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Abstract Objectives Artificial light sources such as visual display units (VDUs) elicit a range of subconscious and reflex light responses, including increases in alertness and suppression of pineal melatonin. Such responses employ dedicated retinal circuits encompassing melanopsin photoreceptors. Here, we aimed to determine whether this arrangement can be exploited to modulate the impact of VDUs on melatonin onset and alertness without altering visual appearance. Methods We generated a five-primary VDU capable of presenting metameric movies (matched for color and luminance) but varying in melanopic-irradiance. Healthy human participants (n = 11) were exposed to the VDU from 18:00 to 23:00 hours at high- or low-melanopic setting in a randomized cross-over design and measured salivary melatonin and self-reported sleepiness at 30-minute intervals. Results Our VDU presented a 3× adjustment in melanopic-irradiance for images matched photometrically for color and luminance. Participants reported no significant difference in visual appearance (color and glare) between conditions. During the time in which the VDU was viewed, self-reported sleepiness and salivary melatonin levels increased significantly, as would be expected in this phase of the diurnal cycle. The magnitude of the increase in both parameters was significantly enhanced when melanopic-irradiance was reduced. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that melatonin onset and self-reported sleepiness can be modulated independent of photometric parameters (color and luminance) under a commonly encountered light exposure scenario (evening use of a VDU). They provide the first demonstration that the impact of light on alertness and melatonin production can be controlled independently of visual experience, and establish a VDU capable of achieving this objective.

Background Hypersensitivity to electromagnetic fields (EMF) is a controversial condition. While individuals with idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) claim to experience health complaints upon EMF exposure, many experimental studies have found no convincing evidence for a physical relation. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate methodological limitations in experimental studies on symptom development in IEI-EMF individuals that might have fostered false positive or false negative results. Furthermore, we compared the profiles of these limitations between studies with positive and negative results. Methods The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guided the methodological conduct and reporting. Eligible were blinded experimental studies that exposed individuals with IEI-EMF to different EMF exposure levels and queried the development of symptoms during or after each exposure trial. Strengths and limitations in design, conduct and analysis of individual studies were assessed using a customized rating tool. Results Twenty-eight studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review. In many studies, both with positive and negative results, we identified methodological limitations that might have either fostered false or masked real effects of exposure. The most common limitations were related to the selection of study participants, the counterbalancing of the exposure sequence and the effectiveness of blinding. Many studies further lacked statistical power estimates. Methodically sound studies indicated that an effect of exposure is unlikely. Conclusion Overall, the evidence points towards no effect of exposure. If physical effects exist, previous findings suggest that they must be very weak or affect only few individuals with IEI-EMF. Given the evidence that the nocebo effect or medical/mental disorders may explain the symptoms in many individuals with IEI-EMF, additional research is required to identify the various factors that may be important for developing IEI-EMF and for provoking the symptoms. We recommend the identification of subgroups and exploring IEI-EMF in the context of other idiopathic environmental intolerances. If further experimental studies are conducted, they should preferably be performed at the individual level. In particular, to increase the likelihood of detecting hypersensitive individuals, if they exist, we encourage researchers to achieve a high credibility of the results by minimizing sources of risk of bias and imprecision.

To summarize systematic reviews that 1) assessed the evidence for causal relationships between computer work and the occurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) or upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders (UEMSDs), or 2) reported on intervention studies among computer users/or office workers. PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and Web of Science were searched for reviews published between 1999 and 2010. Additional publications were provided by content area experts. The primary author extracted all data using a purpose-built form, while two of the authors evaluated the quality of the reviews using recommended standard criteria from AMSTAR; disagreements were resolved by discussion. The quality of evidence syntheses in the included reviews was assessed qualitatively for each outcome and for the interventions. Altogether, 1,349 review titles were identified, 47 reviews were retrieved for full text relevance assessment, and 17 reviews were finally included as being relevant and of sufficient quality. The degrees of focus and rigorousness of these 17 reviews were highly variable. Three reviews on risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome were rated moderate to high quality, 8 reviews on risk factors for UEMSDs ranged from low to moderate/high quality, and 6 reviews on intervention studies were of moderate to high quality. The quality of the evidence for computer use as a risk factor for CTS was insufficient, while the evidence for computer use and UEMSDs was moderate regarding pain complaints and limited for specific musculoskeletal disorders. From the reviews on intervention studies no strong evidence based recommendations could be given. Computer use is associated with pain complaints, but it is still not very clear if this association is causal. The evidence for specific disorders or diseases is limited. No effective interventions have yet been documented.

DNA methylation at CpG sites is both heritable and influenced by environment, but the relative contributions of each to DNA methylation levels are unclear. We conducted a heritability analysis of CpG methylation in human CD4.sup.+ cells across 975 individuals from 163 families in the Genetics of Lipid-lowering Drugs and Diet Network (GOLDN). Based on a broad-sense heritability (H.sup.2) value threshold of 0.4, we identified 20,575 highly heritable CpGs among the 174,445 most variable autosomal CpGs (SD > 0.02). Tests for associations of heritable CpGs with genotype at 2,145,360 SNPs using 717 of 975 individuals showed that ~74% were cis-meQTLs (1 Mb away from the CpG or located on a different chromosome), and 20% of CpGs showed no strong significant associations with genotype (based on a p-value threshold of 1e-7). Genes proximal to the genotype independent heritable CpGs were enriched for functional terms related to regulation of T cell activation. These CpGs were also among those that distinguished T cells from other blood cell lineages. Compared to genes proximal to meQTL-associated heritable CpGs, genotype independent heritable CpGs were moderately enriched in the same genomic regions that escape erasure during primordial germ cell development and could carry potential for generational transmission.

On the bathroom vanity, a silky pile of Beanie Babies remained softly indivisible, a multiple animal, absorbing toothpaste. First thing April placed the fresh pastries in the display case. [...]the parka'd passengers, trapped in the fan-hot car, watched the forgetter waddle up the tunnel to be engulfed by the Christmas-tree lights in the doorway. The young skiers chose the economy motel on the highway, and only occasionally would rented cars wind up the drive from the lake, inscribing long tread-lines.

This exhibition showcases the results of archaeological research at three coastal sites in the southern Cape of South Africa: Blombos Cave, Klipdrift Shelter and Klasies River main sites. Part of a long-term programme aiming to make palaeosciences accessible to the public, the exhibition befittingly started more locally, first at Stellenbosch and then at the Iziko South African Museums in Cape Town, before moving to Johannesburg. The exhibition opened at the Origins Centre of the University of the Witwatersrand on 25 November 2021. To those of us who attended the opening, it provided an opportunity to hear from the archaeologists, curators and designers behind the exhibition. The exhibition opened to the public on 27 November.

A drama of personal failure lies at the heart of Don DeLillo's novel Cosmopolis (2003), as currency trader Eric Packer's misguided strategy of borrowing enormous sums of yen backfires when the currency fails to depreciate. DeLillo treats Packer as a point of contact between the concrete world and abstract value, and Packer desires, accordingly, to become a piece of abstract data. Yet failure undermines Packer's fantasies of abstraction and forces upon him an awareness of his constitutive openness to alterity. It is through Packer's failure that DeLillo weaves into Cosmopolis an ethico-political project that aligns his novelistic art with Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy—a project that plays out on both a narrative and a formal level.