bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On selecting quality indicators: preferences of patients with breast and colon cancers regarding hospital quality indicators
Authors: Salampessy Benjamin H , Bijlsma Ward R , van der Hijden Eric , Koolman Xander , Portrait France R M
Published: December 2019

Background

There is an increasing number of quality indicators being reported publicly with aim to improve the transparency on hospital care quality. However, they are little used by patients. Knowledge on patients’ preferences regarding quality may help to optimise the information presented to them.

Objective

To measure the preferences of patients with breast and colon cancers regarding publicly reported quality indicators of Dutch hospital care.

Methods

From the existing set of clinical quality indicators, participants of patient group discussions first assessed an indicator’s suitability as choice information and then identified the most relevant ones. We used the final selection as attributes in two discrete choice experiments (DCEs). Questionnaires included choice vignettes as well as a direct ranking exercise, and were distributed among patient communities. Data were analysed using mixed logit models.

Results

Based on the patient group discussions, 6 of 52 indicators (breast cancer) and 5 of 21 indicators (colon cancer) were selected as attributes. The questionnaire was completed by 84 (breast cancer) and 145 respondents (colon cancer). In the patient group discussions and in the DCEs, respondents valued outcome indicators as most important: those reflecting tumour residual (breast cancer) and failure to rescue (colon cancer). Probability analyses revealed a larger range in percentage change of choice probabilities for breast cancer (10.9%–69.9%) relative to colon cancer (7.9%–20.9%). Subgroup analyses showed few differences in preferences across ages and educational levels. DCE findings partly matched with those of direct ranking.

Conclusion

Study findings show that patients focused on a subset of indicators when making their choice of hospital and that they valued outcome indicators the most. In addition, patients with breast cancer were more responsive to quality information than patients with colon cancer.
Scoping review of symptoms in children with rare, progressive, life-threatening disorders
Authors: Pawliuk Colleen , Widger Kim , Dewan Tammie , Brander Gina , Brown Helen L , Hermansen Anne-Mette , Grégoire Marie-Claude , Steele Rose , Siden Harold (Hal)
Published: December 2019

Background

Q3 conditions are progressive, metabolic, neurological or chromosomal childhood conditions without a cure. Children with these conditions face an unknown lifespan as well as unstable and uncomfortable symptoms. Clinicians and other healthcare professionals are challenged by a lack of evidence for symptom management for these conditions.

Aims

In this scoping review, we systematically identified and mapped the existing literature on symptom management for children with Q3 conditions. We focused on the most common and distressing symptoms, namely alertness, behavioural problems, bowel incontinence, breathing difficulties, constipation, feeding difficulties, sleep disturbance, temperature regulation, tone and motor problems and urinary incontinence. For children with complex health conditions, good symptom management is pertinent to ensure the highest possible quality of life.

Methods

Scoping review. Electronic database searches in Ovid MEDLINE, Embase and CINAHL and a comprehensive grey literature search.

Results

We included 292 studies in our final synthesis. The most commonly reported conditions in the studies were Rett syndrome (n=69), followed by Cornelia de Lange syndrome (n=25) and tuberous sclerosis (n=16). Tone and motor problems were the most commonly investigated symptom (n=141), followed by behavioural problems (n=82) and sleep disturbance (n=62).

Conclusion

The evidence for symptom management in Q3 conditions is concentrated around a few conditions, and these studies may not be applicable to other conditions. The evidence is dispersed in the literature and difficult to access, which further challenges healthcare providers. More research needs to be done in these conditions to provide high-quality evidence for the care of these children.
Numerical treatment for studying the blood ethanol concentration systems with different forms of fractional derivatives
Authors: Khader M. M. , Saad Khaled. M.
Published: December 2019

The purpose of this paper is to implement an approximate method for obtaining the solution of a physical model called the blood ethanol concentration system. This model can be expressed by a system of fractional differential equations (FDEs). Here, we will consider two forms of the fractional derivative namely, Caputo (with singular kernel) and Atangana–Baleanu–Caputo (ABC) (with nonsingular kernel). In this work, we use the spectral collocation method based on Chebyshev approximations of the third-kind. This procedure converts the given model to a system of algebraic equations. The implementation of the proposed method to solve fractional models in ABC-sense is the first time. We satisfy the efficiency and the accuracy of the given procedure by evaluating the relative errors. The results show that the implemented technique is an easy and efficient tool to simulate the solution of such models.
Entropy squeezing and coherence for a non-Markovian dissipative qubit system
Authors: Berrada K.
Published: December 2019

We examine the impact of the non-Markovian environment on the dynamical behavior of the quantum coherence and entropy squeezing considering a two-level atomic system (qubit) immersed in a reservoir with zero-temperature for two types of non-Markovian environments. We consider a cavity little off-resonance with the transition frequency of the qubit and the case of a non-perfect photonic band gap (PBG). We show that the amount of coherence is dependent on the structure of the environment and influenced through the memory effects. We obtain that the delay and revival of the coherence loss might take place by controlling the detuning of the cavity-qubit system. Whereas, a partial coherence trapping occurs in non-ideal PBG and the decrease of the gap width will destroy the coherence. On the other hand, we show the situation for which the squeezing is occurring and enhanced with respect to the main parameters for the system. Finally, we display the monotonic dependence of the quantum coherence and squeezing on the main model parameters.
Structure and block representation for circulant quantum processes
Authors: Bolaños-Servin Jorge R. , Carbone Raffaella , Quezada Roberto
Published: December 2019

We study a family of quantum Markov semigroups with circulant structure. We obtain a complete description of the spectral representation for the Lindbladian and, putting it together with some purely probabilistic properties of a classical associated process, we can study asymptotic properties, invariant states, quantum-detailed balance conditions and reducibility. In particular, in the reducible case, we can construct a generator on a lower-dimensional space which can fully describe the original circulant semigroup.
THE INFLUENCE OF BRAIN TISSUE MATERIAL PARAMETERS ON THE RESPONSE OF DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS BASED ON FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
Authors: YANG BIN , SUN HAO , WANG AIYUAN , WANG QUN
Published: December 2019

Aiming at the uncertainty of material parameters of human brain tissue, the influence of tissue material performance sensitivity on frequency and mode shape under free vibration is studied. In this paper, the 50th percentile finite element (FE) model of human head and neck with detailed anatomical characteristics has been chosen as the research object, the parameters of skull, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and brain tissue materials with high sensitivity are analyzed by orthogonal test design and variance analysis. The results show that the natural frequencies of Group 7, Group 8 and Group 9 are all around 230[Formula: see text]Hz, which are basically consistent with the initial parameter of 229.18[Formula: see text]Hz, and the intracranial displacements of the three groups are also concentrated on the lateral nasal cartilage. The main reason is that the Young’s modulus of the skull used in three groups of experiments is 9780[Formula: see text]Mpa, which is close to the initial parameter of 8000[Formula: see text]Mpa. It indicates that the material parameter of the skull has the greatest influence on the dynamic characteristics of human head and neck, followed by the CSF and brain tissue. This study provides an effective method for vehicle safety and head and neck injury protection, and supplies a reference for FE analysis of head collision damage.
Preparative-scale purification of petroleum vanadyl porphyrins by sulfuric acid loaded macroporous silica
Authors: Mironov Nikolay , Milordov Dmitry , Abilova Guzalia , Tazeeva Elvira , Yakubova Svetlana , Yakubov Makhmut
Published: December 2019

The practical potential of petroleum porphyrins still remains underestimated because of the absence of satisfactory simple and effective methods for their isolation in pure form. Our work aims to provide a solution for this problem via use of sulfuric acid loaded macroporous silica as an unprecedentedly effective adsorbent for deep petroporphyrin purification. Using chromatographic columns of reduced volume (4 cm3), a series of experiments on optimization of chromatographic conditions for silica-based sulfocationite were carried out. As a source of petroleum porphyrins, the primary concentrates of vanadyl porphyrins isolated on silica gel column from DMF extracts of heavy oil asphaltenes have been used. UV-vis and MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometric methods were employed for vanadyl porphyrin analysis and identification. We established that in a narrow range of water and acid content equal to [Formula: see text]25 and [Formula: see text]15 wt.%, respectively, silica-based sulfocationite becomes able to retain a bulk of polar petroleum components with exception of porphyrins, which thus leave the column first. A preparative-scale purification of vanadyl porphyrins by the sulfocationite-based method was performed for the first time and 18.5 mg of excellently pure product were obtained. Considering the extremely simple preparation and excellent purification performance of our novel sulfocationite, it could greatly facilitate access to high-purity petroleum porphyrins.
Exploring the State-of-Receptivity for mHealth Interventions
Authors: Künzler Florian , Mishra Varun , Kramer Jan-Niklas , Kotz David , Fleisch Elgar , Kowatsch Tobias
Published: December 2019

Recent advancements in sensing techniques for mHealth applications have led to successful development and deployments of several mHealth intervention designs, including Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAI). JITAIs show great potential because they aim to provide the right type and amount of support, at the right time. Timing the delivery of a JITAI such as the user is receptive and available to engage with the intervention is crucial for a JITAI to succeed. Although previous research has extensively explored the role of context in users' responsiveness towards generic phone notifications, it has not been thoroughly explored for actual mHealth interventions. In this work, we explore the factors affecting users' receptivity towards JITAIs. To this end, we conducted a study with 189 participants, over a period of 6 weeks, where participants received interventions to improve their physical activity levels. The interventions were delivered by a chatbot-based digital coach -Ally - which was available on Android and iOS platforms.

We define several metrics to gauge receptivity towards the interventions, and found that (1) several participant-specific characteristics (age, personality, and device type) show significant associations with the overall participant receptivity over the course of the study, and that (2) several contextual factors (day/time, phone battery, phone interaction, physical activity, and location), show significant associations with the participant receptivity, in-the-moment. Further, we explore the relationship between the effectiveness of the intervention and receptivity towards those interventions; based on our analyses, we speculate that being receptive to interventions helped participants achieve physical activity goals, which in turn motivated participants to be more receptive to future interventions. Finally, we build machine-learning models to detect receptivity, with up to a 77% increase in F1 score over a biased random classifier.
The Wearables Development Toolkit
Authors: Haladjian Juan
Published: December 2019

Although the last two decades have seen an increasing number of activity recognition applications with wearable devices, there is still a lack of tools specifically designed to support their development. The development of activity recognition algorithms for wearable devices is particularly challenging because of the several requirements that have to be met simultaneously (e.g., low energy consumption, small and lightweight, accurate recognition). Activity recognition applications are usually developed in a series of iterations to annotate sensor data and to analyze, develop and assess the performance of a recognition algorithm. This paper presents the Wearables Development Toolkit, an Integrated Development Environment designed to lower the entrance barrier to the development of activity recognition applications with wearables. It specifically focuses on activity recognition using on-body inertial sensors. The toolkit offers a repository of high-level reusable components and a set of tools with functionality to annotate data, to analyze and develop activity recognition algorithms and to assess their recognition and computational performance. We demonstrate the versatility of the toolkit with three applications and describe how we developed it incrementally based on two user studies.
MAAT
Authors: Lindquist Wyatt , Helal Sumi , Khaled Ahmed , Kotonya Gerald , Lee Jaejoon
Published: December 2019

As the Internet of Things (IoT) proliferates, the potential for its opportunistic interaction with traditional mobile apps becomes apparent. We argue that to fully take advantage of this potential, mobile apps must become things themselves, and interact in a smart space like their hardware counterparts. We present an extension to our Atlas thing architecture on smartphones, allowing mobile apps to behave as things and provide powerful services and functionalities. To this end, we also consider the role of the mobile app developer, and introduce actionable keywords (AKWs)---a dynamically programmable description---to enable potential thing to thing interactions. The AKWs empower the mobile app to dynamically react to services provided by other things, without being known a priori by the original app developer. In this paper, we present the mobile-apps-as-things (MAAT) concept along with its AKW concept and programming construct. For MAAT to be adopted by developers, changes to the existing development environments (IDE) should remain minimal to stay acceptable and practically usable, thus we also propose an IDE plugin to simplify the addition of this dynamic behavior. We present details of MAAT, along with the implementation of the IDE plugin, and give a detailed benchmarking evaluation to assess the responsiveness of our implementation to impromptu interactions and dynamic app behavioral changes. We also investigate another study, targeting Android developers, which evaluates the acceptability and usability of the MAAT IDE plugin.
Vertical Distribution of Soil Organic Carbon and Nitrogen in a Tropical Community Forest of Nepal
Authors: Kafle Gandhiv
Published: December 2019

This paper reports the findings of a research conducted in Kankali community forest, Chitwan, Nepal, to quantify the vertical distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen in 1 m soil profile depth. This community forest represents a tropical Shorea robusta-dominated community forest. It was found that the soil had 122.36 t/ha SOC and 12.74 t/ha nitrogen in 1 m soil profile in 2012, with 0.99% soil organic matter and 0.10% nitrogen concentration in average. Carbon and nitrogen ratio (C/N ratio) of the soil was found to be 9.90. Both bulk density and C/N ratio were found increasing with increase in soil depth. The SOC and nitrogen were found significantly different across different soil layers up to 1 m soil profile depth. The average pH of the forest soil was found to be 5.3. Looking into the values of stocks of SOC and nitrogen, it is concluded that Kankali community forest has played a role in global climate change mitigation by storing considerable amounts of SOC. Involvement of local community in management of tropical forest cannot be overlooked in the process of climate change mitigation.
Estimating Productivity Loss Cost according to Severity of Vehicle Crash Injury
Authors: Jou Rong-Chang , Chen Tzu-Ying
Published: December 2019

This study estimates the productivity loss cost according to the severity of vehicle crash injury. A contingent valuation survey was conducted to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of vehicle crash offenders in Taiwan. In addition, a Double-Hurdle model was used to deal with the large number of zero WTP responses. The results show that the estimated productivity loss cost of vehicle crash ranges from 2,000 USD to 47,000 USD. In addition, as expected, the individuals’ WTP is positively related with education, average monthly income, share of vehicle crash responsibility, experience of moderate or worse vehicle crash injury, work days lost after a vehicle crash, and experience of receiving compensation for productivity loss from a vehicle crash. This study also demonstrates that the Double-Hurdle model was statistically superior to the Tobit model.
Bilateral Multiple Focal Choroidal Excavations in a Patient with Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH)
Authors: Huang Ping , Ben Ami Tal , Li Weiye
Published: December 2019

Focal choroidal excavation (FCE) is an unusual configuration characterized by focal thinning and pitting of the choroid in the absence of staphyloma or scleral ectasia. The etiology and clinical implications of FCE are currently unknown. We report a case of bilateral multiple FCEs in a patient with a long history of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). Focal choriocapillaris thinning and hyperreflectivity of the adjacent outer nuclear layer were revealed by spectral domain optical coherence tomography, which suggests the occlusion of the choriocapillaries and secondary degeneration of the above photoreceptors. We hypothesize that thrombophilia in the condition of PNH played an important role in the formation of FCE. Although there is no histopathological evidence to support the association between the choroid changes and PNH, this case may offer new clues as for the etiology of FCE.
Insulin Autoimmune Syndrome in a 25-Year-Old, Previously Healthy Kuwaiti Man
Authors: Alrashidi Einas , Alessa Thamer
Published: December 2019

Insulin autoimmune syndrome (IAS) is a disease characterized by hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia associated with autoantibodies against endogenous insulin. We have described a case of a 25-year-old, previously healthy Kuwaiti man who was admitted to the Mubarak Al-Kabeer hospital with a history of recurrent hypoglycaemia. The patient revealed that he had taken several different injectable anabolic steroids and growth hormone with oral amino acids and other tablets (fat burners) for bodybuilding in the last two months. He denied knowingly using insulin or insulin analogues. The patient had elevated fasting insulin level (>301 uIU/mL) and elevated insulin autoantibodies (>100.0 IU/mL). After appropriate work-up, he was diagnosed with IAS. After treatment with prednisolone (1 mg/kg/day), the patient had complete recovery. In patients with repeated hypoglycaemia, IAS should be considered in the differential diagnosis. Glucocorticoid therapy can be effective for the treatment of hypoglycaemia in patients with IAS.
Diagnostic Ability of Magnifying Blue Light Imaging with a Light Emitting Diode Light Source for Early Gastric Cancer: A Prospective Comparative Study
Authors: Takayama Shun , Dohi Osamu , Naito Yuji , Azuma Yuka , Ishida Tsugitaka , Kitae Hiroaki , Matsumura Shinya , Ogita Kazuyuki , Mizuno Naoki , Terasaki Kei , Nakano Takahiro , Ueda Tomohiro , Morinaga Yukiko , Hirose Ryohei , Inoue Ken , Yoshida Naohisa , Kamada Kazuhiro , Uchiyama Kazuhiko , Ishikawa Takeshi , Takagi Tomohisa , Handa Osamu , Kishimoto Mitsuo , Konishi Hideyuki , Itoh Yoshito
Published: December 2019

Introduction: An innovative endoscopic system using 4-color light-emitting diodes (LED) was released between 2016 and 2017 in locations that had not approved laser endoscopes for use, including the United States and Europe. Objective: This study compared the diagnostic efficacy between magnifying blue light imaging with an LED light source (LED-BLI) and magnifying blue laser imaging with a laser light source (Laser-BLI) for early gastric cancer (EGC). Methods: In this prospective, single-center, noninferiority study, 80 gastric lesions were evaluated between January 2017 and July 2017. The magnifying findings of gastric lesions – including the demarcation line (DL), microvascular pattern (MVP), and microsurface pattern (MSP) – were evaluated using Laser-BLI and LED-BLI according to the vessel plus surface classification system (VSCS). The primary end point was to determine whether the diagnostic accuracy of LED-BLI for EGC was noninferior to that of conventional Laser-BLI. Results: Overall, we evaluated 79 gastric lesions histopathologically diagnosed as adenocarcinomas from the specimens obtained via endoscopic submucosal dissection. A DL was observed by Laser-BLI and LED-BLI in 98.7% (78/79) and 96.2% (76/79) of EGCs, respectively. The MVP observed using Laser-BLI and LED-BLI was irregular in 92.4% (73/79) and 89.9% (71/79), respectively. The MSP observed using Laser-BLI and LED-BLI was irregular in 83.5% (66/79) and 82.2% (65/79), respectively. According to the VSCS, diagnosable cancers were found in 94.9% (75/79) and 93.7% (74/79) of cases when using Laser-BLI and LED-BLI, respectively (p = 0.73; difference ratio, 1.2%; 95% CI –8.5 to 6.0%). Conclusions: LED-BLI could accurately visualize the DL, MVP, and MSP of EGCs and was not inferior to Laser-BLI. Therefore, LED-BLI can be used to diagnose EGC accurately according to the VSCS-based diagnosis criteria.
The Computer Science Ontology: A Comprehensive Automatically-Generated Taxonomy of Research Areas
Authors: Salatino Angelo A. , Thanapalasingam Thiviyan , Mannocci Andrea , Birukou Aliaksandr , Osborne Francesco , Motta Enrico
Published: December 2019

Ontologies of research areas are important tools for characterizing, exploring, and analyzing the research landscape. Some fields of research are comprehensively described by large-scale taxonomies, e.g., MeSH in Biology and PhySH in Physics. Conversely, current Computer Science taxonomies are coarse-grained and tend to evolve slowly. For instance, the ACM classification scheme contains only about 2K research topics and the last version dates back to 2012. In this paper, we introduce the Computer Science Ontology (CSO), a large-scale, automatically generated ontology of research areas, which includes about 14K topics and 162K semantic relationships. It was created by applying the Klink-2 algorithm on a very large data set of 16M scientific articles. CSO presents two main advantages over the alternatives: i) it includes a very large number of topics that do not appear in other classifications, and ii) it can be updated automatically by running Klink-2 on recent corpora of publications. CSO powers several tools adopted by the editorial team at Springer Nature and has been used to enable a variety of solutions, such as classifying research publications, detecting research communities, and predicting research trends. To facilitate the uptake of CSO, we have also released the CSO Classifier, a tool for automatically classifying research papers, and the CSO Portal, a Web application that enables users to download, explore, and provide granular feedback on CSO. Users can use the portal to navigate and visualize sections of the ontology, rate topics and relationships, and suggest missing ones. The portal will support the publication of and access to regular new releases of CSO, with the aim of providing a comprehensive resource to the various research communities engaged with scholarly data.
The Rhetoric of Weapons in Euripides’ Heracles
Authors: Encinas Reguero M. Carmen
Published: December 2019

Euripides’ Heracles includes an agon scene between Lycus and Amphitryon in which great prominence is attached to the value of the bow as opposed to that of the spear. According to some scholars, this debate about the weapons is not appropriate and it even seems to destroy the dramatic illusion. This paper, however, analyzes the role of bows and spears in the tragedy and it shows how weapons are used to make the transformation of the hero in the play visible.
Lightweights, Heavyweights, and Refracted Poetics at Ovid, Met. 13.103-112
Authors: Mader Gottfried
Published: December 2019

Ovid’s version of the armorum iudicium is a grand verbal aristeia and notable site for literary-generic debate where competing aesthetic positions are played off against each other. When Ajax—epic heavyweight, simplicitas rudis personified, advocate of deeds over words—disparages Ulysses as frivolous and unworthy contender (Met. 13.103-112), he conspicuously (mis)appropriates and turns against his ‘lesser’ adversary some signature literary-critical tropes used by Roman neoterics to resist those same epic values (natural inability, elegiac propriety, the excessive burden). As stylistic characterization, this ironic mismatch between discourse and speaker connects the debate with current literary polemic, signals Ovid’s creative generic transgressions, and self-consciously calls attention to the genre-defying poetics of Metamorphoses. The poetological dimension is reinforced through the elaborate contrast with the ‘modernist’ Ulysses, figured symmetrically as cultural and generic foil to Ajax and the archaic worldview.
A Hoard of 3rd-4th Centuries AD Bosporan Staters from Phanagoria (2011)
Authors: Abramzon Mikhail G. , Kuznetsov Vladimir D.
Published: December 2019

The paper is a preliminary publication of a large hoard of Bosporan staters found in Phanagoria’s Eastern necropolis in 2011. It contains 3695 coins struck in the 3rd-4th centuries AD under Ininthimaios, Rhescuporis V, Pharsanzes, Sauromates IV, Teiranes and Thothorses, as well as barbarian imitations of latter staters. The Phanagorian hoard is evidence on the historical background of the epoch and sheds new light on the economy, currency and many technical aspects of the coin production in the Late Bosporos. The recent survey of coins from the hoard by X-ray spectroscopy and the neutron tomography first revealed staters of Sauromates IV, Teiranes and Thothorses with the silver content and surface-silvered coating. The treasure was deposited in AD 307/308, due to political instability in the region caused by the increased barbarian pressure on the borders of the Roman Empire and the ancient states in the Black Sea Region.
Law in Service of Illegal Ousting of the Largest Religious Minority in Bangladesh
Authors: Nainar Vahida
Published: December 2019

The exodus of the largest religious minority, the Hindus, from Bangladesh into neighbouring India over seven decades since the 1950s is owed, in no small part, to the enactment of the former Enemy Property Act and the subsequent Vested Properties Act. The article explores the trajectory of these Acts from examining the political and legal context of its origin, to tracing the various changes made in them through subsequent legislation and executive orders perpetuating an illegality, until the eventual passing of the return of vested property acts. A review of key cases on the issue of vested property acts shows the vacillating role of the judiciary in response to the use of legal tools of legislation and executive orders to oust Hindus from their lands and properties. The article assesses the potential for success of the project of returning vested properties given the realities of the state of the properties and procedural challenges.
Assessing the Mode of Jesus’s Post-resurrection Appearances
Authors: Smith Stephen Harry
Published: December 2019

The tradition that God raised Jesus from the dead has been challenged by the revival of two hypotheses – a) that the post-resurrection appearances may be explained on the basis of bereavement hallucinations on the part of the disciples, and b) that, on the basis of a comparison with parapsychological literature, a paranormal explanation may be possible. After a brief critique of the traditional evangelical approach to the relevant New Testament texts, the present article focuses on an assessment of these alternative hypotheses, concluding that, although parapsychological literature offers some interesting comparisons with the post-resurrection appearances, the bereavement hallucination hypothesis shows more promise as a viable alternative to the traditional view.
Singing in the Vernacular: Response
Authors: Swartz Michael D.
Published: December 2019

One of the most significant themes shared by the studies in this issue is intertextuality. Several authors conduct systematic analyses of the relationship between Aramaic poems and their biblical antecedents, while one study argues that the repetition of refrains in Jewish Aramaic poetry has much in common with the practice of public acclamation in the Greco-Roman world. Each of these studies also advances the question of the Sitz im Leben of Jewish Aramaic poetry in Palestine in late antiquity, including the context of its performance. The historical context of these poems is reflected in the way the poets addressed the conditions of their times. This response ends by singling out a number of further questions.
‘May You Redeem the Nation That Completes the Book of Psalms’: An Aramaic Poem and Its Linguistic, Literary and Historical Contexts
Authors: Berkovitz Abraham Jacob
Published: December 2019

This article examines in detail an Aramaic poem from M. Sokoloff’s and J. Yahalom’s magisterial Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity (SYAP) (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1999). It begins by offering a translation of the entire poem along with an overview of some of the poem’s key linguistic features. It then moves to an analysis of the poem’s literary artistry. The study continues by examining the poem’s central motifs; namely, the portrait of David as the learned composer of the Psalter, the role of prophecy and kingship, and their relationship to eschatology. The study then attempts to place the poem’s genesis and the practice of communal psalm recitation into an historical context. It concludes by showing how a careful analysis of a single piece of poetry can contribute to several debates about the nature and constitution of the poems collected in SYAP.
The End of the West and the Future of Us All
Authors: Thomas Deborah A.
Published: December 2019

This paper asserts that we are currently experiencing an epochal shift equal to that which inaugurated modernity. If the Caribbean was central to the production of modernity and the subsequent dominance of the West, it is also central to the current epochal shift. By exploring two dimensions of this shift as experienced in Jamaica – the growing influence of China globally, and the challenge contemporary feminist and sexual activism are posing to gendered notions of racial respectability that had previously served as the backbone of nationalism – the paper reflects on how we are being required to imagine sovereignty in new terms. If we are, in fact, witnessing the death of the West, or at least the destabilisation of the dominant parameters of Western liberal governance, what can the space of the Caribbean, and particularly Jamaica, tell us about what sovereignty might mean now and into the future?
On décalages in the African Diaspora
Authors: Fila-Bakabadio Sarah
Published: December 2019

This paper explores Brent Edwards’s 2001 notion of “décalage” and its role in the evolution of the African diaspora studies. I argue that this notion should be profoundly considered in envisioning the future of the field since it not only reflects the original chasm between African and African-American understandings of the diaspora as Edwards states, but it also illustrates how the diaspora has gradually turned into multiple and sometimes scattered diasporas. I also contend that this multiplicity forces us to question what unites African and Afro-descendants today. I do so relying on Gilles Deleuze’s disjunctive synthesis to examine these three dimensions of diasporan relations. I also discuss how ideological frameworks such as Pan-Africanism or Négritude bridged differences thanks to key ideas of emancipation, black existence and connected struggles. I finally explore contemporary models that could renew diaspora studies: Africana and Afro-liminalities.
The Governance System of the European Energy Union and Climate Action
Authors: Schlacke Sabine , Knodt Michèle
Published: December 2019

On 24 December 2018, the Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 on the governance system of the Energy Union and Climate Action entered into force. The Governance Regulation provides the European Union with a new regulatory regime for renewable energies and energy efficiency. It has the function of an ‘Umbrella Regulation’ which aims at the overarching control of energy and climate policies for the period 2021 to 2030. Its target is to implement the climate protection goals of the Paris Agreement. At the same time, it represents a compromise and compensation for the European Union’s lack of competences in the area of energy supply, especially concerning the determination of the energy mix of the Member States. Despite choosing a Regulation (which applies automatically) as the legislative tool, its steering and sanctioning mechanisms are in this respect rather ‘soft’: The Regulation gives the Member States a wide scope of decision-making. Which goals and instruments are established by the Governance Regulation, which scope of decision making remains at the national level, how Germany exercises its decision making powers and how it should be exercised are key questions addressed in this article.
“The Anatomy of Allied Occupation: Contesting the Resumption of Japanese Antarctic Whaling, 1945–1952”
Authors: Aldous Christopher
Published: December 2019

This article scrutinizes the controversy surrounding the resumption of Japanese Antarctic whaling from 1946, focusing on the negotiations and concessions that underline the nature of the Allied Occupation as an international undertaking. Britain, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand objected to Japanese pelagic whaling, chiefly on the grounds of its past record of wasteful and inefficient operations. Their opposition forced the Natural Resources Section of General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, to increase the number of Allied inspectors on board the two Japanese whaling factories from one to two, and to respond carefully to the criticisms they made of the conduct of Japanese whaling. U.S. sensitivity to international censure caused the Occupation to encourage the factory vessels to prioritize oil yields over meat and blubber for domestic consumption. Moreover, General Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. Occupation commander, summarily rejected a proposal to increase the number of Japanese fleets from two to three in 1947. With its preponderance of power, the United States successfully promoted Japanese Antarctic whaling, but a tendency to focus only on outcomes obscures the lengthy and difficult processes that enabled Japanese whaling expeditions to take place on an annual basis from late 1946.
“‘Nixon is With Us on China’: Raging Against the Dying of the Lobby”
Authors: Crean Jeffrey
Published: December 2019

In the decade following its founding in 1955, the men who led the foreign policy lobby the Committee of One Million Against the Admission of Communist China to the United Nations faced little concerted opposition to their attempts at preventing even the most minor alterations in the U.S. policy of both isolating and containing Communist China. But beginning with the Fulbright Hearings on China in March 1966, the trend of informed opinion moved sharply against them, as liberal Democrats became newly emboldened and moderates in both parties switched sides, inverting the bipartisan consensus against change the Committee relied upon. The 1968 election of former Vice President Richard M. Nixon, who had served alongside Committee hero John Foster Dulles, seemed to offer them newfound hope. But when the “New Nixon” proved unreceptive to the entreaties of his one-time allies, the Committee mounted a furious public relations campaign to rally belatedly the right-wing base and influence public opinion. Its failure illustrated both the limits of power of American conservatives over U.S. foreign policy while détente was ascendant, and the discontinuity in priorities between the Old Right from which the Committee emerged and the New Right that left it behind.
Is Military Technology Deterministic?
Authors: Roland Alex
Published: December 2019

In their papers prepared for this volume, Kelly DeVries and David Zimmerman explore the differing viewpoints on technological determinism that military historians bring to bear on premodern and modern warfare. This paper analyzes their respective arguments, including DeVries’s introduction of the concepts of effectiveness, invincibility, and decisiveness; it focuses primarily on technological determinism. It explores some concepts of historical causation and concludes that nothing in human behavior is deterministic. It recommends language that can help historians avoid this rhetorical battleground and speak more clearly and judiciously about the factors that shape warfare and affect its outcome.
Neither Catapults nor Atomic Bombs
Authors: Zimmerman David
Published: December 2019

Kelly Devries in “Catapults are not atomic bombs”—and in fact, of almost all of those who have joined the fray to, once and for all, kill off simplistic technological determinism—may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. One aspect linking most of these anti-determinists is their temporal focus which is almost exclusively on pre-industrial revolutions in military technology. Furthermore, their views of the importance (or more accurately, the lack thereof) of technology in war is one that has ceased to apply to the world since the mid-nineteenth century. Technological determinism is not a disease of bad historical writing, but something that must be carefully applied in studying the technological systems of armed forces, regardless of time periods or geographic locations. We need to apply a definition of determinacy related to the systems theory that French writer Jacques Ellul proposed in The Technological Society. Here examples of military systems since the Industrial Revolution are covered and then this systems approach is applied to the pre-modern period. The approach moves us away from the radical assumptions of earlier determinists to show that technology is determinant, but only one of the many determinant factors that influence battles, campaigns, and wars. The study of military technology is central to any study of war, and we must not be afraid to move beyond a merely descriptive approach that appears to be promoted by the anti-determinists.
Deploying Technological Innovation in “Real Time”
Authors: Goodman Seymour E.
Published: December 2019

The Industrial Revolution provided the environment and opportunities for the large-scale development and deployment of military technological innovation in “real time,” that is, in time to influence the conduct and outcomes of a major conflict while that conflict was in progress. The case of the Union and Confederate strategies and their implementations during the American Civil War is particularly exemplary because both sides looked to ironclad warships in opposing ways. For the first year of the war each side pursued real-time ironclad warship deployment efforts to influence three different strategic races on a continental scale. Confederate success could have had enormous impacts on the course and outcomes of the war, but by August 1862 the Union had won all three races. Each was won in a different way, each portended how the conduct of the war on water continued, and each provided lessons for both navies to learn. Both sides went forward with revised strategies and renewed vigor to try to build and deploy more than one hundred ironclad warships between them. Over the next three years, the extensive Confederate ironclad program failed in multiple and costly ways to deliver much to the Confederate war effort. The even more extensive Union ironclad program did better primarily by securing what had been won the first year and neutralizing the continuing Confederate ironclad threat, although it failed in other important ways.
Kala Pani: Aesthetic Deathscapes and the Flow of Water after Indenture
Authors: Mohabir Nalini
Published: December 2019

This article focuses on the kala pani (dark waters) as a deathscape particular to indentured labourers and their descendants. Following a historical discussion of representations of the kala pani, the author turns to contemporary artists Maya Mackrandilal and Andil Gosine to explore how their artistic engagements are rerouting the flows of the kala pani away from discourses of caste stigma or the finality of (social) death to a reckoning of past and future time for those living in the diasporic space of North America.
An Amalgamation of Power and Paint: Gajin Fujita, Los Angeles Street Art, and Images of Edo Japan
Authors: Miller Alison J.
Published: December 2019

The paintings of Gajin Fujita (b. 1972) express the urban Asian diasporic experience in vivid images filled with historic and contemporary cultural references. Creating an amalgamation of contemporary sports figures, hip-hop culture, historic Japanese painting conventions, street art, and the visual language of Edo Japan (1600–1868), Fujita reflects his diverse experiences as a citizen of twenty-first century Los Angeles in his paintings. This article introduces the artist and provides a nuanced examination of his works vis-à-vis an understanding of the larger issues addressed in both Edo artistic practice and contemporary street art culture. By specifying the agents of power and performance in Fujita’s works, a greater understanding of the hybrid world of his colourful graphic paintings can be found.
“From Postcolonial Literature to World Literature”
Authors: Chiu Kuei-fen
Published: December 2019

Starting with an analysis of the award-winning literary documentary Le Moulin, this paper argues that the film’s reconstruction of Le Moulin Poetry Society in colonial Taiwan suggests world literature as an alternative framework for studying Taiwan literature within cross-cultural contexts. Taiwan literature has been predominantly studied as “postcolonial literature” vis-à-vis Japanese literature and, more recently, “Sinophone literature” in relation to mainland Chinese literature. Instead of deliberating on the subjugated position of Taiwan literature in relation to dominant literatures, the documentary film celebrates the avant-garde experimentation by Le Moulin Poetry Society and underscores the connection of Taiwan literature to world literature through the mediation of Japanese writers. Its employment of what can be called “performative historiography” to fulfill this task raises significant questions about the reinvention of literature, literary canonization, and literary historiography in a new age.
National Self Determination and Justice: Rawls and Tagore
Authors: Rathi Biraj Mehta
Published: December 2019

This essay is a study on national self-determination and justice from the differing perspectives of John Rawls and Rabindranath Tagore. Both thinkers have addressed the problem of conflict caused by national loyalties. Influenced by Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of cosmopolitanism, John Rawls articulates the “Law of People(s)” that suggests that mutual consent consists in economic interdependence among nations and tolerance for cultural diversity under monitored conditions of the international relations. Such an arrangement is not inclusive as it excludes the subaltern perspectives and reinforces the hierarchies between East and West. Tagore offers post-colonial versions of nationalism and cosmopolitanism that call for a creative and spiritual unity of nations through cultural exchange where each is equal in dialogue. The essay makes a case for Tagore’s cosmopolitanism being more inclusive than Rawls, yet, limited in its accommodation of the “other” as Tagore’s creative unity domesticates this “other” on the basis of spiritual familiarity. The essay also critiques Martha Nussbaum’s cosmopolitanism that suggests reconciliation of both. It makes a case for a paradoxical understanding of hospitality, friendship and otherness theorized by Jacques Derrida (influenced by Kant) as the basis of self-determination and global justice.
Sarcasm as Postcolonial Dialogue: Bloggers, Cultural Hegemony and Resistance
Authors: Abdul-Jabbar Wisam Kh. , Ali Sabah Wajid
Published: December 2019

This essay looks at two young English-speaking Iraqi bloggers whose internationally recognized writings describe the chaos in post-Saddam Iraq. It examines sarcasm as a mode of resistance as employed by Salam Pax, characterized by BBC Radio in 2003 as “the most famous diarist in the world,” and Riverbend, whose blog was published as a book and translated into several languages. By subjecting the colonial discourse to ridicule, they not only successfully convey the angst their people suffer, but also mock a stereotypical rhetoric that haunts the Western mentality regarding the Middle East. This essay negotiates their use of sarcasm as a means of non-violent resistance. It demonstrates how, for instance, they shift from the sarcastic to the absurd to unravel the banality of the colonial mind and the conceited position of its liberating enterprises. The aim of the paper is, therefore, to shed light on the emergence of a digitalized group of subalterns who write back to the center in the wake of the American intervention to topple the Baath regime in Iraq. Pax and Riverbend distinctively succeed in subverting the colonial and hegemonic gaze by unravelling the encroaching uncertainties of war through the deployment of sarcasm to signify resistance, and by transforming the coalition forces’ theatre of war into a theatre of the absurd.
The Quest for Ecstatic Sovereignty: Georges Bataille’s Obsession with the Lingchi Photos
Authors: Chen Meng-Shi
Published: December 2019

This essay considers the way Georges Bataille associates sovereignty with ecstasy through his peculiar emotive reactions to the photographic images of lingchi execution. Aside from the traditional views relating to political authority, I show how Bataille holds an idiosyncratic notion of sovereignty that is firmly connected with ecstasy, which is disclosed and best exemplified in his fascination with the lingchi photos with intolerable imagery of torture and cruelty. I argue that the reasons for Bataille to seek ecstatic experience is to overcome banality and servility derived from the instrumentalization of our culture, so as to allow sovereignty to come into being. Although cruelty is a persistent theme in Bataille’s writings, I point out that what makes the lingchi photos pivotal for him is that it is the mirror of somatic disintegration, extreme physical violence and cruelty that corresponds to the rupture of psychological integrity as the state of ecstatic loss of self in a metaphysical sense, reflecting thus the non-boundary of uncontained sovereign individual. Furthermore, in the experience of ecstatic self-loss, an empathic identity is built up between Bataille and the victim of the lingchi execution, which not only allows the conception of ecstatic sovereignty to be endowed with ethical implication but also makes it an alternative approach to the issue of intercultural communication.