bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Arithmetic Okounkov bodies and positivity of adelic Cartier divisors
Authors: Ballaÿ François
Published: October 2023

In algebraic geometry, theorems of Küronya and Lozovanu characterize the ampleness and the nefness of a Cartier divisor on a projective variety in terms of the shapes of its associated Okounkov bodies. We prove the analogous result in the context of Arakelov geometry, showing that the arithmetic ampleness and nefness of an adelic

R

{\mathbb {R}}

-Cartier divisor

D
¯

\overline {D}

are determined by arithmetic Okounkov bodies in the sense of Boucksom and Chen. Our main results generalize to arbitrary projective varieties criteria for the positivity of toric metrized

R

{\mathbb {R}}

-divisors on toric varieties established by Burgos Gil, Moriwaki, Philippon and Sombra. As an application, we show that the absolute minimum of

D
¯

\overline {D}

coincides with the infimum of the Boucksom–Chen concave transform, and we prove a converse to the arithmetic Hilbert-Samuel theorem under mild positivity assumptions. We also establish new criteria for the existence of generic nets of small points and subvarieties.
Business History in International Business
Authors: da Silva Lopes Teresa
Published: October 2023

Historical research on the multinational enterprise has long been important in international business studies. When the discipline of international business first developed in the late 1950s, historical evidence was frequently used to build generalizations and propose theories. However, over time, that tradition eroded, as the discipline moved toward using more quantitative and econometric reasoning. International business and business history share important commonalities, such as the topics they address. These include: multinational patterns of international trade and foreign investment; the boundaries and competitiveness of the multinational enterprise; changes in organizational strategy and structure of multinational enterprises and the connections between the two; coordination and management of the activities of the multinational enterprise; impact of multinationals on knowledge and capital flows in host countries; and investment, resilience, and survival in high-risk environments. Nonetheless, the approaches followed can be quite distinct. While both disciplines consider the firm and other institutional forms as the unit of analysis, the way context and the environment are integrated in the analysis, the methodologies followed, the types of comparative analysis carried out, the temporal dimensions adopted, and the way in which theory is used are quite distinct. There are possible ways forward for international business history to be more integrated and provide new dimensions in international business studies. These include using history as a generator of theory to understand phenomena such as the origins of competitiveness and as a way to uncover phenomena that can be fully understood only after the situation has occurred, such as the impact of entrepreneurship on economic development; as a way to check false claims that certain phenomena is new; and to inform discussions on complex phenomena and grand challenges such as globalization and deglobalization, investment in high risk environments, and climate change.
Cognitive and Interactive Mechanisms for Mutual Understanding in Conversation
Authors: Micklos Ashley , Woensdregt Marieke
Published: October 2023

Everyday conversation is, as the term suggests, a frequent and seemingly effortless phenomenon. However, when closely examined, it is seen that the process of achieving mutual understanding in conversation involves both complex social reasoning and finely tuned interactive mechanisms. Referential communication provides an excellent case study for what makes everyday language interactions complex: people recruit an intricate web of cognitive capacities and interactive resources in order to get their message across. In terms of cognitive capacities, reaching mutual understanding in conversation involves social reasoning in order to establish common ground and take into account one’s conversational partner when producing and interpreting utterances. Specifically, people continuously adapt to their conversational partner by keeping track of what information is or is not shared (based on the situational context, preceding discourse, and general knowledge) and adjusting their utterances and interpretations accordingly. In terms of interactive resources, mechanisms that allow us to keep a conversation on track (e.g., backchannels) and the mechanisms that allow us to recover from breakdowns in communication (i.e., repair) contribute to mutual understanding. Specifically, other-initiated repair, a conversational phenomenon that has been documented cross-linguistically and observed in experimental settings, is an interactional resource for (re)establishing intersubjectivity between interlocutors. The historic separation between cognitive capacities on the one hand and interactive resources on the other hand has created an artificial divide, when in fact both mechanisms interact with, and even presuppose, one another. This article puts forward a unified perspective on the cognitive and interactive mechanisms for mutual understanding, moving towards better understanding of the complementary roles of these mechanisms in interaction.
Numerical Cognition
Authors: Avitan Aviv , Henik Avishai
Published: October 2023

Quantities, amounts, and numbers are dealt with on a regular basis. Their manipulation is necessary for making countless decisions. Research in the area of numerical cognition seeks to delineate how numerical information is represented, manipulated, and utilized. In parallel, research in this area traces the phylogenetic and ontogenetic trajectories of numerical abilities. A comprehensive understanding of numerical cognition and its brain basis has important implications for various disciplines. These disciplines include education, neuroscience, and economics. Furthermore, understating numerical cognition will help to foster good mathematical skills and support those who struggle with numerical and mathematical concepts.
Race and Student Evaluation
Authors: Taylor LaVada
Published: October 2023

Historicizing implicit biases shrouding Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) course evaluations, this work draws on critical race theory to illuminate the experiences of faculty of color as members of historically marginalized groups teaching in the academy. In so doing, the work grapples with the following questions: How are student course evaluations typically biased against BIPOC faculty? Why do students question the authority and expertise of faculty of color, exhibit negative behavior, and evaluate faculty of color poorly? Why do BIPOC faculty who are also women experience “double-bind” syndrome (i.e., marginalized due to race and gender)? The work expands existing bodies of literature focusing on the correlation of likability and attractiveness with positive course evaluations to include conversations on the ways race and racism inform student evaluations of teaching.
Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army
Authors: Allen Tim
Published: October 2023

Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) emerged in northern Uganda when Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement was also active (see entry for Lakwena, Alice). The groups had much in common, including spirit possession by their leaders. They were a response to the upheavals in the Acholi region following the seizing of political power in Uganda by Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army in 1986. However, while Lakwena’s forces were defeated in 1987, the LRA proved to be extraordinarily resilient. It has been more orientated to guerrilla tactics and acts of terror, including child abduction. LRA activities, combined with oppressive anti-insurgency operations by Museveni’s government, resulted in forced displacement of over a million people. In 2003, the situation was recognized as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world by the United Nations Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, and, in 2005, arrest warrants were issued for Joseph Kony and four other LRA commanders by the International Criminal Court. Peace negotiations began in 2006 but failed in 2008. The LRA then became active outside Uganda, in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the Central African Republic (CAR). Hundreds of local people were massacred, and thousands forced to flee their homes in 2008 and 2009. From 2008, the United States supported Ugandan military operations against the LRA, and US support was significantly increased from 2011. The scale of LRA violence declined from 2010, and in 2015, Dominic Ongwen, the only surviving LRA commander wanted by the International Criminal Court apart from Kony, was handed over for trial in The Hague, after being taken into custody by US forces. US and Ugandan forces were withdrawn in 2017, but Kony’s subsequent efforts to reinvigorate the LRA were unsuccessful. While Kony remained at large, Dominic Ongwen’s trial proceeded at the International Criminal Court. In February 2021, Ongwen was found guilty of sixty-one crimes (comprising crimes against humanity and war crimes). The judgment was a landmark ruling in terms of the successful prosecution of forced marriage and forced pregnancy. By 2020, Kony was living with a small band of followers, in a disputed territory between South Sudan and Sudan, bordering the Central African Republic, surviving by farming, and trading in local markets. He has reportedly abandoned his aim to overthrow the Ugandan government.
James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey: Educator, Minister, and Global Black Intellectual
Authors: Sanders Ethan R.
Published: October 2023

James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey (1875–1927) was a transatlantic black intellectual, educator, and Christian minister. Aggrey was raised in West Africa, where as a young man he became a rising figure among the educated elite of the Gold Coast and played an important role in the Gold Coast Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society’s defeat of the Public Lands Bill of 1897. For two decades, he served as a professor at Livingstone College, the chief educational institution of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church, and as a pastor in two AMEZ churches in rural North Carolina. Throughout this period, he became connected to a number of black intellectuals and educators in Washington and New York, including Robert Moton, James Cromwell, W. E. B. Du Bois, John Edward Bruce, Arthur Schomburg, and Carter G. Woodson. Through these connections, he became a promoter of Ethiopianist ideas and developed a vision for Africa’s redemption and a positive outlook toward the continent’s role in the future of the world. In 1920–1921 and again in 1924, Aggrey was selected to join two educational commissions to visit eighteen African territories. Over the course of eighteen months, Aggrey made hundreds of appearances and spoke to thousands of Africans through both public speeches and private audiences. His fame during this time led to his becoming the first continental celebrity of sub-Saharan Africa. His fame in the West also peaked during the early 1920s, and he became one of the most sought-after Christian speakers in Britain and North America, leading one scholar to suggest that Aggrey was perhaps the most well-known African in the United States during this period. Aggrey had a long-lasting impact on the African continent, in large part through helping the people of the continent to see themselves as belonging to an African nation of people who had a glorious future once they unified as one people. Aggrey helped to infuse a positive value into an “African” identity, and his vision was interpreted in various ways throughout colonial Africa and led to numerous educational, political, and social movements and shaped the ideas of many prominent African figures throughout the 20th century.
The Kololo Kingdom in the Upper Zambezi
Authors: Kalusa Walima T.
Published: October 2023

The Kololo, who under the leadership of Sebitwane defeated the Lozi Empire in 1838, founded one of the most powerful and wealthiest kingdoms in 19th-century southern Africa. This paper traces the kingdom’s origins, establishment, growth, and eventual collapse in the mid-1860s. It shows that the Kololo Kingdom was a conquest state whose founders initiated far-reaching social, economic, and political changes in the plain, as well as surrounding areas. Not only did the Kololo conquer the Lozi Empire, but they also as much bequeathed their own language Sikololo upon the Bulozi plain as they introduced Sotho military customs and institutions in the upper Zambezi as a whole. Of cardinal importance of these institutions were the annual cattle-raiding ritual (sela), age-set regiments (mopato), and militia. It was through these practices and institutions that the new overlords of the upper Zambezi created wealth, structured their military, oiled wheels of patronage, and exercised political power and influence. These institutions were thus as central to the workings of the Kololo society as they became an important vehicle by which the Kololo transformed the socio-political landscape of the upper Zambezi.

The Kololo furthermore integrated the region in question into the Atlantic trade orbit to gain access to imported goods. From the 1840s onward, they increasingly sold slaves and ivory in exchanged for such European goods as clothes, beads, and firearms imported into the upper Zambezi by foreign traders from the east and west coasts as well as South Africa. Additionally, the Kololo’s expansionist project enabled the conquerors of the plain to both carve out a vast conquest state and to extend their influence. By the 1850s, the Kololo kingdom had thus witnessed phenomenal expansion in terms of its territory, wealth and power. Its architects consequently exacted tribute from far-flung areas, some of which had never been conquered by Lozi princes. Despite all these accomplishments, however, the Kololo state was far from secure. From its inception, the kingdom faced insurmountable internal and external challenges. Not least of these difficulties were intergenerational conflicts engendered by unequal distribution of wealth and power within the Kololo governing class, the perpetual military threats of Mzilikazi’s Ndebele, the clamor for freedom by the conquered, and, after 1840, the detrimental interference of foreign merchants in local political affairs . In the 1850s and 1860s, these threats were compounded by the conflicting meanings Kololo elders and young men read into David Livingstone’s “civilizing mission.” This situation worsened existing intergenerational tensions wealthy Kololo royals against impoverished youths. Collectively, these challenges eased the defeat of the kingdom by Lozi political actors and the restoration of their empire in 1864.
Central Bank Monetary Policy and Consumer Credit Markets
Authors: An Xudong , Cordell Larry , Roman Raluca A. , Zhang Calvin
Published: October 2023

Central banks around the world use monetary policy tools to promote economic growth and stability; for example, in the United States, the Federal Reserve (Fed) uses federal funds rate adjustments, quantitative easing (QE) or tightening, forward guidance, and other tools “to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.” Changes in monetary policy affect both businesses and consumers. For consumers, changes in monetary policy affect bank credit supply, refinancing activity, and home purchases, which in turn affect household consumption and thus economic growth and price stability. The U.S. Fed rate cuts and QE programs during COVID-19 led to historically low interest rates, which spurred a huge wave of refinancings. However, the pass-through of rate savings in the mortgage market declined during the pandemic. The weaker pass-through can be linked to the extraordinary growth of shadow bank mortgage lenders during the COVID-19 pandemic: Shadow bank mortgage lenders charged mortgage borrowers higher rates and fees; therefore, a higher market share of them means a smaller overall pass-through of rate savings to mortgage borrowers. It is important to note that these shadow banks did provide convenience to consumers, and they originated loans faster than banks. The convenience and speed could be valuable to borrowers and important in transmitting monetary policy in a timelier way, especially during a crisis.
Maternal Health and Well-Being
Authors: Ojong Samuel Akombeng , Wamakima Bridgette , Moyer Cheryl A. , Temmerman Marleen
Published: October 2023

Maternal health and well-being refers to the physical, psychological, and emotional well-being of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period, as well as the absence of any morbidities or death either due to pregnancy or its management.

Despite making a comparatively late appearance on the international global policy agenda, maternal health and well-being has progressively become a global health policy priority following Deborah Maine’s revolutionary article on maternal mortality. Consequently, key international policy events from Alma Ata to the International Conference on Population and Development events, through the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the last decade have consecrated women’s inalienable right to safe and respectful health services. Also, the growing focus on rights-based care against the backdrop of the need to ensure equity in all communities worldwide has led to an evolution in policy focus, calling on health systems to not only protect women and girls from preventable deaths but to also empower them to thrive, all while recognizing their unique role is ensuring the positive transformation of the communities in which they live.

This increasing policy attention has contributed to a disproportionate yet marked reduction in global maternal mortality and morbidity statistics over the last 30 years. However, if the world is to achieve its 2030 SDGs women’s health and gender equality agendas, it is important to recognize that the broad concept of women’s health cannot be limited to the rather narrow window of pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. While there are huge gaps in all resource-type settings in promoting and protecting women’s agency and autonomy, the fact remains that in addition to ensuring the availability of and access to high-quality maternal health services, women’s health outcomes are inextricably linked to their decision-making power on key issues such as when to become sexually active, the use of contraception, whether or not they want to achieve pregnancy and childbirth, and access to safe abortion care services. Additionally, the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases and the increasing occurrence of worldwide pandemics are providing novel challenges to the health and well-being of the world’s most vulnerable women and girls, thus creating the need to ensure resilient health systems that are considerate of the rights and wishes of the world’s women and girls.
Gender Expertise in International Organizations
Authors: Altan-Olcay Özlem
Published: October 2023

Gender experts and gender expertise as a field of knowledge production and policymaking emerged in the late 20th century in response to the growing acceptance of gender mainstreaming in national bureaucracies as well as international organizations. Initially conceptualized as femocrats, gender experts and the resources devoted to them were welcome as important achievements of feminist movements in making their demands part of institutional frameworks. However, gender expertise is at the center of two important debates in feminist scholarship. First, feminist scholars, including those who have held positions as gender experts, debate the relationship between advocacy, professionalization, and the dangers of co-optation. These debates often connect with discussions of co-optation in broader scholarship on transformations in feminist discourses in institutional spaces. Second, critical scholarship has also produced much empirical data on the power inequalities in complex organizational settings within which gender experts operate. This scholarship focuses more on the actual experiences of gender experts. These debates may also give rise to new research on and with gender experts concerning the interactions between the researcher and the research subject, the positionality of thinking and writing today with hopes for (and despairs about) tomorrow, and the need to problematize binaries of the East and the West, the Global North and the South in knowledge production.
Middle Powers
Authors: Laurence Marion
Published: October 2023

Formal diplomatic recognition of “middle powers” began with the Congress of Vienna, but the concept gained increasing currency after World War II because medium-sized countries like Canada used it to distinguish themselves from smaller states and secure a relatively favorable position in the postwar order. Early definitions of middle powers focused on states that lacked the system-wide influence of great powers but whose resources and capacities were recognized as being more significant than those of small states. The term’s exact meaning remains contested, but early definitions capture three important dimensions of the concept. First, it is inherently relational, from both a material perspective and a social perspective, and often used as a residual category. Some scholars define middle-power status using material factors like geographic size or population, while others emphasize social roles and recognition, but all of these approaches focus on a state’s position, roles, and status relative to other states. Second, the middle-power concept is both state-centric and practitioner-adjacent. National policymakers invoke, reify, and continually reinvent the concept to achieve specific foreign policy objectives. Third, the middle-power concept is bound up with wider debates about global order. Middle powers were long conceptualized as good international citizens and champions of the liberal world order. The rise of “emerging” middle powers raises questions about their orientation toward existing global institutions. Going forward, the most pressing questions about middle powers and their foreign policy behavior will be linked to broader conversations about geopolitical change and the future of contemporary global governance arrangements.
Implications of Ancient DNA for Understanding Human Evolution
Authors: Williams Sloan R.
Published: October 2023

Ancient DNA (aDNA) studies have significantly changed anthropological perceptions of human evolution. The caves where many of the Eurasian archaic hominin remains have been found are particularly well suited for study as DNA preserves best at low temperature and humidity. This research has provided important information about our close relatives, the Neanderthals, and the Denisovans, a group previously unknown in the fossil record. Scientists have found traces of these, and perhaps other archaic hominin groups, in modern human genomes. A small but significant admixture or genetic exchange occurred among these groups with Neanderthal alleles being present in modern European and Asian people, while Denisovan alleles are confined to Asia and Oceania. No one knows exactly what happened to these archaic groups, but hybrid incompatibility, pathogen resistance, and population dynamics may have contributed to their disappearance. The ancient genetic sequences found in living people are not distributed uniformly throughout their genomes. Negative selection against archaic alleles may explain “archaic deserts” where these alleles are rare. In areas where archaic alleles are more common, both positive selection and genetic drift could explain these higher frequencies and why they are often difficult to distinguish from each other. Current work indicates that archaic alleles that confer resistance to disease and strengthen immune function are likely candidates for positive selection. Archaic alleles involved in phenotypic skin color variation are likely relatively neutral and more likely provide examples of genetic drift. Medically focused research has just begun to reveal the positive and negative effects that archaic alleles may have on human health. Human adaptation is ongoing, so genetic information obtained from archaeological contexts should provide otherwise unobtainable information about health and disease. The aDNA field will continue to grow as the technologies improve permitting access to genetic sequences from ever older samples and expanding the preservation conditions that can yield DNA.
San Jose and “Silicon Valley”
Authors: Matthews Glenna
Published: October 2023

Since 1988, San Jose has billed itself as the Capital of Silicon Valley. Thirty-five years later, it is the wealthiest city in the country. Despite San Jose’s size and its self-proclaimed title, however, the city remains far less known than its Bay Area sister cities—San Francisco and Oakland—both of which were smaller in population after 1980.

Yet the history of San Jose and the metropolitan region deserves to be better known for a multiplicity of reasons. First, in the heart of the Santa Clara Valley, San Jose was the first secular pueblo established by the Spanish in Alta California, in 1777, hence is California’s oldest city. Second, with its Native Californian population, its Hispanic Catholic first settlers, and the diversity of immigrants after the discovery of gold in 1848, San Jose has never been a place of Protestant hegemony. Despite the existence of racism and ethnocentrism, newcomers there encountered a playing field different from much of the country. That the Silicon Valley workforce has had so strong an immigrant profile is perhaps related to the fact that San Jose was born diverse. Finally, San Jose’s political and economic history are important. A small market center for the vast fruit-growing and processing industry in the Valley—as of 1930, there were at least a hundred thousand acres in orchards and dozens of canneries—San Jose began a transformative period of explosive growth during World War II that saw the city’s local economy dramatically change while increasing tenfold in geographical size and twice that in population. Local boosters, in fact, hoped and planned for it to become “the Los Angeles of the North.” Whether that goal was desirable or not, their vision, along with developments at Stanford University and enormous amounts of federal spending on defense, paved the way for the Santa Clara Valley to evolve into “Silicon Valley.”
Charque and Tasajo (Salt-Cured Beef) as an Atlantic Commodity in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Authors: Vargas Jonas
Published: October 2023

The use of salt for meat preservation and its subsequent consumption was a common practice in several societies on Atlantic Ocean coasts. By the turn of the 18th century, the production of salt-cured beef, or tasajo, began to be developed on a large scale and for business purposes, giving rise to important factory centers. The expansion of the transatlantic slave trade to the Americas was one of the main factors that triggered this growth. Tasajo and salted meat were used to supply the increase in demand for food on plantations in the Caribbean and Portuguese America, as well as for crews of all types of vessels that crossed the Atlantic Ocean. This historical process may be divided into two periods. First, throughout the 18th century, several cities in northern Portuguese America and in the Kingdom of Ireland stood out as important producers of this commodity. However, both declined by the end of that century. Later, at the turn of the 19th century, a more dynamic-producing area rose to prominence in the Atlantic, with ties to the commercial and capitalist expansion triggered by the Industrial Revolution. In the Rio de la Plata basin, the cities of Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Pelotas (in Southern Brazil) emerged as the foremost producers of this Atlantic commodity in the 19th century. By using forced labor for production (mainly in Pelotas), this second wave propelled the creation of thousands of new cattle farms in the Rio de la Plata, transforming the region’s agrarian landscape. Simultaneously, salted-meat production was harnessed to the expansion of the plantation economies in Brazil and in Cuba (coffee and sugar, respectively), and it contributed to the intertwined development of capitalism and slavery as well as to a greater integration of the world market.
The Atlantic Forest During Colonial Brazil
Authors: Dias Marcelo
Published: October 2023

The European conquistadors found a very different version of nature in tropical America. Colonization was possible only with the collaboration of the native peoples, who ensured the survival of the colonizers in this strange environment. In addition to sharing their food culture, the indigenous people showed them not only forest resources that were useful for building, navigation, and defense but also species with commercial value that would provide a payoff for the effort of European expansion, such as brazilwood (Paubrasilia) and other hardwood species (madeiras-de-lei). They also shared their agricultural techniques, which were subsequently used in commercial monocultures. As a result, the Atlantic Forest would become the ecological foundation for colonization; however, the vision of the forest as an open frontier with inexhaustible resources defined modes of exploration devoid of any environmental prudence. The expansion of the sugar mills, and a corresponding increase in the scale of slash-and-burn agriculture, caused so much degradation to the forests that political management of forest spaces by the authorities became necessary. This was intensified by the fact that both slash-and-burn farming and selective logging were viable in the same forest areas, where it was also possible to transport production via waterways. At the turn of the 19th century, the perception that the reckless and irrational exploitation of nature was compromising hardwood use instigated a debate on more rational ways of using the forest but without changing the old shortsighted and destructive practices. Nevertheless, the degradation that the Atlantic Forest experienced in the colonial period was limited to specific geographic zones with the strongest plantation, mining, and logging dynamics, and deforestation did not exceed one tenth of the total forest area.
Highland islands: assessing gene flow among populations of an aquatic highland endemic
Authors: Piller Kyle R , Parker Elyse , McMahan Caleb D , Elías Diego J , Matamoros Wilfredo A , Velázquez Velázquez Ernesto
Published: October 2023

A variety of hierarchical gene flow models have been proposed to explain the distribution of genetic variation in aquatic environments. These models, including the Stream Hierarchy (SH), Death Valley (DV), Headwater (HW), and Widespread Gene flow (WG) models, provide testable hypotheses that focus on the degree of within-basin or within-stream network connectivity and an organism’s dispersal abilities. We tested these models using Tlaloc hildebrandi (Profundulidae, Cyprinodontiformes), a freshwater fish endemic to the highlands of the Grijalva and Usumacinta River basins in southern Mexico. Data from ultraconserved elements (UCEs) showed that although T. hildebrandi was recovered as monophyletic, the sub-basins were not. We generated single nucleotide polymorphisms from the UCEs to analyse the data in a population genetic framework. These results differed between analyses such that two (STRUCTURE analysis) or three (DAPC analysis) genetic groupings were recovered. Overall, the results of this study provide support for the SH model. Some individuals from the Jataté sub-basin, however, conformed to the HW model, due to historical connections among headwater streams and rivers of the Jataté and Amarillo–Chenalhó clades/clusters. The greatest degree of gene flow has occurred from the Grijlava to the Usumacinta basins, two geographically proximate basins that have been hypothesized to have had previous connections.
Effects of early postoperative mobilization following gastrointestinal surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Willner Antonie , Teske Christian , Hackert Thilo , Welsch Thilo
Published: October 2023

Background

Early postoperative mobilization is considered a key element of enhanced recovery after surgery protocols. The aim of this study was to summarize the effect of early postoperative mobilization following gastrointestinal operations on patient recovery, mobility, the morbidity rate and duration of hospital stay.

Methods

A systematic literature search was conducted in December, 2022, using PubMed, Web of Science and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Controlled trials reporting the effects of early postoperative mobilization after gastrointestinal surgery were included. The risk of bias was assessed using a modified Downs and Black tool and the Cochrane Collaboration tool for randomized trials. The outcomes of interest were gastrointestinal recovery (defined passage of first flatus or bowel movements), mobility (step count on postoperative day 3), the morbidity rate and duration of hospital stay.

Results

After elimination of duplicates, 3678 records were identified, and 71 full-text articles were screened. Finally, 15 studies (eight RCTs) reporting on 3538 patients were included. Most trials evaluated early postoperative mobilization after different gastrointestinal operations, including upper gastrointestinal (n = 8 studies), hepatopancreatobiliary (n = 10 studies) and colorectal resections (n = 10 studies). The investigated early postoperative mobilization protocols, operative techniques (minimally invasive or open) and outcome parameters were heterogeneous between the studies. Early postoperative mobilization seemed to significantly accelerate clinical gastrointestinal recovery (mean difference, hours: −11.53 (−22.08, −0.97), P = 0.03). However, early postoperative mobilization did not significantly improve the morbidity rate (risk ratio: 0.93 (0.70, 1.23), P = 0.59), postoperative mobility of patients (step count mean difference: 1009 (−803, 2821), P = 0.28) or shorten the duration of hospital stay (mean difference, days: −0.25 (−0.99,0.43), P = 0.47) in randomized trials.

Conclusion

There is a large heterogeneity among the study cohorts, operations and interventions. The available evidence currently does not support specific early postoperative mobilization protocols as an isolated element to further reduce the morbidity rate and duration of hospital stay. Further well-designed trials are required to identify effective early postoperative mobilization protocols.
The evolution of genetic covariance and modularity as a result of multigenerational environmental fluctuation
Authors: do O Isabela , Whitlock Michael C
Published: October 2023

The genetic covariance between traits can affect the evolution of a population through selection, drift, and migration. Conversely, research has demonstrated the reciprocal effect of evolutionary processes on changing genetic covariances, in part through mutational covariance, correlational selection, and plasticity. In this article, we propose that correlated changes in selective optima over generations can cause the evolution of genetic covariance and the G-matrix in such a way that the population can, in the future, evolve faster. We use individual-based simulations of populations exposed to three types of changing environments that differ in the correlation of the change between selective pressures. Our simulation experiments demonstrate that selection pressures for different traits changing in a correlated pattern over generations can lead to stronger trait correlations compared to the case with independently changing selective optima. Our findings show that correlated selective pressures result in significantly higher genetic trait covariance and that pleiotropy accounts for the majority of the difference in covariance between treatments. We also observe that the mutational variance evolves according to the environment that the populations were exposed to. Moreover, we show that clustered patterns of changes in selection can allow the evolution of genetic modularity. We show that the pattern of change in the selective environment affects the pace at which fitness evolves, with populations experiencing correlated change in optima having on average higher mean fitness than those experiencing uncorrelated environment change.
The financial reporting system
Authors: Crowe Jonathan , Bradshaw Tony
Published: October 2023

This chapter explains the accounting rules and regulations that govern published financial reports of companies. It considers who sets and influences these rules and regulations, and the authority they have. The main player in this is the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which sets international financial reporting standards and the concepts and principles underpinning them. The chapter also explores the IASB's programme of work. It notes that acceptance of its standards is key to the development of global financial reporting systems. These aim to produce high-quality financial statements.
Revenue from contracts with customers
Authors: Crowe Jonathan , Bradshaw Tony
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores the accounting requirements of IFRS 15, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. It considers the application of the accounting methods for revenue recognition and measurement set out in financial reporting standard IFRS 15. The chapter explores the significance of revenue reporting to businesses and their users and the issues inherent with this. The inadequacies of accounting for revenue under IASs 18 and 11 are also exposed. Most of the chapter is devoted to the exposition of the principles for accounting for revenue under IFRS 15, such as the identification of the contract, determination of the transaction price, and the impact of IFRS 15, among others.
Property, plant and equipment, and impairment
Authors: Gillespie Andrew
Published: October 2023

This chapter sets out to explain the issues relating to accounting for property, plant, and equipment, and why and where judgements are required. It examines the methods to account for the acquisition, subsequent use of and derecognition of property, plant and equipment, including the determination of cost and depreciation, and how to deal with revaluations. It also presents the relevant standards employed for the disclosure and presentation of property, plant, and equipment. In addition, it shares the accounting treatment for impairment of non-current assets. Lastly, the chapter defines and shows the accounting for investment properties and assets held for sale.
Leases
Authors: Crowe Jonathan , Bradshaw Tony
Published: October 2023

This chapter presents the accounting methods for leases, for both lessees and lessors. It begins with the definition of off-balance sheet financing and its implications on financial reporting. The chapter distinguishes between finance and operating leases and demonstrates the accounting methods for these two types of leases for both lessees and lessors in accordance with IAS 17. It also explains the lease agreement and the single right-of-use asset model under IFRS 16 and then illustrates the accounting method for both lessees and lessors in accordance with this standard. The sale and leaseback transaction and its accounting treatment under both IAS 17 and IFRS 16 are discussed as well.
The Cash Budget
Authors: Carey Mary , Knowles Cathy
Published: October 2023

This chapter introduces the topic of accounting. It defines accounting as the monitoring of financial information needed to run a business or organization. The chapter points out that managers of any business should make good key decisions in line with accounting information. It explains how a cash budget is needed to make financial decisions. A cash budget is a tool for forecasting cash receipts, cash shortfalls, or surpluses. Additionally, the chapter explores various accounting concepts such as capital, sales, entity concept, money measurement concept, credit sales and cash sales. It also highlights the formula for calculating gross profit margin which is used to assess the profitability of products sold by a business.
Company Finance
Authors: Carey Mary , Knowles Cathy
Published: October 2023

This chapter focuses on company finance. It looks into the nature of a limited company. It also considers company formation, separate legal entity, limited liability, and perpetual life. The chapter also discusses characteristics of the main external sources of finance available to limited companies. It highlights the roles of a stock exchange and venture capital. Debentures are long-term loans raised by a company where security is usually provided for a loan. Additionally, the chapter references the Corporate Governance Code in line with building responsible business practices after looking into the reporting requirements of company directors. It includes the types of share capitals.
Accounting Basics
Authors: Winfield Jimmy , Graham Mark , Miller Taryn
Published: October 2023

This chapter describes the basics of the financial accounting system. It examines the principles underlying the three most important outputs of the system: the statement of financial position, the statement of comprehensive income, and the statement of cash flows. The chapter also looks at the internal dynamics of the accounting system—double-entry bookkeeping and year-end procedures—to facilitate understanding of these financial statements. Assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expense are the five elements of an accounting system. The chapter then introduces an imaginary business, the Pizza Business, as an example. It accounts for fourteen basic transactions and other events in the financial statements of the Pizza Business using the accounting equation, the terminology of debits and credits, and numerous explanations of key principles.
Cash Flows
Authors: Winfield Jimmy , Graham Mark , Miller Taryn
Published: October 2023

This chapter evaluates the statement of cash flows, which gives a detailed breakdown of cash inflows and outflows during the year, split between the three main activities of the business: operating, investing, and financing. The totals of these are added together to get a net cash flow figure for the year, which is finally added to the opening cash balance to obtain the closing cash balance. The statement of cash flows reports flows of cash and cash equivalents, which include investments that are easily convertible into cash and not subject to risks of changes in value. Cash flow, not profit, is the ultimate measure of business value, because cash is real, whereas profit is a notional construct of the accounting equation. Quality of earnings indicates the extent to which a business is converting profits into cash, its exposure to short-term sustainability risks, and the likely authenticity of the accrual-based figures.
Equity
Authors: Winfield Jimmy , Graham Mark , Miller Taryn
Published: October 2023

This chapter explains why a business's total equity is not a reliable valuation of the business. There are three reasons for this: assets are not at fair value; some identifiable assets and liabilities are not included in net asset value; and a range of other items of value—collectively known as goodwill—are also not generally included. The chapter then looks at the statement of changes in equity, which reports the movements in the accounts that appear in the equity section of the statement of financial position, represented in columns. Each row on the statement of changes in equity represents a movement in an equity account, split into two sections: those which affect total comprehensive income (TCI); and those which result from transactions with owners. The chapter also considers non-distributable reserves and the restatement of equity balances.
Financial Analysis
Authors: Winfield Jimmy , Graham Mark , Miller Taryn
Published: October 2023

This chapter studies financial analysis, the aim of which is to examine the financial statements to see whether value has indeed been created, and, most importantly, to determine whether this will continue. Financial analysis consists of three stages: reading the financial statements; understanding the main story of the financial statements; and ratio analysis. Financial ratios enable an analyst to see the ways in which certain items of financial information relate to other items, delivering insights about five aspects of business performance that cannot be inferred simply from reading the financial statements. These five aspects include asset efficiency, profitability, leverage, liquidity, and market performance. The chapter then looks at the AMBER analysis, return on equity (ROE), Du Pont analysis, liquidity ratios, and market ratios.
Business Valuations
Authors: Winfield Jimmy , Graham Mark , Miller Taryn
Published: October 2023

This chapter identifies three different ways of thinking about a business' value, looking at book value, market value, and intrinsic value. A business's book value is usually a poor measure of what a business is worth. Meanwhile, a listed company's market value is its market capitalisation, which is the result of multiplying its share price by the number of shares outstanding. The intrinsic value of a business is what it is really worth; it is this figure which a business valuation seeks to identify. A business valuation which uses the discounted cash flow model (DCF) is a fundamental valuation, in the sense that it aims to measure the intrinsic value directly, by calculating the present value of the future cash flows of the business. The chapter then considers the steps involved in a DCF valuation and valuation multiples.
Creative Accounting
Authors: Winfield Jimmy , Graham Mark , Miller Taryn
Published: October 2023

This chapter highlights creative accounting, which generally describes the ethical, and often illegal, practice of preparing financial reports which contain accounting irregularities. An accounting irregularity is an item incorrectly included in, or omitted from, the accounting records and financial statements, with the purpose of misleading others. Accounting irregularities are perpetrated for a variety of reasons, including to launder money; attract cash into a Ponzi scheme; cover up theft; and obscure bad news. Common kinds of irregularities include falsifying income; upfronting income; incorrectly deferring expenses; failing to impair assets when appropriate; misclassifying liabilities; and not consolidating controlled entities. Countermeasures against accounting irregularities include financial regulation, corporate governance codes, improvements in accounting standards, auditing, and accounting ethics. The chapter then assesses whether accounting irregularities created the global financial crisis.
Introduction
Authors: Scott Peter
Published: October 2023

This chapter provides an overview of the concepts and theories that will be encountered in the study of accounting. It begins with the discussion of the different forms of business organizations and their advantages and disadvantages. Next, it defines accounting and the role it plays in making informed business decisions. Furthermore, it distinguishes the two branches of accounting—financial accounting and cost and management accounting—and defines their roles. Finally, the chapter explains what accounting does not do and the limitations of accounting information.
Double-Entry Bookkeeping 1: Debits, Credits, T Accounts, the Trial Balance and the Financial Statements
Authors: Scott Peter
Published: October 2023

This chapter shows how transactions are recorded in the double-entry bookkeeping system. It presents the terminology used in double-entry bookkeeping, debits and credits, together with the T account which is used to record transactions as they occur. The trial balance is then prepared once all the transactions and period-end adjustments have been recorded in the T accounts.