Multiplet-Assisted Peak Alignment for 1H NMR-Based Metabolomics.

NMR-based metabolomics aims at recovering biological information by comparing spectral data from samples of biological interest and appropriate controls. Any statistical analysis performed on the data matrix relies on the proper peak alignment to produce meaningful results. Through the last decades, several peak alignment algorithms have been proposed, as well as alternatives like spectral binning or strategies for annotation and quantification, the latter depending on reference databases. Most of the alignment algorithms, mainly based on segmentation of the spectra, present limitations for regions with peak overlap or cases of frequency order exchange. Here, we present our multiplet-assisted peak alignment algorithm, a new methodology that consists of aligning peaks by matching multiplet profiles of f1 traces from J-resolved spectra. A correspondence matrix with the linked f1 traces is built, and multivariate data analysis can be performed on it to obtain useful information from the data, overcoming the issues of peak overlap and frequency crossovers. Statistical total correlation spectroscopy can be applied on the matrix as well, toward a better identification of molecules of interest. The results can be queried on one-dimensional (1D) 1H databases or can be directly coupled to our previously published Chemical Shift Multiplet Database.

Data-driven patient stratification of UK Biobank cohort suggests five endotypes of multimorbidity.

Multimorbidity generally refers to concurrent occurrence of multiple chronic conditions. These patients are inherently at high risk and often lead a poor quality of life due to delayed treatments. With the emergence of personalized medicine and stratified healthcare, there is a need to stratify patients right at the primary care setting. Here we developed multimorbidity analysis pipeline (MulMorPip), which can stratify patients into multimorbid subgroups or endotypes based on their lifetime disease diagnosis and characterize them based on demographic features and underlying disease-disease interaction networks. By implementing MulMorPip on UK Biobank cohort, we report five distinct molecular subclasses or endotypes of multimorbidity. For each patient, we calculated the existence of broad disease classes defined by Charlson's comorbidity classification using the International Classification of Diseases-10 encoding. We then applied multiple correspondence analysis in 77 524 patients from UK Biobank, who had multimorbidity of more than one disease, which resulted in five multimorbid clusters. We further validated these clusters using machine learning and were able to classify 20% model-blind test set patients with an accuracy of 97% and an average Jaccard similarity of 84%. This was followed by demographic characterization and development of interlinking disease network for each cluster to understand disease-disease interactions. Our identified five endotypes of multimorbidity draw attention to dementia, stroke and paralysis as important drivers of multimorbidity stratification. Inclusion of such patient stratification at the primary care setting can help general practitioners to better observe patients' multiple chronic conditions, their risk stratification and personalization of treatment strategies.

Spatiotemporal topological correspondence between blood oxygenation and glucose metabolism revealed by simultaneous fPET-fMRI in brain's white matter.

White matter (WM) makes up half of the human brain. Compelling functional MRI evidence indicates that white matter exhibits neural activation and synchronization via a hemodynamic window. However, the neurometabolic underpinnings of white matter temporal synchronization and spatial topology remain unknown. By leveraging concurrent [18F]FDG-fPET and blood-oxygenation-level-dependent-fMRI, we demonstrated the temporal and spatial correspondences between blood oxygenation and glucose metabolism in the human brain white matter. In the temporal scale, we found that blood-oxygenation-level-dependent signals shared mutual information with FDG signals in the default-mode, visual, and sensorimotor-auditory networks. For spatial distribution, the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent functional networks in white matter were accompanied by substantial correspondence of FDG functional connectivity at different topological scales, including degree centrality and global gradients. Furthermore, the content of blood-oxygenation-level-dependent fluctuations in the white matter default-mode network was aligned and liberal with the FDG graph, suggesting the freedom of default-mode network neuro-dynamics, but the constraint by metabolic dynamics. Moreover, the dissociation of the functional gradient between blood-oxygenation-level-dependent and FDG connectivity specific to the white matter default-mode network revealed functional heterogeneities. Together, the results showed that brain energy metabolism was closely coupled with blood oxygenation in white matter. Comprehensive and complementary information from fMRI and fPET might therefore help decode brain white matter functions.

Cortex2vector: anatomical embedding of cortical folding patterns.

Current brain mapping methods highly depend on the regularity, or commonality, of anatomical structure, by forcing the same atlas to be matched to different brains. As a result, individualized structural information can be overlooked. Recently, we conceptualized a new type of cortical folding pattern called the 3-hinge gyrus (3HG), which is defined as the conjunction of gyri coming from three directions. Many studies have confirmed that 3HGs are not only widely existing on different brains, but also possess both common and individual patterns. In this work, we put further effort, based on the identified 3HGs, to establish the correspondences of individual 3HGs. We developed a learning-based embedding framework to encode individual cortical folding patterns into a group of anatomically meaningful embedding vectors (cortex2vector). Each 3HG can be represented as a combination of these embedding vectors via a set of individual specific combining coefficients. In this way, the regularity of folding pattern is encoded into the embedding vectors, while the individual variations are preserved by the multi-hop combination coefficients. Results show that the learned embeddings can simultaneously encode the commonality and individuality of cortical folding patterns, as well as robustly infer the complicated many-to-many anatomical correspondences among different brains.

Investigating the effect of prescribing status and patient characteristics on the therapeutic outcomes in patients with diabetes using a leftover drug adjustment protocol.

Treatment for diabetes includes anti-diabetic medication in addition to lifestyle improvements through diet and exercise. In Japan, protocol-based pharmacotherapy management allows drug treatment to be provided through cooperation between physicians and pharmacists, based on a protocol that is prepared and agreed upon in advance. However, there are no studies to clarify the relationship between patient characteristics and therapeutic effects after pharmacist intervention in protocol-based pharmacotherapy management for patients with diabetes. Therefore, this study aimed to use protocol-based reports from pharmacies to understand the status of outpatient diabetes medication compliance. We classified patients with diabetes on the basis of patient characteristics that can be collected in pharmacies and investigated the characteristics that impacted diabetes treatment. Patients were prescribed oral anti-diabetic drugs at outpatient clinics of Hitachinaka General Hospital, Hitachi, Ltd., from April 2016 to March 2021. Survey items included patient characteristics (sex, age, number of drugs used, observed number of years of anti-diabetic drug prescription, number of anti-diabetic drug prescription days, and presence or absence of leftover anti-diabetic drugs) and HbA1c levels. Graphical analyses indicated the relationship between each categorised patient characteristic using multiple correspondence analyses. Subsequently, the patients were clustered using K-means cluster analysis based on the coordinates obtained for each patient. Patient characteristics and HbA1c values were compared between the groups for each cluster. A total of 1,910 patients were included and classified into three clusters, with clusters 1, 2, and 3 containing 625, 703, and 582 patients, respectively. Patient characteristics strongly associated with Cluster 1 were ages between 65 and 74 years, use of three or more anti-diabetic drugs, use of 3 years or more of anti-diabetic drugs, and leftover anti-diabetic drugs. Furthermore, Cluster 1 had the highest number of patients with worsening HbA1c levels compared with other clusters. Using the leftover drug adjustment protocol, we clarified the patient characteristics that affected the treatment course. We anticipate that through targeted interventions in patients exhibiting these characteristics, we can identify those who are irresponsibly continuing with drug treatment, are not responding well to therapy, or both. This could substantially improve the efficacy of their anti-diabetic care.

Social and communicative not a prerequisite: Preverbal infants learn an abstract rule only from congruent audiovisual dynamic pitch-height patterns.

Learning in the everyday environment often requires the flexible integration of relevant multisensory information. Previous research has demonstrated preverbal infants' capacity to extract an abstract rule from audiovisual temporal sequences matched in temporal synchrony. Interestingly, this capacity was recently reported to be modulated by crossmodal correspondence beyond spatiotemporal matching (e.g., consistent facial emotional expressions or articulatory mouth movements matched with sound). To investigate whether such modulatory influence applies to non-social and non-communicative stimuli, we conducted a critical test using audiovisual stimuli free of social information: visually upward (and downward) moving objects paired with a congruent tone of ascending or incongruent (descending) pitch. East Asian infants (8-10 months old) from a metropolitan area in Asia demonstrated successful abstract rule learning in the congruent audiovisual condition and demonstrated weaker learning in the incongruent condition. This implies that preverbal infants use crossmodal dynamic pitch-height correspondence to integrate multisensory information before rule extraction. This result confirms that preverbal infants are ready to use non-social non-communicative information in serving cognitive functions such as rule extraction in a multisensory context.

Prior visual experience increases children's use of effective haptic exploration strategies in audio-tactile sound-shape correspondences.

Sound-shape correspondence refers to the preferential mapping of information across the senses, such as associating a nonsense word like bouba with rounded abstract shapes and kiki with spiky abstract shapes. Here we focused on audio-tactile (AT) sound-shape correspondences between nonsense words and abstract shapes that are felt but not seen. Despite previous research indicating a role for visual experience in establishing AT associations, it remains unclear how visual experience facilitates AT correspondences. Here we investigated one hypothesis: seeing the abstract shapes improve haptic exploration by (a) increasing effective haptic strategies and/or (b) decreasing ineffective haptic strategies. We analyzed five haptic strategies in video-recordings of 6- to 8-year-old children obtained in a previous study. We found the dominant strategy used to explore shapes differed based on visual experience. Effective strategies, which provide information about shape, were dominant in participants with prior visual experience, whereas ineffective strategies, which do not provide information about shape, were dominant in participants without prior visual experience. With prior visual experience, poking-an effective and efficient strategy-was dominant, whereas without prior visual experience, uncategorizable and ineffective strategies were dominant. These findings suggest that prior visual experience of abstract shapes in 6- to 8-year-olds can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of haptic exploration, potentially explaining why prior visual experience can increase the strength of AT sound-shape correspondences.

An investigation on the prevalence and patterns of multi-morbidity among a group of slum-dwelling older women of Kolkata, India.

BACKGROUND: Multi-morbidity is a pervasive and growing issue worldwide. The prevalence of multi-morbidity varies across different populations and settings, but it is particularly common among older adults. It poses substantial physical, psychological, and socio-economic burdens on individuals, caregivers and healthcare systems. In this context, the present study aims to provide an insight on the prevalence and degree of multi-morbidity; and also, on the relationship between level of multi-morbidity and morbid conditions among a group of slum-dwelling older women. METHODS: This community based cross-sectional study was conducted in the slum areas of urban Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It includes total 500 older women, aged 60 years or above. Pre-tested schedules on so-demographic and morbidity profile have canvassed to obtain the information by door-to-door survey. To determine the relationship between the level of multi-morbidity and morbid conditions, correspondence analysis has performed. RESULTS: The study revealed three most prevalent morbid conditions- back and/or joint pain, dental caries/cavity and hypertension. The overall prevalence of multi-morbidity was 95.8% in this group of older women. It was highly over-represented by the oldest-old age group (80 years and above). Majority were found to suffer from five simultaneous morbid conditions that accounted for 15.2% of the total respondents. All of the oldest-old women of this study reported to suffer from more than two medical conditions simultaneously. Three distinct groups were formed based on the inter-relationship between level of multi-morbidity and morbid conditions. The group 1 and 2 represents only 27.8% and 18% of the total sample. Whereas, group 3 comprises the highest level of morbidities (≥ 6) and 52.8% of total sample, and strongly related with general debilities, cardiac problems, asthma/COPD, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal problems, neurological disorders, hypothyroidism and oral health issues. CONCLUSION: The findings confirmed the assertion that multi-morbidity in slum living older adults is a problem with high prevalence and complexity. This study proposes an easily replicable approach of understanding complex interaction of morbidities that can help further in identifying the healthcare needs of older adults to provide them with healthy and more productive life expectancy.

Comprehensive Statistical Approach to Investigate the Risk Factors Affecting the Occurrences of Cellulitis Episodes among Patients with Lymphedema.

Background: Cellulitis is an infection of the skin and the tissues just under the skin. As any disease, cellulitis has various physiological and physical effects that deteriorate a patient's quality of life. Luckily, cellulitis can be treated when dealt with in a timely fashion. Nonetheless, some patients may experience more than one episode of cellulitis or a recurrence of cellulitis that was previously cured. In fact, the occurrences of cellulitis episodes are believed to follow a statistical distribution. The frequency distribution of cellulitis episodes is scrutinized herein. We aimed to investigate the risk factors that affect the number of cellulitis episodes and the pattern of association between cancer types and cellulitis episodes by using analytical and visual approaches.Methods: A statistical approach applying a two-part count regression model was used instead of the traditional one-part count model. Moreover, multiple correspondence analysis was used to support the finding of count regression models.Results: The results of analysis of the sample from the National Cheng Kung University hospital in Taiwan revealed the mean age of patients was 58.7 ± 14.31 years old. The two-part regression model is conceptually and numerically better than the one-part regression model when examining the risks factors that affect cellulitis episodes. Particularly, we found the significant factors based on the best model are cellulitis history ([Formula: see text]; P value < 0.001), clinical stage of cancer (3) ([Formula: see text]; P value < 0.001), no cancer ([Formula: see text]; P value < 0.05), cancer of female reproductive organs ([Formula: see text]; P value < 0.05), breast cancer ([Formula: see text]; P value < 0.05), and age ≥ 60 years ([Formula: see text]; P value < 0.05). Multiple correspondence analysis approach found cancer types (breast and female reproductive organ), age ≥ 60 years, and cellulitis history were more likely to link to excess zero cellulitis or one cellulitis episode.

Humans (Homo sapiens) but not baboons (Papio papio) demonstrate crossmodal pitch-luminance correspondence.

Humans spontaneously and consistently map information coming from different sensory modalities. Surprisingly, the phylogenetic origin of such cross-modal correspondences has been under-investigated. A notable exception is the study of Ludwig et al. (Visuoauditory mappings between high luminance and high pitch are shared by chimpanzees [Pan troglodytes] and humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(51), 20661-20665) which reports that both humans and chimpanzees spontaneously map high-pitched sounds with bright objects and low-pitched sounds with dark objects. Our pre-registered study aimed to directly replicate this research on both humans and baboons (Papio papio), an old world monkey which is more phylogenetically distant from humans than chimpanzees. Following Ludwig et al. participants were presented with a visual classification task where they had to sort black and white square (low and high luminance), while background sounds (low or high-pitched tones) were playing. Whereas we replicated the finding that humans' performance on the visual task was affected by congruency between sound and luminance of the target, we did not find any of those effects on baboons' performance. These results question the presence of a shared cross-modal pitch-luminance mapping in other nonhuman primates.

Study on the concentration, distribution, and persistence of health spending for the contributory scheme in Colombia.

Colombia is among the countries with the most robust financial protection against personal health spending in the world, with out-of-pocket spending ranking lowest across OECD countries. We investigate the evolution, distribution, and persistence of health spending by age group, sex, health care setting, health condition and geographic region for over 19 million users of Colombia's health system between 2013 and 2021 (contributory scheme). We use average patient-level expenditure data from the Health-Promoting Entities of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. We applied multivariate statistical techniques such as multiple correspondence analysis, factor maps and correlations. For both sexes, average health expenditure increases gradually with age until 60 years, accelerating thereafter abruptly. Health conditions with the highest percentage of expenditure were those related to neoplasms, blood diseases, circulatory system, pregnancy, puerperium and perinatal period. We found that home-based care in Amazonía-Orinoquía is almost non-existent, and that outpatient care represents a high proportion in all age groups (over 65%) compared to the other regions. There is a strong persistence of expenditure from one year to the next (i.e. they can provide relevant information for prediction), especially in areas with a larger supply of health services such as Bogotá-Cundinamarca. To the authors' knowledge, this is the most comprehensive and detailed micro-analysis of health spending that has been developed for a Latin American country to date.

Synesthetic Correspondence: An Overview.

Intramodal and cross-modal perceptual grouping based on the spatial proximity and temporal closeness between multiple sensory stimuli, as an operational principle has built a coherent and meaningful representation of the multisensory event/object. To implement and investigate the cross-modal perceptual grouping, researchers have employed excellent paradigms of spatial/temporal ventriloquism and cross-modal dynamic capture and have revealed the conditional constraints as well as the functional facilitations among various correspondence of sensory properties, with featured behavioral evidence, computational framework as well as brain oscillation patterns. Typically, synesthetic correspondence as a special type of cross-modal correspondence can shape the efficiency and effect-size of cross-modal interaction. For example, factors such as pitch/loudness in the auditory dimension with size/brightness in the visual dimension could modulate the strength of the cross-modal temporal capture. The empirical behavioral findings, as well as psychophysical and neurophysiological evidence to address the cross-modal perceptual grouping and synesthetic correspondence, were summarized in this review. Finally, the potential applications (such as artificial synesthesia device) and how synesthetic correspondence interface with semantics (sensory linguistics), as well as the promising research questions in this field have been discussed.

LETter To the EditoR Standards (LETTERS): Considerations for Authors, Reviewers, and Editors.

Correspondence in the form of letters to the editor serves multiple scholarly purposes, including critiquing previously published articles, engaging in discourse with other correspondents, commenting on the journal's structure or style, and contributing insights for future publications. The composition of such letters warrants meticulous attention, as they play a crucial role in fostering communication between the journal and its readership. Adherence to specific principles is essential in crafting an effective letter to the editor. These communications should be concise, lucid, and adhere to a professional tone. The content should be constructive in nature and substantiated by rigorous scientific evidence and appropriate citations. The structure of a letter to the editor typically encompasses several key components: a title, an opening section, the main body of the correspondence, a closing statement, and a list of references. This article aims to establish Letter to the Editor Standards as a comprehensive guide for authors, reviewers, and editorial boards, thereby enhancing the quality and impact of this crucial form of academic discourse.

Letters generated by ChatGPT: Author who?

AIM: ChatGPT's role in medical writing is a topic of discussion. I experimented whether ChatGPT almost automatically generates Correspondence or Letter addressed to a "translated" article, and thereby wish to arouse discussion regarding ChatGPT use in medical writing. METHODS: I input an English article of mine into ChatGPT, tasking it with generating an English Disagreement Letter (Letter 1). Next, I tasked ChatGPT with translating the manuscript addressed to from English-French-Spanish-German. Then, I once again tasked ChatGPT with generating an English Disagreement Letter addressed to a German manuscript (triplicate translated manuscript) (Letter 2). RESULTS: Letters 1 and 2 are readable and reasonable, shooting the point that the author (myself) felt as the weakness of the article. Letters addressed to French (single translation) and to Spanish (double translation) and longer Letters (corresponding to Letters 1 and 2) are also readable, and thus stand. CONCLUSIONS: Solely based on this experiment, one may be able to write a letter even without understanding the meaning of the paper being addressed, let alone the language of the paper. Although this humble experiment does not conclude anything, I plea for a comprehensive discussion on the implications of these findings.

Preserving the human voice: A plea for regulating ChatGPT use in Correspondence and Opinion writing.

Correspondence and Opinion provide a 'human voice,' serving as the captivating elements that grab readers' attention and stimulate contemplation. The extent of ChatGPT's involvement in writing raises controversy. We tested ChatGPT's capability to generate readable Correspondence or Opinion, producing an English Opinion from a Japanese abstract. We also tasked ChatGPT with creating Correspondence and Reply for an English→German translated Opinion. Opinion, Correspondence, and Reply output here were found to be readable and reasonable. While preliminary, these results suggest that ChatGPT can generate such articles, prompting serious concern about AI taking over the 'human voice.' Some regulatory measures may be needed.

Self-purification in tropical upland rivers as affected by environmental factors: the case of Balili River in Benguet, Philippines.

A major data gap in tropical river ecology is the limited documentation of natural water purification of upstream rivers. This study documented the improvement of water quality of downstream Balili River as affected by environmental factors and macrophyte diversity using a mixed-method approach (water quality assessment, plant inventory, field observation, canonical correspondence analysis, community interview). Results showed that the distance from pollution plays a significant role in the self-purification of the river while the floral diversity maintains the riparian from further contaminating the water and at the same time absorbing air pollutants. Generally, the pollution reduction and %change is exponential at 2 and 3 km from point source then taper at 4 and 5 km. At 3 km from the point source, 30% improvement in TDS, BOD and salinity, 25% for EC, 20% in TSS, 35% in WQI, 36% in CPI, and 50% for DO were noted. Key factors that influence the self-purification process in the river were distance from pollution source, elevation, human disturbance (as indicated by %tree canopy) and temperature. These findings highlight the importance of distance from pollution sources and floral diversity in driving water quality improvements, with implications for sustainable water resource management in tropical regions.

This study documented the improvement of water quality of downstream Balili River as affected by environmental factors and macrophyte diversity ­ as contribution to the major data gap in tropical river ecology which currently has limited documentation on natural water purification of upstream rivers. The study also shows the mosaic interplay of water quality, plant diversity, distance from pollution, human disturbance, and air quality in understudied tropical river. Further, this study is unique in documenting the downstream of Balili River since majority of the previous studies were concentrated in the upstream portion of the river.

Altitudinal Impact on Phytochemical Composition and Mycorrhizal Diversity of Taxus Contorta Griff in the Temperate Forest of Shimla District.

Taxus contorta (family Taxaceae) is a native plant of temperate region of western Himalaya. The current study investigated the effect of altitude on the phytochemical composition and mycorrhizal diversity, associated with distribution of T. contorta in Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh, India. Quantitative phytochemical analysis of the leaf extracts indicated that alkaloid levels decreased with altitude, with the highest value in Himri's methanol extracts (72.79 ± 1.08 mg/g) while phenol content increased with altitude, peaking in Nankhari's methanol extracts (118.83 ± 5.90 mg/g). Saponin content was higher in methanol extracts (78.13 ± 1.66 mg/g in Nankhari, 68.06 ± 1.92 mg/g in Pabbas, and 56.32 ± 1.93 mg/g in Himri). Flavonoid levels were notably higher in chloroform extracts, particularly in Nankhari (219.97 ± 2.99 mg/g), and positively correlated with altitude. Terpenoids were higher in chloroform extracts at Himri (11.34 ± 0.10 mg/g) and decreased with altitude. Taxol content showed minimal variation between solvents and altitudes (4.53-6.98 ppm), while rutin was only detected in methanol extracts (1.31-1.46 ppm). Mycorrhizal spore counts in T. contorta's rhizosphere varied with altitude: highest at Himri (77.83 ± 2.20 spores/50 g soil), decreasing to Pabbas (68.06 ± 1.96 spores/50 g soil) and lowest at Nankhari (66.00 ± 2.77 spores/50 g soil), with 17 AMF species identified overall, showing significant altitudinal influence on spore density. The rhizosphere of T. contorta was shown to be dominated by the Glomus species. The rhizospheric soil of the plant was found to be slightly acidic. Organic carbon and available potassium content decreased contrasting with increasing available nitrogen and phosphorus with altitude. Correlation data showed strong negative links between organic carbon (-0.83), moderate positive for nitrogen (0.46) and phosphorus (0.414), and moderate negative for potassium (-0.56) with the altitude. This study provides a comprehensive insight into changes in phytochemical constituents, mycorrhizal diversity and soil composition of T. contorta along a range of altitude.

A practice-based study of relational virtues and alliance correspondence in psychodynamic psychotherapy.

OBJECTIVE: Treatment outcome monitoring typically emphasizes pathology. In contrast, we responded to the need to establish psychodynamic psychotherapy as evidence-based by modeling changes in gratitude and forgiveness. METHOD: We utilized a practice-based research design involving non-manualized outpatient treatment. We employed a longitudinal mixture modeling approach to evaluate treatment effectiveness. We did so by testing the theorized role for relational virtues (i.e., gratitude, forgiveness) as signs of progress in psychodynamic treatment, with relational virtues referring to the application of character strengths to specific situations. We modeled clients' self-reported level on the virtues as a joint process over five time points, and examined the influence of early treatment alliance correspondence on patterns of change using a sample of outpatient clients (N = 185; Mage = 40.12; 60% female; 74.1% White). RESULTS: A 3-class solution best fit the data, with one class exhibiting growth in gratitude and forgiveness, improved symptoms, and a greater likelihood of symptom improvement relative to well-being gains. Alliance correspondence predicted the classes of change patterns, with greater similarity between clinicians' and clients' perceptions about the alliance predicting greater likelihood of belonging to the subgroup showing highest levels of virtues and well-being, lowest symptoms, and improved well-being. CONCLUSION: Clinical implications involve monitoring gratitude and forgiveness as signs of progress and navigating the dialectic between implicit alliance processes and explicit virtue interventions. The former involves nurturing a strong alliance and repairing ruptures, whereas the latter involves direct in-session conversation and/or the practice of virtue interventions in and/or outside of session.

"Pray Observe How Time Slips By:" Collaborators, Assistants, and the Background Dynamics in the Publication of Darwin's Cirripedia Project.

This study investigates nineteenth century natural history practices through the lens of the Actor-Network Theory, which posits that scientific practice is shaped by an intricate network of interactions between human and non-human actors. At the core of this research is the analysis of correspondence between Charles Darwin and his collaborators during the Cirripedia Project, which unveils a complex landscape of negotiations with illustrators, funders, specimen owners, and translators, among other stakeholders and interested parties. The study goes beyond the final outcomes of scientific research, delving into behind-the-scenes interactions, and hidden constructions, shedding light on the complex dynamics and actors that conventional scientific narratives often overlook. In general, this approach provides a detailed and insightful view of the underlying processes of nineteenth-century scientific practice, underscoring the importance of epistolary correspondence as a central element in producing scientific knowledge at the time, and in particular it reveals to us how much Darwin was himself involved in the production of his famous work on barnacles. By emphasizing the intricacies of research, this study enriches our understanding of Darwin's work as well as natural history practices in the 19th century, highlighting the complexity and diversity of actors and agents involved in shaping scientific knowledge.

Iconicity ratings for 14,000+ English words.

Iconic words and signs are characterized by a perceived resemblance between aspects of their form and aspects of their meaning. For example, in English, iconic words include peep and crash, which mimic the sounds they denote, and wiggle and zigzag, which mimic motion. As a semiotic property of words and signs, iconicity has been demonstrated to play a role in word learning, language processing, and language evolution. This paper presents the results of a large-scale norming study for more than 14,000 English words conducted with over 1400 American English speakers. We demonstrate the utility of these ratings by replicating a number of existing findings showing that iconicity ratings are related to age of acquisition, sensory modality, semantic neighborhood density, structural markedness, and playfulness. We discuss possible use cases and limitations of the rating dataset, which is made publicly available.