bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Selecting a Target Journal
Authors: Schwartz Seth J.
Published: November 2021

This chapter discusses ways to identify journals to which one will submit one’s work. Authors are encouraged to identify target journals as early in the writing process as possible so that they can write specifically for an intended journal and audience. The chapter introduces a system where journals are ranked as high, moderate, or low prestige, and authors are encouraged to match the contribution of their work with a journal’s prestige level. Authors are also encouraged to consult the journal’s editorial board and recent issues to ensure that a given journal is a good fit for their work. The chapter reassures authors that the majority of journals are moderate-prestige, and that the majority of articles are therefore published in moderate-prestige journals. Authors are cautioned about submitting to low-prestige journals, especially those that do not use rigorous peer review.
What to Do With Rejected Manuscripts
Authors: Schwartz Seth J.
Published: November 2021

This chapter offers guidance to authors whose manuscripts have been rejected by journals. Rejection is normalized as an experience that all active scholars will undergo during their careers, and the chapter provides suggestions to handle both (a) the logistical process of preparing a manuscript for submission to another journal and (b) the emotional fallout from having one’s work rejected. The chapter also provides guidance for deciding whether, and how, to appeal a rejection decision. The chapter discusses “cursed” manuscripts that have been repeatedly rejected and offers suggestions for how to proceed when a manuscript has been rejected by three or more journals. Authors must decide whether to continue submitting a cursed manuscript to high- or moderate-prestige journals, to “dump” the paper into a low-prestige journal, or to drop the paper entirely. Implications of this decision for authors’ career trajectories are discussed.
Conclusion
Authors: Schwartz Seth J.
Published: November 2021

This chapter introduces Dr. Schwartz and provides an outline for the book. The chapter allows readers to get to know the author and to gain wisdom about publishing, mentorship, and forging a line of research based on a career trajectory. The chapter provides take-away messages based on Dr. Schwartz’s professional experiences and sets up the structure for the remainder of the book.
Making Officers out of Gentlemen
Authors: Dutta Vipul
Published: November 2021

The early twentieth century in India witnessed a remarkable wave of institution-building as part of the subcontinent’s wider political, social and educational transformation. This book highlights the fascinating yet unexplored history of some of India’s iconic military training and educational institutions from the 1900s until 1960. It offers an institutional perspective on Indian history foregrounding key questions of educational policy, strategy and civil-military relations. The book covers a broad network of institutions – starting from the early preparatory schools in the northwest that sprang up from the 1890s to the post-independence national institutions like the National Defence Academy (NDA) among others. In chronicling the evolution, development and management of these institutions, the book will offer insights into the process of ‘Indianisation’ of the military in India.
In Praise of Heresy
Authors: Jahanbegloo Ramin
Published: November 2021

In today's global climate of pre-packaged opinions, every effort of original thinking is an act of dissent. To think radically today is to be a heretic: committing ‘heresy’ not in its theological sense, but in relation to its ancient Greek roots, which means ‘choice’. With the rise of the post-industrial global village dominated by media networks and technology-led communication, the ‘epidemic of conformism’ has completely paralysed intellectuals' ability to question. It has now become critical to examine the central role of heresy in the formation of critical thinking and anti-dogmatism. Since the time of Socrates to the present, public intellectuals have aligned themselves with the heretical imperative by questioning organized power and opened up social, political, economic, and cultural life to public scrutiny and accountability. This effort is described in this book through the self-examined lives of philosophers such as Socrates and José Ortega y Gasset, Albert Camus, and Yukio Mishima. They serve to elaborate the context of the author's bold claim that B.R. Ambedkar, the central character of the author's research, is the boldest heretic in Indian political history.
Structured Population Models
Authors: Essington Timothy E.
Published: November 2021

The chapter “Structured Population Models” illustrates how one adds more detail to a model, first through density-independent models, then by showing common matrix-model formulations and how those are used to reveal properties of structured models (e.g. population growth rate, stage/age structure). Structured population models have more detail than their nonstructured counterparts. They account for the differences among individuals within a population, usually by explicitly modeling them as distinct state variables. Elasticity analysis is introduced as a way to identify life stages that have a disproportionately large influence on population growth rate. Structured density-dependent models are briefly introduced as extensions on these models.
Competition and Predation Models
Authors: Essington Timothy E.
Published: November 2021

The chapter “Competition and Predation Models” considers models with two or more interacting species. What needs to happen for there to be “stable equilibria” that contain all possible members of a system? This is where simple models can be useful: these interactions can be represented by mathematical equations, and then solved for conditions that allow species to coexist. This chapter shows three techniques that make it possible to take a model system and determine whether the system has a stable equilibrium with all members present. The basic principles of model stability are presented, as well as how mathematical models can be used to address basic ecological questions in competition and predator-prey systems. Isocline analysis and analytical stability analysis are explained as ways to predict model behavior and are then used to draw inferences about the processes acting in the real world.
Why Fit Models to Data?
Authors: Essington Timothy E.
Published: November 2021

“Why Fit Models to Data?” is a brief introductory chapter that sets the stage for the forthcoming chapters and serves as a link between Part 1, which contains the introductory chapters on mathematical ecology, and Part 2, which contains the statistical analyses of the models presented in Part 1: Part 1 illustrated how models can be used to make inferences about the real world, to help clarify ecological understanding, aid decision-making, and evaluate risk. However, if models are presented as hypotheses written in mathematical form, then it becomes possible to use statistical methods to determine which hypotheses have the greatest support. Part 2 will focus on developing statistical tools so that the reader will be able to express hypotheses as mathematical models, fit the models to data, and assess the degree of support for each. The chapter also illustrates the limitations of null-hypothesis testing in decision-making in high-dimensional, multicausal systems.
Model Selection
Authors: Essington Timothy E.
Published: November 2021

The chapter “Model Selection” provides a brief overview of alternative ways of thinking about what is (are) the best model(s) and shows the core motivation behind the Akaike information criterion as a measure of the predictive ability of a model fitted via maximum likelihood. It then gives stepwise practical guidance for using information theory as a basis of model selection, including nested versus non-nested models, goodness of fit, and overdispersion. Advanced topics cover some of the philosophy of information theory, other types of information theory criteria, and other ways of evaluating the predictive ability of models. As an example, the chapter examines the case of the Western monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus plexippus), which, over the past two decades, has experienced a 97% decline from its historical average abundance, declining by 86% from 2017 to 2018 alone. Undoubtedly, there is more than one cause—indeed, overwintering habitat loss and pesticide use are both believed to be important contributors to the decline. Adopting a hypothesis-evaluation framework makes it possible to consider multiple alternative hypotheses simultaneously and measure degrees of support for alternative hypotheses.
Modeling in R
Authors: Essington Timothy E.
Published: November 2021

The chapter “Modeling in R” covers the basic interface of R and R Studio, types of objects, core programming language tools, common and useful commands, and creating functions. This chapter is not a substitute for a dedicated book or training program on R; rather, it gives the basics needed to get the reader started. It starts off with an overview of the basics of coding in R and provides some of the statistical functions that might be used in modeling. Next, it discusses basic plotting, data input and output, and the concept of looping. It then works though a logistic population growth model to see how a dynamic model might be implemented in R. The chapter concludes with an explanation of how to create functions in R.
The Virosphere
Authors: Crawford Dorothy H.
Published: November 2021

This chapter provides an overview of the virosphere. Viruses are fundamentally different from all other organisms, including other microbes. They are honed to the bare essentials required to survive, albeit through a parasitic lifestyle. They cannot do anything on their own, so they are obliged to penetrate a living cell and take control. The weakening of the host cells which viruses inhabit can in some cases have unexpected and bizarre effects on the infected cells and on the animal or plant hosting the virus. One famous example of such an effect occurred in Holland in the seventeenth century, when beautiful variegated tulip flowers were first cultivated, causing what became known as tulipomania. The chapter then considers three theories on the origin of viruses: the progressive, the regressive, and the virus-first theories. It also explains how viruses spread, looking at food poisoning, coughs and sneezes, and also man-made virus transmission and mother-to-child transmission.
Human Dignity and Tragic Choices
Authors: Hill, Jr. Thomas E.
Published: November 2021

This essay comments on the aspirations and limits of normative ethical theory, some merits of a broadly Kantian version, the common complaint that Kantian ethics refuses to admit exceptions to familiar moral principles, objections to the idea of human dignity, examples of lies and torture, and the value of details and simplicity in ethics.
Stability, A Sense of Justice, and Self-Respect
Authors: Hill, Jr. Thomas E.
Published: November 2021

This essay reviews the role of a sense of justice and self-respect in Rawls’ arguments in A Theory of Justice that a well-ordered society based on his principles of justice would be relatively stable. Questions concern Rawls’ conception of the relation between ethics and empirical psychology, the potential value of his discussion of a sense of justice independently of the particular developmental story that he proposes (following Kohlberg), Rawls’ conception of self-respect, and how it differs from a Kantian conception of self-respect, and Rawls’ reasons for abandoning his argument for stability in A Theory of Justice in favor of an argument from overlapping consensus in Political Liberalism.
Introduction
Authors: Copley Jack
Published: November 2021

This chapter introduces the concept of financialization, surveys the scholarly literature on this topic, and makes the case for this book’s novel contribution to these debates. It is widely recognized that the world economy has become financialized, yet the role of states in furthering this process has been underexamined. While many accounts point out that states were crucial in propelling financialization through policies of financial liberalization, these accounts tend to argue that the state did so either due to the lobbying power of financial elites and the influence of neoliberal norms or because policymakers were seeking to construct an alternative growth model based on financial accumulation. These two accounts of the role of states in spurring financialization—which can be termed interest-based and ideational explanations and functionalist explanations—fail to capture the reactive and ad hoc nature of the policymaking that resulted in financial liberalization. In the case of Britain, the agenda of financial liberalization in the 1970s and 1980s that propelled the City of London’s ascent was not chiefly driven by lobbying or ideology, nor was it intended to inaugurate a financialized growth model. Instead, by analysing declassified state archives, this book shows that policymakers pursued such policies as short-term measures to navigate through the stagflation crisis of that era. Financial liberalization was deployed in a messy fashion, either to postpone the worst effects of the crisis so as to maintain governing legitimacy, or to enact painful economic restructuring in a manner that shielded the state from political backlash.
The New Testament: A Guide
Authors: Senior Donald
Published: November 2021

This work addresses the question of why the New Testament is considered a sacred text by Christians. While sharing some characteristics of an Introduction to the New Testament, this work has a very different purpose. While for many the New Testament is respected as an interesting and influential ancient first-century text, for believing Christians the New Testament bears perennial normative religious authority. After exploring the content, the historical roots, and the complex process that led to the composition of the varied writings contained in the New Testament, this study turns to the fundamental unifying purpose of the New Testament writings as religious proclamations in various literary forms of the inherently transcendent character of Jesus Christ and the implications of that proclamation for the lives and destiny of both individual Christians and the Christian community itself. It is this defining characteristic that underwrites the sacred character of the New Testament for Christians. A key process was the formation of the New Testament canon during the early centuries of the Christian era which certified the normative nature of the New Testament writings and fused them onto the Jewish Scriptures or Old Testament to form the Christian Bible. The study concludes by sketching the evolution and ongoing diversity of New Testament interpretation both in the academy and in the church.
From Jesus to the Writings of the New Testament
Authors: Senior Donald
Published: November 2021

While Jesus is not the author of any of the New Testament writings, the link between the mission and identity of Jesus viewed from the perspective of faith and the content and purpose of the New Testament books is essential for their sacred character from a Christian perspective. This chapter reviews the evolution of the traditions about Jesus in early Christianity, tracking the impact of this tradition on the writings of Paul, on the Four Gospels, and on the Acts of the Apostles and the other New Testament books. The chapter also considers some of the essential elements in the transmission of the New Testament and their writings, including their composition in Greek, the nature of early manuscripts of the New Testament, and the question of translation.
Christian Holiness and the Sacredness of the New Testament
Authors: Senior Donald
Published: November 2021

Because of their intense focus on both the earthly and transcendent figure of Jesus as viewed by Christian faith, the New Testament books have a “sacred” character for the community of faith. But like any other proclamation or preaching, these New Testament portrayals of Jesus are not abstract or speculative. The purpose of their proclamation is to compel the recipients of their words to respond to what they hear, to transform their lives, and to discover the path to individual and communal holiness. The goal of this chapter is not to present a full study of New Testament ethics, but to offer enough examples, especially from the Four Gospels and Paul’s writings, to demonstrate that the books of the New Testament anticipate that the Christian readers will discover within these texts guidance on how to live a life of holiness, both individually and as a Christian community.
Compassion, Reasoning, and the Urgency of Healing Divided Societies
Authors: Gopin Marc
Published: November 2021

An unprecedented planetary danger faces human civilization and puts its future in question, especially climate catastrophe. There is a vital need for human beings to make better decisions together. These decisions must take place across many cultures and civilizations that have conflicting interests, ambitions, and needs. Thinking together leads to more advanced problem solving. In order to survive and thrive, humans have always had to make decisions informed by two things: (1) a common concern for each other, and (2) a capacity for reasoning that supports sustainable life. We often do this, but we are also capable of mass murder and destruction of life on earth. This is a paradox of mutually exclusive fates, with the negative fate only circumvented through the cultivation of our positive capacities. Our positive capacities for survival require a cultivation of compassion and moral reasoning, what is being introduced in this book as Compassionate Reasoning.
The Applied Ethics and Habits of Compassionate Reasoning
Authors: Gopin Marc
Published: November 2021

Questions are more important than answers, since they open the mind and strengthen the imagination. The mind imagines the lives of others, the lives of strangers, and better societies. Compassionate Reasoning focuses on eliciting open questions, relationship building, active listening, and moral debate. Neuroscience demonstrates the essential role of repetition in the cultivation of prosocial neural pathways and habits. Modern education has failed thus far to invest in habits that generate reasoning in the service of compassion. Training in science and technology is only as useful as the compassionate lifestyle that it sustains. Without lifelong compassion education and training, STEM can create monstrous economics and dangerous technology. Compassionate societies are sustainable, whereas selfish societies often self-destruct. The more you give with compassion, the healthier you become. Compassionate Reasoning is a liberation from a selfish worldview, and it opens up the person to a flourishing life of service, health, and wisdom.
Motivation
Authors: Woody Robert H.
Published: November 2021

Although musicians may know what they need to do to improve their skills, it is quite another thing to actually do it. Similarly, it is easy for a teacher to write down a list of exercises to be practiced but much more difficult to get students to carry them out. Although a great many people get involved with music as children and set out to become musicians, relatively few of them achieve a satisfying level of proficiency. Building musical skill necessarily involves effort. A better understanding of motivation may allow musicians to approach the required effort with a positive perspective, so as to keep their musical lives sufficiently rewarding and enjoy the fruits of their labor. This chapter considers the multiple ways that people are effectively motivated toward meaningful achievement in music. It discusses how music is intrinsically motivating, as well as the most important sources of extrinsic motivation. Special attention is given to how young musicians’ beliefs—about music and about themselves—can greatly affect their motivation going forward.
Learning and Remembering Musical Works
Authors: Woody Robert H.
Published: November 2021

Learning pre-existing pieces of music is a very common learning goal, both among vernacular musicians, who learn from recordings, and among those who are formally educated and work from published sheet music provided by a teacher. Whether learning a piece by ear or from notation, the processes of memory involved are very similar. Because the learning of musical works is often a precursor to additional kinds of music making and performance skills, it is important for musicians to understand how human memory works. This chapter explains the processes involved in learning and remembering pieces of music. It describes the various stages and components of memory from the information processing perspective that is common in cognitive psychology. More specifically, the chapter explains how ear musicianship is foundational to other performance skills, including those that use notation. It also shows that the ability to learn and remember musical works can be improved through experience and deliberate practice.
Expressing and Interpreting
Authors: Woody Robert H.
Published: November 2021

Proclamations of the great emotional power of music are etched deep into artistic culture. During great performances, the emotions seem to flow directly from the hearts of musicians. Listeners are not, of course, privy to the hours of work and shaping that performers can devote in preparation. Research has shown that expressive musicians craft the details of sound parameters—timing, loudness, timbre, pitch—to make their music sound alive and human. This chapter shares insights afforded by psychological research on musical expression that can directly assist performing musicians. It explains that the expressive features applied by performers originate from several basic sources related to the structural characteristics of the music they are performing and to their own humanness. The artistic enterprise of interpretation is explained as the selection and combination of expressive ideas applied across an entire piece of music. Musical communication is successfully accomplished when performers—usually through explicit planning and artistic decision-making—stimulate listeners to experience emotions or feelings that match the musicians’ intentions.
The User
Authors: Woody Robert H.
Published: November 2021

It can be a valuable exercise to examine the familiar with fresh eyes, especially if one’s familiarity with a single musical culture has come at the exclusion of all others. All around the wolrd, music is an important aspect of human culture that functions as much more than a mere diversion or entertainment. Because they use music in their lives in extremely meaningful ways, most people are music “users” in addition to the roles they may more readily identify for themselves—e.g., as performers, teachers, or listeners. This chapter examines musical culture, borrowing from the perspectives of anthropology and ethnomusicology to complement the findings of psychological research. It shows that people’s preferred approach to understanding music reflects an underlying value system. This chapter concludes by advocating for a person-focused approach to music that corresponds the general insight that the psychological perspective offers to musicians.
Hexametrical Genres from Homer to Theocritus
Authors: Faraone Christopher Athanasious
Published: November 2021

This book focuses on the evidence for short, non-epic hexametrical genres as a way of gaining new insights into the variety of their often ritual performance and their early history. It also shows how poets from Homer to Theocritus embedded or imitated these genres to enrich their own poems, by playing with and sometimes overturning the generic expectations of their audiences or readers. In doing so the book combines literary and ritual studies to produce a rich and detailed picture of a number of genres performed in sanctuaries, such as hymns and laments for Adonis, or in other spaces likewise dedicated to traditional speech-acts, such as epithalamia, oracles, or incantations. It deals primarily with the recovery of a number of lost or underappreciated hexametrical genres, which are usually left out of modern taxonomies of archaic hexametrical poetry, either because they survive only in fragments or because the earliest evidence for them dates to the classical period and beyond. Of central importance will be the surviving hexametrical poets, especially those of archaic and Hellenistic date, who embed or imitate traditional hexametrical genres of shorter duration either to give a recognizable internal structure to a shorter poem or to an episode or speech within a longer one.
The Internal World
Authors: Siderits Mark
Published: November 2021

Just as some Buddhists deny that the external world is ultimately real, so other Buddhists deny the ultimate reality of consciousness. This chapter examines the debate among different Buddhist schools over the status of cognition. This grows out of a debate over the problem of meta-cognition: if there is no self, then what is it that cognizes cognition? Momentariness and the irreflexivity principle pose obstacles to a satisfactory account. This leads the Yogācāra-Sautrāntika philosophers Dignāga and Dharmakīrti to develop the theory that every cognition is self-cognizing, but that irreflexivity is not violated since noetic and noematic poles of a cognition are non-distinct. Their reflexivity account is challenged by a higher-order thought account developed in the Madhyamaka school. According to this account, cognition is posited as a useful way of explaining bodily and verbal behavior, and so is not to be thought of as ultimately real. There is also some discussion of the difficulty for the reflexivist of explaining the existence of other minds.
The Unhappiness Muse
Authors: Schultz William Todd
Published: November 2021

Chapter 6 provides an examination of findings related to the frequency of loss in the lives of artists, and how artists are motivated to shape loss and inner pain into creative products. Loss has been noted in the lives of artists for decades. It comes in the form of death; it comes in other ways, too. The chapter explores questions about the loss–art connection. What is it about loss that mobilizes creativity? What’s the nature of the correlation? Does loss propel art? The author outlines the role of trauma in creativity, with artist examples including Jorge Luis Borges, William Styron, Jack Kerouac, Truman Capote, and Patricia Highsmith.
Evidence Law and Empirical Psychology
Authors: Sevier Justin
Published: November 2021

Empirical psychology is a natural fit for understanding the law of evidence but is also substantially at odds with it. Since the early twentieth century, researchers have begun applying the insights from experimental psychology to various aspects of courtroom adjudication, including the assumptions underlying the Federal Rules of Evidence and the effects of the rules on litigants and the public. At the same time, the law has struggled with whether and how to incorporate insights from an academic discipline that embodies goals and methodologies that are, in many ways, dramatically different from its own. This chapter unfolds a brief historical account of the relationship between empirical psychology and the law of evidence, specifies the major contributions that psychologists have made to our understanding of evidence law, highlights recent, cutting-edge research, and makes several suggestions for how future research can assist in maintaining the relevance of psychology to sound evidentiary policy.
Epilogue
Authors: Keser Kayaalp Elif
Published: November 2021

In this chapter, the material presented in the second and third chapters is contextualized further, and the evidence from urban and rural contexts is treated in combination. This chapter distinguishes between the two periods before and after the Arab conquest, and draws attention to the continuities and changes, in plan types, building materials and techniques, builders, patrons, and architectural sculpture. For the period before the Arab conquest, it discusses the similarities of the church architecture of the region with its counterparts elsewhere in the Empire and points out what is specific to it. It also assesses what we can tell about the identity of the churches in a region where churches were changing hands. The Section ‘After the Arab conquest’ is concerned with the changes in the cities and the rural ṬurʿAbdin. It explores whether, in this period, one could talk about a church architecture specific to the Syrian Orthodox.
Shakespeare and the Comedy of Enchantment
Authors: Cartwright Kent
Published: November 2021

Shakespeare and the Comedy of Enchantment explores the encounter between comedy’s rationalizing dimensions and those extra-rational aspects that elude demystification and exert affective power, an encounter between what is explicable and what is inexplicable. In the context of modernist disenchantment, Shakespeare’s comedies showcase the play of wonder and doubt, leaving behind a sense of residual re-enchantment. The argument thus broadens the perspective of studies that align early modern comedy with developments in science and jurisprudence. As the comic action advances, elements of mystery accrue—uncanny coincidences; magical sympathies; inexplicable repetitions; psychic influences; and wonders, fears, and doubts about the meaning of events—all of whose effects linger after reason has apparently answered the play’s questions, leaving an aura of wonder and wondering. Comic enchantment works through certain devices, tropes, and motifs explored in the chapters: magical clowns who introduce non-realistic stop-time moments that alter the action; structural repetitions that suggest mysteriously converging destinies and opaque but providential outcomes; places with differing characteristics that frame encounters between the regulatory and the protean drives in human existence; desires, thoughts, and utterances that manifest comically monstrous realities, including objects and individuals; characters who return from the dead, facilitated by the desires of the living; play-endings that traffic in harmony and dissonance, yet which can make possible the irrational action of forgiveness. These matters are discussed with extensive reference to Renaissance and modern theories of comedy, and with comparisons to Italian and Tudor comedy.
Corporate ESG Profiles and Banking Relationships
Authors: Houston Joel F , Shan Hongyu
Published: November 2021

We show that banking relationships promote corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. Specifically, banks are more likely to grant loans to borrowers with ESG profiles similar to their own and positively influence the borrower’s subsequent ESG performance. Their influence is more pronounced when (1) banks have significantly better ESG ratings than borrowers and (2) borrowers are bank dependent. We exploit M&A among lenders as a source of quasi-exogenous variation in the lender’s ESG standard to alleviate endogeneity concerns. Overall, our study presents the first evidence on the interplay between responsible bank lending and borrowers’ ESG behavior.
Zao Ren An Shen capsule for insomnia: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial
Authors: Birling Yoann , Zhu Xiaoshu , Avard Nicole , Tannous Caterina , Fahey Paul P , Sarris Jerome , Bensoussan Alan
Published: November 2021

Study Objectives

The aim of this study was to test the efficacy and safety of Zao Ren An Shen (ZRAS) capsule, a Chinese herbal medicine product, for the treatment of insomnia.

Methods

We conducted a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial. After a one-week placebo run-in, a total of 85 people with insomnia were randomly allocated to receive ZRAS or placebo for 4 weeks. The primary outcomes were insomnia severity assessed with the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and the number of participants with adverse events (AEs). Secondary outcomes included objective and subjective sleep parameters, psychological status, fatigue level, quality of life, acceptability, and tolerability.

Results

A nonsignificant (p > .05) difference of 0.7 points in ISI in favor of ZRAS capsule was found at the end of the treatment. The number of participants with AEs was not significantly different (p > .05) between the two groups. Except for subjective sleep onset latency, which had a nonsignificant (p > .05) medium effect (Cohen’s d = 0.5), the effects in secondary efficacy outcomes were all small (Cohen’s d < .4) and nonsignificant (p > .05). The acceptability and tolerability were high in the active group.

Conclusions

ZRAS capsule is safe, acceptable, and tolerable, yet not more effective than placebo in the treatment of insomnia. As previous evidence showed that Chinese herbal medicine was effective for insomnia, these results may be explained by the dose of the product, which was lower than the dose generally used in the clinic.

Registration: This clinical trial was registered in Australia New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (registration number ACTRN12619000140156) under the name “Impact of Zao Ren An Shen (ZRAS) capsule on chronic insomnia patients’ insomnia severity: A randomized-controlled trial” (https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=376730&isReview=true).
Ecological Divergence and the History of Gene Flow in the Nearctic Milksnakes (Lampropeltis triangulumComplex)
Authors: Burbrink Frank T , Bernstein Justin M , Kuhn Arianna , Gehara Marcelo , Ruane Sara
Published: November 2021

Many phylogeographic studies on species with large ranges have found genetic–geographic structure associated with changes in habitat and physical barriers preventing or reducing gene flow. These interactions with geographic space, contemporary and historical climate, and biogeographic barriers have complex effects on contemporary population genetic structure and processes of speciation. While allopatric speciation at biogeographic barriers is considered the primary mechanism for generating species, more recently it has been shown that parapatric modes of divergence may be equally or even more common. With genomic data and better modeling capabilities, we can more clearly define causes of speciation in relation to biogeography and migration between lineages, the location of hybrid zones with respect to the ecology of parental lineages, and differential introgression of genes between taxa. Here, we examine the origins of three Nearctic milksnakes (Lampropeltis elapsoides, Lampropeltis triangulum and Lampropeltis gentilis) using genome-scale data to better understand species diversification. Results from artificial neural networks show that a mix of a strong biogeographic barrier, environmental changes, and physical space has affected genetic structure in these taxa. These results underscore conspicuous environmental changes that occur as the sister taxa L. triangulum and L. gentilis diverged near the Great Plains into the forested regions of the Eastern Nearctic. This area has been recognized as a region for turnover for many vertebrate species, but as we show here the contemporary boundary does not isolate these sister species. These two species likely formed in the mid-Pleistocene and have remained partially reproductively isolated over much of this time, showing differential introgression of loci. We also demonstrate that when L. triangulum and L. gentilis are each in contact with the much older L. elapsoides, some limited gene flow has occurred. Given the strong agreement between nuclear and mtDNA genomes, along with estimates of ecological niche, we suggest that all three lineages should continue to be recognized as unique species. Furthermore, this work emphasizes the importance of considering complex modes of divergence and differential allelic introgression over a complex landscape when testing mechanisms of speciation. [Cline; delimitation; Eastern Nearctic; Great Plains; hybrids; introgression; speciation.]
Improvement of Standardization of Molecular Analyses in Hematology: The 10-year GBMHM French Experience
Authors: Alary Anne Sophie , Maute Carole , Kosmider Olivier , Sujobert Pierre , Gauthier Audrey , Macintyre Elizabeth , Preudhomme Claude , Hayette Sandrine , Luque-Paz Damien , Baran-Marszak Fanny , Davi Frederic , Lippert Eric , Cornillet-Lefebvre Pascale , Delfau-Larue Marie Helene , Cassinat Bruno , Cayuela Jean Michel , Flandrin-Gresta Pascale
Published: November 2021

Molecular tests have become an indispensable tool for the diagnosis and prognosis of hematological malignancies and are subject to accreditation according to the International Standard ISO 15189. National standardization of these techniques is essential to ensure that patients throughout France benefit from the same care. We report here on the experience of the GBMHM (Groupe des Biologistes Moléculaires des Hémopathies Malignes). By organizing External Evaluation of Quality (EEQ) programs and training meetings, the GBMHM has contributed to improvement and standardization of molecular tests in 64 French laboratories. A retrospective analysis of the quality-control results of 11 national campaigns spanning 10 years was performed for the 3 most frequently prescribed tests: BCR-ABL1, JAK2 V617F, and lymphoid clonality. For each test, particular attention was placed on comparing methodologies and their evolution throughout the period. The establishment of the BCR-ABL1, JAK2 V617F, and lymphoid clonality EEQ programs and the associated training meetings have initiated a process of collective standardization concerning the methods of implementation (JAK2 V617F) and the interpretation and formulation of results (lymphoid clonality). In addition, it resulted in objective improvement in technical performance (BCR-ABL1). Our evaluation of the impact of these EEQ programs demonstrates that it is possible to obtain reproducible values across different laboratories in France by applying national recommendations. To our knowledge, this is the first publication that evaluates the impact of a national quality assurance program on improving molecular results in hematology.
A large panel of chicken cells are invaded
in vivo
by
Salmonella
Typhimurium even when depleted of all known invasion factors
Authors: Roche S. M. , Holbert S. , Le Vern Y. , Rossignol C. , Rossignol A. , Velge P. , Virlogeux-Payant I.
Published: November 2021

Poultry are the main source of human infection by
Salmonella
. As infected poultry are asymptomatic, identifying infected poultry farms is difficult, thus controlling animal infections is of primary importance. As cell tropism is known to govern disease, our aim was therefore to identify infected host–cell types in the organs of chicks known to be involved in
Salmonella
infection and investigate the role of the three known invasion factors in this process (T3SS-1, Rck and PagN). Chicks were inoculated with wild-type or isogenic fluorescent
Salmonella
Typhimurium mutants via the intracoelomic route. Our results show that liver, spleen, gall bladder and aortic vessels could be foci of infection, and that phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells, including immune, epithelial and endothelial cells, are invaded
in vivo
in each organ. Moreover, a mutant defective for the T3SS-1, Rck and PagN remained able to colonize organs like the wild-type strain and invaded non-phagocytic cells in each organ studied. As the infection of the gall bladder had not previously been described in chicks, invasion of gall bladder cells was confirmed by immunohistochemistry and infection was shown to last several weeks after inoculation. Altogether, for the first time these findings provide insights into cell tropism of
Salmonella
in relevant organs involved in
Salmonella
infection in chicks and also demonstrate that the known invasion factors are not required for entry into these cell types.
Palbociclib-mediated cell cycle arrest can occur in the absence of the CDK inhibitors p21 and p27
Authors: Pennycook Betheney R. , Barr Alexis R.
Published: November 2021

The use of CDK4/6 inhibitors in the treatment of a wide range of cancers is an area of ongoing investigation. Despite their increasing clinical use, there is limited understanding of the determinants of sensitivity and resistance to these drugs. Recent data have cast doubt on how CDK4/6 inhibitors arrest proliferation, provoking renewed interest in the role(s) of CDK4/6 in driving cell proliferation. As the use of CDK4/6 inhibitors in cancer therapies becomes more prominent, an understanding of their effect on the cell cycle becomes more urgent. Here, we investigate the mechanism of action of CDK4/6 inhibitors in promoting cell cycle arrest. Two main models explain how CDK4/6 inhibitors cause G1 cell cycle arrest, which differ in their dependence on the CDK inhibitor proteins p21 and p27. We have used live and fixed single-cell quantitative imaging, with inducible degradation systems, to address the roles of p21 and p27 in the mechanism of action of CDK4/6 inhibitors. We find that CDK4/6 inhibitors can initiate and maintain a cell cycle arrest without p21 or p27. This work clarifies our current understanding of the mechanism of action of CDK4/6 inhibitors and has implications for cancer treatment and patient stratification.
Radiation combines with immune checkpoint blockade to enhance T cell priming in a murine model of poorly immunogenic pancreatic cancer
Authors: Stump Courtney T. , Roehle Kevin , Manjarrez Orduno Nataly , Dougan Stephanie K.
Published: November 2021

Radiation has been a pillar of cancer therapy for decades. The effects of radiation on the anti-tumour immune response are variable across studies and have not been explicitly defined in poorly immunogenic tumour types. Here, we employed combination checkpoint blockade immunotherapy with stereotactic body radiation therapy and examined the effect on tumour growth and immune infiltrates in subcutaneous and orthotopic mouse models of pancreatic cancer. Although immune checkpoint blockade and radiation were ineffective alone, their combination produced a modest growth delay in both irradiated and non-irradiated tumours that corresponded with significant increases in CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells and tumour-specific T cells as identified by IFNγ ELISpot. We conclude that radiation enhances priming of tumour-specific T cells in poorly immunogenic tumours and that the frequency of these T cells can be further increased by combination with immune checkpoint blockade.
Evolutionary mode for the functional preservation of fast-evolving
Drosophila
telomere capping proteins
Authors: Vedelek Balázs , Kovács Ákos , Boros Imre M.
Published: November 2021

DNA end protection is fundamental for the long-term preservation of the genome. In vertebrates the Shelterin protein complex protects telomeric DNA ends, thereby contributing to the maintenance of genome integrity. In the
Drosophila
genus, this function is thought to be performed by the Terminin complex, an assembly of fast-evolving subunits. Considering that DNA end protection is fundamental for successful genome replication, the accelerated evolution of Terminin subunits is counterintuitive, as conservation is supposed to maintain the assembly and concerted function of the interacting partners. This problem extends over
Drosophila
telomere biology and provides insight into the evolution of protein assemblies. In order to learn more about the mechanistic details of this phenomenon we have investigated the intra- and interspecies assemblies of Verrocchio and Modigliani, two Terminin subunits using
in vitro
assays. Based on our results and on homology-based three-dimensional models for Ver and Moi, we conclude that both proteins contain Ob-fold and contribute to the ssDNA binding of the Terminin complex. We propose that the preservation of Ver function is achieved by conservation of specific amino acids responsible for folding or localized in interacting surfaces. We also provide here the first evidence on Moi DNA binding.
Estimation of viral kinetics model parameters in young and aged SARS-CoV-2 infected macaques
Authors: Rodriguez Thalia , Dobrovolny Hana M.
Published: November 2021

The SARS-CoV-2 virus disproportionately causes serious illness and death in older individuals. In order to have the greatest impact in decreasing the human toll caused by the virus, antiviral treatment should be targeted to older patients. For this, we need a better understanding of the differences in viral dynamics between SARS-CoV-2 infection in younger and older adults. In this study, we use previously published averaged viral titre measurements from the nose and throat of SARS-CoV-2 infection in young and aged cynomolgus macaques to parametrize a viral kinetics model. We find that all viral kinetics parameters differ between young and aged macaques in the nasal passages, but that there are fewer differences in parameter estimates from the throat. We further use our parametrized model to study the antiviral treatment of young and aged animals, finding that early antiviral treatment is more likely to lead to a lengthening of the infection in aged animals, but not in young animals.
Nest decoration: birds exploit a fear of feathers to guard their nest from usurpation
Authors: Slagsvold Tore , Wiebe Karen L.
Published: November 2021

Many species of birds incorporate feathers into their nest as structural support and to insulate the eggs or offspring. Here, we investigated the novel idea that birds reduce the risk of nest usurpation by decorating it with feathers to trigger a fear response in their rivals. We let prospecting birds choose between a dyad of nest-boxes in the wild, both containing some nest materials, but where one had a few white feathers and the other had none. All three species of cavity-nesting birds studied, the pied flycatcherFicedula hypoleuca, the blue titCyanistes caeruleus, and the tree swallowTachycineta bicolor, hesitated to enter boxes with white feathers. A similar avoidance of white feathers was found when the alternative nest-box of a dyad held black feathers. However, the birds readily collected white feathers that we placed in front of their nest-box, showing the fear of such feathers was context-dependent. We suggest that naive prospecting birds may perceive feathers in nests as the result of a predation event, and that owners decorate nests with bright feathers that can be seen from the opening to deter others from entering.
Non-reciprocal population dynamics in a quantum trimer
Authors: Downing C. A. , Zueco D.
Published: November 2021

We study a quantum trimer of coupled two-level systems beyond the single-excitation sector, where the coherent coupling constants are ornamented by a complex phase. Accounting for losses and gain in an open quantum systems approach, we show how the mean populations of the states in the system crucially depend on the accumulated phase in the trimer. Namely, for non-trivial accumulated phases, the population dynamics and the steady states display remarkable non-reciprocal behaviour in both the singly and doubly excited manifolds. Furthermore, while the directionality of the resultant chiral current is primarily determined by the accumulated phase in the loop, the sign of the flow may also change depending on the coupling strength and the amount of gain in the system. This directionality paves the way for experimental studies of chiral currents at the nanoscale, where the phases of the complex hopping parameters are modulated by magnetic or synthetic magnetic fields.