bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Personalizing Breast Cancer Screening Based on Polygenic Risk and Family History
Authors: van den Broek Jeroen J , Schechter Clyde B , van Ravesteyn Nicolien T , Janssens A Cecile J W , Wolfson Michael C , Trentham-Dietz Amy , Simard Jacques , Easton Douglas F , Mandelblatt Jeanne S , Kraft Peter , de Koning Harry J
Published: August 2020

Background

We assessed the clinical utility of a first-degree breast cancer family history and polygenic risk score (PRS) to inform screening decisions among women aged 30-50 years.

Methods

Two established breast cancer models evaluated digital mammography screening strategies in the 1985 US birth cohort by risk groups defined by family history and PRS based on 313 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Strategies varied in initiation age (30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 years) and interval (annual, hybrid, biennial, triennial). The benefits (breast cancer deaths averted, life-years gained) and harms (false-positive mammograms, overdiagnoses) were compared with those seen with 3 established screening guidelines.

Results

Women with a breast cancer family history who initiated biennial screening at age 40 years (vs 50 years) had a 36% (model range = 29%-40%) increase in life-years gained and 20% (model range = 16%-24%) more breast cancer deaths averted, but 21% (model range = 17%-23%) more overdiagnoses and 63% (model range = 62%-64%) more false positives. Screening tailored to PRS vs biennial screening from 50 to 74 years had smaller positive effects on life-years gained (20%) and breast cancer deaths averted (11%) but also smaller increases in overdiagnoses (10%) and false positives (26%). Combined use of family history and PRS vs biennial screening from 50 to 74 years had the greatest increase in life-years gained (29%) and breast cancer deaths averted (18%).

Conclusions

Our results suggest that breast cancer family history and PRS could guide screening decisions before age 50 years among women at increased risk for breast cancer but expected increases in overdiagnoses and false positives should be expected.
Safety of yellow fever vaccination in pregnancy: findings from a cohort of active duty US military women
Authors: Hall Clinton , Khodr Zeina G , Chang Richard N , Bukowinski Anna T , Gumbs Gia R , Conlin Ava Marie S
Published: August 2020

Background

Yellow fever (YF) is a rare viral disease that can be prevented through receipt of a live attenuated vaccine. In the US military, service members must receive the YF vaccine before assignment to endemic areas, putting active duty service women at heightened risk for inadvertent exposure during preconception or pregnancy. Few studies have investigated the safety of YF vaccination in pregnancy to date, and none in a military population.

Methods

Department of Defense Birth and Infant Health Research program data were used to identify pregnancies and infants among active duty US military women, 2003–2014. Multivariable regression models estimated associations with YF vaccine exposure during preconception/pregnancy and adverse outcomes (e.g. spontaneous abortion, birth defects). Sensitivity analyses were performed that excluded pregnancies exposed to other live vaccines. For analyses of birth defects only, a secondary sensitivity analysis was performed that excluded infants diagnosed with chromosomal anomalies.

Results

Of the 196 802 pregnancies and 160 706 singleton infants identified, 1347 (0.7%) and 1132 (0.7%), respectively, were exposed to the YF vaccine. No increased risks for adverse pregnancy or infant outcomes were observed in the main analysis. In sensitivity analyses that excluded pregnancies exposed to other live vaccines, preconception YF vaccine exposure was associated with birth defects [adjusted risk ratio (aRR) = 1.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.08–2.73]; this association was attenuated when further excluding infants with chromosomal anomalies (aRR = 1.59, 95% CI = 0.97–2.62).

Conclusions

Overall, YF vaccine exposure did not appear to be associated with most adverse outcomes among this population of pregnant military women. A tenuous association between preconception YF vaccine exposure and birth defects was observed in sensitivity analyses, which may warrant further investigation.
Assessment of the roles of SPO11-2 and SPO11-4 in meiosis in rice using CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis
Authors: Fayos Ian , Meunier Anne Cécile , Vernet Aurore , Navarro-Sanz Sergi , Portefaix Murielle , Lartaud Marc , Bastianelli Giacomo , Périn Christophe , Nicolas Alain , Guiderdoni Emmanuel
Published: August 2020

In Arabidopsis, chromosomal double-strand breaks at meiosis are presumably catalyzed by two distinct SPO11 transesterases, AtSPO11-1 and AtSPO11-2, together with M-TOPVIB. To clarify the roles of the SPO11 paralogs in rice, we used CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis to produce null biallelic mutants in OsSPO11-1, OsSPO11-2, and OsSPO11-4. Similar to Osspo11-1, biallelic mutations in the first exon of OsSPO11-2 led to complete panicle sterility. Conversely, all Osspo11-4 biallelic mutants were fertile. To generate segregating Osspo11-2 mutant lines, we developed a strategy based on dual intron targeting. Similar to Osspo11-1, the pollen mother cells of Osspo11-2 progeny plants showed an absence of bivalent formation at metaphase I, aberrant segregation of homologous chromosomes, and formation of non-viable tetrads. In contrast, the chromosome behavior in Osspo11-4 male meiocytes was indistinguishable from that in the wild type. While similar numbers of OsDMC1 foci were revealed by immunostaining in wild-type and Osspo11-4 prophase pollen mother cells (114 and 101, respectively), a surprisingly high number (85) of foci was observed in the sterile Osspo11-2 mutant, indicative of a divergent function between OsSPO11-1 and OsSPO11-2. This study demonstrates that whereas OsSPO11-1 and OsSPO11-2 are the likely orthologs of AtSPO11-1 and AtSPO11-2, OsSPO11-4 has no major role in wild-type rice meiosis.
Diphenyl diselenide and its interaction with antifungals against Aspergillus spp.
Authors: Melo Aryse Martins , Poester Vanice Rodrigues , Trapaga Mariana , Nogueira Cristina Wayne , Zeni Gilson , Martinez Marife , Sass Gabriele , Stevens David A , Xavier Melissa Orzechowski
Published: August 2020

Given the few antifungal classes available to treat aspergillosis, this study aimed to evaluate the in vitro antifungal activity of diphenyl diselenide (PhSe)2 alone and in combination with classical antifungals against Aspergillus spp., and its in vivo activity in a systemic experimental aspergillosis model. We performed in vitro broth microdilution assay of (PhSe)2 against 32 Aspergillus isolates; and a checkboard assay to test the interaction of this compound with itraconazole (ITC), voriconazole (VRC), amphotericin B (AMB), and caspofungin (CAS), against nine Aspergillus isolates. An experimental model of invasive aspergillosis in mice was studied, and survival curves were compared between an untreated group and groups treated with 100 mg/kg ITC, or (PhSe)2 in different dosages (10 mg/kg, 50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg). All Aspergillus non-fumigatus and 50% of A. fumigatus were inhibited by (PhSe)2 in concentrations ≤ 64 µg/ml, with significant differences in MICs between the sections. Synergism or additive effect in the in vitro (PhSe)2 interaction with VRC and CAS was observed against the majority of isolates, and with ITC against the non-fumigatus strains. In addition to the inhibitory interaction, (PhSe)2 was able to add a fungicidal effect to CAS. Survival curves from the systemic experimental aspergillosis model demonstrated that the inoculum caused an acute and lethal infection in mice, and no treatment applied significantly prolonged survival over that of the control group. The results highlight the promising activity of (PhSe)2 against Aspergillus species, but more in vivo studies are needed to determine its potential applicability in aspergillosis treatment.
Stability of planetary, single M dwarf, and binary star companions to Kepler detached eclipsing binaries and a possible five-body system
Authors: Getley A K , Carter B , King R , O’Toole S
Published: August 2020

In this study, we identify 11 Kepler systems (KIC 5255552, 5653126, 5731312, 7670617, 7821010, 8023317, 10268809, 10296163, 11519226, 11558882, and 12356914) with a flip-flop effect in the eclipse timing variations O − C diagrams of the systems, report on what these systems have in common and whether these systems are dynamically stable. These systems have previously reported high eccentric binary stars with highly eccentric third bodies/outer companions. We find that all of the additional bodies in the system are dynamically stable for the configurations previously reported and are therefore likely to exist as described. We also provide additional evidence of KIC 5255552 being a quadruple star system composed of an eclipsing binary pair and non-eclipsing binary pair with the possibility of a fifth body in the system. With the advent of the NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) exoplanet survey, its precision photometric monitoring offers an opportunity to help confirm more local eclipsing binary star companions, including planets.
Turbulence-level dependence of cosmic ray parallel diffusion
Authors: Reichherzer P , Becker Tjus J , Zweibel E G , Merten L , Pueschel M J
Published: August 2020

Understanding the transport of energetic cosmic rays belongs to the most challenging topics in astrophysics. Diffusion due to scattering by electromagnetic fluctuations is a key process in cosmic ray transport. The transition from a ballistic to a diffusive-propagation regime is presented in direct numerical calculations of diffusion coefficients for homogeneous magnetic field lines subject to turbulent perturbations. Simulation results are compared with theoretical derivations of the parallel diffusion coefficient’s dependences on the energy and the fluctuation amplitudes in the limit of weak turbulence. The present study shows that the widely used extrapolation of the energy scaling for the parallel diffusion coefficient to high turbulence levels predicted by quasi-linear theory does not provide a universally accurate description in the resonant-scattering regime. It is highlighted here that the numerically calculated diffusion coefficients can be polluted for low energies due to missing resonant interaction possibilities of the particles with the turbulence. Five reduced-rigidity regimes are established, which are separated by analytical boundaries derived in this work. Consequently, a proper description of cosmic ray propagation can only be achieved by using a turbulence-level-dependent diffusion coefficient and can contribute to solving the Galactic cosmic ray gradient problem.
Quantifying the redshift space distortion of the bispectrum II: induced non-Gaussianity at second-order perturbation
Authors: Mazumdar Arindam , Bharadwaj Somnath , Sarkar Debanjan
Published: August 2020

The anisotrpy of the redshift space bispectrum $B^s(\boldsymbol {k_1},\boldsymbol {k_2},\boldsymbol {k_3})$, which contains a wealth of cosmological information, is completely quantified using multipole moments $\bar{B}^m_{\ell }(k_1,\mu ,t)$, where k1, the length of the largest side, and (μ, t), respectively, quantify the size and the shape of the triangle $(\boldsymbol {k_1},\boldsymbol {k_2},\boldsymbol {k_3})$. We present analytical expressions for all the multipoles that are predicted to be non-zero (ℓ ≤ 8, m ≤ 6) at second-order perturbation theory. The multipoles also depend on β1, b1, and γ2, which quantify the linear redshift distortion parameter, linear bias and quadratic bias, respectively. Considering triangles of all possible shapes, we analyse the shape dependence of all of the multipoles holding $k_1=0.2 \, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}, \beta _1=1, b_1=1$, and γ2 = 0 fixed. The monopole $\bar{B}^0_0$, which is positive everywhere, is minimum for equilateral triangles. $\bar{B}_0^0$ increases towards linear triangles, and is maximum for linear triangles close to the squeezed limit. Both $\bar{B}^0_{2}$ and $\bar{B}^0_4$ are similar to $\bar{B}^0_0$, however, the quadrupole $\bar{B}^0_2$ exceeds $\bar{B}^0_0$ over a significant range of shapes. The other multipoles, many of which become negative, have magnitudes smaller than $\bar{B}^0_0$. In most cases, the maxima or minima, or both, occur very close to the squeezed limit. $\mid \bar{B}^m_{\ell } \mid$ is found to decrease rapidly if ℓ or m are increased. The shape dependence shown here is characteristic of non-linear gravitational clustering. Non-linear bias, if present, will lead to a different shape dependence.
The structure of weakly magnetized γ-ray burst jets
Authors: Gottlieb Ore , Bromberg Omer , Singh Chandra B , Nakar Ehud
Published: August 2020

The interaction of gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets with the dense media into which they are launched promote the growth of local hydrodynamic instabilities along the jet boundary. In a companion paper, we study the evolution of hydrodynamic (unmagnetized) jets, finding that mixing of jet–cocoon material gives rise to an interface layer, termed jet–cocoon interface (JCI), which contains a significant fraction of the system energy. We find that the angular structure of the jet + JCI, when they reach the homologous phase, can be approximated by a flat core (the jet) + a power-law function (the JCI) with indices that depend on the degree of mixing. In this paper, we examine the effect of subdominant toroidal magnetic fields on the jet evolution and morphology. We find that weak fields can stabilize the jet against local instabilities. The suppression of the mixing diminishes the JCI and thus reshapes the jet’s post-breakout structure. Nevertheless, the overall shape of the outflow can still be approximated by a flat core + a power-law function, although the JCI power-law decay is steeper. The effect of weak fields is more prominent in long GRB jets, where the mixing in hydrodynamic jets is stronger. In short GRB jets, there is small mixing in both weakly magnetized and unmagnetized jets. This result influences the expected jet emission which is governed by the jet’s morphology. Therefore, prompt and afterglow observations in long GRBs may be used as probes for the magnetic nature at the base of the jets.
Participation of RecJ in the base excision repair pathway of Deinococcus radiodurans
Authors: Cheng Kaiying , Xu Ying , Chen Xuanyi , Lu Huizhi , He Yuan , Wang Liangyan , Hua Yuejin
Published: August 2020

RecJ reportedly participates in the base excision repair (BER) pathway, but structural and functional data are scarce. Herein, the Deinococcus radiodurans RecJ (drRecJ) deletion strain exhibited extreme sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide and methyl-methanesulphonate, as well as a high spontaneous mutation rate and an accumulation of unrepaired abasic sites in vivo, indicating the involvement of drRecJ in the BER pathway. The binding affinity and nuclease activity preference of drRecJ toward DNA substrates containing a 5′-P-dSpacer group, a 5′-deoxyribose-phosphate (dRP) mimic, were established. A 1.9 Å structure of drRecJ in complex with 5′-P-dSpacer-modified single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) revealed a 5′-monophosphate binding pocket and occupancy of 5′-dRP in the drRecJ nuclease core. The mechanism for RecJ 5′-dRP catalysis was explored using structural and biochemical data, and the results implied that drRecJ is not a canonical 5′-dRP lyase. Furthermore, in vitro reconstitution assays indicated that drRecJ tends to participate in the long-patch BER pathway rather than the short-patch BER pathway.
Burden of Hospitalization Associated with Seasonal Influenza in Toronto, Canada, 2011–2016
Authors: Kain Taylor , Coleman Brenda L , Hassan Kazi , Green Karen , Katz Kevin , Powis Jeff , Richardson David , Plevneshi Agron , Kwong Jeffrey C , Chung Hannah , Gubbay Jonathan B , Mcgeer Allison ,   The Toronto Invasive Bacterial Diseases Network
Published: August 2020

Background

As indications for testing for influenza broaden, influenza is increasingly being diagnosed in association with hospitalization in adults. We report data on the burden of illness associated with laboratory confirmed influenza requiring hospitalization (LCI-H) in Toronto, Canada from 2010–2011 to 2015–2016.

Methods

TIBDN has performed population-based surveillance for LCI-H in adults (≥15years) in Toronto and Peel Region, Canada since 2005. All positive tests for influenza are reported, patients are approached for consent and data collected by chart review and patient/physician interview. Death within 30 days of hospitalization was considered associated with influenza. Population data were obtained from Statistics Canada, with data by underlying condition obtained from literature review and provincial health administrative data.

Results

Over 6 seasons, 5,591 LCI-H episodes were identified: 1,094 (20%) H1N1, 2,847 (51%) H3N2, 415 (7%) A(not typed), 1A(H3N2 and H1N1) and 1,235 (22%) B. The median age of patients was 71.4 years, with 69.3% of patients over 65 years of age; 3,015 (53.4%) were female, 2,618 (46.8%) had been vaccinated against influenza, and 683 (12.2%) were admitted from nursing homes. Incidence by age, influenza subtype and season is shown in Figures 1 and 2. The average annual incidence in healthy adults was 5 per 100,000, compared with 0.8 per 1,000 in adults with COPD or diabetes, 1.7 per 1,000 in adults with cardiac disease, and >2 per 1,000 in those with underlying kidney disease or immunosuppression. Overall, 12.8% of patients had a significant non-respiratory complication (eg. myocarditis, stroke, C. difficile infection). 720 (12.9%) required ICU admission, and 414 (7.4%) required mechanical ventilation. The median hospital length of stay was 9.58 days (IQR 3-11). None of 226 cases aged <30 years died; the case fatality rate increased from 1.8% in those aged 30–39 to 14.5% in those aged 90+ (Figure 3).

Conclusion

Despite vaccination programs, influenza is a very common cause of hospitalization and death in our adult population. While surveillance for LCI-H underestimates the overall burden of influenza, it may nonetheless help to appropriately prioritize preventive programs.

Disclosures

J. Powis, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant. GSK: Grant Investigator, Research grant. Roche: Grant Investigator, Research grant. Synthetic Biologicals: Investigator, Research grant. A. Mcgeer, Hoffman La Roche: Investigator, Research grant. GSK: Investigator, Research grant. sanofi pasteur: Investigator, Research grant.
Frameworks and Models in Decision-Making and Judgment in Child Welfare and Protection
Authors: Benbenishty Rami , Fluke John D.
Published: August 2020

This chapter presents the basic concepts, theoretical perspectives, and areas of scholarship that bear on decisions in child welfare—making choices in decision environments characterized by high levels of uncertainty. The authors distinguish between normative models that predict what decision-makers ought to choose when faced with alternatives and descriptive models that describe how they tend to make these choices in real life. The chapter reviews those challenges that may be especially relevant in the complex context of child welfare and protection. One way in which decision-makers overcome task complexities and limitations in human information processing (bounded rationality) is by using heuristics to navigate complex tasks. The chapter reviews strategies to correct some limitations in judgment. The authors examine the relationships between workers’ predictions of what would be the outcomes of the case and the actual outcomes and describe two types of error (false positive and false negative) and the related concepts of specificity and sensitivity. These issues are followed by a description of the Lens Model and some of its implications for child welfare decision-making, including predictive risk modeling and studies on information processing models. The final section presents current theoretical models in child welfare decision-making and describes Decision-Making Ecology (DME) and Judgments and Decision Processes in Context (JUDPiC). The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research on child welfare decision-making that could contribute to our conceptual understanding and have practical utility as well.
“Look toward Money”
Authors: Xu Xiaoqun
Published: August 2020

Chapter 11 shifts to an exploration of post-Mao civil justice. Enormous changes have taken place due to economic reforms, and reestablishing the sanctity of private property has led to a dramatic increase in civil disputes. The chapter also examines new versions of the Marriage Law (1980 and 2001) and samples civil disputes that reflect both positive and negative changes in social-economic landscapes and in social norms and moral values resulting from the reform and opening policies since the late 1970s. Since a civil code is still in the making as of this writing, civil adjudications have been guided by a number of civil statutes issued in the recent decades. The civil lawsuits sampled here include those regarding divorce and property division, family support, torts, online defamation, and housing demolishing disputes. Last but not the least, the problem of civil enforcement is addressed.
The Sacrificium
Authors: Maloy Rebecca
Published: August 2020

This chapter introduces the Old Hispanic offertory chant, called the sacrificium, as a prelude to the closer analysis presented in subsequent chapters. The author considers the musical and textual structure of the genre, its performance, and the thematic shape of the repertory as a whole. The genre connects thematically to Isidore of Seville’s description of the genre. Although the genre is likely to have emerged in the sixth century, a handful of sacrificia are probabe additions from the tenth or eleventh century. The use of different biblical versions suggests that these chants were created a different times, rather than being the product of a single effort. The texts develop the theme of sacrifice, themes associated with each part of the liturgical year, and with general characteristics of sainthood. The creators of the repertory used and adapted scripture to enhance these themes, sometimes in ways that were typical of the genre.
Conclusion
Authors: Maloy Rebecca
Published: August 2020

This chapter provides a summary and conclusion for the book and explores some potential areas for future research. Through the education of clergy and laity, the bishops strove to create a Visigothic kingdom unified in the Nicene faith. The chant texts and melodies were carefully constructed to serve these ends. Liturgy and chant were a practical way of instilling doctrine and modeling biblical exegesis, as part of a cultural program that was at once theological and ideological. By the time of the surviving manuscripts with notation, the Iberian cantors had developed a distinctive culture of musical literacy, in which particular neumes and neume patterns signaled specific melodic functions. Through analysis of these neume shapes, I have posited a sophisticated melodic grammar that is closely tied to textual syntax and aural aspects of the text such as word accent and assonance. Strategic placement of melismas, cadences, and melodic repetition underlined words and images that were central to the text’s typological meaning or liturgical use. Finally, I have considered the relationship of the sacrificia to offertories in other liturgical traditions. Further reportorial, textual, and melodies parallels between Western chant repertories remain to be discovered and explored through similar methodologies.
A Theory of Stratified Expansion of Social Welfare
Authors: Huang Xian
Published: August 2020

Chapter 2 presents a supply-side theory that explains the political logic and distributive characteristics of social welfare provision in the Chinese authoritarian setting. The theory takes into account the logic of authoritarian regime survival, multilevel governance and local political economies, and specifies the main political actors and their interests and strategies in Chinese social welfare provision. It argues that authoritarian leaders, whose basic interest lies in regime survival and stability, use stratifying and expansive social welfare policies to privilege elites and placate the masses. To explain the stratified social welfare expansion in the Chinese authoritarian yet decentralized setting, it is necessary to disaggregate the authoritarian state and to examine divergences in policy preferences among different levels of the authoritarian state and the factors that shape the dynamics of interaction between them, ultimately with an eye toward the impact of these divergences and interactions on policy implementation and outcomes.
Who Gets What, When, and How from Chinese Social Health Insurance Expansion?
Authors: Huang Xian
Published: August 2020

Chapter 7 examines the stratification of Chinese social health insurance in the first decade of the 2000s. Based on analyses of administration data and national social survey data, it examines the variations in social welfare benefits across social strata, addressing who got what, when, and how as a result of China’s social health insurance expansion between the years of 2003 and 2011. It shows that social health insurance expansion did significantly broaden Chinese citizens’ access to basic health care. However, the expansion not only reinforced existing social divisions but also generated new ones within both urban and rural groups. Chinese social health insurance is highly stratified along three cleavage lines among recipients: (1) urban versus rural; (2) labor market insiders versus outsiders; and (3) public versus private sectors. These multiple social cleavages are interwoven to fragment society and privilege elite groups over others without fracturing society along a single and deep class line.
Imagining Nations and Making States
Authors: Leuenberger Christine , Schnell Izhak
Published: August 2020

It is central for international relations to support state- and nation-building; “nation-building” entails forging common national identities, and “state-building” consists of establishing infrastructures to enhance governance. This chapter examines some of the ways that nation-states have been made—through narratives, ideas, and practices as well as through technologies and infrastructures—and how this has been reproduced in Israel/Palestine. Various disciplines were recruited to the service of nation-state building. Cartography helped stake out a territory, history and archaeology were used to make claims on it, and geographers were called on to formulate a new geography of the new homeland. At the same time, the Zionist vision and a Jewish metaculture as well as the quasi-state institutions of the Yishuv contributed to the establishment of the Israeli state. Throughout the 20th century, the high-modernist state used science and technology to take on its people as a state project. Israel exemplifies how the use of science and technology contributed to the belief that a society, its people, and its territories could be known, managed, and improved. Science and technology charted grand new futures for societies, furthering scientific and technical frontiers, expanding the power of states, and leaving behind all those people and lands that were not considered part of the state-building process.
Map-Making and State-Building
Authors: Leuenberger Christine , Schnell Izhak
Published: August 2020

During the 20th century, surveying and mapping became vital tools for states; and colonizers used them to know and claim the land. The Mandate of Palestine’s Survey of Palestine surveyed parts of historic Palestine. Their modernist ethos to register the land converged with Zionist visionaries to make it their own. With the Hagannah looting the Survey of Palestine, the Israeli state-in-the making had access to cartographic material which helped them win the 1948 war and facilitated their statecraft. Post-1948, the Survey of Israel designed a new unified triangulation system, enabling the production of maps. The Israeli state also introduced a novel land tenure system. The seemingly imprecise land allocation practices common during the Ottoman Empire were pitted against a technocratic, modernist conception of land ownership, that, by virtue of its implementation, dispossessed many Arab landholders. However, enforcement of technocratic regulations depends on humans. Indeed, the process of land registration reveals how surveyors who would go to villages to ascertain land rights were the human and, at times, a weak link in doing so. Nevertheless, at the end of this process, 93% of land had become Israeli state land. The transformation in the land regime in Israel/Palestine thus attests to how new legal precepts in tandem with science and technology helped establish a modern, territorially defined state. While the Western scientific and legal paradigm enhanced the transfer of land, it also seemingly legitimized and depoliticized the new land regime, making it seem part of the natural order of things and an inevitable outcome of modernity.
Map-Making and Nation-Building
Authors: Leuenberger Christine , Schnell Izhak
Published: August 2020

Jewish organizations and Israeli institutions, before and after the establishment of Israel in 1948, produced various maps that fostered an “imagined community” and helped build the state. The Jewish National Fund, in particular, become a powerful socializing agent into notions of territory. Its widely disseminated Blue Box helped brand the territory and territorialize Jewish identity. Moreover, after 1948, the newly appointed Governmental Names Committee established a Hebrew toponomy of the land. Yet top-down naming practices often encountered bottom-up resistance by local municipalities, as ideological directives would mix with local politics. At the same time, the Israeli atlas became a powerful representation of Israeli’s national story, reconstructing its history, its achievements, and its modern prowess. Last, at that time, various political parties also used maps to put forth different visions for a new society, a new human being, and a new state commanding a yet to be defined territory.
Sibling Rivals
Authors: Miller Kenneth P.
Published: August 2020

This chapter introduces the Texas-California sibling rivalry. All states can be considered “siblings,” but the connections between Texas and California are especially strong. The ties include common origins as territories of Spain and Mexico, Sun Belt geography, rich natural resources, vibrant economies, large-scale immigration, and comparable demographics. Moreover, in the past, Texas and California agreed on a range of political questions. In the 1990s, however, the two states began to divide. In the years since, they have hardened their partisan identities and come to advocate more sharply opposing visions of government. More than other states, California and Texas have driven our contemporary national polarization. The chapter presents the book’s central questions: Why, despite their similarities, have Texas and California divided? How have these states translated their competing visions into policy? And what does the future hold for these models—both for these two states and for the nation as a whole?
Economy
Authors: Miller Kenneth P.
Published: August 2020

Economics helps explain why California and Texas have become powerful states—and also why they have polarized. Texas and California have built economies that align with their competing political and policy models. Texas has relied on an economic model based on bountiful energy resources, free-market policies, and low costs—cheap land, inexpensive labor, and low taxes. This model has allowed Texas to attract businesses and sustain growth. By comparison, California exploited its natural advantages to build a robust economy. In time, the state developed a comparatively high cost structure, which caused it to lose much of its manufacturing base. The state was saved, however, by the emergence of “knowledge industries,” including a powerful technology cluster centered in the Silicon Valley. These industries have been willing to pay a premium to operate in California and have generally supported the state’s progressive policies.
China’s Emerging Global Middle Class
Authors: Gustafsson Björn , Sicular Terry , Yang Xiuna
Published: August 2020

This chapter examines China’s middle class by using CHIP data for 2002, 2007, and 2013. “Middle class” is defined as having income high enough not to be regarded as poor but not so high as to be regarded as rich if living in a high-income country. Based on this definition, China’s middle class was extremely small in 2002; grew but was still less than 10 percent of the population in 2007; and by 2013 had expanded to one-fifth of China’s population, roughly 250 million people. Further analysis shows that China’s middle class is largely urban, lives in the East, and has other distinctive characteristics. Simulations reveal that past growth of China’s middle class was due to across-the-board, shared income growth rather than a redistribution of income. As of 2020 China’s middle class should double in size, constituting a majority of urban residents but still a small minority of rural residents.
New Patterns in China’s Rural Poverty
Authors: Li Shi , Zhan Peng , Shen Yangyang
Published: August 2020

The purpose of this chapter is to understand the structure of rural poverty in China. On the basis of CHIP data for 1988, 1995, 2002, 2007, and 2013, the authors analyze poverty trends and the structure of poverty, comparing the recent period to earlier periods. Factors that raise household income, factors that reduce the need for household expenditures, and other factors related to China’s poverty alleviation goals are considered. The analysis finds that although the absolute poverty rate continued to decline, the poverty gap and relative poverty increased after 2007. An analysis of the reasons for poverty reveals some positive effects of the rural social welfare policies; however, health problems among the elderly, among children below the age of 15, and among disabled adults continued to be a key source of poverty.
Rational Responses to Risks
Authors: Weirich Paul
Published: August 2020

A philosophical account of risk, such as this book provides, states what risk is, which attitudes to it are rational, and which acts affecting risks are rational. Attention to the nature of risk reveals two types of risk, first, a chance of a bad event, and, second, an act’s risk in the sense of the volatility of its possible outcomes. The distinction is normatively significant because different general principles of rationality govern attitudes to these two types of risk. Rationality strictly regulates attitudes to the chance of a bad event and is more permissive about attitudes to an act’s risk. Principles of rationality governing attitudes to risk also justify evaluating an act according to its expected utility given that the act’s risk, if any, belongs to every possible outcome of the act. For a rational ideal agent, the expected utilities of the acts available in a decision problem explain the agent’s preferences among the acts. Maximizing expected utility is just following preferences among the acts. This view takes an act’s expected utility, not just as a feature of a representation of preferences among acts, but also as a factor in the explanation of preferences among acts. It takes account of an agent’s attitudes to an act’s risk without weakening the standard of expected-utility maximization. The view extends to evaluations of combination of acts, either simultaneous or in a sequence. Applications cover hedging, return-risk evaluation, professional advice, and government regulation.
Types of Risk
Authors: Weirich Paul
Published: August 2020

A chance of a bad event is one type of risk. The volatility of an act’s possible outcomes is another type of risk. Distinguishing these two types of risk is normatively significant because different general principles of rationality govern attitudes to them. A measure of the risk of a bad event may use the probability-utility product for the event. A measure of the volatility of an act’s possible outcomes may, in some cases, use the variance of the probability distribution of the utilities of the act’s possible outcomes. Given that an act’s risk belongs to every possible outcome, it arises from an equilibrium between the risk’s effect on an outcome’s utility and the utilities of outcomes’ effect on the risk.
Regulation of Risks
Authors: Weirich Paul
Published: August 2020

Governments regulate risks on behalf of the people they serve. Given that regulatory agencies aim for regulatory measures that the public would endorse if rational and informed, the mean-risk method of evaluating acts provides valuable guidance. It offers a way of constructing for a citizen informed probability and utility assignments for a regulation’s possible outcomes, and using these assignments to obtain for the citizen an informed utility assignment for the regulation. The theory of cooperative games combines the utility assignments of multiple agents to support a collective act, and under simplifying assumptions, supports an act that maximizes collective utility, defined as a sum of the act’s utilities for the agents, in the tradition of utilitarianism. This approach to regulation accommodates acts targeting information-sensitive, evidential risks as well as acts targeting physical risks. Verification of a reduction in an evidential risk can meet the standards of objectivity that the law adopts.
Ashin Jinarakkhita
Authors: Chia Jack Meng-Tat
Published: August 2020

Chapter 4 situates Ashin Jinarakkhita’s life, ideas, and networks in the broader history of South China Sea Buddhism. The chapter argues that Ashin Jinarakkhita’s attempt to make Buddhism less Chinese was a calculated strategy to ensure the survival of Buddhism as a minority religion in the world’s largest Muslim nation. Unlike his contemporaries in Malaysia and Singapore who sought to spread ideas of Buddhist modernism among the Chinese community, Ashin Jinarakkhita’s vision of Buddhist modernism was to shatter the image of Buddhism as a religion and culture of the Chinese population in Indonesia. As this chapter reveals, Ashin Jinarakkhita founded the Buddhayāna movement that promoted nonsectarian doctrines and practices to be in line with the national discourse of “Unity in Diversity.” What emerged was a form of Indonesian Buddhism (agama Buddha Indonesia) for the modern Indonesian state.
Civil Resistance and Democratization
Authors: Pinckney Jonathan C.
Published: August 2020

This chapter concludes the study of civil resistance transitions (CRTs), summarizing the evidence from the quantitative and qualitative studies. It speaks to the limitations of the study, including its inability to speak to the effects of failed civil resistance campaigns on democratization, dependence on specific conceptualizations of civil resistance and democracy, and the important moderating effects of context. It also presents new research avenues opened by these findings: theorizing and testing additional challenges of CRTs, expanding the focus on mobilization and maximalism to other types of transition, and examining the sources of mobilization and maximalism. The chapter also presents lessons for how to promote democracy in civil resistance transitions, informed by the findings of the research, such as encouraging long-term positive visions of democratic change and training opposition and civil society leaders to be prepared for the specific challenges of transition.
Life
Authors: Richardson John
Published: August 2020

The second chapter begins to examine the basic level of valuing that Nietzsche attributes to all living things—and to us, in our bodies. It analyzes his key concept of “life” and his famous insistence that the basic and pervasive character of living things is their “will to power.” It examines his frequent citing of “life” as a criterion for value and his use of it to justify the value of power. The key question concerns the structure of this argument and the metaethical position it involves. In what sense (if any) does he think that this argument shows that power is “truly” valuable, such that we “should” value it? The chapter searches for the strongest sense consistent with his basic idea that values are simply valueds. It also offers an account of just what Nietzsche means by “power” and defends it against a notable rival reading.
Words
Authors: Richardson John
Published: August 2020

The sixth chapter continues the analysis of our human valuing by treating a second key innovation: the formulation of values in words. Language belongs to the uniquely social character of human life. It is the community that “means” things when we speak and not individual selves, as we suppose. By this way that language “makes common,” it falsifies: our concepts equate unequals and are also false to our individual drives and affects. Language thereby changes how we have values: as worded, we hold them in common as “norms.” We accept them as “what one values” in our community. So they serve a “herding” function, which strengthens the group at the expense of members’ individuality. Nietzsche’s problem is how, given that his own words have “common” meanings, he can use them to express his individual thoughts. We will see the grounds but also the limits to his critique of our sociality.
Nihilism
Authors: Richardson John
Published: August 2020

The seventh chapter turns to the culmination that Nietzsche thinks human values are now arriving at, in which they expose the truth about themselves and so undermine themselves. This loss of values is one of two things he calls “nihilism”; the other is morality itself, insofar as it is ascetic or “anti-life.” We examine this critique Nietzsche weaves into his genealogy of morality, focusing on his attacks on pity and equality as key moral values. However this critique applies also to the will to truth now diagnosing morality, so that this will seems also to undermine itself. We weigh just how damning Nietzsche takes this critique of the truth-aim—as ascetic or anti-life—to be. The chapter begins to argue that the upshot is not to demote this will to truth, but to revise the kind of truth at which it aims: it should be a truth “by perspectives about perspectives.”
Freedom
Authors: Richardson John
Published: August 2020

The eighth chapter shows why Nietzsche’s diagnosis of the will to truth as ascetic doesn’t lead him to reject that will: he sees it as the path to better values. Nor are his critiques of science—here reviewed—in the end dismissive of it. He thinks he brings the sciences of history and psychology to a maturity in which they can explain the most important fact about us, the character of our values; we analyze his new conceptions of these sciences. By exposing the functions in our values, we can begin to free ourselves from the forces that have all along controlled us through these values. We find, through this truth about morality, a more genuine freedom than Kant found within morality. Those sciences give us the truth about freedom itself, in a genealogy of it as an evolving practice. Nietzsche offers his freedom-through-genealogy as an advance in this development.
Creating
Authors: Richardson John
Published: August 2020

The eleventh chapter turns to the social or political ambitions Nietzsche has for his ideas. He doesn’t only want to show exceptional individuals how to “create” values for themselves. He also wants to “found” his values as norms for a new society—a new kind of herd. He wants this despite his frequently expressed disdain for herds, and stress on breaking from them. Humanity’s experience with nihilism can teach it to improve the norms that structure societies. Nietzsche anticipates healthier, de-moralized norms that will spread through the herd as much of his honesty in valuing as possible. The new herd can sustain this honesty by recognizing the rank-order of values, previously antithetical to herds. This herd will see the high rank its honesty gives it—how its norms are higher than those of the old morality. These hopes for new norms are the gist to Nietzsche’s (very abstract) “political philosophy.”
Mega Mammals in Ancient India
Authors: Bose Shibani
Published: August 2020

The book ventures to look into eras bygone in order to chronicle the passage of three mega species—the rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), tiger (Panthera tigris), and elephant (Elephas maximus)—across millennia in early north India. It carefully sifts through an archive comprising faunal remains and visual depictions retrieved from the archaeological record as well as a gamut of Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, and classical Western accounts to document the presence of these mega animals in various cultural niches from hunter-gatherer societies to the first urban civilization of India and beyond. The narrative goes beyond treating these species as mere cultural icons to one that is also sensitive to their importance as markers of ecology. The focus is two-fold: to comprehend perceptions, attitudes, and sensibilities oscillating between veneration and persecution in order to reconstruct the cultural dimensions of human–megafaunal relations in the past, as also to use these species to understand the larger ecology of ancient India. At a time when the conservation of our megafaunal heritage is a major concern for biologists, ecologists as well as conservationists, this book underlines the need to historicize human interactions with these mega mammals keeping in mind that an animal’s past is critical in thinking about its future.
Trailing the One-Horned Wonder
Authors: Bose Shibani
Published: August 2020

The rhinoceros has received scant attention in wildlife histories as against the iconic status enjoyed by elephants, cheetahs, and lions. This is particularly true in the context of ancient India. Against this backdrop, this chapter chronicles the much-neglected saga of the rhinoceros in ancient India based on its first appearance in the fossil record, its presence in archaeological contexts in the form of bones and visual representations till its appearance in the literary texts of the period. The narrative helps us map the geographical retreat of the animal to its present-day havens. The details of this retreat are integral to understanding aspects of the environmental history of ancient India.
Muslim Girls’ Education in North India in the Twentieth Century and Beyond
Authors: Sanyal Usha
Published: August 2020

This chapter lays out the historical background of Muslim women’s education in British India and post-Independence India, including statistical data on UP education history and the Sachar Commission Report. The chapter then explores girls’ madrasa education, in north India specifically, with a focus on a Rampur madrasa (of Jama‘at-i Islami affiliation) for girls and compares this madrasa with the Tablighi madrasa for girls studied by Winkelmann. The chapter ends with an Appendix that lays out the syllabi of the two madrasas examined in the chapter, in order to highlight their ideological differences. This shows us how much the second madrasa has in common with the Barelwi madrasa portrayed in this book, despite differences in their denominational (maslaki) identities.
Life after the Madrasa
Authors: Sanyal Usha
Published: August 2020

Chapter 5 examines the lives of six madrasa students who graduated from Jami‘a Nur. This chapter was written collaboratively with Sumbul Farah, an anthropologist, who interviewed the students extensively. The overall conclusion of the chapter (a modified version of which appeared as an article in Modern Asian Studies) is that the madrasa succeeds in its mission of inculcating lifelong piety in its students because of the continuity between school and home. The madrasa becomes a new locus of affective ties for students, as it seeks to inculcate values congruent with those of the home and community at large. The chapter reflects on the mapping of religious self-formation onto South Asian norms of feminine behaviour (the concept of being naram, or soft and malleable) and addresses broader issues of madrasa education for Muslim girls in India.