Explicit Identification Research Articles

Identifying a perovskite phase in rare-earth nickelates using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

We demonstrate a practical way to identify the presence of a perovskite phase in rare-earth nickelates (RNiO3) using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). By varying the calcination temperature, we prepared RNiO3 powders with different degrees of chemical reaction. We found that perovskite RNiO3 becomes predominant after high-temperature calcination (≥1,000 °C) in X-ray diffraction and XPS (at Ni 3p and O 1s edges) measurements. While the observed spectra at the Ni 3p edge are similar for all powders, a sizable difference was observed in the O 1s-edge spectra depending on the calcination temperature. With the formation of a perovskite phase with a trivalent Ni3+ state, an XPS peak corresponding to oxygen ions in the perovskite lattice distinctly emerges. Our work shows that the Ni3+ state cannot be determined by analyzing the Ni 3p edge solely and rather, the O 1s edge should be simultaneously monitored for explicit identification.

Planetary health: from concept to decisive action

Planetary health: from concept to decisive action

Nationalism and religion in Ireland: the apocalyptic rhetoric of John Mitchel

ABSTRACT While the role of religion in the production of nationalism has been subjected to uneven forms of scrutiny, most of these approaches rely on an implicit or explicit identification between sectarian affiliation and the dominant social group articulating a particular form of nationalism. This article will create a more nuanced picture by demonstrating the influence of a rhetoric of religiosity originating from a social group that generally resisted incorporation into a nationalist movement. It will do this by locating nineteenth century Irish nationalist John Mitchel firmly within a tradition of Presbyterianism at a time that his co-religionists were dominated by unionism and nationalism was taking on an increasingly Catholic orientation. This will show the difficulties of applying classic accounts of religion and nationalism to the Irish context. The ability of John Mitchel to intervene within the discursive space of nineteenth century Ireland is provocative in this context because of the implication that Mitchel’s intervention would imply the existence of a non-sectarian social space through which confessional motifs could be exchanged and circulate with a regularity that is not often granted to Ireland due to the dominant tendency to view political and social conflict through a sectarian lens.

Linking hydrological connectivity to gully erosion in savanna rangelands tributary to the Great Barrier Reef using structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry

AbstractGully erosion is a major land management challenge globally and a particularly important issue in dry tropical savanna rangelands tributary to the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. This study investigated linkages between hillslope hydrological connectivity pathways and gully geomorphic change in the Burdekin River Basin. High‐resolution (0.1 m) topographic and land cover data derived from low‐cost aerial (via unmanned aircraft system) structure‐from‐motion with multiview stereo photogrammetry (SfM) were used to map fine‐scale connectivity patterns and quantify headcut retreat at the hillslope scale (~150,000 m2). Very high resolution (0.01 m) topographic models derived from ground‐based (via handheld digital camera) SfM were used to quantify the morphology and geomorphic change of several gully arms (300–700 m2) between 2016 and 2018. Median linear, areal, and volumetric headcut (n = 21) retreat rates were 0.2 m, 0.8 m2, and 0.3 m3 yr−1, respectively. At all study sites, the points where modelled hydrological flow lines intersected gullies corresponded to observed geomorphic change, enabling spatially explicit identification of gully extension pathways as a result of overland flow. Application of an index of connectivity demarcated parts of the hillslope most connected to the gully network. Bare areas, roads, and cattle trails were identified as important runoff source areas and hydrological conduits driving gully extension. Ground‐based SfM accurately reconstructed complex morphologic features including undercuts, overhangs, rills, and flutes, providing insights into within‐channel erosion processes. This study contributes to an improved understanding and modelling of hydrogeomorphic drivers of gully erosion in degraded savanna rangelands, ultimately benefiting gully management.

Identification with drug use among young adults who are at risk of transitioning to more serious use

Understanding the drug use trajectories for at risk young adults can help reduce harms associated with serious drug use. This longitudinal study tracked young people to assess whether implicit and explicit identification with substance use predicts changes in use over time and whether patterns of use impacts identification with drugs. Two hundred and twenty-eight participants were initially recruited from homeless shelters, youth centers, drug health services, and parks where young people who use drugs are known to frequent. Over a 20-month period, 78 of these original participants were successfully recontacted and surveyed again. The survey assessed implicit and explicit identification with drug use, along with known risk factors, to determine if identification predicts changes in drug use over time as assessed by frequency, recency, and multiple drug use. Results revealed that implicit and explicit identification with drug use were stronger among participants who used more frequently, more recently, and used multiple drugs, although this finding only emerged cross-sectionally and not longitudinally. Overall, these results suggest that patterns of drug use are associated with the identity of the individual and that identification with drug use is a marker of drug-using behavior, but identification with drug use does not appear to be predictive of future behavior nor an outcome of prior drug use.

NOEL and NOAEL: A retrospective analysis of mention in a sample of recently conducted safety pharmacology studies

IntroductionThe concept of characterizing adversity in relation to administered test article dose and/or exposure within toxicology studies has long been considered a normal aspect of the drug safety evaluation enterprise. The typical way this is done in drug safety investigations is by examining study data, often with focus on clinical signs, clinical pathology and histopathology, to determine a No-Observable-Effect-Level (NOEL) and/or a No-Observable-Adverse-Effect-Level (NOAEL). Once established, these, with other information, may be used to identify a safe starting dose in human clinical trials. Although safety pharmacology (SP) is concerned to identify and characterize potentially “adverse” functional effects, NOEL, and particularly NOAEL, traditionally do not have application in SP study interpretation and reporting. MethodsAn anonymized survey of a contract research laboratory master schedule was undertaken to appreciate recent usage of these concepts in GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurobehavioral safety studies. ResultsResults across the sample of studies (N = 635) generally confirmed application of appropriate dose selection strategies, as there was a very low proportion (<1%) of observed severe adverse events (antecedent observations ultimately associated with morbidity/mortality). Data further indicated either no mention of NOEL/NOAEL (50%), or alternately, explicit identification of NOEL (28%), or NOAEL (21%). The majority of times a NOAEL was identified, it was also the case that this coincided with the highest dose administered (e.g., there may have been drug-related findings, but these were considered non-adverse across the dose range). DiscussionWhile the concept of adversity is certainly relevant to nonclinical SP studies, actual current practices appear to reflect a history which generally avoids toxicologically-oriented classifications such as NOAEL. Questions remain regarding the applicability of NOAELs to safety pharmacology studies, including, importantly, the specific circumstances under which such designations of adversity may be considered to add value to understandings of relative risk and risk mitigation in early human clinical trials.

Connecting the dots without top-down knowledge: Evidence for rapidly-learned low-level associations that are independent of object identity.

Knowing the identity of an object can powerfully alter perception. Visual demonstrations of this-such as Gregory's (1970) hidden Dalmatian-affirm the existence of both top-down and bottom-up processing. We consider a third processing pathway: lateral connections between the parts of an object. Lateral associations are assumed by theories of object processing and hierarchical theories of memory, but little evidence attests to them. If they exist, their effects should be observable even in the absence of object identity knowledge. We employed Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS) while participants studied object images, such that visual details were learned without explicit object identification. At test, lateral associations were probed using a part-to-part matching task. We also tested whether part-whole links were facilitated by prior study using a part-naming task, and included another study condition (Word), in which participants saw only an object's written name. The key question was whether CFS study (which provided visual information without identity) would better support part-to-part matching (via lateral associations) whereas Word study (which provided identity without the correct visual form) would better support part-naming (via top-down processing). The predicted dissociation was found and confirmed by state-trace analyses. Thus, lateral part-to-part associations were learned and retrieved independently of object identity representations. This establishes novel links between perception and memory, demonstrating that (a) lateral associations at lower levels of the object identification hierarchy exist and contribute to object processing and (b) these associations are learned via rapid, episodic-like mechanisms previously observed for the high-level, arbitrary relations comprising episodic memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Predicting the spatial suitability distribution of Moringa oleifera cultivation using analytical hierarchical process modelling

Moringa oleifera Lam, often grows well under cultivation in the tropics and sub-tropics. It does well in sandy to clayey soils and tolerates low rainfall. The plant is well-known for its nutritional and medicinal properties, hence it is fast gaining popularity in South Africa and the rest of the world. The objective of this study was to predict the suitable areas for cultivating M. oleifera in South Africa using climate and edaphic variables that significantly affect its growth and development. We used an Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS) weight function to assign suitability weights to criteria and sub-criteria that affect the plant's growth and a predictive cultivation suitability map. Area under the curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the model's performance. The Analytical Hierarchical Process indicated that the most influential variable determining M. oleifera cultivation were, minimum temperature, soil texture, annual rainfall, mean temperature and soil pH, respectively. Further, the results showed that approximately 16.5% (200,837 km2) of South Africa land area has optimal growth conditions, 17.8% (216,758 km2) suitable conditions, 46% (560,794 km2) less suitable conditions and 19% (240,699 km2) not suitable conditions for cultivating M. oleifera. The area under the curve (AUC) metric of our suitability model suggested that the map is 81% accurate for predicting the spatial suitability of cultivating M. oleifera in South Africa. The results also confirm that the use of AHP model with GIS weight function is useful for explicit identification of sites for M. oleifera cultivation for maximum production output. The results of this study can be useful information for the land-use policy makers and farmers for informed decision regarding the cultivation of M. oleifera in South Africa.

Implicit and explicit identification of counterfeit brand logos based on logotype transposition

PurposeWith trade amounting to more than US$400bn, counterfeiting is already affecting many successful brands. Often, consumers are deceived into buying fake products due to the visual similarity between fake and original brand logos. This paper aims to explore the varying forms of fraudulent imitation of original brand logotypes (operationalized at the level of logotype transposition), which can aid in the detection of a counterfeit brand.Design/methodology/approachAcross two studies, this research tested how well consumers can differentiate counterfeit from original logos of well-known brands both explicitly and implicitly. Seven popular brand logos were altered to create different levels of visual dissimilarity and participants were required to discriminate the logos as fake or genuine.FindingsResults demonstrate that although consumers can explicitly discriminate fake logos with a high degree of accuracy, the same is not true under conditions in which logos are presented very briefly (tapping participants’ implicit or automatic logo recognition capabilities), except when the first and last letters of the logotype are substituted.Originality/valueA large body of research on counterfeit trade focuses on the individual or cross-cultural differences behind the prevalence of counterfeit trade. There is limited research exploring the ability of a consumer to correctly identify a fake logo, based on its varying similarity with the original logotype; this paper addresses this gap. Given that many of the purchase decisions are often made automatically, identifying key implicit differentiators that can help a consumer recognize a fake logo should be informative to both practitioners and academics.

An Autosomal Translocation 73,XY,t(12;20)(q11;q11) in an Infertile Male Llama (Lama glama) With Teratozoospermia.

Structural chromosome abnormalities, such as translocations and inversions occasionally occur in all livestock species and are typically associated with reproductive and developmental disorders. Curiously, only a few structural chromosome aberrations have been reported in camelids, and most involved sex chromosomes. This can be attributed to a high diploid number (2n = 74) and complex chromosome morphology, which makes unambiguous identification of camelid chromosomes difficult. Additionally, molecular tools for camelid cytogenetics are sparse and have become available only recently. Here we present a case report about an infertile male llama with teratozoospermia and abnormal chromosome number 2n = 73,XY. This llama carries an autosomal translocation of chromosomes 12 and 20, which is the likely cause of defective spermatogenesis and infertility in this individual. Our analysis underlines the power of molecular cytogenetics methods over conventional banding-based chromosome analysis for explicit identification of normal and aberrant chromosomes in camelid karyotypes. This is the first case of a translocation and the first autosomal aberration reported in any camelid species. It is proof of principle that, like in other mammalian species, structural chromosome abnormalities contribute to reproductive disorders in camelids.

A modelling approach for offshore wind farm feasibility with respect to ecosystem-based marine spatial planning

Demand for renewable energy is increasing steadily and regulated by national and international policies. Offshore wind energy sector has been clearly the fastest in its development among other options, and development of new wind farms requires large ocean space. Therefore, there is a need of efficient spatial planning process, including the site selection constrained by technical (wind resource, coastal distance, seafloor) and environmental (impacts) factors and competence of uses. We present a novel approach, using Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN), for an integrated spatially explicit site feasibility identification for offshore wind farms. Our objectives are to: (i) develop a spatially explicit model that integrates the technical, economic, environmental and social dimensions; (ii) operationalize the BBN model; (iii) implement the model at local (Basque Country) and regional (North East Atlantic and Western Mediterranean), and (iv) develop and analyse future scenarios for wind farm installation in a local case study. Results demonstrated a total of 1% (23 km2) of moderate feasibility areas in local scaled analysis, compared to 4% of (21,600 km2) very high, and 5% (30,000 km2) of high feasibility in larger scale analysis. The main challenges were data availability and discretization when trying to expand the model from local to regional level. The use of BBN models to determine the feasibility of offshore wind farm areas has been demonstrated adequate and possible, both at local and regional scales, allowing managers to take management decisions regarding marine spatial planning when including different activities, environmental problems and technological constraints.

Stable traits but unstable measures? Identifying panel effects in self-reflective survey questions

Economists and psychologists often measure aspects such as utility, preferences, and personality traits through self-assessment modules in longitudinal household surveys. This paper investigates to what extent such measures are subject to a panel effect or panel conditioning, that is, whether people answer the questions differently the more experience they have answering such questions. First, the paper makes a more general contribution to the literature on panel effects and makes explicit identification issues that arise in different types of empirical strategies. Next, the empirical analysis exploits a design feature of the UK Household Longitudinal Survey that introduces random variation in survey experience within a calendar year. The analysis first confirms the existence of such a panel effect in general life satisfaction, a pattern previously established in other data with a slightly different identification strategy. The data also provide evidence of panel effects in domain satisfactions, although these are less straightforward to interpret. This finding is important if researchers consider repeated measurements of such traits in household surveys to investigate their stability over time for a society or for an individual: the paper illustrates how conclusions on time trends in the subjective data for this case study are influenced if panel effects are ignored.

The Use of the ‘Vulnerability’ Label by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: Protecting or Stigmatizing Women and Girls in the Forced Migration Context?

This article sheds light on the explicit identification and labelling of forced migrant women and girls as vulnerable and the effect this seems to have on their human rights protection under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (cedaw). The article focuses on the principal international body directly concerned with the human rights of women and girls, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (cedaw Committee) and combines legal doctrinal analysis with a critical reflection in light of the normative-theoretical notion of universal vulnerability. The notion of universal vulnerability has been suggested to close protection gaps and contribute to a more inclusive human rights framework; yet, the vulnerability label has been criticized as potentially stigmatizing and paternalizing. The article therefore critically assesses whether and to what extent explicit vulnerability references by the cedaw Committee contribute to the protection and/or stigmatization of forced migrant women and girls. The analysis reveals that the vulnerability label adopted by the cedaw Committee is not (yet) entirely in line with the universal vulne-rability notion’s potential for the protection of human rights. Yet, the article suggests that vulnerability references can nevertheless contribute to human rights protection since they help to identify protection priorities and clarify state obligations towards those identified as vulnerable. This positive effect for the protection of human rights is likely to be highest the more attention is being paid to the avoidance of stigmatization.

Influence of L2 English phonotactics in L1 Brazilian Portuguese illusory vowel perception

This study examines potential changes to L1 (Brazilian Portuguese, BP) perception of phonotactic structure as a function of L2 (English) experience. Syllables with a coda stop violate syllable structure constraints in BP, but are licit in English. As a result, BP monolinguals perceive an illusory /i/ after an illicit coda (e.g., ob/i/ter ‘to obtain’). To understand the effects on L1 perception when the L2 phonology allows a syllabic structure that is illicit in the L1, we tested 15 L1 speakers of BP in an L2 English immersion setting. In separate BP and English sessions, participants completed an explicit metalinguistic vowel identification task and two ABX tasks, with one ABX task designed to tap lower-level processing and the other, higher-level phonological processing. Our analysis reveals that, while not fully target-like in L2 English, the bilinguals’ perception data in both languages contrast sharply with existing monolingual BP data. This is the case whether participants employ what we assume here to be metalinguistic strategies, lower-level encoding strategies, or higher-level encoding strategies in perception. Based on this pattern of results, we conclude that the data provide evidence of L2 phonotactic influence in L1 perception.

Downstream fining in a megaclast-dominated fluvial system: The Sabeto River of western Viti Levu, Fiji

Megaclast-dominated fluvial systems have been largely ignored by researchers. Yet megaclasts exert an important control on channel geomorphology, flow behaviour and sediment transport, and such systems are probably far more common than this neglect would suggest. Despite the explicit identification of megaclasts as the products of cataclysmic flow, observation of modern fluvial systems confirms that megaclasts can be entrained by flows that lie within the normal flow regime.The pattern of fining along the megaclast-dominated Sabeto River of western Viti Levu, Fiji reveals a strong negative exponential relationship between particle size and distance downstream, and a rate of downstream fining comparable with that of other gravel-bed rivers. The downstream fining pattern is straightforward and step-like discontinuities in the fining gradient are absent. This is suggestive of a sedimentary system only minimally disrupted by the supply of sediment from tributaries or the reworking of material from sources such as hillslopes and alluvial terraces. There is evidence, however, of anomalously coarse sub-populations at two sites. These coarser components must pre-date the other deposits at the sites. We speculate that they represent the products of earlier and higher-magnitude events. The bed sediments may thus be composite features, made up of individual components each transported by a specific event of particular magnitude.Our work confirms the relationship between the rate of downstream fining and particle size. This may arise because the distance over which individual particles are transported is likely to be size dependent. It is also possible that abrasion may be more effective in the case of larger particles than smaller ones, with the result that the coarser fraction of the river's bed sediment fines downstream more rapidly than the finer fraction.There is a long-standing debate about the relative roles of abrasion and sorting in downstream fining. Our data reveal little evidence for a downstream increase in the roundness of the river's gravels, implying that abrasion is likely to play a minor role in the fining process in this system.

Reaction time-based Concealed Information Test in eyewitness identification is moderated by picture similarity but not eyewitness cooperation

The reaction time-based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) has high validity in assessing recognition of critical information. Findings on its usefulness for diagnosing face recognition in eyewitnesses are inconsistent. Experiment 1 (N = 82) tested whether closely matching the faces of the probes and irrelevants, as required for a fair lineup, undermines RT-CIT usefulness. Preregistered Experiments 2a and 2b (Ns = 48), tested the role of eyewitness cooperativeness for RT-CIT validity. All participants watched a mock crime video and then completed an RT-CIT. As expected, the usefulness of the RT-CIT was moderated by picture similarity, with better detection for non-matched faces. Unexpectedly, eyewitness cooperation (conceal vs. reveal recognition), did not affect the validity of the RT-CIT. A large CIT effect observed in Experiment 2b further suggested that—even with matched faces—the RT-CIT might be of use when encoding conditions during the crime were favorable. Cases in which witnesses are unwilling or afraid to make an explicit identification might concern another possible application.

College Women’s Self-Leadership Stereotypes as a Function of Prime Similarity and Motherhood Information

The goal of the study was to understand under what circumstances exposure to primes of women leaders can influence young women’s implicit and explicit identification with leadership gender stereotypes. Previous research has emphasized the importance of perceived similarity in terms of personality traits; the current study explored whether adding information regarding the role models’ motherhood status facilitated or impaired such models’ inspirational potential. Eighty-seven college women in the U.S. participated in the 2 X 2 design in which fabricated feedback indicated whether participants’ gendered personality traits were similar or dissimilar to six successful women role models, presented either as mothers or with no mention of mother status. As expected, exposure to the successful women leaders produced counterstereotypic implicit self-leader associations only in the similar mother-mentioned condition. That is, only the participants who were told they had similar traits to the women leaders who were mothers associated themselves with the agentic (counterstereotypical) traits of typical leaders. Explicit self-stereotypes were not influenced by either manipulation unless participants accepted the (false) feedback regarding (dis)similarity. Discussion emphasized the importance of perceived similarity as mediating the effectiveness of exposure to successful role models and the value of including information about the motherhood status of such models, at least for young women.

Research on Dynamic Load Identification Based on Explicit Wilson‐θ and Improved Regularization Algorithm

In the research of dynamic load identification, the method of obtaining kernel function matrix is usually rather cumbersome. To solve this problem, an explicit dynamic load identification algorithm based on the Wilson‐θ (DLIAEW) method is proposed to easily obtain the kernel function matrix as long as the parameters of the system are known. To aim at the ill‐posed problem in the inverse problem, this paper improves the Tikhonov regularization, proposes an improved regularization algorithm (IRA), and introduces the U‐curve method to determine the regularization parameters. In the numeric simulation investigation of a four dofs vibrating system, effects of the sampling frequency and the noise level on the regularization parameters and the identification errors of impact and harmonic loads for the IRA are discussed in comparison with the Tikhonov regularization. Finally, the experiments of a cantilever beam excited by impact and harmonic loads are carried out to verify the advantages of the IRA.

The Epicure in Surinam: Lucretian Reception and Skepticism in Aphra Behn's Oroonoko

The Epicure in Surinam:Lucretian Reception and Skepticism in Aphra Behn's Oroonoko Sarah-Gray Lesley Aphra Behn was unapologetic in her support of Epicureanism. This is particularly evident in her poem, "To the Unknown Daphnis" (1683), one of several prefatory paeans to Thomas Creech in the second edition of his translation of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura. Creech was the first to publish a complete English translation of the Roman didactic epic in 1682, and Behn's poem praises Creech for making the Latin text readable to those who did not receive a classical education. This group includes, notably, Behn and a vast majority of seventeenth-century women. However, Behn is excited not only by the increased classical accessibility for her and her fellow female readers, but also by the heterodoxy within De Rerum Natura itself. "To the Unknown Daphnis" makes explicit that Behn finds in Lucretius classical support for her career-long commitment to intellectual freedom, skepticism, and libertine anti-religion.1 Behn, of course, was not the first to mobilize Epicureanism as a tool for thinking about the world outside of the theocratic standard. Epicureanism engenders skepticism within its followers by way of its materialist principles.2 At the center of the Epicurean universe are atoms—the smallest possible unit of matter from which all things are made. These atoms' movement through and structure within vacuums order the world in which we live. The universe is infinite in size, and other worlds like or unlike ours can and do exist. This unlimited universe is not guided by divine force. Though extant, the gods are entirely removed from the lives of those on earth(s), so they enact neither good will nor wrath, neither providence nor ultimate judgment, upon mortals. If the gods were to involve themselves with the troubles of humans, they would no longer be perfect, because perfection, for the Epicure, is ataraxia, a state of complete peace about one's life [End Page 75] and, especially, one's mortality. In ataraxia, one accepts that they are made exclusively of the materials of the world—atoms. This includes one's soul3 (anima), which is atomic and part of the body; thus, it dies with the body. It follows then that there is no afterlife that humans can either fear or look forward to. For Lucretius and Epicurus, this denial of immortality enables humans to escape the constraints of religion—religion being an institution which is merely a vehicle of fear designed to control people. The purpose of an Epicurean life then is not to appease the moral guidelines of an unseen god, but rather to live a life of mental peace, bodily health, and intellectual fellowship. Given this context, it is hardly surprising that a full English translation of De Rerum Natura was kept from print for nearly 250 years after Poggio Bracciolini's 1417 rediscovery of the text. For reasons such as these, Creech appears quite apologetic and uncomfortable with his position as Lucretius's translator. His marginalia and prefatory material work to distance him from certain beliefs held by his classical subject, while Behn's "To the Unknown Daphnis" highlights the same bristly elements and writes them honorable. Creech, or his publisher Jacob Tonson, identified the controversy innate in Behn's brazen promotion of Epicurean materialism at its most heterodox and censured her poem in its 1683 print. Evidence that Behn's paean was in fact edited against her wishes is found in two of her later poems. In 1685, Behn published "A Letter to Mr. Creech," a Hudibrastic satire which accuses Creech of betrayal regarding a "scrap of Nonsense" which had been "left at the Tonsons" (4–5). This "scrap", she alleges, has been marred by Creech's intervention; she complains that his "Scribling Fist was out of joynt / And ev'ry Limb made great complaint" (41–42). Just a year before, Behn published her second edition of "To the Unknown Daphnis" (1684) with significant changes in her collection, Poems Upon Several Occasions. Behn's explicit identification of editorial betrayal in "A Letter to Mr. Creech" suggests that the second edition of "To the Unknown Daphnis" was a correction, rather than a...

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note Christopher Keep In the second chapter of Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit (1855–57), it is unclear which “plague” has prompted the medical authorities in Marseille to detain foreign travellers en route from “the East” (13). Dickens sets the story some thirty years before the novel’s original serialization, at which time Marseille was locked down owing to an outbreak of smallpox, one that would eventually claim 1,507 victims, or 1.2% of the city’s population (Barbieri and Drancourt S7). But Dickens’s association of the disease with the Orient, and the text’s emphasis on environmental rather than person-to-person transmission, suggests he may have had cholera, which swept through much of Europe in the early 1830s, in mind (Wright 261). The lack of an explicit identification of the contagious disease in question is, of course, pretty much the point: Dickens is less interested in scientific questions concerning the global spread of a virus than in the affective and psychological dimensions of what it means to live in quarantine. Feeling himself constantly watched by his ever-vigilant warders, Mr. Meagles appears to have internalized the panoptic gaze and convinced himself that he must, indeed, be one of the infected. “That’s my grievance,” he tells Arthur Clennam. “I have had the plague continually, ever since I have been here. I am like a sane man shut up in a madhouse; I can’t stand the suspicion of the thing. I came here as well as ever I was in my life; but to suspect me of the plague is to give me the plague. And I have had it—and I have got it” (13). When Clennam remarks that his compatriot in isolation seems, nonetheless, “to bear it very well” (13), Meagles vehemently denies the claim until his wife encourages him to take consolation in the presence of and good cheer afforded by their daughter, Pet. Meagles concedes the point and Clennam, too, remarks that such company “has had the result of making even quarantine enjoyable” (13). Dickens’s depiction of life in quarantine, where listlessness and boredom strangely mix with a sense of deep foreboding and doom, and the fear for one’s own health seems to be as contagious as the virus that necessitated the establishment of the cordon sanitaire in the first place, will seem very familiar to many readers who come to these pages in the midst of the pandemic occasioned by the coronavirus. As I write these words, in April 2020, a third of the global population is under some form of lockdown while health-care workers struggle to tend to the overwhelming numbers of the afflicted and essential service providers strive to maintain basic needs. For many academics, this means being cut off not only from our daily contact with students and colleagues but from the libraries, archives, and other [End Page v] resources that are essential to our research. These are small sacrifices, to be sure, and many are making them, like Mrs. Meagles, cheerfully, knowing that they will be temporary and are in the name of the greater public good. Moreover, many organizations and institutions have responded to the present crisis with both ingenuity and generosity. Working with individuals, libraries, and universities across the world, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Internet Archive, for example, has established what it calls a “National Emergency Library.” This service makes available more than 1.4 million digital copies of books and other materials for the duration of the current health crisis—the references above to Little Dorrit come from just this source, as my dog-eared copy languishes behind the locked doors of my departmental office. Moreover, Johns Hopkins University Press is making all the journals for which it is responsible, typically accessible only by scholars and researchers through their universities and colleges, available to the general public through the Project Muse digital platform. This means that the entire run of Victorian Review, from its first issue in 1972 to the one you are reading now, can now be read by anyone in the world with access to the Internet, at least for the duration of the...