bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Animal Cultures
Authors: Sanz Crickette , Whiten Andrew
Published: February 2024

Culture has been defined and studied in varied ways by anthropologists, and until recently was considered a uniquely human characteristic or capacity. The traditional culture concept within anthropology may encompass knowledge, belief, art, symbols, customs, rules, and any other behaviors that are acquired as a member of social group. Extending such concepts to potentially encompass nonhuman species, and thence the evolution of culture more broadly, culture has been defined as all that is learned from others and repeatedly transmitted via social learning, within and possibly across generations. While early theoretical works were focused singularly on humans, there has been a proliferation of research in the past few decades on cultures and social learning in nonhuman animals (henceforth “animals”). While it is challenging to determine whether the cultural traits of animals, so defined, are significantly analogous to human cultures, the tenets of traditional evolutionary biology prompt us to take a comparative approach when examining the cognitive mechanisms and transmission processes underlying culture, facilitating the elucidation of its phylogenetic origins. There is increasing recognition of cultural transmission as a “second inheritance system” that complements genetic evolution, and the possibility that cultural processes will interact with genetically based phenomena to result in “gene-culture coevolution,” a well-established phenomenon in human culture, as in the link between dairy practices and the capacity for milk digestion. For example, it has been suggested that the directional selection in brain expansion and reliance on cultural behavior coevolved with extended life history and complex sociality in non-human primates, then further enhanced in humans.
Medieval French Warfare
Authors: France John
Published: February 2024

The primary problem of this subject is when to start. It cannot be denied that the origins of France lie in the people called the Franks, whose dominion had, since the sixth century, covered much of what is now France and western Germany. This vast Frankland was not often a political unity, because Merovingian kings divided it amongst their sons, often resulting in eastern (Austrasian) and western (Neustrian) kingdoms with each commonly having a share of Aquitaine. But historians are convinced that the Franks, to an unusual degree, had a sense of unity. In 800, Charlemagne, after a career of conquest, welded all Frankland into an empire whose power extended over many of the other peoples of Europe. But in the 840s that empire became divided under his grandchildren, and its western component, under Charles the Bald, bears a considerable resemblance to what we know as France. But it was no natural unity: there was no single language, the lands south of the Loire had a different agriculture and orientations toward Spain or the Mediterranean, or both. By contrast, Rheims and the northeast were subject to the pull of the German Empire, and many of the borderlands like Flanders and Hainaut would be vassals of the emperors and of the French king. Normandy, whose border was only a hundred miles from Paris, would for long form part of an Anglo-Norman realm after 1066. So when and why did the western part emerge as a distinct political unity whose military history can be recounted? Historians have differed, and classic works like Flach 1886–1917 and Lot 1948 (see General Histories of France) tended to see France as an inevitable evolution. In fact, almost all scholars have seen the origins of France in the period after Charlemagne and arising from dynastic quarrels. To fix upon a starting point, it is necessary to look at general histories and to make a judgment as to when we can start the history of France. In this case, the date of 885 has been selected.
First Report of Dr Watson
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

From this point onwards I will follow the course of events by transcribing my own letters to Mr Sherlock Holmes which lie before me on the table. One page is missing,* but otherwise they are exactly as written, and show my feelings...
Death on the Moor
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

For a moment or two I sat breathless, hardly able to believe my ears. Then my senses and my voice came back to me, while a crushing weight of responsibility seemed in an instant to be lifted from my soul. That cold, incisive, ironical...
Fixing the Nets
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

Sir Henry was more pleased than surprised to see Sherlock Holmes, for he had for some days been expecting that recent events would bring him down from London. He did raise his eyebrows, however, when he found that my friend had neither any luggage...
A Retrospection
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

It was the end of November, and Holmes and I sat, upon a raw and foggy night, on either side of a blazing fire in our sitting-room in Baker Street. Since the tragic upshot of our visit to Devonshire he had been engaged in...
— The Ancient Monk.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

Jocelin of Brakelond.

How the Centuries stand lineally related to each other. The one Book not permissible, the kind that has nothing in it. Jocelin’s ‘Chronicle,’ a private Boswellean Notebook, now seven centuries old. How Jocelin, from under his monk’s cowl, looked out...
Manchester Insurrection.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

Blusterowski, Colacorde, and other Editorial prophets* of the Continental Democratic Movement, have in their leading-articles shewn themselves disposed to vilipend* the late Manchester Insurrection, as evincing in the rioters an extreme backwardness to battle; nay as betokening in...
St. Edmundsbury.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

The
Burg, Bury, or ‘Berry’ as they call it, of St. Edmund* is still a prosperous brisk Town; beautifully diversifying, with its clear brick houses, ancient clean streets, and twenty or fifteen thousand busy souls,* the general grassy face of...
Abbot Hugo.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

It is true, all things have two faces, a light one and a dark. It is true, in three centuries, much imperfection accumulates; many an Ideal, monastic or other, shooting forth into practice as it can, grows to a strange enough Reality; and we...
Monk Samson.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

Within doors, down at the hill-foot, in our Convent here, we are a peculiar people, — hardly conceivable in the Arkwright Corn-Law ages, of mere Spinning-Mills and Joe-Mantons!* There is yet no Methodism among us, and we speak much of Secularities: no Methodism; our...
Abbot Samson.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

So then the bells of St. Edmundsbury clang out one and all, and in church and chapel the organs go: Convent and Town, and all the west side of Suffolk, are in gala; knights, viscounts, weavers, spinners, the entire population, male and...
Practical-Devotional.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

Here indeed, perhaps, by rule of antagonisms, may be the place to mention that, after King Richard’s return, there was a liberty of tourneying given to the fighting men of England: that a Tournament was proclaimed in the Abbot’s domain, ‘between Thetford...
Gospel of Mammonism.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

Reader, even Christian Reader as thy title goes, hast thou any notion of Heaven and Hell? I rather apprehend, not. Often as the words are on our tongue, they have got a fabulous or semi-fabulous character for most of us, and pass on like...
Happy.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble: be that here said and asserted once more. And in like manner too all dignity is painful; a life of ease is not for any man, nor for any god. The life...
Two Centuries.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

The Settlement effected by our ‘Healing Parliament’* in the Year of Grace 1660, though accomplished under universal acclamations from the four corners of the British Dominions,* turns out to have been one of the mournfulest that ever took place in...
Labour.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in Work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in Idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Work, never so Mammonish,...
Sir Jabesh Windbag.
Authors: Carlyle Thomas
Published: February 2024

Oliver Cromwell, whose body they hung on their Tyburn gallows because he had found the Christian Religion inexecutable in this country, remains to me by far the remarkablest Governor we have had here for the last five centuries or so. For the last five...
The Wendigo and Other Stories
Authors: Blackwood Algernon
Published: February 2024

One of the greatest writers of the strange and weird, Algernon Blackwood evolved from a teller of ghost stories to a pioneering master of such emergent fictional modes as cosmic horror and nature Gothic. In tales whose settings range from the eerie North Woods of Canada to the mysterious sands of the Egyptian desert, Blackwood blurs the boundaries between human and nonhuman, living and dead, beckoning the reader into strange borderlands where alien forces lurk, waiting for the chance to break through into our world.

This new selection of Blackwood's shorter fiction constitutes the most comprehensive critical edition of his work to date. Included here are such undisputed classics as ‘The Wendigo’, ‘The Willows’, and ‘Ancient Sorceries’, as well as two superbly unsettling novellas, ‘The Man Whom the Trees Loved’ and ‘A Descent into Egypt’, and ten other stories short and long, drawn from collections spanning Blackwood's long writing career. Aaron Worth's introduction and notes situate these tales in the context of Blackwood's own upbringing in an evangelical Victorian household, as well as in relation to such topics as late-imperial British history and the emergence of modern ecological thought.
The Empty House
Authors: Blackwood Algernon
Published: February 2024

Certain houses, like certain persons, manage somehow to proclaim at once their character for evil. In the case of the latter, no particular feature need betray them; they may boast an open countenance and an ingenuous smile; and yet a little of their company...
The Doll
Authors: Blackwood Algernon
Published: February 2024

Some nights are merely dark, others are dark in a suggestive way as though something ominous, mysterious, is going to happen. In certain remote outlying suburbs, at any rate, this seems true, where great spaces between the lamps go dead at night, where little...
A Study in Scarlet
Authors: Conan Doyle Arthur
Published: February 2024

In Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet a popular cultural phenomenon is born. We meet two of the most famous characters in modern literary history: the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, an army doctor home on sick leave, for the first time. Through Watson we learn a little about the eccentric figure who is his new room-mate at 221B Baker Street, before they encounter their first case: an American visitor to the city has been killed in an empty house off the Brixton Road, and the only clue the police have is the mysterious word ‘Rache’, scrawled in blood-red letters on the wall. As Holmes sets to work with his unique forensic methods, behind the murder a tangled skein of love, religion, and revenge gradually unwinds, taking us from the streets of London to the Utah Territory, and back again.

As Nicholas Daly's Introduction describes, out of this gripping tale grew the Holmes and Watson stories that would make Conan Doyle the best-paid author of his time. His creations have become household words, inspiring not only countless adaptations and imitations, but a Sherlock Holmes museum, Sherlock Holmes-themed pubs, and a whole array of Holmesian merchandise, from cushions to jigsaw puzzles. Here, though, we meet Holmes and Watson before they became famous, and we can see how their extraordinary impact on our popular culture derives from the late-Victorian world from which they emerge.
The Lauriston Gardens Mystery
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

Confess that I was considerably startled by this fresh proof of the practical nature of my companion’s theories. My respect for his powers of analysis increased wondrously. There still remained some lurking suspicion in my mind, however, that the whole thing was a prearranged...
What John Rance Had to Tell
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

It was one o’clock when we left No. 3, Lauriston Gardens. Sherlock Holmes led me to the nearest telegraph office, whence he dispatched a long telegram. He then hailed a cab, and ordered the driver to take us to the address given us by...
The Conclusion
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

We had all been warned to appear before the magistrates upon the Thursday; but when the Thursday came there was no occasion for our testimony. A higher Judge had taken the matter in hand, and Jefferson Hope had been summoned before a tribunal where...
Mr. Icky
Authors: Fitzgerald F. Scott
Published: February 2024

The Quintessence of Quaintness in one Act

The Scene is the Exterior of a Cottage in West Issacshire on a desperately Arcadian afternoon in August.
mr. icky,
quaintly dressed in the costume of an Elizabethan peasant, is pottering and doddering among the pots and dods....
The Norwood Builder
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

‘From the point of view of the criminal expert,’ said Mr. Sherlock Holmes, ‘London has become a singularly uninteresting city since the death of the late lamented* Professor Moriarty.’

‘I can hardly think that you would find many decent citizens to agree with...
The Solitary Cyclist
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

From the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive Mr. Sherlock Holmes was a very busy man. It is safe to say that there was no public case of any difficulty in which he was not consulted during those eight years,* and there were...
The Priory School
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

We have had some dramatic entrances and exits upon our small stage at Baker Street, but I cannot recollect anything more sudden and startling than the first appearance of Dr. Thorneycroft Huxtable,* M.A., Ph.D., etc. His card, which seemed too small to...
Book I
Authors: Wharton Edith
Published: February 2024

John Campton, the American portrait-painter, stood in his bare studio in Montmartre* at the end of a summer afternoon contemplating a battered calendar that hung against the wall.

The calendar marked July 30, 1914.*

Campton looked at this date with a...
Specimen Days
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

One of the best kept secrets of modern autobiographical literature, Whitman's autobiography moves in brisk, episodic fashion to chronicle the life of one of the world's best loved and most influential poets. Experimental in form, lyrical in expression, and rich in experiential content, Specimen Days still awaits a much wider readership than it has hitherto commanded. Whitman gives us his life as lived in relation to the shifting urban and rural ecologies of a young nation -a nation that had freshly emerged from catastrophic civil war and that was assuming the vanguard of artistic, technological, economic, political, and philosophical modernity.
Genealogy — Van Velsor and Whitman
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

The later years of the last century found the Van Velsor family, my mother’s side, living on their own farm at Cold Spring, Long Island, New York State, near the eastern edge of Queens county, about a mile from the harbor.1 My...
My Passion for Ferries
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Living in Brooklyn or New York city from this time forward, my life, then, and still more the following years, was curiously identified with Fulton ferry, already becoming the greatest of its sort in the world for general importance, volume, variety, rapidity, and picturesqueness....
Plays and Operas Too
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

And certain actors and singers, had a good deal to do with the business. All through these years, off and on, I frequented the old Park, the Bowery, Broadway and Chatham-square theatres, and the Italian operas at Chambers-street, Astor-place or the Battery — many seasons was...
Patent-Office Hospital
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

February 23. — I must not let the great hospital at the Patent-office pass away without some mention. A few weeks ago the vast area of the second story of that noblest of Washington buildings was crowded close with rows of sick, badly wounded and dying...
Bad Wounds — The Young
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

The soldiers are nearly all young men, and far more American than is generally supposed — I should say nine-tenths are native-born. Among the arrivals from Chancellorsville I find a large proportion of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois men. As usual, there are all sorts of wounds....
A New York Soldier
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

This afternoon, July 22d, I have spent a long time with Oscar F. Wilber, company G, 154th New York, low with chronic diarrhœa, and a bad wound also. He asked me to read him a chapter in the New Testament. I complied, and ask’d...
A Silent Night Ramble
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

October
20th. — To-night, after leaving the hospital at 10 o’clock, (I had been on self-imposed duty some five hours, pretty closely confined,) I wander’d a long time around Washington. The night was sweet, very clear, sufficiently cool, a voluptuous half-moon, slightly golden, the space near...
Union Prisoners South
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Michael Stansbury, 48 years of age, a sea-faring man, a southerner by birth and raising, formerly captain of U. S. light ship Long Shoal, station’d at Long Shoal point, Pamlico sound — though a southerner, a firm Union man — was captur’d Feb. 17, 1863, and has been...
Gifts — Money — Discrimination
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

As a very large proportion of the wounded came up from the front without a cent of money in their pockets, I soon discover’d that it was about the best thing I could do to raise their spirits, and show them that somebody cared...
Burial of a Lady Nurse
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Here is an incident just occurr’d in one of the hospitals. A lady named Miss or Mrs. Billings,* who has long been a practical friend of soldiers, and nurse in the army, and had become attached to it in a way that...
The Inauguration
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

March 4. — The President very quietly rode down to the capitol in his own carriage, by himself, on a sharp trot, about noon, either because he wish’d to be on hand to sign bills, or to get rid of marching in line with the absurd...
Scene at the Capitol
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

I must mention a strange scene at the capitol, the hall of Representatives, the morning of Saturday last, (March 4th.) The day just dawn’d, but in half-darkness, everything dim, leaden, and soaking. In that dim light, the members nervous from long drawn duty, exhausted, some...
No Good Portrait of Lincoln
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Probably the reader has seen physiognomies (often old farmers, sea-captains, and such) that, behind their homeliness, or even ugliness, held superior points so subtle, yet so palpable, making the real life of their faces almost as impossible to depict as a wild perfume or...
Typical Soldiers
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Even the typical soldiers I have been personally intimate with, — it seems to me if I were to make a list of them it would be like a city directory. Some few only have I mention’d in the foregoing pages — most are dead — a few yet living....
Bumble-Bees
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

May-month — month of swarming, singing, mating birds — the bumble-bee month — month of the flowering lilac — (and then my own birth-month.) As I jot this paragraph, I am out just after sunrise, and down towards the creek. The lights, perfumes, melodies — the blue birds, grass birds and robins,...
A July Afternoon By The Pond
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

The fervent heat, but so much more endurable in this pure air — the white and pink pond-blossoms, with great heart-shaped leaves; the glassy waters of the creek, the banks, with dense bushery, and the picturesque beeches and shade and turf; the tremulous, reedy call of...
Colors — a Contrast
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Such a play of colors and lights, different seasons, different hours of the day — the lines of the far horizon where the faint-tinged edge of the landscape loses itself in the sky. As I slowly hobble up the lane toward day-close, an incomparable sunset shooting...
An Afternoon Scene
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Feb. 22. — Last night and to-day rainy and thick, till mid-afternoon, when the wind chopp’d round, the clouds swiftly drew off like curtains, the clear appear’d, and with it the fairest, grandest, most wondrous rainbow I ever saw, all complete, very vivid at its earth-ends,...
An Ulster County Waterfall
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

I jot this mem. in a wild scene of woods and hills, where we have come to visit a waterfall. I never saw finer or more copious hemlocks, many of them large, some old and hoary. Such a sentiment to them, secretive, shaggy — what...
Hudson River Sights
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

It was a happy thought to build the Hudson river railroad right along the shore. The grade is already made by nature; you are sure of ventilation one side — and you are in nobody’s way. I see, hear, the locomotives and cars, rumbling,...
Departing of the Big Steamers
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

May 15. — A three hours’ bay-trip from 12 to 3 this afternoon, accompanying “the City of Brussels” down as far as the Narrows, in behoof of some Europe-bound friends, to give them a good send off. Our spirited little tug, the “Seth Low,”...
In the Sleeper
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

What a fierce weird pleasure to lie in my berth at night in the luxurious palace-car, drawn by the mighty Baldwin — embodying, and filling me, too, full of the swiftest motion, and most resistless strength! It is late, perhaps midnight or after — distances join’d like magic — as...
An Egotistical “Find”
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

“I have found the law of my own poems,” was the unspoken but more-and-more decided feeling that came to me as I pass’d, hour after hour, amid all this grim yet joyous elemental abandon — this plenitude of material, entire absence of art, untrammel’d play of primitive...
America’s Back-Bone
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

I jot these lines literally at Kenosha summit, where we return, afternoon, and take a long rest, 10,000 feet above sea-level. At this immense height the South Park stretches fifty miles before me. Mountainous chains and peaks in every variety of perspective, every hue of...
The Parks
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

In the midst of all here, lie such beautiful contrasts as the sunken basins of the North, Middle, and South Parks, (the latter I am now on one side of, and overlooking,) each the size of a large, level, almost quadrangular, grassy, western county,...
Art Features
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Talk, I say again, of going to Europe, of visiting the ruins of feudal castles, or Coliseum remains, or kings’ palaces — when you can come here. The alternations one gets, too; after the Illinois and Kansas prairies of a thousand miles — smooth and easy...
I Turn South — and then East Again
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Leave Denver at 8 a.m. by the Rio Grande RR. going south. Mountains constantly in sight in the apparently near distance, veil’d slightly, but still clear and very grand — their cones, colors, sides, distinct against the sky — hundreds, it seem’d thousands, interminable necklaces of...
Beethoven’s Septette
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Feb. 11, ’80. — At a good concert to-night in the foyer of the opera house,* Philadelphia — the band a small but first-rate one. Never did music more sink into and soothe and fill me — never so prove its soul-rousing power, its impossibility of statement. Especially...
Seeing Niagara to Advantage
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

June 4, ’80. — For really seizing a great picture or book, or piece of music, or architecture, or grand scenery — or perhaps for the first time even the common sunshine, or landscape, or may-be even the mystery of identity, most curious mystery of all — there comes some...
Sunday with the Insane
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

June 6. — Went over to the religious services (Episcopal) main Insane asylum, held in a lofty, good-sized hall, third story. Plain boards, whitewash, plenty of cheap chairs, no ornament or color, yet all scrupulously clean and sweet. Some three hundred persons present, mostly patients. Everything,...
Grand Native Growth
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

In a few days I go to lake Huron, and may have something to say of that region and people. From what I already see, I should say the young native population of Canada was growing up, forming a hardy, democratic, intelligent, radically sound,...
A Zollverein Between The U. S. and Canada
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Some of the more liberal of the presses here are discussing the question of a zollverein between the United States and Canada. It is proposed to form a union for commercial purposes — to altogether abolish the frontier tariff line, with its double sets of custom...
A Week’S Visit to Boston
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

May 1, ’81. — Seems as if all the ways and means of American travel to-day had been settled, not only with reference to speed and directness, but for the comfort of women, children, invalids, and old fellows like me. I went on by a through...
Millet’s Pictures — Last Items
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

April 18. — Went out three or four miles to the house of Quincy Shaw, to see a collection of J. F. Millet’s pictures. Two rapt hours. Never before have I been so penetrated by this kind of expression. I stood long and long before “the...
A Visit, At the Last, To R. W. Emerson
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

Concord, Mass. — Out here on a visit — elastic, mellow, Indian-summery weather. Came to-day from Boston, (a pleasant ride of 40 minutes by steam, through Somerville, Belmont, Waltham, Stony Brook, and other lively towns,) convoy’d by my friend F. B. Sanborn, and to his ample house, and...
The Great Unrest of Which We are Part
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

My thoughts went floating on vast and mystic currents as I sat to-day in solitude and half-shade by the creek — returning mainly to two principal centres. One of my cherish’d themes for a never-achiev’d poem has been the two impetuses of man and the universe — in...
Final Confessions — Literary Tests
Authors: Whitman Walt
Published: February 2024

So draw near their end these garrulous notes. There have doubtless occurr’d some repetitions, technical errors in the consecutiveness of dates, in the minutiæ of botanical, astronomical, &c., exactness, and perhaps elsewhere; — for in gathering up, writing, peremptorily dispatching copy, this hot weather, (last of...
The Sign of the Four
Authors: Conan Doyle Arthur
Published: February 2024

Mary Morstan receives a large pearl through the post once a year without any clue as to the sender. When her intriguing correspondent requests a meeting, Holmes and Watson take on the case. Together the trio race through London to uncover the secrets of the Sholto family, who hold the key to uncovering the whereabouts of Mary's father and the existence of a treasure stemming from a crime committed years ago in India.

The Sign of the Four has been a crucial part of the Sherlock Holmes canon since its first publication in 1890. It explores theft, betrayal, and murder in the larger context of the British Empire at a time of national upheaval, and the novel's flashbacks to India during the ‘Mutiny’ and its aftermath call into question the consequences of that imperial venture. Caroline Reitz's new introduction and notes draws attention to some often-overlooked context of the story, such as its original publication in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, its representation of imperial violence, and changing gender roles.
The Statement of the Case
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

Miss Morstan entered the room with a firm step and an outward composure of manner. She was a blonde young lady, small, dainty, well gloved, and dressed in the most perfect taste. There was, however, a plainness and simplicity about her costume which bore...
In Quest of a Solution
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

It was half-past five before Holmes returned. He was bright, eager, and in excellent spirits, a mood which in his case alternated with fits of the blackest depression.

‘There is no great mystery in this matter,’ he said, taking the cup of tea which I...
The End of the Islander
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

Our meal was a merry one. Holmes could talk exceedingly well when he chose, and that night he did choose. He appeared to be in a state of nervous exaltation. I have never known him so brilliant.* He spoke on a quick...
The Great Agra Treasure
Authors: Doyle Arthur Conan
Published: February 2024

Our captive sat in the cabin opposite to the iron box which he had done so much and waited so long to gain. He was a sunburned, reckless-eyed fellow, with a network of lines and wrinkles all over his mahogany features, which told of...
Before and after breakfast
Authors: Le Fanu Sheridan , Connolly Claire
Published: February 2024

Next morning early I visited my favourite full-length portrait in the chocolate coat and top-boots. Scanty as had been my cousin Monica’s notes upon this dark and eccentric biography, they were everything to me. A soul had entered that enchanted form. Truth had passed...
Doctor Bryerly looks in
Authors: Le Fanu Sheridan , Connolly Claire
Published: February 2024

What had I done to excite this ungovernable fury? We had often before had such small differences, and she had contented herself with being sarcastic, teasing, and impertinent.

‘So, for future you are gouvernante and I the cheaile for you to command — is not so? — and you...
Arrivals
Authors: Le Fanu Sheridan , Connolly Claire
Published: February 2024

My father was dead — as suddenly as if he had been murdered. One of those fearful aneurisms that lie close to the heart, showing no outward sign of giving way in a moment, had been detected a good time since by Doctor Bryerly. My father...
I hear from Uncle Silas
Authors: Le Fanu Sheridan , Connolly Claire
Published: February 2024

Without saying a word, Cousin Monica accompanied me to the schoolroom, and on entering she shut the door, not with a spirited clang, but quietly and determinedly.

‘Well, dear,’ she said, with the same pale, excited countenance, ‘that certainly is a sensible and charitable arrangement....
We visit a room in the second story
Authors: Le Fanu Sheridan , Connolly Claire
Published: February 2024

Mr. Carysbroke amused my fancy sufficiently to prevent my observing Milly’s silence, till we had begun our return homeward.

‘The Grange must be a pretty house, if that little sketch be true; is it far from this?’

‘’Twill be two mile.’

‘Are you vexed,...
My cousin Dudley
Authors: Le Fanu Sheridan , Connolly Claire
Published: February 2024

Greatly to my satisfaction this engaging person did not appear again that day. But next day Milly told me that my uncle had taken him to task for the neglect with which he was treating us.

‘He did pitch into him, sharp and short, and...
A chapter-full of lovers
Authors: Le Fanu Sheridan , Connolly Claire
Published: February 2024

We had about this time a pleasant and quite unexpected visit from Lord Ilbury. He had come to pay his respects, understanding that my Uncle Silas was sufficiently recovered to see visitors. ‘And I think I’ll run up-stairs first, and see him, if he...
In the oak parlour
Authors: Le Fanu Sheridan , Connolly Claire
Published: February 2024

So it was vain — I was trapped, and all was over.

I stood before him on the step, the white moon shining on my face. I was trembling so that I wonder I could stand, my helpless hands raised towards him, and I looking up in...
Combray
Authors: Proust Marcel
Published: February 2024

I

For a long time, I went to bed early. Sometimes, my candle barely out, my eyes would close so quickly that I didn’t even have time to think: ‘I’m falling asleep.’ And half an hour later the thought that it was time...
Swann in Love
Authors: Proust Marcel
Published: February 2024

To belong to the ‘little set’, the ‘little group’, the ‘little clan’ of the Verdurins, one condition was sufficient but necessary: tacit adherence to a Credo one of whose articles was that the young pianist who was Madame Verdurin’s protégé that year and...
Chronic chikungunya disease (CCD): clinical insights, immunopathogenesis and therapeutic perspectives
Authors: Ng W H , Amaral K , Javelle E , Mahalingam S
Published: February 2024

Chikungunya virus, an arthropod-borne pathogen is recognized by the World Health Organization as a top priority Emerging Infectious Disease and is ranked fourth in public health needs according to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Despite its substantial impact, as evidenced by an annual estimate of 120 274 disability-adjusted life years, our understanding of the chronic aspects of chikungunya disease remains limited. This review focuses on chronic chikungunya disease, emphasizing its clinical manifestations, immunopathogenesis, therapeutic options and disease burden.
“It’s Tough to Be a Black Man with Schizophrenia”: Randomized Controlled Trial of a Brief Video Intervention to Reduce Public Stigma
Authors: Amsalem Doron , Jankowski Samantha E , Pagdon Shannon , Smith Stephen , Yang Lawrence H , Valeri Linda , Markowitz John C , Lewis-Fernández Roberto , Dixon Lisa B
Published: February 2024

Background and Hypothesis

Racial discrimination and public stigma toward Black individuals living with schizophrenia create disparities in treatment-seeking and engagement. Brief, social-contact-based video interventions efficaciously reduce stigma. It remains unclear whether including racial identity experiences in video narrative yields greater stigma reduction. We hypothesized that we would replicate findings showing sustained stigma reduction in video-intervention groups vs control and that Black participants would show greater stigma reduction and emotional engagement than non-Black participants only for a racial-insights video presenting a Black protagonist.

Study Design

Recruiting using a crowdsourcing platform, we randomized 1351 participants ages 18–30 to (a) brief video-based intervention, (b) racial-insights-focused brief video, or (c) non-intervention control, with baseline, post-intervention, and 30-day follow-up assessments. In 2-minute videos, a young Black protagonist described symptoms, personal struggles, and recovery from schizophrenia, with or without mentioning race-related experiences.

Study Results

A 3 × 3 ANOVA showed a significant group-by-time interaction for total scores of each of five stigma-related domains: social distance, stereotyping, separateness, social restriction, and perceived recovery (all P < .001). Linear mixed modeling showed a greater reduction in stigma from baseline to post-intervention among Black than non-Black participants in the racial insights video group for the social distance and social restriction domains.

Conclusions

This randomized controlled trial replicated and expanded previous findings, showing the anti-stigma effects of a brief video tailored to race-related experiences. This underscores the importance of personalized, culturally relevant narratives, especially for marginalized groups who, more attuned to prejudice and discrimination, may particularly value identification and solidarity. Future studies should explore mediators/moderators to improve intervention efficacy.
How Discrimination Narratives Resolve Ambiguity: The Case of Islamophobia in Quebec
Authors: Doering Jan
Published: February 2024

Discrimination frequently appears in ambiguous rather than overt forms. How do individuals manage the challenges associated with ambiguous discrimination, such as classifying incidents of negative but ambiguous treatment? Building on studies of microaggressions and perceived discrimination, this article develops an explanation rooted in a novel theory of discrimination narratives. Discrimination narratives express collective beliefs about discrimination’s patterns and features, which enable individuals to resolve ambiguity in their personal experiences and expectations. Based on a study of perceived Islamophobia in the Canadian province of Quebec, the article describes one common discrimination narrative and uncovers how Muslim Quebecers use it to 1) classify negative but ambiguous treatment by imputing missing information; (2) direct their attention to social situations they perceive to be high-risk; and (3) adjust to anticipated patterns in discrimination. Implications for research on ambiguity, microaggressions, perceived discrimination, and narratives are discussed.
In vivo toxicological assessment of silver nanoparticle in edible fish, Oreochromis mossambicus
Authors: Sivan Gisha , Pamanji Rajesh , Koigoora Srikanth , Joseph Nimila , Selvin Joseph
Published: February 2024

Silver nanoparticles are the extensively utilized among all nanoparticles due to their antibacterial and wound healing properties making them highly suitable for medical and pharmaceutical applications. The field of nanoparticle toxicity is an emerging field and the present study aims to assess the biochemical, hematological and genotoxicity in Oreochromis mossambicus exposed to different concentrations of silver nanoparticles for 7 and 14 days. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by reduction of silver nitrate using trisodium citrate and was characterized using X-ray diffraction, SEM, HRTEM and DLS. Hematological parameters like RBC, WBC, Hb, HCT and MCV and for biochemical analysis, antioxidant enzymes SOD, CAT and GPX and serum enzymes AST, ALT, ACP, ALP and LDH were analyzed. Genotoxicity was studied using comet assay. Results obtained showed decrease in erythrocytes, HCT, Hb and MCV while an increase was noted in WBC on day 7 and 14. The antioxidant enzymes SOD, CAT and GPx showed a decrease and the lipid peroxidation product MDA was elevated. The serum enzymes AST, ALT, ACP ALP and LDH showed an increased activity when compared to control. DNA damage was evident by an increase in % TDNA. The results indicate hematological, biochemical and genotoxicity of silver nanoparticles that might be mediated through ROS generation in O. mossambicus.
Increasing the theropod record of Europe: a new basal spinosaurid from the Enciso Group of the Cameros Basin (La Rioja, Spain). Evolutionary implications and palaeobiodiversity
Authors: Isasmendi Erik , Cuesta Elena , Díaz-Martínez Ignacio , Company Julio , Sáez-Benito Patxi , Viera Luis I , Torices Angelica , Pereda-Suberbiola Xabier
Published: February 2024

A new member of Spinosauridae from the Enciso Group (uppermost Barremian–lower Aptian) from Igea (La Rioja, Spain) is here erected on the basis of axial, pelvic girdle, and hindlimb elements that exhibit a unique combination of characters. Riojavenatrix lacustris gen. et sp. nov. is one of the latest Iberian and European spinosaurid taxa. It retains a triangular pubic boot, like the megalosaurids, and a medial condyle of the femur that shows a transitional stage between the anteroposteriorly oriented long axis of non-spinosaurid theropods and the posteromedially oriented long axis of Spinosauridae. The spinosaurid record of Iberia ranges from the late Hauterivian–early Barremian to the latest Barremian–early Aptian so far, and both the oldest and the most recent evidence comes from the Cameros Basin, where spinosaurid remains are especially abundant in the Barremian deposits. A review of the spinosaurid record has allowed us to dismiss the presence of the genus Baryonyx from Iberia; hence, only Camarillasaurus, Iberospinus, Protathlitis, Riojavenatrix gen. nov., and Vallibonavenatrix are considered to be present in the Early Cretaceous of Iberia. According to this study, Riojavenatrix is one of the youngest baryonychines in the fossil record.
Moniliophthora perniciosa in Angola, Africa—the First Record in the Eastern Hemisphere
Authors: Aime Mary Catherine , Nzuzi Albertina Matias , Lautenschläger Thea
Published: February 2024

Moniliophthora perniciosa causes a destructive disease known as witches’ broom disease of cacao (WBDC). WBDC has been responsible for major reductions in production or even total abandonment of cacao plantations in most countries that it has invaded. To date, however, the disease is known only from the cacao-producing regions of South America and a few Central American and Caribbean countries. It is not known from the Eastern Hemisphere and remains a major threat should it invade West Africa or Southeast Asia, where the majority of the world’s chocolate production now occurs. In 2019, a pink pigmented mushroom was found fruiting from unidentified twigs in the Serra Vamba of Angola. The specimen was identified as M. perniciosa based on morphological and molecular analyses. Although Angola is not a major cacao-producing country, the presence of the fungus in the Eastern Hemisphere could be of global concern and may indicate the need for quarantine in Angola and vigilance in neighboring countries.
Th2 cells in rapid immune responses and protective avoidance reactions
Authors: Goetzl Edward J.
Published: February 2024

Type 2 helper cells (Th2 cells) differentiate from CD4 helper T cells under the influence of IL‐4 and conventional or monocyte‐derived CD11b+ dendritic cells. Th2 cells are capable of generating IL‐4, IL‐5, and IL‐13, as well as evoking immunoglobulin class‐switch to IgE. Three types of rapid immune responses are Th2 cell‐dependent: (1) mast cell‐IgE mediated allergic reactions, (2) Th2 cell‐derived cytokine‐mediated reactions that complement allergic reactions and protect the host from toxins, xenobiotics, environmental irritants, and helminthic parasites, and (3) IgE‐stimulated mast cell‐derived cysteinyl‐leukotriene mediated avoidance of toxins. The contributions of Th2 cell‐derived cytokines to eosinophilia (IL‐5), IgE class‐switch, and epithelial barrier activation, mucous secretion, and metaplasia (IL‐4 and IL‐13) in asthma, allergic rhinitis with polyps and atopic dermatitis have led to anti‐cytokine monoclonal antibody treatments. Anti‐IL‐5 neutralizing monoclonal antibody in asthma and anti‐IL‐4/IL‐13 receptor neutralizing monoclonal antibody in asthma and atopic dermatitis are proven successful therapies in appropriately selected patients who are not sufficiently improved by conventional treatments.
Efficacy of therapies for post dural puncture headache
Authors: Thon Jan N. , Weigand Markus A. , Kranke Peter , Siegler Benedikt H.
Published: February 2024

Purpose of review

Clinical management of postdural puncture headache (PDPH) remains an interdisciplinary challenge with significant impact on both morbidity and quality of life. This review aims to give an overview of the most recent literature on prophylactic and therapeutic measures and to discuss novel findings with regard to currently published consensus practice guideline recommendations.

Recent findings

Although current evidence does not support a recommendation of any specific prophylactic measure, new data is available on the use of intrathecal catheters to prevent PDPH and/or to avoid invasive procedures. In case of disabling or refractory symptoms despite conservative treatments, the epidural blood patch (EBP) remains the therapeutic gold standard and its use should not be delayed in the absence of contraindications. However, recent clinical studies and meta-analyses provide additional findings on the therapeutic use of local anesthetics as potential noninvasive alternatives for early symptom control.

There is continuing research focusing on both prophylactic and therapeutic measures offering promising data on potential alternatives to invasive procedures, although there is currently no treatment option that comes close to the effectiveness of an EBP. A better understanding of PDPH pathophysiology is not only necessary to identify new therapeutic targets, but also to recognize patients who benefit most from current treatments, as this might enhance their therapeutic efficacy.
Stapled End-To-Side Ileocolic Anastomosis in Crohn’s Disease: Old Dog, Reliable Tricks? A Retrospective Two-Center Cohort Study
Authors: Doğru Volkan , Ashburn Jean H. , Akova Umut , Sutter Alton G. , Esen Eren , Gardner Emily M. , da Luz Moreira Andre , Erkan Arman , Kirat John , Grieco Michael J. , Remzi Feza H.
Published: February 2024

Objective:

Analyze our long-term experience with a less-popularized but stalwart approach, the stapled end-to-side ileocolic anastomosis.

Background:

The choice of technical approach to ileocolic anastomosis after ileocecal resection for Crohn’s disease affects surgical outcomes and recurrence. Yet, despite heterogeneous data from different anastomotic configurations, there remains no clear guidance as to the optimal technique.

Methods:

In a retrospective cohort design, patients undergoing ileocolic anastomosis in the setting of Crohn’s disease between 2016 and 2021 at two institutions were identified. Patient characteristics and surgical outcomes in terms of recurrence (surgical, clinical, and endoscopic) were studied.

Results:

In total, 211 patients were included. Before surgery, 80% were exposed to at least 1 cycle of systemic steroids and 71% had at least 1 biologic agent; 60% exhibited penetrating disease and 38% developed an intra-abdominal abscess. After surgery, one anastomosis leaked (0.5%). Over 2.4 years of follow-up (IQR = 1.3–3.9), surgical recurrence was 0.9%. Two-year overall recurrence-free and endoscopic recurrence-free survivals were 74% and 85% (95% CI = 68–81 and 80–91), respectively. The adjusted hazard ratio of endoscopic recurrence was 3.0 (95% CI = 1.4–6.2) for males and 5.2 (1.2–22) for patients who received systemic steroids before the surgery.

Conclusion:

The stapled end-to-side anastomosis is an efficient, reliable, and reproducible approach to maintain bowel continuity after ileocecal resection with durable outcomes. Our outcomes demonstrate low rates of disease recurrence and stand favorably in comparison to other more technically complex or protracted anastomotic approaches. This anastomosis is an ideal reconstructive approach after ileocecal resection for Crohn’s disease.