bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Disseminated Mycobacterium abscessus Infection in a Burn Patient
Authors: Hsu Emily H , Young Sierra , Clayton Nicola , Lee Jin , Hauser Naomi , Penn Bennett , Sen Soman
Published: February 2022

Disseminated infection caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is very rare, with an incidence of 1.0 to 1.8 cases per 100,000 persons, and typically only occurs in severely immunocompromised hosts. Burn patients suffer a loss of the natural cutaneous barrier as well as injury-induced immune dysfunction, and as a result, commonly develop infections, especially with multidrug-resistant organisms. However, very few NTM infections in burn patients have been reported in the literature. Disseminated NTM infection, in particular, can be a challenge to diagnose in burn patients due to burn-related physiology such as hyperpyrexia and widespread skin injury. We present a case of disseminated infection leading to bacteremia caused by Mycobacterium abscessus in a critically ill burn patient with a 74% total body surface area burn. M. abscessus belongs to the subgroup of NTM known as rapidly growing mycobacteria, which are notable for their ability to form colonies in a matter of days, rather than weeks, and because they are often highly drug-resistant, which complicates antimicrobial therapy. This is the third reported case of bacteremia caused by NTM in a burn patient and the second case that was successfully transitioned from intravenous antimicrobials to an oral regimen.
Adaptive evolution of Methylotuvimicrobium alcaliphilum to grow in the presence of rhamnolipids improves fatty acid and rhamnolipid production from CH4
Authors: Awasthi Deepika , Tang Yung-Hsu , Amer Bashar , Baidoo Edward E K , Gin Jennifer , Chen Yan , Petzold Christopher J , Kalyuzhnaya Marina , Singer Steven W
Published: February 2022

Rhamnolipids (RLs) are well-studied biosurfactants naturally produced by pathogenic strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Current methods to produce RLs in native and heterologous hosts have focused on carbohydrates as production substrate; however, methane (CH4) provides an intriguing alternative as a substrate for RL production because it is low cost and may mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we demonstrate RL production from CH4 by Methylotuvimicrobium alcaliphilum DSM19304. RLs are inhibitory to M. alcaliphilum growth (<0.05 g/l). Adaptive laboratory evolution was performed by growing M. alcaliphilum in increasing concentrations of RLs, producing a strain that grew in the presence of 5 g/l of RLs. Metabolomics and proteomics of the adapted strain grown on CH4 in the absence of RLs revealed metabolic changes, increase in fatty acid production and secretion, alterations in gluconeogenesis, and increased secretion of lactate and osmolyte products compared with the parent strain. Expression of plasmid-borne RL production genes in the parent M. alcaliphilum strain resulted in cessation of growth and cell death. In contrast, the adapted strain transformed with the RL production genes showed no growth inhibition and produced up to 1 μM of RLs, a 600-fold increase compared with the parent strain, solely from CH4. This work has promise for developing technologies to produce fatty acid-derived bioproducts, including biosurfactants, from CH4.
Photosynthetic acclimation and sensitivity to short- and long-term environmental changes in a drought-prone forest
Authors: Schönbeck Leonie , Grossiord Charlotte , Gessler Arthur , Gisler Jonas , Meusburger Katrin , D’Odorico Petra , Rigling Andreas , Salmon Yann , Stocker Benjamin D , Zweifel Roman , Schaub Marcus
Published: February 2022

Future climate will be characterized by an increase in frequency and duration of drought and warming that exacerbates atmospheric evaporative demand. How trees acclimate to long-term soil moisture changes and whether these long-term changes alter trees’ sensitivity to short-term (day to months) variations of vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and soil moisture is largely unknown. Leaf gas exchange measurements were performed within a long-term (17 years) irrigation experiment in a drought-prone Scots pine-dominated forest in one of Switzerland’s driest areas on trees in naturally dry (control), irrigated, and ‘irrigation-stop’ (after 11 years of irrigation) conditions. Seventeen years of irrigation increased photosynthesis (A) and stomatal conductance (gs) and reduced gs sensitivity to increasing VPD and soil drying. Following irrigation-stop, gas exchange decreased only after 3 years. After 5 years, maximum carboxylation (Vcmax) and electron transport (Jmax) rates in irrigation-stop recovered to similar levels as to before the irrigation-stop. These results suggest that long-term release from soil drought reduces the sensitivity to VPD and that atmospheric constraints may play an increasingly important role in combination with soil drought. Moreover, our study indicates that structural adjustments lead to an attenuation of initially strong leaf-level acclimation to strong multiple-year drought.
Expression of flavodiiron protein rescues defects in electron transport around PSI resulting from overproduction of Rubisco activase in rice
Authors: Suganami Mao , Konno So , Maruhashi Ryo , Takagi Daisuke , Tazoe Youshi , Wada Shinya , Yamamoto Hiroshi , Shikanai Toshiharu , Ishida Hiroyuki , Suzuki Yuji , Makino Amane
Published: February 2022

Fragility of photosystem I has been observed in transgenic rice plants that overproduce Rubisco activase (RCA). In this study, we examined the effects of RCA overproduction on the sensitivity of PSI to photoinhibition in three lines of plants overexpressing RCA (RCA-ox). In all the RCA-ox plants the quantum yield of PSI [Y(I)] decreased whilst in contrast the quantum yield of acceptor-side limitation of PSI [Y(NA)] increased, especially under low light conditions. In the transgenic line with the highest RCA content (RCA-ox 1), the quantum yield of PSII [Y(II)] and CO2 assimilation also decreased under low light. When leaves were exposed to high light (2000 μmol photon m−2 s−1) for 60 min, the maximal activity of PSI (Pm) drastically decreased in RCA-ox 1. These results suggested that overproduction of RCA disturbs PSI electron transport control, thus increasing the susceptibility of PSI to photoinhibition. When flavodiiron protein (FLV), which functions as a large electron sink downstream of PSI, was expressed in the RCA-ox 1 background (RCA-FLV), PSI and PSII parameters, and CO2 assimilation were recovered to wild-type levels. Thus, expression of FLV restored the robustness of PSI in RCA-ox plants.
Wheat photosystem II heat tolerance responds dynamically to short- and long-term warming
Authors: Posch Bradley C , Hammer Julia , Atkin Owen K , Bramley Helen , Ruan Yong-Ling , Trethowan Richard , Coast Onoriode
Published: February 2022

Wheat photosynthetic heat tolerance can be characterized using minimal chlorophyll fluorescence to quantify the critical temperature (Tcrit) above which incipient damage to the photosynthetic machinery occurs. We investigated intraspecies variation and plasticity of wheat Tcrit under elevated temperature in field and controlled-environment experiments, and assessed whether intraspecies variation mirrored interspecific patterns of global heat tolerance. In the field, wheat Tcrit varied diurnally—declining from noon through to sunrise—and increased with phenological development. Under controlled conditions, heat stress (36 °C) drove a rapid (within 2 h) rise in Tcrit that peaked after 3–4 d. The peak in Tcrit indicated an upper limit to PSII heat tolerance. A global dataset [comprising 183 Triticum and wild wheat (Aegilops) species] generated from the current study and a systematic literature review showed that wheat leaf Tcrit varied by up to 20 °C (roughly two-thirds of reported global plant interspecies variation). However, unlike global patterns of interspecies Tcrit variation that have been linked to latitude of genotype origin, intraspecific variation in wheat Tcrit was unrelated to that. Overall, the observed genotypic variation and plasticity of wheat Tcrit suggest that this trait could be useful in high-throughput phenotyping of wheat photosynthetic heat tolerance.
Overexpression of SHORT-ROOT2 transcription factor enhances the outgrowth of mature axillary buds in poplar trees
Authors: Yi Minglei , Yang Heyu , Yang Shaohui , Wang Jiehua
Published: February 2022

SHORT-ROOT (SHR) transcription factors play important roles in asymmetric cell division and radial patterning of Arabidopsis roots. In hybrid poplar (P. tremula × P. alba clone INRA 717-1B4), PtaSHR2 was preferentially expressed in axillary buds (AXBs) and transcriptionally up-regulated during AXB maturation and activation. Overexpression of SHR2 (PtSHR2OE) induced an enhanced outgrowth of AXBs below the bud maturation point, with a simultaneous transition of an active shoot apex into an arrested terminal bud. The larger and more mature AXBs of PtSHR2OE trees revealed altered expression of genes involved in axillary meristem initiation and bud activation, as well as a higher ratio of cytokinin to auxin. To elucidate the underlying mechanism of PtSHR2OE-induced high branching, subsequent molecular and biochemical studies showed that compared with wild-type trees, decapitation induced a quicker bud outburst in PtSHR2OE trees, which could be fully inhibited by exogenous application of auxin or cytokinin biosynthesis inhibitor, but not by N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid. Our results indicated that overexpression of PtSHR2B disturbed the internal hormonal balance in AXBs by interfering with the basipetal transport of auxin, rather than causing auxin biosynthesis deficiency or auxin insensitivity, thereby releasing mature AXBs from apical dominance and promoting their outgrowth.
Transgene-free genome editing supports CCD4 role as a negative regulator of β-carotene in banana
Authors: Awasthi Praveen , Khan Shahirina , Lakhani Hiralben , Chaturvedi Siddhant , Shivani  , Kaur Navneet , Singh Jagdeep , Kesarwani Atul Kumar , Tiwari Siddharth
Published: February 2022

This study aims to understand the regulatory mechanism of the β-carotene homeostasis by establishing transgene-free genome editing in banana. Carotenoid cleavage dioxygenases (CCDs) belong to a miniature gene family having an imperative role in the intricated carotenoid metabolism in plants. Here, the expression pattern of multiple CCDs was correlated with the levels of carotenoid accumulation in two contrasting cultivars, viz., Nendran (high β-carotene) and Rasthali (low β-carotene). The higher expression of the RAS-CCD4 inversely correlated with β-carotene accumulation in fruit-pulp of the Rasthali. The docking analysis followed enzyme assay of purified RAS-CCD4 suggested β-carotene and 10-apo-β-carotenal as its preferred substrates. Bacterial complementation assay affirmed RAS-CCD4 role in β-carotene degradation and then overexpression of the RAS-CCD4 in the Arabidopsis thaliana further validated results in-vivo by the significant reduction in β-carotene. Subsequently, CRISPR/Cas9 mediated editing of CCD4 was demonstrated in the protoplasts and embryogenic cell lines of Rasthali. The carotenoid profiling in stable mutant lines revealed higher fold β-carotene accumulation in non-green tissue (roots) than in green tissue (leaf) compared with the unedited control plants. The differential expression of carotenoid pathway genes was correlated with the metabolites in the edited lines. The study suggests that carotenoid catabolism is regulated by the CCD4 in tissue and cultivar specific manners, and also demonstrated the use of the genome editing tool in developing transgene-free biofortified banana.
Custom methods to identify conserved genetic modules applied to novel transcriptomic data from Amborella trichopoda
Authors: Rivarola Sena Ana C , Andres-Robin Amélie , Vialette Aurelie C , Just Jérémy , Launay-Avon Alexandra , Borrega Néro , Dubreucq Bertrand , Scutt Charles P
Published: February 2022

We have devised a procedure for the inter-species comparison of transcriptomic data and used this procedure to reconstruct the expression dynamics of major genetic modules that were present at least 149 million years ago in the most recent common ancestor of living angiosperms. We began by using laser-assisted microdissection to generate novel transcriptomic data from female flower tissues of Amborella trichopoda, the likely sister to all other living angiosperms. We then employed a gene-expression clustering method, followed by a custom procedure to compare genetic modules on the basis of gene orthology between Amborella and the molecular-genetic model angiosperm Arabidopsis thaliana. Using this protocol, we succeeded in identifying nine major genetic modules that appear to have conserved their expression dynamics from an early stage in angiosperm evolution. The genes of these modules, representing over 5000 orthogroups, include around one third of those known to control female reproductive development in Arabidopsis. Our study constitutes a proof of concept for the comparison of transcriptomic data between widely diverged plant species and represents a first step in the large-scale analysis of gene expression dynamics in a macro-evolutionary context.
Is Prehospital Ketamine Associated With a Change in the Prognosis of PTSD?
Authors: Melcer Ted , Walker G Jay , Dye Judy L , Walrath Benjamin , MacGregor Andrew J , Perez Katheryne , Galarneau Michael R
Published: February 2022

Introduction

Ketamine is an alternative to opioids for prehospital analgesia following serious combat injury. Limited research has examined prehospital ketamine use, associated injuries including traumatic brain injury (TBI) and PTSD outcomes following serious combat injury.

Materials and Methods

We randomly selected 398 U.S. service members from the Expeditionary Medical Encounter Database who sustained serious combat injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2010-2013. Of these 398 patients, 213 individuals had charted prehospital medications. Clinicians reviewed casualty records to identify injuries and all medications administered. Outcomes were PTSD diagnoses during the first year and during the first 2 years postinjury extracted from military health databases. We compared PTSD outcomes for patients treated with either (a) prehospital ketamine (with or without opioids) or (b) prehospital opioids (without ketamine).

Results

Fewer patients received prehospital ketamine (26%, 56 of 213) than only prehospital opioids (69%, 146 of 213) (5%, 11 of 213 received neither ketamine nor opioids). The ketamine group averaged significantly more moderate-to-serious injuries, particularly lower limb amputations and open wounds, compared with the opioid group (Ps < .05). Multivariable regressions showed a significant interaction between prehospital ketamine (versus opioids) and TBI on first-year PTSD (P = .027). In subsequent comparisons, the prehospital ketamine group had significantly lower odds of first-year PTSD (OR = 0.08, 95% CI [0.01, 0.71], P = .023) versus prehospital opioids only among patients who did not sustain TBI. We also report results from separate analyses of PTSD outcomes among patients treated with different prehospital opioids only (without ketamine), either morphine or fentanyl.

Conclusions

The present results showed that patients treated with prehospital ketamine had significantly lower odds of PTSD during the first year postinjury only among patients who did not sustain TBI. These findings can inform combat casualty care guidelines for use of prehospital ketamine and opioid analgesics following serious combat injury.
Identifying blue large amplitude pulsators from Gaia DR2 and ZTF DR3
Authors: McWhirter Paul Ross , Lam Marco C
Published: February 2022

Blue large amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) are hot, subluminous stars undergoing rapid variability with periods of under 60 min. They have been linked with the early stages of pre-white dwarfs and hot subdwarfs. They are a rare class of variable star due to their evolutionary history within interacting binary systems and the short time-scales relative to their lifetime in which they are pulsationally unstable. All currently known BLAPs are relatively faint (15–19 mag) and are located in the Galactic plane. These stars have intrinsically blue colours but the large interstellar extinction in the Galactic plane prevents them from swift identification using colour-based selection criteria. In this paper, we correct the Gaia G-band apparent magnitude and GBP − GRP colours of 89.6 million sources brighter than 19 mag in the Galactic plane with good quality photometry combined with supplementary all-sky data totalling 162.3 million sources. Selecting sources with colours consistent with the known population of BLAPs and performing a cross-match with the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) DR3, we identify 98 short period candidate variables. Manual inspection of the period-folded light curves reveals 22 candidate BLAPs. Of these targets, 6 are consistent with the observed periods and light curves of the known BLAPs, 10 are within the theoretical period range of BLAPs, and 6 are candidate high-gravity BLAPs. We present follow-up spectra of 21 of these candidate sources and propose to classify one of them as a BLAP, and tentatively assign an additional eight of them as BLAPs for future population studies.
Improved selection of extremely red quasars with boxy C iv lines in BOSS
Authors: Monadi Reza , Bird Simeon
Published: February 2022

Extremely red quasars (ERQs) are an interesting sample of quasars in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Sample (BOSS) in the redshift range of 2.0–3.4 and have extreme red colours of i − W3 ≥ 4.6. Core ERQs have strong C  iv emission lines with rest equivalent width of ≥100 Å. Many core ERQs also have C  iv line profiles with peculiar boxy shapes which distinguish them from normal blue quasars. We show, using a combination of kernel density estimation and local outlier factor analyses on a space of the i − W3 colour, C iv rest equivalent width and line kurtosis, that core ERQs likely represent a separate population rather than a smooth transition between normal blue quasars and the quasars in the tail of the colour-REW distribution. We apply our analyses to find new criteria for selecting ERQs in this 3D parameter space. Our final selection produces 133 quasars, which are three times more likely to have a visually verified C iv broad absorption line feature than the previous core ERQ sample. We further show that our newly selected sample are extreme objects in the intersection of the WISE AGN catalogue with the MILLIQUAS quasar catalogue in the colour–colour space of (W1 − W2, W2 − W3). This paper validates an improved selection method for red quasars which can be applied to future data sets such as the quasar catalogue from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.
Dirty waveforms: multiband harmonic content of gas-embedded gravitational wave sources
Authors: Zwick Lorenz , Derdzinski Andrea , Garg Mudit , Capelo Pedro R , Mayer Lucio
Published: February 2022

We analyse the effect of stochastic torque fluctuations on the orbital evolution and the gravitational wave (GW) emission of gas-embedded sources with intermediate and extreme mass ratios. We show that gas-driven fluctuations imprint additional harmonic content in the GWs of the binary system, which we dub dirty waveforms (DWs). We find three interesting observational prospects for DWs, provided that torque fluctuations do indeed persist beyond the resolution limit of current hydrodynamical simulations. First, DWs can produce a significant stochastic GW background, comparable to other GW noise sources. Secondly, the energy flux implied by the additional harmonics can cause a detectable secular phase shift in Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) sources, even if the net torque fluctuations vanish when averaged over orbital time-scales. Lastly, the DWs of moderate-redshift nHz supermassive binaries detectable by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) could be detectable in the mHz range, producing a new type of PTA–LISA multiband gravitational source. Our results suggest that searching for DWs and their effects can potentially be a novel way to probe the heaviest of black holes and the physics of the accretion discs surrounding them. We find these results to be a further confirmation of the many exciting prospects of actively searching for environmental effects within the data stream of future GW detectors.
Dietary magnesium supplementation inhibits abdominal vascular calcification in an experimental animal model of chronic kidney disease
Authors: Leenders Nicoline H J , Bos Caro , Hoekstra Tiny , Schurgers Leon J , Vervloet Marc G , Hoenderop Joost G J
Published: February 2022

Background

Vascular calcification is a key process involved in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Magnesium supplementation may counteract vascular calcification. In this study we aimed to determine whether increased dietary magnesium intake inhibits vascular calcification in CKD in vivo and explore the mechanisms underlying these effects.

Methods

Sprague Dawley rats were partially nephrectomized and fed a diet with high phosphate and either high or normal magnesium content for 16 weeks. The primary outcome was the tissue calcium content of the aorta in the high versus normal dietary magnesium group. In addition, we analysed plasma mineral concentrations, aortic vascular calcification identified with von Kossa staining, calcium apposition time and aortic expression of genes related to vascular calcification.

Results

The number of animals in the highest tissue calcium content tertile was significantly lower in the abdominal aorta [1 (10%) versus 6 (55%); P = .03] in the high versus normal dietary magnesium group, but did not differ in the aortic arch and thoracic aorta. Von Kossa staining and calcium apposition time corresponded to these results. The median tissue calcium content was not significantly different between the groups. Serum phosphate concentrations and expression of osteogenic markers in the aorta did not differ between the groups.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that increased dietary magnesium inhibits abdominal vascular calcification in an experimental animal model of CKD in vivo. These are promising results for CKD patients and further study is needed to identify the mechanisms involved and to determine the clinical relevance in patients.
The Cylinder Unscrews
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

When I returned to the common the sun was setting. Scattered groups were hurrying from the direction of Woking, and one or two persons were returning. The crowd about the pit had increased, and stood out black against the lemon-yellow of the sky—a couple of hundred people, perhaps. There were a number of voices raised, and some sort of struggle appeared to be going on about the pit. Strange imaginings passed through my mind. As I drew nearer I heard Stent’s voice:
What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

As the dawn grew brighter we withdrew ourselves from the window from which we had watched the Martians, and went very quietly downstairs.

The artilleryman agreed with me that the house was no place to stay in. He proposed, he said, to make his way Londonward, and thence rejoin his battery—No. 12, of the Horse Artillery. My plan was to return at once to Leatherhead, and so greatly had the strength of the Martians impressed me that I had determined to take my wife to Newhaven,* and go with her out of the country forthwith. For I already perceived clearly that the country about London must inevitably be the scene of a disastrous struggle before such creatures as these could be destroyed.
The Evil-Looking Boatmen
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

But the islanders, seeing I was really adrift, took pity on me. I drifted very slowly to the eastward, approaching the island slantingly, and presently I saw with hysterical relief the launch come round and return towards me. She was heavily laden, and as she drew near I could make out Montgomery’s white-haired broad-shouldered companion sitting cramped up with the dogs and several packing-cases in the stern sheets. This individual stared fixedly at me without moving or speaking. The black-faced cripple was glaring at me as fixedly in the bows near the puma. There were three other men besides, strange brutish-looking fellows, at whom the staghounds were snarling savagely. Montgomery, who was steering, brought the boat by me, and, rising, caught and fastened my painter* to the tiller to tow me—for there was no room aboard.
The Locked Door
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

The reader will perhaps understand that at first everything was so strange about me, and my position was the outcome of such unexpected adventures, that I had no discernment of the relative strangeness of this or that thing about me. I followed the llama up the beach, and was overtaken by Montgomery, who asked me not to enter the stone enclosure. I noticed then that the puma in its cage and the pile of packages, had been placed outside the entrance to this quadrangle.
Doctor Moreau Explains
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

‘And now, Prendick, I will explain,’ said Doctor Moreau, so soon as we had eaten and drunk. ‘I must confess you are the most dictatorial guest I ever entertained. I warn you that this is the last I do to oblige you. The next thing you threaten to commit suicide about I shan’t do—even at some personal inconvenience.’
How the Beast Folk Tasted Blood
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

But my inexperience as a writer betrays me, and I wander from the thread of my story. After I had breakfasted with Montgomery he took me across the island to see the fumarolle and the source of the hot spring, into whose scalding waters I had blundered on the previous day. Both of us carried whips and loaded revolvers. While going through a leafy jungle on our road thither we heard a rabbit squealing. We stopped and listened, but we heard no more, and presently we went on our way, and the incident dropped out of our minds.
A Catastrophe
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

Scarcely six weeks passed before I had lost every feeling but dislike and abhorrence for these infamous experiments of Moreau’s. My one idea was to get away from these horrible caricatures of my Maker’s image, back to the sweet and wholesome intercourse of men. My fellow-creatures, from whom I was thus separated, began to assume idyllic virtue and beauty in my memory. My first friendship with Montgomery did not increase. His long separation from humanity, his secret vice of drunkenness, his evident sympathy with the Beast People, tainted him to me. Several times I let him go alone among them. I avoided intercourse with them in every possible way. I spent an increasing proportion of my time upon the beach, looking for some liberating sail that never appeared, until one day there fell upon us an appalling disaster, that put an altogether different aspect upon my strange surroundings.
The Finding of Moreau
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

When I saw Montgomery swallow a third dose of brandy I took it upon myself to interfere. He was already more than half-fuddled. I told him that some serious thing must have happened to Moreau by this time, or he would have returned, and that it behoved us to ascertain what that catastrophe was. Montgomery raised some feeble objections, and at last agreed. We had some food, and then all three of us started.
Alone with the Beast Folk
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

I faced these people, facing my fate in them, single-handed—now literally single-handed, for I had a broken arm. In my pocket was a revolver with two empty chambers. Among the chips scattered about the beach lay the two axes that had been used to chop up the boats. The tide was creeping in behind me.
The Thousand and One Bottles
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

So it was that on the 29th day of February, at the beginning of the thaw, this singular person fell out of infinity into Iping village. Next day his luggage arrived through the slush — and very remarkable luggage it was. There were a couple of trunks, indeed, such as a rational man might have, but in addition there were a box of books — big, fat books, of which some were just in an incomprehensible handwriting — and a dozen or more crates, boxes, and cases, containing objects packed in straw — as it seemed to Hall, tugging with a casual curiosity at the straw — glass bottles. The stranger, muffled in hat, coat, gloves, and wrapper, came out impatiently to meet Fearenside’s cart while Hall was having a word or so of gossip preparatory to helping bring them in. Out he came, not noticing Fearenside’s dog, who was sniffing in a dilettante spirit at Hall’s legs.
Mr Cuss Interviews the Stranger
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

I have told the circumstances of the stranger’s arrival in Iping with a certain fulness of detail, in order that the curious impression he created may be understood by the reader. But excepting two odd incidents, the circumstances of his stay until the extraordinary day of the club festival may be passed over very cursorily. There were a number of skirmishes with Mrs Hall on matters of domestic discipline, but in every case until late in April, when the first signs of penury began, he overrode her by the easy expedient of an extra payment. Hall did not like him, and whenever he dared he talked of the advisability of getting rid of him; but he showed his dislike mainly by concealing it ostentatiously, and avoiding his visitor as much as possible. ‘Wait till the summer,’ said Mrs Hall sagely, ‘when the artisks* are beginning to come. Then we’ll see. He may be a bit overbearing, but bills settled punctual is bills settled punctual, whatever you likes to say.’
The Unveiling of the Stranger
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

The stranger went into the little parlour of the ‘Coach and Horses’ about half-past five in the morning, and there he remained until near midday, the blinds down, the door shut, and none, after Hall’s repulse, venturing near him.
Mr Thomas Marvel
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

You must picture Mr Thomas Marvel as a person of copious, flexible visage, a nose of cylindrical protrusion, a liquorish, ample, fluctuating mouth, and a beard of bristling eccentricity. His figure inclined to embonpoint,* his short limbs accentuated this inclination. He wore a furry silk hat, and the frequent substitution of twine and shoe-laces for buttons, apparent at critical points of his costume, marked a man essentially bachelor.
Certain First Principles
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Kemp, when the Invisible Man admitted him.
In the Emporium
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

‘So last January, with the beginning of a snowstorm in the air about me — and if it settled on me it would betray me! — weary, cold, painful, inexpressibly wretched, and still but half convinced of my invisible quality, I began this new life to which I am committed. I had no refuge, no appliances, no human being in the whole world in whom I could confide. To have told my secret would have given me away — made a mere show and rarity of me. Nevertheless I was half-minded to accost some passer-by and throw myself upon his mercy. But I knew too clearly the terror and brutal cruelty my advances would evoke. I made no plans in the street. My sole object was to get shelter from the snow, to get myself covered and warm, then I might hope to plan. But even to me, an Invisible Man, the rows of London houses stood latched, barred, and bolted impregnably.
The Journey to the Moon
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

Presently Cavor extinguished the light. He said we had not overmuch energy stored, and that what we had we must economise for reading. For a time, whether it was long or short I do not know, there was nothing but blank darkness.
The Landing on the Moon
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

I remember how one day Cavor suddenly opened six of our shutters and blinded me so that i cried aloud at him. The whole area was moon, a stupendous scimitar of white dawn with its edge hacked out by notches of darkness, the crescent shore of an ebbing tide of darkness, out of which peaks and pinnacles came climbing into the blaze of the sun. I take it the reader has seen pictures or photographs of the moon,* so that I need not describe the broader features of that landscape, those spacious ringlike ranges vaster than any terrestrial mountains, their summits shining in the day, their shadows harsh and deep, the grey disordered plains, the ridges, hills, and craterlets, all passing at last from a blazing illumination into a common mystery of black. Athwart this world we were flying scarcely a hundred miles above its crests and pinnacles. And now we could see, what no eye on earth will ever see, that under the blaze of the day the harsh outlines of the rocks and ravines of the plains and crater floor grew grey and indistinct under a thickening haze, that the white of their lit surfaces broke into lumps and patches, and broke again and shrank and vanished, and that here and there strange tints of brown and olive grew and spread.
A Lunar Morning
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

The harsh emphasis, the pitiless black and white of the scenery had altogether disappeared. The glare of the sun had taken upon itself a faint tinge of amber; the shadows upon the cliff of the crater wall were deeply purple. To the eastward a dark bank of fog still crouched and sheltered from the sunrise, but to the westward the sky was blue and clear. I began to realise the length of my insensibility.
Mr Bedford at Littlestone
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

My line of flight was about parallel with the surface as I came into the upper air. The temperature of the sphere began to rise forthwith. I knew it behoved me to drop at once. Far below me, in a darkling twilight, stretched a great expanse of sea. I opened every window I could, and fell—out of sunshine into evening, and out of evening into night. Vaster grew the earth and vaster, swallowing up the stars, and the silvery translucent starlit veil of cloud it wore spread out to catch me. At last the world seemed no longer a sphere but flat, and then concave. It was no longer a planet in the sky, but the world of Man. I shut all but an inch or so of earthward window, and dropped with a slackening velocity. The broadening water, now so near that I could see the dark glitter of the waves, rushed up to meet me. The sphere became very hot. I snapped the last strip of window, and sat scowling and biting my knuckles, waiting for the impact....
The Last Message Cavor Sent to the Earth
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

In this unsatisfactory manner the penultimate message of Cavor dies out. One seems to see him away there in the blue obscurity amidst his apparatus intently signalling us to the last, all unaware of the curtain of confusion that drops between us; all unaware, too, of the final dangers that even then must have been creeping upon him. His disastrous want of vulgar common sense had utterly betrayed him. He had talked of war, he had talked of all the strength and irrational violence of men, of their insatiable aggressions, their tireless futility of conflict. He had filled the whole moon world with this impression of our race, and then I think it is plain that he made the most fatal admission that upon himself alone hung the possibility—at least for a long time — of any further men reaching the moon. The line the cold, inhuman reason of the moon would take seems plain enough to me, and a suspicion of it, and then perhaps some sudden sharp realisation of it, must have come to him. One imagines him going about the moon with the remorse of this fatal indiscretion growing in his mind. During a certain time I am inclined to guess the Grand Lunar was deliberating the new situation, and for all that time Cavor may have gone as free as ever he had gone. But obstacles of some sort prevented his getting to his electro-magnetic apparatus again after that message I have just given. For some days we received nothing. Perhaps he was having fresh audiences, and trying to evade his previous admissions. Who can hope to guess?
In The Golden Age
Authors: Wells H. G.
Published: February 2022

‘In another moment we were standing face to face, I and this fragile thing out of futurity. He came straight up to me and laughed into my eyes. The absence from his bearing of any sign of fear struck me at once. Then he turned to the two others who were following him and spoke to them in a strange and very sweet and liquid tongue.
Mr. Kemble’s King John
Authors: Hazlitt William
Published: February 2022

We wish we had never seen Mr. Kean. He has destroyed the Kemble religion; and it is the religion in which we were brought up. Never again shall we behold Mr. Kemble with the same pleasure that we did, nor see Mr. Kean with the same pleasure that we have seen Mr. Kemble formerly. We used to admire Mr. Kemble’s figure and manner, and had no idea that there was any want of art or nature. We feel the force and nature of Mr. Kean’s acting, but then we feel the want of Mr. Kemble’s person. Thus an old and delightful prejudice is destroyed, and no new enthusiasm, no second idolatry comes to take its place. Thus, by degrees, knowledge robs us of pleasure, and the cold icy hand of experience freezes up the warm current of the imagination, and crusts it over with unfeeling criticism.
On Court-Influence
Authors: Hazlitt William
Published: February 2022

It is not interest alone, but prejudice or fashion that sways the generality of mankind. Opinion governs opinion. It is not merely what we can get by a certain line of conduct that we have to consider, but what others will think of it. The possession of money is but one mode of recommending ourselves to the good opinion of the world, of securing distinction and respect. Except as a bribe to popularity, money is of very limited value. Avarice is (oftener than we might at first suspect) only vanity in disguise. We should not want fine clothes or fine houses, an equipage or livery servants, but for what others will think of us for having or wanting them. The chief and most expensive commodity that money is laid out in purchasing, is respect. Money, like other things, is worth no more than it will fetch. It is a passport into society: but if other things will answer the same purpose; as beauty, birth, wit, learning, desert in art or arms, dress, behaviour, the want of money is not felt as a very severe privation.
On the Pleasure of Hating
Authors: Hazlitt William
Published: February 2022

There is a spider crawling along the matted floor of the room where I sit (not the one which has been so well allegorised in the admirable Lines to a Spider,* but another of the same edifying breed) — he runs with heedless, hurried haste, he hobbles awkwardly towards me, he stops — he sees the giant shadow before him, and, at a loss whether to retreat or proceed, meditates his huge foe — but as I do not start up and seize upon the straggling caitiff, as he would upon a hapless fly within his toils, he takes heart, and ventures on, with mingled cunning, impudence, and fear. As he passes me, I lift up the matting to assist his escape, am glad to get rid of the unwelcome intruder, and shudder at the recollection after he is gone. A child, a woman, a clown, or a moralist a century ago, would have crushed the little reptile to death — my philosophy has got beyond that — I bear the creature no ill-will, but still I hate the very sight of it. The spirit of malevolence survives the practical exertion of it. We learn to curb our will and keep our overt actions within the bounds of humanity, long before we can subdue our sentiments and imaginations to the same mild tone.
The Spirit of Controversy
Authors: Hazlitt William
Published: February 2022

The Spirit of Controversy has often been arraigned as the source of much bitterness and vexation, as productive of ‘envy, malice, and all uncharitableness:’* and the charge, no doubt, is too well founded. But it is said to be an ill wind that blows nobody good; and there are few evils in life that have not some qualifying circumstance attending them. It is one of the worst consequences of this very spirit of controversy that it has led men to regard things too much in a single and exaggerated point of view. Truth is not one thing, but has many aspects and many shades of difference; it is neither all black nor all white; sees something wrong on its own side, something right in others; makes concessions to an adversary, allowances for human frailty, and is nearer akin to charity than the dealers in controversy or the declaimers against it are apt to imagine. The bigot and partisan (influenced by the very spirit he finds fault with) sees nothing in the endless disputes which have tormented and occupied men’s thoughts but an abuse of learning and a waste of time: the philosopher may still find an excuse for so bad or idle a practice.
The Free Admission
Authors: Hazlitt William
Published: February 2022

A Free Admission is the lotos of the mind: the leaf in which your name is inscribed as having the privileges of the entrée for the season is of an oblivious quality — an antidote for half the ills of life. I speak here not of a purchased but of a gift-ticket, an emanation of the generosity of the Managers, a token of conscious desert. With the first you can hardly bring yourself to go to the theatre; with the last, you cannot keep away. If you have paid five guineas for a free-admission for the season, this free-admission turns to a mere slavery. You seem to have done a foolish thing, and to have committed an extravagance under the plea of economy. You are struck with remorse. You are impressed with a conviction that pleasure is not to be bought. You have paid for your privilege in the lump, and you receive the benefit in driblets. The five pounds you are out of pocket does not meet with an adequate compensation the first night, or on any single occasion — you must come again, and use double diligence to strike a balance to make up your large arrears; instead of an obvious saving, it hangs as a deadweight on your satisfaction all the year; and the improvident price you have paid for them kills every ephemeral enjoyment, and poisons the flattering illusions of the scene.
Aboard Ship
Authors: Dickens Charles
Published: February 2022

my journeys as Uncommercial Traveller for the firm of Human Interest Brothers, have not slackened since I last reported of them, but have kept me continually on the move. I remain in the same idle employment. I never solicit an order, I never get any commission, I am the rolling stone that gathers no moss—unless any should by chance be found among these Samples.
Plankton community response to fronts: winners and losers
Authors: Mangolte Inès , Lévy Marina , Dutkiewicz Stephanie , Clayton Sophie , Jahn Oliver
Published: February 2022

Fronts are particularly productive regions of the ocean, and biodiversity hotspots for many marine species. Here we use an ocean-ecosystem model to investigate the effect of fronts on plankton ecology. We focus on energetic fronts in Western Boundary Current systems that efficiently inject nutrients into the euphotic layer and which are physical boundaries between productive and oligotrophic provinces. We found that the fronts form an environment distinct from both provinces, favorable to some plankton groups (diatoms, dinoflagellates and large carnivorous zooplankton) and less favorable to others (pico-phytoplankton, coccolithophores and small grazers), and with an overall larger diversity. In agreement with previous understanding, we find that bottom-up abiotic processes (nutrient enrichment) explain the prevalence of groups with fast growing rates (the “winners”). Importantly, our results also show that biotic interactions within the ecosystem may play a larger role than previously thought. We show that the winners can have a negative impact on other plankton species (the “losers”) through two indirect competitive processes: community shading (modification of the light environment by the plankton community leading to light-limitation of some plankton groups) and shared predation (where an increase in one functional group leads to increased grazing by a shared predator on another functional group).
Mutual Fund Liquidity Transformation and Reverse Flight to Liquidity
Authors: Ma Yiming , Xiao Kairong , Zeng Yao
Published: February 2022

We identify fixed-income mutual funds as an important contributor to the unusually high selling pressure in liquid asset markets during the COVID-19 crisis. We show that mutual funds experienced pronounced investor outflows amplified by their liquidity transformation. In meeting redemptions, funds followed a pecking order by first selling their liquid assets, including Treasuries and high-quality corporate bonds, which generated the most concentrated selling pressure in these markets. Overall, the estimated price impact of mutual funds was sizable at a third of the increase in Treasury yields and a quarter of the increase in corporate bond yields during the COVID-19 crisis.
Predictors of rituximab effect on modified Rodnan skin score in systemic sclerosis: a machine-learning analysis of the DesiReS trial
Authors: Ebata Satoshi , Oba Koji , Kashiwabara Kosuke , Ueda Keiko , Uemura Yukari , Watadani Takeyuki , Fukasawa Takemichi , Miura Shunsuke , Yoshizaki-Ogawa Asako , Yoshihide Asano , Yoshizaki Ayumi , Sato Shinichi
Published: February 2022

Objectives

The double-blind, parallel-group comparison, investigators initiated phase II clinical trial of IDEC-C2B8 (Rituximab) in patients with Systemic sclerosis (DesiReS) trial showed that rituximab is effective in treating skin sclerosis in SSc. However, which patient groups are likely to benefit from rituximab is unknown.

Methods

We performed post-hoc analysis of prospective data from 54 patients who received rituximab or placebo in the DesiReS trial. Twenty-seven baseline factors were used to investigate subpopulations with different magnitudes of rituximab effect on modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) change at 24 weeks. Based on a machine-learning algorithm called the causal tree, we explored the combination of predictors needed to identify subpopulations that would respond to rituximab and have good treatment outcomes.

Results

Three factors were identified as branches of the decision tree: peripheral blood CD19-positive cell counts’, ‘mRSS’, and ‘serum surfactant protein D (SP-D) levels’. It was only in the subpopulation of patients with CD19-positive cell counts of <57/μl that rituximab did not show a significant improvement in mRSS vs placebo. In the subpopulation of patients with CD19-positive cell counts of ≥57/μl and mRSS ≥ 17, mRSS was most improved with rituximab [difference −17.06 (95% CI: −24.22, −9.89)]. The second greatest improvement in mRSS with rituximab was in the subpopulation with CD19-positive cell counts of ≥57/μl, mRSS < 17, and serum SP-D levels of ≥151 ng/ml [difference −10.35 (95% CI: −14.77, −5.93)].

Conclusion

SSc patients who have high CD19-positive cell counts and high mRSS are expected to have greater improvement in mRSS with rituximab. When the patients with high CD19-positive cell counts show low mRSS, serum SP-D levels may modify the treatment effect.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov, https://clinicaltrials.gov, NCT04274257 and UMIN-CTR; https://center6.umin.ac.jp, UMIN000030139.
The school that moved: when does land cease to be used for charitable purposes?
Authors: Fry Rebecca
Published: February 2022

In Rittson-Thomas v Oxfordshire County Council [2021] UKSC 13 the Supreme Court held that school sites conveyed under the School Sites Act 1841 can be sold with vacant possession, provided the trustees have a clear intention to use the sale proceeds to buy or improve replacement school premises. The Court’s “broad and practical” approach maximises flexibility for local authorities and other school site trustees, while its finding that the balance struck by the Act leans in favour of public rather than private interests has wider implications for the construction of charitable trusts.