bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Problem with Science
Authors: Bausell R. Barker
Published: February 2021

This book tells the story of how a cadre of dedicated, iconoclastic scientists raised the awareness of a long-recognized preference for publishing positive, eye-catching, but irreproducible results to the status of a genuine scientific crisis. Most famously encapsulated in 2005 by John Ioannidis’s iconic title, “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” awareness of the seriousness of the crisis itself was in full bloom sometime around 2011–2012, when a veritable flood of supporting empirical and methodological work began appearing in the scientific literature detailing both the extent of the crisis and how it could be ameliorated. Perhaps most importantly were a number of mass replications of large sets of published psychology experiments (100 in all) by the Open Science Collaboration, preclinical cancer experiments (53) that a large pharmaceutical company considered sufficiently promising to pursue if the original results were reproducible, and 67 similarly promising studies upon which an even larger pharmaceutical company decided to replicate prior to initiating the expense and time-consuming developmental process. Shockingly, less than 50% of these 220 study results could be replicated, thereby providing unwelcomed evidence that John Ioannidis’s projections (and others performed both earlier and later) that more than half of published scientific results were false and could not be reproduced by other scientists. Fortunately, a plethora of practical, procedural behaviors accompanied these demonstrations and projects that were quite capable of greatly reducing the prevalence of future irreproducible results. Therefore the primary purpose of this book is use these impressive labors of hundreds of methodologically oriented scientists to provide guidance to practicing and aspiring scientists regarding how (a) to change the way in which science has historically been both conducted and reported in order to avoid producing false-positive, irreproducible results in their own work and, (b) ultimately, to change those institutional practices (primarily but not exclusively involving the traditional journal publishing process and the academic reward system) that have unwittingly contributed to the present crisis. For what is actually needed is nothing less than a change in the scientific culture itself to one that will prioritize conducting research correctly in order to get things right rather than simply to get published. Hopefully this book can make a small contribution to that end.
A Few Case Studies of QRP-Driven Irreproducible Results
Authors: Bausell R. Barker
Published: February 2021

Examples of a dispiriting number of jaw-dropping, irreproducible scientific results are described here, emanating from disparate fields of inquiry. These examples include epidemiological studies that regularly report diametrically conflicting relationships regarding risk factors and health, completely incompetent studies conducted involving the relationship between functional magnetic resonance imaging results and psychosocial variables, and positive genetic associations with cognitive and affective constructs that do not replicate. Studies (and perhaps even some entire disciplines) such as these may have some amusement value when their results are reported in the press, but their untoward effects on science should not be underestimated. Methodological reasons for the appearance of these almost universally positive studies include the previously discussed questionable research practices, several of which are famously blended into a metaphoric scientific journey through the garden of forking paths by Andrew Gelman and Eric Loken, whose article is discussed in this chapter.
Damage Control upon Learning That One’s Study Failed to Replicate
Authors: Bausell R. Barker
Published: February 2021

But what happens to investigators whose studies fails to replicate? The answer is complicated by the growing use of social media by scientists and the tenor of the original investigators’ responses to the replicators. Alternative case studies are presented including John Bargh’s vitriolic outburst following a failure of his classic word priming study to replicate, Amy Cuddy’s unfortunate experience with power posing, and Matthew Vees’s low-keyed response in which he declined to aggressively disparage his replicators, complemented the replicators’ interpretation of their replication, and neither defended his original study or even suggested that its findings might be wrong. In addition to such case studies, surveys on the subject suggest that there are normally no long-term deleterious career or reputational effects on investigators for a failure of a study to replicate and that a reasoned (or no) response to a failed replication is the superior professional and affective solution.
Push Comes to Shove
Authors: Skowronek Stephen , Dearborn John A. , King Desmond
Published: February 2021

This chapter introduces the main themes of the book. It situates the concepts of the Deep State and the unitary executive in the politics of the Trump presidency. When President Trump employed the term “Deep State,” he envisioned a duly elected leader hindered in the pursuit of his political priorities by an entrenched officialdom and their extensive support networks arrayed. Americans are predisposed to be wary of the state, and the specter of a Deep State is a national nightmare. President Trump invoked this image to strengthen the case for an executive branch unified and hierarchically controlled by the president. But for defenders of steady management, the presence of trained public servants is a necessary means to implementing knowledge-based public policy, guarding against hasty and arbitrary impositions, and ensuring that checks and balances work. The Deep State and the unitary executive are phantom twins, symptoms of two different conceptions of good government in contemporary America.
Depth in Oversight
Authors: Skowronek Stephen , Dearborn John A. , King Desmond
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines depth in oversight. It brings into focus the new oversight regime instituted by Congress in the wake of the Nixon impeachment and considers its effect in instigating impeachment charges against President Trump. Whistleblowers and inspectors general safeguard congressional interests in administration and qualify hierarchical control by the president. Activated by Trump’s backchannel dealing with the government of Ukraine, a whistleblower and an inspector general brought the relationship between administrative depth and congressional power out into the open. During the House’s impeachment hearings, congressional provisions for oversight split the executive branch, pulling administrative subordinates into Congress’s orbit and pitting them against the president more explicitly than ever before. Congress depended on the administrators who were willing to come forward, and it provided them a forum for airing their own ideas about good government.
A Reckoning with Depth
Authors: Skowronek Stephen , Dearborn John A. , King Desmond
Published: February 2021

The Deep State versus the unitary executive has been a spectacle too vivid to ignore. It should impress us all with the unsettled place of administration in contemporary American government. One might have thought that a matter of such vital importance to the effective operation of the state would have been resolved long ago. But over the past half century, questions surrounding administrative power and its political control have been growing more, not less, contentious. Trump’s presidency forces a reckoning that is long overdue. In the Epilogue, we evaluate the lessons of this clash between unity and depth. The problem is not that the president can’t find evidence to hang on his frame: the problem is the solution intrinsic to the frame. The state Trump would have us embrace is every bit as menacing as the state he would have us abandon.
Liars
Authors: Sunstein Cass R.
Published: February 2021

Liars are causing devastating problems. They are endangering public health. They are threatening self-government. They are destroying the reputation of good people—and inflating the reputation of people who are not so good. Nonetheless, most falsehoods ought not to be censored or regulated, even if they are lies. In general, free societies allow them. Public officials should not be allowed to act as the truth police. A key reason is that we cannot trust officials to separate truth from falsehood; their own judgments are unreliable, and their own biases get in the way. If officials are licensed to punish falsehoods, they will end up punishing dissent. The best response to falsehoods is usually to correct them, rather than to punish or censor them. But there is an exception to this proposition: governments should have the power to regulate the most harmful lies and falsehoods. False statements are not constitutionally protected if the government can show that they threaten to cause serious harm. Public officials should be able to restrict and punish lies and falsehoods that pose serious threats to public health and safety. To protect the democratic process, public officials should be able to restrict certain lies and falsehoods. They should be able to safeguard people’s reputations. Private institutions, including television networks, magazines, and newspapers, and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, should be doing much more to slow or stop the spread of lies and falsehoods.
Ethics
Authors: Sunstein Cass R.
Published: February 2021

Why are lies wrong? The Kantian answer sees lies as close cousins to coercion; they are a violation of individual autonomy and a demonstration of contempt. By contrast, the utilitarian answer is that lies are likely to lead to terrible consequences, sometimes because they obliterate trust, sometimes because they substitute the liar’s will for that of the chooser, who has much better information about the chooser’s welfare than does the liar. The utilitarian objection to paternalistic lies is akin to the utilitarian embrace of Mill’s Harm Principle. It is possible to see the Kantian view as a kind of moral heuristic, welcome on utilitarian grounds. The Kantian and utilitarian objections to lying have implications for the family, the workplace, advertising, commerce, and politics, and also for constitutional law.
Falsehoods Fly
Authors: Sunstein Cass R.
Published: February 2021

Why do people believe falsehoods? One reason is “truth bias”; we tend to think that what we hear is true, even if we are explicitly told that it is not. Another reason is that falsehoods often trigger strong emotions, which can intensify their hold on us. Falsehoods also get a grip on people as a result of “cascades,” which occur when misinformation travels from one person to another, increasing the sense that many people think that it is true—which adds force to its credibility. We learn from others, even if what we learn is false. Self-interested people are exploiting that psychological fact every day.
Your Good Name
Authors: Sunstein Cass R.
Published: February 2021

Can people protect their reputations? What if someone is circulating vicious lies about them? The US Supreme Court has given broad protection to libelous statements, saying that it must do so in order to allow “breathing space” for free speech. That idea is a cornerstone of the law of free speech. But in the modern era, and in light of the potentially devastating effects of falsehoods on individual lives and democracy itself, constitutional law should be updated. People should be allowed to demand retractions when they have been libeled, and they should also be able to obtain at least a modest amount of compensation. Much more needs to be done to allow people to protect their good name.
Truth Matters
Authors: Sunstein Cass R.
Published: February 2021

Truth matters; in some ways, it matters more than anything else. Public and private institutions, including social media providers, should be acting more aggressively to control defamation and other falsehoods and lies. They should be doing more than they are now doing to prevent the spread of misinformation involving health and safety and of doctored videos. These are specific conclusions, but they bear on some of the largest and most general questions in all of politics and law, and indeed in daily life itself. The principle of freedom of speech should not be taken to forbid efforts to protect reality.
Britannia’s Achilles Heel
Authors: Lambert Nicholas A.
Published: February 2021

By the turn of the twentieth century, British leaders were contemplating the strategic implications of the recent transformation in the global economy now called the first era of globalization. Defense experts worried particularly about Britain’s dependence upon imported food, especially wheat. This chapter explains the internationalization of the global wheat market, focusing on the role of new technologies and important changes in day-to-day business practices. The most significant of these were the spread of commercial agriculture to the Southern Hemisphere, the introduction of grain elevators for wheat storage, and the development of futures contracts. In 1905, a Royal Commission concluded that Britain’s food security problem really lay in the fragility of the new globalized system. The concern was that in wartime the market system might freeze, causing wheat to become unaffordable rather than unobtainable. In reaching this conclusion, the commission exploited early economic theory on the psychology of economic shocks.
The Military and Diplomatic Strands
Authors: Lambert Nicholas A.
Published: February 2021

At the beginning of 1915, concern mounted in Britain over the prolongation of the war, the damage to the British economy caused by uncoordinated military mobilization, and mounting evidence of strategic drift. In addition, political leaders were uneasy over the magnitude of casualties on the Western Front, and nervous at the thought of committing there the Kitchener New Armies comprised of volunteers. Prime Minister Asquith announced a full review of strategic policy to be held during first week of January 1915. Major disagreements over strategy within both army and navy high commands and much lobbying ensued. The planned strategic review was effectively aborted when the British army commander in France complained that the government was starving him of adequate resources, however, and nothing was resolved.
The Political Economic Strands
Authors: Lambert Nicholas A.
Published: February 2021

In the midst of the strategic review discussed in chapter 5, Arthur Balfour, one of the War Lords, pointed out that selection of strategy should be governed by economic resources and expected duration of the war. Agreeing with him, many officials in the civilian departments of government urged Asquith to pay closer attention to the worstening economic problems, and he began to do so. Civilian officials worried especially over rising wheat prices and the prospect of social unrest. In an effort to solve the problem, the government began to manipulate global market prices through secret trading in the futures market, combined with the management of market intelligence concerning wheat harvests within the British Empire. Closer scrutiny of wheat prices in the third week of January revealed that the problem was both more complex and far worse than the government initially realized. A quintupling of wheat prices seemed imminent.
Seven Days in January
Authors: Lambert Nicholas A.
Published: February 2021

Worries over the economy and wheat prices led to the formation of a new (previously unknown) executive policy committee operating in parallel with the War Council. During the fourth week of January 1915, the new Food Price committee met ahead of the War Council. In this forum, Asquith and his senior advisors were finally convinced of the severity of the wheat problem. They further decided that rather than introduce food rationing, it would be simpler to force the Dardanelles and open the path to Russian wheat—thereby not only lowering wheat prices but also permitting Russia to solve its financial problems by resuming wheat exports. At the subsequent War Council meeting of January 28, 1915, Asquith overruled the objections of Admiral John Fisher to the Dardanelles operation. A review of the concerns displayed by each voting member demonstrates that the majority favored attacking the Dardanelles for mainly economic reasons.
The Fortunes of War
Authors: Lambert Nicholas A.
Published: February 2021

Reports through back channels concerning events at the Dardanelles generated doubts in London over the reliability of the commanding admiral’s assessment. The War Council nevertheless sent reinforcements to Dardanelles to maximize chances of victory. Unexpectedly, the Russians turned against the operation—fearful that it might succeed. On March 18, Anglo-French fleet attacking the Dardanelles suffered disaster. With Kitchener’s and Churchill’s support, Asquith decided that the attack must continue at all costs and ordered a risky amphibious assault. Because a majority of the War Council now opposed the operation, Asquith did not summon it to endorse his decision. Adding to Asquith’s desperation for success, the wheat crisis worsened when the traders realized the British government’s secret policy of price manipulation. They withdrew from the market, causing British wheat imports to dry up.
The Appearance of Corruption
Authors: Shaw Daron R. , Roberts Brian E. , Baek Mijeong
Published: February 2021

Chapter 1 describes the Supreme Court’s reasoning on campaign finance regulation, free speech, and political campaigns and then offers a chapter-by-chapter plan for testing the key assumptions underlying the Court’s reasoning. The behavioral model of the Buckley v. Valeo (1976) links individuals’ perceptions of corruption to their decisions to participate politically, hypothesizing that the greater an individual’s perception of corruption the less likely that person is to participate in the political process (e.g., vote) because of an erosion of trust in government. Based on these assumptions, the Court accepts the mitigation of corruption as the (lone) compelling state interest for limits on money in politics. Chapter 1 outlines how the authors will empirically explore the behavioral model posited by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision.
Federal Prosecution Yesterday and Today
Authors: Boyd Christina L. , Nelson Michael J. , Ostrander Ian , Boldt Ethan D.
Published: February 2021

What function do federal prosecutors play in the modern political system, and how has this role changed over time? In this chapter, we explore the historical evolution of federal prosecutors and the DOJ (and its predecessors) and review the organization of the modern DOJ. We provide evidence that politics and the administration of federal justice have always been tightly intertwined. Moreover, the enlargement of federal law since the Civil War has brought with it the an increase in the size of the federal prosecutorial machine, the DOJ, and the role of the U.S. Attorney General. Using data from the DOJ, we illustrate the growth of the federal prosecutorial machine and discuss its ramifications for the role of the U.S. Attorney in the modern political system.
The Anglo-American Tradition
Authors: Peters B. Guy
Published: February 2021

The Anglo-American tradition is perhaps the most difficult to characterize. Although there are common roots, there has been a divergence between the United Kingdom and other Westminster systems and the United States. There are common roots among these cases, including a contractarian conception of the state, an emphasis on the separation of politics and administration, an emphasis on management rather than law in the role definition of public administrators, and less commitment to uniformity. But these common values are interpreted and implemented differently in the different countries. For example, the United States has a more developed system of administrative law than do most of the Westminster systems. All these administrative systems, however, have been more receptive to the ideas of New Public Management (NPM) than have other governments, although the United States and Canada had implemented many of those ideas long before NPM was developed.
Transferring Traditions
Authors: Peters B. Guy
Published: February 2021

The European powers who ruled areas of Africa during parts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought with them ideas about public administration. Although they may have governed their colonies somewhat differently, they did use models of public administration brought from home to rule, and also to train local administrators. After independence the former colonial powers continued to have some influence over governance in the new nations. This chapter examines the extent to which the administrative traditions have influenced administration in the former colonies, as well as the interaction of traditional forms of governance with “modern” styles of governance coming from the Global North. This chapter focuses on Africa but the same questions could be raised about the impact of colonial administration in other parts of the world.
Persistence and Change in Public Administration
Authors: Peters B. Guy
Published: February 2021

By focusing on administrative traditions this book has emphasized the persistence of administrative patterns. But despite persistence, bureaucracies also change. They change because their tasks change, because the political and social environment changes, and perhaps most importantly because ideas about public administration change. These patterns of change lead into a discussion of convergence, and the question of whether all administrative systems are becoming alike. This chapter summarizes the findings in the book and evaluates models of change and reform when compared to models of persistence. The conclusion is that despite some changes in similar directions, administrative traditions are retaining much of their distinctiveness and they can still be used as a foundation for comparison.
Terroir
Authors: Bittner Stephen V.
Published: February 2021

Chapter 1 follows the life and career of Mikhail Ballas, a Bessarabian nobleman and late-tsarist Russia’s most influential wine writer. In the early 1900s, Ballas received the prestigious Emperor Alexander IIII Prize in Viniculture for authoring a six-volume set, Winemaking in Russia, which laid out in exacting detail the history of winemaking in the tsarist empire, the present state of the industry, and the quality of wine it produced. Long before the idea of terroir emerged as the essential characteristic of fine wine, Ballas described something that resembled modern notions of terroir: the geographical and climatic diversity of empire, the vinicultural possibilities inherent in that diversity, and most important, the ways that human ingenuity and ecology intersected in unexpected ways in vineyards to produce fine wine.
Taste
Authors: Bittner Stephen V.
Published: February 2021

In the decades following Stalin’s death, Soviet vintners returned to the European wine circuit—the international tasting competitions and trade associations that were the domain of Western connoisseurs. Among the persons who became familiar with Soviet winemaking during these years was Maynard Amerine, an extraordinarily influential vinicultural scientist and connoisseur from California. Amerine made three trips to the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s, recording in his journals the quality of wine he encountered on carefully regimented scales. Chapter 6 seeks to describe how Soviet wine tasted to someone who had a basis for comparison. While Amerine’s appraisal was overwhelmingly negative, he came to believe that Soviet failings in winemaking had less to do with a flawed terroir than the perverse incentives of socialism.
Using lusitanization and creolization as frameworks to analyse historical and contemporary Cape Verde language policy and planning
Authors: Severo Cristine G. , Makoni Sinfree B.
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses the status and spread of Portuguese in Cape Verde, using Lusitanization and Creolization as analytical frameworks. Lusitanization is a colonial and postcolonial political dispositif that led to the spread of Portuguese discourses and institutions in former Portuguese colonies. Lusitanization weaves together slavery, religion, bureaucracy, and race, and establishes Portuguese as a core to these discourses. Creolization is the product of colonial encounters between the Portuguese and Cape Verdeans. Cape Verde played a central role in the Atlantic slave trade, connecting Africa with America, and Angola with Brazil. Sociolinguistically, Lusitanization manifests itself through the production of a form of Portuguese whose origins can be traced back to Christianization; at the same time, Indigenous languages were invented, and old words given new meanings. The interplay between sociolinguistics and history had the effect of racializing Portuguese: mother-tongue Portuguese speakers were assumed to be white, and nationals of Portugal.
Decolonial linguistics as paradigm shift
Authors: Mufwene Salikoko S.
Published: February 2021

This commentary focuses the creation of often contradictory disciplinary boundaries, practices, and institutions. It argues that writing on colonial linguistics can traverse several components of this knowledge project. These colonial texts can tell us about the researchers’ encounter with materials, i.e. the data of linguistics, and with the human sources of this data, the “informants.” They tell us about the search for patterns, the moment of generalization and theorizing. And they tell us about the workforce of the knowledge project, particularly its academic workers, and the publication of ‘results’. The collective character of the project, and its close but ambiguous relationship with the political structure of empire, stand out very clearly. There are various conclusions to be drawn at this point. One thing we can be sure about: there is struggle ahead before we have decolonized the academy.
The Braun-Stammfest Industrial Group
Authors: Peneder Michael , Resch Andreas
Published: February 2021

In addition to his banking activities, Schumpeter actively pursued the ‘promoter’s profit’ during his brief and unfortunate history as a proto-venture capitalist. The activities that have so far received little attention from the research community are described in Chapter 9. Schumpeter invested on a grand scale in the foundation of new industrial firms. Given the poor condition of the industrial sites after years of a war economy, the economic rationale appeared sound, but the financial scheme, timing, and practical execution were not. In addition to spending his own wealth, he borrowed heavily from his privileged bank account and raised considerable funds from third parties. Having established large leverage, he was unable to refinance short-term loans when Austria was hit with a major banking crisis in 1924. As the factories failed before they could produce any significant cash flow, Schumpeter learned the perils of high leverage the hard way.
Conceptual underpinnings of the EU’s commitment to human rights
Authors: Sosa Lorena , Timmer Alexandra
Published: February 2021

Based primarily on legal and policy documents, this chapter outlines the European Union’s (EU’s) conceptions of human rights. It also identifies major conceptual challenges the EU faces in developing human rights action. Key among these conceptual challenges are the tensions between the EU’s economic objectives and upholding human rights, and the difficulty to create a universal and inclusive human rights legal subject. The chapter concludes by identifying opportunities to coin more inclusive and coherent conceptualisations by drawing on the concepts of vulnerability and intersectionality.
The EU’s institutional human rights architecture
Authors: Mayrhofer Monika
Published: February 2021

The EU is neither a state nor a ‘normal’ international organisation, but has a unique institutional structure that is sometimes also referred to as a ‘sui generis’ institutional framework. The institutions of the EU have a pivotal role concerning EU human rights policies. This chapter will provide an analysis of how human rights competences are distributed among EU institutions. It will discuss the institutional architecture of human rights in the EU by analysing the European Council, the Council of the European Union and its human rights-related Working Parties, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European External Action Service and the Special Representative on Human Rights, the Fundamental Rights Agency, and the European Ombudsman. The analysis will be followed by a summary of opportunities and challenges, a presentation of areas for improvements and recommendations, and a brief conclusion.
The EU’s engagement with business on human rights
Authors: Footer Mary E
Published: February 2021

Since the turn of the millennium, the European Union (EU) has sought to advance its policies on business and human rights with the aim of achieving specific outcomes on human rights protection, core labour standards, and a better alignment of European and global approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). At the heart of this endeavour lies the European Commission’s renewed strategy for CSR in its 2011 Communication. This chapter critically analyses the impact of the EU’s re-calibration of its CSR policy to allow for the fuller engagement of European business with human rights on the internal and external plane. The EU has sought to develop a ‘smart mix’ of voluntary policy measures and complementary regulatory initiatives to achieve its aims. Consequently, it has made considerable progress towards embedding business and human rights in European law and policy. However, it continues to face challenges due to its lack of competence along the whole spectrum of business-related human rights, and the transversal character of EU policy, which elicits a multidimensional response to implementation, involving a plethora of actors from government, business, and civil society.
EU enlargement policy and human rights
Authors: Huszka Beáta , Körtvélyesi Zsolt
Published: February 2021

The enlargement policy of the European Union (EU) aims at integrating new members following an accession path. EU conditionality policy is a delicate balancing exercise between keeping the partner countries on the accession path and upholding fundamental values. Enlargement countries are now concentrated, with the exception of Turkey, in the Western Balkans. A key challenge is that the current leaderships in many of these states are shifting their countries increasingly in an authoritarian direction. The EU now faces a situation of establishing illiberal regimes in the region and so far seems to lack the willingness and the tools to engage and counter this. The chapter finds that human rights conditionality seems to allow for less-than-honest domestic compliance, where the EU’s requests are (mis)used to boost the power of domestic leadership. The stated principles of the EU can clash with the state’s actual performance for various reasons, including the prioritization of more direct economic interests or security goals. Conditionality tends to remain shallow as it is built on conditions that are easy to implement and measure but remain largely formal (for example, setting up an institution, adopting legislation). In the case of the Western Balkans, our research findings indicate that the enlargement process can result in favouring strong leaders who can deliver, even if the same ‘strength’ puts human rights compliance at risk. The greatest danger is that EU integration can end up legitimising the violation of human rights by the authorities.
Human rights in EU development cooperation
Authors: Lein Brecht
Published: February 2021

The present chapter provides a comprehensive overview of how and why human rights became an integral part of the European Union’s (EU’s) policies for international cooperation. It describes the EU’s regulatory framework for global human rights promotion and critically assesses the Union’s financing and implementation instruments to deliver upon those commitments. In doing so, it describes various forms of human rights conditionality in the allocation of EU aid, as well as the EU’s dedicated programmes and financing mechanisms for human rights and democracy promotion. Finally, it assesses more recent approaches such as human rights mainstreaming and the application of a Rights-Based Approach to EU development cooperation.
EU migration policy and human rights
Authors: Pirjatanniemi Elina , Mustaniemi-Laakso Maija
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents some of the tensions in the objectives and rationales between the fields of immigration control and human rights protection in the current EU migration policies. As it stands today, the common EU policy on asylum appears to struggle to find a solid foundation and solutions in regard of both solidarity among the different EU states and the effective realisation of human rights. The focus on securitisation and policies of non-entrée in the EU asylum structures together with a lack of solidarity among Member States have contributed to a situation where the protection of refugees has in many ways had to give way to strategic considerations of migration management. With this background, the chapter addresses the current reform process of the joint EU asylum system as an opening to opt for an approach that more coherently recognises the human rights obligations that the EU and its Member States owe to asylum seekers and migrants.
EU practices on measuring human rights
Authors: Möstl Markus , Vivona Maddalena , Meier Isabella , Starl Klaus
Published: February 2021

Numerous articles of the Treaty on European Union oblige the European Union (EU) to respect, protect, and fulfil human rights. Reliable human rights information is indeed crucial for any policy area and during any stage of the policy cycle in order to serve evidence-based policy-making. Chapter 22 analyses how the EU is currently satisfying its need for human rights information, and presents the main opportunities, but also the key challenges in this respect. It is argued that human rights measurement tools using human rights indicators can provide reliable human rights information. The authors provide concrete recommendations on how to make use of the opportunities and overcome the identified challenges of measuring human rights.
Introduction
Authors: Werth Paul W.
Published: February 2021

To know Russia, you really have to understand 1837. That is the main message of this intriguing and unusual book. In ten chapters ranging from culture and ideas to empire and industry, it paints a rich and vivid portrait of the world’s largest country at a critical moment, when modern Russia acquired many of its most distinctive and outstanding features. Composers and poets, engineers and imperialists, philosophers and grand princes, peasants and camels, beards and potatoes—all make their appearance, and together they helped to forge the quiet revolution that changed Russia forever. Indeed, Russia is what it is today, in no small measure, because of 1837.
In the Flesh
Authors: Werth Paul W.
Published: February 2021

In order to familiarize his son with the country he would eventually rule, Emperor Nicholas I arranged an extensive tour for him: an excursion of almost 20,000 km that took the heir across vast segments of the world’s largest country. Extensively choreographed and featuring novel forms of publicity and intense emotional expression, the excursion of Alexander Nikolaevich provided critical formative experiences for heir and country alike. Many things made the trip remarkable, but among the most important was that the voyage gave tsarist subjects the opportunity to engage with the monarchy directly and viscerally. Indeed, for many people in diverse parts of Russia, 1837 was unforgettable because they had seen the heir to the throne in the flesh.
A Unicorn, Violent but Submissive
Authors: Werth Paul W.
Published: February 2021

Along with the steamship, the railroad constituted the principal transport innovation of the nineteenth century. Altering conceptions of space and time, creating new forms of subjective experience, and signaling the triumph of mechanical regularity over natural irregularity, railways represented a providential event akin to the invention of gunpowder and printing. First appearing in Russia in 1837, the railroad became a quintessential feature of the country’s nineteenth century and in a basic sense defines modern Russia. It significantly increased mobility in Russia and contributed fundamentally to the country’s integration, eventually linking distant locations and people in an expanding transport network. Its appearance was a turning point for the country.
Goals of Characterizing a Species Habitat
Authors: Veech Joseph A.
Published: February 2021

There are several reasons for conducting a habitat analysis and identifying the environmental (habitat) characteristics that a species associates with. (1) Knowledge of a species’ habitat requirements is crucial in restoring and managing habitat for the species. (2) Carrying capacity informs us about the potential (or lack thereof) for future population growth based on resource availability. Knowledge of a species’ habitat requirements allows us to interpret the importance of carrying capacity in a habitat-specific way. (3) The study of species interactions and the potential for species coexistence is supported by having knowledge of the habitat of each species under investigation. (4) Habitat preference and selection as eco-evolutionary processes continue to be widely studied by ecologists—interpretation of the results of such studies is best done with knowledge of the species–habitat associations. Such knowledge can also be useful in the design of preference and selection studies. (5) Knowledge of species–habitat associations can also be of great use in selecting the environmental variables to use in species distribution models. All five of these goals point to the great utility of conducting a habitat analysis as a supporting investigation or as a way to obtain knowledge to put to a practical purpose.
Analysis of the Habitat Associations of a Hypothetical Beetle Species
Authors: Veech Joseph A.
Published: February 2021

A dataset for a hypothetical ground-dwelling beetle species is used to illustrate five methods of habitat analysis: (1) comparison of group means, (2) multiple linear regression, (3) multiple logistic regression, (4) classification and regression trees, and (5) principal components analysis. The dataset consists of abundance (counts of individuals) recorded in each of 100 small survey plots located throughout forested study sites. The following environmental predictor variables were measured in each plot: percentage canopy cover, depth of leaf litter, volume of woody debris, ratio of oak to non-oak trees, and soil type. Techniques for assessing normality of each variable and multicollinearity among variables are discussed and recommended prior to conducting the habitat analysis. Assumptions, strengths, and weaknesses of each method are discussed.
Addressing Unevenness
Authors: Huggins Robert , Thompson Piers
Published: February 2021

This chapter argues that the role of behavioural perspectives, encompassing culture, psychology, and agency, can provide new insights into the persistence of the long-term unevenness of development across cities and regions. A psychocultural theory of development builds upon person–environment theories that have previously sought to explain ecological behaviour across cities and regions rather than their economies. In particular, it seeks to facilitate a better understanding of the connectivity between upstream and downstream explanations of urban and regional development, and indeed the extent to which such an ‘upstream–downstream’ dichotomy is valid. Such a perspective should further provide an indicator of how and why behaviour-based policy intervention may impact on urban and regional development outcomes. It is argued that it is important to understand the motivations behind such policies, with governments potentially utilizing them to achieve the aims of a range of agendas, from shrinking the state to increasing their sphere of influence through the employment of ‘psychocrats’ who shape these policies.
Prosperity, Depression, and the Empire
Authors: Faust Avraham
Published: February 2021

Chapter 5 (‘Prosperity, Depression, and the Empire: Economic Developments in the Southwest during the Seventh Century bce’) reconstructs the economy of the region during the period of Assyrian rule, and the economic specialization that typified this period. The evidence shows that while the southern clients (and Tyre) prospered, produced large amounts of surplus, and participated in international trade, the regions annexed by Assyria (the provinces) did not produce much surplus, and did not take part in any significant trade. The chapter is accompanied by two appendices, one on the importance of late seventh-century bce Greek imports for understanding economic patterns in the period of Assyrian rule, and the second reviewing the development of the Iron Age olive oil industry in time and space, and its significance for understanding the economy of the period of Assyrian rule.
Empire by Design?
Authors: Faust Avraham
Published: February 2021

Chapter 10 (‘Empire by Design? Imperial Policies and Planning and the Conquest of the Southwest’) uses the detailed information available from the southwest, which does not always fit various generalizations regarding Assyrian imperial policies (based on studies on other provinces), to re-evaluate these maxims, and offers some observations regarding the possible causes for the differential treatment and strategies. The chapter discusses the various considerations that might have influenced the differential treatment (i) of diverse parts of the Assyrian empire (by comparing different provinces); and (ii) of empires at large (e.g. by comparing the treatment of the same regions over time). The chapter concludes with a new analysis of the process which led to the conquest of the area and the annexation of its northern part by Assyria, and of the Assyrian imperial strategy.
Governing Migration Beyond the State
Authors: Geddes Andrew
Published: February 2021

International migration has become a salient concern in global politics, but there is also significant variation in governance responses. By focusing on four key world regions—Europe, North America, South America, and Southeast Asia—this book explores the underlying factors that shape governance responses. Rather than focusing on the more visible outputs or outcomes of governance processes such as laws and policies, this book opens the ‘black box’ of migration governance to reveal how understandings and representations of the causes and effects of migration held by key governance actors in these four regions have powerful effects not only on governance outcomes but more broadly on the prospects for global migration governance. By doing so, the book shows how migration governance systems, through their operation and effects, can shape migration—in its various forms—and the lived experiences of migrants.
The Normality of Crisis in the European Union
Authors: Geddes Andrew
Published: February 2021

The European Union’s responses to migration have been powerfully influenced by understandings and representations of the potential for large-scale and potentially uncontrollable migration flows. These have had important effects on repertoires of migration governance and on what actors know how to do, as well as on their social expectations about role. A key conclusion is that while migration crises catch attention, it the understandings and representations of the normality of migration that have shaped European and EU migration governance. This normality is closely linked to concern about uncontrollable flows that have shaped EU cooperation since the end of the Cold War.
Prospects for Global Migration Governance
Authors: Geddes Andrew
Published: February 2021

While the prospects for a comprehensive system of global migration governance are remote, this chapter argues that this may be beside the point. Instead, efforts to build capacity, shared understanding of challenges, and efforts to persuade states of the benefits of cooperation can exist without formalized overarching structures. The chapter documents efforts that have been made, identifying the key role played by key organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the International Labour Organization (ILO). The chapter also demonstrates how the ‘global’ has become increasingly contested in the politics of some key destination states, which shows how prospects for global migration governance are not a merely technical question but raise important political questions. The chapter also shows the centrality of regions in mediating the relationship between the global and the national levels.
Huntington's Disease
Authors: Quarrell Oliver
Published: February 2021

Huntington’s disease (HD)―the facts provides an overview of the condition aimed at families and carers understanding the condition. It describes the key features of: a movement disorder, disturbance of mood (affect), and problems with thinking (cognition) and behaviour. The movement problems of chorea, dystonia, and bradykinesia are explained but there is equal emphasis on depression impulsive behaviour and temper outbursts. Understanding the cause of these may help families cope better when they arise. The genetic change is discussed as is its effect on the protein huntingtin. Options for genetic testing of those at risk (predictive testing) as well as options for tests in pregnancy (prenatal diagnosis) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) are described. Currently treatment is symptomatic and supportive. There is a discussion of clinical trials in general and the current huntingtin lowering studies using anti-sense oligonucleotides (ASOs) in particular. The book also includes vignettes written by family members.
What causes selective nerve cell damage?
Authors: Quarrell Oliver
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes some of the work which has been undertaken to understand the cause of the selective nerve cell death which occurs in Huntington’s disease (HD). It has long been recognized that the change in the gene results in the protein product doing something which it should not: this is called a gain of function mutation. Despite the identification of the gene nearly 30 years ago a coherent story of the cause of the neurodegeneration has not been established. The chapter describes some of the animal models which have been developed and also the neuronal inclusions or aggregates which develop in cells.
Clinical research
Authors: Quarrell Oliver
Published: February 2021

This chapter explains some of the research activities which are currently in place. It describes the global research platform called ENROLL-HD. It also describes the process of undertaking a clinical trial. The current clinical trials are focusing on lowering the amount of huntingtin in the cells of the brain especially the caudate and putamen nuclei. The plan is to interfere with the chemical message between the gene and the protein-making machinery of the cell. These drugs are called anti-sense oligonucleotides (ASOs). It is not known if these treatments will result in an alteration of the natural history of Huntington’s disease (HD) but there is hope because the treatment does not rely upon an understanding of the abnormal function of the abnormal huntingtin protein. Currently, the treatments are developed by spinal injections but a future development will be to have drugs which do not have have to be given by spinal injection. This work is contrasted with ideas of gene editing. Brief mention is made to understand genetic factors other than the length of the CAG repeat which influence the age of onset because such an understanding can lead to new avenues for drug treatments.