Supplemental Material: Stratigraphy of the Eocene–Oligocene Titus Canyon Formation, Death Valley, California, and Eocene extensional tectonism in the Basin and Range

<div>Text: Additional explanation of the methods used to recalculate the Ar/Ar ages of Gutenkunst (2006), Saylor and Hodges (1994), and Saylor (1991). Figure S1: Analytical plots recalculated from ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data originally produced by Gutenkunst (2006). Figure S2: Scans of a large scale map and seven isochron plots for five samples provided by B. Saylor (personal commun., 2015). Table S1: Detrital zircon U-Pb analytical data. Table S2: Zircon (U‐Th)/He analytical data. Table S3: Analytical data for ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of Gutenkunst (2006).<br></div>

Are Stripped Envelope Supernovae Really Deficient in 56Ni?

Recent works have indicated that the 56Ni masses estimated for stripped envelope supernovae (SESNe) are systematically higher than those estimated for SNe II. Although this may suggest a distinct progenitor structure between these types of SNe, the possibility remains that this may be caused by observational bias. One important possible bias is that SESNe with low 56Ni mass are dim, and therefore more likely to escape detection. By investigating the distributions of 56Ni mass and distance of the samples collected from the literature, we find that the current literature SESN sample indeed suffers from a significant observational bias, i.e., objects with low 56Ni mass—if they exist—will be missed, especially at larger distances. Note, however, that those distant objects in our sample are mostly SNe Ic-BL. We also conducted mock observations assuming that the 56Ni mass distribution for SESNe is intrinsically the same as that of SNe II. We find that the 56Ni mass distribution of the detected SESN samples moves toward higher mass than the assumed intrinsic distribution because of the difficulty in detecting the low-56Ni mass SESNe. These results could explain the general trend of the higher 56Ni mass distribution (than SNe II) of SESNe found thus far in the literature. However, further finding clear examples of low-56Ni mass SESNe (≤ 0.01 M ⊙) is required to strengthen this hypothesis. Also, objects with high 56Ni mass (≳ 0.2 M ⊙) are not explained by our model, which may require an additional explanation.

http://www.folia.ac.me/image/38/Dora%20Kelemen.pdf

This paper analyzes female characters in two early works by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky– Poor Folk (1845, Bednye liudi) and The Double (1846, Dvoinik). It considers the literary methods used to represent those characters, as well as their relation to the male main character and some aspects of gender construction in these works. It is shown that the importance of female characters in these two works is directly connected with their (real or imagined) influence on the male main character. Consequently, a female character can play an important role in the novel even if she doesn’t personally appear in it. Women are fatal for both male characters, albeit for different reasons. Drawing on the research of Neuhäuser (1979), this article shows some further similarities in the basic structure of both works. They share the form of a love affair accompanied by intertextual references, as well as a narrated previous relationship of the male character, both of them serving as an additional explanation of the current love affair. The epistolary form of Poor Folk leads to self-representation being the main way of showing Varvara Dobroselova’s character, while Klara Olsuf’evna of The Double is depicted both from the perspective of the auctorial first-person narrator, as well as from Goliadkin’s perspective. The auctorial narrator of The Double ironizes not only Klara Olsuf’evna, but also other characters and social practices of the Petersburg society. The internal monologues and the free indirect speech of Goliadkin, however, show signs of a negative, even misogynistic attitude towards the character of Karolina Ivanovna and partially also to Klara Olsuf’evna. Lastly, Poor Folk introduces themes to Dostoevsky’s work, which occupy him until the end of his life and manifest themselves in their more recognizable form in his later works.

Supplemental Material: Stratigraphy of the Eocene–Oligocene Titus Canyon Formation, Death Valley, California, and Eocene extensional tectonism in the Basin and Range

<div>Text: Additional explanation of the methods used to recalculate the Ar/Ar ages of Gutenkunst (2006), Saylor and Hodges (1994), and Saylor (1991). Figure S1: Analytical plots recalculated from ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data originally produced by Gutenkunst (2006). Figure S2: Scans of a large scale map and seven isochron plots for five samples provided by B. Saylor (personal commun., 2015). Table S1: Detrital zircon U-Pb analytical data. Table S2: Zircon (U‐Th)/He analytical data. Table S3: Analytical data for ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of Gutenkunst (2006).<br></div>

Supplemental Material: Stratigraphy of the Eocene–Oligocene Titus Canyon Formation, Death Valley, California, and Eocene extensional tectonism in the Basin and Range

<div>Text: Additional explanation of the methods used to recalculate the Ar/Ar ages of Gutenkunst (2006), Saylor and Hodges (1994), and Saylor (1991). Figure S1: Analytical plots recalculated from ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data originally produced by Gutenkunst (2006). Figure S2: Scans of a large scale map and seven isochron plots for five samples provided by B. Saylor (personal commun., 2015). Table S1: Detrital zircon U-Pb analytical data. Table S2: Zircon (U‐Th)/He analytical data. Table S3: Analytical data for ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of Gutenkunst (2006).<br></div>

Intrinsic negative feedback as a limiting factor for the evolution of higher forms of intelligence

Longstanding scientific efforts have been dedicated to answer why and how our particular intelligence is generated by our brain but not by the brain of other species. However, surprisingly little effort has been made to ask why no other species ever developed an intelligence similar to ours. Here, I explore this question based on genetic and paleontologic evidence. Contrary to the established view, this review suggests that the developmental hurdles alone are not high enough to explain the uniqueness of human intelligence (HI). As an additional explanation I propose that HI is normally not retained by natural selection, because it is, under most conditions, an intrinsically unfavourable trait. This unfavourableness, however, cannot be explained by physical constraints alone; rather, it may also be rooted in the same emotional and social complexity that is necessary for the development of HI. Thus, a major obstacle towards HI may not be solely the development of the required physical assets, but also to cope with harmful individual, social and environmental feedback intrinsically associated with this trait.

Speaker, tell me a joke: The feasibility of using smart speaker technology for health and well-being in an older adult population (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Although smart speaker technology is poised to help improve the health and well-being of older adults through offering services such as music, medication reminders, and connection to others, more research is needed to determine how older adults from lower socioeconomic position (SEP) accept and use this technology. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to serve as a feasibility study for using smart speakers for improving the health and well-being of older low SEP adults. METHODS Forty nine adults between the age of 65 to 85 who lived in a subsidized housing community were recruited to take part in a three-month study. Participants had a smart speaker into their home and were given a brief orientation to its use. Over the course of the study, participants were given weekly check-in calls to help assist with any problems and newsletters with tips on how to use the speaker. Participants received a pretest and posttest to gauge comfort with technology, well-being, and perceptions of and use of the speaker. Study staff also maintained detailed process notes of interactions with participants over the course of the study, including a log of all issues reported. RESULTS At the end of the study period, 38% of the participants indicated using the speaker daily, and 38% reported using it several times per week. Seventy-two percent of the participants indicated that they wanted to continue using the speaker after the end of the study. The majority (63%) indicated that the speaker was useful, and approximately half of participants felt that the speaker gave them another voice to talk to (51%) and connected them with the outside world (47%). Although common uses were using the speaker for weather, music, and news, fewer reported using it for health-related questions. Despite initial challenges participants experienced with framing questions to the speaker, additional explanation by study staff addressed these issues in the first weeks of the study. CONCLUSIONS Results from this study indicate that there is promise for smart speaker technology with older low SEP adults, particularly to connect them to music, news, and reminders. Future studies will need to provide more up-front training on query formation, as well as develop and promote more specific options for older adults, particularly in the area of health and well-being. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-10.2196/jmir.4375

Genotype–Phenotype Relationships in the Context of Transcriptional Adaptation and Genetic Robustness

Genetic manipulations with a robust and predictable outcome are critical to investigate gene function, as well as for therapeutic genome engineering. For many years, knockdown approaches and reagents including RNA interference and antisense oligonucleotides dominated functional studies; however, with the advent of precise genome editing technologies, CRISPR-based knockout systems have become the state-of-the-art tools for such studies. These technologies have helped decipher the role of thousands of genes in development and disease. Their use has also revealed how limited our understanding of genotype–phenotype relationships is. The recent discovery that certain mutations can trigger the transcriptional modulation of other genes, a phenomenon called transcriptional adaptation, has provided an additional explanation for the contradicting phenotypes observed in knockdown versus knockout models and increased awareness about the use of each of these approaches. In this review, we first cover the strengths and limitations of different gene perturbation strategies. Then we highlight the diverse ways in which the genotype–phenotype relationship can be discordant between these different strategies. Finally, we review the genetic robustness mechanisms that can lead to such discrepancies, paying special attention to the recently discovered phenomenon of transcriptional adaptation. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Genetics, Volume 55 is November 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Laughter, carnival and religion in ancient Egypt

The article highlights the problem of interaction of the ancient Egypt laughter culture with the category of sacred. A person is confronted with the fact that the examples in question can often be phenomena of a different order, and the use of terms such as “carnival” or even “religion”, “temple” or “priest” in relation to ancient Egypt requires an additional explanation. We find “funny” images on the walls of tombs and in the temples, where the Egyptians practiced their cult. In the Ramesside period (1292-1069 BC) a huge layer of the culture of laughter penetrated a written tradition in a way that Mikhail Bakhtin called the carnivalization of literature. Incredible events are described in stories and fairy tales in a burlesque, grotesque form, and great gods are exposed as fools. Applying of the Bakhtinian paradigm to the material of the Middle and New Kingdom allows to reveal the ambivalent character of the Ancient Egyptian laughter: the Egyptians could joke on the divine and remain deeply religious.