Addressing Concerns toward Xenotransplantation

There is increasing attention being given toward social and ethical implications of xenotransplantation that may begin relatively soon. IN a recent commentary by Loebe and Parker, the authors address many of the social and ethical issues in regard to xenotransplantation, but do so only superficially. This letter to the editor responds to many of the points they raise.

A TOPOGRAPHY OF VIRTUAL INFLUENCERS

Informed by my first six months of doctoral research, this paper offers a topography of virtual influencers that at once acknowledges their continuation of and breaking with the precedents of a lineage of “virtual beings” who have achieved celebrity status. Responding to the ahistoricism of much recent commentary, it draws on archival press and web research to situate virtual influencers at the intersection of technological advancements, discourses, and anxieties similarly characterising Hollywood’s “synthespians” at the turn of the twenty-first century; the legacy of “virtual idols” in East Asia (also known as “Vocaloids” in Japan); and the latter’s recent democratisation by a new generation of “vTubers” across video-sharing sites. Recognising this cross-medium migration of virtual celebrity—from anime, video games and blockbuster cinema to the participatory web—this paper adopts a platform-specific lens to highlight the affordances, cultures and vernaculars of specific social media as essential to virtual influencers’ aspiration to, and attainment and maintenance of, attention and fame.

Arguments against efficiency in science

A recent commentary critiqued the embrace of performance metrics at research universities. Drawing on our research studying the metascience movement, we suggest that the drive to maximize efficiency in science is increasingly extending beyond performance metrics, into labs themselves. Because institutional and public audiences are predisposed to viewing science in simple terms, it can be challenging for scientists to articulate counterarguments to policies that increase transparency and accountability in the name of efficiency. This short piece offers a sketch of an argument against treating efficiency as the lodestar for science.

Deconstructing Dante: How things fall apart in the Paradiso

Much recent commentary on Dante’s Commedia focuses on Dante’s truth claims in the poem. Indeed, Teodolinda Barolini has proposed that “the fundamental question for all readers of Dante’s poem” is “How are we to respond to the poet’s insistence that he is telling us the truth?” I propose that the poem itself gives us guidance as to the seriousness of its claims to literal truth. It does so by actively deconstructing its own meaning at critical junctures. I look at several such moments of deconstruction, but I argue that the first few cantos of the Paradiso in particular provide a reflection on the difference between reality and fiction. Early in the Paradiso, Dante draws attention to the metaphoric nature of his poem and reminds his reader, through his character’s own actions, that metaphor is not reality. In this way, Dante implies that we should not take the narrative particulars of his poem too literally but should treat metaphor as metaphor rather than as mimesis.

Arguments against efficiency in science

A recent commentary critiqued the embrace of performance metrics at research universities. Drawing on our research studying the metascience movement, we suggest that the drive to maximize efficiency in science is increasingly extending beyond performance metrics, into labs themselves. Because institutional and public audiences are predisposed to viewing science in simple terms, it can be challenging for scientists to articulate counterarguments to policies that increase transparency and accountability in the name of efficiency. This short piece offers a sketch of an argument against treating efficiency as the lodestar for science.

Calling differential DNA methylation at cell-type resolution: avoiding misconceptions and promoting best practices

The accurate detection of cell-type specific DNA methylation alterations in the context of general epigenome studies is an important task to improve our understanding of epigenomics in disease development. Although a number of statistical algorithms designed to address this problem have emerged, the task remains challenging. Here we show that a recent commentary by Rahmani et al, that aims to address misconceptions and best practices in the field, continues to suffer from critical misconceptions in how statistical algorithms should be compared and evaluated. In addition, we report contradictory results on real EWAS datasets.

Evidence-Based Guidelines Should Be Used to Inform COVID-19 Management

A recent commentary by McCullough (1) includes a recommended COVID treatment algorithm that is outdated and parts of which are contradicted by high quality trial data.…

William A. Shryer, scientific advertising, habits and motivation research

Purpose This paper examines a neglected stream of literature in marketing theory which engaged with the idea that there was more to consumer behavior than conscious and rational thought. Design/methodology/approach This is a close reading of the core themes that appear in William A. Shryer’s work. Linkages are made to other pertinent sources. Findings We extend McMahon’s (1972) study and offer a different reading of Shryer’s writing to that proffered in recent commentary by Tadajewski (2019), focusing on the managerial side of Shryer’s publications, connecting this to the theoretically innovative foundations based on normal and abnormal psychology. We respond to the suggestion proposed by McMahon (1972) that Shryer was an early pioneer of motivation research, largely in the affirmative. Originality/value We provide an alternative interpretation of Shryer’s writing, connecting this to an emergent “advertising science” and subsequently to contemporary strands of literature that have a “family resemblance” to his contributions. These include salient aspects of motivation research; crowd and habitual behavior; mindlessness and social cognition; and finally, empirical examinations of cumulative value theory.

Not all autism genes are created equal: A response to Myers et al

In our recent Autism Sequencing Consortium (ASC) study (Satterstrom et al 2020), we show that cohorts ascertained for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those ascertained for a broader array of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) differ both in the rate and in the relative distribution of mutations across genes. In secondary analyses, we used a binary classifier to separate the 102 ASD genes that we identified into those more often disrupted in individuals ascertained for ASD versus those more often disrupted in individuals ascertained for NDDs; we refer to these as ASD-predominant (ASDP) and ASDNDD genes, respectively. Protein truncating variants in ASDP genes are more likely to be found in parents, and are more likely to be inherited, consistent with reduced selective pressure acting against disruptive variants in ASDP genes. Moreover, in individuals ascertained for ASD, those harboring ASDNDD gene mutations show, on average, greater delays in walking and lower IQ, when compared to those harboring ASDP gene mutations. The results demonstrate that there will be genes that are more clearly associated with the extremes of a clinical phenotypic spectrum. We suggest that the discovery of genes associated with the extremes of the spectrum will provide further insights into pathways disrupted in ASD, and that such discovery is an important direction for future research. Here, in response to a recent commentary by our esteemed colleagues (Myers et al. 2020), we discuss the ASC findings in greater detail and place our results in the context of future research in ASD.