Marvellous Secondary Worlds: A comparative study of C.S. Lewis's Narnia, J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea

Bibliography: pages 156-164.In this thesis, the nature and function of Marvellous Secondary worlds are examined by means of a comparative study of three Marvellous Secondary worlds: C. S. Lewis's Narnia, J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea. We consider the way in which Marvellous Secondary worlds may be used in order to explore certain aspects of reality highly effectively through themes and images characteristic of Marvellous fantasy. In the Introduction, the wide range of Secondary worlds in modern fantasy and the specific functions that Secondary worlds may fulfil is commented on. These analyses are then linked to a discussion of some of the central characteristics of Marvellous Secondary worlds

Kinship, collegiality and witchcraft: South African perceptions of sorcery and the occult aspects of contemporary academia

Certain South African perceptions of sorcery acquire new resonance when considered in the context of present-day corporatised, managerially governed higher education. Concepts of witchcraft from elsewhere in Africa further illuminate this. Indeed, there are certain striking metaphorical parallels between distinctive trends in the contemporary market-driven academic environment and various perceptions of witchcraft. These include the connections between kinship and witchcraft; also the belief that greed, jealousy and the selfish accumulation of material resources can be associated with sorcery. This conviction has certain points of comparison with the damaging effects of the impetus towards “individualism, competition and consumption” (Salim Vally) in higher education, stemming from broader trends in globalised corporate capitalism. Thus there are areas of commonality between certain African perceptions of sorcery and the corporatised academic environment

Poor adherence to lifestyle recommendations in patients with coronary heart disease:results from the EUROASPIRE surveys

Aims  Despite the high use of cardioprotective medications, the risk factor control in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) is still inadequate. Guidelines identify healthy lifestyles as equally important in secondary prevention as pharmacotherapy. Here, we describe reasons for poor lifestyle adherence from the patient’s perspective. Methods and results  In the EUROASPIRE IV and V surveys, 16 259 CHD patients were examined and interviewed during a study visit ≥6 months after hospital discharge. Data gathering was fully standardized. The Brief Illness Perception questionnaire was completed by a subsample of 2379 patients. Half of those who were smoking prior to hospital admission, were still smoking; 37% of current smokers had not attempted to quit and 51% was not considering to do so. The prevalence of obesity was 38%. Half of obese patients tried to lose weight in the past month and 61% considered weight loss in the following month. In relation to physical activity, 40% was on target with half of patients trying to do more everyday activities. Less than half had the intention to engage in planned exercise. Only 29% of all patients was at goal for all three lifestyle factors. The number of adverse lifestyles was strongly related to the way patients perceive their illness as threatening. Lifestyle modifications were more successful in those having participated in a cardiac rehabilitation and prevention programme. Patients indicated lack of self-confidence as the main barrier to change their unhealthy behaviour. Conclusion  Modern secondary prevention programmes should target behavioural change in all patients with adverse lifestyles

Experience-dependent changes in hippocampal spatial activity and hippocampal circuit function are disrupted in a rat model of Fragile X Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a common single gene cause of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder. Cognitive inflexibility is one of the hallmarks of FXS with affected individuals showing extreme difficulty adapting to novel or complex situations. To explore the neural correlates of this cognitive inflexibility, we used a rat model of FXS (Fmr1(−/y)). METHODS: We recorded from the CA1 in Fmr1(−/y) and WT littermates over six 10-min exploration sessions in a novel environment—three sessions per day (ITI 10 min). Our recordings yielded 288 and 246 putative pyramidal cells from 7 WT and 7 Fmr1(−/y) rats, respectively. RESULTS: On the first day of exploration of a novel environment, the firing rate and spatial tuning of CA1 pyramidal neurons was similar between wild-type (WT) and Fmr1(−/y) rats. However, while CA1 pyramidal neurons from WT rats showed experience-dependent changes in firing and spatial tuning between the first and second day of exposure to the environment, these changes were decreased or absent in CA1 neurons of Fmr1(−/y) rats. These findings were consistent with increased excitability of Fmr1(−/y) CA1 neurons in ex vivo hippocampal slices, which correlated with reduced synaptic inputs from the medial entorhinal cortex. Lastly, activity patterns of CA1 pyramidal neurons were dis-coordinated with respect to hippocampal oscillatory activity in Fmr1(−/y) rats. LIMITATIONS: It is still unclear how the observed circuit function abnormalities give rise to behavioural deficits in Fmr1(−/y) rats. Future experiments will focus on this connection as well as the contribution of other neuronal cell types in the hippocampal circuit pathophysiology associated with the loss of FMRP. It would also be interesting to see if hippocampal circuit deficits converge with those seen in other rodent models of intellectual disability. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, we found that hippocampal place cells from Fmr1(−/y) rats show similar spatial firing properties as those from WT rats but do not show the same experience-dependent increase in spatial specificity or the experience-dependent changes in network coordination. Our findings offer support to a network-level origin of cognitive deficits in FXS. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13229-022-00528-z

Spatial variation in breeding habitat selection by Cerulean Warblers (Setophaga cerulea) throughout the appalachian mountains

Studies of habitat selection are often of limited utility because they focus on small geographic areas, fail to examine behavior at multiple scales, or lack an assessment of the fitness consequences of habitat decisions. These limitations can hamper the identification of successful site-specific management strategies, which are urgently needed for severely declining species like Cerulean Warblers (Setophaga cerulea). We assessed how breeding habitat decisions made by Cerulean Warblers at multiple scales, and the subsequent effects of these decisions on nest survival, varied across the Appalachian Mountains. Selection for structural habitat features varied substantially among areas, particularly at the territory scale. Males within the least-forested landscapes selected microhabitat features that reflected more closed-canopy forest conditions, whereas males in highly forested landscapes favored features associated with canopy disturbance. Selection of nest-patch and nest-site attributes by females was more consistent across areas, with females selecting for increased tree size and understory cover and decreased basal area and midstory cover. Floristic preferences were similar across study areas: White Oak (Quercus alba), Cucumber-tree (Magnolia acuminata), and Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) were preferred as nest trees, whereas red oak species (subgenus Erythrobalanus) and Red Maple (A. rubrum) were avoided. The habitat features that were related to nest survival also varied among study areas, and preferred features were negatively associated with nest survival at one area. Thus, our results indicate that large-scale spatial heterogeneity may influence local habitat-selection behavior and that it may be necessary to articulate site-specific management strategies for Cerulean Warblers

Femtosecond Laser Mass Spectrometry and High Harmonic Spectroscopy of Xylene Isomers

Structural isomers, molecules having the same chemical formula but with atoms bonded in different order, are hard to identify using conventional spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. They exhibit virtually indistinguishable mass spectra when ionized by electrons. Laser mass spectrometry based on photoionization of the isomers has emerged as a promising alternative but requires shaped ultrafast laser pulses. Here we use transform limited femtosecond pulses to distinguish the isomers using two methods. First, we probe doubly charged parent ions with circularly polarized light. We show that the yield of doubly charged ortho-xylene decreases while para-xylene increases over a range of laser intensities when the laser polarization is changed from linear to circular. Second, we probe high harmonic generation from randomly oriented isomer molecules subjected to an intense laser field. We show that the yield of high-order harmonics varies with the positioning of the methyl group in xylene isomers (ortho-, para- and meta-) and is due to differences in the strength of tunnel ionization and the overlap between the angular peaks of ionization and photo-recombination

Emulating Natural Disturbances for Declining Late- Successional Species: A Case Study of the Consequences for Cerulean Warblers (Setophaga cerulea)

Forest cover in the eastern United States has increased over the past century and while some late-successional species have benefited from this process as expected, others have experienced population declines. These declines may be in part related to contemporary reductions in small-scale forest interior disturbances such as fire, windthrow, and treefalls. To mitigate the negative impacts of disturbance alteration and suppression on some late-successional species, strategies that emulate natural disturbance regimes are often advocated, but large-scale evaluations of these practices are rare. Here, we assessed the consequences of experimental disturbance (using partial timber harvest) on a severely declining late-successional species, the cerulean warbler (Setophaga cerulea), across the core of its breeding range in the Appalachian Mountains. We measured numerical (density), physiological (body condition), and demographic (age structure and reproduction) responses to three levels of disturbance and explored the potential impacts of disturbance on source-sink dynamics. Breeding densities of warblers increased one to four years after all canopy disturbances (vs. controls) and males occupying territories on treatment plots were in better condition than those on control plots. However, these beneficial effects of disturbance did not correspond to improvements in reproduction; nest success was lower on all treatment plots than on control plots in the southern region and marginally lower on light disturbance plots in the northern region. Our data suggest that only habitats in the southern region acted as sources, and interior disturbances in this region have the potential to create ecological traps at a local scale, but sources when viewed at broader scales. Thus, cerulean warblers would likely benefit from management that strikes a landscape-level balance between emulating natural disturbances in order to attract individuals into areas where current structure is inappropriate, and limiting anthropogenic disturbance in forests that already possess appropriate structural attributes in order to maintain maximum productivity

Emulating Natural Disturbances for Declining Late-Successional Species: A Case Study of the Consequences for Cerulean Warblers (Setophaga cerulea)

Forest cover in the eastern United States has increased over the past century and while some late-successional species have benefited from this process as expected, others have experienced population declines. These declines may be in part related to contemporary reductions in small-scale forest interior disturbances such as fire, windthrow, and treefalls. To mitigate the negative impacts of disturbance alteration and suppression on some late-successional species, strategies that emulate natural disturbance regimes are often advocated, but large-scale evaluations of these practices are rare. Here, we assessed the consequences of experimental disturbance (using partial timber harvest) on a severely declining latesuccessional species, the cerulean warbler (Setophaga cerulea), across the core of its breeding range in the Appalachian Mountains. We measured numerical (density), physiological (body condition), and demographic (age structure and reproduction) responses to three levels of disturbance and explored the potential impacts of disturbance on source-sink dynamics. Breeding densities of warblers increased one to four years after all canopy disturbances (vs. controls) and males occupying territories on treatment plots were in better condition than those on control plots. However, these beneficial effects of disturbance did not correspond to improvements in reproduction; nest success was lower on all treatment plots than on control plots in the southern region and marginally lower on light disturbance plots in the northern region. Our data suggest that only habitats in the southern region acted as sources, and interior disturbances in this region have the potential to create ecological traps at a local scale, but sources when viewed at broader scales. Thus, cerulean warblers would likely benefit from management that strikes a landscape-level balance between emulating natural disturbances in order to attract individuals into areas where current structure is inappropriate, and limiting anthropogenic disturbance in forests that already possess appropriate structural attributes in order to maintain maximum productivity

Complex structural rearrangements are present in high-grade dysplastic Barrett\u27s oesophagus samples

Background: Oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) incidence is increasing and has a poor survival rate. Barrett’s oesophagus (BE) is a precursor condition that is associated with EAC and often occurs in conjunction with chronic gastro-oesophageal reflux, however many individuals diagnosed with BE never progress to cancer. An understanding of the genomic features of BE and EAC may help with the early identification of at-risk individuals. Methods: In this study, we assessed the genomic features of 16 BE samples using whole-genome sequencing. These included non-dysplastic samples collected at two time-points from two BE patients who had not progressed to EAC over several years. Seven other non-dysplastic samples and five dysplastic BE samples with high-grade dysplasia were also examined. We compared the genome profiles of these 16 BE samples with 22 EAC samples. Results: We observed that samples from the two non-progressor individuals had low numbers of somatic single nucleotide variants, indels and structural variation events compared to dysplastic and the remaining non-dysplastic BE. EAC had the highest level of somatic genomic variations. Mutational signature 17, which is common in EAC, was also present in non-dysplastic and dysplastic BE, but was not present in the non-progressors. Many dysplastic samples had mutations in genes previously reported in EAC, whereas only mutations in CDKN2A or in the fragile site genes appeared common in non-dysplastic samples. Rearrangement signatures were used to identify a signature associated with localised complex events such as chromothripsis and breakage fusion-bridge that are characteristic of EACs. Two dysplastic BE samples had a high contribution of this signature and contained evidence of localised rearrangements. Two other dysplastic samples also had regions of localised structural rearrangements. There was no evidence for complex events in non-dysplastic samples. Conclusions: The presence of complex localised rearrangements in dysplastic samples indicates a need for further investigations into the role such events play in the progression from BE to EAC