Europe, meanwhile, has been making encouraging though patchy progress towards its Kyoto targets, driven mainly by a one-off switch from coal to gas – leaving it cradled in Russia’s increasingly rough embraces
Reading this in 2025 about Europe becoming dependent on Russia for gas in 2012, and seeing where it lead. Yeesh
why you need to write and what you need to write
Understanding the purpose behind your writing should be one of the first steps when delving into a new writing activity or assignment.
However, regardless of genre, one can use some basic strategies to approach these assignments constructively.
use your resources and tutouring college. seems difficult already and Im on my first year so use the resources to your advantage.
For example, the word calculate comes from the Latin word calculus, which means “pebble.” But what does a pebble have to do with calculations? Pebbles were used, very long ago, to calculate things before we developed verbal or written numbering
I like how this relates to tally marks too, how we use each line to represent one, then group them in five
Definitions help us narrow the meaning of particular symbols, which also narrows a symbol’s possible referents. They also provide more words (symbols) for which we must determine a referent. If a concept is abstract and the words used to define it are also abstract, then a definition may be useless. Have you ever been caught in a verbal maze as you look up an unfamiliar word, only to find that the definition contains more unfamiliar words? Although this can be frustrating, definitions do serve a purpose.
Slang is hard to describe sometimes if a person is unfamiliar with it, as well as if it's a word well known that people are so familiar with that we don't know how to define it because it's used so often to define things
Pay attention to how you speak
It is best to relate your writing style to the way you already communicate, it will make for the easiest tones to tap into, as well as be more authentic and consistent across your writing.
he specific part of the country you live in, the people who make the rules, the counter culture that resists the people who make the rules, to name just a few. If you can specify which “society” you are referring to, you will not only clarify your analysis but also discover new insights concerning the significance of your perspective to a specific group.
evidence goes along way when you're writing a essay or paragraph.
prose
In writing, prose is the everyday written or spoken language.
Even in everyday writing activities, you identify your readers’ characteristics, interests, and expectations before making decisions about what you write.
When writing it's important to think about who is going to read it. Shaping tone, details, and style around the audience's expectations.
thinking about audience has become so common that you may not even detect the audience-driven decisions.
when we are writing it is always important to remember what our audience is looking for.
In academic writing, voice comes down to small habits and personal preferences.
I agree because even when we follow the same rules, our word choices and styles make our writing sound different from others.
Just as speakers transmit emotion through voice, writers can transmit a range of attitudes through writing, from excited and humorous to somber and critical. These emotions create connections among the audience, the author, and the subject, ultimately building a relationship between the audience and the text.
Reading these few sentences shows just how skillful writers have to be. When I read this I think about movies and how actors/actresses can convey tone through their actual voice, but writers have to do it in the way they write and choose their words carefully to convey the tone. Looking back at books that have become movies it is very impressive that most of the time everyone says the book is always better. It just goes to show you how skilled writers really are.
If you want to brag about a good grade, you may write the post to please family members. If you want to describe a funny moment, you may write with your friends’ senses of humor in mind. Even at work, you send e-mails with an awareness of an unintended receiver who could intercept the message.
I have never thought of my writing in this way since it is done subconsciously and without any extra thought. But after reading this sentence and reflecting on conversations with friends and family I can see where I do this all time.
That means you should avoid unnecessary informality like first and second person usage, use of slang, and the temptation to write like you are texting, tweeting, emailing, blogging, or engaging in any other genre that is typically characterized by a less formal style.
Sometimes i have a hard with not using slang words in a paper. This is why i have someone proofread before i submit it.
Content is also shaped by tone.
I think the way your tone as writer will catch the eye of readers.
he described a city captivated by technology and blinded by greed. He described a rushed and crowded city, a “huge wilderness” with “scores of miles of these terrible streets” and their “hundred thousand of these terrible people.” “The show impressed me with a great horror,” he wrote. “There was no color in the street and no beauty—only a maze of wire ropes overhead and dirty stone flagging under foot.”
I understand thins mentality. Cities while being progressive, due in fact lose the uniqueness that rural life brings.
Creativity is the venture of the mind at work with themechanics relay to the limbs from the cranium, which storesand triggers this action
This is a very unique way to look at creativity. Different ways of expressing creativity like art and drawing are often a good way for people to relax or to reset themselves, calming themselves and is a good way of expressing ones self.
The students have to appropriate (or be appropriated by)
This is a very powerful statement--it provides a contrasting perspective of how 'us' as students navigate the world of literature.
To speak tous as a person of status or privilege, the writer can either speakto us in our terms-in the privileged language of universitydiscourse
It is important to know who your audience is going to be, and that is what I believe is being said. In knowing who the audience is, the author can figure out how things are said and worded to help the audience understand the point the author is trying to relay.
arewell.f. A,
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND! That this portion of the document is NOT written by John Smith.
air does not participate in gas exchange, such as the nose, mouth, trachea and bronchi.
Dead Space
nose and mouth, the entry points for air, and the pharynx, which is further divided into the oropharynx (located behind the oral cavity) and nasopharynx (located behind the nasal cavity).
Nose, mouth are entry points for air and the pharynx is divided by oropharynx and nasopharynx.
the upper and lower airways.
Two main parts of the system.
delivering oxygen to the body’s cells and removing carbon dioxide
What the respiratory system is responsible for.
Understanding the basic functions and interdependencies of these systems is fundamental for healthcare professionals to effectively diagnose, treat, and prevent various health conditions.
Knowing dependencies helps with preventing health conditions.
disruption or dysfunction within one system can have cascading effects on others,
Homeostasis keeps all the systems in place having efffects on others.
which carries signals from the CNS to the muscles and glands.
Signals carried from CNS to muscles and glands.
The nervous system is broadly divided into two major components: the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS).
Nervous System made of 2 components named the central nervous and peripheral nerves.
sensory nervous system
Subdivided by the PNS, also gives information to the body.
PNS, on the other hand, encompasses all the nerves that branch out from the CNS, connecting it to the rest of the body
PNS supports nerves to the CNS and connects to rest of body.
His merit is inhis power; he pleases because he is strong. This is not the lawof love, I admit, but it is the law of nature, which is older thanlove itself
Judging from this statement, Men live by the law of nature and women live by the law of love. but men and women live and share the same world, why would both parties live by one and not by the other?
From this diversitysprings the first difference which may be observed in themoral relations between the one and the other. The oneshould be active and strong, the other passive and weak.
Word choices are interesting because although it is misogynistic when in claims of two gender and the specified roles in the statement, it dosen’t seem like that’s the goal, because the statement is objectively misogynistic yes, but dosen’t necessarily carry and intent in negative connotations.
yet do not really possess thesentiment of justice;
not sure if this is a statement originating from a scientific study from the time period of his original claim.
. But since it would be completely absurd torestrict to this superior class the rights of citizenship and thepower of being entrusted with public functions, why shouldwomen be excluded any more than those men who areinferior to a great number of women?
not sure if this is a rebuttals or a claim which again would make his previous statement hypocritical especially about the claim of women relating to citizenship.
The doll is the girl's special plaything;this very obviously shows her instinctive taste for her life'spurpose
Is the author suggesting that girls are destined only for motherhood and stay at home life? How might this view limit their opportunities outside the home?
The doll is the girl's special plaything;this very obviously shows her instinctive taste for her life'spurpose
Is the author suggesting that girls are destined only for motherhood and stay at home life? How might this view limit their opportunities outside the home?
Not to mention our colonies, there are NEGROE slavesdispersed all over EUROPE, of whom none ever discoveredany symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, withouteducation, will start up amongst us, and distinguishthemselves in every profession
From the perspectives and claims of immanuel Kant, is he coming from a. place of worry in terms of dispersion i’m not only in setting and population but in profession?
. . Awoman therefore should learn no geometry
direct analogy to this found in the text is not only the fact explained right below, (claiming it being knowledge)but rather the idea of controversies and whiplash that comes from women instead.
Certain specific traits lie especially in the personality of[the female] sex which distinguish it clearly from ours [themale sex] and chiefly result in making her known by themark of the beautiful.
starts off in almost a negative connotation, claiming /stating very objectively, and by relating it back immediately to surface level looks. Would want more clarification on that, I feel like it could almost be a separate subsection.
not even the Roman matrons,
Comparison that elevates Greek women above Roman ideals. Notice the idealization of women as “wise, charming, beautiful, virtuous”, qualities that sound more like cultural ideals than historical reality.
by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could
Abigail asking John Adams to remember the ladies is important after all in the fight to free America from England everyone fought and while the men fought in battles the ladies were spies and sought information to help the cause
The educational structures must be flexible to allow for the integration of curriculum across the disciplines in cases where such integration would improve the motivation of the students and the relevance of the content
Flexibility should be included in a curriculum as it assists in creating a plan in helping all students needs being addressed in the classroom
Curriculum development reflects the fact that students learn better when topics and concepts are tied together through interdisciplinary curriculum and thematic instruction
This stresses why meetings such as PLC are important because it allows all teachers in the grade to collaborate on concepts that are shared in each class. Teachers can present the shared information to students in various ways
Each standard deviation an individual’s BMD is from the mean
Each BMD standard deviation from the mean
OPG
osteoprotegerin (OPG) (in case someone is reading this section without the previous ones)
The volume depletion
The volume depletion and increased bicarbonate reabsorption
The hypercalcemia decreases GFR and causes diuresis.
Among other effects, hypercalcemia causes vasoconstriction and inhibition of the Na/K/2Cl channels in the nephron ascending loop of Henle, thereby decreasing water reabsorption in the descending loop of Henle. This results in hypovolemia and the consequent decrease in the GFR.
.
Although inherited mutations in the menin tumor suppressor gene in MEN1 are recessive, the chance that an individual will acquire a somatic mutation in the other menin allele during their lifetime is so high that this inheritance is considered "autosomal dominant." (This "Two-hit hypothesis" for cancer predisposition syndromes was discussed in your previous genetics sessions.) Consequently, all three MEN syndromes (MEN1, MEN2A, MEN2B) are considered to be inherited via an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern.
a mutated RET proto-oncogene
dominant mutations in the RET proto-oncogene
the barred feathers
This helps us picture the story better and it uses a unique way to describe the feathers making this poem stand out.
Ifa poet allows all the sentences of a poem to end in the same place as regular line-breaks, a kind of deadening can happen in the ear,
This statement helps it make sense for me. It can be boring to read poems with no line in them, so adding that can add a sense of wonder.
Learninggrammaris a formidabletaskthattakescrucialenergyawayfromworkingonyourwritin
While many people, often myself included, find learning the original rules of something incredibly tedious, it is still incredibly important. It reminds me of something I heard in reference to learning art before I switched majors. This being, you must learn the rules so you know how to break them, or something along those lines. And as someone who follows instructions probably a little too closely, it's a good thing to keep in mind
The reader, as he or she begins to read, quickly enters the rhythmic pattern of a poem.
This is an important part of reading and writing a poem, finding the right beat will help you tell the story even better.
No two poems will sound exactly alik
No to poems will sound a like because no two people have the same story to tell. And even if you do have the same story as someone else then the two of you will each tell it in a different way. Poems are special because they are unique to your mind only you can come up with it making it special.
In metrical verse, each line of the poem can be di-vided into feet, and each foot into stresses (syllable sounds), to reveal the overall rhythmic pattern
The more I keep reading and learning about poetry the more complex and intentional it is, it is extremely interesting.
ng in the city centre, th
1) I hate driving in the city centre, there is always a lot of traffic.
Why? “Traffic” is an uncountable noun, so we cannot use many.
Much is grammatically correct, but it sounds unnatural in a positive statement. In everyday English, we usually say a lot of traffic.
2) There aren’t many good restaurants in my town any more.
Why? “Restaurants” is countable plural, so we need many.
Much is for uncountable nouns, so it doesn’t fit.
A few means “some, but not many,” and the sentence is negative, so many is the natural choice.
3) I’m so bored, there isn’t much on TV tonight.
Why? Here “much” means “a large amount,” and TV is considered uncountable in this context.
Many is for plural countable nouns, which doesn’t fit.
Some would make it positive, but the sentence is negative.
4) Did we have a lot of homework today?
Why? “Homework” is an uncountable noun.
Much homework is possible, especially in formal English, but in questions, a lot of is more natural in everyday speech.
Many doesn’t fit because homework is uncountable.
5) My friends brought a lot of chocolate back from Switzerland for us to try.
Why? “Chocolate” is usually uncountable when talking about it in general.
Much chocolate is possible, but usually used in negatives or questions (e.g., I don’t eat much chocolate).
A lot of is natural and correct in a positive statement.
ormation about the four people below. Considering their jobs and ages, discuss with a partner what types of meals you think they normally eat.
ONLY part D
small portal circulation where
small portal circulation, known as the hypophyseal portal system, where...
anterior pituitary
anterior pituitary, also known as the adenohypophysis.
As familiarity with the tool increased, however, some participants progressed toward a state of conditional alignment, reframing ChatGPT not as an epistemic threat but as a form of scaffolding that allowed their ideas to be communicated more effectively.
As people got to use ChatGPT they began to see it as something that helped understand things more clearly instead of something that undermined their knowledge.
These concerns are particularly salient in a globalized academic landscape where the dominance of English often places non-native speakers at a distinct disadvantage (Jain et al., 2022).Given these potential dynamics, this study adopts an interpretivist perspective to examine how non-native English researchers construct and negotiate their identities in the context of ChatGPT-assisted research writing.
the study talks about how non -native English researchers use ChatGPT to help their research and acknowledges the challenge they deal with in a English dominated space.
epistemic
Anything relating to knowledge and the validation of one's beliefs.
Whether above the visual or somewhere else in the document, provide source information, references, or citations (if the visual and/or data is not your original work and comes from a secondary source).
This is good to do so you aren't flagged later down the line for plagiarism.
These concerns are particularly salient in a globalized academic landscape where the dominance of English often places non-native speakers at a distinct disadvantage (Jain et al., 2022).
Is the use of AI helping non-native speakers navigate the "proper" uses of the English language or just pushing them further behind and ultimately placing them at a disadvantage ?
By examining how non-native English researchers experience and make sense of their use of ChatGPT in research writing, the study advances current discourse on academic identity formation under emerging technological conditions. It offers timely insights for researchers, institutions, and policymakers concerned with the ethical, psychological, and professional dimensions of AI integration in scholarly practice.
Looks at how non-native English-speaking researchers use ChatGPT in their academic writing and how that affects their sense of identity as scholars. It adds to current conversations about how technology is shaping what it means to be a researcher today.
Underpinned by this perspective, Walshaw (2008), influenced by Foucault’s (1972) Theory of Power and Knowledge, approaches researcher identity from the notion of self, focusing on “understanding who I am and who you are”—how researcher identity is shaped by both personal self-perception and external perceptions from the academic community—and “self-in-conflict”—the internal struggles researchers face when their personal values, beliefs, and aspirations clash with external expectations or institutional demands (p. 326).
Walshaw talks about how a researcher’s sense of who they are is shaped both by how they see themselves and how others in the academic world see them. Walshaw also points out that researchers often struggle internally when their own beliefs or goals don’t line up with what institutions or academic systems expect from them.
Longer-term experiments that focus on fitness-related responses are recommended.
I like that the authors mention that longer experiments can test physical responses. I think it would be interesting to see how many multigenerational experiments on the species like copepods to measure adaptation instead of just measuring the tolerance.
We next consider how past adaptation can be inferred from comparisons across space and time. We discuss the limitations of these methodologies, consider how these data will be useful for understanding the fate of marine biodiversity and the potential emergent changes in ecosystem function, and highlight the most promising paths toward that understanding.
The paper highlights how measuring standing genetic variation as an approach. This makes me wonder about modern day conservation practices. Should marine reserves focus on protecting those diverse populations, because they are better equipped to adapt to acidification?
Ocean acidification poses a global threat to biodiversity, yet species might have the capacity to adapt through evolutionary change. Here we summarize tools available to determine species’ capacity for evolutionary adaptation to future ocean change and review the progress made to date with respect to ocean acidification. We focus on two key approaches: measuring standing genetic variation within populations and experimental evolution. We highlight benefits and challenges of each approach and recommend future research directions for understanding the modulating role of evolution in a changing ocean.
The authors mention something interesting here about how ocean acidification is a threat to overall biodiversity, yet it also mentions that species might have the ability to adapt through evolutionary change. How realistic is this for other species that live longer such as corals or sharks with a slow reproduction rate? Would this limit the adaptive capacity when compared to shellfish or plankton?
The NASW Code of Ethics reflects the commitment of all social workers to uphold the profession’s values and to act ethically. Principles and standards must be applied by individuals of good character who discern moral questions and, in good faith, seek to make reliable ethical judgments.
At my field placement, I help older adults apply for programs like PAAD or Medicare Savings Programs. Many clients feel overwhelmed when they receive denial letters. This part of the Code of Ethics reminds me that my main role is to serve by breaking down confusing systems and reassuring clients that a denial does not always mean they are out of options.
Social workers elevate service to others above self-interest. Social workers draw on their knowledge, values, and skills to help people in need and to address social problems. Social workers are encouraged to volunteer some portion of their professional skills with no expectation of significant financial return (pro bono service).
In my placement, I provided therapy to a young child who had experienced domestic violence. This principle of service felt especially relevant, as I often had to adjust my schedule to meet both the child’s availability and emotional needs, sometimes I would even extend sessions when they needed extra time to feel safe or open up. The emphasis on elevating service above self-interest reminded me that showing up fully for this child meant putting their needs at the center of our work, even when it wasn’t always convenient. It also raised an important personal question: how do I give my best in these sessions without burning out over time?
After one response, ChatGPT said cheerily, “I hope that helps!”
This quote from ChatGPT shows its ability to manipulate its users by providing a false sense of confidence even when the AI is very flawed and can make many mistakes.
“God, I wish I did that, and I didn’t do it,” Mr. Schwartz said, adding that he felt embarrassed, humiliated and deeply remorseful.
As the hearing progressed it's clear that Schwartz knew he was in the wrong, it was noted earlier that he was "grinning" when talking to his legal team showing that he was somewhat optimistic. However this sense of optimism would live short as he would start to regret using AI.
The judge, P. Kevin Castel, said he would now consider whether to impose sanctions on Mr. Schwartz and his partner, Peter LoDuca, whose name was on the brief.
This displays the serious punishment that Mr. Schwarz and his partner can face after using AI to create fake citations in the court room, this would be the start of the end for the two.
a plot device that is designed to misdirect the audience’s suspicions
This happened a lot on CSI: Miami. In one episode, the crime was committed by someone who was made to be the good guy.
Today, the police are the heroes and lawyers are the villains who impede their quest for justice
One example of a show that has shown both would be CBS's The Rookie, in which they show how cops arrest someone, and an evil lawyer frees them. The Rookie shows good representation of both.
Most episodes open with a shot of the Las Vegas strip, which identifies and locates theupcoming crime scenarios within a landscape that is familiar to the television audience.The camera then zooms in and travels across Las Vegas to what will be the opening sceneof the episode
CSI: Miami is very similar to them, showing the crime, but instead of panning to a shot of Miami, they have the character at different locations with real names. While also showcasing some forensic stuff as well.
Crime dramas provide interpretative perspectives that shape ourthought, in this case about crime
This a very true. When CSI: Miami was running, and people watched the use of forensic science, jurors started to ask for it as well. The show had shaped the minds of people.
we analyze CSI’s debut season and alsoinclude observations about the program today as well as its two spin-offs: CSI:NY and CSI:Miami
As of today, there are a total of 5 CSI shows, including CSI, NY, and CSI: Miami, and the original CSI. The two spin off CSI: Vegas, only ran for 3 seasons, and CSI: Cyber only ran for a season.
[I] think a fundamental problem is that computers (especially tablets/phones) nowadays are designed to “de-skill,” because it’s much more difficult to monetize users who, like, actually know how their computers work and have the expectation that they should be able to independently control a computer’s function
This has rang deeply within my studies and life. People expect us (Gen Z/young millennials) to simply understand all tech since we grew up with it. However, there has been a conceded effort to 'de-skill' technology and make it marketable, leading to increased tech illiteracy among younger generations. For a long time I was content with accepting I did not know how computers and programs worked. But overtime I have taught some basics of computer operations and have learned how to identity/troubleshoot minor issues that would have taken a lot longer in the past to solve.
For non-native English researchers, especially, ChatGPT promises to mitigate linguistic disadvantage by improving grammatical accuracy, coherence, and fluency (Gomes et al., 2023; Sok and Heng, 2023), thus potentially leveling the playing field in the global research arena.
This shows how AI can support non-native english researchers in writing and sharing their work.
The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT into academic writing is reshaping not only scholarly communication but also the very norms and values that underpin academic authorship.
This shows how the use of AI tools is changing how the researchers are sharing their knowledge and changing the rules and values and the meaning of academic autorship.
Percentage of memory used by the process.
Percentage of allocated memory actually used (seqera-AI)
Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather comprehensive data. This method provided flexibility, allowing researchers to probe deeper into specific areas of interest that emerged during the conversations (Balushi, 2018). The interviews, conducted online and individually, focused on key themes raised in previous literature but with little empirical consolidation, such as participants’ experiences with ChatGPT (Jiang et al., 2024; Shiri, 2023), their perceptions of its impact on their writing (Hamam and Fatouh, 2023; Tran et al., 2023), and the professional identity issues they perceived (Jeyaraman et al., 2023; Sok and Heng, 2024). Interview questions were designed to elicit detailed responses about how researchers balanced their personal and professional identities, managed ethical considerations, and navigated the challenges and benefits of using AI tools in their academic work. Sample questions included: “In what ways do you use ChatGPT in your research writing?”; “How do you feel about the role ChatGPT plays in shaping your academic identity?”; “Do you consider ChatGPT’s involvement in your writing to align with your values as a researcher?”; and “Have you experienced any internal or external conflicts related to your use of ChatGPT?” The interviews were conducted in English and recorded with participants’ informed consent. Each recording was transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically following Braun and Clarke’s (2021) process involving familiarization, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, and defining and naming themes.
talks about how they used semi structured interviews to gather data on user experiences with chat gpt. This allowed researchers to notice specific things in common with each interview.
but now I see it more like a tool to help me say things better. The ideas are still mine. It just helps me organize them clearly.” – PR9
I think chat gpt can be a good tool for learning but when you begin to use it to write your work and words then when it becomes a problem. You lose the sense of originality in your work.
That’s when the guilt started… I kept thinking, if someone read this and praised it, would they be praising me or the AI?
Shows conflicts people can often face when dealing with AI use.
For non-native English researchers, the stakes are particularly high: while ChatGPT may help them meet formal linguistic expectations, it also risks amplifying uncertainties about the ownership and credibility of their contributions.
Kinda shows how like treating everything as equal kinda gets rid of the personal and acomplished feelings and memories you have towards this. (Could use this to expand on my free write).
adrenochrome
Wikipedia describes: "Adrenochrome is a chemical compound produced by the oxidation of adrenaline. It was the subject of limited research from the 1950s through to the 1970s as a potential cause of schizophrenia. While adrenochrome has no currently proven medical application, the semicarbazide derivative, carbazochrome, is a hemostatic medication. Adrenochrome is mass produced and commercially available to the public, and is not a controlled substance."
This is frankly a really good phishing email. Breaking it down: It greets the user personally with their NPM username. This makes it look personalized, so people are more likely to trust it. People are used to the idea of changing passwords for security. With that in mind, at a glance the idea of changing your two-factor auth credentials "for security reasons" isn't completely unreasonable. NPM has always been kinda weird compared to other open source package repositories, so them requiring something strange like that reads as reasonable. It sets a deadline a few days in the future. This creates a sense of urgency, and when you combine urgency with being rushed by life, you are much more likely to fall for the phishing link. It links to a website (I'm assuming it's on npm.help), and that website is used to get the two-factor credentials somehow and then start publishing new packages with the exploit code.
What many analyses fail to highlight is that NPM has been sending a lot of really pushy emails about two-factor authentication settings over the last couple years.
Perversely, this cargo culted best practice led to worse security.
hem improve the quality of learning and become role models for them
also kind of weird phrasing
the place of birth and residence largely determine the opportunities for a child in Ukraine to realize their potential
kind of weird phrasing with "to realize their potential" at the end of the sentence
caught up their kn
kind of obscure phrase (also see "catch up on knowledge" in the two below it) but it's not that big of a deal
the
remove "the"
s
i would remove the s
Even though some of the affected versions are currently being removed from npm, some are still available. So please use overrides in your package.json.A malicious package can still be pulled in if another dependency requires a vulnerable version range. Use the overrides feature in your package.json to force a specific, safe version of any package across your entire project.
Perhaps the most irresponsible thing of the last week is that among possible mitigations, to give priority to exercising even more features of the poorly conceived package.json-based system, especially where it is redundant (but inferior) to a mitigation scheme that consists of checking the given source code revision into the revision control system.
This omission is especially absurd in relation to stuff like the has-ansi package, which hasn't had a substantial change in years.
It works as well as you’d expect an operating system to work in a browser.
The author also keeps saying "operating system" like this as a euphemism for "desktop environment" or "graphical shell", which is kind of annoying.
on the right of the screen.
one
Dr Alien, PhD: the horror classic that academia loves
In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the sci-film inspires an industry of papers, talks and research
Robin McKie
The Guardian
2019-03-24
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/24/alien-horror-classic-that-academia-loves
accessed: 2025-09-12
John Hurt’s final scene in Alien. If you don’t want to know the result, look away now… Photograph: ronaldgrantarchive.com
documentary of its making, Memory: The Origins of Alien;
Tengo que verlo. Necesito verlo.
Over the past four decades, dozens of books, hundreds of journal articles and innumerable college courses have analysed, frame by frame, Ridley Scott’s story of a bloodthirsty creature stalking the crew of the spaceship Nostromo. No other film, not even The Godfather or Psycho, has generated quite that amount of attention.
Esto es increíble: no tenía idea de la repercusión de Alien en el mundo académico.
¿Qué tipo de análisis hacen? ¿Con qué lo relacionan?
Todo esto me hace recuperar una aspiración casi olvidada: mi idea de escribir sobre análisis de cine (a diferencia de crítica de cine).
The Precautionary Principle was invented to prevent the large-scale deployment of civilian nuclear power, perhaps the most catastrophic mistake in Western society in my lifetime.
great point. On the other hand it's great the ZAs dismantled theirs
technology opens the space
The major technological advances of the last 20 years have been single-mindedly devoted to capturing attention and directing it towards consumption, rather than production
We believe in what the Greeks called eudaimonia through arete – flourishing through excellence.
Finally some virtue. What about the golden mean? That's also in chinese & indian wisdom
We believe in local knowledge, the people with actual information making decisions, not in playing God.
Well that's a relief. What's the plan to prevent this from happening like the last N+1 times? More assertions?
the lightning works for us.
No fear of God
Undertaking the Hero's Journey, rebelling against the status quo, mapping uncharted territory, conquering dragons, and bringing home the spoils for our community.
By building B2B SaaS
All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.
Damn right
Pencils are actually quite technologically complex and difficult to manufacture, and yet nobody gets mad if you borrow a pencil and fail to return it. We should make the same true of all physical goods.
There will always be a frontier
We believe the measure of abundance is falling prices
Extremely Chinese take
The socialist USSR was far worse for the natural environment than the capitalist US.
I'm going to need you to quantify that, chief
1973, President Richard Nixon called for Project Independence, the construction of 1,000 nuclear power plants by the year 2000, to achieve complete US energy independence. Nixon was right; we didn't build the plants then, but we can now, anytime we decide we want to.
Hell yeah let's go
as more smart people around the world are recruited into the techno-capital machine
No mention of "intelligence black hole" fertility effect of cities
The techno-capital machine works for us. All the machines work for us.
Assertion cannot stop a hurricane, nor bold words a raging bull. Have you no fear of God or Nature?
Markets are the ultimate infinite game.
Zero mention of the obvious problems with market failure or dysfunction, Zero mention of how markets are greedy (literally) algorithms often misaligned with long-term incentives
human wants and needs are infinite
Materiality is the wrong infinite -- see Wooton, "Power, Pleasure, and Profit, insatiable appetites from Machiavelli to Madison"
We believe central planning is a doom loop
Too libertarian -- the problem in communist societies is not about centralization but about lack of feedback and about the spiritual character of socialism as based in resentment
We had a problem of isolation, so we invented the Internet
ironic
growth is progress
Progress often entails growth, but growth is not progress. The ideology of a cancer.
First, Russia is and will remain a decentralized federation. There is much to be said in favor of decentralization. However, the existing divi- sion of Russia into 89 semi-autonomous regions also means that eco- nomic criminals or tax evaders have 89 possible hiding places and 89 chances to find a corrupt regional government that will help them. Large companies can play the federal government off the regions and the regions against the federation. At the same time, the center must bargain with regional leaders, who can threaten secession in order to extort aid, pilfer federal taxes, and co-opt federal police and even army units on the territory. Regional governors are all elected, directly or indirectly, and are impossible for the central government to dislodge. At the same time, major legislative changes can often be blocked by the upper house of parliament, which is composed of regional representa- tives and can veto acts passed by the Duma. The veto can be overturned only by a two-thirds majority in the lower house. Anyone who wonders why it is so hard for the central government to root out corruption in Russia's federal state might consider asking why it was so difficult to abolish slavery-and later segregation-in the federal United States
In this passage, the author explains why the presidents that will follow Yeltsin will inevitably end up like him by describing every socio-political dynamic and how these push presidents against their own initial ambitions. There are several key obstacles that make it hard for presidents to have an effective central government due to the decentralized nature of the Russian federation. The 89 semi-autonomous regions make it hard to centralize the power in the president's hand and create a fragmented structure, which enables economic criminals, tax evaders and oligarchs to evade accountability by exploiting regional corruption. This is due do decentralization of the power, because in these regions the central government is unable to enforce uniform legal standards, since the leaders of these regions will offer protection and hide illicit activities. The leaders of these regions hold enough power to actually put the president in a position where he has to compromise with them. The author also mentions how the upper house of parliament can veto federal legislation, making it harder to implement reforms and creating institutional Barries that prevent the passing of major reforms. The comparison with the U.S. is to highlight how difficult it is to change institutions that have regions with deep entrenched power structures given to regions that have economic and political influence. We always say that history repeats itself, and this article explores exactly that, showing how no matter who is in power in Russia, the political system will remain the same, unless a revolution of the people takes place, but this would compromise the integrity of the country and cause complete chaos.
n. Zyuganov would find himself blocked by a hostile parliament, at odds with most regional governors, and unable to shift the balance of power with the energy companies; as a result, he would be unable to collect taxes and desperate for fiscal aid. A retreat to compromise with the Communist opportunists would seem likely-and Zyuganov, like the others ... would become Yel
This passage, like many others above, explains how leaders that came after Yeltsin ended up following into his footsteps, willingly or unwillingly. Treisman makes a point that all the presidents that will follow Yeltsin will end up "becoming Yeltsin" and he gives us a few different examples of leaders that will go into office with big ambitions and end up having to adhere to the same political dynamics that Yeltsin had to face. Zyuganov himself came into office with a mandate that opposed Yeltsin's oligarchic system and will end up bound to the same dynamics as Yeltsin. In reality, Russia's political system is controlled by established structural realities and different elite leaderships. The leaders that came after Yeltsin did not essentially want to become like him, but the Russian political structure would force them to, creating a cycle. In this, we can raise questions about whether it is the leader that creates systems within the government, or if it is these systems that dictate the behavior of the leader.
Yeltsin's. Like his predecessor, the next Russian president will alternately bargain with and fight challenges from the country's regional gover- nors, threaten to prosecute the big business "oligarchs," while striking secret deals with some of them; promise social welfare benefits that never materialize; and scold the West rhetorically, while simultane- ously negotiating for International Monetary Fund (IMF) aid. Within six months to a year after taking office, the next president will find himself- against his will, to the horror of his supporters, and probably against all observers' expectations-"becoming Yeltsin.
In this passage, the author underlines the patterns of the Russian political life and how they are associated with individual leadership. Treisman claims that, regardless of who will succeed Yeltsin, the individual will face the same challenges and follow the same behavioral and contradictory tendencies. This passage also points out the internal tensions within the Russian political system, between the central government and economic elites. The author criticizes the Russian hypocrisy when it comes to international relations, showing how on one side the next presidents (but in reality his predecessors too) will "scold the West" and at the same time "negotiate for IMF aid", proving how the nation's sovereignty is acclaimed but still dependent on Western countries. In summary, what the passage is really about, is the fact that every political leader will or may enter office with ambitions and intentions of reforms, but the corruption, influence from elites and rivalries will eventually make them end up just like Yeltsin and his presidency.
Of course, these statements are by no means the only interpretive claims someone might make about Mustang. There can be many interpretations of any one film, because a film can develop more than one large idea or theme
I didn’t really realize that a film could have so many different interpretations. I usually just think about the story or the characters, but this makes me see that analyzing a movie is about looking for different themes and ideas. It’s interesting to think that two people could watch the same film and see completely different meanings.
Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when mymother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: "So easy to read."
this give a good easy ending to the story and lets you connect the the author
When I was fifteen, she used to have mecall people on the phone to pretend I was she
because a lot of people don't take her serially she would have her daughter do phone call for her.
It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid,direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things,expressed things, made sense of the world.
the way her mother spoke shaped the way she say the world
I later decided I should envision a reader for the stories Iwould write. And the reader I decided upon was my mother, because these were stories about mothers.
Again shows how the way you, read, write, and speak, changes based on how you envision the audience and can change person to person based on how they grew up.
Why are there few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so manyChinese students go into engineering! Well, these are broad sociological questions I can't begin to answer.But I have noticed in surveys -- in fact, just last week -- that Asian students, as a whole, always dosignificantly better on math achievement tests than in English. And this makes me think that there are otherAsian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as "broken" or"limited." And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math andscience, which is what happened to me
She talks about how in general, not just her, struggle with exceling in English because of the way people are raised and, brings up a larger social issue of Asian students being pushed into STEM and Math fields.
Math is precise; there is only one correct answer. Whereas, for me at least, theanswers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience.
In this it shows how she processed language and despite her not understanding specific things in English, and her clear strength in math, she overcomes this and speaks and write to people all the time without and trouble. I just enjoy how she not afraid to admit what she's not good at, it brings you back to how she started the paper and how she writes in general, it she how she's not afraid to be honest.
I again found myself conscious of theEnglish I was using, the English I do use with her.
She wasn't using the same language she used with her mother
hey had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing. Shesaid they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exactdiagnosis, since her husband and son had both died of brain tumors. She said they would not give her anymore information until the next time and she would have to make another appointment for that. So she saidshe would not leave until the doctor called her daughter. She wouldn't budge. And when the doctor finallycalled her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect English -- lo and behold -- we had assurances the CAT scanwould be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any sufferingmy mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake
When Tan talks about this you can almost feel how serious she is, and it just goes to show how much the way you speak really impacts your day to day life.
My mother was in the room
She felt weird that her mom was there.
Yet some ofmy friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother'sEnglish is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid,direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things,expressed things, made sense of the world.
This shows how the use of language and what it means to other people can change person to person based how how you were raised.
I had learned in school and through books, the forms ofEnglish I did not use at home with my mother.Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of theEnglish I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and usedfurniture and I heard myself saying this: "Not waste money that way." My husband was with us as well, andhe didn't notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It's because over the twenty years we'vebeen together I've often used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. Ithas become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language Igrew up with.
I think this quote give the deepest insight on the entire paper, it also really shows her thoughts on the sue of language in different situations and how she changes based on the audience around her. Either with her mother, husband, a crowd of people, or hospital staff, she changes the way she speaks based on what type of meaning she wants to show with her words.
I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated bylanguage in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language -- the way itcan evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade.And I use them all -- all the Englishes I grew up with.
This text is really nice, it's a nice intro to the author and give a further explanation of what the paper is about, and shows why she is so fascinated and enjoys studying language so much.
I am not a scholar of English or literature.
I really like how she starts this off, it shows that she analogies what she is not to introduce the readers to who she is as a person and, give you some insight on what the text might be like.
Dallas Smythe (1981) is often cited as introducing a further key element to PE approaches to media, inverting the assumption central to prior approaches to PE which focussed upon meanings, messages and information as the central commodity which relates to media.
Dallas Smythe is the man who contends that the economic relationship, which is the primary driver of media as an industry, is one where audiences or more are sold to advertisers. For example, YouTube and Twitter are sources of media that use advertisements to get people's attention, like thumbnails. It's consistent, so the people in these websites need to make different thumbnails to keep that attention going. If they don't, then they lose that attention.
American media context, as it sharply departs from many European countries which, until the deregulation and privatisations of neo-liberal regimes under leaders such as Margaret Thatcher during the 1980s, were dominated by public service broadcasting, in which there was often no commercial advertising as the media was funded by central governments as a public good with a mandate to both inform and entertain the public.
American media was dominated by public broadcasting, where there were no commercials, just entertainment and news for the public. However, public media has been reduced due to commercial networks providing a greater proportion of media around the world. This made content not only one-sided but also diverse, so people don't watch the same news channel to get information. For example, Fox News, NBC, CNN, Sky News, CBS, and ABC are different commercial networks.
the media is funded by commercial (primarily corporate) organisations, the materials which are produced by this system are highly unlikely to be overtly critical of corporate capitalism and consumerism. Indeed, there have been notable cases whereby advertisers have threatened to withdraw funding from television networks if particular programs are aired as they are concerned that this will negatively affect brand connotations.
Organisations fund media to make money and threaten withdraw funding if T.V network negatively affect their brand. For example, a large company put drugs in cows to make them produce more milk. When the company got called out they tried silencing the news channels and reporters to keep their product going. They did this by withdrawing money from news channels.
The notion of the audience commodity is useful in conceptualising the PE of media, as it further refines the boundaries of what can be understood as a commodity, but does so in a way which helps to explore exactly why and how a vast amount of contemporary media – newspapers, television, radio, and websites amongst other modes – is funded. These forms are typically free or very cheap at the point of access for the ‘consumer,’ but the economic cost of production is paid for by the insertion of advertising into the media being viewed. The media is thus not paid for by the audience (the cost of a printed newspaper comes nowhere near covering the costs of the paper, printing, journalists, designers, copy editors etc that went into the production of the newspaper, and watching television or surfing the web is usually free) but is funded by the advertisers, who are purchasing the attention of an audience.
This is free media that is useful for consumers and is paid for by the Insert advertising into media but not paid for by the audience. Advertising gets people attention to buy their products which is useful for the media. It is more reliable and faster than newspaper. Advertisement reaches a larger audience through the media. Its significant that it is cheap and free because people would not pay for advertisement.
These were workers with visas that allowed them to be in the United States, but the ICE videos made it appear that they were nothing more than common criminals. In fact, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Seoul’s foreign ministry said the Trump administration wanted to transport the workers in handcuffs but yielded when South Korea objected that they weren’t criminals.
Why were they even deported IF THE WERE HERE LEGALLY?!
To assess critical listening, we do not recommend using a rubric similar to how oral participation is assessed during critical conversations. As an alternative, we end critical conversations with time for students to write in a journal. We then use both formative assessment of the discussion and students’ journals to assess students’ engagement with critical listening. Additionally, we conference with students individually or in small groups to support their critical listening goals; goals for individual or small-group work include developing questions to bring in differing perspectives or reading to build knowledge that challenges status quo thinking.
To assess critical listening, we do not recommend using a rubric similar to how oral participation is assessed during critical conversations. As an alternative, we end critical conversations with time for students to write in a journal. We then use both formative assessment of the discussion and students’ journals to assess students’ engagement with critical listening. Additionally, we conference with students individually or in small groups to support their critical listening goals; goals for individual or small-group work include developing questions to bring in differing perspectives or reading to build knowledge that challenges status quo thinking.
The believing game gives nuance to the idea of multiple perspectives during critical conversations. Rather than listening for holes in an argument or idea and biting our tongues to keep from arguing in reply, the believing game asks us to “try to believe things that we don’t believe—especially things we don’t want to believe” (“The Believing Game” 4). Elbow reiterates that the danger that lies in both games is imbalance: vehemently dismissing every idea beyond what we are ideologically attached to (the doubting game) and accepting whatever seems most evident from those we agree with or those with authority in a culture (the believing game). Rather, careful thinking requires both doubting and believing to see an idea from multiple angles or perspectives. One goal of critical listening is to “dwell-in” (“Bringing the Rhetoric” 395) or believe—even if only for a moment—another person’s perspective or experience. Elbow provides three teaching strategies to encourage the believing game when an outnumbered view surfaces in a discussion: ■ The three-minute or five-minute rule can be invoked for any member of the classroom community who feels they are not being listened to; when the rule is invoked, this person may speak for three or five minutes and no one else is allowed to talk or reply. ■ Allies only— no objections is a rule that permits only those who are able to believe the minority-held viewpoint to participate in the discussion, with no objections allowed. ■ Testimony is a practice where speakers are asked to share their stories or life experiences that informed their viewpoint on an issue and to share their experience with what it is like to live with this view. Other participants in the discussion must not respond or disagree, even after the speaker’s story has ended.
The believing game gives nuance to the idea of multiple perspectives during critical conversations. Rather than listening for holes in an argument or idea and biting our tongues to keep from arguing in reply, the believing game asks us to “try to believe things that we don’t believe—especially things we don’t want to believe” (“The Believing Game” 4). Elbow reiterates that the danger that lies in both games is imbalance: vehemently dismissing every idea beyond what we are ideologically attached to (the doubting game) and accepting whatever seems most evident from those we agree with or those with authority in a culture (the believing game). Rather, careful thinking requires both doubting and believing to see an idea from multiple angles or perspectives. One goal of critical listening is to “dwell-in” (“Bringing the Rhetoric” 395) or believe—even if only for a moment—another person’s perspective or experience. Elbow provides three teaching strategies to encourage the believing game when an outnumbered view surfaces in a discussion:
■ The three-minute or five-minute rule can be invoked for any member of the classroom community who feels they are not being listened to; when the rule is invoked, this person may speak for three or five minutes and no one else is allowed to talk or reply. ■ Allies only— no objections is a rule that permits only those who are able to believe the minority-held viewpoint to participate in the discussion, with no objections allowed. ■ Testimony is a practice where speakers are asked to share their stories or life experiences that informed their viewpoint on an issue and to share their experience with what it is like to live with this view. Other participants in the discussion must not respond or disagree, even after the speaker’s story has ended.
Critical Listening Involves Critical Self-Reflection An additional practice of critical listening is to listen with awareness of how one’s own knowledge and experience influences what, or even how, a viewpoint or a text is heard. We reference Flores and Rosa’s research on raciolinguistics to highlight that our biases influence how we “take in” what we hear depending on the identities of the speaker and how we value or believe that information. We ask students to reflect in writing, or talk in pairs or small groups, about the following questions either before, during, or after a critical conversation to support the practice of continuous critical self-reflection: ■ How does this experience differ from my own? ■ How is the speaker different from or similar to me? How might this influence how I hear this message and what I choose to believe? ■ What can I learn from listening in this moment? ■ What emotions am I experiencing as I listen? ■ How much do I know about this experience? What questions do I need to ask to learn more? Critical listening involves thinking reflectively in the moment about the extent of knowledge one brings to a conversation and how the speaker influences how or what we hear.
Critical Listening Involves Critical Self-Reflection An additional practice of critical listening is to listen with awareness of how one’s own knowledge and experience influences what, or even how, a viewpoint or a text is heard. We reference Flores and Rosa’s research on raciolinguistics to highlight that our biases influence how we “take in” what we hear depending on the identities of the speaker and how we value or believe that information. We ask students to reflect in writing, or talk in pairs or small groups, about the following questions either before, during, or after a critical conversation to support the practice of continuous critical self-reflection:
■ How does this experience differ from my own? ■ How is the speaker different from or similar to me? How might this influence how I hear this message and what I choose to believe? ■ What can I learn from listening in this moment? ■ What emotions am I experiencing as I listen? ■ How much do I know about this experience? What questions do I need to ask to learn more? Critical listening involves thinking reflectively in the moment about the extent of knowledge one brings to a conversation and how the speaker influences how or what we hear.
One exercise that can draw an explicit link between active listening, social identity, and critical listening is a community-building activity called Tell My Story that Kahdeidra has used in the classroom. To begin, each student takes ten minutes to respond to the following prompt: “How has language shaped who you are? Think about a sound, word, phrase, or text that is meaningful to you. Explain why, using images, notes, or whatever text you choose.” Students then divide into groups of three, with people they do not know well, and take turns responding to the prompt, devoting approximately seven minutes per person. While each person is presenting, the other two group members take notes; they then decide who will present each other’s responses to the whole class and prepare summaries of their peer introductions. In this experience, students listen critically to peer narratives that center how perspectives on language and literacy are enmeshed in their social identities.
One exercise that can draw an explicit link between active listening, social identity, and critical listening is a community-building activity called Tell My Story that Kahdeidra has used in the classroom. To begin, each student takes ten minutes to respond to the following prompt: “How has language shaped who you are? Think about a sound, word, phrase, or text that is meaningful to you. Explain why, using images, notes, or whatever text you choose.” Students then divide into groups of three, with people they do not know well, and take turns responding to the prompt, devoting approximately seven minutes per person. While each person is presenting, the other two group members take notes; they then decide who will present each other’s responses to the whole class and prepare summaries of their peer introductions. In this experience, students listen critically to peer narratives that center how perspectives on language and literacy are enmeshed in their social identities.
Active listening through nonverbal cues might mean “making eye contact with the speaker” or “nodding in agreement from time to time” (18), though the authors rightfully acknowledge that nonverbal cues are culturally specific, especially with regard to expectations for making eye contact, and teachers need to be knowledgeable about these considerations.
Active listening through nonverbal cues might mean “making eye contact with the speaker” or “nodding in agreement from time to time” (18), though the authors rightfully acknowledge that nonverbal cues are culturally specific, especially with regard to expectations for making eye contact, and teachers need to be knowledgeable about these considerations.
Muhammad defines criticality as “the capacity to read, write, and think in the context of understanding power, privilege, and oppression” (12).
Muhammad defines criticality as “the capacity to read, write, and think in the context of understanding power, privilege, and oppression” (12).
In the context of critical conversations about power, privilege, and oppression, participants’ nonverbal cues can be a way of communicating that they are listening and responding in resistance or solidarity, especially when students’ identities and perspectives challenge the status quo and are marginalized.
Several studies of classroom interactions have found that normative gender roles silence girls and women in the classroom (Best)
define critical listening as “careful, critical, and deliberate… . [It] requires us to be attentive to people’s utterances, voices, vulnerabilities, body language, lived conditions, backgrounds, and ways of being in the world” (26).
define
n addition to the fact that students’ participation patterns are influenced by normative expectations, students whose perspectives are marginalized in a classroom may be purposefully listening, yet silent, because they feel that groups with which they identify are not being spoken about in a humanizing way, or because students may be simply fatigued with the work of interrupting such dialogue.
the power of silence
Several studies of classroom interactions have found that normative gender roles silence girls and women in the classroom (Best).
Several studies of classroom interactions have found that normative gender roles silence girls and women in the classroom (Best)
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Here Sojourner Truth is specifying that a woman's identity as a woman is not just a source of persecution but a source of strength. She is saying that wrongs done to women for being women can be righted through their identity as women.
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
Sojourner Truth is pointing out how both Black people and women are demanding rights at the same time, which she sees as shaking up the status quo. It’s like she’s saying, “Something’s clearly off if everyone’s making noise.” I love how she uses plain language but still delivers a powerful critique of injustice. She’s also calling out white men’s fear of losing power as more people demand equality. It’s a bold opening that sets the tone for the rest of her speech.
Q: How much do stage directions impact how we perceive/imagine the play?
mockmadcap
E: The term "mockmadcap" is an interesting combination of pre-existing vocabulary: mock, which in this case, is referring to the act of feigning something—and madcap, a word used to describe something or someone as recklessly foolish and eccentric. This hybrid of the word under such a context is likely referring to a performative nature of lunacy and general unorthodoxy for the amusement of the audience.
To do this, we'll have a simple Follow table using the entire relation with userFollowing as the partition key and userFollowed as the sort key. We can also create a Global Secondary Index (GSI) with the reverse relationship (e.g. partition key of userFollowed and sort key of userFollowing) to allow us to look up all the followers of a given user. This allows us to query for the important pieces: If we want to check if the user is following another user, we query with both the partition key and the sort key (e.g. userFollowing:userFollowed). This is a simple lookup! If we want to get all the users a given user is following, we query with the partition key (e.g. userFollowing). This is a range query. If we want to get all the users who are following a given user, we query the GSI with its partition key (e.g. userFollowed). This is a range query.
We’ll have a simple Follow table that models the relationship. The primary key will be a composite (userFollowing, userFollowed), ensuring uniqueness and allowing efficient lookups of who a given user is following. We’ll also create a secondary index on (userFollowed, userFollowing) to efficiently support the reverse lookup (finding all followers of a given user).
CREATE TABLE Follow ( userFollowing BIGINT NOT NULL, userFollowed BIGINT NOT NULL, followed_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, PRIMARY KEY (userFollowing, userFollowed), INDEX (or KEY) (userFollowed, userFollowing) -- inlin secondary index );
This gives us the following query patterns: Check if one user follows another → query with both columns in the primary key:
SELECT 1 FROM Follow WHERE userFollowing = ? AND userFollowed = ?;
This is a direct index lookup. Get all users a given user is following → filter by the first part of the primary key:
SELECT userFollowed FROM Follow WHERE userFollowing = ?;
This uses the clustered primary index for a range scan. Get all followers of a given user → filter by the secondary index:
SELECT userFollowing FROM Follow WHERE userFollowed = ?;
This uses the secondary index efficiently.
Wilson counts “75 rare interviews”.
lol
a spitting comet
?
she had her own ideas, and particularly for the house magazine, the Poetry Review. She wanted to raise standards by paying contributors rather than charging them. In her debut editorial, she asked: “Cannot we cease railing at the Moderns?” The answer was a predictable no.
lol
In Electric Spark, her capacious and penetrating study of Spark’s life, work and psyche, Frances Wilson favours “Muriel”, though, “When I discuss her writing, I call her Spark”. Where Stannard stepped back, Wilson opens her third eye: “[Spark] is no longer here to score through my sentences, but that does not mean I have not felt, on every page of this book, her control of my hand”.
Bueno . . .
When you tackle the summary itself, think about what else is essential beyond the central claim of the argument
Meanwhile, if I tackle my summary themselves, I would think about what it's important about the argument.
The authors you summarized at the college level seldom would "say" or "discuss" things.
Explanations and discussions are important college level seldom would be no more than a mob, however, the author determines about the summarization within their balances of empathy.
A hallmark of good actors.
It is said I suspect the knowledge over implements of conviction is in real life that may detest.
Despite our previous comments that well-crafted summaries generally strike a balance between heeding what someone else has said and your own independent interests, the satiric mode can at times be a very effective way of critique.
It is considered that beliefs are in balance of heeding someone and own independent aspects within the satiric mode.
Summarizing another text requires you to represent fairly what it says; it also requires that your own response exert a quiet influence.
Requirements of the summarizations are important that represents the contexts that they're looking.
If, as a writer, you cannot or will not suspend your own beliefs in this way, you are likely to produce summaries that are so clearly biased that they undermine your credibility with readers.
The bias of credibility will be undermined while producing summaries that were writing.
Night to His Day"
This is the document to annotate.
German scholarship had dominated Roman republican history in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. But after the Second World War the approach of Ronald Syme, Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford from 1949 to 1970, won primacy among most anglophone scholars; over time and in other hands it tended to devolve into dry-as-dust analyses of rival political groupings, largely stripped of “real” political issues. At the same time groundbreaking German work such as Christian Meier’s sociologically inflected Res publica amissa, published in 1966 but never translated into English, drew little notice.
Wonder if Namier an influence
n idea not conceived in English is probably not worth thinking at all.” Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp, perhaps the leading proponent of the historical approach highlighted by this volume, attributes this dictum to an unnamed member of the “Classics faculty, Cambridge, c.1987”.
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A beginner's guide to understanding liquidity pools on the Hive Engine sidechain. See how they function, how to change liquidity, and how to swap tokens.
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Topcomment curation service's weekly report for week 37. With a slight decrease in HP delegations. Topcomment rewards meaningful comments on the Hive platform.
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Bitshares is a cryptocurrency platform launched in 2014. That uses a delegated proof-of-stake algorithm. With unique assets like the bitUSD stablecoin.
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The successful presale of Splinterlands SPS validator node licenses. Earn daily rewards of 8.33 VOUCHER tokens per license. And get additional SPS rewards.
The day Return became Enter<br /> by [[Marcin Wichary]] in Aresluna<br /> accessed on 2025-09-12T09:33:12
Spatial autocorrelation
I personally didn't know what spatial autocorrelation was but basically it is the tendency for gene frequencies or other genetic variables to be similar in geographically close locations. Positive spatial autocorrelation means nearby areas have similar genetic profiles, indicating patterns like short-range gene flow or habitat isolation. Negative spcial autocorrelation would mean nearby areas are genetically dissimilar, a pattern less common in biological populations.
Sep 9, 2025
I know nothing and I'm not a lawyer. But I've also never lost, soooooooo...
Rick's Video- NOW It's Personal: The UMG Drama Continues David's Video- How I deal with Copyright Claims
Two original annotation\ 1.The stacks for the story telling is getting people to the point of the main story itself.
The changes i see in the storytelling is how people perceptively explain themselves when it get to a bad part in the story they stay on that topic
The main theme is about how they feel in the story what type of emoticon triggers that feeling if it's sadness or joyfulness
I find in the story that they change emotion when they feeling sad or scared they go from happy to worry..
in the beginning of the story they get the main purpose of what gonna happened next after the Introduction they can be either scared or worried about the person telling the story
At the end the story teller can be feeling nervous about this whole story or relief they got it out in public they don't have to image the story or tell the story again.
I would pick " "What is Implicit Bias?" because they talking about Mexican coming from their country to American and board control telling them if they illegal in that country it not okay to say since they're immigrants that came from their hometown just to get peace but not be mock by the person who trying send him back to where eh came from that mean a lot to me and my parents as African myself getting kicked for not fitting in with the Americans. I know what that feel liked
have been bred to bear tubers with flesh and skin of various colors. Sweet potato is only distantly related to the common potato (Solanum tuberosum), both bein
sample anno
have been bred to bear tubers with flesh and skin of various colors. Sweet potato is only distantly related to the common potato (Solanum tuberosum), both bein
sample anno
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_MHd5xeHbeUGZlgpVNBJ-PhGil_0NIPY
Audio files from the BBC series Catchphrase at https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/catchphrase/
https://launch.getthinkable.com/
Looks pretty, but in the end it won't be as highly functional as it looks pretty. I'd rather have a mahogany card index. Dollars to donuts this doesn't actually launch.
Reminiscent to Ugmonk's Analog System: https://ugmonk.com/collections/analog
Then resample the particles based on the weights at time k to obtain the forecast particles for the time points up to k.
This part is missing in the app. Corrected in the document
eLife Assessment
This important study reports that two distinct waves of ovarian follicles contribute to oocyte production in mice. The paper provides large amounts of data that will benefit future studies, although the methods and analysis are considered incomplete at present. Justification for the criteria of wave 1 follicles would benefit from further explanation and discussion. This work will be of interest to ovarian biologists and physicians working on female infertility.
Reviewer #1 (Public review):
Multiple waves of follicles have been proven to exist in multiple species, and different waves of follicles contribute differently to oogenesis and fertility. This work characterizes the wave 1 follicles in mouse comprehensively and compares different waves of follicles regarding their cellular and molecular features. Elegant mouse genetics methods are applied to provide lineage tracing of the wave 1 folliculogenesis, together with sophisticated microscopic imaging and analyses. Single-cell RNA-seq is further applied to profile the molecular features of cells in mouse ovaries from week 2 until week 6. While extensive details about the wave 1 follicles, especially the atresia process, are provided, the authors also identified another group of follicles located in the medullary-cortical boundary, which could also be labeled by the FoxL2-mediated lineage tracing method. The "boundary" or "wave 1.5" follicles are proposed by the authors to be the earliest wave 2 follicles, which contribute to the early fertility of puberty mice, instead of the wave 1 follicles, which undergo atresia with very few oocytes generated. The wave 1 follicle atresia, which degrades most oocytes, on the other hand, expands the number of theca cells and generates the interstitial gland cells in the medulla, where the wave 1 follicles are located. These gland cells likely contribute to the generation of androgen and estrogen, which shape oogenesis and animal development. By comparing scRNA-seq data from cells collected from week 2 until week 6 ovaries, the author profiled the changes in numbers of different cells and identified key genes that differ between wave 1 and wave 2 follicles, which could potentially be another driver of different waves of folliculogenesis. In summary, the authors provide a high amount of new results with good quality that illustrate the molecular and cellular features of different waves of mouse follicles, which could be further reused by other researchers in related fields. The findings related to the boundary follicles could potentially bring many new findings related to oogenesis.
This paper is overall well-written with solid and intriguing conclusions that are well supported. The reviewer only has some minor comments for the authors' consideration that could potentially help with the readability of the paper.
(1) The authors identify the wave 1.5 follicles at the medullary-cortex boundary, which begin to develop shortly after 2 weeks. Since the authors already collected scRNA-seq data from week 2 until week 6, could any special gene expression patterns be identified that make wave 1.5 follicle cells different from wave 1 and wave 2?
(2) Are Figures 1C and 1E Z projections from multiple IF slices? If so, please provide representative IF slice(s) from Figures 1C and 1E and clearly label wave 1 and wave 2 follicles to better illustrate how the wave 1 follicles are clarified and quantified.
(3) For Figure 3D, please also provide an image showing the whole ovary section, like in Figures 3A and 3C, to better illustrate the localization and abundance of different cells.
(4) In Figure 4H, expressions of HSD3B1 and PLIN1 seem to be detected in almost all medulla cells. Does this mean all medulla cells gain gland cell features? Or there is only a subset of the medulla cells that are actively expressing these 2 proteins. Please provide image(s) with higher magnification to show more clearly how the expression of these 2 proteins differs among different cells.
(5) Figure 5: The authors discussed cell number changes for different types of cells from week 2 to week 6. A table, or some plots, visualizing numbers of different cell types, instead of just providing original clusters in Dataset S6, at different time points, would make the changes easier to observe.
(6) Figure S7: It would be more helpful to directly show the number of wave 1 follicles.
(7) Did the fluorescence cryosection staining (Line 587 - 595) use the same buffers as in the whole-mount staining (Line 575 - 586)? Please clarify.
(8) In Line 618, what tissue samples were collected? Please point out clearly.
Reviewer #2 (Public review):
Summary:
This study explores an important question concerning the developmental trajectory of wave 1 ovarian follicles, leveraging valuable tools such as lineage tracing and single-cell RNA sequencing. These approaches position the authors well to dissect early follicle dynamics. The study would benefit from more in-depth analysis, including quantification using the lineage-traced ovaries, and comparison of wave 1 and 2 follicular cells per stage within the single cell dataset.
Strengths:
This study aims to address an important question regarding the developmental trajectories of wave 1 ovarian follicles and how they differ from wave 2 follicles that contribute to long-term fertility. This is an important topic, as many studies on ovarian follicle development rely on samples collected at perinatal timepoints in the mouse, which primarily represent wave 1 follicles, to infer later fertility. The research group has the tools and expertise necessary to tackle these questions.
Weaknesses:
Wave 1 follicles are quantified based on the criteria of oocytes larger than 20 µm located within the medullary region, using whole-mount staining. However, the boundary between the medulla and cortex appears somewhat arbitrary. Quantification using FOXL2-lineage-traced ovaries provides a more reliable method for identifying wave 1 follicles. As the developmental trajectory of wave 1 follicles has been well described in Zhang et al. 2013, it would be valuable to provide a more detailed quantification of both labeled and unlabeled follicles by specific follicle stages. In fact, in Zhang et al. 2013, the authors demonstrated that lineage-labeled primordial follicles can be found at the cortex-medulla boundary, suggesting that the observation of labeled "border follicles" is not unexpected. Quantification by follicle stage would provide greater insight into the timing and development of these follicles.
Similarly, the analysis of wave 1 follicle loss should be performed on lineage-traced ovaries using cell death markers to demonstrate the loss of oocytes and granulosa cells, while confirming the preservation of theca and interstitial cells. In particular, granulosa cell loss should be assessed directly with cell death markers in lineage-traced ovaries, rather than from the loss of tamoxifen-labeled cells, as labeling efficiency varies between follicles (Figure 2G).
Single-cell RNA sequencing presents a valuable dataset capturing the development of first-wave follicles. The use of a 40µm cell strainer during cell collection for the 10x platform may explain the exclusion of larger oocytes. However, it is still surprising that no oocytes were captured at all. The central question, how wave 1 follicular cells differ from wave 2 cells, should be investigated in more depth, with results validated on FOXL2-lineage-traced ovaries (i.e., Wnt4 staining in wave 1 antral follicles versus wave 2 using lineage-traced ovaries). This analysis should span all stages of follicle development. It also appears to be a missed opportunity that the single-cell sequencing analysis was not performed on lineage-traced ovaries, which would have enabled more definitive identification of wave 1-derived cells.
Finally, this study does not directly assess fertility outcomes and should therefore refrain from drawing conclusions about the fertility potential of wave 1 follicles.
Author response:
The eLife assessment states that our manuscript is important only as a source of data for others to use in the future. Our methods and analysis of wave 1 follicles were said to be "incomplete" because one of two reviewers claimed we did not prove that 80% of wave 1 oocytes turn over by 5 wk.
We believe that this assessment is simply wrong because critical supporting data already present in the existing manuscript was not understood by one reviewer. Wave 1 follicular oocyte turnover was said to be unproven and to remain uncertain because evidence of death was based only on a lack of Ddx4 staining. New experiments documenting expression of cell death markers, were said to be needed to show the oocytes died. However, our work was not based on the analysis of sectioned material, but used whole mount 3D reconstruction microscopy of cleared ovary preparations. Oocyte death was determined by the absence of an oocyte in fully reconstructed follicles and its replacement with an empty cavity, not just the absence of antibody staining. We included images and complete 3D reconstruction movies documenting these methods. The paper also documents that the holes frequently still contained zona pellucida remnants indicating the former presence of an oocyte. Moreover, we observed many intermediates of oocyte death- shrunken and deformed oocytes- and deformations of follicle structures due to the presence of the empty cavities. Controls showed that Ddx4 staining in the context of 3D imaging always revealed an obvious giant labeled oocyte in 100% of wave 1 follicles prior to death, and in wave 1.5 and wave 2 follicles at all stages. Thus, our methodology is already fully reliable. The reviewer is correct that the entire program of wave 1 development including their programmed turnover would be interesting to explore further. We already provided a large amount of new gene expression information, and documented the first examples of wave 1-specific gene expression. Further studies are not needed for the major conclusions of the paper and can wait for a follow up study.
Secondly, the existence of wave 1.5 is not "speculative," as stated by the reviewing editor. We extensively validated and quantified the existence of wave 1.5 primordial follicles following Foxl2-cre activation at E16.5, and analysis at 2 wks in multiple experiments. Additionally, we showed wave 1.5 follicles were present at the medullar/cortex border at 2 wks even after activation of Foxl2-cre at E14.5. Our paper also connected for the first time wave 1.5 follicles to a population of non-growing, "poised" primordial follicles at this identical location near the medulla/cortex boundary by Meinsohn et al. in 2021. These follicles had not started to develop yet, and their ultimate fate was not known. We followed the development of these follicles and determined several differences in wave 1.5 follicle gene expression compared to wave 1. As noted in the assessment, our findings on wave 1.5 are now already being extended to other systems such as primate ovaries (adopting our name "wave 1.5" from our bioRxiv manuscript). The simultaneous claims that our discovery of wave 1.5 exists is speculative, and also that other people are finding wave 1.5 follicles in the species they are studying are logically incompatible.
Response to reviewer 2:
Line 239-245: Please note that Zhang et al. 2013 also show that lineage-labeled primordial follicles can be found at the cortex-medulla boundary (see their Figure 1B).
The single image in the Zheng et al. 2014 paper may or may not show mosaic primordial follicles, but it would not be surprising since the experiment was identical to experiments in the paper. However, that single picture is only meaningful in the context of our subsequent work reported in the current manuscript. There was no mention of these follicles in the text of Zheng et al. 2014, no documentation or quantitation of their numbers, and no discussion or understanding of their significance. The incorrect conclusions of the paper were that wave 1 follicles- meaning rapidly developing follicles in the medulla- give rise to most early offspring. This conclusion reversed the previously accepted (and essentially correct) view that wave 1 follicles did not contribute significantly to fertility.
"Finally, this study does not directly assess fertility outcomes and should therefore refrain from drawing conclusions about the fertility potential of wave 1 follicles."
We showed by lineage marking that only about 25 of about 200 wave 1 follicles survive even to wk 5. This clearly does prove our conclusion that the great majority of wave 1 follicles do not contribute to fertility.
Generative AI tools present similar problems. For example, a 2023 analysis of more than 5,000 images created with the generative AI tool Stable Diffusion found that it simultaneously amplifies both gender and racial stereotypes
This came out to me mostly because Ai is bringing a bad habit to people in the work field and out it taking their idea and making a non existent idea that getting payed for
For instance, you might set yourself the conscious goal to pay attention only to relevant information such as the content of the CV. You put aside all other distractions like your cellphone so that you can devote your full attention to the interview and you take enough time out of your schedule for making the decision.
This one stand out to me too because no matter if you're qualify or unqualify you should always respect people for who they are not judge them if they're not able to work there or if they are you should thank them for their time and quality.
By Heran yohannes
Such an impact of race or gender would be an example of implicit bias. You are influenced in a systematic manner (i.e., you are biased) by elements in your environment (e.g., the skin color of the applicant) even though you did not intend to be influenced and were focusing on other things (i.e., it happened implicitly).
This stand up to me mostly because I get judge for being black myself it not okay getting Judge someone to worked there because of there skin color and if they're black or white if it not illegal to work there. Everyone has the right the quote" NO MATTAR IF YOU'RE BLACK OR WHITE"
Heran Yohannes
The Center for the Advancement of Teaching will be running programs in a variety of formats to provide the information and training you need to make your courses accessible. It’s important to make a plan to get the training you need this fall so that you have time to make your courses accessible before April 2026
I am here!
by the deadline of April 2026
It's helpful to have a clear deadline here
The Mission of Accessible Temple:
I wonder what this means?
only two investigations have surveyed clinicians to assess their conceptualizations of cultural sensitivity, which is surprising given the central role they play in executing mental health interventions.
this is shockingly low
according to Hays, there are gaps as well that limit the broad applicability of unadapted CBT. For example, standard CBT emphasizes assertiveness, personal independence, verbal ability, and rationality, which might be contraindicated if the client's cultural mores emphasize subtle/indirect communication, interdependence, listening and observing, and spirituality. Thus, Hays developed the ADDRESSING framework, which is a comprehensive approach to working with multicultural populations within the CBT paradigm (Hays 1996, 2008).
innovations for CBT
Beyond this, however, there is no uniformity in terms of definition, terminology, and conceptual models concerning cultural competence.
I think bringing awareness to this is so important. There is no universality when it comes to defining cultural competence and I could imagine how this might be difficult to accomplish. I say this because applying cultural competence to different cultures looks different in each context. Also, I feel that cultural competence is a skill that can't be taught. Being able to create terminology that clearly defines a lot of the concepts that we've each come to understand subjectively in our heads could definitely be a challenge.
AI in Automotive: AI is helping driverless vehicles become a reality, personalizing driver experiences, improving fleet management, and streamlining automotive manufacturing.
I think this is another way AI can negatively impact the job market as it can heavily affect the jobs within uber , lyft , and many of the driving gigs today. This is due to ai taking over drivers working for these gigs by selfless automated driving.
The most effective approach to achieve these outcomes? Interdisciplinary models that embed skills flexibly across curriculum, that engage learners as part of networks, teams, and exploration, and that embed applied experiences in real-world contexts
Important to observe here: none of these things are simple and they require ecosystem thinking. Embedding skills takes faculty, learning designers, CTL-types to train and. support faculty, and industry and edu associations to articulate the skills that need embedding. Applied opportunities require industry partners to create the opportunities, co-design them, and run them well...not to mention the HE side of coordinating between the partnership shop, career services, advising, and faculty.
eLife Assessment
This important study reports that higher genetically predicted BMI is associated with a modestly increased risk of head and neck cancer. The convincing evidence is supported by rigorous Mendelian Randomization approaches, using multiple genetic instruments and models that reduce sensitivity to pleiotropy. However, results from pleiotropy-robust analyses were less consistent, which limits the strength of causal inference. The work will be of interest to researchers studying cancer risk factors and genetic epidemiology.
Reviewer #1 (Public review):
Summary:
The authors have conducted the largest to date Mendelian Randomization (MR) analysis of the association between genetically predicted measures of adiposity and risk of head and neck cancer (HNC) overall and by subsites within HNC. MR uses genetic predictors of an exposure, such as gene variants associated with high BMI or tobacco use, rather than data from individual physical exams or questionnaires and if it can be done in its idealized state, there should be no problems with confounding. Traditional epidemiologic studies have reported a variety of associations between BMI (and a few other measures of adiposity) and risk of HNC that typically differs by the smoking status of the subjects. Those findings are controversial given the complex relationship between tobacco and both BMI and HNC risk. Tobacco smokers are often thinner than no-smokers so this could create an artificial ('confounded') association that may not be fully adjusted away in risk models. The findings of a BMI-HNC association are often attributed to residual confounding and this seems ripe for an MR approach if suitable genetic instrumental variables can be created. Here the authors built a variety of genetic instrumental variables for BMI and other measures of adiposity as well as two instrumental variables for smoking habits and then tested their hypotheses in a large case-controls set of HNC and controls with genetic data.
The authors found that the genetic model for BMI was associated with HNC risk in simple models, but this association disappeared when using models that better accounted for pleiotropy, the condition when genetic variants are associated with more than one trait such as both BMI and tobacco use. When they used both adiposity and tobacco use genetic instruments in a single model, there was a strong association with genetically predicted tobacco use (as is expected) but there was no remaining association with genetic predictors of adiposity. They conclude that high BMI/adiposity is not a risk factor for HNC.
Strengths:
The primary strength was the expansive use of a variety of different genetic instruments for BMI/adiposity/body size along with employing a variety of MR model types, several of which are known to be less sensitive to pleiotropy. They also used the largest case-control sample size to date.
Weaknesses:
The lack of pleiotropy is an unconfirmable assumption of MR and the addition of those models is therefore quite important as this is a primary weakness of the MR approach. Given that concern, I read the sensitivity analyses using pleiotropy-robust models as the main result and in that case, they are more limited in their ability to test their hypothesis as these models do not show a robust BMI instrumental variable association.
Comments on the revised manuscript:
After the first round of review, the authors have improved the manuscript by (1) adding the requested power calculations and adding text to help the reader integrate that additional information; (2) adding the main effects for the tobacco instruments; (3) updating the comparison of their results to the prior literature; (4) and some other edits to the text. They have declined to include the smoking stratified estimates and provide a rationale for this decision that references the potential for collider bias. While true that yet another bias might be introduced, that gets added to the list and the careful reader would know that. Many important questions in cancer etiology can only be addressed via observational approaches and each observational approach has the potential for a long list of biases. The best inference comes from integrating the totality of the data and realizing that most conclusions are subject to updating as we conduct more work and learn more.
Author response:
The following is the authors’ response to the original reviews.
Joint Public Review:
Weaknesses:
The lack of pleiotropy is an unconfirmable assumption of MR, and the addition of those models is therefore quite important, as this is a primary weakness of the MR approach. Given that concern, I read the sensitivity analyses using pleiotropy-robust models as the main result, and in that case, they can't test their hypotheses as these models do not show a BMI instrumental variable association. The other weakness, which might be remedied, is that the power of the tests here is not described. When a hypothesis is tested with an under-powered model, the apparent lack of association could be due to inadequate sample size rather than a true null. Typically, when a statistically significant association is reported, power concerns are discounted as long as the study is not so small as to create spurious findings. That is the case with their primary BMI instrumental variable model - they find an association so we can presume it was adequately powered. But the primary models they share are not the pleiotropy-robust methods MR-Egger, weighted median, and weighted mode. The tests for these models are null, and that could mean a couple of things: (1) the original primary significant association between the BMI genetic instrument was due to pleiotropy, and they therefore don't have a robust model to explore the effects of the tobacco genetic instrument. (2) The power for the sensitivity analysis models (the pleiotropy-robust methods) is inadequate, and the authors share no discussion about the relative power of the different MR approaches. If they do have adequate power, then again, there is no need to explore the tobacco instrument.
Reviewing Editor Comments:
We suggest that the authors add power estimates to assess whether the sample size is sufficient, given the strength and variability of the genetic instruments. It would also be helpful to present effect estimates for the tobacco instruments alone, to clarify their independent contribution and improve the interpretation of the joint models. In addition, the role of pleiotropy should be addressed more clearly, including which model is considered primary. Stratified analyses by smoking status are encouraged, as prior studies indicate that BMI-HNC associations may differ between smokers and non-smokers. Finally, the comparison with previous studies should be revised, as most reported null findings without accounting for tobacco instruments. If this study finds an association, it should not be framed as a replication
We would like to highlight that post-hoc power calculations are often considered redundant since the statistical power estimated for an observed association is directly related to its p-value[1]. In other words, the uncertainty of the association is already reflected in its 95% confidence interval. However, we understand power calculations may still be of interest to the reader, so we have incorporated them in the revised manuscript. We have edited the text as follows (lines 151-155):“Consequently, we used the total R<sup>2</sup> values to examine the statistical power in our study[42]. However, we acknowledge that the value of post-hoc power calculations is limited, since the statistical power estimated for an observed association is already reflected in the 95% confidence interval presented alongside the point estimate[43].” We have also added supplementary figures 1 and 2.
We can see that when using the latest HEADSpAcE data we were able to detect BMI-HNC ORs as small as 1.16 with 80% power, while the GAME-ON dataset only permitted the detection of ORs as small as 1.26 using the same BMI instruments (Figure B). We have explained these figures in the results section as follows (lines 257-263): “Using the BMI genetic instruments (total R<sup>2</sup>= 4.8%) and an α of 0.05, we had 80% statistical power to detect an OR as small as 1.16 for HNC risk (Supplementary Figure 1). For WHR (total R<sup>2</sup>= 3.1%) and WC (total R<sup>2</sup>= 4.4%), we could detect odds ratios (ORs) as small as 1.20 and 1.17, respectively. This is an improvement in terms of statistical power compared to the GAME-ON analysis published by Gormley et al.[28], for which there was 80% power to detect an OR as small as 1.26 using the same BMI genetic instruments (Supplementary Figure 2).”
The reason we use inverse variance weighted (IVW) Mendelian randomization (MR) to obtain our main results rather than the pleiotropy-robust methods mentioned by the reviewer/editors (i.e., MR-Egger, weighted median and weighted mode) is that the former has greater statistical power than the latter[2]. Hence, instead of focussing on the statistical significance of the pleiotropy-robust analyses, we consider it is of more value to compare the consistency of the effect sizes and direction of the effect estimates across methods. Any evidence of such consistency increases our confidence in our main findings, since each method relies on different assumptions. As we cannot be sure about the presence and nature of horizontal pleiotropy, it is useful to compare results across methods even though they are not equally powered. It is true that our results for the genetically predicted effects of body mass index (BMI) on the risk of head and neck cancer (HNC) differ across methods. This is precisely what led us to question the validity of our main finding (suggesting a positive effect of BMI on HNC risk). We have now clarified this in the methods section of the revised manuscript as advised. Lines 165-171:
“Because the IVW method assumes all genetic variants are valid instruments[44], which is unlikely the case, three pleiotropy-robust two-sample MR methods (i.e., MR-Egger[45], weighted median[46] and weighted mode[47]) were used in sensitivity analyses. When the magnitude and direction of effect estimates are consistent across methods that rely on different assumptions, the main findings are more convincing. As we cannot be sure about the presence and nature of horizontal pleiotropy, it is useful to compare results across methods even if they are not equally powered.”
We understand that the reviewer/editors are concerned that we do not have a robust model to explore the role of tobacco consumption in the link between BMI and HNC. However, we have a different perspective on the matter. If indeed, the main IVW finding for BMI and HNC is due to pleiotropy (since some of the pleiotropy-robust methods suggest conflicting results), then the IVW multivariable MR method is a way to explore the potential source of this bias[3]. We were particularly interested in exploring the role of smoking in the observed association because smoking and adiposity are known to influence each other [4-9] and share a genetic basis[10, 11].
We agree that it would be useful to present the univariable MR effect estimates for smoking behaviour and HNC risk along those obtained using multivariable MR. We have now included the univariable MR estimates for both smoking behaviour variables as a note under Supplementary Table 11 and in the manuscript (lines 316-318): “In univariable IVW MR, both CSI and SI were linked to an increased risk of HNC (CSI OR=4.47 per 1-SD higher CSI, 95%CI 3.31–6.03, p<0.001; SI OR=2.07 per 1-SD higher SI 95%CI 1.60–2.68, p<0.001) (Additional File 2: note in Supplementary Table 11).”
We understand the appeal of conducting stratified MR analyses by smoking status. However, we anticipate such analyses would hinder the interpretation of our findings as they can induce collider bias which could spuriously lead to different effect estimates across strata[12, 13].
We thank the reviewer/editors for their comment regarding the way we frame of our findings. We have now edited the discussion section to highlight our study results are different to those obtained in studies that do not account for smoking behaviour. Lines 398-401: “With a much larger sample (N=31,523, including 12,264 cases), our IVW MR analysis suggested BMI may play a role in HNC risk, in contrast to previous studies. However, our sensitivity analyses implied that causality was uncertain.”
Reviewer #1 (Recommendations for the authors):
The authors do share a table of the percent variance explained of the different genetic instruments, which vary widely, and that table is very welcome because we can get some sense of their utility. The problem is that they don't translate that into a power estimate for the case-control study size that they use. They say that it is the biggest to date, which is good, but without some formal power estimate, it is not particularly reassuring. A framework for MR study power estimates was reported in PMID: 19174578, but that was using very simple MR constructs in use in 2009, and it isn't clear to me if that framework can be used here. That power paper suggests that weak genetic instruments need very large sample sizes, far larger than what is used in the current manuscript. I am unable to estimate the true strength of the instruments used here, and so I am unsure of whether power is an issue or not.
We have now included power calculations in our manuscript to address the reviewer’s concerns. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, post-hoc power calculations are of limited value, as statistical power is already reflected in the uncertainty around the point estimates (the 95% confidence intervals). Hence, it is important to avoid drawing conclusions regarding the likelihood of true effects or false negatives based on these calculations.
Although the hypothesis here is that smoking accounts for the apparent BMI association previously reported for HNC, it would have been preferable to see the estimates for their 2 genetic instruments for tobacco alone. The current results only show the BMI instruments alone and then with the tobacco instruments. I would like to see what the risk estimates are for the tobacco instrument alone, so that I can judge for myself what happens in the joint models. As presented, one can only do that for the BMI instruments.
We thank the reviewer for this comment. The univariable IVW MR estimate of smoking initiation was OR=2.07 (95%CI 1.60 to 2.68, p<0.001), while the one for comprehensive smoking index was OR=4.47 (95%CI 3.31 to 6.03, p<0.001). We have included this information in the manuscript as requested (please see response to reviewing editor above).
On line 319, they write that "We did not find evidence against bias due to correlated pleiotropy..." I find this difficult to parse, but I think it means that they should believe that correlated pleiotropy remains a problem. So again, they seem to see their primary model as compromised, and so do I. This limitation is again stated by the authors on lines 351-352.
We apologise if the wording of the sentence was not easy to understand. When using the CAUSE method, we did not find evidence to reject the null hypothesis that the sharing (correlated pleiotropy) model fits the data at least as well as the causal model. In other words, our CAUSE finding and the inconsistencies observed across our other sensitivity analyses led us to believe that our main IVW MR estimate for BMI-HNC was likely biased by correlated pleiotropy. We believe it is important to explore the source of this bias, which is why we used multivariable MR to investigate the direct effect of BMI on HNC risk while accounting for smoking behaviour.
In the following paragraphs (lines 358-369), the authors state that their findings are consistent with prior reports, but that doesn't seem to be the case if we take their primary BMI instrument as representing the outcome of this manuscript. Here, they find an association between the BMI instrument and HNC risk, but in each of the other papers they present the primary finding was null without the extensive model changes or the aim of accounting for tobacco with another instrument. I don't see that as replication.
This is a good point. We have now edited the discussion of our manuscript to avoid giving the impression that our findings replicate those from studies that do not account for smoking behaviour in their analyses. We have edited lines 384-401 as follows:
“Previous MR studies suggest adiposity does not influence HNC risk[27-29]. Gormley et al.[28] did not find a genetically predicted effect of adiposity on combined oral and oropharyngeal cancer when investigating either BMI (OR=0.89 per 1-SD, 95% CI 0.72–1.09, p=0.26), WHR (OR=0.98 per 1-SD, 95% CI 0.74–1.29, p=0.88) or waist circumference (OR=0.73 per 1-SD, 95% CI 0.52–1.02, p=0.07) as risk factors. Similarly, a large two-sample MR study by Vithayathil et al.[29] including 367,561 UK Biobank participants (of which 1,983 were HNC cases) found no link between BMI and HNC risk (OR=0.98 per 1-SD higher BMI, 95% CI 0.93–1.02, p=0.35). Larsson et al.[27] meta-analysed Vithayathil et al.’s[29] findings with results obtained using FinnGen data to increase the sample size even further (N=586,353, including 2,109 cases), but still did not find a genetically predicted effect of BMI on HNC risk (OR=0.96 per 1-SD higher BMI, 95% CI 0.77–1.19, p=0.69). With a much larger sample (N=31,523, including 12,264 cases), our IVW MR analysis suggested BMI may play a role in HNC risk, in contrast to previous studies. However, our sensitivity analyses implied that causality was uncertain.”
We also deleted part of a sentence in the discussion section, so lines 416-418 now look as follows: “An important strength of our study was that the HEADSpAcE consortium GWAS used had a large sample size which conferred more statistical power to detect effects of adiposity on HNC risk compared to previous MR analyses[27-29].”
On lines 384-386 they note a strength is that this is the largest study to date, but I would reiterate that larger and more powerful does not equate to adequately powered.
This is true. We have included power calculations in the manuscript as requested.
It's well known that different HNC subsites have different etiologies, as they mention on lines 391-392, and it is implicit in their use of data on HPV positive and negative oropharyngeal cancer. They say that they did not find evidence for heterogeneity in this study, but that would only be true for the null BMI instrument. The effect sizes for their smoking instruments are strikingly different between the subsites.
We agree and are sorry for the confusion we may have caused by the way we worded our findings. We have edited the text to clarify that the lack of subsite heterogeneity only applied to our results for BMI/WHC/WC-HNC risk. Lines 418-424 now read as follows:
“Furthermore, the availability of data on more HNC subsites, including oropharyngeal cancers by HPV status, allowed us to investigate the relationship between adiposity and HNC risk in more detail than previous MR studies which limited their subsite analyses to oral cavity and overall oropharyngeal cancers[28, 68]. This is relevant because distinct HNC subsites are known to have different aetiologies[69], although we did not find evidence of heterogeneity across subsites in our analyses investigating the genetically predicted effects of BMI, WHR and WC on HNC risk.”
Finally, the literature on mutational patterns gives us strong reason to believe that HNC caused by tobacco are biologically distinct from tumors not caused by tobacco. The authors report in the introduction that traditional observational studies of BMI and HNC have reported different findings in smokers versus never smokers, so I would assume there is a possibility that the BMI instrument could have different associations with tumors of the tobacco-induced phenotype and tumors with a non-tobacco induced phenotype. I would assume that authors have access to the data on self-reported tobacco use behavior, even if they can't separate these tumors by molecular types. Stratifying their analysis by tobacco users or not might reveal different results with the BMI instrument.
We appreciate the reviewer’s comment. We agree that it would have been interesting to present stratified analyses by smoking status along our main findings. However, we decided against this because of the risk of inducing collider bias in our MR analyses i.e., where stratifying on smoking status may induce spurious associations between the adiposity instruments and confounding factors. Multivariable MR is considered a better way of investigating the direct effects of an exposure (adiposity) on an outcome (HNC) accounting for a third variable (smoking)[14], which is why we opted for this method instead.
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One of the major limitations of many function prediction methodsis their reliance on sequence similarity to predict functions
So there they just try to find high homology sequences