bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reformed Theology and Conscientious Refusal of Medical Treatment
Authors: Groenhout Ruth
Published: February 2020

Traditionally, healthcare workers have had the right to refuse to participate in abortions or physician-assisted suicide, but more recently there has been a movement in white Evangelical circles to expand these rights to include the refusal of any treatment at all to same-sex couples or their children, transgender individuals, or others who offend the provider’s moral sensibilities. Religious freedom of conscience exists in an uneasy tension with laws protecting equal rights in a liberal polity, and it is a particularly fraught question in the context of medicine, where providers’ consciences must be balanced against patients’ rights to access appropriate care. This article examines the refusal of care to classes of people, usually classes defined by various sexual issues with which the caregivers disagree. This expands conscientious refusals from the traditional concept of responses to actions and instead directs it at specific types of people. The article draws on Reformed thought to argue that such refusals are not justified and are, in fact, both a profound misreading of Christian morality and a new and dangerously expansive account of the right to conscientious refusal in medicine.
Technics and Liturgics
Authors: Bishop Jeffrey P
Published: February 2020

It is commonly held that Christian ethics generally and Christian bioethics particularly is the application of Christian moral systems to novel problems engaged by contemporary culture and created by contemporary technology. On this view, Christianity adds its moral vision to a technology, baptizing it for use. In this essay, I show that modern technology is a metaphysical moral worldview that enacts its own moral vision, shaping a moral imaginary, shaping our moral perception, creating moral subjects, and shaping what we imagine as moral intentions. In fact, modern technics has its own liturgics, which is foreign to Christian Divine Liturgy. Divine Liturgy is world forming, showing us a different world than the one that comes into relief in the ersatz liturgy of modern medical technics.
Is our initial evaluation of patients admitted for syncope guideline-directed and cost-effective?
Authors: Saad Shaukat Muhammad Hamza , Shabbir Muhammad Asim , Banerjee Riju , Desemone James , Lyubarova Radmila
Published: February 2020

Introduction

Recent American College of Cardiology and European Society of Cardiology guidelines for syncope evaluation help distinguish high-cardiac risk patients from those with low-risk orthostatic and neurogenic syncope. Inpatient evaluation is recommended if at least one high-risk feature is present.

Objective

To assess guideline adherence and its impact on hospitalization in patients who presented with syncope before and after the introduction of guideline-based syncope protocol in the emergency department (ED).

Methods

All adult patients admitted to general medicine from the ED with the primary diagnosis of syncope in the months of October 2016 and October 2018 (before and after the introduction of syncope protocol in 2017). Electronic charts were retrospectively reviewed for high-risk cardiac features and orthostatic blood pressure measurement.

Results

Sixty patients were admitted for syncope in October 2016 (n = 32) and October 2018 (n = 28), out of which 33 (55%) were female and 47 (78.3%) were over age 50. Forty-five patients had at least one high-risk feature. Excluding one patient with an alternate diagnosis at discharge, 14 out of 60 patients (23.3%) admitted for syncope did not have any high-risk feature. Orthostatic blood pressure was measured in 3 patients (5%) in the ED and 27 patients (45%) later in the hospitalization. Six out of eight patients with implanted cardioverter-defibrillator or pacemaker had their devices interrogated. After the introduction of syncope protocol, there was an improvement in the proportion of high-risk patients admitted [68.7% (22/32) in October 2016 vs. 82.1% (23/28) in October 2018].

Conclusion

Utilizing syncope protocol in the ED may improve guideline adherence, direct appropriate disposition, and reduce healthcare expenses.
Boom Goes the Price: Giant Resource Discoveries and Real Exchange Rate Appreciation
Authors: Harding Torfinn , Stefanski Radoslaw , Toews Gerhard
Published: February 2020

We estimate the effect of giant oil and gas discoveries on bilateral real exchange rates. A giant discovery with the value of 10% of a country’s GDP appreciates the real exchange rate by 1.5% within ten years following the discovery. The appreciation starts before production begins and the non-traded component of the real exchange rate drives the appreciation. Labour reallocates from the traded goods sector to the non-traded goods sector, leading to changes in labour productivity. These findings provide direct evidence on the channels central to the theories of the Dutch disease and the Balassa–Samuelson effect.
Health-related Sustainable Development Goals: countdown on alcohol use, smoking prevalence, child overweight and suicide mortality
Authors: Droogers Maaike , Jansen Danielle , Lindert Jutta , Saboga-Nunes Luis , Rudén Mathilda , Guichardon Marie , Zeegers Paget Dineke
Published: February 2020

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of goals that aspire to ‘leave no one behind’, adopted by all members of the United Nations and to be achieved by 2030. Now, four years after the SDGs entered into force, we examine the progress towards the health-related SDGs in the European region. In this region, least progress is made towards the targets set for alcohol consumption, smoking prevalence, child overweight, and suicide mortality. For each of these challenges we take stock of current policies, continuing challenges, and ways forward. Written from the perspective of European Public Health Association (EUPHA) we emphasize the potential contribution of civil society organizations in attaining the health-related SDGs.
Associations Between Diagnosis with Type 2 Diabetes and Changes in Physical Activity among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in the United States
Authors: Nicklett Emily J , Chen Jieling , Xiang Xiaoling , Abrams Leah R , Sonnega Amanda J , Johnson Kimson E , Cheng Jianjia , Assari Shervin
Published: February 2020

Background and Objectives

Physical activity (PA) is an effective strategy for diabetes self-management and is central to the diabetes regimen. Diagnostic events present an opportunity for health behavior change; however, many older adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) do not engage in regular PA. The relationships between diagnosis events and subsequent changes in PA are not well understood. Drawing upon life-course theory, this is the first study to examine whether the diagnosis of T2D is followed by a change in PA, whether these changes are sustained, and the sociodemographic characteristics associated with these changes.

Research Design and Methods

We examined associations between T2D diagnosis and PA changes among 2,394 adults ages 51+ from the Health and Retirement Study (2004–2014). PA changes were measured using metabolic equivalents of task (METs) estimated values accounting for the vigor and frequency of self-reported PA. Using piecewise mixed models, we examined initial and sustained changes in METs over time and tested whether these changes were modified by race/ethnicity, educational level, gender, and age at diagnosis.

Results

Across participants, a significant postdiagnosis increase was observed in self-reported PA following the diagnostic event (β: 0.54, 95% CI: 0.10, 0.97). The steepness of decline in PA participation over time did not change significantly following T2D diagnosis. Age at diagnosis and race/ethnicity significantly moderated these relationships: participants diagnosed at older ages were less likely to improve PA following diagnosis and non-Hispanic whites experienced relatively steeper rates of decline following diagnosis with T2D.

Discussion and Implications

Modest diagnosis-related increases in PA were observed among participants overall. The usual rate of decline in PA appears unaffected by diagnosis overall. Age at diagnosis and race/ethnicity moderated these relationships. Key implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.
Contributory Fault under International Law: A Gateway for Human Rights in ISDS?
Authors: El-Hosseny Farouk , Devine Patrick
Published: February 2020

The intersection between foreign investment and human rights is gaining attention, as is evident from an increasing number of investment treaty awards analysing legal issues relating to human rights. In the recent International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitration of Bear Creek v Peru, Philippe Sands QC posited, in a dissenting opinion, that the investor’s contribution to events—ie protests against its allegedly adverse environmental impact and disregard of indigenous rights, namely resulting from its ‘inability to obtain a “social licence”’—which led to the unlawful expropriation of its investment, was ‘significant and material’. He further noted that the investor’s ‘responsibilities are no less than those of the government’ and found that damages should thus be reduced. Last year, the Netherlands adopted a new model bilateral investment treaty (BIT), which allows tribunals to ‘take into account non-compliance by the investor with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises’ when assessing damages. These recent developments shed light on how states and tribunals, as part of their decision-making process, can take into account human rights in practice, and crucially in respect of damages analyses. By first dissecting the concept of contributory fault, then shedding light on the intersection of investment treaty law and human rights, as elucidated in recent jurisprudence, this article questions whether there now exists a gateway for human rights obligations (soft or hard) in the investment treaty arbitration realm through the concept of contributory fault.
Effect of thermostat position and its set-point temperature on the performance of a domestic electric water heater
Authors: Kizilors Cafer , Aydin Devrim
Published: February 2020

In domestic buildings, water is generally heated by an immersion type electric water heater, equipped with a thermostat as one unit, which is fitted at the bottom of the tank. Despite these systems are driven by electric energy, which is not favorable compared to direct solar water heaters, they are still widely used due to the practicality and low installation costs.

In current use of electric water heaters, thermostat position and water set-point temperature are crucial and these parameters should be optimized for efficient and economic use of such systems. In this study, the impact of placing the thermostat at three different elevations; namely near the bottom, in the middle and near the top of an EWH is experimentally investigated. In addition, the effect of temperature setting of the thermostat near the bottom of the tank, on the performance of the EWH is experimentally investigated.

Data were obtained for 5 L/min discharging rate of the heated water. The discharge efficiencies are found to be higher for the thermostat position at the bottom, while the discharge efficiencies for thermostat positions in the middle and near the top are very close but lower than that of the one near the bottom.
Passing on the torch of memory: Transitional justice and the transfer of diaspora identity across generations
Authors: Orjuela Camilla
Published: February 2020

Abstract∞

The role diaspora actors play in transitional justice (TJ) has recently been recognized by practitioners and scholars. This article focuses on how TJ initiatives, by re-emphasizing, retelling or silencing traumas of the past, can play an important role for the transfer of diaspora identity and homeland engagement across generations. Based on research on the diasporas from Rwanda and Sri Lanka, the article highlights the different positions made available for and taken up by young people in TJ, and the ways the past is evoked by the homeland state, diaspora organizations and people they meet in their day-to-day lives. TJ initiatives, the article argues, can serve as critical events that mobilize the young generation to support – or resist – narratives of the past, while also providing them with experiences that add to a postmemory of the painful past of their parents’ homeland.
Debt or Alive: Burundi's Fiscal Response to Economic Sanctions
Authors: Dom Roel , Roger Lionel
Published: February 2020

Economic sanctions, and the suspension of budget support in particular, are supposed to pressure target governments into complying with sanction demands by putting spending commitments at risk. In this article we argue that this is too simplistic since governments have more fiscal levers at their disposal. The case of Burundi illustrates this argument. Following Burundi's 2015 political crisis, donors imposed economic sanctions on the country and suspended all budget support to the national government. Using monthly data on the government's fiscal position between 2005 and 2017, we present evidence from a time series analysis showing that aid does not affect spending and that aid shortfalls are instead systematically compensated with domestic borrowing. It appears that the Burundian government has been able to withstand the sanctions and to fulfil its spending commitments by substituting domestic debt for aid. Thus, the economic costs of sanctions do not necessarily translate directly into political costs but are mitigated by the government's fiscal response.
Evaluation of Fipronil Susceptibility in the Lone Star Tick (Acari: Ixodidae)
Authors: Kaplan Zachary D , Richardson Elise A , Kaufman Phillip E , Weeks Emma N I
Published: February 2020

The lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum Linnaeus, is ubiquitously present in the southeastern United States and will readily parasitize humans and companion animals. Fipronil is the active ingredient in several topically applied products used to manage ticks and fleas on companion animals. Reducing ectoparasite infestations on companion animals decreases the risk that pathogens vectored by these pests are transmitted to these animals and their owners. However, dependence on acaricides can promote the development of resistance. In this study, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations larval packet test was used to determine the lethal concentration (LC) values and discriminating concentration (DC) for fipronil in the lone star tick. The DC was calculated as 0.02080%. The low magnitude of the DC value suggests that fipronil is an effective active ingredient for A. americanum management. With the LC and DC values determined, emergent resistance can be monitored, potentially allowing for intervention should tolerance develop in A. americanum populations that are in frequent contact with humans and their companion animals.
Implementing machine learning methods for imaging flow cytometry
Authors: Ota Sadao , Sato Issei , Horisaki Ryoichi
Published: February 2020

In this review, we focus on the applications of machine learning methods for analyzing image data acquired in imaging flow cytometry technologies. We propose that the analysis approaches can be categorized into two groups based on the type of data, raw imaging signals or features explicitly extracted from images, being analyzed by a trained model. We hope that this categorization is helpful for understanding uniqueness, differences and opportunities when the machine learning-based analysis is implemented in recently developed ‘imaging’ cell sorters.
Predictors of Quality of Life Following Cognitive Processing Therapy Among Women and Men With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Authors: Glassman Lisa H , Mackintosh Margaret-Anne , Wells Stephanie Y , Wickramasinghe Induni , Walter Kristen H , Morland Leslie A
Published: February 2020

Introduction

The effect of evidence-based post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatments on quality of life (QOL) is not well understood. In light of mixed findings on QOL after PTSD interventions, little is known about why some individuals experience functional and QOL improvements while others do not. This study examined treatment-related changes in depression, anger, and PTSD following cognitive processing therapy (CPT) as potential predictors of QOL change.

Materials and Methods

Data from two randomized controlled trials, one examining CPT among female civilians and veterans (women’s study NCT02362477; n = 126) and the other on CPT delivered to male veterans (men’s study NCT00879255; n = 125), were used to test study aims. Linear mixed modeling examined changes in depression, anger, and PTSD as predictors of post-treatment QOL while controlling for baseline QOL. The VA Pacific Island Health Care System’s Institutional Review Board approved all study procedures.

Results

Among women, reductions in depression from pre- to post-treatment had the strongest predictive value of post-treatment QOL (B = −1.15, 95% confidence interval (−1.71, −0.60), t = −4.07, P < .001). For men, reductions in trait anger from pre- to post-treatment predicted post-treatment QOL (B = −0.55, 95% confidence interval (−0.90, −0.19), t = −3.00, P = .003).

Conclusions

Improvements in QOL may be predicted by different symptoms for men and women following evidence-based PTSD treatment. Our findings suggest that change in depression symptoms is an important predictor of post-treatment QOL among women, while anger symptoms are more influential for men. QOL and functioning is underresearched within the context of PTSD treatment, and this study suggests that these domains should be examined within the context of gender.
Kinematics of simulated galaxies II: Probing the stellar kinematics of galaxies out to large radii
Authors: Schulze Felix , Remus Rhea-Silvia , Dolag Klaus , Bellstedt Sabine , Burkert Andreas , Forbes Duncan A
Published: February 2020

We investigate the stellar kinematics of a sample of galaxies extracted from the hydrodynamic cosmological Magneticum Pathfinder simulations out to five half-mass radii. We construct differential radial stellar spin profiles quantified by the observationally widely used λ and the closely related (V/σ) parameters. We find three characteristic profile shapes: profiles exhibiting a (i) peak within 2.5 half-mass radii and a subsequent decrease; (ii) continuous increase that plateaus at larger radii typically with a high amplitude; (iii) completely flat behaviour typically with low amplitude, in agreement with observations. This shows that the kinematic state of the stellar component can vary significantly with radius, suggesting a distinct interplay between in-situ star formation and ex-situ accretion of stars. Following the evolution of our sample through time, we provide evidence that the accretion history of galaxies with decreasing profiles is dominated by the anisotropic accretion of low-mass satellites that get disrupted beyond ∼2.0 half-mass radii, building up a stellar halo with non-ordered motion while maintaining the central rotation already present at z = 2. In fact, at z = 2 decreasing profiles are the predominant profile class. Hence, we can predict a distinct formation pathway for galaxies with a decreasing profile and show that the centre resembles an old embedded disc. Furthermore, we show that the radius of the kinematic transition provides a good estimation for the transition radius from in-situ stars in the centre to accreted stars in the halo.
H2 emission in the low-ionization structures of the planetary nebulae NGC 7009 and NGC 6543
Authors: Akras Stavros , Gonçalves Denise R , Ramos-Larios Gerardo , Aleman Isabel
Published: February 2020

Despite the many studies in the last decades, the low-ionization structures (LISs) of planetary nebulae (PNe) still hold several mysteries. Recent imaging surveys have demonstrated that LISs are composed of molecular gas. Here, we report H2 emission in the LISs of NGC 7009 and NGC 6543 by means of very deep narrow-band H2 images taken with NIRI@Gemini. The surface brightness of the H2 1-0 S(1) line is estimated to be (0.46–2.9)× 10−4 erg s−1 cm−2 sr−1 in NGC 7009 and (0.29–0.48)× 10−4 erg s−1 cm−2 sr−1 in NGC 6543, with signal-to-noise ratios of 10–42 and 3–4, respectively. These findings provide further confirmation of hidden H2 gas in LISs. The emission is discussed in terms of the recent proposed diagnostic diagram R(H2) = H2 1-0 S(1)/H2 2-1 S(1) versus R(Brγ) = H2 1-0 S(1)/Brγ, which was suggested to trace the mechanism responsible for the H2 excitation. Comparing our observations to shock and ultraviolet (UV) molecular excitation models, as well as a number of observations compiled from the literature showed that we cannot conclude for either UV or shocks as the mechanism behind the molecular emission.
The ASAS-SN catalogue of variable stars – VII. Contact binaries are different above and below the Kraft break
Authors: Jayasinghe T , Stanek K Z , Kochanek C S , Shappee B J , Pinsonneault M H , Holoien T W-S , Thompson Todd A , Prieto J L , Pawlak M , Pejcha O , Pojmanski G , Otero S , Hurst N , Will D
Published: February 2020

We characterize ${\sim } 71\, 200$ W Ursae Majoris (UMa) type (EW) contact binaries, including ${\sim } 12\, 600$ new discoveries, using All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAN-SN)V-band all-sky light curves along with archival data from Gaia, 2MASS, AllWISE, LAMOST, GALAH, RAVE, and APOGEE. There is a clean break in the EW period–luminosity relation at $\rm \log (\it P/{\rm d})\,{\simeq }\,{\rm -0.30}$, separating the longer period, early-type EW binaries from the shorter period, late-type systems. The two populations are even more cleanly separated in the space of period and effective temperature, by $T_{\rm eff}=6710\,{\rm K}-1760\,{\rm K}\, \log (P/0.5\,{\rm d})$. Early-type and late-type EW binaries follow opposite trends in Teff with orbital period. For longer periods, early-type EW binaries are cooler, while late-type systems are hotter. We derive period–luminosity relationships in the WJK, V, Gaia DR2 G, J, H, Ks, and W1 bands for the late-type and early-type EW binaries separated by both period and effective temperature, and by period alone. The dichotomy of contact binaries is almost certainly related to the Kraft break and the related changes in envelope structure, winds, and angular momentum loss.
Mass distributions of meteorites
Authors: Betzler Alberto S , Borges Ernesto P
Published: February 2020

For at least five decades, the study of the mass distribution of meteorites has been carried out. This study aims to obtain the flux of material that comes to the Earth’s surface. For this, the observational data were modelled statistical distributions of the most varied types, derived from Gibbs entropy. However, it appears that the fragmentation process is probably complex in nature. Given this particularity, we model the mass distribution of meteorites using the q-exponential function, derived from Tsallis non-extensive statistical mechanics. This distribution is capable of modelling the entire observed spectrum of meteorite mass regardless of whether the specimens originate from the fragmentation of a single meteorite, belong to the same mineralogical group or type, or when are separated by collection sites on the Earth’s surface. We suggest that most meteorite samples are incomplete in certain mass ranges due to the action of the so-called gathering bias.
A unified framework for 21 cm tomography sample generation and parameter inference with progressively growing GANs
Authors: List Florian , Lewis Geraint F
Published: February 2020

Creating a data base of 21 cm brightness temperature signals from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) for an array of reionization histories is a complex and computationally expensive task, given the range of astrophysical processes involved and the possibly high-dimensional parameter space that is to be probed. We utilize a specific type of neural network, a progressively growing generative adversarial network (PGGAN), to produce realistic tomography images of the 21 cm brightness temperature during the EoR, covering a continuous three-dimensional parameter space that models varying X-ray emissivity, Lyman band emissivity, and ratio between hard and soft X-rays. The GPU-trained network generates new samples at a resolution of ∼3 arcmin in a second (on a laptop CPU), and the resulting global 21 cm signal, power spectrum, and pixel distribution function agree well with those of the training data, taken from the 21SSD catalogue (Semelin et al.). Finally, we showcase how a trained PGGAN can be leveraged for the converse task of inferring parameters from 21 cm tomography samples via Approximate Bayesian Computation.
Self-consistent proto-globular cluster formation in cosmological simulations of high-redshift galaxies
Authors: Ma Xiangcheng , Grudić Michael Y , Quataert Eliot , Hopkins Philip F , Faucher-Giguère Claude-André , Boylan-Kolchin Michael , Wetzel Andrew , Kim Ji-hoon , Murray Norman , Kereš Dušan
Published: February 2020

We report the formation of bound star clusters in a sample of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of z ≥ 5 galaxies from the Feedback In Realistic Environments project. We find that bound clusters preferentially form in high-pressure clouds with gas surface densities over $10^4\, \mathrm{ M}_{\odot }\, {\rm pc}^{-2}$, where the cloud-scale star formation efficiency is near unity and young stars born in these regions are gravitationally bound at birth. These high-pressure clouds are compressed by feedback-driven winds and/or collisions of smaller clouds/gas streams in highly gas-rich, turbulent environments. The newly formed clusters follow a power-law mass function of dN/dM ∼ M−2. The cluster formation efficiency is similar across galaxies with stellar masses of ∼107–$10^{10}\, \mathrm{ M}_{\odot }$ at z ≥ 5. The age spread of cluster stars is typically a few Myr and increases with cluster mass. The metallicity dispersion of cluster members is ∼0.08 dex in $\rm [Z/H]$ and does not depend on cluster mass significantly. Our findings support the scenario that present-day old globular clusters (GCs) were formed during relatively normal star formation in high-redshift galaxies. Simulations with a stricter/looser star formation model form a factor of a few more/fewer bound clusters per stellar mass formed, while the shape of the mass function is unchanged. Simulations with a lower local star formation efficiency form more stars in bound clusters. The simulated clusters are larger than observed GCs due to finite resolution. Our simulations are among the first cosmological simulations that form bound clusters self-consistently in a wide range of high-redshift galaxies.
Ionization bias and the ghost proximity effect near z ≳ 6 quasars in the shadow of proximate absorption systems
Authors: Davies Frederick B
Published: February 2020

The larger-than-expected scatter in the opacity of the Ly α forest suggests that the metagalactic ionizing background is strongly fluctuating at $z$ > 5.5. Models for ionizing background fluctuations predict a strong positive bias on large scales, so the environments of massive $\text{$\gt$} 10^{12}\, {\rm M}_\odot$ dark matter haloes, e.g. $z$ ∼ 6 quasar hosts, would be ideal laboratories to constrain the sources of ionizing photons. While the quasars themselves should overwhelm any plausible ionizing photon contribution from neighbouring galaxies, proximate damped Ly α absorbers (DLAs) have recently been discovered in the foreground of $z$ ∼ 6 quasars, and the Ly α forest in the shadow of these DLAs could probe the local ionization environment. Using Gpc3 simulations of $z$ = 6 ionizing background fluctuations, we show that while the Ly α forest signal from ionization bias around a quasar host halo should be strong, it is likely suppressed by the associated intergalactic matter overdensity. We also show that the quasar itself may still overwhelm the clustering signal via a ‘ghost’ of the proximity effect from the quasar radiation, causing a large-scale bias in the ionizing photon mean free path. This ghost proximity effect is sensitive to the lifetime and geometry of quasar emission, potentially unlocking a new avenue for constraining these fundamental quasar properties. Finally, we present observations of a $z$ ∼ 6 quasar with a proximate DLA, which shows a strong excess in Ly α forest transmission at the predicted location of the ghost proximity effect.
Microfluidic automated plasmid library enrichment for biosynthetic gene cluster discovery
Authors: Xu Peng , Modavi Cyrus , Demaree Benjamin , Twigg Frederick , Liang Benjamin , Sun Chen , Zhang Wenjun , Abate Adam R
Published: February 2020

Microbial biosynthetic gene clusters are a valuable source of bioactive molecules. However, because they typically represent a small fraction of genomic material in most metagenomic samples, it remains challenging to deeply sequence them. We present an approach to isolate and sequence gene clusters in metagenomic samples using microfluidic automated plasmid library enrichment. Our approach provides deep coverage of the target gene cluster, facilitating reassembly. We demonstrate the approach by isolating and sequencing type I polyketide synthase gene clusters from an Antarctic soil metagenome. Our method promotes the discovery of functional-related genes and biosynthetic pathways.
A new look at historical monetary policy (and the great inflation) through the lens of a persistence-dependent policy rule
Authors: Ashley Richard , Tsang Kwok Ping , Verbrugge Randal
Published: February 2020

The origins of the Great Inflation, a central 20th-century U.S. macroeconomic event, remain contested. Prominent explanations are poor inflation forecasts or inaccurate output gap measurement. An alternative view is that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) was unwilling to fight inflation, perhaps due to political pressures. Here, we sort this out via a novel econometric approach, disaggregating the real-time unemployment and inflation time series entering the FOMC historical policy reaction-function into persistence components, using one-sided Fourier filtering; this implicitly estimates the unemployment gap in actual use. We find compelling evidence for (economically interpretable) persistence-dependence in both variables. Furthermore, our results support the “unwilling to fight” view: the FOMC’s unemployment gap responses were essentially unchanged pre- and post-Volcker, while its inflation responses sharpened markedly starting with Volcker.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, Pseudepigrapha, and Expansions of Scripture
Authors: Jillions John A.
Published: February 2020

The sources presented here reflect voices from various creative strands of Jewish community life between 700 bce and 135 ce. All of them in varying ways approach divine guidance through communal rereading, reinterpretation, and expansion of scripture. The Qumran community (which produced the Dead Sea Scrolls) took a hierarchical view of guidance, placing discernment largely in the hands of the elders. Pseudepigrapha and expansions of scripture, like the Prayer of Manasseh, used the name of a biblical figure to expand on what the biblical text itself may have mentioned only in passing. Jubilees elaborates on Abram’s crucial but brief encounter with God in Genesis 12 and depicts it as a response to Abram’s request for divine guidance. The Sibylline Oracles (as distinct from the Roman Sibylline Books) attribute Jewish oracles to the pagan Sibyl. 3 Maccabees weaves together human initiative with divine guidance to the Jewish community in Alexandria.
State-Sanctioned Violence
Authors: Delgado Melvin
Published: February 2020

The role and function of the state is not to harm its residents but rather to help them develop their potential and meet their basic human needs. The importance of violence is well attested to by Oxford University Press devoting a book series on interpersonal violence. However, state-sanctioned violence in the United States is not, for example. The saying “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable” comes to mind in writing this book because it holds personal meaning that goes beyond being a social worker and a person of color (Latinx). The basic premise and interconnectedness of the themes in this book were reinforced and expanded in the course of writing. Bonilla-Silva (2019, p. 14) states, “We are living, once again, in strange racial times,” which, indeed, is true. The hope is that readers appreciate the numerous threads between themes, some of which have not gotten close attention by the general public and scholars. Harris and Hodge (2017), for example, adeptly interconnect environmental, food, and school-to-pipeline social injustice issues among urban youth of color, illustrating how oppressions converge. Future scholarship will connect even more dots to create the mosaic that constitutes state-sanctioned violence. It was a relief to see the extent of scholarship on the topics addressed in this book. Bringing together this literature, public reports, and the experiences from those currently dealing with state-sponsored violence allowed for a consistent narrative to unfold. Writing a book is always a process of discovery. There is a body of scholarship to buttress the central arguments of this book, but no such literature addressing the structural interconnectedness of the types of state-sanctioned violence for social work. The sociopolitical, interactional consequences of place, time, people, and events set a social-political context that is understood by social workers and makes this mission distinctive because of this grounding. Viewing state-sanctioned violence, including its laws and policies, within this prism allows the development of a vision or charge that can unite people, as well as a deeper commitment to working with oppressed groups in seeking social justice. Social work is not exempt from having a role in state-sanctioned violence. This book only delves into the profession’s history and evolution to appreciate how it has reinforced a state-sanctioned violence agenda, wittingly or unwittingly. Practice is never apolitical; it either supports a state-sanctioned violence narrative or resists it with counternarratives. Social work must be vigilant of how it supports state violence.
Setting the Groundwork
Authors: Delgado Melvin
Published: February 2020

This book illustrates (conceptually, case examples, and statistically) how state-sanctioned violence is a modern-day manifestation with deep historical roots of government serving as a principal contributor to the persistence and reproduction of racism, as it has since the founding of the nation, illustrating how state power has carried out a violence agenda targeting communities of color for centuries. The basic premise and interconnectedness of the state action violence themes in this book were reinforced and expanded in the course of writing. Bonilla-Silva (2019, p. 14) states, “We are living, once again, in strange racial times,” and yes, indeed, we are. My hope is that readers appreciate the numerous threads between themes, some of which have not gotten close attention by the general public and scholars. Harris and Hodge (2017), for example, adeptly interconnect environmental, food, and school-to-pipeline justice among urban youth of color, illustrating how oppressions converge. Future scholarship will connect even more dots to create the mosaic that constitutes state-sanctioned violence.
State-Sanctioned Violence
Authors: Delgado Melvin
Published: February 2020

This chapter reintroduces intersectionality and introduces an intracategorical approach, a lens many readers may be unfamiliar with but one enhancing the saliency of intersectionality and state-sanctioned violence with a specific focus on cities and people of color. When youth are introduced, the unfairness of these forces takes on greater importance. This chapter’s central goal is not to delve into great detail about these concepts, including historical origins and evolution, which are deeply grounded in feminist theory. The goal is to examine intersectionality (including intracategorical intersectionality) and its relationship to state-sponsored violence. This enriches our understanding of a state violence paradigm and further grounds it conceptually and philosophically within our profession’s social justice mission and values.
Education and State-Sanctioned Violence
Authors: Delgado Melvin
Published: February 2020

The importance of education in a democracy can be measured from multiple perspectives, with those failing representing an opportunity lost with immediate and long-term ramifications. In global and technologically driven economies, education has ascended in significance to a point where a high school diploma is no longer a ticket to the middle class. Public education is a linchpin in the ultimate career success of students, with much expected of a system occupying such a prominent and extended period in their lives, daily and during key developmental phases. This chapter covers the usual urban public education and communities of color terrain. However, two pipelines will draw particular attention—school-to-prison and school-to-military—with an extension to include prison, too, highlighting state-sanctioned violence.
Georges Bizet's Carmen
Authors: Furman Nelly
Published: February 2020

Since 1875 the heroine of the most performed opera in the world, Carmen has become a universal cultural icon. She has appeared in a multitude of ballets, on stage as well as ice rinks, and in some eighty international films. The success of Bizet’s opera owns a lot to the libretto’s singular accounting of the 1845 short story on which it is based. In her close textual analyses of Ludovic Halévy’s and Henri Meilhac’s libretto and Prosper Mérimée’s novella, the author strives to account for the multiple aspects of Carmen’s attraction that support Georges Bizet’s acclaimed musical score.
Parsis and Bombay City
Authors: Palsetia Jesse S.
Published: February 2020

This chapter examines the important role of the Parsis in Bombay city. It notes the rise of Parsi influence and leadership in Bombay, the role of the Parsis in shaping Bombay's socio-political culture under colonialism, the role of the Parsis in Bombay's economy, and the important contributions of the Parsis to Bombay's physical space and culture through philanthropy and educational efforts. This chapter underscores how the Parsis contributions shaped a progressive and cosmopolitan culture in Bombay, and how the city fostered the aspirations of one of India's smallest communities.
Proletarian Bodies and Muslim Festivals
Authors: Green Nile
Published: February 2020

The new type of Indian city that Bombay represented, and the new types of proletarian culture to which it gave rise, were seen with trepidation by colonial political authorities and indigenous moral authorities alike. The growth of Muslim labor communities in Bombay was accompanied by the development of popular festivities drawn in many cases from the villages and towns from which workers migrated. However, the new scale and setting of these carnivals raised widespread concerns among both colonial and indigenous elites in which working class festivals were linked with social disorder and moral depravity. Ultimately, both parties often adopted a strategy of regulating rather than prohibiting such carnivals. By reading Persian manuscripts and Urdu lithographs associated with a leading Bombay shaykh, this chapter shows how Sufis became important players in the mission to discipline the bodies of the urban lower classes, a project they shared with Hindu, Christian and Parsi reformers. By preaching rules for proper behavior while attending Bombay’s carnivals, Habib ‘Ali Shah (d. 1906) found an effective means of reshaping the physical culture of the new Muslim urban working class reared by Bombay’s mills and dockyards.
The Transnational Career of the ‘Indian Edison’
Authors: Patel Dinyar
Published: February 2020

Shankar Abaji Bhisey (1867-1935) was a genius inventor whose career unfolded in three different continents. In his lifetime, he was known as the ‘Indian Edison’ and the ‘Pioneer Indian Inventor’. Bhisey’s most promising invention was the Bhisotype, a mechanical typecaster that promised to bring revolutionary change to the global printing industry. However, Bhisey required significant financial support for his inventive work. In Bombay and abroad, he found such support amongst leaders of the early Indian nationalist movement, many of whom enjoyed close business connections or possessed substantial business experience. Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and the British socialist Henry Hyndman were his three greatest supporters. By actively taking an interest and a financial stake in Bhisey’s career, these leaders demonstrated two dynamics at play. Firstly, the worlds of Indian finance and early nationalism were inextricably connected, especially in and through Bombay. Secondly, early nationalists and their British political allies could cooperate on a range of India-related activities beyond the domain of high politics.
The Unraveling
Authors: Marina  , Ottaway David
Published: February 2020

In early 2011, uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt sparked an unanticipated chain of events across the Arab world. The old Arab order unraveled with surprising speed as four well-established leaders were overthrown, and civil wars and sectarian strife consumed the region. For the first time in Arab history, Islamic parties rose to power in three countries while the state disintegrated in four others. This chapter traces the causes and course of the different uprisings and explains how and why, after four dictators had been quickly displaced, new deposition attempts were stopped in their tracks by wily monarchs and brute repression.
China’s Global Cultural Interactions
Authors: Breslin Shaun
Published: February 2020

As China continues to “rise” in world affairs, its international image is becoming more and more important. The Chinese Communist Party and government has become interested in—some would say obsessed with—its international image. In recent years it has sponsored mega events such as the Shanghai Expo and Olympic Games, G-20 Summit, and Belt and Road Forums. Beijing has also established Confucius Institutes (CIs) and classrooms worldwide, and has internationalized the Chinese media. This chapter examines China’s “soft power” and traces the historical precedents behind the contemporary promotion of Chinese culture abroad. It finds that, despite enormous investment, China’s internatonal image continues to be mixed and challenged by a number of domestic impediments.
Embodied Genealogies
Authors: Cisneros Natalie
Published: February 2020

This chapter shows how Friedrich Nietzsche’s work on genealogy can be read critically and strategically alongside Gloria Anzaldúa’s thought to develop a conception of “embodied genealogy” as a mode of critical, historical, and transformative philosophical practice. Anzaldúa’s thought resonates with Nietzsche’s conception of genealogy, a method of philosophical practice that sheds critical light on dominant ways of knowing by calling into question assumptions about historical necessity and rational progress. Reading Anzaldúa’s work through this lens sheds light on her contributions to philosophical conversations about knowledge, identity, and community. Anzaldúa’s work can also be read as a productive critique and necessary supplement to a Nietzschean conception of genealogical ways of knowing. Considering Anzaldúa’s thought and Nietzschean genealogy together yields a rich philosophical ground for thinking through questions about knowledge, embodiment, and identity in general, and the intellectual and political practice of Latina feminist philosophy in particular.
Between Hermeneutic Violence and Alphabets of Survival
Authors: Flores Ruíz Elena
Published: February 2020

This essay addresses structural violence against Latinas by looking at the existential toll different forms of cultural violence take on us. In particular, it looks at linguistic violence and the role lesser-known violences play in the intergenerational continuation of colonial violence, such as hermeneutic violence. Defined as violence done to systems of meaning and interpretation, hermeneutic violence is discussed at length in relation to the experience of harm and injury. The essay further explores some resistant epistemic practices Latina feminists have generated to address systemic violence. The work of Gloria Anzaldúa is elaborated as an example of resistant epistemic practices.
Cámara Queer
Authors: Ortega Mariana
Published: February 2020

This essay examines photographic representations of queer Latinidad. A longing to discover a photographic history of Latina lesbian desire prompts a discussion of queerness in the context of Latinx love, sexuality, and desire. By way of examples of photographic representations, queer Latinidad is presented as complex and capable of encompassing paradoxical but expansive, nondichotomous understandings of sexuality and of gender presentation. Such photographic representations also allow for disidentifications that introduce the possibility of desires that cut across races and racism. Following Muñoz, queer Latinidad is ultimately connected to a sense of longing and melancholia that is resistant in the face of the various erasures of queer Latinidad, both in the context of queer theory and in the context of everydayness.
Introduction
Authors: Sorek Tamir , Reiche Danyel
Published: February 2020

Sports in the Middle East have become a major issue in global affairs: Qatar’s successful bid for the FIFA World Cup 2022 (won in a final vote against the United States), the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final in Turkey’s most populous city Istanbul, the European basketball championship EuroBasket in 2017 in Israel, and other major sporting events, such as the annually staged Formula 1 races in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, have put an international spotlight on the region. In particular, media around the world are discussing the question of whether the most prestigious sporting events should be staged in a predominantly authoritarian, socially conservative, and politically contentious part of the world....
The Business of Sports in the Gulf Cooperation Council Member States
Authors: Chadwick Simon
Published: February 2020

This chapter presents an overview of sports business in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. GCC member states stage mega-sports events and invest in global sports through the acquisition of football clubs, for example. Shirt sponsorship and stadium naming rights deals of the region’s national airlines aim to create favorable perceptions of the companies and their nations as well as to diversify economies beyond oil and gas. This chapter also provides a statistical profile of sport in each GCC member state and shows that Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman are lagging far behind Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar in terms of sport industry size. Fluctuating oil prices, political tensions between GCC states, and weak attendance at games are serious threats to the future growth of the sport industry. Our conclusion is that the private sector needs to develop extensively in order to replace the state as the industry’s central focus.
Hope in Children of Men and Serenity
Authors: Cubitt Sean
Published: February 2020

Building on the melancholia of the films analysed thus far, a comparison between Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 Children of Men, based in a world in mourning for its future, and the space opera Serenity (Joss Whedon, 2005), which concludes the story arc of Whedon’s TV series Firefly, gives an opportunity to further the discussion of history through an analysis of two mythic formations of hope, the redeemer and the frontier respectively. The chapter rounds off the theme of personal redemption versus the redemption of the collective, and the theme of obligation to the past necessitating a politics not of a deferred future but of redeeming the present in the name of the numberless dead, by an analysis of what does and does not count as human in the two films.