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Background: This study explores the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for estimating wheat biomass, focusing on the impact of phenotyping and analytical protocols in the context of late-stage variety selection programs. It emphasizes the importance of variable selection, model specificity, and sampling location within the experimental plot in predicting biomass, aiming to refine UAV-based estimation techniques for enhanced selection accuracy and throughput in variety testing programs. Results: The research uncovered that integrating geometric and spectral traits led to an increase in prediction accuracy, whilst a recursive feature elimination (RFE) based variable selection workflowled to slight reductions in accuracy with the benefit of increased interpretability. Models, tailored to specific experiments were more accurate than those modelling all experiments together, while models trained for broad-growth stages did not significantly increase accuracy. The comparison between a permanent and a precise region of interest (ROI) within the plot showed negligible differences in biomass prediction accuracy, indicating the robustness of the approach across different sampling locations within the plot. Significant differences in the within-season repeatability (w2) of biomass predictions across different experiments highlighted the need for further investigation into the optimal timing of measurement for prediction. Conclusions: The study highlights the promising potential of UAV technology in biomass prediction for wheat at a small plot scale. It suggests that the accuracy of biomass predictions can be significantly improved through optimizing analytical and modelling protocols (i.e., variable selection, algorithm selection, stage-specific model development). Future work should focus on exploring the applicability of these findings under a wider variety of conditions and from a more diverse set of genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This cross-sectional study examined the weight bias attitudes and obesity beliefs of health science (HS), nursing, and pre-medicine undergraduate students. Methods: Using snowballing and convenience sampling strategies, students (N = 139) completed an online survey, including a 24-item Antifat Attitudes Scale (AFAS) and eight-item Belief About Obese Persons (BAOP) scale. Results: HS students have higher weight bias than nursing and pre-medicine students combined (M = 43.45, SD = 10.75), t(137) = −2.45, p =.016). A negative correlation exists between AFAS and BAOP suggesting high weight bias influences a belief that obesity is controllable. Gender positively predicted weight bias attitudes (ß = −11.43, t = −4.33, p <.001) and obesity beliefs (ß = 3.75, t = 3.01, p =. 003). Conclusions: Findings confirm that HS students have weight bias attitudes. This supports undergraduate curricular changes on obesity etiology that may improve treatment plans of individuals who are obese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: This paper discusses the importance of addressing sarcopenia in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim is to analyze how sarcopenia affects treatment outcomes for HCC, including liver transplantation, surgical resection, locoregional treatments, and systemic therapies. Sarcopenia is prevalent among HCC patients and independently correlates with lower overall survival, recurrence-free survival, and progression-free survival across all treatment modalities. Sarcopenia also increases the rate and severity of adverse events, particularly in surgery and systemic therapies. This research highlights the need for evaluating sarcopenia before HCC treatment initiation to better predict patient prognosis and tailor treatment approaches accordingly. However, the impact of sarcopenia on HCC recurrence and spread beyond the liver remains poorly understood, indicating a need for further research in this area. Overall, this research sheds light on the significance of considering sarcopenia in HCC management and may prompt efforts to identify therapies that can address muscle loss in these patients, potentially improving treatment outcomes and patient care. Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents a major global health concern, characterized by evolving etiological patterns and a range of treatment options. Among various prognostic factors, sarcopenia, characterized by loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function, has emerged as a pivotal contributor to HCC outcomes. Focusing on liver transplantation, surgical resection, locoregional treatments, and systemic therapies, this review aims to analyze the impact of sarcopenia on HCC treatment outcomes, shedding light on an underexplored subject in the pursuit of more personalized management. Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted by searching peer-reviewed articles on sarcopenia and treatment outcomes in patients with HCC from inception up to October 2023. Results: Sarcopenia was found to be prevalent among HCC patients, exhibiting different occurrence, possibly attributable to diverse diagnostic criteria. Notably, despite variations in studies utilizing skeletal muscle indices, sarcopenia independently correlated with lower overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and progression-free survival (PFS) across surgical (both transplantation and resection), locoregional, and systemic therapies, including tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Moreover, a link between sarcopenia and increased rate and severity of adverse events, particularly in surgery and TKIs recipients, and larger tumor size at diagnosis was observed. While baseline sarcopenia negatively influenced treatment outcomes, alterations in muscle mass post-treatment emerged as primary determinants of reduced OS. Conclusions: Sarcopenia, either present before or after HCC treatment, negatively correlates with response to it, across all etiologies and therapeutic strategies. Although only a few studies have evaluated the impact of supervised physical activity training on muscle mass and OS after HCC treatment, it is crucial to evaluate the presence of sarcopenia before treatment initiation, to better stratify patients' prognosis, thus performing a more tailored approach, and identify therapies able to restore muscle mass in HCC patients. Conversely, the impact of sarcopenia on HCC recurrence and extrahepatic spread remains inadequately explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting has been extensively used to determine the nature of the faint radio source population. Recent efforts have combined fits from multiple SED-fitting codes to account for the host galaxy and any active nucleus that may be present. We show that it is possible to produce similar-quality classifications using a single energy-balance SED fitting code, prospector , to model up to 26 bands of UV–far-infrared aperture-matched photometry for ∼31 000 sources in the ELAIS-N1 field from the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) deep fields first data release. One of a new generation of SED-fitting codes, prospector accounts for potential contributions from radiative active galactic nuclei (AGN) when estimating galaxy properties, including star formation rates (SFRs) derived using non-parametric star formation histories. Combining this information with radio luminosities, we classify 92 per cent of the radio sources as a star-forming galaxy, high-/low-excitation radio galaxy, or radio-quiet AGN and study the population demographics as a function of 150 MHz flux density, luminosity, SFR, stellar mass, redshift, and apparent r -band magnitude. Finally, we use prospector SED fits to investigate the SFR–150 MHz luminosity relation for a sample of ∼133 000 3.6 μm-selected z < 1 sources, finding that the stellar mass dependence is significantly weaker than previously reported, and may disappear altogether at |$\log _{10} (\mathrm{SFR}/M_\odot \, \mathrm{yr}^{-1}) \gt 0.5$|⁠. This approach makes it significantly easier to classify radio sources from LoTSS and elsewhere, and may have important implications for future studies of star-forming galaxies at radio wavelengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until 2016, braille readers had little or no access to ancient languages beyond Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Thus access to the study of ancient languages was difficult for blind students who needed braille texts. This article describes the history that led to the development of a braille system to represent the Coptic language. It also discusses the process of implementing the Coptic braille system in the translation of a textbook from print to braille and what was learned from the use of this braille system in the translation process. The information can provide guidance to other universities wishing to ensure access to ancient language texts for students who are blindand possible new directions for the study of this corpus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence, incidence and risk factors of DR in elderly people living with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Individuals >80 years, in the Swedish National Diabetes Register (NDR) between 2008 and 2017, were included. Prevalence and incidence were calculated and stratified by age. Estimates were assessed by longitudinal binary logistic regression models. Results: One hundred forty‐one thousand, one hundred fifty‐eight individuals with type 2 diabetes were included, median age 83 years, 53.3% females and with a median HbA1c 52 mmol/mol. The DR prevalence was stable at 336.2 cases/1000 patients in 2008 (95% CI, 330.2–342.3), with no significant changes during the 10‐year period. Crude DR incidence rate: 88.5 cases/1000 patient years (95% CI, 87.6–89.4). The incidence rate was lower at higher ages. The effect of age on incident DR varied by sex, with females having an increasingly higher risk than males from 83 years of age, OR 1.25 (1.11–1.42) at age 90 years. The risk of incident DR with longer diabetes duration increased more rapidly at worse glycaemic control. Conclusion: The growing population of elderly with type 2 diabetes shows a stable proportion of DR and proposes an increased need for DR screening and eye care. Established risk factors for DR, such as diabetes duration and level of glycaemic control, are also important in the elderly; however, age and sex should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The rising burden of mosquito-borne diseases in Europe extends beyond urban areas, encompassing rural and semi-urban regions near managed and natural wetlands evidenced by recent outbreaks of Usutu and West Nile viruses. While wetland management policies focus on biodiversity and ecosystem services, few studies explore the impact on mosquito vectors. Methods: Our research addresses this gap, examining juvenile mosquito and aquatic predator communities in 67 ditch sites within a South England coastal marsh subjected to different wetland management tiers. Using joint distribution models, we analyse how mosquito communities respond to abiotic and biotic factors influenced by wetland management. Results: Of the 12 mosquito species identified, Culiseta annulata (Usutu virus vector) and Culex pipiens (Usutu and West Nile virus vector) constitute 47% of 6825 larval mosquitoes. Abundant predators include Coleoptera (water beetles) adults, Corixidae (water boatmen) and Zygoptera (Damselfy) larvae. Models reveal that tier 3 management sites (higher winter water levels, lower agricultural intensity) associated with shade and less floating vegetation are preferred by specific mosquito species. All mosquito species except Anopheles maculipennis s.l., are negatively impacted by potential predators. Culiseta annulata shows positive associations with shaded and turbid water, contrary to preferences of Corixidae predators. Conclusions: Tier 3 areas managed for biodiversity, characterised by higher seasonal water levels and reduced livestock grazing intensity, provide favourable habitats for key mosquito species that are known vectors of arboviruses, such as Usutu and West Nile. Our findings emphasise the impact of biodiversity-focused wetland management, altering mosquito breeding site vegetation to enhance vector suitability. Further exploration of these trade-offs is crucial for comprehending the broader implications of wetland management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the concept of conspicuous redistribution to elucidate the complex geometry of masculinity, money, and morality in southeastern Nigeria. For Nigerian men – especially elites, and those who aspire to join the middle class – having money is zealously pursued and spending it is widely rewarded. But money is also linked to collectively disparaged social ills such as greed and corruption. As a result, ethical uncertainties constantly infuse men's performance of social class. Acts of conspicuous redistribution simultaneously show off money and signal that the man spending it is socially and morally motivated. These practices are especially pronounced at major rituals of the life course, including weddings and funerals. Such ceremonies incorporate the ostentation typically associated with conspicuous consumption while also sharing wealth in support of pro-social values and institutions. Although conspicuous redistribution aims to fasten money to morality and sociality, it ultimately benefits elite men by enhancing their social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Within primary care there exists a cohort of patients misdiagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Misdiagnosis can have a detrimental impact on healthcare finances and patient health and so understanding the factors leading to misdiagnosis is crucial in order to reduce misdiagnosis in the future. The objective of this study is to understand and explore the perceived causes of COPD misdiagnosis in primary care. Methods: A sequential mixed methods study, quantifying prevalence and features of patients misdiagnosed with COPD in primary care followed by a qualitative analysis to explore perceived causes of misdiagnosis. Quantitative data was collected for 206 patients identified as misdiagnosed with COPD within the INTEGR COPD study (NCT03482700). Qualitative data collected from 21 healthcare professionals involved in providing COPD care and 8 misdiagnosed patients who were recruited using a maximum variation purposive sampling. Results: Misinterpretation of spirometry results was the prevailing factor leading to patients initially being misdiagnosed with COPD, affecting 59% of misdiagnosed patients in this cohort. Of the 99 patients who were investigated for their underlying diagnosis; 41% had normal spirometry and 40% had asthma. Further investigation through qualitative methodology uncovered reluctance to challenge historical misdiagnoses and challenges in differential diagnosis as the underlying explanations for COPD misdiagnosis in this cohort. Conclusions: Patients historically diagnosed with COPD without spirometric evidence are at risk of remaining labelled and treated for COPD despite non-obstructive respiratory physiology, leading to a persistent cohort of patients misdiagnosed with COPD in primary care. The lack of spirometry services during and after the COVID19 pandemic in primary care risks adding to the cohort of misdiagnosed patients. Support from respiratory specialists can potentially help to reduce the prevalence of COPD misdiagnosis in primary care. Trial registration: NCT03482700. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines a novel conceptual framework to examine English society's ruling institutions. Usually called 'The Establishment', the term has been a thorn in the side of analyses of class, status and power in British sociology as it stands between polemic and an explanation for England's peculiar exaggeration of status over class. Drawing upon Lévi-Strauss's concept of a 'house-society', the article rethinks how England's ruling institutions are called upon to do two things at once: disguise political-economic interests through the language of kinship and naturalise status and belonging. English society's ruling institutions are overdetermined in the call to create legitimate and exclusive membership to something, perhaps anachronistically, called ' Great Britain'. Tracing this to the origins of English class nomenclature in early modern political thought, the article applies this framework to a discussion of Eton College and the Etonians' relationship to our present political crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, news outlets reported that registered Republicans were leaving the party in droves. Drawing on millions of individual-level voter registration records in Florida, we place post-riot party-switching in broader context. We investigate whether Republicans were more likely to experience greater out-migration after the riot, detail to which parties' individuals switched their allegiances, use a difference-in-difference strategy to determine if the 2021 exodus was greater than 4 years earlier, and examine whether those who decamped from the GOP returned to the fold a year later. We find that registered voters who switched parties after the January 6th uprising were more likely to be white, middle-aged, high-propensity voters, and that Republicans were nearly four times more likely than Democrats to defect following the insurrection. We also find that the GOP defection rate after January 6th was nine times higher than during the same time period in 2017. However, we find that Republican registrants who switched parties post-riot did not migrate to the Democratic Party, but rather became independents, and that a year later, almost no Republicans (only 4.6%) who had defected returned to their GOP roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Freud's concept of 'transference-love' – the phenomenon where patients fall in love with their psychoanalysts – could become the basis for a theory of collective life. Freud's radical claim that transference-love, despite its immoral appearance, is real love is situated in relation to the problems facing the sociology of romantic love: modern couples are problematised for being unable to provide a normative foundation for not only sexual desire, but social solidarity outright. This article restates the problem: transference is not a lesson in how love resists norms, but how love is resistant to logic. Transference-love arises out of a social condition Georg Simmel called life's fragmentary character, marked by asymmetries appearing symmetrical: instead of transference being a case where we fall in love with the wrong person, transference is a case where our mistaken apprehensions of others is the precondition for our bonds to them. Viewed through the phenomenon of transference, love illuminates this asymmetrical form of life. It is argued that transference could be understood, sociologically, as demonstrating a logical impossibility to collective life: that a shared life together is possible, but nevertheless relies upon something that evades each of us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of kingship as a political economy of social subjugation, where one person is king because others see themselves as subjects. It explores the relationship between awe and dread in the accumulation of wealth by monarchs, using examples from the British monarchy. The author argues that the British Royal Family plays a role in global wealth inequalities and that their economic power is intertwined with their symbolic status. The article concludes that monarchy perpetuates social inequality and that addressing global inequalities requires the abolition of monarchy. [Extracted from the article]

We report the implementation of a symmetry-adapted perturbation theory algorithm based on a density functional theory [SAPT(DFT)] description of monomers. The implementation adopts a density-fitting treatment of hybrid exchange–correlation kernels to enable the description of monomers with hybrid functionals, as in the algorithm by Bukowski, Podeszwa, and Szalewicz [Chem. Phys. Lett. 414, 111 (2005)]. We have improved the algorithm by increasing numerical stability with QR factorization and optimized the computation of the exchange–correlation kernel with its 2-index density-fitted representation. The algorithm scales as O(N5) formally and is usable for systems with up to ∼3000 basis functions, as demonstrated for the C60–buckycatcher complex with the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set. The hybrid-kernel-based SAPT(DFT) algorithm is shown to be as accurate as SAPT(DFT) implementations based on local effective exact exchange potentials obtained from the local Hartree–Fock (LHF) method while avoiding the lower-scaling [O(N4)] but iterative and sometimes hard-to-converge LHF process. The hybrid-kernel algorithm outperforms Hartree–Fock-based SAPT (SAPT0) for the S66 test set, and its accuracy is comparable to the many-body perturbation theory based SAPT2+ approach, which scales as O(N7), although SAPT2+ exhibits a more narrow distribution of errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging applications of optical technologies are driving the development of miniaturised light sources, which in turn require the fabrication of matching micro-optical elements with sub-1 mm cross-sections and high optical quality. This is particularly challenging for spatially constrained biomedical applications where reduced dimensionality is required, such as endoscopy, optogenetics, or optical implants. Planarisation of a lens by the Fresnel lens approach was adapted for a conical lens (axicon) and was made by direct femtosecond 780 nm/100 fs laser writing in the SZ2080™ polymer with a photo-initiator. Optical characterisation of the positive and negative fraxicons is presented. Numerical modelling of fraxicon optical performance under illumination by incoherent and spatially extended light sources is compared with the ideal case of plane-wave illumination. Considering the potential for rapid replication in soft polymers and resists, this approach holds great promise for the most demanding technological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early in the nineteenth century, members in the UK Parliament (MPs) hardly ever debated education. When they did, it was nearly always in the context of aid for the religious instruction of the poor. Indeed, even by 1850, nearly two decades after the first Great Reform Act (1832), the Prime Minister Lord John Russell made the case that a system of compulsory state schooling would be immoral and un-British. Yet, by the '80s, MPs debating in Westminster routinely drew connections between schooling and the most critical social issues of the day: social-class mobility and equity, child welfare, national development, emigration, and the civil service, among others. What explains the expanding, and expansive, political uses that elite policymakers put to schooling? How did schooling and education take on such an aggrandized role in society for British statesmen? To address these questions, this paper combines natural language processing techniques, semantic network, discourse, and regression analyses to read and interpret the ∼1.1 million political speeches given in the UK Houses of Parliament during the long nineteenth century (1804–1913). In contrast to explanations emphasizing the direct role that economic, social, and political development as well as conflict played in the UK state's historic expansion, this piece demonstrates how social scientization, the sweeping international epistemic movement that institutionalized and diffused functionalist social theory, created the context that made it possible for political elites to see and promote schooling as an effective policy instrument of greater cultural rationalization supporting the development of capitalist industrial society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Religious/spiritual beliefs and behaviours (RSBB) have been associated with health outcomes, with diet a potential mediator of this relationship. We therefore explored whether RSBB were associated with differences in diet. Design: Dietary patterns and nutrient intakes were derived from food frequency questionnaire completed by pregnant women in 1991–1992 (mean age = 28·3 years, range = 15–46) and by the mothers and partners 4 years post-partum (mothers mean age = 32·3, range = 19–49; partners mean age = 34·5, range = 18–74). RSBB exposures measured in pregnancy included religious belief, affiliation and attendance. We first explored whether RSBBs were associated with dietary patterns in confounder-adjusted linear regression models. If associations were found, we examined whether RSBB were associated with nutrient intake (linear regression) and following nutrient intake guidelines (logistic regression). Setting: Prospective birth cohort study in Southwest England (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children; ALSPAC). Participants: 13 689 enrolled mothers and their associated partners. Results: In pregnant women, RSBB were associated with higher 'traditional' (i.e. 'meat and two veg') and lower 'vegetarian' dietary pattern scores. Religious attendance and non-Christian religious affiliation were associated with higher 'health-conscious' dietary pattern scores. Religious attendance was associated with increased micronutrient intake and following recommended micronutrient intake guidelines, with weaker effects for religious belief and affiliation. Comparable patterns were observed for mothers and partners 4 years post-partum, although associations between RSBB and nutrient intakes were weaker for partners. Conclusions: RSBBs are associated with broad dietary patterns and nutrient intake in this cohort. If these reflect causal relationships, diet may potentially mediate the pathway between RSBB and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the effectiveness of school leadership in promoting inclusive learning of students who experienced grief and bereavement. Topics mentioned include the definition of childhood bereavement, the educational impact of bereavement and grief, the role of schools in helping student gain emotional support, and the key components for the inclusion of bereavement outcomes in curriculum planning.

Community efforts in the computational molecular sciences (CMS) are evolving toward modular, open, and interoperable interfaces that work with existing community codes to provide more functionality and composability than could be achieved with a single program. The Quantum Chemistry Common Driver and Databases (QCDB) project provides such capability through an application programming interface (API) that facilitates interoperability across multiple quantum chemistry software packages. In tandem with the Molecular Sciences Software Institute and their Quantum Chemistry Archive ecosystem, the unique functionalities of several CMS programs are integrated, including CFOUR, GAMESS, NWChem, OpenMM, Psi4, Qcore, TeraChem, and Turbomole, to provide common computational functions, i.e., energy, gradient, and Hessian computations as well as molecular properties such as atomic charges and vibrational frequency analysis. Both standard users and power users benefit from adopting these APIs as they lower the language barrier of input styles and enable a standard layout of variables and data. These designs allow end-to-end interoperable programming of complex computations and provide best practices options by default. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a poorly treated multifactorial neurodegenerative disease associated with multiple cell types and subcellular organelles. As with other multifactorial diseases, it is likely that drugs will need to target multiple disease processes and cell types to be effective. We review here the role of Janus kinase (JAK)/Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) signalling in ALS, confirm the association of this signalling with fundamental ALS disease processes using the BenevolentAI Knowledge Graph, and demonstrate that inhibitors of this pathway could reduce the ALS pathophysiology in neurons, glia, muscle fibres, and blood cells. Specifically, we suggest that inhibition of the JAK enzymes by approved inhibitors known as Jakinibs could reduce STAT3 activation and modify the progress of this disease. Analysis of the Jakinibs highlights baricitinib as a suitable candidate due to its ability to penetrate the central nervous system and exert beneficial effects on the immune system. Therefore, we recommend that this drug be tested in appropriately designed clinical trials for ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key feature of parliamentary democracy is government accountability vis‐à‐vis the legislature, but the important question of who speaks for the government—cabinet ministers or unelected bureaucrats, and the institutional underpinnings of this behavior—receives scant attention in the existing literature. We investigate this question using the case of Japan, and data on more than four million committee speeches spanning distinct electoral and legislative institutional environments. We document how a party‐strengthening electoral system reform in 1994 facilitated a dramatic shift in the nature of government accountability to parliamentary committees: speeches by ministers increased, speeches by bureaucrats decreased, and discursive accountability between ministers and opposition legislators increased. Subsequent legislative reforms expanding junior ministerial roles and placing explicit limits on bureaucratic participation further reinforced the effects. These findings shed new light on the institutional foundations of responsible party government in general as well as its progressive development in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saccadic eye movements are preceded by profound changes in visual perception. These changes have been linked to the phenomenon of 'forward remapping', in which cells begin to respond to stimuli that appear in their post-saccadic receptive field before the eye has moved. Few studies have examined the perceptual consequences of remapping of areas of impaired sensory acuity, such as the blindspot. Understanding the perceptual consequences of remapping of scotomas may produce important insights into why some neurovisual deficits, such as hemianopia are so intractable for rehabilitation. The current study took advantage of a naturally occurring scotoma in healthy participants (the blindspot) to examine pre-saccadic perception at the upcoming location of the blindspot. Participants viewed stimuli monocularly and were required to make stimulus-driven vertical eye-movements. At a variable latency between the onset of saccade target (ST) and saccade execution a discrimination target (DT) was presented at one of 4 possible locations; within the blindspot, contralateral to the blindspot, in post-saccadic location of the blindspot and contralateral to the post-saccadic location of the blindspot. There was a significant perceptual impairment at the post-saccadic location of the blindspot relative to the contralateral post-saccadic location of the blindspot and the post-saccadic location of the blindspot in a no-saccade control condition. These data are consistent with the idea that the visual system includes a representation of the blindspot which is remapped prior to saccade onset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Pastoral Power, Clerical State: Pentecostalism, Gender, and Sexuality in Nigeria" by Ebenezer Obadare explores the rise of Pentecostal pastors to positions of political influence in Nigeria. The author argues that pastors have gained political prominence by appealing to both political elites and ordinary people through the belief that the spiritual world is more real and consequential than the visible world. The book also examines the impact of military rule on the ascendancy of pastors and the decline of the intellectual class in Nigeria. Additionally, it explores the role of gender and sexuality in pastors' political power. The book raises questions about the beliefs and interests of pastors and politicians in the power of the spiritual realm. Overall, the book provides original insights and a thought-provoking analysis of the political power of Pentecostalism in Nigeria. [Extracted from the article]

Charles Dickens's literary preoccupation with bureaucracy reflects its ascendant, but often contradictory, position in Victorian society. Exclusive, disordered, and in parts archaic – but at the same time increasingly pervasive, and visibly cohering into a recognisably modern form – bureaucratic organisation became a major (albeit neither infallible, nor uncontested) phenomenon in fiction during this period as much as in real life. In this article I explore such portrayals by focusing on Dickens's aesthetic of the ostensible centre of bureaucratic power, the office itself, as a space. By rooting his ironical and often paradoxical uses of this setting within the broader crises of social knowledge and materiality that underlay nineteenth-century bureaucratisation, I argue that the Dickensian office, between The Pickwick Papers, Dombey and Son, and Bleak House, performs a range of functions directly linked to its multifaceted condition of interstiality. These interstices are literal, in the office's capacity as a physical intermediary, but also social, conceptual, and in terms of literary form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural disasters can uproot peoples' lives in a matter of minutes, leaving behind immeasurable hardships on the people and places that they strike. We examine the impact on voter turnout of one such force majeure in the days leading up to a midterm election. Leveraging the randomness of a rapidly developing, unpredictable Category 5 hurricane, we assemble an original dataset to examine the effects of Hurricane Michael on voting in Florida in the 2018 General Election. Our study assesses whether counties damaged by Hurricane Michael—as determined by relief policies administered by local election officials—affected voter behavior in 2018. Utilizing Difference-in-Difference (DID) models, we test whether voters registered in counties that were affected by Michael voted at rates comparable to their neighbors that were not directly impacted by the Category 5 hurricane. We also test whether voters in affected counties were more likely to alter their usual methods of voting. Our findings—that turnout was lower among those directly impacted by the storm but that early in-person voting helped to mitigate the effects—lend insight into how election administration decisions can offset the deleterious effects of a catastrophic event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What conditions enable novel intellectual contributions to diffuse and become integrated into later scientific work? Prior work tends to focus on whole cultural products, such as patents and articles, and emphasizes external social factors as important. This article focuses on concepts as reflections of ideas, and we identify the combined influence that social factors and internal intellectual structures have on ideational diffusion. To develop this perspective, we use computational techniques to identify nearly 60,000 new ideas introduced over two decades (1993 to 2016) in the Web of Science and follow their diffusion across 38 million later publications. We find new ideas diffuse more widely when they socially and intellectually resonate. New ideas become core concepts of science when they reach expansive networks of unrelated authors, achieve consistent intellectual usage, are associated with other prominent ideas, and fit with extant research traditions. These ecological conditions play an increasingly decisive role later in an idea's career, after their relations with the environment are established. This work advances the systematic study of scientific ideas by moving beyond products to focus on the content of ideas themselves and applies a relational perspective that takes seriously the contingency of their success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article situates John of Patmos, the author of the New Testament Apocalypse of John, as an exotic ritual expert within the religious landscape of the Roman East. Through comparison with local ritual specialists of the Egyptian gods Isis and Sarapis, I argue that John similarly deploys his own culturally constructed and imperially mediated foreignness to demonstrate the exotic appeal of his Judean God among the assemblies in the cities of western Asia Minor. I consider the role of ritual experts at the Isis sanctuary in Priene and the competing Sarapeia on Delos to contextualize Revelation's presentation of John as the only "true" expert among several "false" competitors and an authentic representative of his exotic Judean God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parameterization of torsional/dihedral angle potential energy terms is a crucial part of developing molecular mechanics force fields. Quantum mechanical (QM) methods are often used to provide samples of the potential energy surface (PES) for fitting the empirical parameters in these force field terms. To ensure that the sampled molecular configurations are thermodynamically feasible, constrained QM geometry optimizations are typically carried out, which relax the orthogonal degrees of freedom while fixing the target torsion angle(s) on a grid of values. However, the quality of results and computational cost are affected by various factors on a non-trivial PES, such as dependence on the chosen scan direction and the lack of efficient approaches to integrate results started from multiple initial guesses. In this paper, we propose a systematic and versatile workflow called TorsionDrive to generate energy-minimized structures on a grid of torsion constraints by means of a recursive wavefront propagation algorithm, which resolves the deficiencies of conventional scanning approaches and generates higher quality QM data for force field development. The capabilities of our method are presented for multi-dimensional scans and multiple initial guess structures, and an integration with the MolSSI QCArchive distributed computing ecosystem is described. The method is implemented in an open-source software package that is compatible with many QM software packages and energy minimization codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PSI4 is a free and open-source ab initio electronic structure program providing implementations of Hartree–Fock, density functional theory, many-body perturbation theory, configuration interaction, density cumulant theory, symmetry-adapted perturbation theory, and coupled-cluster theory. Most of the methods are quite efficient, thanks to density fitting and multi-core parallelism. The program is a hybrid of C++ and Python, and calculations may be run with very simple text files or using the Python API, facilitating post-processing and complex workflows; method developers also have access to most of PSI4's core functionalities via Python. Job specification may be passed using The Molecular Sciences Software Institute (MolSSI) QCSCHEMA data format, facilitating interoperability. A rewrite of our top-level computation driver, and concomitant adoption of the MolSSI QCARCHIVE INFRASTRUCTURE project, makes the latest version of PSI4 well suited to distributed computation of large numbers of independent tasks. The project has fostered the development of independent software components that may be reused in other quantum chemistry programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focal-point approach, combining several quantum chemistry computations to estimate a more accurate computation at a lower expense, is effective and commonly used for energies. However, it has not yet been widely adopted for properties such as geometries. Here, we examine several focal-point methods combining Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (MP2 and MP2.5) with coupled-cluster theory through perturbative triples [CCSD(T)] for their effectiveness in geometry optimizations using a new driver for the Psi4 electronic structure program that efficiently automates the computation of composite-energy gradients. The test set consists of 94 closed-shell molecules containing first- and/or second-row elements. The focal-point methods utilized combinations of correlation-consistent basis sets cc-pV(X+d)Z and heavy-aug-cc-pV(X+d)Z (X = D, T, Q, 5, 6). Focal-point geometries were compared to those from conventional CCSD(T) using basis sets up to heavy-aug-cc-pV5Z and to geometries from explicitly correlated CCSD(T)-F12 using the cc-pVXZ-F12 (X = D, T) basis sets. All results were compared to reference geometries reported by Karton et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 145, 104101 (2016)] at the CCSD(T)/heavy-aug-cc-pV6Z level of theory. In general, focal-point methods based on an estimate of the MP2 complete-basis-set limit, with a coupled-cluster correction evaluated in a (heavy-aug-)cc-pVXZ basis, are of superior quality to conventional CCSD(T)/(heavy-aug-)cc-pV(X+1)Z and sometimes approach the errors of CCSD(T)/(heavy-aug-)cc-pV(X+2)Z. However, the focal-point methods are much faster computationally. For the benzene molecule, the gradient of such a focal-point approach requires only 4.5% of the computation time of a conventional CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ gradient and only 0.4% of the time of a CCSD(T)/cc-pVQZ gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Good Governance in Nigeria: Rethinking Accountability and Transparency in the Twenty-First Century" by Portia Roelofs explores the concept of good governance in Nigeria, challenging the prevailing notion that Nigeria is not a suitable case study for this topic. The author argues for the importance of socially embedded good governance, using the Lagos Model as a focal point. Roelofs deconstructs the concept of neo-patrimonialism and highlights the desire of Nigerian citizens for socially accountable politicians. The book incorporates a wide range of research, including ethnographic fieldwork and archival study, and engages with political theory to examine the implications of socially embedded good governance. The book is well-written and incorporates scholarship from Nigerian researchers, providing a comprehensive understanding of the topic. The author's findings may have practical implications, as Nigeria's new president, Bola Tinubu, was involved in implementing the Lagos Model and may apply its lessons at the national level. [Extracted from the article]

Sustaining sports-related head impacts has been reported to result in neurological changes that potentially lead to later-life neurological disease. Advanced neuroimaging techniques have been used to detect subtle neurological effects resulting from head impacts, even after a single competitive season. The current study used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess changes in functional connectivity of the frontoparietal network, a brain network responsible for executive functioning, in collegiate club ice hockey players over one season. Each player was scanned before and after the season and wore accelerometers to measure head impacts at practices and home games throughout the season. We examined pre- to post-season differences in connectivity within the frontoparietal and default mode networks, as well as the relationship between the total number of head impacts sustained and changes in connectivity. We found a significant interaction between network region of interest and time point (p =.016), in which connectivity between the left and right posterior parietal cortex seed regions increased over the season (p <.01). Number of impacts had a significant effect on frontoparietal network connectivity, such that more impacts were related to greater connectivity differences over the season (p =.042). Overall, functional connectivity increased in ice hockey athletes over a season between regions involved in executive functioning, and sensory integration, in particular. Furthermore, those who sustained more impacts had the greatest changes in connectivity. Consistent with prior findings in resting-state sports-related head impact literature, these findings have been suggested to represent brain injury. Highlights Functional connectivity of the frontoparietal network significantly increased between the pre- and post-season, which may be a compensatory mechanism driven by neural tissue injury caused by repetitive head impacts. Changes in frontoparietal network connectivity are related to head impact exposure, measured as the number of head impacts sustained in a single season. Functional connectivity of the default mode network did not change over an ice hockey season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining development is essential for a full understanding of behaviour, including how individuals acquire traits and how adaptive evolutionary forces shape these processes. The present study explores the development of cooperative behaviour among the Agta, a Filipino hunter-gatherer population. A simple resource allocation game assessing both levels of cooperation (how much children shared) and patterns of partner choice (who they shared with) was played with 179 children between the ages of 3 and 18. Children were given five resources (candies) and for each was asked whether to keep it for themselves or share with someone else, and if so, who this was. Between-camp variation in children's cooperative behaviour was substantial, and the only strong predictor of children's cooperation was the average level of cooperation among adults in camp; that is, children were more cooperative in camps where adults were more cooperative. Neither age, sex, relatedness or parental levels of cooperation were strongly associated with the amount children shared. Children preferentially shared with close kin (especially siblings), although older children increasingly shared with less-related individuals. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding cross-cultural patterns of children's cooperation, and broader links with human cooperative childcare and life history evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endotoxemia and sepsis induce neuroinflammation and increase the risk of neurodegenerative disorders although the mechanism by which peripheral infection leads to brain inflammation is not well understood. While circulating serum lipoproteins are known immunometabolites with the potential to modulate the acute phase response and cross the blood brain barrier, their contribution to neuroinflammation during systemic infection is unknown. The objective of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms by which lipoprotein subclasses modulate lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neuroinflammation. Adult C57BL/6 mice were divided into 6 treatment groups, including a sterile saline vehicle control group (n = 9), an LPS group (n = 11), a premixed LPS + HDL group (n = 6), a premixed LPS + LDL group (n = 5), a HDL only group (n = 6) and an LDL only group (n = 3). In all cases injections were administered intraperitoneally. LPS was administered at 0.5 mg/kg, and lipoproteins were administered at 20 mg/kg. Behavioural testing and tissue collection was performed 6 h post-injection. The magnitude of peripheral and central inflammation was determined by qPCR of pro-inflammatory genes in fresh liver and brain. Metabolite profiles of liver, plasma and brain were determined by 1H NMR. Endotoxin concentration in the brain was measured by the Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate (LAL) assay. Co-administration of LPS + HDL exacerbated both peripheral and central inflammation, whilst LPS + LDL attenuated this inflammation. Metabolomic analysis identified several metabolites significantly associated with LPS-induced inflammation, which were partially rescued by LDL, but not HDL. Endotoxin was detected at significantly greater concentrations in the brains of animals that received LPS + HDL compared to LPS + saline, but not those that received LPS + LDL. These results suggest that HDL may promote neuroinflammation through direct shuttling of endotoxin to the brain. In contrast, LDL was shown to have anti-neuroinflammatory properties in this study. Our results indicate that lipoproteins may be useful targets in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration associated with endotoxemia and sepsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One widely derided aspect of autocratic regimes is that they frequently feature nepotistic systems for political organization and management of power transfers, with inexperienced or unqualified individuals taking power solely because of their familial relation to the prior ruler. Such systems are thought to be more unstable and ineffective, reducing desirable outcomes for autocratic leaders, as well as the states they govern. We argue that this characterization ignores several important features of autocratic governance: rulers must constantly negotiate with other elites and rely on political networks based around loyalty and agreed-upon divisions of power, spoils, and prestige. Beneficiaries of nepotism enter office with many advantages that should make their reigns more stable and effective than those of less connected rulers. Specifically, we find evidence from the backgrounds and tenures of Roman emperors that dynastic relation to the previous ruler explains the likelihood of an emperor surviving in office without deposal as well as their effectiveness while in office. Rulers with close familial ties to their predecessor enjoyed longer rules and were associated with periods of imperial prosperity. Moreover, we also find that youth in autocratic office is a strong predictor of longevity without deposal, and that young rulers came to power owing to their dynastic relation to a predecessor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to interpret and follow the gaze of our social partners is an integral skill in human communication. Recent research has demonstrated that gaze following behaviour is influenced by theory of mind (ToM) processes. However, it has yet to be determined whether the modulation of gaze cueing by ToM is affected by individual differences, such as autistic traits. The aim of this experiment was to establish whether autistic traits in neurotypical populations affect the mediation of gaze cueing by ToM processes. This study used a gaze cueing paradigm within a change detection task. Participants' perception of a gaze cue was manipulated such that they only believed the cue to be able to 'see' in one condition. The results revealed that participants in the Low Autistic Traits group were significantly influenced by the mental state of the gaze cue and were more accurate on valid trials when they believed the cue could 'see'. By contrast, participants in the High Autistic Traits group were also more accurate on valid trials, but this was not influenced by the mental state of the gaze cue. This study therefore provides evidence that autistic traits influence the extent to which mental state attributions modulate social attention in neurotypical adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fog is a major hazard in wintertime over India, particularly in the Indo‐Gangetic Plains, leading to significant impacts for transport and human health. Using 3‐hourly surface observations, from 69 sites across India, all fog and dense fog events between 2000 and 2020 are identified. For each event, the main fog formation mechanism is objectively categorized using a classification algorithm, distinguishing between radiation, advection, evaporation, precipitation or cloud‐base lowering fog types. In contrast to the findings of other international studies, radiation fog dominates as the most common fog type at the vast majority of locations in India, accounting for 68.1% of all fog events and 70.0% of dense fog events. Statistically significant positive trends are seen in the frequency of all fog events at Delhi, Lucknow and Patna, in the Indo‐Gangetic plains, between 1997/1998 and 2018/2019, dominated by comparable statistically significant positive trends in radiation fogs. Western disturbances (WD) are often linked to the formation of fog in India. Using a climatology of WDs, we show that 46.9% of radiation fog onsets in Delhi in December and January, the primary fog months, happened in conjunction with an active WD event. Conversely, only 32.3% of WDs during these same months coincided with the onset of a radiation fog event. WD‐related radiation fog events are shown to cluster into three distinct groups, with WD centres located to the northwest (51.4% of cases), southwest (13.3%) and east (35.2%) of Delhi. Each cluster is shown to have coherent and distinct near‐surface characteristics which are conducive to fog formation. Trends in WD frequency cannot fully account for the observed trends in fog events. We argue that the fog trends are more likely the result of a complex interaction between urban expansion and the associated rapid change in aerosol loading, resulting in impacts on radiation balance, microphysics and heat‐island processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In response to a surge of drug overdoses involving polysubstance use among Atlanta service industry workers that resulted in the deaths of five people in the Atlanta area in the summer of 2021, a local community of harm reductionists and nurses organized opioid education and naloxone distribution (OEND) training sessions specifically customized for service industry workers in Atlanta. After the sessions, the nurses and harm reductionists asked attendants to participate in a study concerning their response to overdoses. The reason nurses and harm reductionists conducted the study was to determine the efficacy of OEND training adapted for those working in the service industries as well as to evaluate and possibly modify the training sessions for future use. This pre‐post study examined if and how participants' knowledge and attitudes toward an opioid‐involved overdose changed after engaging with the OEND training. If the study determined that the sessions were successful in teaching service industry workers how to mitigate the immediate and devastating effects of overdose, we recommend expanding and implementing both adaptable training sessions like the OEND training referenced, as well as accompanying studies to improve the training sessions' effectiveness. Design: The pre‐post study used convenience sampling to recruit participants in emergent OEND training. Participants completed an abbreviated version the Opioid Overdose Attitudes Scale (OOAS) which measured how, and to what degree, they changed their attitudes towards overdoses and their responses to them. Participants also completed an abbreviated version of the Opioid Overdose Knowledge Scale (OOKS) which measured how effectively the OEND increased their knowledge when it came to properly responding to an overdose, which included implementing naloxone as part of immediate rehabilitation treatment. Paired nonparametric tests assessed changes in participants' OOAS/OOKS scores. Results: A total of 161 individuals attended, and 72 consented to be in the study. The sample predominately consisted of white (76.4%) and female (66.7%) adults whose age averaged 34.3 years. Attitude and knowledge score improvements were statistically significant: approximately 11 points (p <.001) and 3 points (p <.001), respectively. Conclusions: This rapidly implemented training was associated with improving attitudes and knowledge about responding to an opioid‐involved overdose. We recommend expanding the scope of studies like these in order to develop and examine effective, dynamic, and targeted OEND training tailored towards specific community groups and situations, such as polysubstance overdose among service industry workers. As the opioid epidemic worsens, it is critical to equip community members themselves with the skills and tools to recognize and respond to opioid overdoses as a frontline prevention to overdose deaths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One prevailing cultural sensibility of our time is a concern with the state of our mental health, another is our obligation and desire for a good 'sense of humour'. At present the two are conflated, most often through a long-standing cultural trope: the sad clown paradox – those who make us laugh the most tend to be the most prone to mental health problems. This article views the 'sad clown paradox' as less about the peculiarity or exceptional status of a comedian's mind, more about how the cognitive burdens of modernity are rendered bearable and collectively recognised in thought and sentiment by humour. Accounts of comedy and mental health conflate good comedy with mental anguish. By unpacking this knotted relationship, it is argued that comedian's humour performs a way for contemporary people to deal with modernity's fragmentary character of life from within their own inner worlds and selves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key component of the insect immune response is melanin production, including within nodules, or aggregations of immune cells surrounding microbes. Melanization produces oxidative and toxic intermediates that limit microbial infections. However, a direct fungicidal role of melanin during infection has not been demonstrated. We previously reported that the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans is encapsulated with melanin within nodules of Galleria mellonella hosts. Here we developed techniques to study melanin's role during C. neoformans infection in G. mellonella. We provided evidence that in vivo melanin-encapsulation was fungicidal. To further study immune melanization, we applied tissue-clearing techniques to visualize melanized nodules in situ throughout the larvae. Further, we developed a time-lapse microscopy protocol to visualize the melanization kinetics in extracted hemolymph following fungal exposure. Using this technique, we found that cryptococcal melanin and laccase enhance immune melanization. We extended this approach to study the fungal pathogens Candida albicans and Candida auris. We find that the yeast morphologies of these fungi elicited robust melanization responses, while hyphal and pseudohyphal morphologies were melanin-evasive. Approximately 23% of melanin-encapsulated C. albicans yeast can survive and breakthrough the encapsulation. Overall, our results provide direct evidence that immune melanization functions as a direct antifungal mechanism in G. mellonella. Real-time imaging of fungal infection and tissue clearing in the wax moth, Galleria mellonella, help evaluate the role of melanin in the insect host immune response to fungal pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Might elite cues affect how we vote? Extant literature focuses on effects of elite cues on candidate evaluation or policy preference, but we know little about how they might affect vote method preferences. Drawing on a large survey of validated Florida voters, including those who regularly vote by mail, we find that retrospective and prospective misreporting of vote method prior to the 2020 General Election was driven primarily by support for Trump. The president's supporters who were most politically aware were most likely to disavow their own voting by mail and misreport their anticipated vote method in the November election. Understanding the effects—and limits—of elite cues on the politicization of self-reported political behavior has important implications for pollsters and campaigns, election administrators, voters, and the broader democratic electoral process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stereotype-threat theory holds that activation of a negative stereotype has a harmful effect on performance in cognitive and motor domains. This paper provides a literature review of stereotype-threat research in the motor domain followed by recommendations for sport psychology practitioners. The review discusses the most widespread stereotypes that exist in sport, the effects of stereotype activation on performance in different sports, and mechanisms that explain why stereotype threat decreases performance. Recommendations for practitioners include individual- and organizational-level approaches, with the former subdivided into interventions aimed at prevention or coping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Candida auris is a recently emerged global fungal pathogen, which causes life-threatening infections, often in healthcare settings. C. auris infections are worrisome because the fungus is often resistant to multiple antifungal drug classes. Furthermore, C. auris forms durable and difficult to remove biofilms. Due to the relatively recent, resilient, and resistant nature of C. auris, we investigated whether it produces the common fungal virulence factor melanin. Melanin is a black-brown pigment typically produced following enzymatic oxidation of aromatic precursors, which promotes fungal virulence through oxidative stress resistance, mammalian immune response evasion, and antifungal peptide and pharmaceutical inactivation. We found that certain strains of C. auris oxidized L-DOPA and catecholamines into melanin. Melanization occurred extracellularly in a process mediated by alkalinization of the extracellular environment, resulting in granule-like structures that adhere to the fungus' external surface. C. auris had relatively high cell surface hydrophobicity, but there was no correlation between hydrophobicity and melanization. Melanin protected the fungus from oxidative damage, but we did not observe a protective role during infection of macrophages or Galleria mellonella larvae. In summary, C. auris alkalinizes the extracellular medium, which promotes the non-enzymatic oxidation of L-DOPA to melanin that attaches to its surface, thus illustrating a novel mechanism for fungal melanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of British and French society over the long nineteenth century can be framed as two contrasting histories of bureaucratization. In France, a "rational" body of organizational rules and procedures coalesced quickly around the state, taking their paradigmatic form during the First Republic and Empire (1792-1814) but stagnating thereafter. In Britain, these structures developed piecemeal, and over a longer time, gaining relative coherence by the midcentury. In both cases, however, office work became a major social, ideological, and cultural phenomenon, one that warranted literary portrayal despite its apparent unconduciveness to conventional narrative forms. In this article I illustrate the shifting character of "office novels" within these contexts, and I accordingly operate from both a comparative and a longitudinal perspective: comparing novels from France and Britain produced during the midcentury period (pivotal in the history of bureaucracy and of the novel) that focus on office life. I argue that the changing role of the office career between William Makepeace Thackeray's abortive office Bildungsroman The History of Samuel Titmarsh (1841) and Anthony Trollope's The Three Clerks (1858) reflects the reform, saturation, and ideological legitimation of bureaucratic forms in Britain over this period. Meanwhile, the transition from Honor'e de Balzac's highly reflexive satirical novel Les Employ'es (1844) to E' mile Gaboriau's office-hopping Picaresque Les Gens de Bureau (1862) reflects an increasing jadedness in France about the ability of these structures to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]