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Music is often utilized in the context of bereavement, yet its role has been underemphasized in the literature on grief. I will suggest that the experience of grief disrupts the bereaved individual's functioning in bodily, orientational, emotional, and interpersonal terms. Music can help assuage the distress of grief in connection with each of these aspects. I will consider some aspects of grief that music is well-suited to address and indicate ways that musical experience can affect them.

The Plague offers a picture of various characters responding to bubonic plague in their city. The psychological reactions the novel presents, such as disruption of an ordinary sense of time and feelings of exhaustion and apathy, correspond to common symptoms of grief. Those impacted by the presence of the plague are indeed grieving. The community is pervaded by a vague and diffuse anticipatory grief which characterizes contemporary reactions to the current pandemic. Such grief engenders a sense of isolation that adds to the general misery. Camus urges overcoming that isolation by finding ways to join with others in fighting suffering in the world. The steps characters take to join others in fighting the plague grow out of their personal experiences of grieving. Recovering from personal loss and acting collectively need not be seen as alternative efforts but as an effective means of coping with grief.

Aesthetic matters are important in friendships and intimate relationships. But aesthetic tensions strain relationships if they are not managed. A close relationship between members of different societies is just a special case among close relationships generally. Every individual has a unique aesthetic biography, and the person’s tastes and aesthetic repertoire are shaped by many cultural influences, some of them coming from the micro-cultures to which the person belongs. This ensures that complete accord between two individuals’ aesthetic sensibilities is exceedingly unlikely. People who are close frequently disagree on matters of order, decoration, and style, and this is especially obvious among those who share a home. The strategy of separating spheres of aesthetic control can sometimes mitigate conflict, but managing aesthetic tensions often requires creativity. Fortunately, love for another often leads one to develop affection for his or her quirks, and optimally this extends to the peculiarities of the person’s aesthetic tastes.

Higgins, Kathleen, Ibáñez, Roberto (2022): Description of two dendrobatid tadpoles (Anura: Dendrobatidae: Andinobates and Oophaga) with comments on egg clutches. Zootaxa 5175 (3): 395-400, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5175.3.8

Spindly leg syndrome (SLS) is a relatively common musculoskeletal abnormality associated with captive-rearing of amphibians with aquatic larvae. We conducted an experiment to investigate the role of environmental calcium and phosphate in causing SLS in tadpoles. Our 600-tadpole experiment used a fully-factorial design, rearing Atelopus varius tadpoles in water with either high (80mg/l CaCO3), medium (50mg/l CaCO3), or low calcium hardness (20mg/l CaCO3), each was combined with high (1.74 mg/l PO4) or low (0.36 mg/l PO4) phosphate levels. We found that calcium supplementation significantly improved tadpole survival from 19% to 49% and that low calcium treatments had 60% SLS that was reduced to about 15% at the medium and high calcium treatments. Phosphate supplementation significantly reduced SLS prevalence in low calcium treatments. This experimental research clearly links SLS to the calcium: phosphate homeostatic system, but we were unable to completely eliminate the issue, suggesting an interactive role of other unidentified factors.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine the relationships between social media, fashion interest and fast fashion involvement and whether these psychographic variables affect propensity for compulsive clothing buying and (2) to determine whether a relationship exists between compulsive buying and propensity toward hoarding. Data was collected through consumer panel from Qualtrix. Screener questions ensured that all respondents were adult females with an interest in fashion. Responses yielded 232 usable surveys, which were analyzed using SPSS software. Social media was found to be positively related to fashion interest, fast fashion involvement, and compulsive clothing buying. Compulsive clothing buying was found to be positively related to all three compulsive clothes hoarding symptoms: clothing clutter disorganization, clothing acquisition, and difficulty discarding clothing.

One of the first questions that arises in efforts to conduct comparative aesthetics is whether or not the terms ‘art’ and ‘aesthetics’ are inextricably bound to certain cultures and their presuppositions. Since the Enlightenment, the dominant Western conception of ‘fine’ art is distinguished from that of ‘crafts’ used in everyday life. A work of art is understood to be designed primarily for contemplation; if it serves any other practical function, this is considered to be secondary. Theorists disagree on the criteria for judging the work of art, but typically these are linked to a state of mind in the observer (whether emotional, intellectual, or some combination of the two). Works of fine art, being geared to reflective appreciation, are at home in institutional environments that are free from the distractions of everyday life, such as the concert hall or the museum.

The Ventura County Watershed Protection District (VCWPD) is preparing the Calleguas Creek IWPP Phase II Management Strategy Study as part of the development of the Calleguas Creek Integrated Watershed Protection Plan. The goals of the study are to provide multi-purpose conceptual projects for the watershed in order to deal with issues such as flood control, land development, erosion, sedimentation, the environment, parks and recreation, open space, and funding. Cost-effective and environmentally friendly solutions are being developed through a stakeholder driven process.

The Sun Valley Watershed is located in the City of Los Angeles about 14 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The watershed drains generally north to south. The project is the first of a series of demonstration projects in the Sun Valley Watershed, which are a priority of the Sun Valley Watershed Stakeholders Group. The project will demonstrate available watershed management techniques that will address flooding as well as increase water conservation, and enhance recreational opportunities.

The human P-glycoprotein (Pgp) encoded by the MDR1 gene is as a transmembrane drug transporter that mediates the efflux of drugs from cells. It confers multidrug resistance in cancer cells that overexpress MDR1. In addition, basal expression of MDR1 in organs such as liver, kidney, and colon affects the pharmacokinetics of drug uptake and excretion for agents that are substrates for Pgp transport. Nuclear receptors such as SXR and CAR have been suggested as possible master regulators of xenobiotic- and drug-inducible expression of MDR1 and of other genes involved in drug metabolism in drug processing organs. However, the mechanism of MDR1 regulation in tumors or in normal, non-malignant tissue, particularly in response to xenobiotics, has yet to be demonstrated in vivo. To facilitate the mechanistic study of MDR1 gene regulation in vivo, we previously reported a mouse model that allows non-invasive bioimaging of the mdr1 gene expression in vivo and in real time by inserting a firefly luciferase (fLUC) gene into the murine mdr1a genetic locus by homologous recombination.1 To determine the role of PXR, the murine homologue of SXR, in drug-mediated induction of mdr1a, we crossed mdr1a.fLUC mice with PXR knockout mice. Pregnenolone-16α-carbonitrile (PCN), a known SXR substrate, induced intestinal mdr1a.fLUC expression in the PXR wild type background but not the PXR knockout background. Notably, mdr1a.fLUC was re-inducible over three rounds of drug dosing, which could be measured longitudinally in our real-time assessment of gene expression. TCPOBOP, a known CAR ligand, induced mdr1a.fLUC in both the wild type and knockout background, consistent with the idea that mdr1a is also regulated by the CAR nuclear receptor. The chemotherapeutic agent docetaxel induced mdr1a.fLUC in the PXR wild type background but induction was dramatically reduced in the PXR KO background; paclitaxel gave only low-level induction in both genetic backgrounds. This result is consistent with the reported ligand specificity of mouse PXR. Future studies in a CAR-null background will determine if the observed effect of paclitaxel on mdr1a expression is mediated through CAR. These studies demonstrate the utility of our murine imaging model for the in vivo study of mdr1 gene regulation in real time. Studies with additional chemotherapeutic drugs and genetic backgrounds will establish the variety of agents capable of inducing mdr1a at the transcriptional level and the trans-acting factors that are involved in such induction. 1Gu et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci 106:5394-5399 (2009) Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 701. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-701

1. Preface D. Jamieson. 2. Paul Ziff, 1958--1960: a Reminiscence P. Benacerraf. 3. Understanding Misunderstanding Z. Vendler. 4. Rules and Regularities Revisited J.F. Rosenberg. 5. Proper Names: Possibility and Culture T.E. Patton. 6. Numbers as Structures and as Positions in Structures M. Resnik. 7. The Unnaturalness of Grue R. Nolan. 8. Microscopes and Corpuscles P. Alexander. 9. Why Machines can Neither Think nor Feel D.C. Long. 10. Ziff on Shooting an Elephant D. Jamieson. 11. Jazz and the African--American Experience W.E. Lawson. 12. Anything Contemplated D. Dempster. 13. Aesthestics and Baseball J. Ullian. 14. Rhyme without Reason D.F. Stalker. 15. Afterword: Selections from a A Tripartite Trismus P. Ziff. 16. The Publications of Paul Ziff. Notes on Contributors. Name Index.