bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Oral Challenge without Penicillin Skin Tests in Children with Suspected Beta-Lactam Hypersensitivity
Authors: Atakul Gizem , Köse Seda Şirin , Atay Ozge , Boyacıoglu Ozge Kangallı , Al Serdar , Asilsoy Suna , Uzuner Nevin , Karaman Ozkan
Published: September 2022

Objective A misdiagnosed “penicillin allergy” is a common problem in childhood. Recently, skipping skin tests (STs) and performing a direct oral challenge test (OCT) have become an increasingly common approach in children with suspected β-lactam (BL) allergy. In our study, we aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of OCT without using ST in children who had a history of hypersensitivity reactions with BL antibiotics.

Materials and Methods We retrospectively evaluated direct OCT outcomes in children with both nonimmediate and immediate-type reaction history with BL antibiotics. STs were not performed before the challenge test. The patients were monitored for 4 hours after the challenge and continued using the drug in two divided doses for 3 days at home.

Results In this study, 72 patients were included, with median age of 7 years (interquartile range: 4; min: 1 year to max: 16 years), and of these, 56% were male. Forty-five subjects (63%) reported immediate-type adverse reactions. The most common clinical manifestation was urticaria/angioedema (51%, n: 37) and maculopapular exanthema in 46% (n: 33) of patients, respectively. The most commonly suspected drug was 71% amoxicillin-clavulanate. A 3-day OCT without preceding ST was performed in all patients. Only three patients (4.2%) showed a positive response to the oral drug challenge test. None of these reactions observed was more severe than index reactions.

Conclusion Performing OCT without STs is a safe and convenient method to exclude BL hypersensitivity in the pediatric age group.
How to witness a drone strike
Authors: Richardson Michael
Published: September 2022

Witnessing is crucial to public engagement with war, but the remote violence of drones presents distinct challenges: its victims are largely invisible to Western publics; operations are cloaked in secrecy; and promises of precision targeting, accurate surveillance, and legal monitoring obscure the brutalities of the system. With so many barriers to witnessing, remote warfare tends to remain on the periphery of political debate and has not occasioned widespread resistance. Yet the means for witnessing drone warfare exist; the question is how they might be leveraged to make remote war more accessible and contestable. This article analyses the high-profile drone strike that killed 10 civilians in Kabul on 29 August 2021 to consider the limits and possibilities of witnessing drone strikes, alongside the database of conflict monitor Airwars and the aesthetic practice of the research agency Forensic Architecture. It argues that witnessing drone strikes requires assembling new conceptual techniques with long-standing practices of media witnessing and human rights testimony. It is not a manual or primer but rather maps four critical, analytical, and ethico-political trajectories demanded by the problem of how to witness a drone strike: lived experiences, violent mediations, infrastructural scales, and aesthetics.
Social and sensory influences on linguistic alignment
Authors: Hogstrom Anders , Theodore Rachel , Canfield Allison , Castelluccio Brian , Green Joshua , Irvine Christina , Eigsti Inge-Marie
Published: September 2022

Previous research has demonstrated that speakers adapt individual characteristics of speech production to the
social context, for example via phonetic convergence. Studies have measured the impact of social dynamics on convergence in
typical speakers, but the impact of individual differences is less well-explored. The present study measures phonetic convergence
before and after a cooperative interaction with an undergraduate student by comparing teens with a history of autism spectrum
disorder (ASD) and with typical development. Results revealed a small temporal convergence effect for typically developing dyads;
in contrast, dyads including autistic teens showed no convergence. Furthermore, the degree of convergence was negatively related
to severity of ASD symptomatology and atypical sensory profiles. While social and sensory processing abilities may play a role in
phonetic convergence, high covariance between these measures makes it difficult to differentiate their contributions in
isolation.
Rethinking the role of language in autism
Authors: Hinzen Wolfram
Published: September 2022

Linguists have long sought to draw support from developmental disorders like Williams Syndrome (WS) and Specific
Language Impairment (SLI) for linguistic theories and the modularity of language in particular. Linguistic diversity in the autism
spectrum (ASD) has received comparatively little attention from linguists. Here I argue, against recent claims to the contrary,
that language patterns in ASD do not support the modularity of language any more than WS or SLI are by now acknowledged to do.
Rather, conceptualizing the linguistic diversity in question requires integrated neurocognitive models in which language is an
inherent aspect of human-specific forms of cognition, social interaction, and communication. ASD can be seen as providing us with
important indications of how these are linked.
Semogenic variation in the construal of sayerhood in Arabic
Authors: Bardi Mohamed Ali
Published: September 2022

This article studies projection and examines alternative modes of construing processes of saying/ speech events and the variation across three registers where projection is particularly important. It is one of many articles that describe and discuss projection as a semantic fractal manifested in a variety of lexicogrammatical environments. The first paper in this series, which was published in 2018 by Arús-Hita et al. in Word was an investigation of quoting and reporting strategies of speech and thought across six genetically unrelated languages (Arabic, Dagaare, English, Hindi, Japanese and Spanish). This paper, however, has a much narrower scope. It first looks at all participants in the verbal clause in Arabic, then it focuses on the main one – the Sayer. Since verbal projection is quite pervasive in different areas of the lexicogrammar, it only makes sense to look into these fractal motifs to have an idea about the different guises under which the Sayer appears. News reports, academic discourse and fictional narratives have been analysed to properly account for the registerial variety in construing the role of the Sayer in verbal clauses across metafunctions.
A transitivity-based exploration of a wrongful conviction for arson and murder
Authors: Bartley Leanne
Published: September 2022

Well-known cases of wrongful convictions (e.g. Central Park Five, Steven Avery, Amanda Knox), although merely the tip of the iceberg, serve to highlight flaws inherent in justice systems worldwide (cf. Garrett 2011). Many innocent people are having their freedom taken away without reason. One such lesser-known, though very significant, case is that of Kristine Bunch, who was wrongfully convicted of arson and murdering her son, resulting in her wrongful imprisonment for 17 years. To examine how Kristine represents her miscarriage of justice discursively, I examine transitivity patterns (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014) in a semi-structured interview with her and, in doing so, aim to create awareness of some probable key language processes in wrongful convictions more generally.
The efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English comprehensibility and accentedness of Korean speakers
Authors: Kim Keun , Archibald John
Published: September 2022

The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of lexical stress diacritics on the English comprehensibility and accentedness of Korean speakers. To this end, 30 native Korean participants read aloud 15 English sentences without diacritics in the pretest. Then, they were given explicit instructions on the production of higher pitch and extended duration as a marker of English stress with musical notation provided. In the posttest, the participants read aloud the same sentences as were in the pretest but which had diacritics indicating stress placement. In the delayed posttest, two days after the pretest and the posttest, the participants read 15 sentences without diacritics again to see if the effects of the treatment were retained. Randomized speech samples were rated by three native speakers of English in relation to comprehensibility and accentedness. Findings showed that significant improvements were observed after the treatment in both comprehensibility and accentedness.
A comparison of radar and optical remote sensing to detect cyclone-induced canopy disturbance in two subtropical forest landscapes
Authors: Peereman Jonathan , Bae Soyeon , Lin Teng-Chiu
Published: September 2022

Optical remote sensing is a tool frequently used to assess cyclone-induced forest disturbances. However, the frequent cloud cover limits the availability of optical data in cyclone basins. On the other hand, radar remote sensing is not affected by cloud cover and has been used to detect windthrows. Yet, the potential of radar sensing in monitoring cyclone damages of varying magnitudes across forest landscapes remains unclear. Here, we compared radar remote sensing to optical remote sensing of four cyclone disturbances in the Fushan Experimental Forest of northern Taiwan and the El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico using Landsat 8 and C-band Sentinel-1 satellite data. We analyzed the change in two optical vegetation indices, EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) and NDII (Normalized Difference Infrared Index), and three radar-based metrics, co- and cross-polarized backscatters (VV, VH) and their ratio (Canopy Development Index, CDI) after cyclone disturbances and during approximately the same periods of non-cyclone years. We assessed the improved temporal resolution permitted by Sentinel-1 constellation on the detection of forest canopy disturbance. Bootstrapped comparisons indicated that both optical and radar indices detected canopy change, but their correlations were not significant. Improved temporal resolution of CDI allowed to distinguish cyclone-induced canopy change from the phenological variation and even change by nearby cyclones. Although this, VV and VH backscatters responded more closely to cyclone disturbances than their ratio. Our results demonstrate that the C-band backscatter intensities can track cyclone-induced change of forest canopies, and provide an assessment of C-band capabilities to monitor cyclone disturbances.
Preprint Highlight: Disruption of lactate metabolism in the peripheral nervous system leads to motor selective deficits
Authors: Lee-Liu Dasfne
Published: September 2022

While the role of the lactate shuttle from glia to neurons in the central nervous system has been associated with neurodegenerative disease, the role of this shuttle from Schwann cells to peripheral neurons during nerve degeneration remains unknown. Here the authors report that deletion of lactate dehydrogenase, the enzyme that catalyzes the interconversion between pyruvate and lactate in motor neurons or Schwann cells, causes progressive motor neuron axon degeneration. However, sensory neurons remain unaffected. The role of lactate dehydrogenase in motor neuron degeneration presents a novel target for rescuing metabolic dysfunction in motor-dominated neuropathies such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Discovery and multi-parametric optimization of a high-affinity antibody against interleukin-25 with neutralizing activity in a mouse model of skin inflammation
Authors: Bone Ruth , Fennell Brian J , Tam Amy , Sheldon Richard , Nocka Karl , Varghese Sreeja , Chang Chew Shun , Hawerkamp Heike C , Yeow Aoife , Saunders Sean P , Hams Emily , Walsh Patrick T , Cunningham Orla , Fallon Padraic G
Published: September 2022

Background

Interleukin (IL)25 has been implicated in tissue homeostasis at barrier surfaces and the initiation of type two inflammatory signaling in response to infection and cell injury across multiple organs. We sought to discover and engineer a high affinity neutralizing antibody and evaluate the antibody functional activity in vitro and in vivo.

Methods

In this study, we generated a novel anti-IL25 antibody (22C7) and investigated the antibody’s therapeutic potential for targeting IL25 in inflammation.

Results

A novel anti-IL25 antibody (22C7) was generated with equivalent in vitro affinity and potency against the human and mouse orthologs of the cytokine. This translated into in vivo potency in an IL25-induced air pouch model where 22C7 inhibited the recruitment of monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils and eosinophils. Furthermore, 22C7 significantly reduced ear swelling, acanthosis and disease severity in the Aldara mouse model of psoriasiform skin inflammation. Given the therapeutic potential of IL25 targeting in inflammatory conditions, 22C7 was further engineered to generate a highly developable, fully human antibody while maintaining the affinity and potency of the parental molecule.

Conclusions

The generation of 22C7, an anti-IL25 antibody with efficacy in a preclinical model of skin inflammation, raises the therapeutic potential for 22C7 use in the spectrum of IL25-mediated diseases.
reComBat: batch-effect removal in large-scale multi-source gene-expression data integration
Authors: Adamer Michael F , Brüningk Sarah C , Tejada-Arranz Alejandro , Estermann Fabienne , Basler Marek , Borgwardt Karsten
Published: September 2022

Motivation

With the steadily increasing abundance of omics data produced all over the world under vastly different experimental conditions residing in public databases, a crucial step in many data-driven bioinformatics applications is that of data integration. The challenge of batch-effect removal for entire databases lies in the large number of batches and biological variation, which can result in design matrix singularity. This problem can currently not be solved satisfactorily by any common batch-correction algorithm.

Results

We present reComBat, a regularized version of the empirical Bayes method to overcome this limitation and benchmark it against popular approaches for the harmonization of public gene-expression data (both microarray and bulkRNAsq) of the human opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Batch-effects are successfully mitigated while biologically meaningful gene-expression variation is retained. reComBat fills the gap in batch-correction approaches applicable to large-scale, public omics databases and opens up new avenues for data-driven analysis of complex biological processes beyond the scope of a single study.

Availability and implementation

The code is available at https://github.com/BorgwardtLab/reComBat, all data and evaluation code can be found at https://github.com/BorgwardtLab/batchCorrectionPublicData.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Advances online.
Epidemiology and clinical characteristics of burns in mainland China from 2009 to 2018
Authors: Yang Jie , Tian Guanglei , Liu Jianchao , Bai Huajuan , Yang Shuxu , Ran Mingzi , Li Hongyu , Ma Kui , Yang Siming , Fu Xiaobing
Published: September 2022

Background

Burn injuries place a heavy burden on the global healthcare system. However, there is still a lack of nationwide studies on the epidemiological characteristics of burn patients in mainland China. The present study aims to accurately analyze the clinical characteristics of burn patients by collecting data in mainland China from 2009 to 2018, which will provide effective strategies for healthcare systems and the government in mainland China.

Methods

Patients admitted for burn injuries to 196 hospitals in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in mainland China from 2009 to 2018 were included. The data collected included sex, age, month distribution, etiology, region, clinical outcome, injury anatomical location, total burn surface area and mortality. SPSS 19.0 software was used to analyze the data.

Results

From 2009 to 2018, the burn patients were 333,995 (0.76%), which included 222,480 (66.61%) males and 111,515 (33.39%) females. From 2009 to 2018, the number of individuals admitted to hospitals for burns showed a downward trend year by year. The burn patients accounted for the highest proportion of inpatients in 0–10 years (38.10%), followed by 40–50 years (13.14%). The highest cure ratio of burn inpatients was in the 20–30 age group (31 394, 71.53%). Among 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, the province with the highest proportion of total inpatients caused by burns was Inner Mongolia (4.61%), followed by Zhejiang (3.17%), Hainan (2.88%) and Xinjiang (2.64%). Summer (29.16%) was the season with the highest incidence of burn patients admitted to hospitals, followed by spring (25.6%). Scalding (60.19%) was the most frequent kind of burn treated, followed by fire (20.45%). The patients had multiple burn sites (68.89%) most often, followed by burns on the lower limbs (10.91%). From 0% to 10% total body surface area (TBSA) accounted for the highest ratio (37.19%), followed by 90–100% TBSA (21.74%).

Conclusions

The present study is the first to describe the associated situation and trends of burn patients in mainland China from 2009 to 2018. Our findings will serve as the latest clinical evidence for healthcare planning and prevention efforts in China and other countries.
Safety and feasibility of laparoscopic surgery for colorectal and gastric cancer under the Chinese multi-site practice policy: admittance standards of competence are needed
Authors: Cai Zhenghao , Song Haiqin , Huang Zhenfeng , Fingerhut Abraham , Xu Ximo , Zhong Hao , Li Zhigang , Zhang Yingjie , Sha Dachong , Bao Dandan , Wang Haibo , Cai Binghua , Hua Shangbo , Zhang Yanhui , Sun Jianguang , Ye Ke , Li Jianwen , Lu Yong , Feng Bo
Published: September 2022

Background

The multi-site practice (MSP) policy has been practiced in China over 10 years. This study aimed to investigate the safety and feasibility of performing laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer (LSCRC) and gastric cancer (LSGC) under the Chinese MSP policy.

Methods

We collected and analysed the data from 1,081 patients who underwent LSCRC or LSGC performed by one gastrointestinal surgeon in his original hospital (n = 573) and his MSP institutions (n = 508) between January 2017 and December 2020. Baseline demographics, intraoperative outcomes, post-operative recovery, and pathological results were compared between the original hospital and MSP institutions, as well as between MSP institutions with and without specific competence (surgical skill, operative instrument, perioperative multi-discipline team).

Results

In our study, 690 patients underwent LSCRC and 391 patients underwent LSGC. The prevalence of post-operative complications was comparable for LSCRC (11.5% vs 11.1%, P = 0.89) or LSGC (15.2% vs 12.6%, P = 0.46) between the original hospital and MSP institutions. However, patients in MSP institutions without qualified surgical assistant(s) and adequate instruments experienced longer operative time and greater intraoperative blood loss. The proportion of patients with inadequate lymph-node yield was significantly higher in MSP institutions than in the original hospital for both LSCRC (11.5% vs 21.2%, P < 0.01) and LSGC (9.8% vs 20.5%, P < 0.01).

Conclusion

For an experienced gastrointestinal surgeon, performing LSCRC and LSGC outside his original hospital under the MSP policy is safe and feasible, but relies on the precondition that the MSP institutions are equipped with qualified surgical skills, adequate operative instruments, and complete perioperative management.
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Caused by Anhydrous Ammonia Burns: Two Case Reports
Authors: Heng Xue , Yuan Zhiqiang , Xiang Fei , Luo Qizhi , Yang Lei , Peng Yizhi , Luo Gaoxing , Li Haisheng
Published: September 2022

Acute anhydrous ammonia burns are relatively rare but lethal and often occur as a mass occupational incident worldwide. Anhydrous ammonia mainly leads to severe inhalation injury and skin/mucosa wound because of its high water solubility and strong alkalinity. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) induced by inhalation injury is the main cause of death. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), also known as extracorporeal life support, has been recommended as the salvage treatment for severe ARDS based on low-level evidence. However, the application of ECMO in ammonia burns is still limited. Here, we presented two cases of anhydrous ammonia burn patients, one 62-year-old man with 15% total body surface area (TBSA) and one 47-year-old man with 27% TBSA, accompanying severe inhalation injury. They both developed severe ARDS and started vv ECMO on 3, 6, and 15 days after injury, respectively. ECMO lasted 118, 247, and 72 h, respectively. All ECMO were successfully weaned off although only one patient survived. Meanwhile, one patient had the coagulopathy complication of ECMO, mainly bleeding, deep vein thrombosis, and hemolysis. In conclusion, this report provided evidence for use of ECMO as supportive care in ammonia burn patients with severe ARDS.
An abdominal ectopic pregnancy following in vitro fertilization: a rare case report
Authors: Alhajjeh Martha , Jomaa Sami , Kanj Razan , Al Halabi Nahed , Adwan Dema
Published: September 2022

A significant rise in the incidence of abdominal pregnancy has been reported following in vitro fertilization techniques. Herein, we present a healthy 30-year-old woman, primigravida, conceived through in vitro fertilization–embryo transfer for male factor infertility. Six weeks later, she reported abdominal pain and discomfort. Ultrasonography revealed an empty uterus and a heterogenic abdominal mass in the anterior aspect of the uterus with normal adnexa. Computed tomography scan revealed a mass outside the uterus measuring 11 × 8 cm. Under general anesthesia, laparotomy exposed a gestational sac implanted outside the uterus on the anterior abdominal wall and contained an unviable fetus. Blood clots and pieces of placental tissue were also noticed. The patient had an uneventful course of recovery and was discharged after six days. Therefore, abdominal ectopic pregnancy must be considered in all patients with vaginal bleeding and/or abdominal pain who have undergone assisted reproductive technology.
W. E. B. Du Bois, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Black Sociology
Authors: Wright II Earl
Published: September 2022

W. E. B. Du Bois is the founding father of sociology because he was the first to employ scientific sociology. While Du Bois engaged in scientific sociology, many of his White peers conducted scientific racism studies that promoted biological, intellectual, and physical differences between the races. This disconnect necessitated Du Bois’s creation of a parallel world of sociological inquiry and analysis, Black sociology, which emphasized the elimination of social oppression through scientific sociology. In this chapter it is revealed that the principles of Black sociology emerged primarily from Du Bois during his tenure at Atlanta University, where he established the first American school of sociology. In addition, Black sociology was practiced at historically Black colleges and universities, including Fisk University, which had one of the earliest programs of applied sociology in the nation under George Edmund Haynes, and Tuskegee Institute, where Booker T. Washington spearheaded the nation’s first applied rural sociology program.
The American Just Intonation Tradition
Authors: Gann Kyle
Published: September 2022

The practice of just intonation began in America in 1928 when a young Harry Partch - inspired by the writings of Hermann von Helmholtz and Henry Cowell - burned all of his previous compositions in a pot-bellied stove in New Orleans, and began work on a new system of music. Over the next four decades Partch built his own orchestra capable of playing 43 tones to the octave. Others would follow, if less radically, Partch’s example. Partch’s apprentice Ben Johnston wrote ten string quartets exploring a wide world of tuning. Lou Harrison adopted microtonality through writing for Indonesian gamelan; Terry Riley and La Monte Young tuned pianos to just intervals. A younger generation includes Larry Polansky, Michael Harrison, David Doty, and myself. Unlike the European spectralists, the Americans sought not to imitate some natural paradigm, but to expand the materials of music and to achieve a more beautiful sonic resonance.
A Machine for Killing Time
Authors: Gunning Tom
Published: September 2022

This chapter deals with cinema’s relation to time, not simply in terms of representation (the time of a story or events) but as an inherent component of the filmic apparatus. Edison modeled his invention of the kinetoscope on his previous invention of the phonograph, and both were dedicated to recording a flowing instance of time. I stress not the sound or movement captured but the actual duration of film as it records and replays time. The film image and the film viewer both partake of the same “running time,” the actual duration of a film. As a time machine, film partakes of the modern culture of clock time, in which time is understood as homogenous and measurable into standard discrete elements. This modern empty time has been critiqued and related to the modern experience of boredom and the need to “kill time.” Heidegger, Adorno, and Bernard Stiegler have analyzed this phenomenon as part of modern culture. Film as a form of mass entertainment was advertised as a means of making “time fly” to defeat boredom. This aspect of film can be seen both as exemplifying the modern culture of alienated time and as a revolt against it. I discuss the way Christian Marclay’s twenty-four-hour video piece The Clock engages this affinity of cinema to clock time, but then I discuss the way both popular genres, such as the romantic comedy, and avant-garde films, such as the work of Peter Kubelka, have creatively transformed this aspect of cinema.
Women’s Hands and the Cinematic Cut
Authors: Gerstner David A.
Published: September 2022

How might we redirect our attention to cinematic handiwork in which women’s hands push through the patriarchal-masculinist impulse that so vigorously seeks to bind them? What might the feminist filmmaker-as-artist offer through montage? What might a feminist film look like when “beauty” or “calm” is destroyed? The purpose of this chapter is to rediscover these overlooked yet ever-busy hands. I concentrate, therefore, on women’s hands that are in fact seen doing labor in cinema. But I look to these images to consider women’s-hands-at-work not to shore up positive or negative notions too easily assigned to questions of representation. Instead, I am drawn to the tensions women’s hands create as they navigate the ins and outs of patriarchal discourse in the cinematic fantasy. Man with a Movie Camera, Klute, and The Piano offer a variety of cinematic platforms to serve my task.
Notes on Some Forms of Repetition
Authors: King Homay
Published: September 2022

Homay King’s “Notes on Some Forms of Repetition” offers an open-ended taxonomy of types of repetition found in moving images, with examples drawn from early cinema (Edison’s Fred Ott’s Sneeze), slapstick comedy (Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times), Disney animation (Pinocchio), the French New Wave (Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville), documentary film (Rithy Panh’s S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing), contemporary video art (Victor Burgin’s The Little House and Harun Farocki’s Parallel I-IV), and others. The forms of repetition defined and discussed include those found in free indirect cinema, reenactment, habit and rote repetition, automatism and comic repetition, and zoomorphism. Theoretical texts engaged with include Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition and Cinema 2: The Time-image; Pier Paolo Pasolini, “The Cinema of Poetry”; Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious; Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution and Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic; Sergei Eisenstein, Eisenstein on Disney, and others.
The Audio-visual Nonrelation and the Digital Break
Authors: Arsenjuk Luka
Published: September 2022

In the most widely accepted narratives about the recent history of cinema, the introduction of digital technology typically figures as a significant break, in which the loss of cinema’s analog photographic basis brought about a profound transformation of its nature or ontological status. The present chapter proposes to revisit this rather straightforward and vision-centric narrative of the digital break in order to question it from the perspective of a more rigorous understanding of cinema as an audiovisual discourse. Drawing on the work of Michel Chion and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the chapter develops a concept of audiovisual discourse as something structured around a constitutive nonrelation between image and sound. Following this, the chapter interrogates what consequences such a discursive and nonrelational conception of audiovisual phenomena might have for our understanding of cinema’s historicity, in particular when the latter is derived from some kind of figuration of a break.
Documentary Listening Habits
Authors: Rangan Pooja
Published: September 2022

This chapter rethinks the documentary field’s prevailing metaphor for a film’s social perspective—“voice”—in conjunction with the “auditory turn” in media and cultural theory. Drawing on terms like “listening ear” (Jennifer Lynn Stoever), “audit” (John Mowitt), and “listening habitus” (Lisbeth Lipari), I revisit canonical documentary theorizations of voice to refocus their concerns with how documentaries speak or “give voice” to how documentary practices and conventions condition hearing and shape listening habits. I map the documentary listening habitus in terms of two divergent habits of listening: objective listening and embodied listening. These listening habits are entangled with auditory discernments that extend beyond documentary, including accent neutralization in the call center industry, audism or the pathologization of hearing impairments, and forensic listening in asylum cases. At stake in this shift is an apprehension of how documentary listeners are powerfully implicated in the distribution of political, social, and material resources.
Lesbian Photographers
Authors: Figlerowicz Marta
Published: September 2022

Brian Massumi’s provocative analysis of the concept that cinema, and the reflexive experiences it enables, has something to tell us about affect itself can usefully frame our relationship to awareness and selfhood. This chapter takes Massumi’s hypothesis more seriously than others have taken it, earnestly accepting film as a tool of insight. To showcase this framework’s applicability even to mainstream narrative cinema, I focus on a group of films that represent romantic relationships between women. Through their flirtations with, and epistemic subversions of, photography, High Art, Carol, and Disobedience represent the moving image as a paradoxical source of queer empowerment and self-knowledge precisely because it refuses to affirm a consistent, namable vision of our sexual selves. Building on an understanding of affect’s relationship to cinema that is much like Massumi’s, these films show how misleading it is to see the clues affects give us into ourselves as all leading back to the same, deepest point of origin; to believe, as in a simple reading of Sigmund Freud, that what we desire and are defined by is ultimately some singular past or future primal scene. Privileging everyday acts of mutual observation and vulnerability over more conventionally momentous social statements, events, and acts, these films offer a model of queerness that accepts and acknowledges the intertwining of our sexual passions with non-sexual longings and needs. They force us to rethink both our specific expectations about cinematic representations of sexuality and our broader views of their medium as a tool of self-documentation and exploration.
Headphones, Cinematic Listening, and the Frame of the Skull
Authors: Stevens Kyle
Published: September 2022

This chapter explores what happens when we use headphones to listen to movies? What happens when a film’s sonic world is no longer part of a shared world? What are the political and philosophical consequences of an aesthetic experience that feels like it unfolds inside our heads? The effects are deeper than we might think. Gone is the robust, full-bodied experience of cinematic sound, the registration of vibrations in the gut, the feet. Gone is the lack of control over volume and intrusive chatter from candy wrapper-rattling audience members. Gone is the importance of the proximity of speakers, or the placement of speakers behind the screen to create the illusion that sounds issue primarily from their visual source. Perhaps most importantly, if the sound occurs inside the listener, rather than the listener occurring in the space of the sound, then gone is the sense of being immersed in a sonic environment. In this chapter I first sketch the history of film sound technology, as well as theories of film sound experience, in order to not only demonstrate just how radical the use of headphones to listen to movies is, but also to reclaim an original dream of cinematic listening. Then I make the case for considering headphonic sound as a formal structure by describing an aesthetic mode—what I call intracranial aesthetics—that curiously suits headphones. These aims come together in a consideration that headphonic listening may, ultimately, constitute a new medium of cinema.
When and Where Does a Film Begin? Putting Films in Context
Authors: Villarejo Amy
Published: September 2022

This chapter tests one of our discipline’s key pedagogies, putting films in context, by reading one very short film closely. Kahlil Joseph’s film, Bellhaven Meridian, accompanies the music of Shabazz Palaces but is more than a music video. Like Joseph’s work more generally, it collates aspects of African American experience, movement, rhythm, and form; it also pays tribute to Los Angeles and the filmmakers of the LA Rebellion, particularly Charles Burnett, who likewise mined everyday life for filmic material. In reading this three-minute film closely, I explore the boundless nature of what a “context” might include, from aspects of mise en scène to the histories of LA housing the film references to the artistic traditions and lineages it cites. If “context” is ultimately undecidable and uncontainable, it nonetheless can give shape to how we think about a given film and its political-aesthetic project.
Analog Corpus Studies
Authors: Gjerdingen Robert O.
Published: September 2022

Although the field of “corpus studies” is often connected with digital tools, the idea of a distant reading that asks questions of large collections of works existed long before we had access to computational tools and methods. This chapter focuses on the history of distant readings that made no use of a computer, covering early concordance analyses of the Bible and the work of Parry and Lord focusing on Homeric epics and orality, as well as Knud Jeppesen’s work examining aspects of style in Palestrina’s music. It aims to provide a context through which we might better understand some of the questions asked of large collections of musical works.
Oscillatory Activity in Sensorimotor Function
Authors: van Wijk Bernadette C. M.
Published: September 2022

Amplitude modulations in alpha/mu, beta, and gamma frequency bands are robustly linked to several aspects of sensorimotor function. Even a simple finger tap induces a prominent suppression of alpha/mu and beta power that already starts during the preparation phase, continues during execution, and ends in a rebound after movement termination. An increase in gamma power can often be observed around movement onset in contralateral motor cortex. Recordings from other parts of the motor system such as the basal ganglia and motoneurons in the spinal cord indicate that these modulations and frequency bands are a hallmark of the sensorimotor network. Beta oscillations in particular are considered crucial in mediating the facilitation and inhibition of motor output. This is exemplified by elevated beta amplitudes in local field potential recordings from the subthalamic nucleus in patients with Parkinson’s disease. This chapter outlines current ideas about the role of individual frequency bands in motor control, how coherence estimates between recordings from distant sites have revealed functional networks, and what we know about the involvement of oscillatory activity in movement disorders.
Cortical Source Localization in EEG Frequency Analysis
Authors: Xie Wanze , Richards John E.
Published: September 2022

Source localization of EEG signals identifies the loci of neural activity that generates the EEG voltage or power distribution on the scalp. This chapter provides a practical guide to source localization and its usage in EEG analysis in the frequency domain. Techniques proposed to overcome the inverse problem of source localization have progressed from equivalent dipole modeling to distributed source modeling, such as sLORETA and eLORETA. This chapter discusses the rationale behind these techniques, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using different techniques for source localization. Recent advances in high-resolution structural MRI make it possible to accurately delineate and model the tissues inside the head. This chapter discusses the importance of using realistic head models constructed with anatomical MRIs for EEG source localization. Finally, it reviews the applications of source localization as a neuroimaging tool in EEG frequency analysis.
Frequency Characteristics of Sleep
Authors: Lázár Alpár S. , Lázár Zsolt I. , Bódizs Róbert
Published: September 2022

One of the primary clinical uses of EEG is to assess sleep. EEG can be employed to examine REM and non-REM sleep. However, recording and analyzing EEG during sleep presents unique challenges relative to traditional awake EEG recording and analysis. This chapter provides guidance on meeting these challenges in order to record high-quality EEG during sleep and assess the data in the frequency domain. Beyond a general overview of the major power spectral features of REM and NREM dependent EEG activity, the chapter focuses on hallmark oscillatory elements of sleep such as slow waves (delta band) and sleep spindles (sigma band) in the context of neurophysiological mechanisms, detection methods, individual differences, and significance for cognition and brain health across the lifespan. Finally, yet importantly, the chapter provides a brief overview of the circadian system and sleep-wake homeostasis and their dynamic interaction in modulating EEG activity across vigilance stages in men and women.
A Review of Oscillatory Brain Dynamics in Schizophrenia
Authors: Spencer Kevin M.
Published: September 2022

Schizophrenia is a serious neuropsychiatric disorder that imposes high social and economic costs due to its severity. There is a long history of EEG research in schizophrenia, examining both spontaneous oscillatory activity, and more recently, oscillatory activity related to cognitive functions. In the past two decades there has been considerable progress in understanding the nature of neural circuit dysfunction in schizophrenia, and modern EEG approaches have played a central role in these efforts by providing a level of analysis whereby basic and translational studies of oscillation generation can be integrated with neuropathological studies of neuronal abnormalities. EEG promises to furnish biomarkers of neural circuit abnormalities for the development of new therapeutics by linking dysfunction of neural circuits to particular psychiatric symptoms and cognitive deficits.
EEG Frequency Techniques for Imaging Control Functions in Anxiety
Authors: Moser Jason S. , Louis Courtney , Gloe Lilianne , Russman Block Stefanie , Fix Spencer
Published: September 2022

Anxiety has been studied using EEG/ERP approaches for many years, and substantive effects have been observed across the frequency spectrum. This chapter introduces the reader to the wide variety of work that has been done examining associations between anxiety and oscillatory measures. It focuses particularly on the nature of the relationship between anxiety and oscillatory metrics reflecting motivational/emotional and cognitive control dynamics involved in balancing bottom-up and top-down influences on behavior. The chapter discusses these findings in the context of cognitive, affective, and motivational models of anxiety. Furthermore, it covers the approaches to indexing the processes relevant to those models.
Multivariate Methods for Functional Connectivity Analysis
Authors: Aviyente Selin
Published: September 2022

Conventional functional connectivity metrics such as correlation, coherence and phase synchrony are mostly limited to quantifying bivariate relationships in the brain. Thus, they cannot capture the whole brain dynamics, i.e. multivariate synchronization patterns, which are important for understanding the underlying oscillatory networks. In the past two decades, two complementary sets of approaches have been developed to address this issue. The first class of methods focus on computing metrics based on the spectrum of the pairwise bivariate connectivity matrix. The second class of methods have been inspired by progress in graph theory. Graph theoretic measures have emerged as an important way to characterize the topology of the functional connectivity network. In this chapter, we review both of these approaches illustrating the advantages of each class of metrics and discussing the shortcomings.
Brain Stimulation Approaches to Investigate EEG Oscillations
Authors: Kasten Florian H. , Herrmann Christoph S.
Published: September 2022

Current approaches to record and analyze oscillatory brain activity provide validated measures for assessing the activity’s associations with cognitive functioning. However, the vast majority of these approaches are limited to correlational evidence about such relationships. An important open question is whether brain oscillations play a direct, causal role in cognition. In recent years, transcranial brain stimulation approaches, such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), have been used to modulate brain oscillations. These methods provide new pathways to assess causal relationships between brain oscillations and cognition. This chapter discusses conceptual and practical aspects of these stimulation approaches and covers the current state of research using stimulation and future directions needed to advance work in this area.
Time Frequency Analyses in Event-Related Potential Methodologies
Authors: Weinberg Anna , Ethridge Paige , Oumeziane Belel Ait , Foti Dan
Published: September 2022

Event-related potential (ERP) components are well characterized in terms of their temporal and spatial characteristics as well as the cognitive, affective, and motor processes they implicate. Revealing the oscillatory activity underlying the components can implicate such activity in various cognitive processes. Thus, time-frequency analyses of ERPs are valuable. Further, such analyses may help distinguish between “background” oscillatory activity and changes in frequency power associated with a particular cognitive, affective, or motor process. This chapter discusses additive benefits of time-frequency decompositions of ERPs, and includes practical demonstrations from feedback-related ERPs across different tasks. We are particularly interested in within-task associations (between ERPs and frequency bands) as well as the extent to which oscillatory activity in different frequencies can be helpful in clarifying associations with individual difference measures.
The Arab Novel of Latin America
Authors: Civantos Christina E. , Maher Tracey
Published: September 2022

This chapter examines novels written by Arabic-speaking immigrants to Latin America and their descendants, emphasizing their diversity and commonalities with respect to language and theme. Providing an overview of the history of Arab migration from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine to Latin America, the chapter addresses how these migrants’ home-country concerns meshed with those of the differing national and regional contexts to which they arrived, configuring life in the mahjar, or place of emigration. The chapter shows that the Arab Latin American novel includes works written in Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese, while highlighting the complex ways this body of novels engages multiple languages, dialects, and registers, as well as the literary heritages of the Arab world and Latin America. These novels can be grouped according to shared orientations and themes: exile novels oriented toward the sociopolitical concerns of the home region in the Levant, migration novels focused on the travel and transitions between old and new homes, and diaspora novels oriented toward the experience of second- and third-generation members of the Latin American mahjar. These novels sustain and challenge prevalent discourses and ideologies pertaining to “Arabness” and conceptions of identity in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Moreover, they address intergenerational relationships and struggles, and they navigate issues of linguistic and cultural loss (and gain) over time. Arab Latin American novels confront displacement and dislocation, respond to discrimination and alienation associated with orientalist stereotyping and prejudice, imagine new ways of belonging, and create unique conceptions of place.
Adaptive cognition implemented with a context-aware and flexible neuron for next-generation artificial intelligence
Authors: Jadaun Priyamvada , Cui Can , Liu Sam , Incorvia Jean Anne C
Published: September 2022

Neuromorphic computing mimics the organizational principles of the brain in its quest to replicate the brain’s intellectual abilities. An impressive ability of the brain is its adaptive intelligence, which allows the brain to regulate its functions “on the fly” to cope with myriad and ever-changing situations. In particular, the brain displays three adaptive and advanced intelligence abilities of context-awareness, cross frequency coupling, and feature binding. To mimic these adaptive cognitive abilities, we design and simulate a novel, hardware-based adaptive oscillatory neuron using a lattice of magnetic skyrmions. Charge current fed to the neuron reconfigures the skyrmion lattice, thereby modulating the neuron’s state, its dynamics and its transfer function “on the fly.” This adaptive neuron is used to demonstrate the three cognitive abilities, of which context-awareness and cross-frequency coupling have not been previously realized in hardware neurons. Additionally, the neuron is used to construct an adaptive artificial neural network (ANN) and perform context-aware diagnosis of breast cancer. Simulations show that the adaptive ANN diagnoses cancer with higher accuracy while learning faster and using a more compact and energy-efficient network than a nonadaptive ANN. The work further describes how hardware-based adaptive neurons can mitigate several critical challenges facing contemporary ANNs. Modern ANNs require large amounts of training data, energy, and chip area, and are highly task-specific; conversely, hardware-based ANNs built with adaptive neurons show faster learning, compact architectures, energy-efficiency, fault-tolerance, and can lead to the realization of broader artificial intelligence.