bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optimized design of nano-photonic devices for temperature self-regulating on vanadium dioxide thin films
Authors: Lin Sen , Wu Binhe , Wang Chunrui , Zhou Jian , Sun Hao , Cao Wenhan
Published: December 2023

Phase change materials can enable temperature self-regulation due to their drastic changes in optical properties accompanying the phase transition. Significant reduction of the optical absorption after the transition is the key ingredient for an enhanced regulating performance. However, the absorptivity of unpatterned vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films can hardly be reduced after phase transition at visual-to-infrared band. In this work, we combine the direct binary search (DBS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms for an optimized design of temperature self-regulating nano-photonic devices on VO2 thin films. For a given incident wavelength, a pixelated structure is firstly inverse-designed by the DBS algorithm which maximizes the absorption contrast before and after the transition. To overcome fabrication challenges as pixel size is at deep sub-wavelength scale, the pixelated structure can then be replaced by geometric shapes which are more tractable in manufacturing processes. The geometrical parameters are optimized by the PSO algorithm where our optimized device brings the absorptivity down to 33% after the transition. These results provide an effective way for the inverse design of optimized nano-photonic structures based on phase change materials.
A research on the effect of plasma spectrum collection device on LIBS spectral intensity
Authors: LIN 林 Xiaomei 晓梅 , DONG 董 Yanjie 艳杰 , LIN 林 Jingjun 京君 , HUANG 黄 Yutao 玉涛 , YANG 杨 Jiangfei 江飞 , YUE 岳 Xingyu 星宇 , ZHANG 张 Zhuojia 倬嘉 , DUAN 段 Xinyang 鑫杨
Published: December 2023

Only a small amount of spectral information is collected because the collection solid angle of the optical fiber probe and lens is very limited when collecting spectral information. To overcome this limitation, this study presents a novel method for acquiring plasma spectral information from various spatial directions. A parabolic-shaped plasma spectral collection device (PSCD) is employed to effectively collect more spectral information into the spectrometer, thereby enhancing the overall spectral intensity. The research objects in this study were soil samples containing different concentrations of heavy metals Pb, Cr, and Cd. The results indicate that the PSCD significantly enhances the spectral signal, with an enhancement rate of up to 45%. Moreover, the signal-to-noise ratio also increases by as much as 36%. Simultaneously, when compared to the absence of a device, it is found that there is no significant variation in plasma temperature when the PSCD is utilized. This observation eliminates the impact of the spatial effect caused by the PSCD on the spectral intensity. Consequently, a concentration-spectral intensity relationship curve is established under the PSCD. The results revealed that the linear fitting R
2 for Pb, Cr, and Cd increased by 0.011, 0.001, and 0.054, respectively. Additionally, the limit of detection (LOD) decreased by 0.361 ppm, 0.901 ppm, and 0.602 ppm, respectively. These findings indicate that the spectral enhancement rate elevates with the increase in heavy metal concentration. Hence, the PSCD can effectively enhance the spectral intensity and reduce the detection limit of heavy metals in soil.
Fertilization benefits the facultative parasitic plant Rhamphicarpa fistulosa while gains by the infected host Oryza sativa are marginalized
Authors: Rodenburg Jonne , Dümmer Ruben , Ho Yi-Han , Bastiaans Lammert
Published: December 2023

Background and Aims

Rhamphicarpa fistulosa (Hochst.) Benth. is an annual facultative parasitic plant adapted to hydromorphic soils. In sub-Saharan Africa it causes high crop losses as a weed in rainfed lowland rice (Oryza sativa L.). Fertilizers are often proposed as a control measure against hemiparasitic weeds, but an understanding of the nutrient effects on R. fistulosa is currently still elusive.

Methods

In two greenhouse pot experiments, conducted in 2016 in the Netherlands and in 2019 in the UK, host plants (O. sativa, cv IR64) and parasitic plants (R. fistulosa) were grown alone or combined and were subjected to different levels of nutrient availability. Biomass measurements were used to assess whether and how effects of nutrient availability are expressed in the host and parasite.

Key Results

Compared with parasite-free host plants, the biomass of parasite-infested plants was severely reduced, and nutrient effects on host plant biomass were less pronounced. Conversely, increased nutrient availability did not have an effect on parasitic plants when grown alone, but when grown with a host the parasitic plant biomass increased proportionally. Grown together, the combined biomass of host plant and parasite was substantially lower than that of the host plant grown alone. The ratio of biomass between host plant and parasite was unaffected by nutrient availability.

Conclusions

Fertilization benefits to rice plants are severely reduced but not completely nullified by R. fistulosa infection. The benefits to production and reproduction accrued by the parasite from increased nutrient availability are restricted to conditions in the presence of a host plant. Host presence and nutrient effects are thus observed to be synergetic; R. fistulosa plants parasitizing a suitable host respond strongly to increasing levels of nutrients. This is associated with an increased root biomass of the parasitic plant itself, but is more likely to result from exploitation of the nutrient uptake capacity of the host plant it parasitizes.
Rarity: discovering rare cell populations from single-cell imaging data
Authors: Märtens Kaspar , Bortolomeazzi Michele , Montorsi Lucia , Spencer Jo , Ciccarelli Francesca , Yau Christopher
Published: December 2023

Motivation

Cell type identification plays an important role in the analysis and interpretation of single-cell data and can be carried out via supervised or unsupervised clustering approaches. Supervised methods are best suited where we can list all cell types and their respective marker genes a priori, while unsupervised clustering algorithms look for groups of cells with similar expression properties. This property permits the identification of both known and unknown cell populations, making unsupervised methods suitable for discovery. Success is dependent on the relative strength of the expression signature of each group as well as the number of cells. Rare cell types therefore present a particular challenge that is magnified when they are defined by differentially expressing a small number of genes.

Results

Typical unsupervised approaches fail to identify such rare subpopulations, and these cells tend to be absorbed into more prevalent cell types. In order to balance these competing demands, we have developed a novel statistical framework for unsupervised clustering, named Rarity, that enables the discovery process for rare cell types to be more robust, consistent, and interpretable. We achieve this by devising a novel clustering method based on a Bayesian latent variable model in which we assign cells to inferred latent binary on/off expression profiles. This lets us achieve increased sensitivity to rare cell populations while also allowing us to control and interpret potential false positive discoveries. We systematically study the challenges associated with rare cell type identification and demonstrate the utility of Rarity on various IMC datasets.

Availability and implementation

Implementation of Rarity together with examples is available from the Github repository (https://github.com/kasparmartens/rarity).
Efficacy and Safety of the Anti-mucosal Addressin Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 Antibody Ontamalimab in Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s Disease
Authors: Vermeire Séverine , Danese Silvio , Sandborn William J , Schreiber Stefan , Hanauer Stephen , D’Haens Geert , Nagy Peter , Thakur Manoj , Bliss Caleb , Cataldi Fabio , Goetsch Martina , Gorelick Kenneth J , Reinisch Walter
Published: December 2023

Background and Aims

Ontamalimab is a fully human immunoglobulin G2 monoclonal antibody against mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule-1, developed as treatment for inflammatory bowel disease.

Methods

Six phase 3, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials compared efficacy and safety of ontamalimab [25 mg and 75 mg once every 4 weeks] with placebo in patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease [two induction studies and one re-randomised maintenance study per condition]. This clinical trial programme was discontinued in 2020 for reasons unrelated to drug safety/efficacy; Crohn’s disease studies are described in the Supplementary data.

Results

The induction [12-week] and maintenance [52-week] studies included 659 and 366 randomised patients, respectively. More patients who received ontamalimab induction than placebo achieved the primary endpoint of clinical remission at Week 12 [25 mg, 18.5% vs 15.8%, p = 0.617, 27.0% vs 12.5%, p = 0.027; 75 mg, 29.8% vs 15.8%, p = 0.018, 29.5% vs 12.5% p = 0.014]; significantly more patients who received ontamalimab maintenance therapy than placebo achieved Week 52 clinical remission [25 mg, 53.5% vs 8.2%, p <0.001; 75 mg, 40.2% vs 12.8%, p <0.001]. Endoscopic improvement was generally significantly different vs placebo [induction: 25 mg, 27.8% vs 21.1%, p = 0.253, 35.1% vs 12.5%, p = 0.001; 75 mg, 41.1% vs 21.1%, p = 0.002, 33.9% vs 12.5%, p = 0.003; maintenance: 25 mg, 56.3% vs 9.6%, p <0.001; 75 mg, 48.8% vs 15.1%, p <0.001]. Adverse event rates were similar between ontamalimab and placebo groups.

Conclusions

Ontamalimab 75 mg was effective, with no safety concerns, as induction and maintenance therapy for patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis. [NCT03259334; NCT03259308; NCT03290781; NCT03559517; NCT03566823; NCT03627091]
Tricuspid valve disease and cardiac implantable electronic devices
Authors: Andreas Martin , Burri Haran , Praz Fabien , Soliman Osama , Badano Luigi , Barreiro Manuel , Cavalcante João L , de Potter Tom , Doenst Torsten , Friedrichs Kai , Hausleiter Jörg , Karam Nicole , Kodali Susheel , Latib Azeem , Marijon Eloi , Mittal Suneet , Nickenig Georg , Rinaldi Aldo , Rudzinski Piotr Nikodem , Russo Marco , Starck Christoph , von Bardeleben Ralph Stephan , Wunderlich Nina , Zamorano José Luis , Hahn Rebecca T , Maisano Francesco , Leclercq Christophe
Published: December 2023

The role of cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED)-related tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is increasingly recognized as an independent clinical entity. Hence, interventional TR treatment options continuously evolve, surgical risk assessment and peri-operative care improve the management of CIED-related TR, and the role of lead extraction is of high interest. Furthermore, novel surgical and interventional tricuspid valve treatment options are increasingly applied to patients suffering from TR associated with or related to CIEDs. This multidisciplinary review article developed with electrophysiologists, interventional cardiologists, imaging specialists, and cardiac surgeons aims to give an overview of the mechanisms of disease, diagnostics, and proposes treatment algorithms of patients suffering from TR associated with CIED lead(s) or leadless pacemakers.
The Effectiveness of OpenAI GPT-Generated Definitions Versus Definitions from an English Learners’ Dictionary in a Lexically Orientated Reading Task
Authors: Rees Geraint Paul , Lew Robert
Published: December 2023

In metalexicographical research, experts have judged the performance of technologies such as OpenAI Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) in lexicographic production tasks as promising yet inferior to human lexicographers. It remains unclear whether this perceived inferiority limits the effectiveness of AI-generated lexicography in resolving practical language doubts. Accordingly, this study compares the effectiveness of AI-generated definitions to those from the Macmillan English Dictionary (MED) in resolving vocabulary doubts in a multiple-choice reading task designed to test lexical knowledge. It involves 43 L2 English users in the third year of an English studies degree at a Spanish university. Students provided with MED definitions performed better on the reading task than those without access to definitions. However, there was no significant difference between the performance of students with either MED definitions or without definitions altogether, and those provided with AI-definitions. The implications of these findings are discussed along with avenues for further research.
Antibiotic resistance, bacterial transmission and improved prediction of bacterial infection in patients with antibody deficiency
Authors: Rofael Sylvia , Leboreiro Babe Clara , Davrandi Mehmet , Kondratiuk Alexandra L , Cleaver Leanne , Ahmed Naseem , Atkinson Claire , McHugh Timothy , Lowe David M
Published: December 2023

Background

Antibody-deficient patients are at high risk of respiratory tract infections. Many therefore receive antibiotic prophylaxis and have access to antibiotics for self-administration in the event of breakthrough infections, which may increase antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Objectives

To understand AMR in the respiratory tract of patients with antibody deficiency.

Methods

Sputum samples were collected from antibody-deficient patients in a cross-sectional and prospective study; bacteriology culture, 16S rRNA profiling and PCR detecting macrolide resistance genes were performed. Bacterial isolates were identified using MALDI-TOF, antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disc diffusion and WGS of selected isolates was done using Illumina NextSeq with analysis for resistome and potential cross-transmission. Neutrophil elastase was measured by a ProteaseTag immunoassay.

Results

Three hundred and forty-three bacterial isolates from sputum of 43 patients were tested. Macrolide and tetracycline resistance were common (82% and 35% of isolates). erm(B) and mef(A) were the most frequent determinants of macrolide resistance. WGS revealed viridans streptococci as the source of AMR genes, of which 23% also carried conjugative plasmids linked with AMR genes and other mobile genetic elements. Phylogenetic analysis of Haemophilus influenzae isolates suggested possible transmission between patients attending clinic.

In the prospective study, a negative correlation between sputum neutrophil elastase concentration and Shannon entropy α-diversity (Spearman’s ρ = −0.306, P = 0.005) and a positive relationship with Berger–Parker dominance index (ρ = 0.502, P < 0.001) were found. Similar relationships were noted for the change in elastase concentration between consecutive samples, increases in elastase associating with reduced α-diversity.

Conclusions

Measures to limit antibiotic usage and spread of AMR should be implemented in immunodeficiency clinics. Sputum neutrophil elastase may be a useful marker to guide use of antibiotics for respiratory infection.
Selecting patient-reported outcome measures for a patient-facing technology
Authors: Raj Priyank , Cho Youmin , Jiang Yun , Gong Yang
Published: December 2023

Objective

This article provides insight into our process and considerations for selecting patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) designed for self-reporting symptoms and quality-of-life among breast cancer (BCA) patients undergoing oral anticancer agent treatment via a patient-facing technology (PFT) platform.

Methods

Following established guidelines, we conducted a thorough assessment of a specific set of PROMs, comparing their content to identify the most suitable options for studying BCA patients.

Results

We recommend utilizing the combination of EORTC QLQ-C30 + EORTC QLQ-BR45 as the preferred instrument, especially when developing a dedicated “breast cancer-only” application.

Discussion

When developing and maintaining a dashboard for a PFT platform that includes multiple cancer types, it is important to consider the feasibility of interface design and workload. To achieve this, we recommend using PRO-CTCAE+PROMIS 10 GH for the PFT. Moreover, it is important to consider adding ad hoc items to complement the chosen PROM(s).

Conclusion

This article describes our efforts to identify PROMs for self-reported data while considering patient and developer burdens, providing guidance to PFT developers facing similar challenges in PROM selection.
Discovery and structure elucidation of glycosyl and 5-hydroxy migrastatins from dung beetle gut Kitasatospora sp.
Authors: Im Ji Hyeon , Oh Seoyoung , Bae Eun Seo , Um Soohyun , Lee Sang Kook , Ban Yeon Hee , Oh Dong-Chan
Published: December 2023

Two new macrocyclic secondary metabolites, glycosyl-migrastatin (1) and 5-hydroxy-migrastatin (2), were isolated from a gut bacterium Kitasatospora sp. JL24 in dung beetle Onthophagus lenzii. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), MS, and UV spectroscopic data, the planar structures of 1 and 2 were successfully identified as new derivatives of migrastatin. Compound 1 was the first glycosylated member of the migrastatin family. The absolute configuration of the sugar moiety was determined to be d-glucose through the analysis of coupling constants and ROESY correlations, followed by chemical derivatization and chromatographic comparison with authentic d- and l-glucose. Compound 2, identified as 5-hydroxy-migrastatin possessing an additional hydroxy group with a previously unreported chiral center, was assigned using Mosher's method through 19F NMR chemical shifts and confirmed with the modified Mosher's method. Genomic analysis of Kitasatospora sp. strain JL24 revealed a putative biosynthetic pathway involving an acyltransferase-less type I polyketide synthase biosynthetic gene cluster.

One-Sentence Summary

Two secondary metabolites, glycosyl-migrastatin (1) and 5-hydroxy-migrastatin (2), were discovered from the gut bacterium Kitasatospora sp. JL24 in the dung beetle Onthophagus lenzii.
Elucidating granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cell heterogeneity during Staphylococcus aureus biofilm infection
Authors: Bertrand Blake P , Heim Cortney E , Koepsell Scott A , Kielian Tammy
Published: December 2023

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are pathologically activated immature myeloid cells with immunosuppressive activity that expand during chronic inflammation, such as cancer and prosthetic joint infection (PJI). Myeloid-derived suppressor cells can be broadly separated into 2 populations based on surface marker expression and function: monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (M-MDSCs) and granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (G-MDSCs). Granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells are the most abundant leukocyte infiltrate during PJI; however, how this population is maintained in vivo and cellular heterogeneity is currently unknown. In this study, we identified a previously unknown population of Ly6G+Ly6C+F4/80+MHCII+ MDSCs during PJI that displayed immunosuppressive properties ex vivo. We leveraged F4/80 and MHCII expression by these cells for further characterization using cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes by sequencing, which revealed a distinct transcriptomic signature of this population. F4/80+MHCII+ MDSCs displayed gene signatures resembling G-MDSCs, neutrophils, and monocytes but had significantly increased expression of pathways involved in cytokine response/production, inflammatory cell death, and mononuclear cell differentiation. To determine whether F4/80+MHCII+ MDSCs represented an alternate phenotypic state of G-MDSCs, Ly6G+Ly6C+F4/80−MHCII− G-MDSCs from CD45.1 mice were adoptively transferred into CD45.2 recipients using a mouse model of PJI. A small percentage of transferred G-MDSCs acquired F4/80 and MHCII expression in vivo, suggesting some degree of plasticity in this population. Collectively, these results demonstrate a previously unappreciated phenotype of F4/80+MHCII+ MDSCs during PJI, revealing that a granulocytic-to-monocytic transition can occur during biofilm infection.
21cmemu: an emulator of 21cmfast summary observables
Authors: Breitman Daniela , Mesinger Andrei , Murray Steven G , Prelogović David , Qin Yuxiang , Trotta Roberto
Published: December 2023

Recent years have witnessed rapid progress in observations of the epoch of reionization (EoR). These have enabled high-dimensional inference of galaxy and intergalactic medium (IGM) properties during the first billion years of our Universe. However, even using efficient, seminumerical simulations, traditional inference approaches that compute 3D lightcones on-the-fly can take 105 core hours. Here we present 21cmemu: an emulator of several summary observables from the popular 21cmfast simulation code. 21cmemu takes as input nine parameters characterizing EoR galaxies, and outputs the following summary statistics: (i) the IGM mean neutral fraction; (ii) the 21-cm power spectrum; (iii) the mean 21-cm spin temperature; (iv) the sky-averaged (global) 21-cm signal; (vi) the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity functions (LFs); and (vii) the Thomson scattering optical depth to the cosmic microwave background (CMB). All observables are predicted with sub- per cent median accuracy, with a reduction of the computational cost by a factor of over 104. After validating inference results, we showcase a few applications, including: (i) quantifying the relative constraining power of different observational data sets; (ii) seeing how recent claims of a late EoR impact previous inferences; and (iii) forecasting upcoming constraints from the sixth observing season of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) telescope. 21cmemu is publicly available, and is included as an alternative simulator in the public 21cmmc sampler.
Replication elongates short DNA, reduces sequence bias and develops trimer structure
Authors: Calaça Serrão Adriana , Dänekamp Felix T , Meggyesi Zsófia , Braun Dieter
Published: December 2023

The origin of molecular evolution required the replication of short oligonucleotides to form longer polymers. Prebiotically plausible oligonucleotide pools tend to contain more of some nucleobases than others. It has been unclear whether this initial bias persists and how it affects replication. To investigate this, we examined the evolution of 12-mer biased short DNA pools using an enzymatic model system. This allowed us to study the long timescales involved in evolution, since it is not yet possible with currently investigated prebiotic replication chemistries. Our analysis using next-generation sequencing from different time points revealed that the initial nucleotide bias of the pool disappeared in the elongated pool after isothermal replication. In contrast, the nucleotide composition at each position in the elongated sequences remained biased and varied with both position and initial bias. Furthermore, we observed the emergence of highly periodic dimer and trimer motifs in the rapidly elongated sequences. This shift in nucleotide composition and the emergence of structure through templated replication could help explain how biased prebiotic pools could undergo molecular evolution and lead to complex functional nucleic acids.
How Reasons Make Law
Authors: Ryu Angelo
Published: December 2023

According to legal anti-positivism, legal duties are just a subset of our moral duties. Not every moral duty, though, is legal. So what else is needed? This article develops a theory of how moral duties come to be law, which I call the constitutive reasons account. Among our moral reasons are legal reasons—and those reasons make moral duties into legal duties. So the law consists of moral duties which have, as one of their underlying reasons, a legal reason. Such legal reasons arise from a relationship with the body for which it is the law of. The legal reasons in America, then, are the moral reasons flowing from a relationship with the United States. These reasons include consent, democracy, association and fair play. They are law’s constitutive reasons. By looking for them, we can better explain why some moral duties form part of the law, while others do not.
Investing in Children's Mental Health
Authors: Eisenberg Daniel , Raghavan Ramesh
Published: December 2023

Investing in Children’s Mental Health examines how we can promote emotional well-being among young people on a societal scale, in the context of escalating needs and insufficient resources. In particular, the book addresses three interrelated questions: (1) What are the best available investments to improve the mental health of children and adolescents? (2) To what extent are these investments being made? (3) What can practitioners, child-serving organizations, policymakers, and other community partners do to promote such investments? The book examines these issues on a broad level through a general synthesis of research and evidence and then examines these issues on a deeper level through a series of case studies featuring interventions and programs spanning a variety of settings and age groups: home visiting programs, parenting programs, social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in schools, multisystemic therapy (MST) for troubled youth, and the Communities That Care (CTC) framework for addressing youth substance use and well-being. The final chapters draw out key themes and offer recommendations for audiences including policymakers, administrators, funders, and practitioners.
Express Trust: The Dark Horse of the Liberal Property Regime
Authors: Dagan Hanoch , Samet Irit
Published: December 2023

The trust is standing at a crossroad. From a complex form of ownership that was little noticed by the general public, it has become (in)famous as one of the favourite tools used by wealthy people in order to escape their duties to society and individuals. Trust sceptics are correct to revolt against the increasing abuses of the trust. But they are wrong to deem the express trust beyond redemption. This chapter offers an explanation of one normative basis of express trusts: the state is justified in enforcing trusts as a fulfilment of its obligation to promote the autonomy of citizens. The trust fulfils a crucial role in the fabric of the ideal property system, and as such it should be nurtured, but also, trimmed where it grew beyond its proper normative borders. If property law is to fulfil its potential to be a truly liberal regime that acts to enhance people’s autonomy, it must feature trusts or other legal devices that allow owners to tailor property rights that serve their individual plans, as long as they do not externalise the costs to third parties. The promotion of the autonomy ideal—understood much more robustly than only an increased number of options—sets limits on the contours the trust, and thereby serves as a tool for assessing the different facets of modern trust law. The chapter therefore concludes that taking autonomy as the justifying principle of the trust can (re)establish it as an honourable member of a modern legal system.
Modern Character
Authors: Murphet Julian
Published: December 2023

This book considers a range of literary and dramatic texts written between 1888 and 1905, showcasing the extraordinary efforts of various writers to rethink and reinvent ‘human character’ at this time. Arguing that many of the most significant breakthroughs happened in the small theatres of Europe in the 1890s, the first half demonstrates how the countervailing currents of Naturalism and Symbolism created a vortex in which time-honoured truisms about character consistency, depth, and verisimilitude were jettisoned. The second half turns to contemporary prose narratives, with particular attention to Knut Hamsun, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Henry James, George Egerton, and Joseph Conrad, to ask what writers working in the novel, novella, and short-story forms were doing to contest prevailing expectations about represented persons. Inconsistency, bad faith, fragmentation, and unconscious motives creep into the character spaces of these fictions. Character description recedes, plots disintegrate; a penumbral negativity intrudes just where identification and sympathy might have been extorted. The book proposes that the ‘modern character’ emerging over this decade and a half was a radical rethinking of a venerable category of narrative and dramatic art, with profound consequences for the coming century.
God Gave Rock and Roll to You
Authors: Payne Leah
Published: December 2023

Few things frightened conservative white Protestant parents of the 1950s and the 1960s more than the thought of their children falling prey to the “menace to Christendom” known as rock and roll. The raucous sounds seemed tailor-made to destroy the faith of their young and, in the process, undermine the moral foundations of the United States. Parents and pastors launched a crusade against rock music, but they were fighting an uphill battle. Salvation came in a most unlikely form when a revival swept through counterculture hippie communities of the West Coast in the 1960s and 1970s. Known as the Jesus Movement, the revival was short-lived. But by combining the rock and folk music of the counterculture with religious ideas and aims of conservative white evangelicals, Jesus people and evangelical media moguls gave birth to an entire genre known as Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). By the 1980s and 1990s, CCM had grown into a massive, multimillion-dollar industry. Contemporary Christian artists were appearing on Top 40 radio, and some crossed over into the mainstream. And yet, today, the industry is a shadow of what it once was. In this book, Leah Payne traces the history and trajectory of CCM in America and, in the process, demonstrates how the industry, its artists, and its fans shaped—and continue to shape—conservative, (mostly) white, Protestant evangelicalism. Ultimately, the book argues, CCM spurred evangelical activism in more potent and lasting ways than any particular doctrine, denomination, culture war, or legislative agenda had before.
“God’s Not Dead”
Authors: Payne Leah
Published: December 2023

Chapter 7 reveals how, in the aftermath of 9/11, conservative white Protestant Americans found something that they had lost after the fall of communism: a foreign, non-Christian threat to the United States. With a clear ally in conservative evangelical President George W. Bush, CCM luminaries sang songs praising God—and soldiers of the United States—for waging a righteous war against an international “axis of evil.” All of the patriotic fervor and end-times energy in the world, however, could not stop the business of CCM from descending into freefall. Internet streaming and file sharing pummeled the entire recording business and displaced CCM distributors and industry leaders as evangelical gatekeepers. Democrat Barack Obama’s two-term presidency seemed to indicate that white evangelical voting power was waning. CCM stars, however, defiantly insisted that God—and conservative evangelical activism—was not dead.
Musical Contexts
Authors: Frolova-Walker Marina , Walker Jonathan
Published: December 2023

Chapter 2 draws out the influences on the Fifth Symphony through a detailed examination of the score. Beethoven and Tchaikovsky are by far the most prominent, and this demonstrates that Shostakovich was now engaging with more conservative models, as required by Socialist Realist aesthetics. After these are the undesirable influences of Mahler and Hindemith. Mahler’s presence is still strong, although not as open or pervasive as it was in the unperformed Fourth Symphony. Shostakovich openly admitted to Hindemith’s formative influence, and Chapter 2 uncovers connections with the Mathis der Maler Symphony, one of the last of Hindemith’s works to be performed in the Soviet Union before cultural isolation set in. The chapter concludes with a more general discussion of Shostakovich’s eclecticism.
The Americanization of the Apocalypse
Authors: Akenson Donald Harman
Published: December 2023

This book narrates and analyzes the creation and spread of the belief system that early in the twentieth century produced what can justifiably be called “America’s own Bible.” The system was Dispensationalism (so named in the 1920s) and the new scripture was The Scofield Reference Bible (1909), which became the urtext for American apocalyptic evangelicalism. Although the SRB comes close to being a singularity (successful new scriptures do not come along very often), it should not be taken as an exhibit of American Exceptionalism. It came of a transnational sequence that was part of the massive diaspora of Christianity that surfed upon the Great European Migration of the nineteenth century. Each stage of nascent Dispensationalism is important: created in southern Ireland by evangelical Anglicans terrified by the rise of the Catholics, transferred to England and expanded there, then carried to British North America by “Brethren” missionaries, and finally inculturated into American evangelicalism. This book combines a respect for individual human agency (and thus has some fascinating biographical vignettes with, equally, a recognition of the highly complex and persuasive ideational system that Dispensationalism presented). For believers, the system explained the world and its future. For the general culture, the product of this rich evolution was a series of concepts that became part of the everyday vocabulary of American life: end-times, apocalypse, Second Coming, secret-Rapture, return-of-Israel, and millennium.
Buyers’ Remorse?
Authors: Akenson Donald Harman
Published: December 2023

This chapter continues the discussion of Waymarks in the Wilderness under James Inglis, and its serving as a primary vector for importing Brethren constructs into American evangelical thought. The narrative from 1857 to 1872 is contradictory, but revealing. On the one hand, Inglis and his colleagues ran a general evangelical periodical that printed articles by (or about, favourably) Benjamin Wills Newton, George Müller, W. C. Baynes, John Nelson Darby, William Trotter, and other Brethren—articles that discussed the end-times, millennium, Great Tribulation, and the Second Coming. On the other hand, beginning in 1868, skepticism about Darby appeared. Just after Inglis’s death in mid-1872, an article (apparently authentic) published under his name inaccurately claiming that although Plymouth Brethren were excellent on the Bible, Waymarks had never published any of them. This was the first indication of the American formula: take the Brethren hermeneutics and prophecy, but avoid crediting them, especially Darby.
Garnering Resources
Authors: Akenson Donald Harman
Published: December 2023

Cyrus Scofield built shrewdly on his 1888 lecture “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth.” He sold editions to the firms of Loizeaux and of Fleming Revell, who turned it into a pamphlet that Scofield frequently expanded. He used it as the basis of his correspondence course completed in three volumes in 1895–1896 (and later sold to the Moody Bible Institute). He became friends with Francis E. Fitch, the Brethren printer of his course. This yielded several wealthy Brethren contacts. Also, he made a practical alliance with Arno C. Gaebelein (1861–1945) a German-born prophetic enthusiast who had made his evangelical reputation in proselytizing Jewish immigrants in New York. Working together, Scofield and Gaebelein garnered financial backing from the Brethren for Scofield to work full-time beginning in late 1902 on a projected large biblical reference text.
Vātsyāyana's Commentary on the Nyāya-sūtra
Authors: Dasti Matthew R.
Published: December 2023

This book is a guide to Vātsyāyana’s Commentary on the Nyāya-sūtra. For those wishing to “travel” to the thought community of classical India to engage with one of its most important philosophical works, this book serves as a guidebook, map, and interpreter. Treated as a single hybrid text, the Nyāya-sūtra with Vātsyāyana’s Commentary is a major part of what we could loosely speak of as the Organon of classical India: a collection of works on epistemology, logic, and dialectics by Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Jain thinkers that governed intellectual inquiry in the subcontinent for more than a millennium. Vātsyāyana’s Commentary also provides sophisticated arguments for distinct positions in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and value theory that stand among the best contributions to world philosophy considered widely. This guide provides students and researchers with a distilled, accessible understanding of the major scholarly, historical, and philosophical issues that inform the Commentary, while unpacking its philosophical content such that it speaks to modern readers. It also illustrates the way the Commentary may serve as a lens to view the formative period of classical Indian philosophy.
Objects of Knowledge
Authors: Dasti Matthew R.
Published: December 2023

This chapter examines Nyāya’s celebrated arguments for a nonphysical, substantival self on the basis of “synthetic cognition” and memory. In short, the self is that which unifies varies cognitive inputs and memory, both diachronically and synchronically. This unification would not be possible if the empirical being were nothing more than an aggregate of mental and physical states. These arguments are developed in debate with other classical Indian schools, including Buddhism, Sāṃkhya, and materialism. One way to understand the overarching argument of this chapter is as a sustained argument from elimination: there are no successful candidates that have been proposed to replace a substantival self as the basis of our psychological and moral continuities.
Objects of Knowledge and the Insight That Leads to the Supreme Good
Authors: Dasti Matthew R.
Published: December 2023

This chapter examines Nyāya’s attempt to champion yoga praxis and meditation while also defending its comprehensive metaphysical picture. It navigates some of the tensions that arise owing to Nyāya’s advocacy of transformative meditational practice and staunch defense of external world realism. It also catalogs and responds to various metaphysical positions about the world, causation, and God. Of particular note are a number of arguments meant to undermine key theses associated with influential Buddhist schools: impermanence, “emptiness,” mereological nihilism, and the view that the world of experience is unreal, akin to dreams. In response to the last, Nyāya deploys a number of arguments appealing to the parasitism of falsehood upon truth and of error upon veridical experience.
Dialectics
Authors: Dasti Matthew R.
Published: December 2023

This chapter is a summary account of “dialectical rejoinders” and “defeat conditions.” Akin to a study of fallacies in modern works of informal logic, the study of rejoinders provides an account of how they operate and how to respond to them. An important subtext of this chapter is the requirement of a genuine reason to have a decisive connection to the conclusion it is meant to prove. Because of this, Vātsyāyana often diagnoses the rejoinders in a way that does not merely lay the blame on the person offering them. The initial arguer, too, shares some of the blame when they try to make their case by reasons that fail to be decisive and leave the door open for sophistical responses.
Jumping Over the Great Firewall
Authors: Gainous Jason , Han Rongbin , MacDonald Andrew W. , Wagner Kevin M.
Published: December 2023

In this chapter, we describe how the Chinese government is addressing and effectively neutralizing citizens who evade the firewall. We begin by building the framework for understanding how this development may be a threat to the Chinese government’s strategy. Indeed, our data indicate that many citizens are actually jumping the wall to gather sensitive political information. Given the obvious difficulty in measuring such sensitive activity, we employed several checks on the validity of our measure, all of which generally align with respondents’ self-reported behavior. We demonstrate that many citizens do distrust the central government and that the more internet users jump the wall, the less trusting and satisfied they are with the central government. We present evidence that there may be consequences resulting from the difficult proposition of trying to control the information flow on the other side of the firewall. The results in this chapter show that this difficulty could counteract or even overwhelm, from the point of view of the regime, the positive effect of the directed digital dissidence strategy.
Understanding and Treating Pregnancy Loss
Authors: Markin Rayna D.
Published: December 2023

This chapter reviews research on the rates and risk factors of pregnancy loss and of common psychological symptoms associated with pregnancy loss, including depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The difference between normal versus complicated pregnancy loss grief is discussed as well as risk factors for severe perinatal grief. The unique nature of perinatal grief is explained. The second part of this chapter focuses on attachment theory and how it helps to understand the psychological experience of pregnancy loss and associated implications for treatment. A review of prior research on interventions for the effects of pregnancy loss is presented and an argument is made for more psychotherapy approaches that focus less on symptoms and more on underlying relational and psychological dynamics. Lastly, the chapter presents an argument for why and how the relationship is important to therapy for pregnancy loss and outlines associated therapeutic goals and outcomes.
The Alliance in Individual and Couples Therapy for Pregnancy Loss
Authors: Markin Rayna D.
Published: December 2023

This chapter begins with a brief empirical review of the alliance in individual and couples therapy. Evidence-based relationship principles derived from research on the alliance in individual and couples therapy are then applied to the treatment of clients who have suffered a pregnancy loss. Based on theory and research, the author describes how characteristics of the treatment, client, therapist, and relationship may facilitate or hinder the alliance in this therapeutic context. Specific therapeutic goals and tasks are discussed within an empathic, safe, and collaborative alliance. Hypothetical therapist–client vignettes are given to demonstrate the application of these concepts. Finally, common challenges to establishing and maintaining the alliance in psychotherapy for pregnancy loss and clinical implications are discussed.
Emotion in Psychotherapy for Pregnancy Loss
Authors: Markin Rayna D.
Published: December 2023

This chapter begins with a brief empirical review of different aspects of emotion work in psychotherapy, particularly emotional expression due to the availability of research in this area. Evidence-based relationship principles derived from research on emotion in psychotherapy are then applied to the treatment of clients who have suffered a pregnancy loss. Based on theory and research, the chapter describes how therapy can help bereaved parents to overcome avoidance of, and more deeply experience and express, productive emotions, particularly related to grief/sadness and loss, co-regulating them within a secure attachment relationship with the therapist. Hypothetical therapist–client vignettes demonstrate the application of these concepts. Finally, common challenges to emotion work in psychotherapy for pregnancy loss and clinical implications are discussed.
Client Attachment in Therapy for Recurrent Pregnancy Loss and Infertility
Authors: Markin Rayna D.
Published: December 2023

This chapter begins by reviewing attachment theory and research and how attachment theory can be used as a clinical guide in psychotherapy for pregnancy loss with individuals and couples. Next, research on client (and therapist) attachment style and the process and outcome of therapy is discussed. From this research, it is argued that client attachment plays an important role in treatment, especially with clients affected by pregnancy loss, and thus therapists should adjust their approach and relational style to meet the attachment needs of the client. The final section of this chapter addresses how attachment theory can help us understand the various ways in which individuals and couples cope with feelings of grief and loss following recurrent pregnancy loss. Finally, treatment implications and next steps are discussed.
Relational Guidance on Therapist Responsiveness to Client Attachment in Individual and Couples Therapy for Recurrent Pregnancy Loss and Infertility
Authors: Markin Rayna D.
Published: December 2023

In this chapter, clinical markers for identifying more anxious or avoidant clients affected by recurrent pregnancy loss and infertility are suggested. Then, based on theory and research, guidance on how therapists should adjust their relational style and approach to facilitate a secure-base experience with avoidant and anxious clients is discussed and demonstrated within a hypothetical couple session vignette. The relational guidance offered in this chapter is believed to be relevant to therapy for pregnancy loss in general but is explored within the context of recurrent pregnancy loss and infertility specifically. These adverse reproductive events represent a series of ongoing stressful life experiences that often overwhelm a client’s typical way of coping, triggering the attachment system to seek support and comfort from others. The triggering of internal working models provides an opportunity to rewire the attachment system. This chapter concludes by exploring challenges to therapist responsiveness to client attachment and suggesting clinical implications.
Regressive Movements in Times of Emergency
Authors: della Porta Donatella
Published: December 2023

Since the very beginning, with mass media and social media focusing on the pandemics, anti-vax protests have received sustained attention. Initial commentary often focused on the heterogeneity of the protests, whose participants seemed to belong to different milieus, from the Far Right to esoteric groups that opposed mainstream medicine and espoused alternative therapies. In reality, in their forms and claims, these protests developed as a regressive response to the health crisis. Conspiracist beliefs—from the politicized QAnon and Great Replacement conspiracies widespread on the Far Right to the chemtrails and 5G ones present in an exoteric milieu that promoted alternative health practices—were clearly expressed in the slogans and symbols used by the protestors. Referring to most recent developments in social movement studies, this volume contributes to the analysis of contentious politics in emergency times, as times characterized by deep disruption in everyday life and rapid structural transformations in society. In order to understand how specific strains are transformed into actions, it considers the opportunities and challenges for different actors in moments of intense mobilization in which different and contrasting claims are put forward. While these moments are rich in innovation, they build upon existing social movement infrastructures, which contribute to give meaning to feelings of dissatisfaction in the populace by proposing a shared definition of problems and solutions. Looking at the wave of anti-vax protests, the analysis addresses the spread of the protests, their forms, as well as their rapid decline.