bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Viability of the rectus femoris muscle flap for groin wound coverage after ligation of proximal inflow
Authors: Julian Olivia , Wilcox Kailyn , Sharma Davek , Lamb Kathleen , Luo Robert , Zheng Hong , Sooppan Renganaden , Behnam Amir
Published: January 2024

Lower extremity revascularization via groin incisions can be complicated by wound dehiscence associated with infection, seroma and femoral vessel exposure. This may require additional surgical debridement and coverage of vascular structures and grafts. The pedicled rectus femoris muscle flap (RFF) has both bulk and a large arc of rotation, making it useful for reconstruction. Its main pedicle is the descending branch of the lateral femoral circumflex artery (DLFCA), a branch of the profunda femoris artery. One could anticipate that ligation of more proximal vasculature could lead to ischemia of the RFF. We present two patients who each underwent vascular surgery involving the common femoral artery and subsequent reconstruction utilizing a pedicled RFF. Both patients then required additional vascular procedures involving the ligation of inflow vessels proximal to the DLFCA. The flaps remained viable, demonstrating the rich collateralization of blood supply that occurs in vascular disease patients.
Olecranon fossa osteoid osteoma excision through arthroscopy: surgical technique
Authors: Grezda Kushtrim , Lama Arber , Kusari Dren , Hajdari Qendrim
Published: January 2024

In the elbow joint, occurrences of intra-articular osteoid osteoma are uncommon. We detail the case of a 21-year-old male who experienced pain, inflammation, and a restricted ability to move his elbow. For a few months, the diagnoses was missed and the patient was treated for idiopathic synovitis. After a contrast MRI, the tumor was revealed. During an arthroscopic examination of the elbow, a distinct red lesion was observed after the removal of the pale reactive bone in the olecranon cavity. This was subsequently removed in its entirety with the aid of a specialized bone tool. Histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of osteoid osteoma. Remarkably, the individual reported alleviation from the symptoms just a day following the operation and regained full range of motion 5 weeks after the surgery. This case underscores the efficacy of arthroscopy in addressing intra-articular osteoid osteoma, with a focus on accurately pinpointing the lesion.
Vertebrobasilar dolichoectasia to trigeminal neuralgia: case report
Authors: Jing Fangkun , Huang Haitao , Li Yanfeng , Zang Peizhuo
Published: January 2024

Vertebrobasilar dolichoectasia (VBD) is a dilated arterial disease with a diameter ˃4.5 mm. Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is chronic neuropathic pain. Through the diagnosis and treatment of this case we believe that there is a significant risk associated with the endovascular treatment of VBD. The development of post-operative complications caused some functional impairment to the patient, but the improvement in TN symptoms with this endovascular treatment was unexpected. This treatment procedure was considered to be possibly related to the alteration of the tortuous path of the vessels, changing their course, allowing the displacement of vascular compression in the trigeminal root entry zone, and possibly also altering the hemodynamics of the posterior circulation, improving the progression of ischemia and hypoxia-induced demyelination of the trigeminal nerve. Due to the low incidence of this disease, there are not enough large sample studies for systematic statistical analysis.
Substantial discrepancies in dengue case estimates between the Global Burden of Disease Study and Taiwan Centers for Disease Control
Authors: Lee Sin Yee , Shih Hsin-I , King Chwan-Chuen , Lu Tsung-Hsueh , Chien Yu-Wen
Published: January 2024

Taiwan’s dengue cases vary annually, peaking in infrequent epidemics, which differ substantially from the Global Burden of Disease Study’s (GBD’s) projections. Although the GBD study provides invaluable insights into global health trends, its modelling approach fails to capture the dynamic change of dengue transmission.
Hydrogen recombination continuum as the radiative model for stellar optical flares
Authors: Simões Paulo J A , Araújo Alexandre , Válio Adriana , Fletcher Lyndsay
Published: January 2024

The study of stellar flares has increased with new observations from CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS satellites, revealing the broad-band visible emission from these events. Typically, stellar flares have been modelled as 104 K blackbody plasma to obtain estimates of their total energy. In the Sun, white-light flares (WLFs) are much fainter than their stellar counterparts, and normally can only be detected via spatially resolved observations. Identifying the radiation mechanism for the formation of the visible spectrum from solar and stellar flares is crucial to understand the energy transfer processes during these events, but spectral data for WLFs are relatively rare, and insufficient to remove the ambiguity of their origin: photospheric blackbody radiation and/or Paschen continuum from hydrogen recombination in the chromosphere. We employed an analytical solution for the recombination continuum of hydrogen instead of the typically assumed 104 K blackbody spectrum to study the energy of stellar flares and infer their fractional area coverage. We investigated 37 events from Kepler-411 and five events from Kepler-396, using both radiation mechanisms. We find that estimates for the total flare energy from the H recombination spectrum are about an order of magnitude lower than the values obtained from the blackbody radiation. Given the known energy transfer processes in flares, we argue that the former is a physically more plausible model than the latter to explain the origin of the broad-band optical emission from flares.
Constraints on dark energy from TDCOSMO & SLACS lenses
Authors: Hogg Natalie B
Published: January 2024

Problems with the cosmological constant model of dark energy motivate the investigation of alternative scenarios. I make the first measurement of the dark energy equation of state using the hierarchical strong lensing time delay likelihood provided by TDCOSMO. I find that the combination of seven TDCOSMO lenses and 33 SLACS lenses is only able to provide a weak constraint on the dark energy equation of state, w < −1.75 at 68 per cent confidence, which nevertheless implies the presence of a phantom dark energy component. When the strong lensing time delay data is combined with a collection of cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillation and Type Ia supernova data, I find that the equation of state is w = −1.025 ± 0.029.
Combining cisplatin and a STING agonist into one molecule for metalloimmunotherapy of cancer
Authors: Zhang Shuren , Song Dongfan , Yu Wenhao , Li Ji , Wang Xiaoyu , Li Yachao , Zhao Zihan , Xue Qi , Zhao Jing , Li Jie P , Guo Zijian
Published: January 2024

Mounting evidence suggests that strategies combining DNA-damaging agents and stimulator of interferon genes (STING) agonists are promising cancer therapeutic regimens because they can amplify STING activation and remodel the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. However, a single molecular entity comprising both agents has not yet been developed. Herein, we designed two PtIV-MSA-2 conjugates (I and II) containing the DNA-damaging chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin and the innate immune-activating STING agonist MSA-2; these conjugates showed great potential as multispecific small-molecule drugs against pancreatic cancer. Mechanistic studies revealed that conjugate I upregulated the expression of transcripts associated with innate immunity and metabolism in cancer cells, significantly differing from cisplatin and MSA-2. An analysis of the tumor microenvironment demonstrated that conjugate I could enhance the infiltration of natural killer (NK) cells into tumors and promote the activation of T cells, NK cells and dendritic cells in tumor tissues. These findings indicated that conjugate I, which was created by incorporating a Pt chemotherapeutic drug and STING agonist into one molecule, is a promising and potent anticancer drug candidate, opening new avenues for small-molecule-based cancer metalloimmunotherapy.
Bayesian brain computing and the free-energy principle: an interview with Karl Friston
Authors: Lu Wenlian
Published: January 2024

The free-energy principle entails the Bayesian brain hypothesis that can be implemented by many schemes considered in this field. The combination of multimodal brain imaging and free-energy minimization has shown promise in unraveling complex brain dynamics and understanding the interactions among distinct brain regions. The Bayesian mechanics of brain computing gives a unique route to understanding authentic (neuromimetic) intelligence and, more importantly, points towards the development of brain-inspired intelligence.

NSR spoke to a leading theoretical neuroscientist and authority on brain imaging—Karl Friston, the inventor of statistical parametric mapping, voxel-based morphometry and dynamic causal modeling. Friston is also known for his contributions to theoretical biology in the form of the free-energy principle and applications such as active inference. Friston is currently the Scientific Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Professor of Neuroscience at Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London and Honorary Consultant at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UK.
Stem Cell Transplant in Immune-deficiency–associated Vaccine-derived Poliovirus
Authors: Ranchod Heena , Howard Wayne , Roux Adele , van Zyl Walda , Ekermans Pieter , van den Berg Sylvia , Seakamela Lerato , Makua Koketso , Yousif Mukhlid , Sibiya Rosinah , Du Plessis Heleen , Phalane Emmanuel , McCarthy Kerrigan , Moonsamy Shelina , Reynders David , Hincks Jeffrey , Suchard Melinda S , du Plessis Nicolette M
Published: January 2024

Patients with severe primary immunodeficiency are at risk for complications from live-attenuated vaccines. Here, we report a case of a vaccine-associated paralytic polio and Bacille Calmette-Guérin disease in a 6-month-old girl with severe combined immunodeficiency resulting from homozygous recombinant activating gene 1 deficiency. The patient was successfully treated with intravenous immunoglobulins and oral pocapavir for poliovirus, and antimycobacterial therapy for regional Bacille Calmette-Guérin disease, allowing stem cell transplant. Following transplantation, poliovirus type 3 with 13 mutations was detected from cerebrospinal fluid but not from stool, indicating ongoing viral evolution in the central nervous system despite pocapavir treatment. Clinical improvement and immune reconstitution allowed the patient to be successfully discharged with no further detection of poliovirus.
The Motet in the Late Middle Ages
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

The book ranges widely over French, English and Italian motets, mostly between the 1310s and the 1420s. About half the material is previously unpublished, the remaining chapters have been revised to varying degrees from previous publications and are now organised into Parts devoted to compositional techniques, Fauvel and Vitry, Machaut, the musician motets, English motets, Italian motets, music for popes and courts. Transcriptions of entire motets complement the musical analyses; many, too large in format for the printed book, are downloadable from the companion website. Some use a form of original notation, counted in original note values (usually the breve); others are in modern notation, so labelled, and measured in bars. Chapters vary in their technical demands, allowing readers to select or skip as appropriate. The five musician motets of Part IV (Chs. 15–21) praise over sixty musicians and range over many decades, each playing off its predecessors with citation, allusion and modelling. Motets of this period are individual conceptions, virtuosic creations of multi-layered words and music as tightly constructed as Chinese puzzles. Many chapters are devoted to individual motets, drawing on a multitude of new analytic directions and giving close attention to the detailed fit and juxtapositions of words and music. Verbal texts borrow musical techniques of repetition and recapitulation, words which may then be underlined musically by melodic or rhythmic ‘leitmotives’. Alliteration and onomatopoeia abound, and there is a wider range of ingenious word painting than has usually been recognised, including puns on number and structural joins. Segments of chant are often chosen for their musical characteristics (number, symmetries, cadencing opportunities, melodic qualities) as well as their textual suitability to the pre-compositional materia.
Introduction
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

The Introduction addresses problems of motet definition and classification, and surveys the seven Parts of the book. The chapters of Part I deal with theoretical issues; those of Part II deal with motets interpolated in the Roman deFauvel and some by Philippe de Vitry. Part III is devoted to Machaut, Part IV to a group of fourteenth-century musician motets, Part V deals with English motets, Part VI with Italian, and then the final Part VII with motets for Popes, motets listed in Trém, and finally Cyprus. The Introduction then summarises some of the new ways of understanding motets that the author has explored over many years and which are a common concern through the individual studies brought together here. Particular stress is laid throughout on the relationship between words and music as equal partners in the construction of these highly individual compositions, and the different ways in which their union explores meaning, including pictorially, symbolically, with onomatopoeia, alliteration or assonance, citation and allusion, and with structural and local puns. The borrowed chant tenors may be chosen for their symbolism as well as their musical properties, which may also permeate the upper parts. Finally, it addresses the question of audience: who were motets for? The primary audience was the performers themselves, who were better placed to appreciate the subtleties from inside than an unprepared listener.
Fauvel and Marigny: Which Came First?
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

This chapter expounds the ‘forwards’ fable narrative of the hybrid horse–man Fauvel in the famous interpolated copy of the Roman de Fauvel (BnF fr. 146), and the simultaneous ‘backwards’ historical narrative in the same manuscript of the fall from power of Fauvel’s embodiment in the corrupt counsellor Enguerrand de Marigny. The three Marigny motets (discussed and transcribed in Chapters 4 and 5, which expand on their interrelationships and Ovidian quotations) are carefully crafted to serve these bi-directional narratives around the pivotal figure of Fortuna and her wheels, and by reversals and inversions. They were evidently composed together, after the events to which they refer, thus revising their dating to after 1317, but probably by 1320. Other Fauvel motets with historical reference are also listed.
Related Manuscripts, Related Motets; Vitry
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

Some Fauvel motets are also present in the later manuscripts Paris571 and the rotulus Br19606, with added minim stems. Some, including Floret/Florens (Ch. 6) and Trahunt in precipitia/An diex/Displicebat, are in what may be their original form, adapted in Fauvel. These adaptations are reviewed, along with other later copies of Fauvel motets and their notation, and the arguments that have been put forward for and against Vitry’s authorship of the three Marigny motets in Fauvel (Chs. 4 and 5), Floret (Ch. 6) and Orbis orbatus, which shares its opening with Aman novi. Vitry’s possible further role in hitherto unattributed Fauvel adaptations is suggested.
Deception, Exegesis and Sounding Number in Machaut’s Motet 15
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

This chapter analyses the musical and textual structure of Machaut’s Motet 15 (Amours qui a le pouoir/Faus Samblant); it complements a literary analysis of the texts by Kevin Brownlee. The upper parts are related to the tenor in a stunning secular–sacred conjunction referencing the God of Jacob and the god of love, which is worked out in symbolic and depictive detail and underpinned by numerical structures in both texts and music. ‘False seeming’, the protagonist of the motetus part, is played out in deceptive musical near-repeats, and words of measuring time and distance coincide with musically structural points. A musico-textual quotation shared with Machaut’s Motet 10 is explored in Chapter 12.
The ‘Harmony’ of the Machaut Mass
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

Although it is not a motet, the Gloria of Machaut’s Mass raises questions which complement the other chapters in Part III (Machaut). This chapter analyses its counterpoint and possible compositional procedure. By attempting to apply contrapuntal criteria of the period, it engages with views of some established scholars who take an almost opposite view of the musical grammar, categorically denying that these movements can be understood in terms of fourteenth-century contrapuntal principles. Far from being fundamental, the contratenor is shown to be inessential, and largely responsible for the notorious dissonances. The underlying counterpoint can best be understood without the contratenor, which stands in a bifocal relationship to the tenor. The longer-held sonorities are not necessarily closural; it is argued that a distinction between perfect and imperfect intervals—representing closure or onward movement—might appropriately be observed in performance.
Musicorum collegio/In templo Dei/Avete
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

Musicorum collegio/In templo Dei/Avete survives uniquely in an English source, and apparently celebrates seven musicians (most presumed French, one of them English) in English exile with the French king in 1357–60. Although perhaps twenty-five years younger than its two predecessors, it plays off them with verbal puns, melodic and rhythmic citation, numerical affinity, calendrical symbolism and cosmic reach. Apollinis’s twelve musicians represented by the zodiac signs are answered by Musicorum’s seven, represented by the seven stars, and the sevens of the Apocalypse (candelabras, stars). Both motets are 144 breves in length. The trope of self-commendation is common to both, though here the first-person author does not name himself.
The Yoxford Manuscript and the MotetO amicus/Precursoris
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

This chapter describes an important set of English musical flyleaves, the Yoxford fragment (Yox), and their unique motet O amicus on John the Baptist. With a chant tenor and a solus tenor, the (essential) contratenor (or second tenor) appears to be lacking, but can in fact be derived from the tenor by reconstructing a virtuosic mensural canon on the chant, vividly representing John as the forerunner of Christ. Much of this chapter is quite technical, devoted to reconstructing the presumed original form of the contratenor with its complex reversals of coloration between the lower parts. The text of the motetus both advertises this compositional conceit and obscurely instructs the performer how to retrieve it from the notation, in a translation worked out with David Howlett. Adjacent in Yox is an English source of Sub Arturo (Chapter 20) which embodies a similar (simpler) textual reference to its compositional procedure.
Ciconia, Prosdocimus, and the Workings of Musical Grammar as Exemplified inO felix templumandO Padua
Authors: Bent Margaret
Published: January 2024

The composer Johannes Ciconia and the music theorist Prosdocimus de Beldemandis were both active in Padua in the first decade of the fifteenth century. Their respective theoretical writings have little in common, either in content or purpose. Ciconia’s own theory treatise does not deal with anything as practical as counterpoint, but Prosdocimus has left us some rare guidance. Although there is no documentary evidence of contact between the two men, it proved instructive to bring Prosdocimus’s counterpoint teaching into dialogue with the background counterpoint of Ciconia’s motets, to show how the bare counterpoint is elaborated, and how dyadic principles are mapped onto a three-part texture.
Defending Surrogacy as Reproductive Labour
Authors: Straehle Christine
Published: January 2024

In this chapter, Straehle proposes her positive argument for remunerated, or commercial, surrogacy. The core of this positive argument is built on three parts: (a) working as a surrogate is a legitimate employment of a woman’s body for labour; (b) surrogacy, when properly codified in (international) private law, can serve as a means for women surrogates to realize important goals in their lives; and (c) surrogacy creates a life and helps couples who are unable to have biological children to become and be parents of biological children. Straehle first establishes the freedom of occupational choice argument, explaining why freedom of occupational choice is an important aspect of many accounts of individual autonomy and self-determination. In section 2, Straehle provides an account of individual autonomy underlying her argument for freedom of occupational choice, and shows how we can think of surrogacy as autonomously chosen. In section 3, Straehle engages with critics of commercial surrogacy, arguing against the criticism of commercial surrogacy as introducing market values into the sphere of the family. Instead, Straehle notes that in an age of markets in reproductive technologies, the only thing critics seem to want to have for free is women’s labour. In the last section, Straehle delineates a model of a morally justifiable codification of commercial surrogacy, setting out the expectations that partners in surrogacy agreements can plausibly have towards each other.
America
Authors: LeDrew Stephen
Published: January 2024

The United States has long been considered an exception to the process of secularization, even among those who are favorable to theory. This chapter argues that the so-called American exception to secularization has been overstated, and that the tide of disaffiliation seen in other Western countries has arrived there as well. Further, the relative religiosity of the United States is consistent with existential security theory, since states that offer greater existential security (great social and economic equality, less crime and violence, etc.) tend to be less religious. The American case also offers another explanation for secularization: the connection between religion and conservative political values. In the United States, religious decline is partly driven by the perceived link between religious (particularly evangelical) institutions and deeply conservative positions on gender, sexuality, and the family.
Modality and Essence in Early Modern Philosophy
Authors: Schechtman Anat
Published: January 2024

This essay defends two theses regarding the explanation, or ground, of modality in the early modern period. First, for philosophers in the period, essences ground a range of important modal facts. Second, as the period progresses, we witness increased skepticism about certain modal facts, due to a growing skepticism about the scope or existence of essences. These theses are supported by examination of three case studies: Descartes’ treatment of substance and mode, which forms the core of his ontology; Malebranche’s treatment of causation, which bears on his defense of occasionalism; and Locke’s treatment of necessary connections among properties, which is related to his accounts of individuals and kinds. It is shown that in each case, claims about necessity and possibility take center stage, and that in each case, the status of these claims hinges on the status of claims about essences.
Leibniz on Modality
Authors: Newlands Samuel
Published: January 2024

Leibniz’s modal metaphysics displays exceptionally high levels of care, ingenuity, sophistication, and range. Several of Leibniz’s core commitments pressure him toward necessitarianism, the view that there are no alternative possibilities. To avoid this conclusion, Leibniz offered various analyses of modal concepts, three of which are critically explored here: per se analysis, infinite analysis, and moral necessity. In each case, there are reasons to doubt that his analysis avoids the necessitarian conclusion, though some of the debate turns on broader questions of how to interpret modal concepts. Leibniz also offered an intellectualist account of how possibilities are ultimately grounded in the divine intellect, an account that is importantly distinct from nearby alternatives found in Descartes and Spinoza.
Structuring Public Power
Authors: Bagg Samuel Ely
Published: January 2024

This chapter explores the three liberal demands implied by the ideal of resisting state capture: constitutionalism, competition, and universalism. All three help structure public power to minimize its susceptibility to capture, and all three are equally important—along with the radical demands presented in Chapter 6—to democratic goals. Constitutionalism is most obviously and directly aimed at resisting state capture, encompassing a first-order goal of prohibiting abuses and a second-order goal of preventing any group from acquiring the sort of unchecked power that would allow such abuse. Constitutional constraints, however, can only be maintained through free and fair political competition, which in turn requires constrained and reasonably egalitarian competition in economic, social, and other realms as well. Finally, a system of constitutional limits sustained by competition protects genuine public interests—rather than those of an elite few—only when it is accessible to all groups. This motivates the various universal rights implied by a principle of universalism, as well as impartial public standards of merit and deliberative reason. The ideal of resisting state capture thus offers a robust and broadly compelling justification for many familiar liberal practices, without relying on controversial assumptions about individual human agency or collective self-rule. At the same time, it also highlights the limitations of a system that relies only on those practices—which, as Chapter 4 showed, are consistent with pervasive capture by wealthy elites, categorically advantaged groups, and others with outsized private power and organizational capacity. Hence the radical demands explored in Chapter 6.
Causal Efficacy
Authors: Ingthorsson R. D.
Published: January 2024

The chapter critically assesses whether four rival accounts of efficient causation—transmission, mechanistic, powers-based, vs. powerful particulars accounts—are compatible with the scientific understanding of two often discussed types of causal phenomena: (i) collisions between billiard balls and (ii) how water dissolves salt. It is argued that only the powerful particulars view can be considered compatible with the scientific understanding, mainly because the other three characterize interactions—to varying degrees—in terms of a unidirectional exertion of influence of one thing on another, which is incompatible with the established scientific fact that all interactions are perfectly reciprocal.
Effects of changes in development and plant form on growth
Authors: Ford E. David
Published: January 2024

Historically, plant form has not been considered a determinant of plant growth to the same extent as a plant’s physiology. Two contrasting examples show how plant form and development can determine individual plant longevity in Pinus longaeva and the increase in yield through plant breeding in Zea mays. In P. longaeva, crown damage can stimulate reiteration of long branches from short shoots that typically have limited growth, maintaining growth for up to 5,000 years. The group selection process used in maize breeding has resulted in changes in the plant development sequence intervals and plants with smaller, more upright, foliage in response to increase in planting density. These examples show that, respectively, survival and growth cannot be understood through analysis of just one process but require synthesis of developmental, morphological, and physiological processes.
Growth within foliage canopies
Authors: Ford E. David
Published: January 2024

The development of canopy structure is the result of competition between plants. This is due to the interactions between controls of growth increment, morphological plasticity operating at the level of growth modules, and physiological acclimation of processes such as photosynthesis. Differences between species in the capacity for producing shade and growth requirement to obtain light result in different canopy structures. This can be seen in stand and canopy differences between species with decurrent or excurrent growth. As an example, including field data, differences in productivity between hybrids of Zea mays are defined in terms of canopy structure, particularly the size and curvature of leaves, and their effects on competition.
Stochastic models of growth
Authors: Barthelemy Marc , Verbavatz Vincent
Published: January 2024

In this chapter, we will mostly deal with models of multiplicative growth that are at the heart of uban growth modelling. We will see that the most familiar multiplicative models are related and often similar not to say identical. We will present several models which can pertain to city growth, even if they were originally developed in a various range of phenomena (number of species in a genus, number of words in a book, etc.). In that sense, if this chapter is primarily a review of growth models for cities, it can also be seen as a review of multiplicative growth processes in general. We will not present the models in a chronological way but rather by pooling together models that are mathematically alike. A chronological description would, anyway, be of no avail since models of multiplicative growth have been discovered and rediscovered several times in the last two centuries.
Why should we care about social economy science?
Authors: Krlev Gorgi , Wruk Dominika , Pasi Giulio , Bernhard Marika
Published: January 2024

Global challenges to achieve sustainable development and to overcome major crises have amplified attention to the social economy, because of its critical and unique contribution to socio-economic development and social cohesion. The social economy comprises traditional organizational forms such as cooperatives, associations, and solidarity organizations, but also stretches to newly emergent phenomena at the organizational or field levels such as impact investing or technology-based ventures that employ artificial intelligence to create public good. In this wide version, the social economy has a dual function. First, the social economy provides a global safety net in protecting and providing for the most deprived people of our societies. Second, the social economy serves as a driver of societal innovation and provides prompts for organizations to change the ways in which they operate and to create rather than destroy social value. In this chapter we establish the dual functions and show why the social economy matters from a practice and policy perspective as well as from a research perspective. We then describe the genesis of this book and provide an overview of the book’s three thematic focuses: innovation for impact; agents of change; and partnerships.
Public policies to advance the social economy
Authors: Bonnici François , Klijn Veerle
Published: January 2024

For decades, the social economy, prioritizing social impact over profit maximization, has contributed to mitigating the rise in poverty and inequality, as well as climate change, while enhancing social cohesion and societal wellbeing. In the face of multiple global challenges, governments and international institutions around the world are recognizing the potential of the social economy and are designing polices in support of it, yet often without the necessary data. Public policies to advance the social economy provides examples of policy actions that are taken around the globe, such as designing enabling legal frameworks, supporting access to finance and supporting the production of data. Moreover, this chapter sets out directions for future research to allow for more evidence-based policy-making in the social economy.
Social economy
Authors: Krlev Gorgi , Wruk Dominika , Pasi Giulio , Bernhard Marika
Published: January 2024

The social economy is an umbrella concept that unifies diverse organizational types and empirical phenomena. While this gives it an integrative force, it also leads to struggles about a common identity. At the same time, the social economy is a transformational force by constantly challenging the status quo, in particular in advocating the elevation of vulnerable groups. These traits are not easy to master conceptually, which inhibits social economy science’s impact. We address this problem by drawing on the concept of the organizational issue field from institutional theory to theorize a common identity and stability in the social economy, and on transitions theory to theorize the change processes the social economy promotes. We combine both concepts in a multi-level model of change in and through the social economy. We propose three transformation pathways that social economy organizations may pursue to promote social-ecological change: they may engage in innovation for impact; serve as agents of change by advancing alternative solutions and visions of the future; or work in partnerships with state actors, business, or target groups to enhance their influence. We show how each contribution to Social Economy Science informs our understanding of organizational issue fields and transitions, but also comes with an original analytic angle of its own. We contribute to the literature by integrating two theoretical anchors that have typically not been regarded in unison and show how advancing social economy science in this way may benefit the broader research agenda on positive change in the economy and society.
Financial market transformations for investing in social impact
Authors: Nicholls Alex , Ormiston Jarrod
Published: January 2024

While social enterprises are a key component of the wider social economy in Europe, they face the challenge of acquiring sufficient financial resources to help them develop their businesses and scale their impact. This chapter explores how the new field of impact investment can contribute to the growth of social enterprises across Europe. The chapter defines impact investment and discusses how developments in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors are driving the growth of the market. A ‘Spectrum of Impact Investment’ is introduced to map the variety of capital deployed for social impact, the size of the market, and expected financial returns. Following this broad overview, the chapter reflects on policy innovations in the United Kingdom impact investment market to inform policy recommendations for the European context. The policy recommendations are aimed to address gaps in the existing market infrastructure in terms of the supply side, the demand side, and intermediation.
How impact measurement fosters the social economy
Authors: Hehenberger Lisa , Buckland Leonora
Published: January 2024

The chapter provides a comprehensive overview of social impact measurement in the social economy in Europe, describing how different social economy actors (social enterprises, co-operatives, impact investors, donors, non-profit associations, and operating foundations) are approaching it; different tools, frameworks, and approaches; as well as bright spots and opportunities in the future. It also contains a series of recommendations for EU policy-makers to guide future action. We argue that social impact measurement is a key enabler of the social economy in Europe, helping social economy actors to improve as well as providing policy-makers, philanthropists, and investors with important data on which to base resource allocation or procurement decisions. We also discuss the challenges and risks the social economy currently faces relating to social impact measurement, in particular advocating a shift away from social economy actors using it to prove impact towards instead adopting a more collaborative, learning mindset in order to improve impact. Both top-down approaches, including developing common standards and metrics which speak to the complexity of impacts involved and the inherent particularities of the social economy, and bottom-up approaches, involving learning cultures within social economy organizations, are necessary and mutually reinforcing parts of the puzzle needed to boost the European social economy’s ability to achieve more over the coming years.
The centrality of social-tech entrepreneurship in an inclusive growth agenda
Authors: Calderini Mario , Chiodo Veronica , Gerli Francesco , Pasi Giulio
Published: January 2024

This chapter analyses the technological evolution of social entrepreneurship, a pivotal element of the social economy. After providing a novel Schumpeterian definition of the conceptual perimeter of social entrepreneurship, the chapter explores how social entrepreneurship can occur in the context of greater societal transformations and how social enterprises can use technology to enable inclusive growth. The chapter discusses four main systemic reasons for the centrality of social tech entrepreneurship in inclusive growth: its increased resilience and responsiveness to societal challenges; the endogenous transformation and hybridization that technology enables in social business models; the capacity to improve the societal legitimacy of technology and innovation by mitigating unintended consequences; and its concrete relevance to an inclusive growth policy agenda. Suggestions for novel policy measures to be implemented at the European level are provided.
Public structural funds as a catalyst for social innovation
Authors: Miguel António
Published: January 2024

This chapter explores the adoption of public structural funds as a lever to create social innovation ecosystems, through the case study of Portugal Social Innovation, a catalyst institution created in Portugal that mobilized EUR 150 million from the European Social Fund. The chapter describes the role of EU Funds in promoting national ecosystems, introduces Portugal Social Innovation by explaining how it has been implemented, and identifies its main learnings and obstacles as well as its proposed concrete recommendations that can serve to fast-track replication of similar initiatives in other EU Member States. It covers dimensions such as governance, incentive structures for innovation, impact management, and public policy structuring as vehicles to achieve social innovation, always from the perspective of a concrete case study—Portugal Social Innovation—and its eight years of implementation.
Corticalization and composition
Authors: Wise Steven P.
Published: January 2024

In modern primates, the cerebral cortex dwarfs the remainder of the brain: a dominance that developed in phases, mostly in Eocene crown primates, Miocene anthropoids, and Pleistocene hominins. In each case, a larger cortex evolved at a different time than the group’s characteristic skeletal traits, which points to different driving forces for bodies and brains. Notably, cortical expansion in Miocene hominoids occurred while they still closely resembled cercopithecoids, their sister group. The cortex also changed in composition. An extensive suite of primate- and anthropoid-specific areas emerged, many of which improved the efficiency of long-range foraging journeys. In Miocene monkeys and hominoids, faster forms of locomotion evolved in concert with a larger cortex. Later, in Pleistocene hominins, the enlargement of primate-specific cortical areas, along with the hippocampus, supported uniquely human cognitive capacities, including a prodigious accumulation of semantic generalizations and a limitless capacity to imagine the future and the past.
Influence in the UN Security Council
Authors: Gifkins Jess
Published: January 2024

The formal rules governing the UN Security Council offer little insight into the process of negotiation. While it is common knowledge that permanent members dominate negotiations, this chapter demonstrates how permanent members dominate and what avenues of influence exist for other actors. It uses the concept of institutional power to show how the influence of permanent members extends beyond their formal privileges. Permanent members dominate agenda-setting, drafting, and have the capacity for informal veto. Support from elected members brings legitimacy to resolutions, however, and this mitigates the influence of permanent members. Elected members can also magnify their influence with strong diplomatic capacities or by acting collectively. The chapter goes beyond voting actors to analyse the influence of the UN Secretariat and the epistemic community around the United Nations on Security Council negotiations. The argument in this chapter also has implications for the perennial reform debates and the prospects for informal reform.
The UN Security Council’s First Referral to the ICC
Authors: Gifkins Jess
Published: January 2024

This chapter analyses the UN Security Council’s referral of the situation in Darfur to the ICC. This chapter had more intense national interests involved than other chapters because the US did not want to legitimize the ICC via a Security Council referral. The US had spent years trying to ensure immunity for US officials by the time of the Darfur referral and had secured extensive bilateral non-surrender agreements with states. It had also vetoed an unrelated resolution on peacekeeping in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and threatened to continue vetoing resolutions, to obtain a resolution granting immunity to personnel from states that are not party to the Rome Statute. However, the US had also established itself as a key advocate on Darfur by the time the referral was negotiated. As such, it was the external legitimation practice of consistent arguments that made it difficult for the US to veto the referral. Internal legitimation practices on repetition of agreed language were also instrumental in facilitating US acquiesce. The US achieved some concessions in the resolution referring Darfur to the ICC, however, it fundamentally did not want to legitimize the ICC via a referral and was constrained in achieving this aim by external legitimation practices.
Conclusion
Authors: Gifkins Jess
Published: January 2024

This chapter summarizes the argument and suggests directions for future research. It includes a section summarizing the evidence for external legitimation practices, showing how they can be used to explain key turning points in the negotiation on Darfur across agenda-setting, sanctions, the referral to the International Criminal Court, and peacekeeping. It highlights that the influence of external legitimation practices does not necessarily make decisions better, and in some cases the practice of ‘doing something’ generated decisions that could not be implemented. The chapter also contains a section summarizing the evidence for internal legitimation practices. It demonstrates how practices of seeking unanimity, repetition of language, and seeking regional support were each instrumental in passing Security Council resolutions on Darfur. It suggests that it is likely that internal legitimation practices have even more influence in cases that are less contentious and more routine than Darfur. Future directions for research on legitimation practices are suggested across different case studies, different multilateral institutions, or in domestic governance. Internal and external legitimation practices can be used to explain key turning points in Security Council negotiations that are not explained using traditional approaches to International Relations.
A Widow's Vengeance after the Wars of Religion
Authors: Hamilton Tom
Published: January 2024

Paris, 1599. At the end of the French Wars of Religion, the widow Renée Chevalier instigated the prosecution of the military captain Mathurin Delacanche, who had committed multiple acts of rape, homicide, and theft against the villagers who lived around her château near the cathedral city of Sens. But how could Chevalier win her case when King Henri IV’s Edict of Nantes ordered that the recent troubles should be forgotten as ‘things that had never been’? A Widow’s Vengeance after the Wars of Religion is a dramatic account of the impact of the religious wars on daily life. Based on neglected archival sources and an exceptional criminal trial, it recovers the experiences of women, peasants, and foot soldiers, who are marginalized in most historical accounts. Tom Hamilton shows how this trial contributed to a wider struggle for justice and an end to violence in post-war France. People throughout the society of the Old Regime did not consider rape and pillage as inevitable consequences of war, and denounced soldiers’ illicit violence when they were given the chance. As a result, the early modern laws of war need to be understood not only as the idealistic invention of great legal thinkers, but also as a practical framework that enabled magistrates to do justice for plaintiffs and witnesses, like Chevalier and the villagers who lived under her protection.
The Great Licence of Soldiers
Authors: Hamilton Tom
Published: January 2024

This chapter focuses on the problem of pillage and assault in Mathurin Delacanche’s occupation of Chaumot, evaluated in the wider context of civilians’ experiences of war in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Tales of the miseries of war that circulated at this time spread a familiar image of the excessive violence of the pillaging soldier. The villagers of Chaumot invoked this theme when they testified in the courtroom and denounced Delacanche’s violence. Yet the villagers also aimed to move beyond this stereotype and instead to provide the magistrates of the Parlement with a realistic and persuasive account of how Delacanche committed acts of such extreme violence that he should pay for them with his life. The chapter ends with an evaluation of the military and social conditions of the end of the civil wars in the Sénonais.
The Persistent Widow
Authors: Hamilton Tom
Published: January 2024

This chapter explains how Renée Chevalier risked financial peril to win her case against Delacanche by the spring of 1600. It offers a case study in how a wealthy widow negotiated the social hierarchies of the Old Regime in general, and the institutions of criminal justice in particular. It argues that the capacity of women to access criminal courts in this period was significant and expansive, yet also limited by hierarchies of gender and status that the formal terms of Roman, royal, and customary laws set out in theory, and which the courts reinforced in practice. Chevalier overcame these limitations through her dynamic mobilization of family and financial resources, reasoned approach to the courts, and adroit organization of her case as it proceeded through different levels of the judicial hierarchy.
Legacies
Authors: Hamilton Tom
Published: January 2024

During the later sixteenth century, Renée Chevalier’s two marriages, disputes over her inheritance, and her prosecution of Mathurin Delacanche had shown her to be an extraordinary widow who made full use of her legal independence to conduct her affairs. Following Delacanche’s conviction, Chevalier married a further three times before she died aged 89 at the château of Tarabel just outside of Toulouse, where she lived in her final years with her fifth husband Guy II du Faur de Pibrac. Chevalier’s later marriage agreements shaped the size and distribution of her wealth and property, and the way she negotiated them also reveals how she retained substantial control over her legacy even as she lived into her ninth decade.