Humpty Dumpty Research Articles

Characterizing a regional fishery ecosystem trajectory: the Humpty Dumpty fish tale of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico from 1986 to 2013

Showcasing the fishery ecosystem trajectory framework, this study seeks to understand the complex interplay between environmental, socioeconomic, and management factors in a large marine ecosystem as they relate to the status, structure, and function of living marine resources over time. Utilizing this framework, a historical accounting of a fishery ecosystem’s shifting stable states can be developed to describe the evolution of resources and identify apparent temporal controls. To that end, approximately three decades of data, spanning 1986–2013, were drawn from the 2017 ecosystem status report for the United States’ Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and used here as a case study. Analyses revealed a capricious system with ten unique fishery regime states over the 28-year period. The fishery ecosystem trajectory was broadly characterized by gradual and persistent changes, likely fueled by exploitation trends. However, a mid-1990s paradigm shift in the dynamics controlling the system-wide organization of resources resulted in an apparent recovery trajectory before leading to continued differentiation relative to its 1986 baseline configuration. This “Humpty Dumpty” ecosystem trajectory signifies permanent alterations akin to the nursery rhyme protagonist’s unrecoverable fall. Anthropogenic factors identified as influential to resource organization included artificial reef prevalence and recreational fishing pressure, while regional effects of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation’s warm phase transition after 1995 and rising sea surface temperatures in the GoM were also deemed notable. Conspicuously, the paradigm shift timing was coincident with effective implementation of annual catch limits due to the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act, highlighting the importance of the robust regulatory environment in this region. While these results describe the GoM fishery ecosystem’s vulnerability to shifting environmental and socioeconomic conditions, they also underscore its resources’ resilience, likely rooted in their complexity and diversity, to the rapidly evolving pressures observed throughout the study period. This work emphasizes the necessity of cautious, adaptive management strategies for large marine ecosystems, particularly in the face of climate-related uncertainties and species’ differential responses. It provides insight into the GoM fishery ecosystem’s dynamics and illustrates a transferable approach for informing ecosystem-based management strategies, sustainable practices, and decision making focused on preserving ecologically, economically, and culturally vital marine resources.

On Thooleramawns, Thullabawns, and Gawshkogues: The Role of Hiberno-English in Myles na gCopaleen’s Lexicon of Libel

This note reconsiders Myles na gCopaleen’s uses and abuses of Hiberno-English through some of the columnist’s favourite insults – such as thooleramawn, thullabawn, and gawshkogue.  A master of both of Ireland’s ‘official’ languages, Myles had a unique relationship with the unofficial hybrid, which provided him with, among other things, a rich repertoire of verbal disparagement. Not only did he have an apparent monopoly of some of these terms but, like a Hiberno-English Humpty Dumpty, he may have had exclusive rights to decide what, if anything, they meant.

The use of pediatric fall risk assessment tool in gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures: A prospective study

Background and Aims: The aim of this study is to evaluate the fall risk with Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale and determine related risk factors in pediatric patients undergoing gastrointestinal endoscopy. Materials and Methods: A prospective descriptive study was conducted in a large tertiary pediatric hospital. Patients' demographics, type of endoscopy, duration of endoscopic procedures, type of procedural sedation, doses of administered drugs during anesthesia, and post-procedure Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale scores were collected. Post-hoc and logistic regression analyses were performed to identify within-group differences and independent predictors of patient outcomes. Results: One hundred ninety-two pediatric patients (54.2% female) with a mean (standard deviation) age of 11.16 (5.32) years were admitted for a diagnostic gastrointestinal endoscopy. During procedures, the most commonly administered sedatives were midazolam (98.9%), propofol (96.9%), fentanyl (63.0%), and ketamine (34.9%). According to the Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale, 148 (77.1%) patients had a high risk for falls. No falls after endoscopic procedures was observed in the patients. When the predictive factors determining being at high-risk for falls were examined, the simultaneous application of esophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy under the same procedural sedation increases the risk of being high-risk 5.2 times compared to the performing esophagogastroduodenoscopy alone (p = 0.047). Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the use of Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale to predict falls in pediatric patients undergoing gastrointestinal endoscopy with procedural sedation. Although 77.1% of the patients were found to be at high risk for falls, there was no fall event after the endoscopic procedures due to precautionary measures. Our results indicate that pediatric patients undergoing gastrointestinal endoscopy with sedation are at increased risk of falling and preventive measures should be taken.

TWO NURSERY RHYME POEMS FROM A TEXT WORLD THEORY PERSPECTIVE

The analysis of two nursery rhyme poems from the perspective of Text World Theory shows the complexity of discourse structure of the genre that is popularly believed to be young children-oriented. According to P. Werth, J. Gavins, P. Stockwell, text worlds (alternative spelling: text-worlds) are mental constructs/representations that enable the author to create a particular text and readers/listeners, to understand and interpret it. Such worlds greatly depend on the linguistic cues and the context of the text, as well as on one’s general knowledge of the real world and his/her literary experience. In the current study, the discourse of the nursery rhymes Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall and Hush Little Baby, Don’t Say a Word is viewed in three aspects: (a) world-building elements that set temporal and spatial parameters, specify enactors and objects that are present in the text-world; function-advancing propositions; relational processes; (b) sub-worlds, or world-switches; (c) modalworlds. In Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall, the switch of deictic text-worlds is triggered by the implied change of local parameters and the introduction of new enactors. On the other hand, Hush Little Baby, Don’t Say a Word has a complex structure of consequently interrelated text-worlds. Its initial textworld, unlike that of the first poem, is of the deontic modal type. All the other worlds (except for the last one) are either epistemic or boulomaic modalworlds, both types being realized in the same complex sentences that describe various hypothetical situations in the future and the enactor’s further actions. Each new world consequently evolves from the previous one. This process is ensured by consequent repetition of nouns that denote enactors and/or objects and by parallel constructions that present hypothetical situations and describe the enactor’s possible actions. Thus, the analysis of the two nursery rhyme poems from a Text World Theory perspective has made it possible to establish complex intratextual relations in their discourse; besides, it has shown that the poems are designed so as to facilitate the development of young recipients’ cognitive skills.

“Bodyheartminding” (xin 心): Reconceiving the Inner Self and the Outer World in the Language of Holographic Focus and Field

“Bodyheartminding” (<i>xin</i> 心): Reconceiving the Inner Self and the Outer World in the Language of Holographic Focus and Field

Schwitters

This novel's plot, if one may speak of a plot, appears to have been hatched, if one may speak of something not an egg being hatched, at Oxford. The plotters, who have unlikely names even for plotters, met in Wellington Square, a place I know well. I once drank whiskey in the afternoon there with Jane Minto, as likely a character as any in a city that breeds characters (as any follower of Inspector Morse will know). The plotters, however, drank tea, from a tin teapot, while wearing wellingtons. Making something up is, in general, not that hard; making something up about Kurt Schwitters is, because his life itself was so abundant a collage. I once met a woman in front of one of his portraits: “That's me,” she said, “but I never liked it; nor did my husband; we put it under the bed.” She could have appeared in this novel but does not. Plenty of others do—relations and friends of the inventor of Merz.Merz was a fragment, a piece of Humpty Dumpty who fell off the wall in 1914 and could not be put together again. Not for want of trying by the likes of El Lissitzky, Vladimir Tatlin, Ivan Puni, and Schwitters, especially the last, collecting the Dumpty pieces into a Merzbau that was no more than an assemblage—not a Gesamtkunstwerk and not a cathedral, but what in England was once called a PreFab, a hopeful gesture in an age of helplessness. Schwitters was a collector of the discarded, of the disregarded, of the unregarded, and out of the debris he made beauty. He made poetry (if poetry it may be called) out of sounds, noises sounding in the ear like those made by the guns that had daily blown men, women, and horses to pieces.Clearly, Draesner, the author of this novel, has been totally beSchwittered. I myself became so at Oxford in 1959 and have never wavered in my beSchwitterment, albeit adding over the years beBeuysment, beFluxusment, and beKieferment to my inventory. Thus beSchwittered, I have been a pilgrim to Cylinders, though not finding it; to the grave at Ambleside, with no body in it; to Wordsworth's cottage, where I left my book of Kurt's poems; and to Hannover, to be photographed on Schwitters Square. Kurt's Hannover might have been Hanover (with a single n) had not Bismarck stolen it; Bomber Harris might, in that case, have thought twice about bombing it; and we might not have been asking of this Scheinkünstlerroman how German is it, but instead telling ourselves just how English it is.

The revised Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale: An update to improve tool performance and predictive validity

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to identify potential modifications to the Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale (HDFS) in order to enhance the accuracy of fall prediction in the pediatric population, thus contributing to the safest possible environment for the hospitalized child. Design and methodsA secondary analysis of data collected by Gonzalez et al. (2020), including a total of 2428 patients, was conducted for this study. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between each parameter of the HDFS (e.g., age, gender, diagnosis, cognitive impairments, environmental factors, response to surgery/sedation/anesthesia, and medication usage) and the outcome of fall status. ResultsAfter reviewing associations between HDFS parameters and fall risk, neither gender nor medication use were found to be associated with fall risk. These two parameters were removed from the scoring algorithms, and the HDFS was modified to a minimum score of 5 and maximum score of 20, with a score of 12 or above indicative of high risk of fall. The modified scale demonstrated a sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 57%. ConclusionsThese revisions are anticipated to help support clinical practice and improve fall prevention, thus supporting a safer pediatric environment for the hospitalized child.

Diabatic Valence-Hole States in the C2 Molecule: “Putting Humpty Dumpty Together Again”

Despite the long history of spectroscopic studies of the C$_2$ molecule, fundamental questions about its chemical bonding are still being hotly debated. The complex electronic structure of C$_2$ is a consequence of its dense manifold of near-degenerate, low-lying electronic states. A global multi-state diabatic model is proposed here to disentangle the numerous configuration interactions within four symmetry manifolds of C$_2$ ($^{1}\Pi_g$, $^{3}\Pi_g$, $^{1}\Sigma_u^+$, and $^{3}\Sigma_u^+$). The key concept of our model is the existence of two "valence-hole" configurations, $2\sigma_g^22\sigma_u^11\pi_{u}^33\sigma_g^2$ for $^{1,3}\Pi_g$ states and $2\sigma_g^22\sigma_u^11\pi_{u}^43\sigma_g^1$ for $^{1,3}\Sigma_u^+$ states that derive from $3\sigma_g\leftarrow2\sigma_u$ electron promotion. The lowest-energy state from each of the four C$_2$ symmetry species is dominated by this type of valence-hole configuration at its equilibrium internuclear separation. As a result of their large binding energy (nominal bond order of 3) and correlation with the 2s$^2$2p$^2$+2s2p$^3$ separated-atom configurations, the presence of these valence-hole configurations has a profound impact on the $global$ electronic structure and unimolecular dynamics of C$_2$.

The dynamics of exploited marine fish populations and Humpty Dumpty: similarities and differences

Marine fish populations of the global oceans and particularly large‐bodied, continental shelf‐dwelling groundfish species of the North Atlantic, such as cod (Gadus morhua), have been strongly perturbed by over‐fishing, frequently beyond levels that may have altered their capacity to recover. Age and size structure, spatial structure, reproductive potential, and other traits that convey fitness advantages are commonly lost when prolonged and excessive fishing pressure is exerted. Fisheries management protocols implemented to recover collapsed populations have been numerous and varied with all attempting to reduce or eliminate fishing pressure. Such measures, employed singly or in multiple combinations, typically involve quota reductions or fishing moratoria, area closures and other technical measures, as well as enhanced enforcement of fishing practices. A striking geographic pattern exists in the efficacy of such measures to regain lost population attributes and hence recovery. Some regional populations have recovered while others, despite management interventions lasting decades, notably, but not exclusively, those aimed at cod populations of the Northwest Atlantic, have yet to fully recover, an endpoint analogous to the conclusion of the famous nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty. Here we examine the dynamics of multiple collapsed populations exhibiting varying responses to recovery initiatives from the perspective of the Humpty Dumpty metaphor.

‘Humpty Dumpty has maybe had the last word…’

‘Humpty Dumpty has maybe had the last word…’

Through the Looking-Glass: “Full of All Manner of Curious Things”

ABSTRACT This article focuses on Lewis Carroll's repeated examples of “curious things” in Through the Looking-Glass, that is, curious in the double sense of Alice finding the things to be curious and the things finding Alice to be curious. In doing so, it employs several different critical approaches to the overlapping and problematic natures, orders, functions, contexts, and agencies of Carroll's curious things. These include flow theory's account of literally floating signifiers like the “large bright thing” in the Sheep's shop, carnivalesque gay matter like the White Queen's shawl, Freudian, Derridean, and Lacanian approaches to fort/da phenomena like Tweedledum's rattle, transitional objects like the looking-glass itself, liminal sacra like the Sheep's woolly yarn, thing theory's critical treatment of things like the egg that morphs into monstrous Humpty Dumpty, and new materialism's analysis of “things” like the Leg of Mutton who/that questions the binary separating humans and things. Finally, the article considers the significantly self-involved and ambivalent role of the reader-critic in discussing what Alice discovers to be “so many … curious things to think about.”

Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again: What Does Protein Quantification Mean in Bottom-Up Proteomics?

Bottom-up proteomics provides peptide measurements and has been invaluable for moving proteomics into large-scale analyses. Commonly, a single quantitative value is reported for each protein-coding gene by aggregating peptide quantities into protein groups following protein inference or parsimony. However, given the complexity of both RNA splicing and post-translational protein modification, it is overly simplistic to assume that all peptides that map to a singular protein-coding gene will demonstrate the same quantitative response. By assuming that all peptides from a protein-coding sequence are representative of the same protein, we may miss the discovery of important biological differences. To capture the contributions of existing proteoforms, we need to reconsider the practice of aggregating protein values to a single quantity per protein-coding gene.

The Humpty Dumpty Effect on Planet Earth

Humans have treated the earth harshly. Degradation of extant ecosystems leaves little chance that they might function as they have in the past. Putting back the pieces and restoring what once existed is no longer possible even with re-wildling—an effect analogous to the Humpty Dumpty parable. However, we do have conservation successes after concerted efforts related to habitat protection, species and ecosystem restoration, and planning. While the changes to Earth's biosphere are grave, necessitating immediate and exhaustive action, our Humpty Dumpty world reassembles with progressive conservation victories at all regional scales from local to global which should lead to a modicum of optimism rather than despair. We suggest that to be truly effective our work as academic scientists must be more than publishing in scholarly journals. At the least, this should include changes in how success is measured in science and how university tenure is awarded.

Humpty Dumpty, Norm from Cheers and the Electoral College: Why State Legislatures Can Override the Popular Vote for President

Humpty Dumpty, Norm from Cheers and the Electoral College: Why State Legislatures Can Override the Popular Vote for President

Zimbabweans under Humpty Dumpty Economics

This article seeks to understand the economic system of Zimbabwe, driving its notion of humpty dumpty or seemingly chaotic economics from economic fundamentals such as inflation, dollarization, currency floating and governance. The researchers explore secondary data sources across the spectrum to scrutinize their viewpoint on humpty dumpty economics. Based on statistical trend analysis of inflation and the value of money in Zimbabwe the authors conclude that inflation is harmful to the economy, and the ordinary citizens should be the heart and soul of policy making. The authors further recommend that the Government of Zimbabwe should adopt nudge theory when implementing economic policies.

Risk management: implementation of a clinical protocol for the prevention and management of pediatric falls.

To describe the process of elaboration and implementation of a protocol for the prevention and management of pediatric falls. This was an actionresearch developed at a public hospital in Southeast Brazil with 10 members of the multidisciplinary team from the pediatrics, maternity, neonatal intensive care sectors, and the patient safety center. To elaborate the protocol, literature review, three meetings with the group, and two rounds ofonline correction were carried out. Online training was carried out for all professionals and then the use of the protocol was started at the sectors. A pediatric fall prevention protocol was implemented. Educational materials were developed and the Humpty Dumpty Falls Scale was chosen to assess the risk of falling. The process was conducted in a collective and participatory way. The protocol and the educational materials guide and standardize behavior based on the best evidence and involve users, family members and professionals in the management of the risk of falling.

Joyce in the Fold, the Fold in Joyce

Joyce in the Fold, the Fold in Joyce

Climate change attribution and legal contexts: evidence and the role of storylines

In a recent very influential court case, Juliana v. United States, climate scientist Kevin Trenberth used the “storyline” approach to extreme event attribution to argue that greenhouse warming had affected and will affect extreme events in their regions to such an extent that the plaintiffs already had been or will be harmed. The storyline approach to attribution is deterministic rather than probabilistic, taking certain factors as contingent and assessing the role of climate change conditional on those factors. The US Government’s opposing expert witness argued that Trenberth had failed to make his case because “all his conclusions of the injuries to Plaintiffs suffer from the same failure to connect his conditional approach to Plaintiffs’ local circumstances.” The issue is whether it is possible to make statements about individual events based on general knowledge. A similar question is sometimes debated within the climate science community. We argue here that proceeding from the general to the specific is a process of deduction and is an entirely legitimate form of scientific reasoning. We further argue that it is well aligned with the concept of legal evidence, much more so than the more usual inductive form of scientific reasoning, which proceeds from the specific to the general. This has implications for how attribution science can be used to support climate change litigation. “The question is”, said Alice, “whether you can make words mean different things.” “The question is”, said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.” (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland).

An electronic medical record-based fall risk assessment tool for pediatric inpatients in South Korea: Improved sensitivity and specificity.

PurposeTo develop a fall risk assessment tool to predict fall risk in pediatric inpatients.MethodsThree tools widely used in clinical practice (Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale, General Risk Assessment for Pediatric Inpatient Falls, and Seoul National University Hospital Pediatric Fall Risk Scale) were examined, and assessment items were extracted. Employing a case-control design, 29 children who experienced falls during hospital stays were selected as the "fall" group, and a control group (93 children) was selected based on age and sex matching. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of the newly developed tool (Newfs-PI) were analyzed.ResultsThe Newfs-PI consisted of seven items: age, activity, history of falls, length of hospital stay, and medication. The total score ranged from 0 to 15. Its sensitivity and specificity were 62.07% and 74.19%, respectively.ConclusionThe Newfs-PI has high specificity and sensitivity, which are essential for a fall risk assessment tool that complements existing tools. These values are high relative to those of existing assessment tools and satisfy both sensitivity and specificity criteria. As the EMR enables monitoring of the components of the Newfs-PI, the tool can be used as a fall risk assessment and prevention scale for pediatric inpatients.

Can One and the Same Instance of Grief Be Both Normal and Disordered?

Can One and the Same Instance of Grief Be Both Normal and Disordered? Jerome C. Wakefield (bio) Miriam solomon resuscitates a famous proposal of George Engel's (1961) to classify normal grief as a medical disorder. She has two main arguments justifying such a reclassification, one based on Engel's "wound analogy" and another a "Humpty Dumpty"-type argument that 'disorder' is a technical term that we can redefine any way we please. I consider them in turn. The Wound-Analogy Argument Solomon says: "I suggest that we allow a concept of "psychological injury" that is analogous to the concept of physical injury." Of course, we already have a whole chapter of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) devoted to psychological injuries in the form of "trauma- and stressor-related disorders" (this is where the new "prolonged grief disorder" category will go). Normal grief has never been among these disorders because it is considered a normal-range emotional response to loss rather than something going wrong with mental functioning. Solomon nevertheless wants to place normal grief under "disorder" to make treatment more accessible. Solomon's first strategy for migrating normal grief into the disorder category is to argue that grief is analogous to the healing of a physical injury, and the healing of a physical injury can be both normal and a disorder. She uses the example of an injured accident victim to argue her case: I would like to suggest that a condition can be both normal and disordered. In this context, "normal" is not the opposite of "disordered." To see how this is possible, consider a case of physical injury, such as a motor vehicle accident that leaves a driver, previously in good health, with several broken ribs. The driver needs medical treatment for both fractures and pain and has a disease/disorder that can easily be stated on health insurance forms. Yet the driver's response to the accident—pain and disability—is entirely normal, given their injury. … [I]t is normal to suffer broken bones in this accident. So, in the context of physical injury, "normal" includes the response of a healthy body to injury. I think there are three ways to interpret Solomon's wound-analogy argument that "a condition can be both normal and disordered." I will argue that all three are fallacious when considered in the medical context. [End Page 341] The first interpretation pivots on the premise that "it is normal to suffer broken bones in this accident" and "the driver's response to the accident—pain and disability—is entirely normal, given their injury." In this interpretation, the fractures that result from the accident and the disability that results from the fractures are clear disorders but are also normal. Given a sufficient amount of force on a bone, it will certainly fracture, and given certain fractures, the individual will certainly be disabled, ergo there are disorders that are normal. This argument is invalid in the medical context because it turns on an equivocation of the term 'normal' between the statistical frequencies given certain preconditions (e.g., "given their injuries") versus functional normality representing the range of outcomes consistent with biological design that are medically normal. Failure of a bone to be capable of performing its biologically designed function after being fractured is not medically normal, even if it is a statistically normal outcome under the circumstances. The equivocation here is a common confusion. For example, in influential articles defending changing the label "dependence" that was used in DSM-IV to refer to addiction (Hasin et al., 2013; O'Brien, Volkow, & Li, 2006), it was argued that it is "normal" when taking certain prescribed drugs to develop physiological dependence. Of course, it is indeed expectable for our brains to adjust in this way, but it is not functionally normal for an individual to require the drugs in question in order to function adequately (Wakefield, 2015b). Normality in the statistical sense is not the same as functional normality, and the functional sense is the one relevant to evaluating disorder versus nondisorder (Wakefield, 1992, 1999a, 1999b). The second interpretation is that "a condition can be both...