Non-anguimorph Lizards of the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene of Florida and Implications for the Reorganization of the North American Herpetofauna

Paleokarst deposits from the Oligo-Miocene of northern Florida preserve undescribed herpetofaunal remains that fill important temporal and geographic gaps in our understanding of Cenozoic lizard evolution. Here I describe and discuss the non-anguimorph lizard diversity of the Brooksville 2 (Ar2) and Miller (He1) local faunas to test for patterns of regional and latitudinal provincialism in the contemporary North American record. Collectively, the sites are significant for documenting 1) extralimital occurrences of the tropical clades Anolis and Corytophaninae, 2) a substantial temporal range extension of the modern southeastern endemic Rhineuridae, 3) the earliest record of eublepharid gekkotans from North America, and 4) the early Miocene arrival of “cnemidophorine” teiids from South America. This work complements recent studies of older, Eocene lizards by others and lends paleontological support to aspects of the tropical conservatism hypothesis: lineages now confined to the tropics were present at higher latitudes when megathermal climates were more extensive

Pan-Protestant Heroism in Early Modern England

“Pan-Protestant Heroism in Early Modern England” explores transnational religious identifications in England by tracing the written response to and construction of Protestant heroes of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, among them, Willem and Maurits van Oranje, Henry Stuart, Friedrich V, and Gustavus Adolphus. Intervening in the critical conversation on early modern nation-writing and the construction of Englishness, I argue that continental figures like these profoundly shaped English identity in the early modern period. While most historians believe that nationalism and indeed the nation are constructs of a later period, Richard Helgerson, Claire McEachern, and others have posited the sixteenth century as a key moment in the construction of England. Yet this research, and even more recent multinational approaches that consider how foreigners shaped English identity, focuses too heavily on ethnic alterity and neglects the ways in which religious communion provided alternate possible identities. I argue that the transnational lens of pan-Protestant heroism uncovers literary communities and collaboration generally obscured by our nationalized conception of literature. Heroic figures attracted literary responses – in poems lionizing their accomplishments, theorizing their roles in God’s church, and eventually mourning their deaths – responses that spanned across political and linguistic borders. Protestant writers throughout Europe shared the same tropes, types, and literary genres when celebrating these idealized men. Through my research, I question the anachronistic national organization of early modern literature. I consider German, Dutch, and neo-Latin writing on these figures because English writers clearly understand themselves to be participating in a transnational project – part of a wider pan-Protestant literary field. Heroes posed a series of questions for English Protestants at home: what was England’s position within the Protestant church? What were English obligations to their often-suffering coreligionists on the continent? How were English and Protestant identity related? Religion has too often been read as a purely centripetal force, binding the English together, and this tendency has effaced strong, alternative collective identities. Instead, identification with pan-Protestantism and its heroes rendered early modern conceptions of foreignness especially fluid. A focus on these heroes therefore helps us uncover specific, alternative forms of early modern religious identity, trace how they changed, and understand the literary communities they cemented.Doctor of Philosoph

A Survey of Text Classification With Transformers: How Wide? How Large? How Long? How Accurate? How Expensive? How Safe?

Text classification in natural language processing (NLP) is evolving rapidly, particularly with the surge in transformer-based models, including large language models (LLM). This paper presents an in-depth survey of text classification techniques across diverse benchmarks, addressing applications from sentiment analysis to chatbot-driven question-answering. Methodologically, it utilizes NLP-facilitated approaches such as co-citation and bibliographic coupling alongside traditional research techniques. Because new use cases continue to emerge in this dynamic field, the study proposes an expanded taxonomy of text classification applications, extending the focus beyond unimodal (text-only) inputs to explore the emerging field of multimodal classification. While offering a comprehensive review of text classification with LLMs, this review highlights novel questions that arise when approaching the task with transformers: It evaluates the use of multimodal data, including text, numeric, and columnar data, and discusses the evolution of text input lengths (tokens) for long text classification; it covers the historical development of transformer-based models, emphasizing recent advancements in LLMs; it evaluates model accuracy on 358 datasets across 20 applications, with results challenging the assumption that LLMs are universally superior, revealing unexpected findings related to accuracy, cost, and safety; and it explores issues related to cost and access as models become increasingly expensive. Finally, the survey discusses new social and ethical implications raised when using LLMs for text classification, including bias and copyright. Throughout, the review emphasizes the importance of a nuanced understanding of model performance and a holistic approach to deploying transformer-based models in real-world applications

Left bundle branch area pacing outcomes : the multicentre European MELOS study

AIMS: Permanent transseptal left bundle branch area pacing (LBBAP) is a promising new pacing method for both bradyarrhythmia and heart failure indications. However, data regarding safety, feasibility and capture type are limited to relatively small, usually single centre studies. In this large multicentre international collaboration, outcomes of LBBAP were evaluated. METHODS AND RESULTS: This is a registry-based observational study that included patients in whom LBBAP device implantation was attempted at 14 European centres, for any indication. The study comprised 2533 patients (mean age 73.9 years, female 57.6%, heart failure 27.5%). LBBAP lead implantation success rate for bradyarrhythmia and heart failure indications was 92.4% and 82.2%, respectively. The learning curve was steepest for the initial 110 cases and plateaued after 250 cases. Independent predictors of LBBAP lead implantation failure were heart failure, broad baseline QRS and left ventricular end-diastolic diameter. The predominant LBBAP capture type was left bundle fascicular capture (69.5%), followed by left ventricular septal capture (21.5%) and proximal left bundle branch capture (9%). Capture threshold (0.77 V) and sensing (10.6 mV) were stable during mean follow-up of 6.4 months. The complication rate was 11.7%. Complications specific to the ventricular transseptal route of the pacing lead occurred in 209 patients (8.3%). CONCLUSIONS: LBBAP is feasible as a primary pacing technique for both bradyarrhythmia and heart failure indications. Success rate in heart failure patients and safety need to be improved. For wider use of LBBAP, randomized trials are necessary to assess clinical outcomes