise providing his credentials of “taste, learning, and liberality”, in the reporter’s words. The hack left an account of Saull’s accompanying ‘evolutionary’ lecture, but admitted that without it the museum would have made little sense. Saull’s geology was designed to be integral to Owenite education, and the establishment of countrywide socialist schools, delivering a science-based education for children, is discussed. These schools were innovative and responsive, such that new fads (in particular the Owenite T. Symmonds Mackintosh’s “Electrical Theory of the Universe”, itself comprehensive, anti-Newtonian, and with a large dose of geology) could be quickly accommodated.
14. Satires on Saull
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

The Crisis-editor and former Saull collaborator, the Rev. James Elishama Smith, fell out with Owen in 1834 and left the movement. He founded the Shepherd, then the Penny Satirist, quieted down, and declared himself “done with the Infidels”. And so he took his Saull-satirizing towards the mainstream, into poor kitchens and eventually into the parlour, exposing Saull’s absurdity to 40,000 readers a week. Skits on man as a “civilized monkey”, or baboons wanting the franchise and electing Saull as their representative, were regular features. The split became wider, as Smith turned up his attacks on scientific materialism. But Saull still saw materialism as salvation, and integrated it into his critiques of the Whigs’ New Poor Law and Malthusian workhouses, now going up. He criticized the Poor Law at Aldersgate vestry level, and in numerous associations. He insisted that palaeontology, or rather Phillips’ concept of the ‘pabulum’ furnishing enough for all mouths at each geological revolution, promised plenty for all, once aristocratic and clerical greed was checked. But part of the difficulty, now, of getting any socialist ideas accepted was the clerical apoplexy caused by Owen’s marriage views (probationary periods, quick divorce). The social tarring of propagandist efforts as a result of these “horrible abominations” is looked at.
19. Backlash
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

The furious backlash against the “poisonous” Oracle and its sale in atheist emporiums is shown to have repercussions for the Owenite movement. The proliferating blasphemy print shops in London—and we look at the one in the “filthy low” Holywell Street, behind the Strand, advertising “atheism for the million”—particularly frightened family patriarchs, who saw this unclean knowledge threatening “the purity of the daughters of our land”. The number of women lecturing on the circuit, typified by Emma Martin, only exacerbated the threat. Plain clothes police start raiding socialist halls, searching their libraries. Saull now switched to lecturing on primeval archaeology, focusing on the rise of Britons from aboriginal stock, a shocking idea for many.
22. British Aborigines
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

Saull’s switch from geology to primeval archaeology was not so strange. The upper geological strata and lowest archaeological layers were thought to share a porous border in the 1840s. Nor was the move any less central to his Owenite goal of proving nature’s perfectibility. He saw himself dealing with what he called British “aborigines”, and their rise from “savagery” towards modern mercantile man through changing cultural conditioning. In practice he developed a system, almost unique at this time, of Celtic cultural stages in pre-Roman Britain. Here we deal with his path to this singular position, from his study of ancient hut remains to reclamation and salvage archaeology, as London’s new sewerage works threw up Roman artefacts (which only his and Charles Roach Smith’s museums were prepared to receive). This led to his book Notitia Britanniae (1845), and a lower museum gallery filling up with archaeological remains. Lecturing now often took place at another radical hotbed, the Finsbury Social Institution. Here the old Spencean revolutionary Allen Davenport dedicated his poem “Urania” to Saull. It was also a feminist stronghold, and its leading light Mary Jenneson talked of Saull’s favourite (and levelling) topic, the rise of the British “aborigines”. The Owenite understanding of this concept in an imperial age is unpacked, as is Saull’s political agenda in Notitia.
23. Reforming Scientific Society
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

The museum’s archaeology gallery was filling up, and Saull’s progressive sequence of Celtic cultural stages was in place. So much spadework on ancient huts and Roman salvage brought him increasingly into learned society. But this was still the radical reformer, campaigning in local and national associations for suffrage and triennial parliaments. The learned bodies, many with “rotten borough” patronage practices, which rated rank above research, were now seeing an influx of earthier trading and dissenting members. Yet the old guard remained resistant to reform. We examine the campaigns in the Zoological Society, Royal Society, British Museum and medical corporations. These allow us to appreciate the fight against “Old Corruption” inside our special case, the gerontocratic Society of Antiquaries (where the president had been in post since 1812). Saull’s republicans even tried to stop the society’s continuing observance of Charles I’s “Martyrdom”. Frustrated, and exasperated by its armchair approach, the reformers founded the more excavation-orientated British Archaeological Association, with its revolutionary governance, unprecedented among learned societies. We also look at how Saull’s Owenite Celtic schema fitted in at the new Ethnological Society, given its Quaker Christianizing aspect.
24. Museum and Pantheon for the Masses
Authors: Desmond Adrian
Published: May 2024

The idea that Saull’s was a radical museum had to do with more than an Owenite evolutionary interpretation of its 20,000 exhibits. The contents could themselves betray the radicalism. Here we discuss the fossils, although our knowledge of them is skewed by the press’s concern with size and beauty. Hence we know more about his Iguanodon dinosaurs than fossil fish. A comparison with the distiller James Scott Bowerbank’s Highbury Grove museum also illustrates different proprietorial and professional interests, which resulted in different display arrangements. Finally there is a Chartist’s-eye-view: we trace the Northern Star reporter’s steps as he enters the emporium. He only has eyes for the skeleton of the old insurrectionary and “Equality” poet George Petrie, hanging, not on a scaffold, but in Saull’s closet. Saull’s museum was a radical pantheon; it was radical stuff, and the stuff of radicals. The freethought financier Julian Hibbert’s head was also on display. The ideological value of these relics, and how they arrived here, is considered.
Porphyrin Aluminum Metal–Organic Framework in Liquid Water, its Interaction with the Oxidized Organosulfur Compound Diethyl Sulfoxide, and its Sorption from Aqueous Solution
Authors: Agbim Amarachukwu , Banga-Bothy Georgia-Annicette , Samokhvalov Alexander
Published: May 2024

Oxidized organosulfur compounds and, in particular, sulfoxides are of interest as solvents in the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industry, environmental contaminants, and simulants in deactivation of chemical warfare agents. An experimental study is reported of the interaction of porphyrin aluminum metal–organic framework Al-MOF-TCPPH2 (Compound 2) with diethyl sulfoxide (DESO) in pure form and in aqueous solution. First, the suitability of Compound 2 as sorbent in aqueous solution was assessed; namely, its long-term stability (up to 15 days) in liquid water has been investigated at room temperature and under stirring. Here, a novel facile spectroscopic method has been used, a periodic micro-sampling of sorbent from suspension, followed by vacuum mini-filtration and an ex situ time-dependent attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR FT-IR) analysis. Next, the interaction of Compound 2 with pure liquid DESO under ambient conditions was investigated, which yields the stoichiometric adsorption complex (Al-MOF-TCPPH2)1(DESO)2 denoted Compound 3. In this adsorption complex, molecules of DESO interact with the OH group and carboxylate group of the sorbent. Then, the removal of DESO from Compound 3 was assessed, using facile treatment with warm water in the micro Soxhlet apparatus followed by the ATR FT-IR analysis. Finally, Compound 2 was tested in sorption of DESO from diluted aqueous solution. In the initial step, the sorption proceeds very quickly (in <1 min the concentration of DESO decreases by about 20%) followed by a much slower step. The maximum amount of adsorbed DESO corresponds to half of the amount adsorbed from pure DESO as found by the high-performance liquid chromatography–ultraviolet detection method. This adsorbed amount corresponds to 1 mol DESO adsorbate per mol of sorbent. Porphyrin aluminum metal–organic framework Compound 2 is promising for the removal of DESO from diluted aqueous solution, and it is of interest for the removal of similar oxidized organosulfur compounds.
Psychosocial and Educational Vulnerability of Overweight Children from Urban Schools
Authors: Capawana Michael R.
Published: May 2024

Childhood obesity is a pervasive health issue, with multifaceted implications for developmental trajectory. Participants included 5,573 K-5 students enrolled in a high-poverty urban public-school setting. Through an informal yet holistic assessment process, students identified as exhibiting overweight issues were compared to peers not designated as overweight across several relevant categories. Overweight students were more likely to be from lower socioeconomic backgrounds; have a high association with special education service needs; represent a more intensive overall risk level as perceived by student support staff; and mostly exhibit decreased performance in report card grades, standardized test scores, and academic engagement. Results confirm previously documented disparities in school functioning and consideration for at-risk status; this is especially relevant in an underserved context, in which regular access to services may be limited. Therefore, reliance on initial screening measures becomes necessary as a preventative mechanism to better assist children in need and to facilitate intervention planning.
Determinants of Road Traffic Crash Fatalities: A Case of Road Accidents in India, 2004–2018
Authors: Kunroo Mohd Hussain , Alam Md. Absar
Published: May 2024

The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that influence deaths in road accidents in India. The study uses panel econometric methodologies such as the fixed effects model, random effects model, and Hausman–Taylor instrumental variable technique to achieve this goal. Unobserved heterogeneity between states/union territories (UTs) and time is accounted for by time-fixed and state-fixed effects. Based on the panel data set from Indian states/UTs for the period 2004–2018, the study confirms previous results that motorisation, population, urbanisation and income level are all potential contributors to road accidents and fatalities. It also shows that spending on health care and law enforcement appears to help the Indian states minimise mortality in road traffic accidents. On the one hand, spending on health care facilities can provide health-related assistance to persons who have been involved in traffic accidents; on the other hand, spending on police increases the enforcement of rules, resulting in a reduction in traffic accidents. Thus, to lessen the economic and financial cost of road accidents in the country, the government should focus on boosting both per capita health expenditure and per capita police expenditure.

JEL Codes: C23, C26, H51, I18, L92, O18, R41, R42
A Just Transition for Auto Workers? Negotiating the Electric Vehicle Transition in Germany and North America
Authors: Dupuis Mathieu , Greer Ian , Kirsch Anja , Lechowski Grzegorz , Park Dongwoo , Zimmermann Tobias
Published: May 2024

Reducing human-made greenhouse gas emissions is crucially important for life on earth, but it requires restructuring industries in ways that could disrupt millions of workers’ lives globally. Whether this transition is “just” from the perspective of workers depends on the magnitude of job losses, the quality of new jobs, and the transitions workers experience from their current jobs to new ones. Using the example of the German automotive industry, where the shift to electric vehicle production has recently accelerated, the authors identify recommendations for unions and policymakers in North America and beyond. This article provides an overview of the tools for workers and trade unions in Germany to steer the transition and shows how analogous tools could be strengthened or created elsewhere.
Observer-based event-triggered time-varying formation control of linear multi-agent systems with distributed infinite delays
Authors: Deng Ya , Zhu Wei , Zheng Huannan
Published: May 2024

Compared with bounded delays, distributed infinite delays are more general in practical systems. Event-triggered control can effectively reduce energy consumption and communication costs. This paper addresses time-varying formation control of general linear multi-agent systems with distributed infinite delays in both of their inputs and outputs. An observer-based event-triggered formation control protocol considering distributed infinite delays is proposed, which is related to the combined observed information and some formation compensation signals at triggering time instants. By utilizing inequality techniques, the desired time-varying formation can be implemented while Zeno-behavior is excluded. Some numerical simulations are carried out for demonstrating the validity of theoretical results.
Multiple scripts, multiple institutions: Introducing complexity into the understanding of women’s empowerment
Authors: Rotem Nir , Boyle Elizabeth Heger
Published: May 2024

Partial enactment of women’s rights is at the crux of this analysis, which identifies factors associated with the adoption of some global women’s rights scripts but not others. Women who partially enact global principles are an important group, and focusing on them provides clues into when, where, and how institutionalized scripts are in competition. To explore this issue, Demographic and Health Survey data from 25 low- and middle-income countries across two time periods are used, with a focus on two dimensions of women’s empowerment: a woman’s household decision-making power and her attitudes toward intimate partner violence. Multinomial regressions reveal that exposure to global culture is associated with dual enactment of the two dimensions. Among partial adopters, enactment privileging physical integrity is mediated through local community institutions, including religions, whereas partial-enactment privileging decision making is associated with women’s household bargaining power.
The Empire Cites Back: The Occlusion of Non-Western Histories of International Relations and the Case of India
Authors: Bayly Martin J.
Published: May 2024

The call for a ‘global’ and ‘post-Western’ international relations (IR) discipline is rightly gathering momentum, yet arguably this research agenda contains presumptions as to the absence of a historical tradition of IR thinking in places such as India. Turning attention to marginalized histories of Indian IR, this commentary on the global IR debate offers a historical corrective to these presumptions and calls for greater attention to extra-European disciplinary histories. In so doing, important patterns of co-constitution reveal the connected histories of disciplinary development that challenge the analytical categories that often characterize the global IR and post-Western IR literature. A more historicized global IR debate offers a fruitful research agenda that explores the multiple connected beginnings of IR as a global discipline responsive to a variety of intellectual lineages, encompassing a variety of political purposes and revealing entanglements of imperial and anti-imperial knowledge.
RNA Technology to Regenerate and Repair Alveolar Bone Defects
Authors: Su D. , Swearson S. , Eliason S. , Rice K.G. , Amendt B.A.
Published: May 2024

microRNA-200a ( miR-200a) targets multiple signaling pathways that are involved in osteogenic differentiation and bone development. However, its therapeutic function in osteogenesis and bone regeneration remains unknown. In this study, we use in vitro and in vivo models to investigate the molecular function of miR-200a overexpression and miR-200a inhibition using a plasmid-based miR inhibitor system (PMIS) on osteogenic differentiation and bone regeneration. Inhibition of miR-200a using PMIS-miR-200a significantly increased osteogenic biomarkers of human embryonic palatal mesenchyme cells and promoted bone regeneration in rat tooth socket defects. In rat maxillary M1 molar extractions, the supporting tooth structures were removed with an implant drill to yield a 3-mm defect in the alveolar bone. A collagen sponge was inserted into the open alveolar defect and PMIS-miR-200a plasmid DNA was added to the sponge and the wound sutured to protect the sponge and close the defect. It was important to remove the existing tooth supporting structure, which can influence alveolar bone regeneration. The alveolar bone was regenerated in 4 wk. The collagen sponge acts to stabilize and deliver the PMIS-miR-200a DNA to cells entering the sponge in the bone defect. We show that mesenchymal stem cells expressing CD90 and Stro-1 enter the sponges, take up the DNA, and express PMIS-miR-200a. PMIS-miR-200a initiates a bone regeneration program in transformed cells in vivo. In vitro inhibition of miR-200a was found to upregulate Wnt and BMP signaling activity as well as Runx2, OCN, Lef-1, Msx2, and Dlx5 associated with osteogenesis. Liver and blood toxicity testing of PMIS-miR-200a–treated rats showed no increase in several biomarkers of liver disease. These results demonstrate the therapeutic function of PMIS-miR-200a for rapid bone regeneration. Furthermore, the studies were designed to demonstrate the ease of use of PMIS-miR-200a in solution and applied using a syringe in the clinic through a simple one-time application.