bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Homogeneously derived transit timings for 17 exoplanets and reassessed TTV trends for WASP-12 and WASP-4
Authors: Baluev R V , Sokov E N , Jones H R A , Shaidulin V Sh , Sokova I A , Nielsen L D , Benni P , Schneiter E M , Villarreal D’Angelo C , Fernández-Lajús E , Di Sisto R P , Baştürk Ö , Bretton M , Wunsche A , Hentunen V-P , Shadick S , Jongen Y , Kang W , Kim T , Pakštienė E , Qvam J K T , Knight C R , Guerra P , Marchini A , Salvaggio F , Papini R , Evans P , Salisbury M , Garcia F , Molina D , Garlitz J , Esseiva N , Ogmen Y , Karavaev Yu , Rusov S , Ibrahimov M A , Karimov R G
Published: September 2019

We homogeneously analyse ∼3.2 × 105 photometric measurements for ∼1100 transit light curves belonging to 17 exoplanet hosts. The photometric data cover 16 years (2004–2019) and include amateur and professional observations. Old archival light curves were reprocessed using up-to-date exoplanetary parameters and empirically debiased limb-darkening models. We also derive self-consistent transit and radial-velocity fits for 13 targets. We confirm the non-linear transit timing variation (TTV) trend in the WASP-12 data at a high significance, and with a consistent magnitude. However, Doppler data reveal hints of a radial acceleration of about −7.5 ± 2.2 m s−1 yr−1, indicating the presence of unseen distant companions, and suggesting that roughly 10 per cent of the observed TTV was induced via the light-travel (or Roemer) effect. For WASP-4, a similar TTV trend suspected after the recent TESS observations appears controversial and model dependent. It is not supported by our homogeneous TTV sample, including 10 ground-based EXPANSION light curves obtained in 2018 simultaneously with TESS. Even if the TTV trend itself does exist in WASP-4, its magnitude and tidal nature are uncertain. Doppler data cannot entirely rule out the Roemer effect induced by possible distant companions.
Does black hole growth depend fundamentally on host-galaxy compactness?
Authors: Ni Q , Yang G , Brandt W N , Alexander D M , Chen C-T J , Luo B , Vito F , Xue Y Q
Published: September 2019

Possible connections between central black hole (BH) growth and host-galaxy compactness have been found observationally, which may provide insight into BH–galaxy coevolution: compact galaxies might have large amounts of gas in their centres due to their high mass-to-size ratios, and simulations predict that high central gas density can boost BH accretion. However, it is not yet clear if BH growth is fundamentally related to the compactness of the host galaxy, due to observational degeneracies between compactness, stellar mass (M⋆) and star formation rate (SFR). To break these degeneracies, we carry out systematic partial-correlation studies to investigate the dependence of sample-averaged BH accretion rate ($\rm \overline{BHAR}$) on the compactness of host galaxies, represented by the surface-mass density, Σe, or the projected central surface-mass density within 1 kpc, Σ1. We utilize 8842 galaxies with H < 24.5 in the five CANDELS fields at z = 0.5–3. We find that $\rm \overline{BHAR}$ does not significantly depend on compactness when controlling for SFR or M⋆ among bulge-dominated galaxies and galaxies that are not dominated by bulges, respectively. However, when testing is confined to star-forming galaxies at z = 0.5–1.5, we find that the $\rm \overline{BHAR}$–Σ1 relation is not simply a secondary manifestation of a primary $\rm \overline{BHAR}$–M⋆ relation, which may indicate a link between BH growth and the gas density within the central 1 kpc of galaxies.
Three-dimensional simulations of non-resonant streaming instability and particle acceleration near non-relativistic astrophysical shocks
Authors: van Marle Allard Jan , Casse Fabien , Marcowith Alexandre
Published: September 2019

We use particle-in-magnetohydrodynamics-cells to model particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification in a high-Mach, parallel shock in three dimensions and compare the result to 2D models. This allows us to determine whether 2D simulations can be relied upon to yield accurate results in terms of particle acceleration, magnetic field amplification, and the growth rate of instabilities. Our simulations show that the behaviour of the gas and the evolution of the instabilities are qualitatively similar for both the 2D and 3D models, with only minor quantitative differences that relate primarily to the growth speed of the instabilities. The main difference between 2D and 3D models can be found in the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the non-thermal particles. The 2D simulations prove to be more efficient, accelerating a larger fraction of the particles and achieving higher velocities. We conclude that, while 2D models are sufficient to investigate the instabilities in the gas, their results have to be treated with some caution when predicting the expected SED of a given shock.
Accelerating AGN jets to parsec scales using general relativistic MHD simulations
Authors: Chatterjee K , Liska M , Tchekhovskoy A , Markoff S B
Published: September 2019

Accreting black holes produce collimated outflows, or jets, that traverse many orders of magnitude in distance, accelerate to relativistic velocities, and collimate into tight opening angles. Of these, perhaps the least understood is jet collimation due to the interaction with the ambient medium. In order to investigate this interaction, we carried out axisymmetric general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of jets produced by a large accretion disc, spanning over 5 orders of magnitude in time and distance, at an unprecedented resolution. Supported by such a disc, the jet attains a parabolic shape, similar to the M87 galaxy jet, and the product of the Lorentz factor and the jet half-opening angle, γθ ≪ 1, similar to values found from very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) jets; this suggests extended discs in AGNs. We find that the interaction between the jet and the ambient medium leads to the development of pinch instabilities, which produce significant radial and lateral variability across the jet by converting magnetic and kinetic energy into heat. Thus pinched regions in the jet can be detectable as radiating hotspots and may provide an ideal site for particle acceleration. Pinching also causes gas from the ambient medium to become squeezed between magnetic field lines in the jet, leading to enhanced mass loading and deceleration of the jet to non-relativistic speeds, potentially contributing to the spine-sheath structure observed in AGN outflows.
Germline microsatellite genotypes differentiate children with medulloblastoma
Authors: Rivero-Hinojosa Samuel , Kinney Nicholas , Garner Harold R , Rood Brian R
Published: September 2019

Background

The germline genetic events underpinning medulloblastoma (MB) initiation, and therefore the ability to determine who is at risk, are still unknown for the majority of cases. Microsatellites are short repeated sequences that make up ~3% of the genome. Repeat lengths vary among individuals and are often nonrandomly associated with disease, including several cancers such as breast, glioma, lung, and ovarian. Due to their effects on gene function, they have been called the “tuning knobs of the genome.”

Methods

We have developed a novel approach for identifying a microsatellite-based signature to differentiate MB patients from controls using germline DNA.

Results

Analyzing germline whole exome sequencing data from a training set of 120 MB subjects and 425 controls, we identified 139 individual microsatellite loci whose genotypes differ significantly between the groups. Using a genetic algorithm, we identified a subset of 43 microsatellites that distinguish MB subjects from controls with a sensitivity and specificity of 92% and 88%, respectively. This microsatellite signature was validated in an independent dataset consisting of 102 subjects and 428 controls, with comparable sensitivity and specificity of 95% and 90%, respectively. Analysis of the allele genotypes of those 139 informative loci demonstrates that their association with MB is a consequence of individual microsatellites' genotypes rather than their hypermutability. Finally, an analysis of the genes harboring these microsatellite loci reveals cellular functions important for tumorigenesis.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that MB-specific germline microsatellite variations mark those at risk for MB development and suggests mechanisms of predisposition.
Surgery for Diffuse WHO Grade II Gliomas: Volumetric Analysis of a Multicenter Retrospective Cohort From the German Study Group for Intraoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Authors: Scherer Moritz , Ahmeti Hajrulla , Roder Constantin , Gessler Florian , Jungk Christine , Pala Andrej , Mayer Benjamin , Senft Christian , Tatagiba Marcos , Synowitz Michael , Wirtz Christian Rainer , Unterberg Andreas W , Coburger Jan
Published: September 2019

BACKGROUND

In diffuse WHO grade II gliomas (LGG), the extent of resection (EOR) required to achieve significant survival benefits remains elusive.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the association of residual volume (RV) and EOR with progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS) in LGG in a retrospective, multicenter series by the German study group of intraoperative MRI (GeSGIM).

METHODS

Consecutive cases were retrospectively assessed from 5 centers. Tumors were volumetrically quantified before and after surgery, and clinical data were analyzed, including IDH mutations and neurologic deficits. Kaplan–Meier estimates, accelerated failure time models (AFT), and multivariate Cox regression models were calculated to identify determinants of survival.

RESULTS

A total of 140 cases were analyzed. Gross total resection (GTR) was associated with significantly longer PFS compared to any incomplete resection (P = .009). A significant survival disadvantage was evident even for small (>0-5 ml) residuals and increased for moderate (>5-20 ml) and large remnants (>20 ml) P = .001). Accordingly, PFS increased continuously for 20% incremental steps of EOR (P < .001). AFT models supported the notion of a continuous association of RV and EOR with PFS. Multivariate Cox regression models confirmed RV (P = .01) and EOR (P = .005) as continuous prognosticators of PFS. Univariate analysis showed significant associations of RV and EOR with OS.

CONCLUSION

Our data support the hypothesis of a continuous relationship of RV and EOR with survival for LGG with superiority seen for GTR. Hence, GTR should be achieved whenever safely feasible, and resections should be maximized whenever tumor has to be left behind to spare function.
Clinical and Short-Term Radiographic Outcomes of Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion With Expandable Lordotic Devices
Authors: McMordie Joseph H , Schmidt Kyle P , Gard Andrew P , Gillis Christopher C
Published: September 2019

BACKGROUND

Minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) is a well-accepted procedure for the treatment of degenerative lumbar disease. However, its ability to restore lumbar lordosis has been limited. Development of expandable lordotic interbody devices has challenged this limitation, furthering the scope of minimally invasive surgery.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the radiographic and clinical effects of expandable lordotic interbody devices placed through an MIS-TLIF approach.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective review of 32 1-level and 18 2-level MIS-TLIFs performed using lordotic expandable interbody devices. Lumbar radiographic measurements, Oswestry Disability Index scores (ODI), and Visual Analogue Scale scores (VAS) were obtained at preoperative, 6 wk follow up, and last follow up time points. Last follow up occurred at a mean of 11.5 ± 7.6 mo (mean ± SD).

RESULTS

At 6-wk follow-up, segmental lordosis, disc height, and foraminal height increased by an average of 3.4°, 6.4 mm, and 4.4 mm, respectively. Only the 2-level group showed a significant increase in lumbar lordosis of 5.8°. No significant changes occurred in sacral slope, pelvic tilt, or pelvic incidence. Average ODI and VAS decreased by −12.0 and −4.5, respectively. Postoperative lumbar lordosis inversely correlated with preoperative lordosis in patients with an initial Pelvic Incidence to Lumbar Lordosis mismatch (PI-LL) of >10°, (r = −0.5, P = .009).

CONCLUSION

When applied across 2-levels, MIS-TLIF using expandable lordotic interbody devices produced a significant increase in lumbar lordosis. Preoperative lumbar lordosis was found to be a predictor of postoperative lumbar lordotic change in patients with sagittal imbalance.
Usefulness of Noncontrast-Enhanced Silent Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) for Treated Intracranial Aneurysm Follow-up in Comparison with Time-of-Flight MRA
Authors: Ryu Kyeong Hwa , Baek Hye Jin , Moon Jin Il , Choi Bo Hwa , Park Sung Eun , Ha Ji Young , Park Hyun , Kim Seung Soo , Kim Jung-Soo , Cho Soo Buem , Carl Michael
Published: September 2019

BACKGROUND

Flow visualization in time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography (TOF MRA) is limited for treated intracranial aneurysms owing to magnetic susceptibility and radiofrequency shielding.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the clinical usefulness of noncontrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) using a silent scan (silent MRA) as a follow-up imaging modality in patients with treated intracranial aneurysms.

METHODS

A total of 119 patients with 126 treated aneurysms underwent silent MRA and TOF MRA during the same scan session. Two neuroradiologists independently assessed overall image quality and visualization of the treated site using a 5-point Likert scale to compare the 2 image sets. We used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to investigate the diagnostic performance of the 2 MRA methods in evaluating aneurysm occlusion. Interobserver reliability was also assessed using weighted kappa statistics.

RESULTS

The overall image quality scores of silent MRA and TOF MRA were 4.04 ± 0.22 and 4.64 ± 0.48, respectively (P < .001), and interobserver agreement was substantial (P < .001). For the treated site, the score of flow visualization on silent MRA was higher than that on TOF MRA, 3.94 ± 0.94 vs 2.59 ± 1.37 (P < .001), with substantial interobserver agreement (P < .001). ROC curve analysis showed that silent MRA was superior to TOF MRA in diagnostic performance (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.962; 95% CI: 0.931-0.982 vs AUC = 0.843; 95% CI: 0.792-0.886; P < .001).

CONCLUSION

Silent MRA can be useful to evaluate treated intracranial aneurysms during follow-up without radiation exposure and use of contrast material. It is characterized by higher diagnostic performance and superior visualization for the treated site.
Indeterminism and Obligation
Authors: Haji Ishtiyaque
Published: September 2019

The obligation dilemma’s indeterministic horn, whose primary constituent is the luck objection, is introduced in this chapter. This is the objection that indeterministically caused actions are too luck-infected to be obligations. Two versions of this objection are discussed. On the No Explanation Version, if an agent indeterministically decides to do one thing rather than another, then there is no detailed causal account of her decision. Since the control free decision requires is causal, her deciding to do what she does is not free. On the Pure Luck Version, if an agent does something, which she refrains from doing in another possible world with the same past and laws, and there is nothing about her powers, capacities, states of mind, moral character, and the like that explains this cross-world difference, then this difference is just a matter of freedom-undermining luck.
Obligation and Responsibility
Authors: Haji Ishtiyaque
Published: September 2019

This chapter first exposes one substantial consequence of the obligation dilemma by introducing principles that forge putative connections between blameworthiness and impermissibility. The primary principles, or variations of them, are: (i) necessarily, one is blameworthy for doing something only if it is impermissible for one to do it; and (ii) necessarily, one is morally blameworthy for doing something only if one believes that it is morally impermissible for one to do it. If these principles are true, blameworthiness is imperiled if the obligation dilemma is sound. This initial discussion supports the thesis that factors that affect obligation may influence responsibility. The chapter then develops an interpretation of the view that factors that affect responsibility may impinge on obligation. Finally, some theses that link blameworthiness with desert, on the one hand, or sanction with desert, on the other, are addressed.
Does Obligation Require Weak or Strong Alternatives?
Authors: Haji Ishtiyaque
Published: September 2019

Weak alternatives are alternatives one can have even if determinism is true. Strong alternatives are unavailable to anyone if determinism is true. Chapter 6 pursues a strategy to establish that the alternatives obligation requires are weak. This strategy is negative, consisting in showing that various considerations for the opposed position—obligation requires strong alternatives—are not cogent. The chapter also assesses a line of reasoning for the view that one can circumvent entirely the thorny issue of whether responsibility or obligation, if either requires alternatives, requires strong or weak alternatives. The recommendation is that we should focus instead on whether determinism undermines ability or opportunity to do otherwise. It is argued that attempting to skirt the thorny issue in this way is problematic.
Obligation and Forgiveness
Authors: Haji Ishtiyaque
Published: September 2019

Obligation compatibilism is the view that moral obligation is compatible with determinism. A competitor, obligation libertarianism, says that moral obligation is incompatible with determinism, and there are free actions that are morally obligatory for some people. A way to appreciate the importance of the obligation dilemma is to reflect on whether either of these rivals can accommodate forgiveness, something deemed central to interpersonal relationships. This chapter explores this issue by examining whether forgiveness presupposes our having free will owing to its putative essential ties to moral obligation. It proposes that forgiveness is conceptually associated not with obligation but with prima facie obligation. The chapter terminates with a discussion on whether prima facie obligation, and thus forgiveness, presupposes our having free will.
Options and Challenges
Authors: Haji Ishtiyaque
Published: September 2019

The chapter first summarizes various respects in which the responsibility and obligation dilemmas are relevantly similar and relevantly different. One similarity is that the luck objection underpins the indeterministic horns of both. A salient difference is that whereas some have thought that the responsibility dilemma’s deterministic horn is persuasive because responsibility requires ultimate origination, there is no such requirement for obligation. The chapter then lays out certain options as responses to the obligation dilemma. The principal alternatives include: (i) accepting both horns and, thus, embracing obligation skepticism; (ii) rejecting the indeterministic horn by rejecting the luck objection; and (iii) rejecting the deterministic horn on the assumption that obligation requires alternatives which determinism does not preclude. The chapter also comments briefly on the proposal that an analysis of specific ability should help with assessing the dilemma.
The Received View and Its Rivals
Authors: Donahue-Ochoa Thomas J.
Published: September 2019

Chapter 3 considers the received view’s answers to the book’s final two questions, as well as the answers given by rival theories to all five of its questions. It begins by challenging three rival theories of the responsibility to combat injustice. These ground it in a duty of universal altruism or equity, in duties we acquire if we could at least potentially harm the injustice’s victims, or in the theory that oppression makes both the oppressed and the oppressor unfree, so that both have reason to abolish it. The chapter then challenges the received view’s theory that only the victim group are made unfree by oppression, as well as the theory saying that the unfree are the oppressor and the oppressed. It concludes by challenging theories holding that oppression’s ultimate harm is that it alienates or dehumanizes victims, constrains them from achieving their potential, or prevents them from living as free equals.
The Decline of National Patriarchy and the Rise of Global Male Supremacy
Authors: Donahue-Ochoa Thomas J.
Published: September 2019

Chapter 6 begins the task of diagnosing global injustices. It argues that we are witnessing both the decline of national systems of patriarchy and the rise of a system of global male supremacy. The chapter argues that the latter is a global systematic injustice in which (i) men are not subjected to high degrees of economic exploitation or economic marginalization by other groups in that society, while women are; (ii) women’s political voices are marginalized in world society, while men’s are centered; (iii) men are not subject to systematic violence or predation in world society, while women are; and (iv) the dominant norms of global society unjustly favor men, so that men are exalted by satisfying them and women degraded by failing to meet them; this happens both through a male-centered cultural imperialism and the effects of an ideology of gender inferiority. The chapter then shows how this system suppresses anyone’s actual or potential resistance to it and thus subjects everyone to arbitrary power.
Inclusion and Exclusion in the Arab City
Authors: AlSayyad Nezar
Published: September 2019

The urban world underwent a massive transformation at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century. No region has escaped these changes, and many countries in the Arab Middle East have been particularly affected by them. This chapter analyzes how the construction of the Middle East as a concept has affected the evolution of a placeless urbanism in the region. In doing so, it illustrates the fluidity of identity under both colonial and modern conditions, but also discusses how old ethnic conflicts and religious rivalries in the age of globalization perpetuate different forms of exclusion that shape the contemporary Arab Middle Eastern City.
Millet Ethnicity
Authors: Barry James
Published: September 2019

This chapter examines how increasing media reports of some Turkish Muslims coming to terms with their Armenian ancestry is challenging traditional notions of Armenian identity that maintained a synonymy of Armenian-ness with Christianity, specifically that of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Using the concept of "millet ethnicity"--the ethnicization of religious identities--the author argues that the ethnic gulf that separates the Armenian Christians from the Turkish Muslims remains a potent legacy of the millet system in the Republic of Turkey. However, two groups within Turkey blur the boundaries: the Hopa Hemshin (Armenian-speaking Muslims from Eastern Turkey) and the "Islamized" Armenians. This chapter therefore details the debate regarding the Armenian-ness of the Hopa Hemshin and Islamized Armenians, coupled with the enthusiastic engagement by the Diaspora with these two groups, in order to demonstrate how modern conceptions of what it is to be an Armenian are changing.
Introduction
Authors: Carter Niambi Michele
Published: September 2019

Using a personal anecdote to set the stage, the author introduces the fundamental argument of the book, which is that black people respond to the “threat” of immigration by critiquing a system of white supremacy that excludes blacks through the exploitation of other groups. In particular the book examines the ways in which blacks use immigration as a lens to evaluate their own status as citizens. In other words, as blacks think about what immigration means for the nation, they are also thinking about what it means for their group. The context within which they look at immigration is through their own group’s racial experience, which has often found blacks struggling for belonging in the American body politic because of white supremacy.
Citizens First?
Authors: Carter Niambi Michele
Published: September 2019

This chapter explicates the author’s theory of conflicted nativism. This theory argues that blacks use their identity as Americans to claim privilege in American society. Yet, this identity is only superficially related to nativist attitudes and is not accompanied by restrictionist impulses. Using immigration as a lens, blacks have been able to identify the perniciousness of white supremacy that treated them as strangers in their own land. Rather than being threatened by immigrants per se, blacks understand white racism as the real threat to their upward mobility and therefore do not organize around immigration restriction. Furthermore, they are resistant to other race-coded messages.
(Re)Remembering Race
Authors: Carter Niambi Michele
Published: September 2019

Using interviews, this chapter highlights the ways in which blacks talk about immigration. In particular, the chapter seeks to uncover how blacks use their group’s past racial experiences (e.g., Jim Crow) to understand their present circumstances. Interviews conducted by the author reveal that respondents see their blackness as being devalued in American society. Their racial history aids in their assessment of their comparative racial progress. Through the particularities of their group’s history, they are able to understand how racial hierarchy positions their group relative to whites, and how the presence of immigrants highlights their disparate states in society. However, respondents in these interviews harbor no major hostilities toward immigrants. Rather, they are discomfited by the ways they perceive whites as exploiting immigrants in an effort to enforce the subordinate status on their group.
Beyond Immigration
Authors: Carter Niambi Michele
Published: September 2019

As the concluding chapter of the work, this chapter revisits the central thesis of the book, which is the import of the context and constraints of white supremacy on black public opinion formation. Using immigration as a lens to better understand black opinion, the book argues that white supremacy is at the core of black public opinion formation; in this way, it is not an individual story about immigrants or immigration policy. My theory of conflicted nativism helps the reader to understand how and why blacks hold seemingly divergent opinions on the issue of immigration. I am able to show, however, that these opinions are not in conflict. Rather, blacks have distinct considerations as Americans that come from their unique position in the American racial hierarchy and the ways in which white supremacy structures how they navigate an array of political issues. The chapter concludes with a brief examination of border separations, which has animated much of the recent conversation in this policy arena.
Structural Injustice
Authors: Powers Madison , Faden Ruth
Published: September 2019

This book develops a theory of structural injustice that forges important links between human rights norms and fairness norms. Norms of both kinds are underpinned by a conception of well-being. This conception provides the foundation for human rights, explains the depth of unfairness of systematic patterns of disadvantage, and locates the fundamental unfairness of power relations in forms of control some groups have over the well-being of other groups. In addition, the theory applies to circumstances in which structurally unfair patterns of power and advantage and human rights violations are routinely intertwined. Unlike theories tailored to circumstances in which structural injustices emerge from largely benign social processes, this theory addresses more typical patterns of structural injustice in which the wrongful conduct of identifiable agents is manifested in creating or sustaining mutually reinforcing forms of injustice. These patterns exist both within different types of nation-states and in interactions across national boundaries. However, the theory rejects the claim that for a structural theory to be so broadly applicable its central claims must be universally endorsable within multiple ethical frameworks. Instead, the theory draws support from examples of structural injustice around the world, and the insights and perspectives of related social movements. The theory also differs from approaches that make enhanced democratic decision-making or the global extension of republican institutions the centerpiece of their proposed remedies. Its focus is on justifiable forms of resistance in circumstances in which institutions are unwilling or unable to address pressing issues of injustice.
What Justice Is
Authors: Powers Madison
Published: September 2019

The overarching question in this chapter is, what makes this theory—indeed, any theory—a theory of justice? Five criteria prominently discussed in the literature—special importance, stringency, claimability, specificity, and rightful enforceability—are examined. The position defended in this book is developed with respect to each criterion. In addition, two norms of structural unfairness pertaining to differentials of power and advantage are distinguished, as are the ways in which each differs from human rights norms. We look first at the ordinary language used in situations of everyday experience. We then extrapolate from basic intuitions about relatively simple patterns of unfairness in interpersonal relationships to gain a better understanding of fairness norms, applicable in more complex contexts where an array of institutions and social practices structure relationships between social groups.
Europe as a Cultural-Civilizational Construct
Authors: Graney Katherine
Published: September 2019

This chapter examines the different meanings that “Europe” has historically had. It explores the geographic, cultural, religious, and historical understandings of Europe, stressing the uncertainty regarding Europe’s eastern boundary, and how this uncertainty has given rise to the idea that there are actually many “different” Europes, including Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Mitteleuropa, and the Balkans. It stresses the role of Christianity in understanding Europeanness, and the role that Orthodoxy plays as a “quasi-European” form of Christianity, and Islam as Europe and Christianity’s certain “other.” It also discusses how Russia, in both its Tsarist and Soviet guises, has been judged by others (and itself) to only imperfectly fit the criteria associated with Europeanness, even as it judged non-Russian others within its realm according to those same criteria.
Cultural-Civilizational Europeanization since 1989
Authors: Graney Katherine
Published: September 2019

This chapter examines how understandings and practices of Europeanization are shaped in the cultural-civilizational realm since 1989, focusing specifically on the evolution of a European cultural space through the European Broadcasting Union’s yearly Eurovision song contest and the Union of European Football Association’s yearly EURO football championships. It demonstrates the importance that Russia and the non–Central Asian ex-Soviet republics place on being seen as “European enough” to participate successfully in both Eurovision and the EURO football championships, and the ways that participating in these cultural events forces these states to “act European” in political and economic ways, as well as cultural ones. The discussion of Eurovision highlights that event’s influence on spreading the idea of LGBTQ rights as a marker of “Europeanness,” while the EURO football championships are an arena where expectations about civility and racial tolerance as European norms are negotiated.
Switched On Pop
Authors: Sloan Nate , Harding Charlie , Gottlieb Iris
Published: September 2019

The creation of “Call Me Maybe” is typical for a modern pop song: a mix of accident and intention coming together to produce a smash hit. This chapter explores the history and mission behind Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding’s starting the podcast Switched On Pop, and the instrumental role that Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” played in the project. The song is also a perfect test case for how pop can be “switched on” through a practice of deep listening, as every musical element of “Call Me Maybe” is aligned to capture one of life’s most nervewracking experiences: asking someone out.
Y’all Don’t Want to Hear Me, You Just Want to Dance
Authors: Sloan Nate , Harding Charlie , Gottlieb Iris
Published: September 2019

Chapter 1 analyzes Outkast’s “Hey Ya!,” a heartbreaking tale of romantic failure but also one of the most popular wedding songs ever. Both can be true thanks to André Benjamin’s brilliant use of mixed meter, a rhythmic technique that disrupts the steady flow of time while also providing an irresistibly funky soundtrack for dance. The song begins with three measures of four-beat meter. This pattern repeats three times, but then a rogue measure of two beats interrupts the prevailing four-beat meter. As quickly as it appears, the odd-man-out measure of two disappears, and the song moves back to four-beat meter. The result is a song that captivates and unsettles listeners at the same time.
A Star’s Melodic Signature
Authors: Sloan Nate , Harding Charlie , Gottlieb Iris
Published: September 2019

Taylor Swift changes her musical style from album to album, something that has earned her criticism for appearing “inauthentic.” Even as her sounds changes, though, one element remains intact—a three-note melodic motif present throughout her oeuvre dubbed the “T Drop,” discussed in this chapter. The T Drop may serve as Swift’s sonic signature, but the inherent plasticity of melody means that the motif signifies differently depending on small variations in its construction, as well as the overall context in which appears; small changes to the motif can make it resonate quite differently. Tracing this melody through Swift’s repertoire shows how artists can maintain their songcraft in the face of commercial demands.
A Voice without a Face
Authors: Sloan Nate , Harding Charlie , Gottlieb Iris
Published: September 2019

Chapter 5 discusses “Chandelier,” a song with a dizzying rush that comes largely from Sia’s masterful control of vocal timbre. “Timbre” refers to the quality of a given sound, a still-fuzzy category of music analysis. There are tools to describe melody and rhythm with precision, but not timbre. In describing timbre, people often resort to vague adjectives like “rough” or “smooth.” Sia’s ability to coax maximum emotion out of every pitch and word is not just a testament to her skill at songwriting but also to her uncanny understanding of timbral manipulation. Listening closely to “Chandelier” reveals Sia’s vocal brilliance and also shines light on the mysterious nature of timbre.
Painting a Musical Masterpiece
Authors: Sloan Nate , Harding Charlie , Gottlieb Iris
Published: September 2019

Chapter 6 discusses “What Goes Around . . . Comes Around,” Justin Timberlake and Timbaland’s magnum opus, a seven-minute-plus track spinning a saga of love and karma through creative instrumentation, pointed lyrics, and an effect called text painting. Text painting sets a lyric to music that mirrors its meaning—such as a melody moving in a circle to illustrate the idea of “coming back around.” It’s as if Timberlake starts his paintbrush in the center of the canvas, on the home pitch of A, descends down as he repeats “goes around,” then makes a sudden upward brushstroke, before falling back to the starting note on the final “comes back around” right in the center of his canvas. Text painting dates back to the Middle Ages, making Timberlake a kind of latter-day troubadour and “What Goes Around” a modern ballad of courtly love.
Sometimes the Truth Don’t Rhyme
Authors: Sloan Nate , Harding Charlie , Gottlieb Iris
Published: September 2019

How does Drake manage to be the most successful pop artist of the twenty-first century when most of his choruses do not even use perfect rhymes? The answer, as discussed in Chapter 8, is that in modern pop the melody and rhythm of a lyrical line are often more important than the song’s poetry. As Chance the Rapper has said, “Sometimes the truth don’t rhyme.” “God’s Plan” is a perfect example of this maxim, because its success is not predicated on lyrical accuracy but on Drake’s ability to repeat musical motifs again and again until they imprint on listeners’ minds; with just enough variation so that they never get boring. Drake shows that in contemporary pop, a variety of rhymes is more important than strict adherence to a single scheme.
Is Collage a Crime?
Authors: Sloan Nate , Harding Charlie , Gottlieb Iris
Published: September 2019

Chapter 12 looks at sampling, the technique of incorporating other sound recordings into a new composition. It is one of the most ubiquitous and most controversial practices in modern pop, offering unbridled creativity to musicians but also exposing them to claims of unoriginality and copyright infringement. Sampling entered popular music through hip hop, when instrumental breaks were repeated and recorded on a loop, forming the beat against which an MC could rap. The appearance of digital samplers in the 1980s enabled a proliferation of sample-based music but heralded continuing legal battles to curtail the practice of sampling. “Paper Planes” is a collage of musical and lyrical referents that creates an indelible sonic texture while also indexing the themes of immigration and criminality that M.I.A. satirizes in her hit track.
Does Pop Have a Sound?
Authors: Sloan Nate , Harding Charlie , Gottlieb Iris
Published: September 2019

Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” analyzed in Chapter 15, is an unabashed pop hit with a dirty secret: producer Max Martin adapted the song from the indie track “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Analyzing how Clarkson and Martin translate the sounds of indie into pop reveals the chameleonic nature of the genre. Unlike other styles, it’s not defined by specific musical traits but by its market orientation. Still, that does not mean that pop is devoid of artistry, as attested by the manifold compositional acumen on display in “Since U Been Gone.”
Civil Action and the Microdynamics of Violence during the Bosnian War
Authors: Berry Marie E.
Published: September 2019

The war Bosnia and Herzegovina, between 1992 and 1995, was characterized by vastly different levels of violence across the country. The chapter examines the way in which civil action shaped the course, severity, and effects of the violence in three Bosnian cities: Tuzla, Sarajevo, and Prijedor. These cities roughly experienced low, moderate, and high levels of violence respectively, proportionate to their population size. It argues that civilians, local political elites, and religious institutions played critical roles in carving out civil spaces in the midst of violence, dampening local levels of violence and, in some cases, contributing to the resolution of the broader conflict. The varied levels of violence across the three cases help to illustrate the conditions under which such civil action is possible, underscoring both the potential and the limitations of civil action to counter armed conflict.
Introduction
Authors: Summers Jesse S. , Sinnott-Armstrong Walter
Published: September 2019

Morality is central to our lives and regulates our behavior even absent external punishment or reward. Because morality is complicated, it is best studied from multiple perspectives and disciplines. We here propose studying morality from the perspective of psychiatry. Moral psychiatry, as we call this new subfield, focuses on mental illnesses whose content is closely related to morality, using psychiatric conditions to illuminate morality. This ultimately sheds light on ordinary moral functioning without unrealistically idealizing our psychology. Scrupulosity is an example of how psychiatric conditions can illuminate morality and test philosophical theories in various ways.
Scrupulosity as a Form of OCD
Authors: Summers Jesse S. , Sinnott-Armstrong Walter
Published: September 2019

Scrupulosity is closely connected to OCD, despite some appearances and informal characterizations of Scrupulosity as a concern with sin. Those with Scrupulosity have obsessions and/or compulsions. The Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity-Revised (PIOS-R) captures the religious features of Scrupulosity. A secular presentation is less common or has been diagnosed less often, but a non-religious presentation is still possible. The distinctive features of Scrupulosity are perfectionism, chronic doubt and intolerance of uncertainty, and moral thought-action fusion. None of these features are exclusive to Scrupulosity, but they mutually reinforce each other and together characterize the condition.
Mental Illness
Authors: Summers Jesse S. , Sinnott-Armstrong Walter
Published: September 2019

Scrupulosity is a mental illness. This is not determined simply by inclusion in or exclusion from the current DSM. The features that characterize Scrupulosity needn’t be disordered, and this chapter addresses skepticism—eliminativism and social constructionism—about mental illness more generally. Illnesses, according to skeptics about mental illness, require physical markers and a value-free diagnosis. These are not present for Scrupulosity, nor are they present for many mental illnesses. The chapter considers dysfunction and harm as definitive of mental illness. It then examines the DSM-5 definition of mental illness and finds that Scrupulosity fits that definition.
Responsibility
Authors: Summers Jesse S. , Sinnott-Armstrong Walter
Published: September 2019

Responsibility admits of degrees, and Scrupulosity seems to diminish responsibility for harms caused to some degree. We focus on whether Scrupulosity provides an excuse that reduces or removes moral liability responsibility for bad actions or consequences. More precisely, we distinguish attributability, answerability, and accountability responsibility. Our question is whether someone with Scrupulosity is accountability responsible—whether it is fitting to feel anger, resentment, or indignation toward them—for harms they cause. We consider two compatibilist theories of responsibility: deep-self theories and reasons-responsiveness theories. Unlike deep-self theories, reasons-responsiveness theories can distinguish scrupulous actions by distinguishing responding to reasons from responding to anxiety. Finally, we address whether present responsibility can be traced to one’s previous bad decisions and cases in which one was clearly responsible.
Introduction
Authors: Bennett Nolan
Published: September 2019

This chapter introduces the book’s argument: that many people and movements across American history have turned to life writing in times of political urgency to make a “claim of experience.” Drawing on Angela Davis’s reflections on her own autobiography’s politics, the introduction proposes a claim of experience as any life narrative that offers its audience new community by restoring to readers and author alike from prevailing political authorities the power to remake and make meaning of their lives. Whether written or spoken, a claim of experience draws the author’s attention in three directions: upward, inward, and outward. This framing rallies the rhetorical moves made in autobiography around a common concern with authority and accommodates a great variety of political goals. The introduction situates this theory in the development of autobiography and American democracy, also reviewing what recent studies in political theory and literature have prompted this book’s methods and subjects.
Benjamin Franklin’s Imperfections
Authors: Bennett Nolan
Published: September 2019

Chapter 1 analyzes The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin as an experimental text written across the revolutionary era and the development of Benjamin Franklin’s thought. Whereas Franklin is often seen as the archetypal rags-to-riches story that parallels American independence, reading the text across the diverse political circumstances that influenced each part reveals what for Franklin was the value of imperfection. Imperfections in the political subject or society do more than humble members or pave the way for a more perfect union: they motivate participants to collaborative efforts in improving themselves and their ties to one another. This chapter offers a new reading of Franklin on authority and shows how only through revision did his work become a claim of experience.
Frederick Douglass, from Narration to Denunciation
Authors: Bennett Nolan
Published: September 2019

Chapter 2 shows how Frederick Douglass issued two claims across two antebellum narratives. In his 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, he both challenged the diminished legal and moral authority of black Americans and analyzed what of the plantation had oppressed him. Yet after his political ideas and ties developed in the following decade, Douglass wrote his 1855 My Bondage and My Freedom not as mere narrative but as denunciation. Whereas to narrate wrongs encouraged readers to judge Douglass’s story alongside moral criteria of justice, to denounce wrongs in Bondage implicated readers within the structures that create antebellum subjects on and off the plantation. This claim depended on Douglass’s renewed authority to analyze his life and on an analysis that revealed how the conditions of slavery implicate abolitionists and readers. Douglass’s book reached outward to demand his audience join him in solidarity for racial justice.
Henry Adams on the Ends of Education
Authors: Bennett Nolan
Published: September 2019

Chapter 3 examines how the author of The Education of Henry Adams confronted the developments in party politics, immigration, and technology that he believed had fragmented American democracy at the turn of the twentieth century. Henry Adams described education as the intellectual or social pursuits whereby we find ourselves and our place among others, pursuits that require a guiding authority figure or frame. Narrating his life as a failed attempt to find himself in Washington politics, journalism, and teaching, Adams revealed how modernity had outmoded an old form of education through the authority of republican statesmen. Inspired by advancements in biology and physics, Adams looked to the sciences for a new authority through which to understand himself and the nation, leading him to life writing. Adams sought to usher in a new American better fit to modernity than he was, insisting that those who survive him would need to seek new education.
Whittaker Chambers and the Confessions of Ex-Communists
Authors: Bennett Nolan
Published: September 2019

Chapter 5 places Whittaker Chambers’s 1952 Witness within the American panic over communism during the second Red Scare. In the late 1940s, Chambers took the stand before the House Un-American Activities Committee to confess that he and Alger Hiss, among others, had conspired against the United States from a Soviet underground cell. Though Hiss’s prison sentence was a legal victory, the autobiography claimed authority back from the trials and the state’s capacity to make meaning of Chambers’s life. Chambers argued for a return to the authority of God and fathers outmoded in a secular modernity exemplified by communism and New Deal liberalism. Although the trial of Hiss had publicized these accusations, Chambers turned to autobiography to achieve where he thought he had failed: to convert Americans to a Christian anticommunism and to compel present and former communists to confess, though he would ultimately fail to convert Hiss himself.