bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
TEOREMA DE PITÁGORAS ESPACIAL NO TRIEDRO TRI-RETANGULAR VIA MATRIZ DE GRAM
Authors: Abreu Ivanildo Silva , Abreu Júnior Elder , Do Amaral Henrique Mariano Costa , Teixeira Filho Cristovam Filho Dervalmar Rodrigues , Pereira Karllos Alexandre Sousa , Muniz Kiane Núbia Dias , Silva Maciel dos Santos , Araújo Paulo Victor Brito
Published: February 2025

The demonstration of this work uses vector calculus and algebra topics to prove the generalized Pythagorean theorem in space using a tri-rectangular trihedron that gives rise to a tetrahedron. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the sum of the squares of the areas of the faces of a tetrahedron is equal to the square of the opposite face. Some concepts of scalar product, Lagrange identity and Gram matrix were widely used. The results showed that its various applications lead to a number of important results and conclusions in Mathematics, Engineering, Science and Geometry. With this, it is concluded that the generalization of the Pythagorean theorem by tri-rectangle trihedron using the Gram matrix and this Important Lagrange Identity, is an important contribution, as it expands its relevance and importance in mathematics and other areas of knowledge.
ANÁLISE DA VIABILIDADE DA MIGRAÇÃO PARA O MERCADO LIVRE DE ENERGIA EM ÓRGÃOS PÚBLICOS: UMA PERSPECTIVA BASEADA EM ESTUDO DE CASO
Authors: Ribeiro Filho Afonso Celso Sampaio
Published: February 2025

O presente artigo analisa a viabilidade da migração para o mercado livre de energia em instituições públicas, com foco no impacto econômico e nas práticas sustentáveis que essa transição pode proporcionar. A pesquisa foi realizada por meio de um estudo de caso, avaliando uma instituição federal de ensino no Brasil. O objetivo principal foi identificar os benefícios financeiros e os desafios técnicos, regulatórios e organizacionais envolvidos nesse processo. A análise dos dados demonstrou que, ao adotar o mercado livre de energia, a instituição poderia reduzir significativamente os custos com eletricidade e otimizar a gestão de seus recursos. Além disso, a possibilidade de adotar fontes renováveis de energia reforça o compromisso institucional com a sustentabilidade e a responsabilidade socioambiental. Contudo, os resultados também evidenciam a necessidade de um planejamento estratégico rigoroso, que envolva a capacitação das equipes, a atualização dos sistemas de medição e a adequação dos processos administrativos. A pesquisa aponta ainda a importância de políticas públicas que incentivem a migração de outras instituições públicas para o mercado livre de energia, com a simplificação de processos regulatórios e o incentivo a parcerias com o setor privado. Em termos de impacto, a transição pode ser um modelo de boas práticas para outras organizações do setor público, ampliando a adoção de soluções sustentáveis e eficientes. Em síntese, o estudo conclui que, embora haja desafios a serem superados, a migração para o mercado livre de energia é uma estratégia viável e benéfica para instituições públicas, contribuindo para a modernização da gestão pública e para o cumprimento de metas ambientais globais.
Perceived Influence of Digital Transformation on the Performance of Microfinance Institutions in Tanzania.
Authors:   University of Dar es Salaam, Waryoba Penina Benjamin , Masele Juma ,   University of Dar es Salaam
Published: February 2025

This study investigates the perceived influence of digital transformation (DT) on the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Tanzania; focusing on managerial, financial, and operational dimensions. Employing the resource-based view (RBV), the study demonstrates how digital transformation serves as a crucial asset that enhances organizational performance and provides a competitive edge. With the aid of self-administered questionnaires, the data were collected from 146 randomly sampled MFI owners/managers, and analysed using the partial least squares–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique in SmartPLS 5. The findings reveal that DT positively and significantly influences the managerial, financial, and operational performance of MFIs. The paper emphasizes the contribution of RBV in showing how DT is an unique and valuable resource that drives performance and competitive advantage within the financial sector. To policymakers and practitioners, the findings inform targeted policies and initiatives that facilitate technology adoption and resource optimization. Furthermore, the findings encourage future research to explore the diverse economic sectors, methodological approaches, and contextual variables to deepen the understanding of the impact of digital transformation across various settings.
New forms of fraud in science: Deceptive practices such as article mills, fraudulent peer review, and automatic content generation
Authors: Martínez-Rojas Ezequiel , Zahn-Muñoz Cristian
Published: February 2025

Introduction: The study analyzes emerging trends in scientific fraud, focusing on article mills, fraudulent peer reviews, and randomly generated content, practices that have transformed the dynamics of scientific retractions.Methods: With a descriptive and transversal approach, 37,480 retracted documents were analyzed between 2015 and 2024, using data from the Retraction Watch database. Information was collected on authors, countries of affiliation, dates, areas of knowledge, and reasons for retraction.Results: The results reveal a notable change in the causes of retraction. Between 2015 and 2019, plagiarism (21.6%) and duplication (14%) led, while between 2020 and 2024 they dropped to 6.8% and 4%, respectively. In this last period, article mills (30.1%), fake peer reviews (19.9%), and randomly generated content (23.3%) increased. These practices mainly affected Business, Technology and Social Sciences, with China and India leading in these fraudulent activities.Conclusions: The study concludes that these new forms of scientific fraud represent a critical challenge to the integrity of the publications system. It underscores the need to strengthen editorial policies, implement advanced screening tools, and promote ethics education to protect the credibility of global science.
Design of a Compact Microstrip Band Pass Filter for IoT and S-Band Radar Applications
Authors: Al-Fatlawi Aqeel H. , Kashef Seyed Sadra , Mezaal Yaqeen Sabah , Valizadeh Morteza
Published: February 2025

In this paper, the design, simulation and performance analysis of a compact micros trip bandpass filter (BPF) is presented for wireless communication, IoT, and radar systems. An open-loop square with two SIRS at the top of the resonator structure is designed for the filter, which is optimized to operate at the center frequency of 3.82 GHz within an external quality factor of 57.88. In terms of S-parameter results, the performance is good, with an insertion loss of 0.41 dB while a high return loss is achieved at 21.66.66 db. Such characteristics guarantee high selectivity and low signal distortion investigation at an upper band of 83.74dB /GHZ and a transition band is 0.269 GHz. The proposed BPF has transmission zero at 71.53dB at 4.427GHZ with a compact size of 18 mm × 18 mm.
Contribution of Reading Comprehension to Cognitive Reserve in Aging: a Scoping Review
Authors: San Martín Cofré Marilyn , Farías-Fritz Bárbara , Roco-Videla Angel
Published: February 2025

Introduction: with the increase in the population within the category of older adults, it is necessary to search for new strategies that ensure healthy aging. This study aims to analyze the relationship between reading comprehension and cognitive reserve in older people, and the degree of cognitive decline.Methods: the PRISMA-ScR criteria were applied to the articles available in the PubMed and Scopus databases, resulting from the use of the search algorithm ["Reserve Cognitive" AND “Language” AND “Reading”] published between 2019 and 2024.Results: from the 8 selected articles, evidence was found that indicated that there is a positive association between cognitive reserve and reading comprehension in older adults.Conclusions: reading comprehension plays a fundamental role in the cognitive reserve of older adults, which allows them to solve complex tasks and acts as a protective factor against deterioration due to aging.
Perspectives on Mental Health Challenges and Needs: A Qualitative Study of Adolescents in Incarceration
Authors: Zulhaini Sartika A. Pulungan , S. Hamid Achir Yani , Susanti Herni , Yusna Dewid Suzy
Published: February 2025

Introduction: The global community is increasingly recognizing the importance of mental health. However, adolescents in correctional institutions are often overlooked and do not have sufficient access to the mental health services they need. These young individuals have the same right to proper care and support. This study aims to explore the challenges and needs related to adolescent mental health while serving sentences in correctional facilities. Methods: This study utilized a qualitative research design with a phenomenological approach to explore experiences within the prison system. Participants were selected using purposive sampling based on specific criteria, resulting in 30 individuals: nine adolescent inmates, eight caregivers, five nurses, and eight prison officers. The characteristics of participants were analyzed using frequency distribution and measures of central tendency. Qualitative data from interviews were examined through thematic analysis to identify key themes and patterns reflecting the complex realities of those in the prison environment.Results: This study identified four themes: 1)  Transition experience during legal proceedings, 2) Risk factors for adolescent mental health problems, 3) Protective factors of adolescent development, and 4) The need to handle mental health problems.Conclusion: Incarceration creates significant psychological stress for adolescents, contributing to anxiety and mental health issues. Factors such as violence during arrest, stigma, and isolation worsen these problems. However, family support, education, and positive activities can help. Comprehensive mental health interventions, including regular check-ups, are essential for the well-being of detained adolescents.
Strategies for Effective Communication in English Language Teaching at Universities
Authors: Buzdugan Olena , Oskina Nataliia , Stryga Eleonora , Avramenko Bogdana , Dyshel Ganna
Published: February 2025

Introduction: The article describes and analyses the components of communicative models being tested in modern higher education institutions teaching English as a foreign language. English language teaching is mainly based on cooperative learning, a key principle of the communicative component of the cognitive-communicative approach.Methods: In the course of writing the article, the syncretism of theoretical and experimental research methods was used, in particular: the method of modelling combined with the synergistic method, the experimental method, and the method of generalisation. It has been established that the cognitive-communicative approach to teaching English includes cognitive processes and their rational incorporation into the mechanisms of speech.Results: This ensures solid assimilation and mastery of linguistic (lexical and grammatical) material while developing memory, creative thinking, prediction mechanisms, linguistic guessing, and other personality traits and characteristics. To prove its effectiveness, the ICLT (Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching) communicative model was tested at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the State Institute "South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named after K.D. Ushynsky" during the academic year 2023-2024.Conclusions: The results of the pedagogical experiment showed positive dynamics of students' performance, which is reflected in a decrease in the number of students achieving the average (from 11.7% to 3.9%) and sufficient level (from 76% to 70%) and a significant increase in the number of students of the highest level (from 14.6% to 28.3%). Increased confidence in communicating with native speakers can be achieved by expanding the lexical and grammatical base.
ALLELIC AND GENOTYPIC FREQUENCY OF THE KAPPA CASEIN GENE IN DOUBLE PURPOSE CATTLE
Authors: Cortes Lopez Noemi Gabriela , Del Moral Ventura Sandra Trinidad , RuedaBarrientos Jose Angel , Luna Palomera Carlos , Meza Herrera Cesar Alberto , Abad-Zavaleta Jose
Published: February 2025

In this work, allelic frequencies (A and B) of CASk gene were determined as selection criteria on milk quality in double purpose cattle. Blood samples were taken at 200 bovine females and were placed in tubes containing EDTA. Genetic marker MB002 was amplified from extracted genetic material. RFLP testing was performed using restriction enzyme Hinf I for the diagnosis of A and B alleles on CASκ. Genotype frequencies obtained corresponded to 0.34, 0.01 and 0.65 for AA, BB and AB, respectively. Allelic frequency were 0.67 and 0.33 for A and B alleles, respectively. Also, there was a heterocigocity average of 0.6481. The study population is not in Hardy Weinberg equilibrium, the value of c2 = 14.8 with 2 degrees of freedom (P < 0.005). Based on allelic frequency of CASk  B (0.34) observed in this study under theoretical assumptions, double-purpose cattle may be a feasible option to increase milk quality when BB sires are used for cross breeding. In this way, B alleles associated to higher milk quality can be enriched in few generations.
THE OCCURRENCE OF Toxoplasma gondii ANTIBODIES IN BACKYARD PIGS AND CATS FROM AN ENDEMIC TROPICAL AREA OF MEXICO
Authors: Jimenez-Coello Matilde , Acosta-Viana Karla Y. , Guzman-Mari­n Eugenia , Gutierrez-ruiz Edwin J. , Rodriguez-Vivas Roger I. , Bolio-Gonzalez Manuel E. , Ortega-Pacheco Antonio
Published: February 2025

In Mexico, backyard animal production system is an important source of food for domestic consumption as in many other developing countries and is characterized by a virtually nonexistent sanitary management. With the objective to evaluate the prevalence and risk factors associated with antibodies against T. gondii in pigs and cats from an endemic area in the Mexican tropics, a cross-sectional study was performed in 30 backyard pigs and 50 cats. Pigs and cats were blood sampled and tested by an indirect IgG ELISA to detect antibodies against T. gondii. Seropositivity rate in cats were of 100 % (50/50) and were identified a 75 % (23/30) of positives pigs. Results indicate a very high level of circulation of the agent in the area and a high risk of pigs to become infected. It is concluded that cats and pigs maintained under backyard had high seroprevalence to T. gondii. It is necessary implement sanitary measures in the management of backyard to avoid transmission to people consuming pork meat from backyard systems.
SMALLHOLDER SHEEP FEEDING BASED ON DEFOLIATED CASSAVA AND MAIZE LEAVES
Authors: Fasae Oladapo Ayokunle , Adu I.F. , Aina A.B.J.
Published: February 2025

The recent surge in the production of cassava and maize in Nigeria has generated a surplus of leaves which if adequately utilized could alleviate the feed shortage problem encountered by smallholder in sheep production as a result of seasonal reduction in feed supply and reduced pasture quality. An experiment was conducted with West African Dwarf yearling rams to investigate the feeding value of defoliated cassava leaves (CL) and maize leaves (ML) at different ratios (CL/ML) in the diets; 100:0 (solely ML); 25: 75; 50: 50; 75: 25; and 0:100 (solely CL). The experiment that lasted for 105 days involved twenty (20) rams in a completely randomized design used to evaluate the dry matter (DM) intake, weight gain, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen utilization as well as the effect of the diets on the haematological profile of the rams. Results showed that DM intake and digestibility of nutrients were similar in the mixed forage diets and significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of the sole forage diets of cassava and maize. Live weight gain (g/day) peaked at the ratio 75%CL/25%ML diet with rams fed sole forage diets having significantly lower gain in weight. The intake of the CP increased significantly as the component of CL in the diet increased. The N balance (g/day) and retention (%) were also highest in the mixed forage diets and lowest in the solely ML diets. Blood parameters monitored were not affected by the experimental diets. It was concluded that DM intake, weight gain, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen utilization of sheep can be enhanced by feeding 75:25 (CL/ML) in the diet.
Isolation and characterization of fatty acid esters from Cyperus marginatus Thunb. leaf, their in vitro biological and in silico molecular docking studies
Authors: Miya Gugulethu M. , Oriola Ayodeji O. , Kar Pallab , Oyedeji Adebola O.
Published: February 2025

Context: Fatty acid esters (FAEs) are a unique class of secondary metabolites with promising antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, making them useful ingredients for cosmetic formulations. So far, many plants in the Cyperus genus (family Cyperaceae) are known to contain FAEs, among other classes of phytochemicals. However, Cyperus marginatus (CM) is one of the under-investigated species in this genus.
Aims: To evaluate CM for its antioxidant (AOX) and anti-inflammatory FAEs.
Methods: Two FAEs were isolated from CM leaf dichloromethane extract by silica gel column chromatography, while compound characterization was based on organic spectroscopy (NMR and MS). The antioxidant evaluation was by in vitro inhibitory effects against the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), nitric oxide (NO), and ferric ion (Fe3+) radicals, while anti-inflammatory activity was based on the egg albumin denaturation (EAD) assay. The FAEs were molecularly docked against NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2) and nuclear factor (NF-κB).
Results: The isolated FAEs were elucidated as ethyl margarate, and a newly described FAE, nonadecanoic acid-2-ethoxy ethyl ester. Ethyl margarate demonstrated better AOX properties, with lower inhibition against DPPH (IC50 = 43.82 ± 1.44 µg/mL), NO (60.04 ± 3.28 µg/mL), and Fe3+ (308.01 ± 34.11 µgAAE/mg) radicals. It also demonstrated a better anti-inflammatory response with an IC50 of 12.24 ± 0.69 µg/mL against EAD, which was comparable to diclofenac (IC50 = 11.94 ± 1.37 µg/mL). Molecular docking studies revealed the significant binding affinities of ethyl margarate to NOX2 and NF-κB at -7.2 and -6.1 kcal/mol, respectively.
Conclusions: Ethyl margarate isolated from C. marginatus has been shown through this study to be a promising antioxidant and anti-inflammatory FAE.
Explorando el dominio de competencias de lenguaje y comunicación en alumnos de nuevo ingreso al Bachillerato de la Universidad Tamaulipeca Campus Reynosa
Authors: Martínez Salomón Dulce María , Cantú Marín Anayancy Magaly , Espinosa Cárdenas Samuel Armando , García Ramos Martha del Rocío
Published: February 2025

Durante los últimos años, los desafíos educativos en México se acentuaron debido a una crisis sanitaria global que modificó las dinámicas de enseñanza y evaluación. Esta situación, sumada al bajo rendimiento previo en Matemáticas, Lenguaje y Comunicación, evidenciado en evaluaciones nacionales e internacionales, ha generado un impacto significativo en los aprendizajes clave. El presente estudio tuvo como objetivo identificar las competencias en el Recurso Sociocognitivo de Lenguaje y Comunicación con las que egresan los estudiantes de nivel básico para su ingreso al nivel medio superior, a fin de proponer estrategias que fortalezcan el dominio de estos aprendizajes esenciales. Se empleó una metodología cuantitativa con un diseño transversal descriptivo, evaluando el nivel de competencia en Lenguaje y Comunicación en estudiantes de nuevo ingreso al Bachillerato de la Universidad Tamaulipeca, Campus Reynosa. Los resultados evidenciaron un rezago significativo en la comprensión de objetivos de estudio, lo que destaca la necesidad de implementar estrategias de enseñanza-aprendizaje más efectivas y oportunas. Se concluye que el desarrollo de la lectura como herramienta fundamental es crucial para fortalecer las habilidades cognitivas superiores, facilitando así un progreso educativo más sólido durante la trayectoria académica de los estudiantes.
FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI TERHADAP GANGGUAN MENSTRUASI PADA MAHASISWI REGULER DI STIKES KESOSI JAKARTA
Authors: Anitha Anitha  , Cornelius Tri Wibowo
Published: February 2025

Menstrual disorder is one complaint on today's teenagers. adolescent disorders associated with menstruation, irregular menstrual cycles, pain, bleeding time and a lot of time period, while the factors that can affect menstrual disorders, among others, stress, physical activity, age, weight, genetics and nutrition. This study aims to determine the relationship between the level of stress and physical activity levels with menstrual disorders in female students in STIKes KESOSI Jakarta. This study uses analytic survey with cross sectional study approach. This research was conducted at campus STIKes KESOSI Jakarta with a sample of the regular students as much as 80 respondents. Collecting data using questionnaire research instruments. Data analysis is univariate analysis in the form of a frequency distribution and bivariate analysis in the form of two different test proportions (chi-square). Of the 80 female students had an average stress as much as 64.7%, moderate physical activity as much as 95%, and the average student who has menstrual abnormalities in the amount of 78.8%. There was no significant relationship between stress factors and physical activity with menstrual disorders in female students in STIKes KESOSI Jakarta, because (p> 0.05), namely (p value = 0.371) and (p value = 0.458)
GAMBARAN PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXTATION (PMR) TERHADAP KADAR GLUKOSA DARAH (LITERATURE REVIEW)
Authors: Anitha Anitha
Published: February 2025

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is an increase in glucose levels in the blood or what is known as hyperglycemia, in which the body cannot produce the hormone insulin or use insulin effectively. Non-pharmacological management of DM should be considered as a companion to conventional or medical therapy such as relaxation therapy, there are several types of relaxation therapy, one of which is Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). The benefits of PMR are to reduce the body's oxygen consumption, the body's metabolic rate, the respiratory rate of muscle tension, premature ventricular contractions and systolic blood pressure and brain alpha waves and can increase beta endorphins and function to increase cellular immunity. From the results of the study, it was found that the provision of non-pharmacological therapy of progressive muscle relaxation has an effect on reducing blood glucose levels in type 2 DM clients and has positive implications, namely it can provide a sense of comfort, relax, reduce stress, and can reduce blood glucose levels in the body in DM clients. type 2.
HUBUNGAN PERAN DUKUNGAN KELUARGA TERHADAP KEMAMPUAN PEMENUHAN PERSONAL HYGIENE PADA LANSIA
Authors: Arni Safdiantina
Published: February 2025

Personal hygiene comes from the Greek language which means personal which means individual and hygiene means healthy. Personal hygiene is an action taken to maintain the cleanliness and health of a person for physical and psychological well-being. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between family support for the elderly in fulfilling personal hygiene at Posyandu Mawar 03 Bojong Raya, West Jakarta. The research design used was a cross-sectional design. The sample amounted to 73 people and was taken by random sampling. Collecting data using a research instrument in the form of a questionnaire. This research was conducted at Posyandu Mawar 03 Bojong Raya, West Jakarta on August 22, 2017. Data analysis used univariate analysis in the form of frequency and proportion distribution and bivariate analysis in the form of two-proportion difference test (chi-square). From 73 respondents, the average result of the elderly having good family support was 61.6%, while the elderly who fulfilled personal hygiene were on average in the bad category as much as 60.3%. There is a significant relationship between family support and the fulfillment of personal hygiene in the elderly (p value = 0.01).
The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu
Authors: Joly Maurice
Published: February 2025

The Dialogue in Hell between Montesquieu and Machiavelli is the source of the world's most infamous literary forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. John Waggoner's superb translation of and commentary on Joly's Dialogue—the first faithful translation in English—seeks not only to update the sordid legacy of the Protocols but to redeem Joly's original work for serious study in its own right, rather than through the lens of antisemitism. Waggoner's work vindicates a man who was neither an antisemite nor a supporter of the kind of tyrannical politics the Protocols subsequently served and presents Maurice Joly, once much maligned and too long ignored, as one of the nineteenth century's foremost political thinkers.
From Deterrence to Engagement
Authors: Roehrig Terence
Published: February 2025

From Deterrence to Engagement provides a comprehensive examination of the U.S.-South Korea defense relationship from 1945 to the present. Using deterrence theory as its framework, this work explores the evolving nature of U.S. interests in a region that became a focal point only after the North Korean invasion in 1950. Author Terence Roehrig addresses the changing nature of the threats to U.S. interests in Korea, especially North Korea's buildup and its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, and examines specific measures utilized by the United States to implement its deterrence policy. While U.S. policy regarding Korea has changed over the years, this timely and important work argues that although the U.S. commitment to protect its ally has been credible and effective the same cannot be said for its attempts to prevent North Korean nuclear proliferation. From Deterrence to Engagement is certain to find an audience amongst scholars of defense policy, national security, and Korean security relations.
The Political Theory of a Compound Republic
Authors: Ostrom Vincent , Allen Barbara
Published: February 2025

The Political Theory of a Compound Republic examines the foundation of American constitutional design expressed in theFederalist. Through meticulous textual analysis, the logical principles of federalism_the extended and compound republic envisioned by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton_are revealed as thirteen propositions broadly applicable to any effort to design the institutions of a self-governing polity. The final chapters, expanded and revised by Vincent Ostrom and Barbara Allen, turn to the American experiment in constitutional choice at the threshold of the twenty-first century. In this revised edition, Ostrom and Allen consider the continuing story of federal institutional development by focusing on two current concerns: the 'imperial presidency' and the ideal of universal human rights. This third, revised and expanded edition of The Political Theory of a Compound Republic continues to be of interest to scholars of federalism, institutional analysis and development, political economy and public choice, and students of the American founding. It is also useful in undergraduate and graduate courses on American government and political thought.
Quality of Life in Jewish Bioethics
Authors: Zohar Noam J.
Published: February 2025

This anthology of original essays by leading thinkers in the field gathers together in one place voices from diverse theological and practical commitments. Unlike other publications on Jewish bioethics, it adopts an explicitly pluralistic stance. The book addresses tension between the 'quality of life' and the 'sanctity of life' issues, and will be of interest to lay readers, graduate students of bioethics, and rabbis.
Rethinking Mao
Authors: Knight Nick
Published: February 2025

Rethinking Mao offers an innovative perspective on the thought of Mao Zedong, the major architect of the Chinese Revolution and leader of the People's Republic of China until his death in 1976. Utilizing a number of recently discovered documents written by Mao, Nick Knight 'rethinks' Mao by subjecting a number of controversial themes to fresh scrutiny. This book provides a sophisticated analysis of Mao's views on the role of the peasants and working class in the Chinese revolution, his theoretical attempt to make Marxism appropriate to Chinese conditions, and his understanding of the Chinese road to socialism. Knight includes a discussion of the theoretical difficulties in interpreting Mao's thought. Rethinking Mao represents a challenge to many of the conventional accounts of Mao and his thoughts. This book will appeal to scholars and students of Chinese history and politics, as well as the history of Marxism in China.
Romanticism and Postromanticism
Authors: Moscovici Claudia
Published: February 2025

Claudia Moscovici asserts in Romanticism and Postromanticism that the Romantic heritage, far from being important only in a historical sense, has philosophical relevance and value for contemporary art and culture. With an emphasis on artistic tradition as a continuing source of inspiration and innovation, she touches upon each main branch of philosophy: aesthetics, epistemology, and ethics. The book begins by describing some of the most interesting features of the Romantic movement that still fuel our culture. It then addresses the question: How did an artistic movement whose focus was emotive expression change into a quest for formal experimentation? And finally, Moscovici considers the aesthetic philosophy of postromanticism by thinking through how the Romantic emphasis upon beauty and passion can be combined with the modern and postmodern emphasis on originality and experimentation.
Values and Objectivity in Science
Authors: Lacey Hugh
Published: February 2025

Values and Objectivity in Science illuminates many of the ethical issues that arise concerning scientific practices and applications, offering an account of how social and ethical values play important roles within science. Hugh Lacey develops and clarifies his previous analysis by arguing for the importance of research being conducted under a plurality of strategies, contrasting 'materialist strategies' with 'agro-ecological strategies.' By displaying the structure of current ethical controversies about the legitimacy of planting transgenic crops, this book illustrates that sound thinking on such issues must be grounded on an adequate philosophy of science, one that can clearly distinguish between the proper and the distorting roles of values in scientific practices. This book will prove useful for science students and practitioners as well as those interested in the growing ethical questions involved in scientific practices.
The Antipodean Philosopher
Authors: Oppy Graham
Published: February 2025

Philosophy in both Australia and New Zealand has been has been experiencing, for some time now, something of a 'golden age', exercising an influence in the global arena that is disproportionate to the population of the two countries. To capture the distinctive and internationally recognised contributions Australasian philosophers have made to their discipline, a series of public talks by leading Australasian philosophers was convened at various literary events and festivals across Australia and New Zealand from 2006 to 2009. These engaging and often entertaining talks attracted large audiences, and covered diverse themes ranging from local histories of philosophy (in particular, the fortunes of philosophy in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and New Zealand); to discussions of specific topics (including love, free will, religion, ecology, feminism, and civilisation), especially as these have featured in the Australasian philosophy; and to examinations of the intellectual state of universities in Australasia at the beginning of the twenty-first century. These talks are now collected here for the first time, to provide not only students and scholars, but also the wider community with a deeper appreciation of the philosophical heritage of Australia and New Zealand.
The Performativity of Value
Authors: Sherlock Steve
Published: February 2025

The Performativity of Value: On the Citability of Cultural Commodities addresses the increased commodification of language in the U.S. cultural economy. The marketing of cultural commodities in formats such as websites, videos, movies, books, online games, or television episodes—as distributed across a wide range of technological devices—means that language is moving across situational contexts to an unprecedented degree. Just as authors quote or paraphrase sources in the construction of a text, subjects “cite” the commodified words, images, and works of others as they construct their social identities. Steve Sherlock discusses how consumer citational practices generate demand for those cultural commodities which align the self with particular subcultural groups. By “re-citing” the exchange value frame within which language itself has acquired an economic worth, consumer citational practices have become performative of the U.S. cultural economy.

In order to describe this process, the book extends the work of Judith Butler on the performativity of gender to the performativity of exchange value, as well as to the performativity of subcultural values. The book also develops a critique of the increasing commodification of language in the contemporary economy. Sherlock follows Butler in developing a model of performativity based on Jacques Derrida’s work, particularly regarding the citability of language into new situational contexts. Derrida’s critique of the metaphysics of presence in Western philosophy and culture is extended toward a critique of the assumed presence of exchange value in the cultural marketplace. The book also incorporates the work of the Bakhtin Circle into this framework—especially their insight into how everyday utterances, which “report on” the words of others, become a site for the re-negotiation of values between self and others. The re-citational process used in contemporary identity construction can thus either re-cite the current cultural economy, or resist it.

The Performativity of Value contributes to themes examined in social theory, social psychology, literary theory, continental philosophy, and cultural studies, and thus will be of interest to students and scholars working in those areas.
Human Thought and Social Organization
Authors: Leaf Murray J. , Read Dwight
Published: February 2025

Human beings have two outstanding characteristics compared to all other species: the apparently enormous elaboration of our thought through language and symbolism and the elaboration of our forms of social organization. The view taken in Human Thought and Social Organization: Anthropology on a New Plane is that these are intimately interconnected. To understand this connection, the book compares the structure of the systems of thought that organizations are built upon with the organizational basis of human thinking as such. An experimental method is used, leading to a new science of the structure of human social organizations in two senses. First, it gives rise to a new kind of ethnology that has the combination of empirical solidity and formal analytical rigor associated with the “paradigmatic” sciences. Second, it makes evident that social organizations have distinctive properties and require distinctive explanations of a sort that cannot be reduced to the explanations drawn from, or grounded in, these other sciences.

Human social organizations are created by people using systems of ideas with very specific logical properties. This book describes what these idea-systems are with an unbroken chain of analysis that begins with field elicitation, and continues by working out their most fundamental, logico-mathematical generative elements. This enables us to see precisely how these idea systems are used to generate organizations that give pattern to ongoing behavior. The book shows how organizations are objectified by community members through symbolic representations that provide them with shared conceptions of organizations, roles, or relations that they see each other as participating in. The case for this constructive process being pan-Homo sapiens is described, spanning all human communities from the Upper Paleolithic to today, and from the most seemingly primitive Australian tribes to modern-day America and India. While focusing primarily on kinship, Human Thought and Social Organization shows how the analysis applies with equal precision to other social areas ranging from farming to political factionalism.
Cartographies of Transnationalism in Postcolonial Feminisms
Authors: Khader Jamil
Published: February 2025

This book proffers a new theory of the radical possibilities of contemporary postcolonial feminist writings from Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and the Caribbean, against what can be described as “actually-existing colonialisms.” These writers include prominent and other less-known postcolonial women writers such as Tsitsi Dangarembga, Louise Erdrich, Aurora Levins Morales, Rosario Morales, Esmeralda Santiago, Raymonda Tawil, Michelle Cliff, and Rigoberta Menchú. Negotiating the contradictions among gender, nation, and globalization, postcolonial women writers construct extimate subjectivities that mark their excessive locations in the social field through the dialectical relation between the intimate and the external, the intimately or internally external, articulating these contradictions within the larger history and narratives of anti-colonial internationalist struggle for liberation and emancipation.

Grounded in a commitment to the future of the postcolonial nation and the project of decolonization and liberation within the ever-encroaching, neocolonial global capitalist system, postcolonial women’s narratives of displacing offer not only an alternative mode of ideological critique of scripted and commonly-inherited discourses of identity, home, culture that obfuscate the fundamental social antagonism, but also ways of changing them through practices of radical politics. The book thus charts four intersecting, dialogic strategies, by which postcolonial women writers produce extimate subjectivities: travel, unhomeliness, multiple and shifting subject positions, and transnational alliances. First, specific strategies of travel, voluntary and involuntary, within glocal networks of dispossession, displacement, and labor migration that foreground their extimate locations as internally external. Second, tactics of unhomeliness that uncover traces of the foreign, and elsewhere, in the edifice of the familiar that serve as the basis for interrogating dominant discourses of belonging. Third, techniques of multiple and shifting subject positions that recognize the excessive location of the extimate subject, in order to unravel not only the contingency of the subject’s ontic properties, but also her locations in the interplay of oppression and privilege. And fourth, strategies for building political solidarity with transnational and transethnic communities of struggle that are grounded in the concrete Universality of the excluded communities.

This book bears witness to the radical possibility in contemporary postcolonial feminist writing, and promises a way out of the impasse of the current culturalization of politics in the humanities that has resulted from the uncritical celebration of hybridity and the concomitant emphasis on diaspora, postnationalism, and cosmopolitanism in dominant discourses of postcolonial, ethnic, and transnational studies.
Plato the Teacher
Authors: Altman William H. F.
Published: February 2025

In this unique and important book, William Altman shines a light on the pedagogical technique of the playful Plato, especially his ability to create living discourses that directly address the student. Reviving an ancient concern with reconstructing the order in which Plato intended his dialogues to be taught as opposed to determining the order in which he wrote them, Altman breaks with traditional methods by reading Plato’s dialogues as a multiplex but coherent curriculum in which the Allegory of the Cave occupies the central place. His reading of Plato's Republic challenges the true philosopher to choose the life of justice exemplified by Socrates and Cicero by going back down into the Cave of political life for the sake of the greater Good.
C. S. Lewis, Poetry, and the Great War 1914-1918
Authors: Bremer John
Published: February 2025

The life and work of C.S. Lewis after his conversion in 1931 is well known and his reputation shows no signs of diminishing. His earlier years have not been so well studied, particularly between the ages of 16 and 22 when he studied privately and at Oxford, served in the British army, was wounded in France, entered into his affair with Janie Moore, and wrote and published his first book of poems. To correct and augment the limited accounts of this period, Lewis’s life is presented with the general and specific background which makes it more meaningful, particularly as it throws light on his character. The romantic myth of him as a "soldier-poet" is dispelled, largely through an extensive review of the poems in "Spirits in Bondage" and the self-centered life that produced them. A valuable comparison—not to the advantage of Lewis—is drawn with two undoubted soldier-poets, Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon. The purpose is not to disparage or belittle Lewis but to show what had to be overcome in his limited and unpleasant early moral character in order to produce the devoted Christian of later years.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Authors: Altman William H. F.
Published: February 2025

When careful consideration is given to Nietzsche’s critique of Platonism and to what he wrote about Bismarck, Kaiser Wilhelm, and to Germany’s place in “international relations” (die Große Politik), the philosopher’s carefully cultivated “pose of untimeliness” is revealed to be an imposture. As William H. F. Altman demonstrates, Nietzsche should be recognized as the paradigmatic philosopher of the Second Reich, the short-lived and equally complex German Empire that vanished in World War One. Since Nietzsche is a brilliant stylist whose seemingly disconnected aphorisms have made him notoriously difficult for scholars to analyze, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche is presented in Nietzsche’s own style in a series of 155 brief sections arranged in five discrete “Books,” a structure modeled on Daybreak. All of Nietzsche’s books are considered in the context of the close and revealing relationship between “Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche” (named by his patriotic father after the King of Prussia) and the Second Reich. In “Preface to ‘A German Trilogy,’” Altman joins this book to two others already published by Lexington Books: Martin Heidegger and the First World War: Being and Time as Funeral Oration and The German Stranger: Leo Strauss and National Socialism.
Private Anti-Piracy Navies
Authors: Pitney John J. , Levin John-Clark
Published: February 2025

The twenty-first century has seen a sharp rise in privatization of the military, especially of logistics and security functions during the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The outbreak of Somali piracy that started in 2008 has prompted a similar revolution in maritime security. Private security companies began operating armed escort vessels to protect merchant shipping against pirates off the Horn of Africa. Private Anti-Piracy Navies is intended to provide a contextualized understanding of the historical origins, current state, and future prospects of this fast-changing sector. Centuries ago, the British East India Company used a private navy against piracy in the same waters with much success. Yet since then, international law has evolved to more tightly regulate the use of force by civilians, and to afford greater protections to suspected pirates. Thus, the development of what are in effect private warships has presented numerous legal and regulatory problems. How can the companies that operate these vessels be effectively licensed? Under what circumstances should they be allowed to use lethal force? This book explains how regulators in industry and government have attempted to answer such questions, and highlights the remaining areas of uncertainty. It also addresses the economic factors that drive the struggle between pirates and anti-piracy forces. Of equal concern are operational considerations such as defensive tactics, logistics, and rules of engagement. Security companies must carefully balance rights concerns against the need to defend ships effectively.

Partly due to the contribution of private security, piracy in the Indian Ocean has dropped significantly over the past two years, leading to widespread overconfidence. Governments under severe budget pressure may withdraw their naval task forces from the region prematurely, leading to a resurgence of Somali piracy. At the same time, pirates are wreaking havoc in the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa. The book concludes with an assessment of private naval forces’ prospects in these conflicts over the short term, as well as the implications for wider naval privatization in the long run.
Marcus Aurelius in the Historia Augusta and Beyond
Authors: Adams Geoff W.
Published: February 2025

This book examines the biography of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It seeks to further understand the author of the Historia Augusta and also the reminiscences of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius at the same time. This has been achieved through a study of a wide range of literary texts. Marcus Aurelius was a very important ruler of the Roman Empire, who has had an impact symbolically, philosophically and historically upon how the Roman Empire has been envisioned. Adams achieves this end to bring a clearer understanding to his representation and to modern interpretations of his highly interpreted and romanticized representations in the ancient texts.
Vietnam in the Global Economy
Authors: Jandl Thomas
Published: February 2025

This book is, in essence, about incentives: the incentives for competing societal interest groups to cooperate with each other to benefit from a growing economic pie, rather than fighting over a bigger share of a smaller one. This is the conundrum of economic development. If elite interest groups have both incentive and ability to allocate resources toward themselves, and if such rent seeking causes a decline in economic inefficiency, how can economies ever grow? The book illuminates the mechanisms by which in one of the world’s recent economic success stories— Vietnam’s rapid industrialization and passage into the middle-income category—the interest in cooperating to grow the economy overrode the elites’ instinct to allocate resources through the use of political power. The book shows how the need to provide positive conditions for international investment altered pay-off structures and pushed the all-powerful Communist Party of Vietnam to engage in bargaining with provincial officials; provincial officials with international investors; and finally all coercive elites even with the working classes. It describes the emergence of a harmony of interest among societal groups in which each group benefits from a growing economy, and no one group can monopolize the benefits of growth without hurting itself. The Vietnam case validates Nobel-Prize winning economist Mancur Olson’s proposition that elite predation can only be kept in check when the elite itself suffers from the economic decline it causes at least as much as it gains from the rents it collects.